Once the King of Chu surrendered, Shouchun could not be defended.
In fact, Shouchun couldn't hold it back in the first place...
Because they were worried that Shouchun would be defeated by the Qin army prematurely, only the King of Chu and the capital guards knew about Chu King's plan to break out of the encirclement.
To be precise, even the capital guards didn't know. They were just following Zhang Qi's orders to counterattack Yunyun. Only people at Zhang Qi's level who really knew that King Chu was leaving the city.
In other words, the Chu soldiers guarding Shouchun were kept in the dark from beginning to end. They thought that the King of Chu was still in the city and they were protecting the safety of the King of Chu.
It was not until the King of Chu and his concubines and ministers were escorted down to the city by the Qin army to persuade them to surrender that they suddenly realized...
This damn thing was sold by the King of Chu with the cud. On one side, the soldiers were guarded in Shouchun, while on the other side, the King of Chu fled with the woman and property.
Realizing this, Shouchun of course could no longer defend it.
What’s the point of keeping it?
For whom do we defend and for whom do we fight?
If you keep guarding any longer, won’t you be doing yourself a disservice?
So that night the defenders opened the city gate wide to welcome the Qin army into the city.
This way, Qin Jun will make a lot of money...
Not to mention other things, all the 50,000 defenders in the city surrendered. Even if they were used as hard labor, they were still a considerable asset. There were also many Chu people who moved south from Huaibei, many of whom were concentrated in Shouchun, and most of them were young and strong.
In addition, the warehouse is full of grain and grass, as well as equipment, iron-making, arrow-making, equipment-making and other workshops and craftsmen... Shouchun is the capital of Chu State, and King Chu of Chu originally planned to hold on to this city for several years, so it was complete
All facilities are available.
After Yang Duanhe and Shen Bing entered the city, they were shocked after listening to the introduction and inventory of the surrendered general. The supplies and scale were no smaller than Xianyang, the capital of Qin.
In fact, Shouchun was originally larger than Xianyang.
As mentioned before, the territory of Chu State was the largest and most populous among the Warring States Period for a long time.
That's why it is said that the most difficult to deal with among the six kingdoms is Zhao and Chu.
The State of Zhao had a strong military, with many famous generals and powerful warriors. Even after hundreds of thousands of soldiers were killed in Changping and their strength was seriously damaged, they were still able to defeat the invading Qin army head-on again and again.
The Chu State has strong overall strength, has food, soldiers and equipment, and is located in the south with ample space and time for development.
The problem is that the Chu State itself is not up to par, and the various forces in the country have not been integrated enough to be united. Otherwise, it is still unknown whether Qin will destroy Chu or Chu will destroy Qin.
On the other hand, the Battle of Shouchun ended in an extremely relaxed situation...The King of Chu was captured and Shouchun surrendered, and the siege lasted only more than ten days, without even a fierce siege.
In comparison, the spoils harvested when they captured Handan and Daliang were much shabbier... Handan of Zhao State was captured by force despite years of disasters, Daliang was flooded, and the Qin army occupied only ruins, among which
There are many people in Zhao State who even need food from the Qin army to feed them.
In Shouchun, all the preparations were handed over to the Qin army intact and almost intact. They only needed to reorganize the household registration of the people and allocate manpower for management, and it could be operational again immediately.
This made Yang Duanhe extremely happy. He laughed so hard that he couldn't close his mouth, and he kept stroking his silver whiskers and sighed:
"I have been fighting for decades and experienced hundreds of battles, but I have never achieved such results."
"Thanks to the lieutenant's clever calculation, you managed to capture the King of Chu, but you saved so many lives!"
Yang Duan is talking about this.
Because before this, everyone thought that the Battle of Shouchun was a protracted siege.
It is impossible for the Qin army to attack the city.
A capital city like Shouchun, which is surrounded by water on three sides and has high walls and thick walls, is extremely difficult to attack by force, and siege warfare usually requires three times the number of troops to be equal.
However, the Qin army only had 100,000 troops, while the Chu army in the city had 80,000 troops.
The Qin army's eagerness to attack the city resulted in self-destruction.
And it is foreseeable that the Qin army will not be able to attack the city for a long time in the future.
Because the Chu State not only has the city of Shouchun, but also has several big families and Xiang Yan who are looking at it with eager eyes.
So the Qin army could only surround it like this, month after month, year after year.
It would be a shame for the capital city of Shouchun if we didn't besiege it for a few years.
Therefore, countless tragic scenes will inevitably occur in the past few years, such as the fighting between the Qin and Chu armies, and the people in the city starving to death or freezing to death due to lack of supplies...
Now all these have been ignored because the King of Chu was captured carrying the cud.
Shen Bing smiled and replied:
"I think we should be more grateful to the King of Chu for this. If he hadn't come out of the city to surrender, I, Shen Bing, would have been unable to do anything even though I have three heads and six arms."
Yang Duanhe couldn't help laughing:
"So, we still owe the King of Chu a favor."
"I will have to be more polite to him in the future."
Of course Shen Bing knew what Yang Duanhe meant by "being polite"... Needless to say, the Qin army would squeeze the King of Chu to nothing but the dregs.
For example, the king of Chu could be forced to write a letter of Zhao with the cud in his hand, so that the cities in Huaibei that had not yet been conquered could be surrendered to Qin.
Another example would be to ask all the major tribes in the Chu State to bow their heads... Of course, all the tribes would definitely not agree.
But the result of their refusal was that they turned into rebels, so their reputation was not justified, and the Qin army became the king's army to conquer them.
But of course Xiang Yan will also think of this, so he will definitely announce that Fucu has surrendered as soon as possible and make Lord Changping the new king...
Next, it depends on how Chang Pingjun chooses.
As expected, this is exactly what Xiang Yan did.
He didn't even wait for the army to return to Dongting. He said to Lord Changping on the way:
"Your Majesty, a country cannot live without a king for a day."
"Now that Fu Chu has surrendered to Chu, the country has no master. Your Majesty is the sage of the country and is Fu Chu's brother. Now is the time to declare yourself king and save Chu from danger. I hope you will not refuse!"
Lord Changping was 100% willing in his heart, but he still had to refuse a few times, and solemnly said that he would lead troops to rescue Fu Chu.
Finally, under the urging of Xiang Yan and other generals, he reluctantly became king...
This is what everyone does when they are crowned king. Everyone tacitly cooperates with the performance, and then simply holds a ceremony and it's over.
Then Xiang Yan immediately sent out fast horses to inform various cities in Chu State...including Zhao, Qu, Jing and other nobles.
Although it doesn't seem to matter whether these nobles are informed or not, because when the King of Chu was carrying the cud, they fought on their own. How could they easily surrender when the new king came to the throne?
But it is very important from the perspective of resisting Qin.
Because if the nobles only recognize Cui Cui but not Lord Changping, then the Chu State will be dead, or it can be said that it will be divided into pieces and each noble will form its own family.
But if Lord Changping is still recognized as the king, then Chu State will at least still be on the surface, and one day Xiang Yan may organize these nobles to fight against Qin and launch a counterattack.
So Xiang Yan not only sent messengers to inform them, but also sent messengers to complain to the nobles in the hope that they would recognize Lord Changping.