Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1155 Ideal
In the ninth year of Jianxing (231 AD), when Zhuge Liang submitted a memorial to impeach Li Yan, Wei Yan was ranked second only to Liu Yan among the generals and was already the second most important figure in the military.

Moreover, Liu Yan did not lead troops to fight, but was good at conversation and discussion. He later had a dispute with Wei Yan. Who did Zhuge Liang help at this time?

The answer is that he helped Wei Yan. Zhuge Liang publicly criticized Liu Yan for his "absurd words" and sent him directly back to Chengdu. From this we can see that Zhuge Liang's attitude towards Wei Yan was definitely not suppression, but a considerable degree of trust.

Historical records may lie, but battle lines and war histories will not. Yuan Xi discovered some very interesting things in the history of Shu Kingdom's Northern Expedition.

In 230 AD, Wei Yan marched thousands of miles and won a great victory at Yangxi. This was the only major victory during Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition that was not led by Zhuge Liang himself, and it was also the one with the greatest results.

This entire process, except that the final destination was not Chang'an, was almost a replica of the Ziwu Valley strategy in later generations, which also shows that the plan of this action was approved by Zhuge Liang.

Wei Yan was a major contributor to the Fourth Northern Expedition and the fifth Northern Expedition. Until Zhuge Liang's death at Wuzhangyuan during the Fifth Northern Expedition, Wei Yan's position in the Shu army was second only to Zhuge Liang.

In comparison, not only was Yang Yi's official position far below Wei Yan's, but he also had no experience in commanding troops in battle. If Zhuge Liang died of illness, Wei Yan would have the right to take over the military power, and it would never be Yang Yi's turn.

Moreover, given Zhuge Liang's personality, would he change his previous attitude just because he was about to die? With Sima Yi still eyeing him covetously, would he engage in internal strife to stimulate Wei Yan, who held a key position in the front line and was valued by him?

The most important point is that in terms of qualifications, Wei Yan was an envoy with special powers and could directly execute Yang Yi!
As a result, according to Chen Shou's Records of the Three Kingdoms, Wei Yan committed a meaningless act such as burning the plank road, but he still failed to defeat Yang Yi, who had never led an army. Isn't this a bit ridiculous?
What's even more exaggerated is that Wei Yan was the vanguard of the front army at that time. How could he, while confronting the Wei army, bypass the central and rear armies and run to the rear to burn the plank road in advance?
Moreover, Jiang Wei is in charge of the central army. If this is true, I'm afraid Jiang Wei will have bigger problems, right?

Normally speaking, if Zhuge Liang was seriously ill, the normal choice would be Wei Yan to lead the army. Of course, it is also possible that his illness was too serious and he died without leaving a last word.

Even if Ge Liang chose other officials of the central army instead of Wei Yan, the least likely option would be to let Yang Yi lead the army, because Yang Yi had never fought in a war. Wouldn't that be tantamount to giving away all the soldiers of Shu?

Therefore, Wei Yan’s death has always been an event shrouded in doubts in the history of Shu Kingdom, including the subsequent treatment of Wei Yan.

According to historical records, Wei Yan's three clans were exterminated, which had never happened in the history of Shu. You must know that Huang Quan, who surrendered to Wei and then attacked Shu, had his family treated well. No matter how serious Wei Yan's crime was, could it be worse than Huang Quan's?
Moreover, Wei Yan was the prefect of Hanzhong, and his family should have been in Hanzhong if not Chengdu. The people sent by Liu Chan should not have arrived at that time, so the killing of his family members was most likely done by Yang Yi when he led his troops back to Hanzhong.

Yang Yi had the courage to do this, naturally there must be someone backing him up.

In the whole incident, Fei Yi played a very crucial role in Wei Yan's death.

When Zhuge Liang died of illness in the central army, the three people in charge around him were mainly Fei Yi, Yang Yi and Jiang Wei.

Yang Fei and Jiang Wei were the chief secretary and secretary of the prime minister, respectively, while Jiang Wei was only the military inspector and had little experience. All major matters were decided by Yang Fei and Jiang Wei after consultation.

If Zhuge Liang died suddenly without leaving a will, the military practice would be to decide after consultation among the generals. For example, when Xiahou Yuan died unexpectedly in the Battle of Hanzhong, the generals temporarily recommended Zhang He as the commander-in-chief.

The later generations have no idea what Zhuge Liang's last wishes were, but in any case, it was unlikely that Zhuge Liang would hand over the military power to Yang Yi.

Yang Yi, who had conflicts with Wei Yan, naturally worried that Wei Yan would find an excuse to kill him after taking over the military power, so he could only ask Fei Yi for help, and Fei Yi agreed to mediate and went to Wei Yan's army.

Fei Yi came to Wei Yan's military camp at the northern foot of Wuzhangyuan, south of the Wei River, and should have conveyed the news of Zhuge Liang's death and last will, mediated the conflict between Wei Yan and Yang Yi, and also acknowledged Wei Yan's qualifications to lead the army.

