transportation lines impassable, and Li Yan failed to provide supplies to Zhuge Liang's camp. Instead of informing Liu Shan of the situation, Li Yan attempted to cover up his failure. Li Yan had the Advisor to the Army Hu Zhong (狐忠) and the Commander of the Army Cheng Fan (成藩) deliver a letter to Zhuge Liang, informing the commander of the logistic problem, and asked the latter to return. When Zhuge Liang got back to Hanzhong Commandery, Li Yan told him that the food supply was ready and asked him why he retreated. At the same time, Li Yan sent Liu Shan a memo which says "the army feigned retreat in order to lure the enemy to do battle", hoping that Zhuge Liang would resume the war so his failure to transport supplies would go unnoticed. However, Zhuge Liang absolved himself from the campaign, and returned to Chengdu to deal with Li Yan. On the way back to Chengdu from Hanzhong Commandery, Zhuge Liang did not reprimand Li Yan, but he secretly preserved Li Yan's letter. When the returning officers greeted the emperor at the imperial palace, Zhuge Liang showed Li Yan's handwritten letter to Liu Shan, so Li Yan could not deny his fault. Then, Zhuge Liang asked Liu Shan to strip Li Yan off all of his titles and official posts and exile him to Zitong Commandery. There, Li Yan lived the rest of his life as a civilian until he heard the news of Zhuge Liang's death in 234, after which he became ill and died. Li Yan always hoped that Zhuge Liang would forgive him and reemploy him, thinking that officials replacing Zhuge wouldn't do so. Hence his pain and anger when he heard that Zhuge died. After Li Yan's dismissal from office, Zhuge Liang kept employing his son Li Feng (李豐) and encouraged him to do his best under Jiang Wan so he may regain his father's honor. After Li Yan's death, Li Feng reached the rank of Administrator of Zhuti (朱提太守). Xi Zuochi commented on Li Yan's cause of death and Zhuge Liang's application of law: See also Lists of people of the Three Kingdoms References Chen, Shou (3rd century). Records of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguozhi). Pei, Songzhi (5th century). Annotations to Records of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguozhi zhu). Year of birth unknown 234 deaths Liu Biao and associates Liu Zhang and associates Shu