"If it must be so, then you may go in two divisions," said Ssŭma.

As the two divisions were marching along they saw coming toward them a number of the transport "animals" of the enemy. They attacked at once, drove off the escort, captured them and sent them back to camp. Next day they captured more, with men and horses as well, and sent them also to camp.

Ssuma called up the prisoners and questioned them. They told him that K'ung-ming quite understood that he would not fight and so had told off the soldiers to various places to work in the fields and thus provide for future needs. They had been unwittingly captured.

Ssuma set them free and bade them begone. "Why spare them?" asked Hsiahou Ho.

"There is nothing to be gained by the slaughter of a few common soldiers. Let them go back to their own and praise the kindliness of the Wei leaders. That will slacken the desire of their comrades to fight against us. That was the plan by which Lü Mêng captured Chingchou."

Then he issued general orders that all Shu prisoners should be well treated and sent away free, and he rewarded those of his army who had done well.

As has been said, Kao Hsiang was ordered to keep pretended convoys on the move, and the soldiers of Wei attacked and captured them whenever they saw them. In half a month they had scored many successes of this sort, and Ssuma's heart was cheered. One day, when he had made new captures of men, he sent for them and questioned them again.

"Where is K'ung-ming now?"

"He is no longer at Ch'ishan, but in camp about ten li from Shangfang Valley. He is gathering great store of grain there."

After he had questioned them fully, he set the prisoners free. Calling together his officers, he said, "K'ung-ming is not camped on Ch'ishan, but near Shangfang Valley. Tomorrow you shall attack the Ch'ishan camp, and I will command the reserve."

The promise cheered them, and they went away to prepare. "Father, why do you intend to attack the enemy's rear?" asked Ssuma Shih.

"Ch'ishan is their main position, and they will certainly hasten to its rescue. Then I shall make for the valley and burn the stores. That will render them helpless and will be a victory."

The son dutifully agreed with his father and set out, while his father followed with the reserves.

From the top of a hill K'ung-ming watched the Wei soldiers march and noticed that they moved carelessly, not even keeping their ranks. He guessed that their object was the Ch'ishan

camp and sent strict orders to his captains that if Ssuma led in person they were to go off and capture the camp on the south bank.

When the men of Wei had got near and made their rush toward the camp of Shu, the men of Shu ran up also, yelling and pretending to reinforce the defenders. Ssuma, seeing this, suddenly changed his direction and turned off for the Shangfang Valley. Here Wei Yen was expecting him, and as soon as he appeared Wei Yen galloped up and soon recognised Ssuma as the leader.

"Ssuma I, stay!" shouted he as he came near. He flourished his sword, and Ssuma set his spear. The two warriors exchanged a few passes, and then Wei Yen suddenly turned his steed and bolted. As he had been ordered, he made direct for the seven-starred flag, and Ssuma followed, the more readily as he saw the fugitive had but a small force. The two sons of Ssuma rode with him, one on either hand.

Presently Wei Yen and his men entered the mouth of the valley. Ssuma halted a time while he sent forward a few scouts, but when they returned and reported nothing to be seen but a few straw houses on the hills, he rode in, saying, "This must be the store valley."

But when he had got well within, Ssuma noticed that kindling wood was piled over the straw huts, and as he saw no sign of Wei Yen he began to feel uneasy.

"Supposing soldiers seize the entrance; what then?" said he to his sons.

As he spoke there arose a great shout, and from the hillside came many torches, which fell all around them and set fire to the straw, so that soon the entrance to the valley was lost in smoke and flame. They tried to get away from the fire, but no road led up the hillside. Then fire-arrows came shooting down, and the earth-mines exploded, and the straw and firewood blazed high as the heavens. Ssuma I, scared and helpless, dismounted, clasped his arms about his two sons and wept, saying, "My sons, we three are doomed."

But suddenly a fierce gale sprang up, black clouds gathered, a peal of thunder followed and rain poured down in torrents, speedily extinguishing the fire all through the valley. The mines no longer exploded and all the fiery contrivances ceased to work mischief.

"If we do not break out now, what better chance shall we have?" cried the father, and he and his two sons made a dash for the outlet. As they broke out of the valley they came upon reinforcements under Chang Hu and Yüeh Lin, and so were once more safe. Ma Tai was not strong enough to pursue, and the men of Wei got safely to the river.

But there they found their camp in the possession of the enemy, while Chiang Huai and his colleague were on the float

3

ing bridge struggling with the men of Shu. However, as Ssuma neared, the men of Shu retreated, whereupon the bridges were burned and the north bank occupied.

The Wei army attacking the Ch'ishan camp were greatly disturbed when they heard of the defeat of their general and the loss of the camp on the Wei River. The men of Shu took the occasion to strike with greater vigour, and so gained a great victory. The beaten army suffered great loss. Those who escaped fled across the river.

When K'ung-ming from the hill-top saw that his enemy had been inveigled into the trap he had so carefully prepared, he rejoiced exceedingly, and when he saw the flames burst forth he thought surely his rival was done for. Then, unhappily for him, Heaven thought it well to send down torrents of rain, which quenched the fire and upset all his calculations.

Soon after, the scouts reported the escape of his victims, and he sighed, saying, "Man proposes; God disposes. We cannot wrest events to our will."

Fierce fires roared in the valley,
But the rain quenched them.
Had Chuko's plan but succeeded,
Where had been the Chins?