At the same time, Fei Yi brought an order to retreat, which was not known to have been left by Zhuge Liang or discussed by Fei Yi and Yang Yi.

"Ling Yan will take the rear, and Jiang Wei will take the second place."

The former proves that Wei Yan was indeed in the front army. When retreating, the front army was covering the rear, and it was impossible for the rear army to come to the front.

The latter sentence means that Jiang Wei should be left behind as well, in any case, Fei Yi and Yang Yi will return first.

"Records of the Three Kingdoms: Shu Shu: Biography of Liu Peng, Liao Li, Liu Wei and Yang" - Yi Lingyi went to guess Wei Yan's intention and said to Yan: "Although the Prime Minister is dead, I am still here. The relatives and officials of the government can take the body back for burial, and I will lead the army to fight the enemy. How can the world be abandoned because of the death of one person? And who is Wei Yan? Should he be forced to be the last general under Yang Yi's command?"

According to this record, Wei Yan was dissatisfied with the retreat and opposed Yang Yi's leadership of the army. Given his status and position, it was normal for him to have doubts, after all, he was not present when Zhuge Liang died.

According to Wei Yan's idea, although Zhuge Liang was dead, it was not easy for a large army to go on an expedition. He wanted to continue attacking Wei State and let Fei Yi and Yang Yi escort Zhuge Liang's coffin back.

Wei Yan, as one of Liu Bei's most trusted men, was a staunch supporter of the Northern Expedition, but Fei Yi's subsequent performance proved that he was opposed to the Northern Expedition.

Fei Yi must have had some thoughts at this time, so when Wei Yan asked him to sign the military order, he made an excuse to go back to discuss it and then ran away.

"Records of the Three Kingdoms: Shu Shu: Biography of Liu Peng, Liao Li, Liu Wei and Yang" - Because he and Yi wrote the part of the trip together, he asked Yi to write his name and his name together and told the generals. Yi deceived Yan and said, "I will release Yang Changshi for you. Changshi is a civil servant and rarely handles military affairs. He will not disobey your orders." Yi went out and rode away. Yan regretted it and chased him but it was too late.

The above records show that Wei Yan and Fei Yi had reached an agreement, otherwise they would not have signed the military order. However, Fei Yi lied and went back on his word. After stabilizing Wei Yan, he ran away immediately after leaving the tent. When Wei Yan reacted, it was too late. Fei Yi then helped Yang Yi to control what happened next.

But then deviations appeared between the two versions of Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

According to Chen Shou's biography, Wei Yan's entire army then marched quickly, and through some unknown means, they passed the central army, deceived the 5,000 Jiang Wei Tiger Infantry soldiers guarding the central army, and then passed the rear army of the Shu army. In a short period of time, they quietly completed the 500-mile Baoxiade Road, and then burned the plank road.

As for how this was done, no one knows. Perhaps Wei Yan's soldiers broke through the limits of the human body, or perhaps transport planes had already been invented at that time.

If Wei Yan really had this ability, he would have already entered Yecheng, let alone Ziwu Valley.

Anyone who has been to the Baoxiade Road knows that even with the development of modern transportation, many places there can only accommodate one or two people walking side by side. On one side is the water, and on the other side is a cliff. If the plank road was burned, given the harsh environment in ancient times, I am afraid that no one from the central army and the rear army of the Shu Kingdom would be able to return.

Then according to the biography, the final result was that Wei Yan, who was the most capable fighter, was defeated by Yang Yi. According to records, among the Shu generals, Wei Yan had a very high prestige among the soldiers. However, at this critical moment, all his soldiers ran away, so Wei Yan was killed. This kind of thing is indeed possible, but the possibility should not be greater than that of Liu Xiu's meteorite falling from the sky.

The truth of what happened next has been lost in the torrent of history. Fei Yi supported Yang Yi, and Jiang Wan and others in Shuzhong also took sides. Although they had not been to the scene and had not conducted any investigation, they overwhelmingly supported Yang Yi simply because they were all local Yizhou faction.

After the incident, the Shu Kingdom officials determined that Wei Yan was wrong.

Half a year later, Yang Yi died suddenly.

The matter seemed to have come to nothing.

But Jiang Wei undoubtedly watched the whole process.

In the following nine years, Fei Yi took over the military power of Shu and ignored Jiang Wei's request for a northern expedition. Even if he sent troops, he only gave Jiang Wei a few thousand soldiers.

"Wei believed that he was familiar with the customs of the West and was also talented and brave. He wanted to lure the Qiang and Hu people to serve as his wings, thinking that he could cut off and take over the area west of Long. Whenever he wanted to raise a large army, Fei Yi always refused to follow his orders and gave him no more than 10,000 soldiers."

With such a force, it would have been difficult to even guard the border, let alone the Northern Expedition. Nine years passed like this, and the best opportunity was missed. The Wei State was able to recuperate, and the gap in national strength between the two sides further widened.

During this period, Fei Yi held great power, and his actions were even more powerful than those of Zhuge Liang. He was in Hanzhong, and all court affairs had to consult him before implementation. He was also the general, the recorder of the Shangshushi, and the governor of Yizhou, holding the military and political power of Shu Han in his hands.

