Volume 3: The Land of Jingchu Chapter 358: Imperial Envoy
In the history without the "White Rabbit Effect", Wei Yan's status in Shu Han can be said to be second only to the third of the Five Tiger Generals in the early period. He is comparable to Zhao Yun, or even slightly better. In name, he is not as good as Ma Chao, but Ma Chao is basically idle...
His ability and level of trust are evident .
However, in the later period of Zhuge Liang's reign, Wei Yan disagreed with Zhuge Liang on the issue of the Northern Expedition. Not only did he end up dead, but he was also further vilified in the novel. Not only did he become a synonym for "rebellion", but his death in the form of "Who dares to kill me" was also unique...
According to the novel, when Zhuge Liang first saw Wei Yan, he concluded that and urged Liu Bei to execute him.
Before his death, Zhuge Liang even instructed Ma Dai, Yang Yi and others to kill Wei Yan...
But Bai Tu didn’t think that Zhuge Liang really disliked Wei Yan that much.
Logically speaking, the so-called disagreement between Wei Yan and Zhuge Liang during his lifetime was only a difference of opinion on the troop route, which would not lead to a big feud. Moreover, with Zhuge Liang's authority after Liu Bei's death, if he really did not trust Wei Yan, it would not be Wei Yan's turn to continue to guard Hanzhong.
On the contrary, in history, regarding Wei Yan's "rebellion" after Zhuge Liang's death, both the "Three Kingdoms" written by the people of Shu and the "Wei Lue" written by the people of Wei attributed Wei Yan's rebellion to the conflict between Wei Yan and Yang Yi.
Compared to Zhuge Liang, Wei Yan and Yang Yi are truly incompatible. If it weren't for Zhuge Liang, the two would have fought to their death long ago...
According to the "Records of the Three Kingdoms", after Zhuge Liang's death, he handed over the military power to Yang Yi, who was asked to withdraw his troops and ordered Wei Yan to cover the retreat.
As a result, Wei Yan did not believe Yang Yi's orders, and acted like "Isn't it just that Zhuge Liang is dead? I think I can continue the Northern Expedition with my own help." He directly burned Yang Yi's retreat, and competed with Yang Yi to write letters to Liu Chan, accusing the other of rebellion. In the end, Wei Yan was defeated and killed by Yang Yi.
The argument in "Wei Lue" is more inclined to Wei Yan, believing that after Zhuge Liang's death, he intended to hand over the military power to Wei Yan, but Yang Yi was worried about his revenge later, so he forged Zhuge Liang's order and forced Wei Yan to rebel.
Although there are different accounts, it is true that Wei Yan and Yang Yi were incompatible. "Records of the Three Kingdoms" even records that Wei Yan drew his sword against Yang Yi many times. However, Zhuge Liang relied on both of them and mediated their grievances many times during his lifetime.
However, there is another major reason why Wei Yan finally became a traitor. That is, after Zhuge Liang's death, the conflict between him and Yang Yi broke out completely. But... who gave Wei Yan the courage to accuse Yang Yi of rebellion? Don't you know your own popularity?
It seems that after Liu Chan was dumbfounded in the city, when he asked Dong Yun and Jiang Wan, they were definitely more on Yang Yi's side!
The two of them confronted each other on the front line right after Zhuge Liang's death. Even though others knew that the two of them were just having a personal grudge, they could only conclude that one of them was causing trouble. At this time, Wei Yan not only had a bad relationship with others, but also lost...
Of course, in the novel, Wei Yan also had the biggest blame - when Zhuge Liang set up the Seven Star Formation to prolong his life, Wei Yan was anxious to report military intelligence, ignored Yang Yi's obstruction, and forced his way into the general's tent, which resulted in the Seven Star Lamp going out, breaking Zhuge Liang's method of prolonging his life.
Considering the mystery of Shirohime's world and the world , this is not impossible!
