When Xiang Liang returned to Dongting, he brought back a sentence from Shen Bing:
"Everything will be done according to Lord Changping's wishes."
Then King Qi of Chu understood that Shen Bing would take care of Ying Zheng's affairs for him.
King Qi of Chu once served beside Ying Zheng, and he knew very well that Ying Zheng sometimes acted recklessly and hated those who betrayed him the most.
Let's not talk about anything else, let's talk about Fan Yuqi... He was just worried about being held accountable and punished by Ying Zheng because of his defeat, so he fled to another country to take refuge. Ying Zheng was furious and killed Fan Yuqi's family.
Needless to say why Ying Zheng has such a character, it has to do with his childhood experience.
Therefore, if Shen Bing did not put in a good word for him and Ying Zheng said that Changping Lord Chen Cheng's defection was a ruse, then Chu King Qi would not surrender even if he was killed...
Anyway, if you fall into the hands of Ying Zheng, you will die, so why not resist to the end?
King Qi of Chu in history fought to the last moment because of this, and Xiang Yan also committed suicide.
But now this knot has been untied by Shen Bing:
If Chen Cheng's rebellion was a ruse, then Lord Changping had never betrayed Ying Zheng from beginning to end, so even if Lord Changping was of the Chu royal family's blood, he might have been able to survive... Otherwise, Ying Zheng would have put Lord Changping under house arrest or killed him long ago. .
With a way to survive and a way out, King Qi of Chu would not fight until the last moment, so Xiang Yan would not commit suicide.
However, King Qi of Chu did nothing. He was waiting for Ying Zheng to issue an edict to the world.
Just kidding, this is related to the fate of the Chu State and his own life. Of course, such a scheming person as King Qi of Chu would not make a rash decision just based on Shen Bing's cryptic reply.
A few days later, King Qi of Chu was waiting for the news he wanted.
On this day, when King Qi of Chu was in a daze looking at the map of Chu State, he saw Xiang Yan hurried into the palace with a letter, cupped his hands and said:
"Your Majesty, there is news from Handan."
King Chu Qi said "Oh", immediately raised his head and asked:
"how?"
Xiang Yan nodded slightly and replied:
"The king of Qin issued an edict to the world. If the king is willing to bow his head and become his minister, the king of Qin will confer the title of Lord of Jinling with the Xiang family and station in the east of the Yangtze River to control Baiyue."
Jinling (today's Nanjing) is roughly the turning point of the Yangtze River from east-west to north-south. To confer King Qi of Chu as King of Jinling means to use Jinling as the boundary, and the area to the east is the fiefdom of King Qi of Chu.
King Qi of Chu couldn't help but secretly breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this.
At least he knew that Shen Bing had not broken his promise and had informed Ying Zheng about the negotiation between the two. Otherwise, Ying Zheng's personality... would never put down the butcher's knife at this time.
This is actually not difficult to understand.
Although the Qin army only occupied the front line of Huaibei and did not continue to move south, the Qin army had already gained all the advantages due to various actions. As soon as the food was ready, it could send troops south to attack the city and break the stronghold.
Although there are still many difficulties involved, it is only a matter of time before the demise of Chu State.
Ying Zheng doesn't care about the "difficulties" or how many people die, all he needs is the results.
Therefore, there is only one possibility for him to issue this condition to the world at this time, and that is to eliminate all his hatred for King Qi of Chu.
It can even be said that not only did he not have any hatred, but he also believed that King Qi of Chu deserved a reward for his merits.
In this case, what else does King Qi of Chu have to say?
Of course, we must accept the conditions and prepare to surrender. Otherwise, let alone Chu and Jiangdong, we may not even be able to save our lives.
As soon as Ying Zheng's announcement came out, the state of Chu immediately became excited.
Various nobles sent envoys to Dongting to attend court...
Without going into details about the content of the court meeting, one characteristic is that the three major tribes unanimously expressed their opposition, while the remaining small tribes did not support the surrender of Qin.
How could King Qiyou of Chu not understand the reason? The root of it is only two words: profit.
There is an idiom called "A big tree attracts the wind".
This idiom is also practical when used by various tribes to surrender to the Qin Dynasty.
The more powerful the clans are, the more dangerous it will be to surrender to Qin, because the Qin State will not allow the large clans to exist. For example, the Zhao, Qu, and Jing clans all have thousands of people, and they are also descendants of the royal family...
The surname Zhao is the grandson of Prince Zhao of Chu. Wu Zixu led troops to attack the city of the King of Chu, forcing King Zhao of Chu to flee, and finally restored the country. In order to commemorate the achievements of King Zhao of Chu, his descendants took the surname Zhao.
The surname Qu was named after Qu Xia, the son of King Wu of Chu.
The surname Jing is a descendant of King Ping of Chu.
Needless to say, if these three tribes surrendered to Qin, there would be consequences. Ying Zheng would suppress them, split them up, and even find excuses to eliminate their core figures.
How can they surrender under such circumstances?
On the other hand, if it is a small clan with only a few hundred people, Ying Zheng will not take it seriously at all, so there is no fear of life and there is even hope of being comforted and appointed.
If they don't surrender...these small tribes will have no ability to resist the Qin army, and the three major tribes will not rescue these small tribes.
Of course they supported King Chu's surrender to Qin.
A group of people were arguing in the main hall, and some even burst into tears.
But all of this is meaningless, because King Qi of Chu has already made a decision in his heart.
The reason why King Qi of Chu allowed them to argue without expressing his position prematurely was just to show that this was "a difficult decision."
King Qi of Chu was also very patient. He did not tell the attending nobles until two days later:
"My lords, please listen to what I have to say."
"Now that the situation has been witnessed by all, the soldiers and civilians of Chu State have lost all morale and have fled to Huaibei to surrender to Qin Dynasty."
"If things go on like this, Chu will no longer be lucky."
"If that's the case, why shouldn't the King of Qin live in a corner?"
"Once there is a plan to prevent the Qin army from going south, I will not surrender."
Suddenly, the palace was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop, and the nobles finally understood that King Qi of Chu was on the side of surrender.
After a while, Zhao Shi came out to pay homage and said:
"Your Majesty, I think that we must never surrender to Qin."
"If we talk about the plan to stop Qin... it is just like what the king said before, the reform will unite the soldiers and civilians of all ethnic groups into one..."
King Qi of Chu smiled miserably.
This is the face of the Chu nobles, who were unwilling to hand over power until the last moment.
But how can it be too late to wake up now?
Moreover, the focus at this time is not on reform. Even if the reform is successful in a short period of time, Chu State is still far away from Qin State without knowing the consequences, and destruction cannot be avoided.
So King Qi of Chu didn't even bother to argue, he just waved his hand and told Zhao Shi to leave.
Then King Qi of Chu let out a long sigh and said:
"Just think about it, gentlemen, if we have no power to recover and are destined to perish by the Qin army, why not find a way out?"
"If there is no objection, I can only ask for surrender."
There was chaos in the palace again, and the color on the faces of the envoys from the three major clans instantly turned pale when they heard this.
On the surface they said nothing, but after the meeting they secretly discussed together.
The discussion is whether it is possible to combine the power of the three tribes to resist Qin?
But even the combined power of the Chu State cannot resist Qin, so what can the three tribes do?
What's more, at this time, King Qi of Chu's troops were in Dongting, that is, behind him, which formed a pincer attack on the three tribes. There was no hope for the three tribes to start an uprising.
In the end, there was really no other way, and the three tribes had no choice but to compromise.