Even so, he was still not satisfied and wanted to be prime minister. Because the fortune teller said that there was no position for prime minister in Chengdu, Fei Yi stationed his troops in Hanshou in the north, and Liu Chan had no choice but to agree.

At this time, Fei Yi's shogunate had already become an independent small court.

But Zhuge Liang monopolized power in order to launch the Northern Expedition, but why did Fei Yi do that?

Fei Yi said to Wei: "We are far inferior to the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister cannot pacify China, let alone us! It is better to protect the country and govern the people, respectfully guard the country, and wait for the achievements of capable people, instead of hoping for luck and deciding success or failure in one move. If it does not go as planned, it will be too late to regret it."

Fei Yi's meaning was very clear. We are not talented enough, so we can only stay here and forget about the Northern Expedition. We'll have to wait until next life.

When Zhuge Liang was alive, Fei Yi was also a highly anticipated successor. It was not that he was incapable of fighting. His military ability was not low, and was even higher than that of Jiang Wei in the early days.

But although he had such ability, he finally chose passive resistance and focused on political manipulation. What changed him is unknown, but this is the fact.

Liu Chan had to face the local surrenderists in Yizhou every day for decades, and he was tired of it. It was not surprising that he said he was happy in Shu after surrendering. After all, this group of Yizhou officials did not want to fight from the beginning to the end.

If nothing unexpected happens, if this continues, Jiang Wei will waste his time until he dies of old age and will never be able to realize the ambition of the Northern Expedition inherited from Zhuge Liang.

However, something happened.

After Jiang Wei had waited for nine years, the Northern Expedition was completely stopped. Fei Yi, who had monopolized power, was assassinated by Guo Xun, a surrendered general of Wei, at the New Year's meeting in the 16th year of Yan Xi, and died suddenly.

Later, Guo Xun confessed that he was ordered by Cao Wei to pretend to surrender and assassinate Liu Chan, but as Liu Chan was surrounded by tight guards, he had no choice but to kill Fei Yi as a second choice.

However, this confession is untenable. Anyone with a discerning eye knows that Liu Chan is not a powerful ruler, and Fei Yi does not want to march north. Changing the target may backfire.

And Cao Wei’s reaction later also confirmed this. They learned about Fei Yi’s assassination a long time later, and they didn’t even know there was a person named Guo Xun!
If Guo Xun was ordered to assassinate Liu Chan, causing chaos in Shu, this would be the best opportunity for Wei to attack Shu. However, Wei was obviously kept in the dark from beginning to end and did not think of taking advantage of this opportunity at all.

Secondly, Guo Xun was just a grassroots military officer in the Wei State. After coming to the Shu State, he became the Left General in a short time. Unless he had very firm reasons, it is hard to see what motive he had to kill the surrenderist Fei Yi.

While investigating the case, Jiang Wei was also questioned about Guo Xun's background, because Guo Xun was a fellow villager of Jiang Wei and was introduced to Fei Yi after being captured by Jiang Wei. For this reason, Jiang Wei was subject to suspicion and pressure from all sides. Many officials from Yizhou reacted strongly and demanded a thorough investigation of the matter.

But no one expected that the final result of this incident was that Jiang Wei, who had been suppressed before, was impeached by all sides and was exceptionally employed by Liu Chan, and took over the military power left by Fei Yi.

Although the best opportunity to send troops was missed and the Wei State had recovered a lot of its vitality in the past nine years, Jiang Wei immediately began to plan the Northern Expedition which had been stopped for a while.

At the same time, the power that was divided out by the shogunate system during Zhuge Liang's period returned to Liu Chan with the death of Fei Yi, and in the following ten years, he used it to unreservedly support Jiang Wei's Northern Expedition.

If the conspiracy chain speculation of the whole incident is correct, at the moment when Zhuge Liang died and the pro-war Wei Yan was killed, all possibilities of Shu Kingdom's Northern Expedition had been strangled by Yizhou officials such as Fei Yi and Yang Yi.

Afterwards, Fei Yi implemented a policy of recuperation and used all means to prevent the Northern Expedition. This approach was undoubtedly in line with the interests of the local gentry in Yizhou, but it went against the ambitions of many Shu Han veterans and even their descendants, and even Liu Chan himself.

So, through a series of accidental events, with the intentional or unintentional help of Liu Chan, Jiang Wei indirectly avenged Wei Yan, and pushed the exhausted chariot of Shu forward again, allowing the wheel of the Northern Expedition to defeat the Han thieves and restore the Han Dynasty to turn again.

Zhuge Liang stated his lifelong wish at the beginning of his "The Memorial to the Emperor on Departure".

The Han and the thieves cannot coexist, and the kingdom cannot be half-hearted.

Although this was almost illusory and there was not even a one-tenth chance of realization, it did not prevent Shu Han from using this last bit of ideal afterglow to illuminate the long night of the late Han Dynasty in the next ten years.

(End of this chapter)