After Liu Yan became the pastor of Yizhou, he soon completely controlled Yizhou in his own hands through the three moves of stability, breaking, and killing, and became a prince of the separating side.

【Secession of Yizhou】

After Liu Yan became the ruler of Yizhou, he quickly succeeded in controlling Yizhou, and was independent of the imperial court before Dong Zhuo's rebellion, and he used three tricks for this.

The first move is stability.

Liu Yan did not have many connections in Yizhou, so he adopted a strategy of seeking stability in the early days of entering Yizhou, he first reused Jia Long, who had contributed to the suppression of the rebellion, appointed him as a school captain, and then moved the state from Luo County to Mianzhu, and also moved Jia Long and other officials here.

Liu Yan also adopted a policy of tolerance and favor, appeased the rebel people, and gave generous and preferential treatment, which calmed the people's hearts.

Liu Yan's policy of leniency and preferential treatment succeeded in stabilizing the situation in Yizhou, but unfortunately this was just a mask of hypocrisy for his next move, and Liu Yan's plan to seek self-reliance has not changed.

The second trick is to break.

After initially stabilizing Yizhou, Liu Yan soon began his next move.

At that time, Dong Zhuo had not yet entered Luoyang, and the imperial court could still command the world, in the face of the righteousness of the imperial court, as long as Liu Yan made a move, he was likely to face strong interference from the imperial court, and Liu Yan himself was not deeply rooted in Yizhou, and could not control Yizhou without the support of the imperial court, so Liu Yan had to face a dilemma.

Liu Yan tried to stand on his own, so he had to fight against the imperial court, but without the righteousness of the imperial court, he could not control Yizhou, it can be said that if other princes encountered Liu Yan's situation, nine times out of ten, they relied on Dong Zhuo's rebellion to stand on their own, but Liu Yan solved this problem by himself alone.

Liu Yan not only did not lose the righteousness of the imperial court, but also successfully cut off the influence of the imperial court on Yizhou, and took the initiative to create a good environment for controlling Yizhou.

How did Liu Yan do it?

With one word "broken", Liu Yan "reasoned and well-founded" cut off the communication between Yizhou and the imperial court.

In order to do this, Liu Yan asked a five-bucket rice dao master named Zhang Lu to help. Zhang Lu was a native of Peiguofeng County (present-day Feng County, Jiangsu), his grandfather was Zhang Ling, the founder of Wudou Midao, and his father was Zhang Heng, who became the leader of Wudou Midao (Note 1) after Zhang Heng's death, and was entrenched in the area of Hanzhong County in Yizhou.

According to historical records, Zhang Lu's mother was very beautiful, knew about gods and ghosts, and often had dealings with Liu Yan's family, so Liu Yan trusted Zhang Lu very much.

In order to achieve his goal, Liu Yan appointed Zhang Lu as the governor of Sima, and sent him to lead his troops together with Sima Zhang Xiu of other departments to kill Hanzhong Taishou Sugu by surprise and occupy Hanzhong County. After that, Zhang Lu killed Zhang Xiu again and completely controlled the troops. Zhang Lu led the army to garrison Hanzhong, cut off the mountain plank road under Liu Yan's instructions, killed the Han Dynasty envoys, and cut off the communication between the imperial court and Yizhou.

After Zhang Lu took control of Hanzhong, the difficulty of communication between the imperial court and Yizhou greatly increased, creating a good opportunity for Liu Yan to completely control Yizhou.

The third move is to kill.

After Liu Yan used Zhang Lu to sever contact with the imperial court, he successfully retained the righteousness of controlling Yizhou without the influence of the imperial court, and he decisively began to use his identity and power as a pastor of Yizhou to eliminate dissidents in Yizhou, establish majesty, and comprehensively control Yizhou in his hands.

Liu Yan first used the excuse to kill more than a dozen people including Wang Xian and Li Quan, who were powerful in Yizhou, and suppressed the local forces by using strict laws to establish authority. Liu Yan arrogantly set up a strict criminal law to establish his majesty, so that the scholars and the common people complained about him.

At that time, Dong Zhuo's abolition of the king led to chaos in the world, and troops were raising troops to attack Dong Zhuo everywhere, but Liu Yan defended himself.

In the second year of Chuping (191), Qianwei Taishou Renqi proclaimed himself a general, and together with Chen Chao, he raised an army to attack Liu Yan, but was defeated by Liu Yan. Dong Zhuo sent Situ Zhao Qian to lead his troops to Yizhou and persuaded the captain Jia Long, who led his troops to attack Liu Yan, and Liu Yan fought with him and won a great victory. Ren Qi, Jia Long and other rebels were all killed by Liu Yan, and Zhao Qian finally returned in vain.

