Wei Yan’s Rebellion is the posthumous crisis that follows Kong Ming’s death: Wei Yan refuses the order to withdraw, challenges the authority entrusted to Yang Yi, and leads his troops into armed conflict with the retreating Shu forces. Its resolution fulfills Kong Ming’s prediction that Wei Yan would rebel. A secret instruction left for the moment of confrontation enables Yang Yi and Jiang Wei to expose the revolt and Ma Dai to kill Wei Yan, making the rebellion both a military rupture and the final test of Kong Ming’s authority after death.

Death of Kong Ming and the dispute over command

As the Shu army begins its quiet withdrawal, Wei Yan dreams of two horns growing from his head and asks Zhao Zhi to interpret the omen. Zhao Zhi gives him a reassuring interpretation, while privately telling Fei Yi that the sign is inauspicious. The portent accompanies an immediate political grievance: Wei Yan learns that Yang Yi has been assigned prime ministerial responsibilities at Kong Ming’s deathbed and questions why the position was not given to him.

Wei Yan proposes continuing the campaign against Sima Yi rather than retreating simply because Kong Ming has died. Fei Yi reminds him that the order to withdraw came from Kong Ming himself. Fei Yi says he will raise the matter with Yang Yi, but Yang Yi invokes Kong Ming’s warning that Wei Yan would rebel. The army consequently moves without Wei Yan in the rearguard; Jiang Wei takes that position instead. When Fei Yi does not return, Wei Yan becomes suspicious, discovers the change, and asks Ma Dai to help him kill Yang Yi.

The revolt splits the army

Wei Yan blocks the army’s route and draws up troops against Yang Yi and the others. Yang Yi and Fei Yi understand that Wei Yan is likely to present himself to Liu Shan as the loyal commander and his opponents as rebels. They find a back road and send messengers to Chengdu with an account of the revolt. Wei Yan’s petition reaches the court first, accusing Yang Yi of usurping power and claiming that Wei Yan alone is resisting him; Yang Yi’s later petition gives the court a competing account. Liu Shan sends Dong Yun to seek a compromise, but the armies’ confrontation is already under way.

At Nangu, He Ping emerges behind Wei Yan with loyal troops and challenges him. He then turns to Wei Yan’s soldiers, asking why they are supporting a man who has rebelled before Kong Ming’s body is cold and reminding them that Kong Ming had done them no harm. The appeal breaks Wei Yan’s ranks: many soldiers leave and go home. Wei Yan attacks He Ping, who feigns retreat; arrows prevent Wei Yan from pursuing, and his force continues to disintegrate. Wei Yan pursues some of the fleeing men, while only the three hundred troops around Ma Dai remain with him.

Wei Yan suggests that he and his remaining followers join the Wei army. Ma Dai refuses that course, instead proposing that they seize Hanzhong and attack western Shu. The proposal gives the revolt a potential territorial objective, but the rebellion does not establish a durable independent position. Wei Yan and Ma Dai attack Nanzheng, where Jiang Wei and Yang Yi are already in place.

Kong Ming’s sealed instruction and Wei Yan’s death

At Nanzheng, Jiang Wei asks Yang Yi how to respond. Yang Yi produces a silk bag that Kong Ming had given him with instructions to open it if Wei Yan rebelled. The envelope is marked to be opened only when he confronted Wei Yan. Yang Yi and Jiang Wei then go out to face the rebel commanders, while Wei Yan insists that his quarrel is with Yang Yi, not Jiang Wei.

Yang Yi tells Wei Yan that Kong Ming predicted his betrayal. He offers to surrender Hanzhong if Wei Yan can shout three times that no one dares kill him, presenting the challenge as a test of his claim to be a true warrior. Wei Yan laughs at the condition and declares that he had feared Kong Ming only while Kong Ming was alive; now that Kong Ming is dead, he claims to fear no one. He says he can repeat the challenge not merely three times but thirty thousand times, then raises his sword and shouts.

Ma Dai answers from behind Wei Yan and kills him before the shout has faded. Kong Ming had privately told Ma Dai to strike when Wei Yan issued that challenge, turning Wei Yan’s defiant boast into the signal that ends the rebellion. The revolt is therefore defeated not by a settlement or a change of allegiance, but by the coordinated use of Kong Ming’s forecast, Yang Yi’s sealed instruction, and Ma Dai’s concealed role.

Consequences and narrative significance

The rebellion exposes how fragile command becomes once Kong Ming is gone. Wei Yan challenges the succession of authority and tries first to redirect the campaign, then to take control of the army by force. The soldiers’ departure after He Ping’s appeal shows that Wei Yan’s military following is not enough to preserve the revolt when its legitimacy is disputed; his alternative plan with Ma Dai cannot overcome the loyal army’s coordinated response.

Kong Ming remains decisive in the crisis despite his death. His warning shapes Yang Yi’s interpretation of events, his sealed message supplies the means to confront Wei Yan, and his private instruction to Ma Dai determines the moment of Wei Yan’s death. The sequence gives the rebellion the shape of a prediction fulfilled: the challenge Wei Yan makes in confidence that no one can kill him becomes precisely the cue that brings about his end.