Gongsun Shu deserves to be an official in the Xin Dynasty. After becoming emperor, he was very similar to Wang Mang, which was that he liked to change the name of a county official to match his "auspiciousness".

For example, in the past, a good Hanzhong county was made, Gongsun Shu insisted on dividing it into three parts, and the three new counties "Hanzhong Chengxing Shangyong" were established. Of course, this division was also convenient for different ministers to be in charge, and to achieve division and governance. However, when the Wei army was moving south in a large number of directions, this kind of trade-offs made it difficult for each county to cooperate and respond, and was easily defeated by each other.

Xicheng (now Ankang, Hanzhong), the capital of "Chengxing County", was once the political center of the Hanzhong area. Its city walls are solid, with a population size of no less than that of Nanzheng, Badong Road in the south, Yuziwu Valley in the north, and Shangyong in the east, guarded by Yancen.

At the end of March of the tenth year of Wude, when he heard that Ma Yuan had broken Yangping Pass, Mianyang and Nanzheng had fallen, Yan Cen's old subordinates came to see him and asked, "King, what happened has come to this point, can the West City still be defended?"

Yan Cen's name was Shuya, and his hometown was from Zhuyang County, Nanyang County. In the late Xinmang Dynasty, he took advantage of the chaos and joined the Western Expedition Army of Green Forest, and became a subordinate of King Liu Jia of Hanzhong. However, the Gengshi regime was not strong enough and was defeated by Chimei within a few years. Hanzhong was also attacked by Wei and Shu. At that time, it was Yan Cen who suddenly raised his troops to Sichuan that allowed Gongsun Shu to easily enter Hanzhong.

To this day, Yan Cen has been a minister of Shu for more than ten years. When faced with his subordinates' intentional inquiries, he shook his head helplessly and said, "I can't defend it."

Yan Cen used his finger belly: "For example, Nan Zheng and Yangping Pass are the western gateway of Hanzhong, the mouth and throat, my western city is the stomach, Shangyong Fangling is the intestines, and the throat is not guarded now. The iron spear of Wei army can penetrate the stomach and open the intestines in one breath and stab it straight to the back door. How to guard it?"

Yan Cen was not actually loyal to Gongsun Shu. More than ten years ago, when the Fifth Reun first started his army in Guanzhong, he sent Feng Yan to Shu to contact Gongsun Shu, and the Wei and Shu alliance was against the Han Han. Feng Yan passed by Hanzhong and was captured by Yan Cen, and later released him. Before he left, he lobbied Yan Cen to join Wei, but Yan Cen was greedy for Gongsun's promise to be crowned king at that time and made the opposite choice.

Afterwards, Gongsun Shu fulfilled his promise and named him "King of Mianning" and allowed him to go to court, but then he divided Hanzhong, which greatly reduced Yancen's territory.

If you look at it from the map, this "Chengxing County" is much larger than many counties in the Central Plains, but most of them are mountainous areas. There were only two counties under their jurisdiction, and they were forcibly demolished into five. Although Gongsun Shu gave another "Da Sima" as comfort, Yan Cen's dissatisfaction had been planted.

When the confidant's confidant said this, he felt even more at ease. They were originally from Nanyang and their hometown had long been controlled by the State of Wei. They were unwilling to be buried with Gongsun. They were all determined to persuade Yan Cen to lead everyone to Wei.

They knew that Yan Cen had a high opinion of himself and was often unwilling to be the short-selling Grand Marshal, so they said: "Wu Han, a native of Nanyang, surrendered to Wei, which was later than the king's surrender to Shu. Now Wu Han has been granted the title of General of Wei Zhenbei, with a title of 10,000 households, and has a large army of 100,000. With the ability of the king, if he had returned to Wei back then, his status would be no less than that of Wu Ziyan..."

"That's right, this king who has been married only has several counties under his jurisdiction. Maybe he is not as rich as the Wanhuhou of Wei."

What they imply is: It’s not too late to defect to the fifth relationship now!

Unexpectedly, when everyone talked randomly, they touched Yan Cen's heart disease. They remained silent, but thought in secret:

"No, it's too late to raise the Wei flag now!"