Liu Yan was decisive in his attack, and finally succeeded in completely controlling Yizhou, using Zhang Lu in the north as a barrier, and finally seized this place and dominated the party.

【Inevitable Success】

Liu Yan's ability to dominate Yizhou in a short period of time was inseparable from his appropriate measures and the external environment at that time.

Judging from the process of Liu Yan's seizure of Yizhou, it can be said that he has been planning for a long time and has not experienced many setbacks, which is first of all due to the proper strategy of Liu Yan and his staff.

Liu Yan first obtained the status of Yizhou Mu from Emperor Ling, and his local authority was much higher than that of the Assassin Shi, which was a prerequisite for Liu Yan to be able to control Yizhou.

Then rewarded meritorious service, pardoned the people, moved the old rule, eliminated the vigilance of the imperial court and the officials and people of Yizhou, and laid a good foundation for the next action.

Then Liu Yan colluded with Zhang Lu in Hanzhong, first gave him an official position, so that Hanzhong Taishou Sugu lost his guard against it, and created an opportunity for Zhang Lu and others to easily get rid of Sugu, Zhang Lu and others returned the favor after success, blocking the traffic between Yizhou and Luoyang, so that the situation in Yizhou could not be transmitted to the imperial court in time, leaving Liu Yan enough time.

In this precious time, Liu Yan took arbitrary measures to eliminate dissidents, suppressed the former officials of Yizhou, and was able to basically control Yizhou.

Liu Yan had a clear goal in the operation to seize Yizhou, and his actions were decisive, well-organized, and extremely efficient.

It can be said that what Liu Yan can do by himself, he has done it.

And in a sense, God was also on Liu Yan's side, and the environment of Yizhou and the imperial court at that time was also extremely favorable to Liu Yan.

Before Liu Yan entered Yizhou, due to the rebellion of Ma Zhao, Yizhou's ruling place Luo County had been broken by the thief army, the original Yizhou assassin Shi Xijian was killed, and other important officials also suffered heavy losses, which was originally unfavorable to Liu Yan, and Ma Xiang also claimed to be the Son of Heaven. In this case, if Liu Yan entered Yizhou, he would first have to face the threat of Ma Zhao's thief army.

But what people didn't expect was that Ma Xiang, who was invincible in Yizhou, was easily cleaned up by Jia Long with some family members, which is equivalent to Ma Xiang cleaning up the original bureaucrats in Yizhou for Liu Yan, and Jia Long cleaning up Ma Xiang for Liu Yan, so Liu Yan faced very little resistance from the subordinate officials when he entered Yizhou, and Liu Yan also moved the governance office to Mianzhu, which made Jia Long and others leave the long-entrenched Ruxian County, which further weakened the resistance ability of Yizhou officials.

In addition to the situation in Yizhou being extremely favorable to Liu Yan, the Luoyang Imperial Court also had no time to take care of Yizhou.

Liu Yan became the pastor of Yizhou in the fifth year of Zhongping (188), and Emperor Ling fell seriously ill in the same year and died of illness the following year. After the death of Emperor Ling, the opposition between the eunuchs and the Dong family and the relatives of the He family and the scholars and doctors was formed within the imperial court, and irreconcilable contradictions arose in many aspects such as supporting the Son of Heaven, which eventually led to the change of the eunuchs in Luoyang and Dong Zhuo's entry into Beijing to control the power, and the Dong family and the He family were hit hard, and the eunuchs were basically killed.

During this period of time, where could the Luoyang Imperial Court still think of Yizhou.

After Dong Zhuo took charge of the government, because of the abolition of the Son of Heaven and was not allowed in the world, all parts of the Kwantung region raised troops to fight, Dong Zhuo was only after returning to Chang'an (around 191) to free up his hands to deal with Liu Yan, and at that time Liu Yan had already basically controlled Yizhou.

Due to the many turmoil within the imperial court at that time, the control of Yizhou also fell to a low point, giving Liu Yan an opportunity to take advantage of.

Historically, Liu Yan was able to quickly control Yizhou, which can be said to be the right time, place and people, subjectively Liu Yan himself is powerful enough, and objectively the external environment is not bad at all.

So Liu Yan's success is basically a certainty.

Note 1: It is from the "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms", but there is controversy about the Five Dou Rice Sect, which will be mentioned later.