[Layout of two rivers]
The terrain of Shu is dangerous and has been a hotbed of separatist rule since ancient times. Generals who entered Shu to fight would either stay and separatist rule, or die miserably due to suspicion. This was the "Curse of Sichuan and Shu". Guo Chongtao, who just overturned his car, is a living example.
But now that Xichuan Meng Zhixiang is becoming increasingly powerful, it is impossible for the Li Siyuan court to eradicate him by force. While An Zhongjie was thinking hard about the strategy to pacify Shu, a man came to An Zhongjie with confidence and volunteered to relieve his master.
This person is Li Yan, an old friend of the Shu people.
Li Yan was very smart. He saw through An Chongjie's thoughts and even the court's thoughts. The court does not trust Xi Chuan Meng Zhixiang, but cannot attack by force and can only outwit him. This is a once-in-a-lifetime promotion opportunity! Li Yan took the initiative to find An Chongjiao and asked to be appointed as the supervisor of the Xichuan Army to monitor and check Meng Zhixiang for the court.
Li Yan's current title is Hakka Province Envoy and Sizhou Defense Envoy. The guest envoy is responsible for receiving foreign envoys and representing the central government on envoys. It can be roughly understood as a "protocol officer". Li Yan previously visited the former Shu as a guest envoy. After returning to China, he urged the conquest of Shu. After the peace of Shu, He was awarded Sizhou Defense Envoy for his meritorious service.
Sizhou was under the control of the Huainan forces at the time. Li Yan's title of defense envoy was a false title and he only enjoyed relevant administrative treatment without any actual power.
From "honorary" defense envoy to military supervisor, it is a "three-level promotion in a row", and when the leader is most short of manpower, he takes the initiative to ask for help and take on this arduous task. He will definitely win the gratitude of those in power. The subsequent promotions are simply Don't take a rocket ride.
Li Yan has visited Shu, has relevant work experience, and understands the local customs. This is an advantage that cannot be replaced by others. When Li Yan took the initiative and shouldered the heavy responsibility, An Zhongjie and Li Siyuan were really happy.
"Xichuan needs talents like you."
Li Siyuan ordered Li Yan to be appointed as the supervisor of the Xichuan Army, and Zhu Hongzhao was appointed as the deputy envoy of Dongchuan Jiedu. Insert court spies into the Sichuan and Sichuan areas.
After the appointment certificate was issued, Li Yan went home and packed his bags while humming a ditty, preparing to embark on the road to promotion and fortune. But his mother poured cold water on his head, "Son, it was you who tried your best to instigate the imperial court to send troops to Shu, which brought war to Shu and made the Shu people subjugated slaves. How many people died! The Shu people hate you. I have to grit my teeth, but you actually go there on your own initiative, are you looking for death?"
Li Yan did not stop what he was doing and just said a few words casually. Of course he was filial and respectful to his mother, but after all, her mother was an uneducated and uninformed old lady. What did she know about military and state affairs?
"Mom, don't worry, it's okay. Just wait for your son to be promoted to a noble rank."
Mother Li knew that her son was obsessed with fame and fortune. In desperation, she burst into tears and said, "Hey, I'm afraid I'll never see you again!" After saying that, she hid her face and cried, saying goodbye to her son.
Li Yanxin said that when he returns home in fine clothes, he can prove himself to his mother with practical actions. After kneeling down to his mother, he resolutely stepped into Shu.
The news that Li Yan was appointed as the supervisor of the Xichuan Army reached Shu. The officials and people of Shu were gnashing their teeth and wanted to eat him alive. Jiedushi Meng Zhixiang was also quite disgusted. Li Yan was not only the court's spy, but also greatly increased his own management costs. It was difficult to appease the mood of the masses!
Xichuan's staff also believed that Li Yan came here with bad intentions and "wanted to make further contributions to Shu", so they asked Meng Zhixiang to refuse Li Yan's appointment to avoid becoming the second Wang Zongyan.
Meng Zhixiang rolled his eyes, and the plan came to mind, "No need to spend a lot of time, I have already thought of a plan that kills two birds with one stone."
