Li Yan

Li Yan of Nanyang — recommended by Fei Guan as second for the Mianzhu defense; marches with the thirty thousand.

Duels Huang Zhong fifty bouts, is lured into the hills and yields to spare his men — then, won by Liu Bei's warmth, goes back and talks his close friend Fei Guan into opening Mianzhu's gates.

Left in charge of the Palace of Eternal Peace — and used as the key to the fourth route: his sworn friendship with Meng Da carries the letter that turns the Shangyong army conveniently ill.

Li Yan; ordered to defend the capital and the eastern frontier with Wu while Zhuge Liang is south.

His single line in the chapter is the appointment that keeps him off the expedition: 'Li Yan was given the task of guarding the passes against Wu from the southeast.'

Commanding at the Palace of Eternal Peace, he is the channel Meng Da has been writing through, and he sends his son Li Teng to the camp at Qishan with Meng Da's messenger and letters. Zhuge Liang's first thought on seeing the visit is that Wu must have invaded.

Appears once and indirectly: he is the co-regent who sends the grain convoy up from Baidicheng under Gou An, and Yang Yi invokes his name to save the man's life — 'Gou An is a servant of Li Yan, and Li Yan has sent large supplies of all sorts from the West River Land. The road is long and difficult. If you put this man to death, perhaps others will not undertake transport duty.' The eighty blows that follow are what turn Gou An traitor, so the chain that ends the campaign starts at Li Yan's convoy.

Unable to find enough grain, he writes to the army that 'Wu has sent an envoy to Luoyang and entered into an alliance with Wei whereby Wu is to attack us' so the army will retire before the shortage shows — and then memorialises the Throne claiming he had kept it fully supplied and does not know why the Prime Minister came back. Zhuge Liang's verdict when the two stories are put side by side: 'The fool has ruined the great design of the state just to save his own skin!' Sentenced to death twice and spared twice: Fei Yi saves his life at the camp by invoking the First Ruler's trust, and Jiang Wan saves it a second time at Chengdu by reminding Liu Shan that his father named Li Yan one of the guardians of his youth. He ends the chapter deprived of all ranks and relegated to Zitong, and Zhuge Liang appoints his son Li Teng High Counselor.

Dies of the same news, and for the same reason as Liao Li. The text is precise about the mechanism: he 'had always hoped that Zhuge Liang would restore him to office and so give him the opportunity of repairing his former faults. After Zhuge Liang had died, he thought there was no hope of reemployment, and so he died.' (The demotion to Zitong is ch101.)