In the past ten years, Feng Yan has sent many people to give gold and invite Yan Cen to respond to the Wei State. However, the situation in the world was not determined in the past few years, and in the next few years, Gongsun Shu was indeed respectful to the wise and humble, and promoted Yan Cen as the leader of the military general, which greatly satisfied his vanity and felt a little embarrassed to jump off the ship. Since Wei State has recuperated and no war between the north and the south, let's live like this first.

This hesitation delayed to the decade of damn Wude. After the war began, Yan Cen had just figured out how to cooperate with the Wei army, jumped ship decently, and then made contributions to obtain the best interests. Then there was news that Jing Hanyang had a great defeat, Mianyang and Nanzheng were both lost!

"This is too fast!"

Even Yancen had no time to embroider the Five Destiny Flag.

It was Yan Cen's turn to have a headache: "If I return to Wei quickly now, it would be like a panic rat, at most it would be considered a surrender. In the eyes of Ma Yuan and others, it is no different from surrender!"

Not to mention comparing to Nanyang fellow Wu Han, he might not be able to get a marquis, and he would even bear the reputation of abandoning Gongsun. The cost is too high and the benefits are too few, which is not cost-effective.

Thinking of this, Yan Cen looked at his close friends and said solemnly: "Do you want to surrender to the fifth relationship?"

Everyone bowed their heads, saying that they were not greedy for life and death, nor were they afraid of Ma Yuan, but Gongsun Shu nominally respected Yan Cen, but in fact he only gave him a few counties to territory. Even if he resisted the Wei army, he would rather use Jing Han to suppress Yan Cen. They were not worth it for the lord! It would be better to rebel!

Seeing that everyone here was doing this, Yan Cen also understood that if he ordered resistance, his head would probably be cut off and sent to Ma Yuan's desk the next day. He sighed and said, "Since that's the case, you can do it yourself."

Everyone was shocked: "Why did the general say this?"

Yan Cen sighed and said, "Although I don't read much, I have heard someone say that those who eat others are loyal to their affairs."

"You all regard me as your lord, and naturally think about Yan Cen everywhere; and Emperor Gongsun is my lord, and I am honored as a general, and I have never been rewarded every year. Now that the Wei army is invading the territory, it is difficult for the small towns in the west to compete with the Ma Yuan army, and everyone can surrender, but I cannot!"

This statement was so righteous that everyone was stunned. How could Yan Cenn beat the Gengshi regime more than ten years ago and drew his sword to force Hanzhong King Liu Jia, why didn't he realize this?

But since Yan Cen did not stop them from returning to Wei and gave everyone a way out, it was not as good as the swordsman's advice, and some people began to wipe their tears: "What about the king? Could it be that he wants to follow Wei Xiang's affairs?"

Yan Cen laughed: "I am a real man, how could I commit suicide by following Wei Jimeng? When you open the west city to welcome Ma Yuan, I took a few cavalry to Bashu and went back to Chengdu to ask Emperor Gongsun to punish me!"

The subordinates looked at each other, speechless, and only felt that Yan Cen in front of them had become unaware of them.

In fact, Yan Cen had already thought about it: in essence he gave up Xicheng as a gift to Emperor Wei. He then ordered his subordinates to join the State of Wei first. Although not everyone would be able to do well, he would have "his own people" here in the future.

When returning to Chengdu alone, not only does there be no risks, but there are even opportunities!

After more than ten years of intrigue, Yan Cen had figured out Gongsun Shu's temperament. Gongsun Shu did not trust surrendered generals in the past and blindly appointed Jing Han and others. Now Jing Han does not know life and death, and after this great defeat, it is completely over.

Although Yizhou is exhausted, at least there are millions of people, and there is no shortage of soldiers. What is lacking is a general who is good at fighting!

"Since then, there are no more generals in Shu. If Gongsun Shu wants to resist the fifth relationship with Bashu, he can only use me who is good at generals!"

Yan Cen can imagine that once he arrives in Chengdu, he will cry and cry and tell the story of how difficult it is to return from thousands of troops. Gongsun Shu, who is betrayed by his relatives, will definitely be quite moved. In order to set a model of loyalty and good deeds and to prevent quick destruction, Yan Cen will definitely be allowed to control military power and make him the real Grand Marshal!

