Although Liu Yan was not the first secession force in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, he was the first official court official to secede one side at that time, and he can be said to be the first prince in the late Han Dynasty.

[The first prince of the late Han Dynasty]

Liu Yan's proposal to set up a state pastor in the local area to hold the power alone, is a heavyweight event in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, known as the "abolition of history and pasture", because the power of the state pastor is far greater than the previous history of thorns, reducing the local secession and obstacles, for the future Eastern Han Dynasty split, the princes and the rise of the foreshadowing laid the groundwork.

After Liu Yan became the pastor of Yizhou, he used Zhang Lu to cut off the Xiegu Road, cut off the connection with the imperial court, took the opportunity to clear the internal obstacles, successfully seized Yizhou, and became the first heavyweight prince to control one side in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.

After obtaining Yizhou, Liu Yan also completed the first step of his imperial cause.

In the history of the Three Kingdoms, the curtain of the division of the princes was raised by Dong Zhuo, Dong Zhuo abolished the king and made it lose the hearts of the people in the world.

And Liu Yan had successfully controlled Yizhou before Dong Zhuo and dominated the party.

In addition to him, although there are also Zhang Yan, Han Sui and other places, they are either not recognized by the imperial court, or they are still regarded as traitors by the imperial court, and in essence, they still can't escape the evaluation of rebels and righteous thieves.

So I personally think that Liu Yan is the first person of the princes of the late Han Dynasty in the real sense (especially in time).

In that era, Dong Zhuo's abolition of the king and Yuan Shu's claim to be the emperor are all widely known to the present, and the imperial ambitions of the two are also known to passers-by, but Liu Yan is not much more reckless than these two, and the emperor's dream is no worse than them.

But like Dong Zhuo and Yuan Shu, Liu Yan has the ambition to be the emperor, but he has no emperor's life.

After Liu Yan took control of Yizhou, he successfully suppressed the rebellion of Ren Qi and Jia Long, cut off Dong Zhuo's claws stretched out to Yizhou, and gradually turned his attention from Yizhou to the Chang'an court.

Under the guidance of the eldest son Liu Fan, Liu Yan and Ma Teng reached a certain consensus, and the Yizhou Group and the Ma Han Xiliang Group formed a united front against Li Guo Xiliang's army, and Liu Yan also wanted to use this opportunity to get close to the central government and lay the foundation for the next step in his imperial cause.

But the heavens do not fulfill people's wishes, even if Ma Teng and Han Sui's army has the support of Liu Yan, it is completely invincible to the Xiliang army led by Guo Fan, Liu Yan's eldest son Liu Fan, and the second son Liu Dan all died because of this, and Liu Yan, who had just suffered the pain of losing his son, encountered the heavenly fire and was forced to relocate.

【Liu Yan's Yizhou Group】

In history, Liu Yan's four people, Dong Fu, Zhao Wei, Zhang Lu and Pang Xi, were particularly important.

Dong Fu was worshiped by the general He Jin when he was Emperor Ling, and was valued by him. Later, Dong Fu learned that Liu Yan wanted to ask for Jiaozhi Mu and changed his mind with "Yizhou has dragon energy", and it can be said that without Dong Fu, Yizhou would not have fallen into Liu Yan's hands.

After Liu Yan became the pastor of Yizhou, Dong Fu followed Liu Yan as the governor of Shu County and entered Yizhou with him, and he helped Liu Yan attract many local celebrities, such as Ren An, Wang Shang, Chen Shi, and Zhu Gui, which greatly enriched the talent reserve of Liu Yan Group and enhanced Liu Yan's influence in Yizhou.

A year later, Emperor Ling died, the world was in turmoil, Dong Fu went to return to his home, and died at the age of eighty-two.

Later, Zhuge Liang, the prime minister of the Shu Han Dynasty, asked Qin Mi what kind of person Dong Fu was, and Mi said: "Dong Fu praises the goodness and devalues the evil." "It can be seen that the old man also loves and hates clearly.

Dong Fu, as a Wei family, had a huge influence on Liu Yan, but it is a pity that his prophecy was not fulfilled in the end on Liu Yan and his descendants, but waited until more than thirty or forty years later, when the emperor's uncle was proclaimed emperor.

Zhao Wei also abandoned his official position and followed Liu Yan in history, just like Dong Fu, because on the one hand, he was optimistic about Liu Yan and made political investments, and on the other hand, because Zhao Wei himself was a Brazilian from Yizhou.

Zhao Wei was one of the few people who followed Liu Yan into Shu, and later naturally got Liu Yan's reuse, became Liu Yan's right-hand man, and was also the leader of the local scholars in Yizhou, but his main active period was during the Liu Zhang period after Liu Yan's death, so about him, we will talk about him later.

As for Zhang Lu, he was the most critical and core figure for Liu Yan to finally break away from the imperial court and seize Yizhou, without Zhang Lu's support, Liu Yan could not successfully get rid of the imperial court, especially before Dong Zhuo entered Beijing.

Of course, at that time, Zhang Lu was a thief, and Liu Yan was loyal to the imperial court, but he was cut off by the traitor Zhang Lu and could not contact the imperial court, at least the official text is like this.

Pang Xi began to serve as a speaker from the time of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, and Liu Yan is a family, his daughter Pang Shi married Liu Zhang's eldest son Liu Xun as his wife, after Ma Teng's attack on Chang'an failed, he funded Liu Yan's grandsons to rescue them from abandoning their official positions into Shu and was reused by Liu Yan.

In addition to these core figures, characters like Su Gu, Jia Long, Zhang Xiu, Ren Qi, and Pang Xi can also be said to be Liu Yan's subordinates.

Su Gu is the Taishou of Hanzhong, nominally Liu Yan's subordinate, but in fact he is not Liu Yan's descendant, Liu Yan's ability to control it is very weak, but the location of Hanzhong County is related to Liu Yan's plan, so Su Gu has become the target that Liu Yan must eradicate, and further speaking, Hanzhong County must be controlled by Liu Yan.

Liu Yan gave Zhang Lu an official position, so Su Gu relaxed his vigilance against Zhang Lu and others, and was killed by him, Zhang Lu took the opportunity to control Hanzhong, blocked traffic according to Liu Yan's plan, and bought valuable time for Liu Yan to seize Yizhou.

Zhang Xiu was originally with Zhang Lu, and some people in later generations believed that Zhang Xiu was the founder of the Wudou Rice Sect, and Zhang Xiu and his Rice Sect had been active as early as the Yellow Turban Uprising, and some people thought that Zhang Xiu was Zhang Heng, and there were many controversies in this regard.

According to the available historical data, Zhang Lu and Zhang Xiu are likely to be relatives or even brothers, but due to the limitations of the current materials, we have not been able to verify them. But there is no doubt that after Zhang Lu killed Zhang Xiu, he completely controlled the Wudou Mijiao and Hanzhong County.

Jia Long once fought side by side with Dong Zhuo and crusaded against the Qiang people, so he would later turn the gun and betray Liu Yan under the persuasion of Situ Zhao Qian, but unfortunately Liu Yan was not the king of the mountain, Ma Xiang, and Jia Long was finally defeated and killed.

Ren Qiyuan was also Liu Yan's subordinate, and was defeated and killed by Liu Yan after betraying him.