Zhao Yan (171 – July or August 245), courtesy name Boran, was a government official and military general of the state of Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms period of China.
[2] When chaos broke out in central China towards the end of the Eastern Han dynasty, Zhao Yan fled south to Jing Province (covering present-day Hubei and Hunan), where he met Du Xi and Po Qin (繁欽).
[3][4] Zhao Yan shared equal fame as Xin Pi, Chen Qun and Du Xi, who like him were also from Yingchuan Commandery.
After Zhao Yan assumed office, he saw that Langling County had a high crime rate and that criminals behaved lawlessly because of poor law enforcement.
[9] When an uncle of the wife of Li Tong, the Commandant of Yang'an Commandery, committed an offence in Langling County, Zhao Yan arrested him, found him guilty and sentenced him to death.
[13] When Li Tong, the Commandant of Yang'an Commandery, pushed the locals to pay their due taxes,[14] Zhao Yan warned him that doing so would only fuel the people's resentment and make them more likely to defect to Yuan Shao.
If we fail to deliver tax revenue to the imperial court, I am afraid they will think that we are trying to sit on the fence and waiting to join whichever side that wins the war.
"[18] Xun Yu replied: "I will report this to Lord Cao and issue an official notice to Yang'an Commandery to return the collected tax revenue to the people."
Later, just before the Battle of Red Cliffs, he reassigned Zhao Yan to serve as Army Protector and Commandant (都督護軍), whose role was to coordinate the movements of the units commanded by the following seven officers: Yu Jin, Zhang Liao, Zhang He, Zhu Ling, Li Dian, Lu Zhao (路招) and Feng Kai (馮楷).
[28] Later, a peasant Lü Bing (呂並) declared himself a general, gathered some followers, and started a rebellion in Chencang (陳倉; east of present-day Baoji, Shaanxi).
[29][11] Around the time, Yin Shu received orders to draft 1,200 men from the Guanzhong region into military service, and send them to Hanzhong Commandery.
When the newly recruited soldiers bid farewell to their families in Guanzhong, Zhao Yan noticed that many of them looked upset and distraught.
After that, he and his 150 men turned back and stayed overnight at the residence of Zhang Ji, the Inspector of Yong Province (covering parts of present-day Shaanxi and Gansu).
[33] Zhao Yan wanted to go to Xie Valley alone to end the mutiny, but Zhang Ji stopped him and said, "The soldiers in our own camp are already so disturbed.
After they travelled 30 li, Zhao Yan called for a break, gathered his men, delivered a speech, and sincerely reassured them that everything would be fine.
[36] When Zhao Yan reached the site of the mutiny, he ordered the officers to carry out a headcount and gather back as many of the recruits who deserted as possible.
"[40] He then publicly announced that he would choose 1,000 of the most loyal and dutiful men from among the newly recruited soldiers and allow them to remain in Guanzhong, while the rest would still be sent to more secure territory in the east.
[41] About 10 days later, when Liu Zhu and the 2,000 veteran troops reached Guanzhong, Zhao Yan forced the 1,000 recruits to go to the east along with soldiers from other units.
[42][11] The historian Sun Sheng criticised Zhao Yan for lying to the 1,000 recruits, saying that he had betrayed their trust in him when he sent them away despite having promised them that he would allow them to remain in Guanzhong.
[45] When they reached Fancheng, they saw that Cao Ren was stuck in a perilous situation as Guan Yu's troops had completely surrounded the fortress.
[46] At this point in time, Zhao Yan told Xu Huang and all the other officers: "The enemy has surrounded Fancheng so heavily that even water cannot seep through.
Why don't we send our vanguard force closer to the enemy encirclement, and at the same time try to contact Cao Ren and let him know that reinforcements are on their way so as to raise their morale?
Xu Huang thus ordered his troops to dig trenches, and tie notices to arrows and fire them into the fortress to let Cao Ren and his men know that reinforcements had arrived.
When the remaining reinforcements showed up, they combined forces with Xu Huang's army and Cao Ren's defenders to launch an attack on Guan Yu and succeeded in lifting the siege on Fancheng.
During this time, Liu Bei's ally Sun Quan broke their alliance and used the opportunity to launch a stealth invasion of Guan Yu's base.
[49] Cao Ren assembled all the officers and discussed with them his plan to take advantage of the situation to launch a counterattack on Guan Yu and capture him alive if possible.
[55][11] The Weilue recorded that when Du Ji was serving as the Administrator of Hedong Commandery before Zhao Yan replaced him, the Wei government issued an order to all commandery administrators to gather all the widows in their respective jurisdictions and send them to places where the female population was low, so as to allow the widows to remarry and hence promote population growth.
He also put Zhao Yan in charge of supervising military affairs in Jing Province and granted him acting imperial authority.
[65] In 243, due to old age and poor health, Zhao Yan requested to resign from his post in Yong and Liang provinces, and was recalled to the imperial capital, Luoyang, to serve as General of Agile Cavalry (驃騎將軍).
When he reached Bashang (霸上; the White Deer Plain located southeast of present-day Xi'an, Shaanxi), he realised he had forgotten to bring along his medication.