By then, Yan Cen will have much more cards in his hand than now.

He could take the Shu army with his dangerous troops, relying on Bashu to resist a little, let Ma Yuan and others suffer a lot, and then "rebelled" and surrender to the Wei State at the most appropriate time, and get a decent and high courtesy.

Even, there is a possibility!

"I heard recently that Gongsun Shu was worried about national affairs and was in poor health. If Wei had not yet destroyed Wu and captured Bashu when he died, I could even follow Wang Mang's affairs and stand for Gongsun Zili in Chengdu. I would also try the position of emperor, so how could I sit down!"

Yan Cen has neither the morality of swearing to be loyal to someone, nor the addiction to betrayal of the master. He only follows one rule in his life when doing anything.

"A real man would rather be a chicken's mouth than a queen of a cow in his life!"

...

Yan Cen did what he said. As the Wei army approached the west city, he only took hundreds of people to the Badong Road south, and even burned down the plank road along the way to increase the difficulty for the Wei army to enter Bashu in the future.

Most of Yancen's subordinates opened the city to surrender. As Ma Yuan stepped into this place, only the "Shangyong County" in the east (now Zhushan, northwestern Hubei, Fang County), and the White Emperor flag was still planted.

Compared with Shuzhong, this newly established Shangyong County is definitely not a good place. Not only is the border wide and the mountains and rivers blocked, it is really a place with poor mountains and rivers. It has only five counties under its jurisdiction, and each county has less than 10,000 household registration.

If you look at it from the perspective of a military strategist, it is not important to say that Shangyong is not important. Here you can reach Xicheng and Nanzheng here; to the east, close to Wancheng and Xiangyang, the "Yunguan" located above the Mianshui is also considered the key point; to connect Wuguan in the north; to the south, there is Bashan in the south, and the Three Gorges. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Qin and Chu fought many battles around Shangyong. When Chu finally lost Shangyong, the next year, the Qin army went straight south to the Yangtze River.

But you should say it is very important. It has been in Gongsun Shu for more than ten years. The Shu army rarely goes east to threaten Wuguan and Nanyang, and it is difficult to support the friendly forces in Jiangling, Nanjun...

But there are exceptions. Six or seven years ago, two young generals went deep into Wei territory and occupied Danyang, forcing the road from Guanzhong to Nanyang to be interrupted. Wuguan had to be closed for three months! In the end, Cen Peng, the general of Wei Zhennan, returned from Xiangyang and recovered the lost territory.

These two are Jia Fu and Deng Feng. The former was nominally the subordinates of Gongsun Shu, and the latter was occupied by the fifth reunion and had no choice but to join Shu. Feeling that the two were brave and powerful, Gongsun Shu promoted them, and Jia Fu was the prefect of Shangyong, Deng Feng was the commander of Shangyong, and the two partnered and placed here.

It’s a pity that Gongsun Shu was still afraid of the two of them. He was resentful of Jia Fu’s desire to leave and join Liu Xiu for a while and refused to trust him. Deng Feng repeatedly asked Gongsun Shu to give him 30,000 troops and pat his chest to ensure that he could sweep Nanyang, Wuguan, and Cen Peng in the south. Gongsun Shu also refused to agree. He just wanted Jia and Deng to take his old subordinates to take risks.

The two gradually became discouraged, and Cen Peng was well warded, so they could not find a good opportunity, so they chose to preserve their strength and did not cause any more big trouble.

It seems that there are not no generals in Shu, but Gongsun Shu is not good at using it.

Until now, in April of the tenth year of Wude, the weather in Shangyong was quite hot. In the county government, the prefect Jia Fu and the commander Deng Feng sat opposite each other, silently.

On the table was the bad news of the defeat in the west and the loss of land. The fragile connection between Shangyong and Bashu was completely broken as the Wei army swept through Hanzhong!

The lips are gone and the teeth are cold, and Shangyong cannot keep himself alone. Both of them understand that the stability of the past five years has come to an end! They must make choices for the future.

Deng Feng thought for a long time and was about to speak, but Jia Fu took the lead in speaking.

"Fengxian."
Chapter completed!