Meng Zhixiang put on a warm welcome to the leaders to come and guide the work, sent people to meet Gao Ying from afar, and went deep into Dongchuan to greet Li Yan. He prepared both hard and soft paths for Li Yan.
The soft one is to show off the past life-saving kindness to Li Yan.
That was more than ten years ago. In March 912 AD, Li Cunxu attacked Liu Shouguang of Youzhou. Li Yan, who was the governor of Mozhou at that time, was captured by Zhou Dewei. Li Cunxu heard that Li Yan had extensive interests and was very talented, so he wanted Li Yan to Yan worked as a tutor for his son Li Jiqi. As a result, Li Yan refused.
Li Cunxu was furious. You are such a ungrateful general. I have given you face, right? He immediately ordered Li Yan to be beheaded in public display.
After Meng Zhixiang heard about it, he didn't even have time to put on his shoes. He ran barefoot to the Chinese army's tent and begged the sword to spare people, saying that killing the righteous before the enemy was destroyed would be a breach of trust in the world!
Li Cunxu then changed the beheading decision to twenty floggings.
Meng Zhixiang regarded himself as Li Yan's savior and believed that Li Yan would remember the grace of survival, give up his coveting of Shu, return to the central government voluntarily, and say a few nice words to him to return his favor as a son-in-law.
It's a pity that Li Yanli was in a coma and had no intention of leaving. Nishikawa, he is determined.
Meng Zhixiang had no choice but to give him a hard blow.
At the reception banquet in Chengdu, Meng Zhixiang assembled a large army and invited Li Yan to watch the military parade in Xichuan. He used the military parade to strongly hint to Li Yan about the dangers of Xichuan.
Since ancient times, military parades have been about flexing muscles to the outside world. This is the last chance Meng Zhixiang leaves for Li Yan. He hopes that Li Yan can feel Xichuan's murderous intentions through the military parade and retreat in spite of the difficulties.
Meng Zhixiang was disappointed again. Li Yan watched the military parade with great interest and praised Meng Zhixiang for his skill in military management, but did not mention anything about resigning and returning to the court.
At first, in order to scare away the prime minister Wei Zhaodu, Wang Jian did not hesitate to perform a show of eating living people. Wei Zhaodu was so frightened that he jumped over Jianmen Pass and threw Xichuan to Wang Jian. It seems that the sensory stimulation brought by a military parade is far less than that of eating a living person. Li Yan was not intimidated.
Meng Zhixiang sighed, my old friend, I gave you a chance but you didn’t use it! Since I gave you this, I will take it back today.
On this day, Li Yan went on official business and came to the government office to discuss an important task with Meng Zhixiang: killing Jiao Yanbin.
Jiao Yanbin was originally the eunuch overseeing the Xichuan Army. After Li Siyuan came to power, in order to eradicate the power of the eunuchs during Li Cunxu's period and also to completely eradicate Li Cunxu's remaining party, he issued an edict to abolish the overseeing armies in various places and hunt down the eunuchs in the month he proclaimed himself emperor. Meng Zhixiang was ordered to remove Jiao Yanbin's supervisor, but instead of killing him, he treated him as a distinguished guest of Xichuan.
After Li Yan arrived in Xichuan, he did not miss Meng Zhixiang's grace for survival in the past. Instead, he acted like an imperial envoy and bossed around. In his opinion, he was ordered by the court to monitor Meng Zhixiang, so Meng Zhixiang should be frightened and respectful to him, so that he could help him with a few nice words in the court.
This is Li Yan's ignorance. If Meng Zhixiang wanted to be a loyal dog of the court, he would naturally wag his tail and beg for mercy. But now Meng Zhixiang wants to be a jungle wolf.
Meng Zhixiang refused to kill Jiao Yanbin. He is just a poor eunuch who has no rights now, so why must he be exterminated to death? Killing eunuchs is just a need for political struggle, emphasizing name rather than reality.
Li Yan smiled coldly and took out a piece of edict from his arms, "I have no grudges with Jiao Yanbin. It's not that I want to kill him, it's the emperor who wants to kill him. It's hard to violate the sacred order!"
This was a Hongmen Banquet, but Li Yan didn't know until the end that the clown turned out to be him.
