Before Liu Bei died, he left Liu Chan with two ministers, Zhuge Liang and Li Yan, of which Zhuge Liang was the main and Li Yan was the auxiliary. Later www.biquge.info contradictions between the two intensified, and finally Li Yan was deposed as a commoner.

【Ministers of Orphans】

Now most people are not familiar with the character of Li Yan, and even think that he is just a passerby, and they can't understand why Liu Bei chose him as the minister of Tuogu later, but in fact, as long as you have an understanding of the situation and politics of Shu Han at that time, you will understand that Liu Bei's choice is very normal and reasonable.

Li Yan is not a small person in the Shuhan group, he has a high political status. Li Yan is not a native of Yizhou, but was born in Nanyang, Jingzhou, and now most people think that he should belong to the Dongzhou faction, but this statement is very loose, because Li Yan only took refuge in Liu Zhang when Cao Cao went south, and did not enter Yizhou during the Liu Yan period, so although Li Yan can be regarded as half of Dongzhou, but because he was born in Jingzhou, he can also be regarded as half of the Jingzhou faction, and it can even be said that he is not counted in both factions.

After Liu Zhang's defeat on the front, let Li Yan supervise the army, it can be seen that Li Yan's status in Liu Zhang's group is not low, and then Li Yan took the initiative to surrender to Liu Bei, helping him seize Mianyang, and was one of the main contributors to Liu Bei's capture of Yizhou, and was later appointed as Qianwei Taishou and Xingye General.

Liu Bei also sent Li Yan and Zhuge Liang, Fa Zheng, Yi and Liu Ba to formulate the "Shu Branch", which can also be seen that Li Yan's political status in Liu Bei's group was very high from the beginning.

Historically, Li Yan himself is also very capable, in terms of governance, he as a Qianwei Taishou, showed excellent governance ability: digging through the Tianshe Mountain, building the road along the river, building a large number of buildings, and renovating the county town, so that "the people are pleased", "the view of the building is magnificent, for a state Shengyu".

In terms of military affairs, in the twenty-third year of Jian'an (218), the thieves Ma Qin and Gao Sheng raised troops in Yun County, recruited tens of thousands of troops, and arrived in Z County when Liu Bei was in Hanzhong, Li Yan did not wait for another army, and only led 5,000 soldiers from the county to go to the crusade and kill Ma Qin, Gao Sheng and others. The rest of the people scattered and fled for their lives, and returned to their homes for the people. Soon after, Gao Ding, the commander of Yueshan County, led his army to besiege Li Yan in Xind County to relieve the siege, and Gao Ding was defeated and fled. Liu Bei then crowned Li Yan as the general of the Auxiliary Han Dynasty, and concurrently served as the former county guard.

That is to say, Li Yan is a front-line core figure in the Shuhan Group, and later Liu Bei promoted Li Yan in a big way, and it can also be said that he used him, a Jingzhou person, to win over the Dongzhou Group, so Li Yan can barely be regarded as one of the representatives of the Dongzhou Group among the three major groups of Shuhan, and can also be regarded as an insider of the Jingzhou Group, and Liu Bei also showed quite superior political and military ability before his death.

Before Liu Bei's death, there were very few core figures in Shu Han, basically Zhuge Liang and Li Yan were left, the four generals Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Ma Chao and Huang Zhong of the military generals of the year had all gone, and Fa Zheng, Liu Ba, Xu Jing and Mi Zhu were also dead, and there was no relevant record before Liu Bei became emperor.

【Status Change】

In the third year of Zhang Wu (223), after Liu Bei Tuogu gave Li Yan orphans, he took him as the central capital protector, commanded the internal and external military, and left the town to guard Yong'an in case of Sun Wu. In the same year, Liu Chan succeeded to the throne, and Liu Chan was named the Marquis of the Duxiang, the False Festival, and the Guangluxun.

Historically, Li Yan stayed in Yong'an for four years, and he did not leave Yong'an until the fourth year of Jianxing (226). The reason why Li Yan stayed in Yong'an for such a long time was that he was on guard against Sun Quan, although long before Liu Bei's death, Shu Han and Sun Wu had begun to reconcile, but it was not a matter of one day to restore the broken relationship, especially in the third year of Jianxing (225) Zhuge Liang launched the Southern Expedition, when the crusading Yonghong and others had the support of Shixie behind them, and had the shadow of Eastern Wu, so the Shu Han court did not dare to easily transfer Li Yan from Yong'an.

After eliminating Yonghong and others and quelling the rebellion in the south, Shu Han and Sun Wu had no contradiction for the time being, so there was no need for Li Yan to continue to stay in Yong'an at this time, and after the civil strife was pacified, Shu Han's goal also began to change to Cao Wei in the north. In the fourth year of Jianxing (226), Cao Pi died, and the young Cao Rui succeeded to the throne, and the time to crusade against Cao Wei seemed to be ripe, Li Yan was transferred from Yong'an to Jiangzhou, in charge of rear affairs, as a preparation for the Northern Expedition of Shu Han and Zhuge Liang's northward journey, he himself was transferred to the former general, leaving the protector Chen to garrison Yong'an, all under the control of Li Yan.

In the following year (227), Zhuge Liang went north to Hanzhong and began to plan the Northern Expedition. Li Yan and Meng Da's letter said: "Kong Ming and I were entrusted by our ancestors, and we had a lot of worries and responsibilities, and we always wanted to get good colleagues. Zhuge Liang also wrote to Meng Da and said: "Dealing with official business is smooth, solving problems and never staying behind, this is the character of Zhengfang." It can be seen that the relationship between the two was still very good at that time.