If this kind of disaster really happened, then it would be logical for Zhuge Liang to instruct Ma Dai and Yang Yi before his death that if this guy dared to disobey, he should be killed...!
After all, this guy's personality is really unpleasant, and given the situation at the time, if Zhuge Liang hadn't suppressed him, Wei Yan's arrogance would have been outrageous.
Fortunately, Wei Yan is still young, and there are many people who can suppress him, and... he is still very malleable. Bai Tu will pair Jia Xu with him after preparation - Jia Xu will never irritate Wei Yan, but he will be able to "manipulate" Wei Yan imperceptibly.
I believe that in a few years, Wei Yan will be able to learn the virtue of "humility"!
The military orders from Huang Zhong and Wei Yan were indeed very effective. The areas north of Jiangling, such as Dangyang and Yicheng, were quickly swept away by the former Jingzhou army led by Huang Zhong and Wei Yan and switched to the General's Mansion.
Even if there are some people who resist stubbornly, there is no need for the main force of the General's Mansion to move lightly...
The central army led by Bai Tu stayed in Jiangling temporarily, both to stabilize the situation in Jingzhou and to wait for the envoys from the imperial court!
In fact, not long after Ma Zhong left Jinling, Jian Yong had already arrived in Jinling as an envoy of the court, but he did not expect to come back empty-handed.
Lu Su and others also delayed as much as possible. Anyway, Bai Tu was not in Jinling, and no matter how eloquent Jian Yong's words were, it would not change anything.
However, Jian Yong was not stupid. After seeing through the attitude of the general's staff, he immediately asked to go to Jiangling to meet Bai Tu.
Along the way... although they didn't attack him directly, they could block him or entertain him whenever they could, and they dragged the situation on until Yicheng was lost. Only then did Jian Yong see Bai Tu in Jiangling!
The intention of Jian Yong, or rather the imperial court, was very simple, which was to stop Bai Tu from continuing to attack Xiangfan. Although Jian Yong asked the General's Mansion to withdraw from Jingzhou right from the start, he knew that it was impossible, and he was just asking for a sky-high price.
As for why Jian Yong has such confidence?
Bai Tu actually knew the news a long time ago, and the imperial court did have some signs of "last gasp" recently.
After moving away from Xu Du, they did not even stop in Luoyang, but went all the way back to Guanzhong and Chang'an, the former capital of the Western Han Dynasty!
As for Li Jue and Guo Si, they had been killed by Ma Teng. Now, in name, Ma Teng, Han Sui, the Yellow Turban faction's Western Liang Army in Guanzhong who had previously saved the emperor, or Zhang Yan, the "Guanzhong newbie" with a population of hundreds of thousands... all nominally support the court.
Although everyone knows that these people cannot be truly of one mind, judging from their current performance, the imperial court has the Xuzhou Army to provide escort - the Xuzhou Army itself is considered an outsider in Guanzhong, so naturally it is "quite trustworthy" to the imperial court.
Ma Teng claimed to be a descendant of Ma Yuan. When Li Jue and Guo Si kidnapped Liu Xie, he also cooperated in rescuing the court, so he was considered "relatively credible."
Later, as the General of the Western Expedition, Zhang Yan actually wrote a detailed "Guanzhong Revitalization Plan", intending to gradually restore Guanzhong's production and manpower based on the migrated Black Mountain people...
Guanzhong definitely has a foundation of water conservancy projects. If we can suppress the various warlords and curb their internal friction, this plan is actually very feasible!
It was just that Zhang Yan's letter was indeed a bit surprising, even Bai Tu was shocked - is Zhang Yan the type of minister who understands development and governs the country? Is there something wrong with this style of painting?
Unfortunately, even the Fengwei did not send back detailed information, not even reporting such a "small matter" as Zhang Yan "inviting" Sima Lao Er, otherwise Bai Tu should have been able to guess something...
These made Jian Yong finally straighten his back a little when facing Bai Tu, although he couldn't be said to be tough, and he was not as passive as before!
