The Ethical Dilemmas of Euthanasia
The Ethical Dilemmas of Euthanasia
15. Lu Xun: Burning the Seven 百里连营 in the Battle of Yiling
After Guan Yu was killed by the Wu army, Liu Bei was filled with anger and led 700,000 troops to attack Wu, determined to avenge Guan Yu. Sun Quan appointed Lu Xun as the commander-in-chief of the Wu army to resist Liu Bei. Lu Xun was a young general, and many Wu officials doubted his ability. However, Lu Xun remained calm and adopted a strategy of avoiding the enemy’s edge. He ordered his troops to retreat continuously and not fight against the Shu army, which made Liu Bei’s army relax their vigilance. Liu Bei, seeing that the Wu army did not dare to fight, set up his camps in a line along the Yangtze River, stretching for 700 li (about 350 kilometers). Lu Xun saw that the Shu army’s camps were all built with flammable materials (such as wood and thatch) and that the weather was dry. He decided to launch a fire attack. One night, he ordered his soldiers to set fire to the Shu army’s camps. The fire spread rapidly, and the 700-li-long camps were all burned. The Shu army was in chaos, a...