From the new camp on the north bank of the river Ssuma issued an order that he would put to death any officer who proposed going out to battle. The final result of the late ill-advised expedition had been the loss of the south bank of the river. Accordingly no one spoke of attacking, but all turned their energies toward defence.

Kuo Huai went to the general to talk over plans. He said, "The enemy have been carefully spying out the country and are certainly selecting a new position for a camp. If K'ungming go out to Wukung, and thence eastward, we shall be in grave danger; if he go out by Huainan and halts on the Wuchang Plain, we need feel no anxiety."

They decided to send scouts to find out the movements of their enemy. Presently the scouts returned to say that he had

chosen the plain.

"Our great Emperor of Wei has remarkable fortune," said Ssuma, clapping his hand to his forehead. Then he confirmed the order to remain strictly on the defensive till some change of circumstances on the part of the enemy should promise advantage.

After his army had settled into camp on the plain, K'ungming continued his attempts to provoke a battle. Day after day, parties went to challenge the men of Wei, but they resisted all provocation.

One day K'ung-ming packed a woman's head-dress and a robe of white silk in a box, which he sent, with a letter, to his

rival. The insult could not be concealed, so the captains led the bearer of the box to their chief. He opened the box and saw the dress of a woman. Then he opened the letter, which

read something like this:—

"Friend Ssuma, although you are a General and lead the troops of the capital, you seem but little disposed to display the firmness and valour that would render a contest decisive. Instead, you have prepared a comfortable lair where you are safe from the keen edge of the sword. Are you not very like a woman? Wherefore I send the bearer with a suitable gift, and you will humbly accept it and the humiliation, unless, indeed, you finally decide to come out and fight like a man. If you are not entirely indifferent to shame, if you retain any of the feelings of a man, you will send this back to me and come out and give battle."

Ssuma I, although inwardly raging, pretended to take it all as a joke and smiled.

"So he regards me as a woman," said he.

He accepted the gift and treated the messenger well. Before he left, Ssuma asked him a few questions about his master's eating and sleeping and hours of labour.

"He rises early

"He works very hard," said the messenger. and retires to bed late. He attends personally to all cases requiring punishment of over a score of strokes. As for food, he does not eat more than a few hsing (pints) of grain."

"That is, he eats little and works much," remarked Ssuma. "Can he last long?".

The messenger returned to his own side and reported that the general had taken the whole episode in good part and shown no sign of anger. He had only asked about K'ungming's hours of rest, and food and such things. He had said no word about military matters. "I told him that you ate little and worked long hours, and then he said, 'Can he last long?' That was all."

"He knows," said K'ung-ming, pensively.

The Accountant Yang Yung presently ventured to remonstrate with his chief.

"I notice," said Yang, "that you check the books personally. I think that is needless labour for a Prime Minister to undertake. In every administration the higher and subordinate ranks have their especial fields of activity, and each should confine his labours to his own field. In a household, for example, the male servants plough and the female cook, and thus operations are carried on without waste of energy, and all needs are supplied. The master of the house has ample leisure and tranquillity. If one individual strives to attend personally to every matter he only wearies himself and fails to accomplish his end. How can he possibly hope to perform all the various tasks so well as the maids or the hinds?

He fails in his own part, that of playing the master. And, indeed, the ancients held this same opinion, for they said that the high officers should attend to the discussion of ways and means and the lower should carry out details. Of old, Ping Chi was moved to deep thought by the panting of an ox, which showed the seasons untimely, but enquired not about the corpses of certain brawlers-which lay about the road, for this matter concerned the magistrate. Ch'ên P'ing was ignorant of the figures relating to taxes, for he said these were the concern of the controllers of taxes.

"O Minister, you weary yourself with minor details and sweat yourself every day. You are wearing yourself out, and Ssuma I has good reason for what he said."

"I know; I cannot but know," replied K'ung-ming. "But this heavy responsibility was laid upon me, and I fear no other will be so devoted as I am.'

Those who heard him wept.

Thereafter K'ung-ming appeared more and more harassed, and military operations did not speed.

On the other side the officers of Wei resented bitterly the insult that had been put upon them when their leader had been presented with a woman's dress. They wished to avenge the taunt, and went to their general, saying, "We are reputable captains of the army of a great state; how can we put up with such insults from these men of Shu? We pray you to let us fight them."

"It is not that I fear to go out," said Ssuma, "nor that I relish the insults, but I have the king's command to hold on and may not disobey."

The officers were not in the least appeased. Wherefore he said, "I will send your request to the Throne in a memorial; what think you of that?"

They consented to await the king's reply, and a messenger bore to King Jui, in Hofei, this memorial:

"I have small ability and high office. Your Majesty laid on me the command to defend and not fight till the men of Shu had suffered by the efflux of time. But Chuko Liang has now sent me a gift of a woman's dress, and my shame is very deep. Wherefore I advise Your Majesty that one day I shall have to fight in order to justify your kindness to me and to remove the shameful stigma that now rests upon my army. I cannot express the degree to which I am urged to this course."

The king read it and turned questioningly to his courtiers seeking an explanation. Hsin P'i supplied it.

"Ssuma has no desire to give battle; this memorial is because of the shame put upon the officers by K'ung-ming's gift. They are all in a rage. He wishes for an edict to pacity them.'

The king understood and gave to Hsin P'i a chieh (formal authority) and sent him to the river camp to make known that