In the eighth year of Jianxing (230), Li Yan was promoted to hussar general. Because Cao Zhen was preparing to advance to Hanchuan by three routes, Zhuge Liang ordered Li Yan to lead 20,000 people to Hanzhong. Zhuge Liang appointed Li Yan's son Li Feng as the governor of Jiangzhou and was responsible for the affairs left by Li Yan. Zhuge Liang considered that he would send troops in the second year, so he ordered Li Yan to act as the protector of the central capital to act as the prime minister's office. In the same year, Li Yan changed his name to Li Ping, and the reason why Li Yan changed his name at this time is unknown, and the existing information is difficult to analyze, but at this time, the contradiction between Li Yan and Zhuge Liang is likely to have intensified.

In the spring of the ninth year of Jianxing (231), Zhuge Liang sent troops to Qishan, and Li Ping was responsible for supervising the transportation of grain and grass. In the summer and autumn season, it was rainy and rainy, and the transportation and supply of grain and grass could not be supplied, Li Yan sent Hu Zhong and the overseer Cheng Fan to send a message to Zhuge Liang, asking him to withdraw the army, and Zhuge Liang agreed to withdraw after getting the letter.

When Li Yan heard that the army had retreated, he pretended to be surprised and said, "The army has plenty of food, why did you retreat again!" The intention is to relieve himself of the responsibility of supervising the grain and grass, and to show Zhuge Liang's mistake of delaying the fighter. He also played the Queen's Command, saying that "the army retreats in disguise, but in fact it is used to lure the enemy into a decisive battle." Zhuge Liang handed over Li Yan's original handwriting before and after, and Li Yan's mistakes and contradictions were exposed at once. Li Yan was so aggrieved that he had to kowtow and confess his guilt.

So Zhuge Liang played the impeachment of Li Yan and said: "Since the death of the first emperor, Li Ping's mind has been all about his family, and he has made some small favors, just want to live in a stable world and seek fame, and he does not worry about national affairs. In order to send troops to the north of the minister, hoping to let him lead the troops to guard Hanzhong, Li Yan repeatedly excused himself and resigned, and had no intention of coming to Hanzhong, but wanted to connect the five counties and make his own history of Bazhou. Last year, the minister planned to go west and wanted Li Yan to be in charge of guarding Hanzhong, but Li Yan said that Sima Yi and others were recruiting people to be big officials in the opening of the mansion there. Weichen understood in his heart that Li Ping's ugly psychology was to take the opportunity of my departure to force me to give him some benefits, so Weichen asked his son Li Feng to be in charge of Jiangzhou affairs, and gave him such an exceptional treatment, originally wanting to solve a temporary emergency.

After Li Yan took office, he entrusted all the power of affairs to him for the minister, and the whole court wondered why I treated Li Yan so favorably. It is precisely because the major national affairs have not been decided that the Han family is in danger, and instead of exposing and criticizing Li Yanzhi's shortcomings, it is better to praise and encourage him. just thought that Li Yan's nature was just to get some honor and benefits, but he didn't expect that he would have the heart of reversing right and wrong, so that this is the case. If such people and things are allowed to exist, they will inevitably lead to the destruction of the country. This is for the foolishness of the ministers, and if you talk too much, you will only increase the guilt. ”

So he abolished Li Yan for the people and exiled Zitong County.

Note 1: Liang Gongwen Shangshu said: "Ping is a minister, he receives too much favor, he does not think about loyalty and retribution, he makes unprovoked things, he does not do anything in danger, he is confused, he treats prison and abandons his department, he leads others to commit adultery, he is crazy (narrow) [narrow-minded], and there is no heaven and earth." Since the betrayal, the suspicion was born, hearing that the army was coming, Xixiang was depressed and depressed, Zhang, the army was depressed, and Jiangyang was returned. Now the usurper has not been destroyed, the society is difficult, and the state affairs are peaceful. He and the general of the military division in the middle of the line, the general of the cavalry of Duxiang Marquis Liu Yan, the commander of the military division of the former military division of the west of the military division of the Jiejie led the Liangzhou Assassin Shi Nan Zheng Marquis Wei Yan, the former general Duting Marquis Yuan Qi, the left general led the Jingzhou Assassin Shi Gaoyang Township Marquis Wu Yi, the right general of the front of the superintendent Xuanxiang Marquis Gao Xiang, the rear general of the rear of the superintendent An Leting Marquis Wu Ban, the leader of the general Shi Suijun Yang Yi, the governor of the left line of the central supervision army Yangwu general Deng Zhi, the former superintendent of the army Zhengnan General Liu Ba, the general of the Xingzhong Protector Fei Yi, the general of the Han Chengting Marquis Xu Yun before the line Ding Xian, the general of the left guard, Liu Min, the general of the right guard, Jiang Wei, the marquis of Dangyangting, Jiang Wei, the general of the Zhengnan army, Shangguan Yu, the general of Zhaowu Zhonglang of the army, Yan Yan, the general of Jianyi, the general of the army, the general of Xi, the general of the army, Du Yi, the general of the army, Du Qi, the general of the army, the captain of Suirong Dubo, and the general Fan Qi of the Zhonglang of the army, and Fan Qi, the general of the Zhonglang Wuluo, were dismissed from the appointment, and the officials were dismissed, and the official Lu was dismissed, the festival was passed on, the seal ribbon, and the Fu Ce were cut. ”