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Machine transcription
At first when General Erhshih started from Tunhuang west-ward, he thought that the men were too many and would not be able to obtain enough food on the way. So he divided his troops and sent them by a southern and a northern routes. Captain Wang Sh ng-sheng and former protocol officer Hu Ch'ung-kuo, leading a thousand soldiers came separately to Yuehcheng. The city was shut and food was refused the troops. Wang Shen-sheng demanded food of Yuehcheng, who, spying that Wang was 200 li away from the main forces, slighted him and refused to come out. Then Yuehcheng, learning that Wang's troops daily dwindled, launched an attack in early morning with 3,000 men and killed Wang Sheng-Sheng and others. Only a few soldiers fled to where General Erhshih was. General Erhshih ordered provisions offi-cer Shang-Kuan Chieh to take Yuehcheng. The King of Yueh-cheng fled to Kangchu. Shangkuan Chieh pursued to Kangchu. The king of Kangchu had heard about Han's victory over Tayuan, so he handed the king of Yuehcheng over to Shangkuan Chieh who or-dered four horsemen to take him to the Great General. The four men consulted among themselves that "The King of Yuehcheng was most hated by Han, and if he was allowed to remain alive he might escape on the way and brought us misfortune". They intended to kill him but none dared to strike the first blow. Finally, horseman Chao Ti from Shangkuei who was the youngest of the four drew his sword and cut off his head. So Chao Ti, Shangkuan Chieh and the others took the king of Yuehcheng's head to the Great General.
After General Erhshih started for the second time, the Empe-ror sent an envoy to Usun asking it to send large troops to cooperate with Han in attacking Tayuan. Usun did dispatch 2,000 horsemen, but they stood on the other side and never took the offensive.
When General Erhshih returned eastward, the Kings of the small countries through which he passed, having heard of the defeat of Tayuan, sent their sons or brothers to follow his troops as hostages to pay homage to the Emperor.
During General Erhshih's expedition against Tayuan, Chao Shih-cheng was most heroic in battle and won most merits. Shang-kuan Chieh was daring and penetrated deep into enemy territory
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Roughly two thirds of characters agree with a modern printed edition of the same text. Much of the disagreement is editorial, not misreading. Treat the transcription as a finding aid and read the page image before quoting. How this was measured.