Chapter 79: A Real Man
After Shen Yinshu returned to his own tent, he ordered someone to summon the Right Sima Mi Ji.
Under the dim candlelight, Shen Yinshu and Mi Ji sat opposite each other!
After a long silence, Shen Yinshu finally spoke slowly: "Ji, I am ready to lead my army to surrender to the State of Wu..."
Shen Yinshu made a decision that made him extremely painful.
"General..."
There was no surprise on Mi Ji's face, but he still found it hard to accept.
"My Chu army is at the end of its rope, and countless soldiers die of starvation every day. This is my fault, Mi Shu."
Shen Yinshu sighed and said, "I underestimated Qingji and the Wu Kingdom after all! The 80,000 Chu troops had launched a massive attack on Wu, but I didn't expect it to end up like this. Isn't this a laughing stock?"
"Qingji has given me an ultimatum, either fight or surrender. Fighting will only increase casualties!"
"I really can't bear to see the sons of my Chu State being slaughtered. I can't lead them to achieve great things, but at least I can let them return home and live!"
Upon hearing this, Mi Ji opened his mouth but did not speak, and no sound came out.
Shen Yinshu’s idea cannot be said to be wrong, it is just a helpless move!
In a head-on battle, the Chu army would be completely wiped out.
Instead of doing this, they might as well surrender to the State of Wu and wait to be redeemed , so that more soldiers will not die on the battlefield and be buried in a foreign land!
"Ji, I'm entrusting you with the important task of disarming and surrendering to the Wu people."
"General, are you..."
Mi Ji smacked his lips repeatedly.
Shen Yinshu sighed and said, "The blame for the defeat will eventually be borne by someone. I, Mi Shu, am a great general. I lost my army and humiliated my country to Wu. How can I face the elders of Jingchu again? How can I face the king again?"
"I cannot tolerate my guilt, nor can I escape my guilt."
"Ji, I just want you to tell Qingji that after I die, please transport my body back to Yingdu. This is my only request..."
Trivial request!
Mi Ji couldn't help but feel deeply sad.
"General, we shouldn't have attacked Wu!"
It was too late for Mi Ji to regret.
But Shen Yinshu did not say anything. All his words finally turned into a long sigh!
After Mi Ji left, Shen Yinshu drew his sword and committed suicide, then fell headfirst onto the table. In his dying moments, he looked at the flickering candlelight with reluctance.
…
The next day, when Qingji was about to lead his army to attack the Chu army's camp, he heard the news of Shen Yinshu's death and the news that the Chu army had laid down their arms and surrendered.
Qingji was not surprised that the Chu army chose to surrender.
But Shen Yinshu chose to commit suicide to apologize, which made Qingji feel very uncomfortable!
Shen Yinshu was a famous general of the Chu State with a very high prestige. He once served as a spy in the Wu State, investigating the customs and habits of the Wu State and the military affairs of the court.
If we were to ask who among all the nobles in Chu State knew Wu State best, it would definitely be Shen Yinshu.
There is no doubt that Shen Yinshu is a strong enemy of Wu State!
But Qingji was still very sorry about Shen Yinshu's death.
Shen Yinshu, surnamed Mi, clan Shen, was a descendant of the Chu clan and the great-grandson of King Zhuang of Chu!
Mi Shu was called Shen Yin Shu and Shen Shu. Just like the cultural habits of that era, nobles often used their fiefdoms as their surnames.
Shen Yinshu was originally the magistrate of Shen County, so he took Shen as his surname.
Shen Yinshu has made many contributions to the State of Chu!
In those days, King Ping of Chu built a large number of palaces and cities, waged wars for many years, and did not fulfill his promise of "resting the people for five years." Shen Yinshu made many comments on this.
At the same time, he was also very concerned about the war situation between Wu and Chu.
In the first year of King Zhao of Chu (515 BC ), the Wu army took advantage of the death of King Ping of Chu to attack Chu. The Chu army launched a large-scale attack to resist Wu. Shen Yinshu took the initiative to lead the capital's personal soldiers and other troops to supplement the vanguard.
In the same year, Shen Yinshu sternly warned Nang Wa to deal with the matter of Lingyin Nang Wa condoning Fei Wuji and Yan Jiangshi to kill three clans including Xi, which caused dissatisfaction among the people.
After Nang Wa killed Fei Wuji and General Yan, the people's resentment was finally appeased!
After this, in the historical war between Wu and Chu, if Nang Wa had listened to Shen Yinsu's advice, he would never have been directly attacked by the Wu army with few soldiers and generals, and the Chu State would never have been destroyed!
Qingji vaguely remembered that during the Battle of Baiju in history, the defeated Shen Yinshu was unwilling to be captured and humiliated, and asked his subordinate Wu Jubei to cut off his head and die heroically.
Shen Yinshu's character is very strong, which is quite rare!
At the very least, he could not tolerate being captured by the Wu army and then humiliated.
Even if Qingji could treat Shen Yinshu well, the latter would not be able to forgive himself!
The 80,000-strong army attacked Wu and suffered such a great defeat. This had never happened since the founding of the State of Chu and had already damaged the foundation of the country.
Shen Yinshu must bear this responsibility himself!
Otherwise, even if he was a descendant of a royal family and a highly respected person in the State of Chu, he would probably be disgraced and despised by the people of Chu.
With Shen Yinshu's proud personality, he cannot tolerate such a thing.
Whether to preserve his own reputation or to protect his family, Shen Yinshu must commit suicide and take the responsibility for the loss of his army and the humiliation of his country!
Qingji immediately ordered people to carefully bury Shen Yinshu's body, send it to the State of Chu, and bury it in Yingdu according to his will.
However, before that, in order to win people's hearts and express his high respect for Shen Yinshu, Qingji even went to mourn Shen Yinshu in person and built a cenotaph for him on the bank of a lake in Zhenzi.
At the same time, Qingji also specially sent soldiers to build a shrine nearby for people to worship Shen Yinshu!
This lets the world know that Shen Yinshu still won honor despite his defeat!
All of Qingji's actions demonstrated his magnanimity as a king, which was impressive.
"King Wu, you are truly a man!"
Even Mi Ji, the defeated general, could not help but sigh like this.
Afterwards, Qingji led part of the troops and took the surrendered Chu soldiers on board the navy, and returned to the court in batches and returned to Wudu.
There are quite a few Chu soldiers who surrendered. Since the outbreak of the war, the Wu army has captured and surrendered more than 50,000 Chu soldiers!
This is a very scary number!
After all, looking at the entire Spring and Autumn Period, wars with a scale of over 10,000 were already major wars.
A war involving more than 50,000 people is at the level of destroying a country!
The total number of troops deployed by the State of Wu was only 50,000 to 60,000!
From this we can see that the national strength of Chu was so strong that it could not be compared with that of Wu.
The State of Chu was a hegemonic power, while the State of Wu was just a military power!
Looking at the world as a whole, if Wu is a first-class country, then Chu is a superpower!
It was not easy to feed these more than 50,000 surrendered Chu soldiers. Fortunately, the wealth left by successive Wu kings for Qingji was sufficient, and there was enough rice and millet in the granaries, otherwise he really could not afford to feed them.
Even so, in order to prevent so many surrendered soldiers from causing trouble, Qingji had to control the food of the surrendered soldiers of the Chu army, allowing , and keeping them under strict supervision to avoid any trouble!
