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half had died of hunger on the way; and thus "how could Han dispatch large troops here to molest us?" Morever the Erhshih steed was a precious one. So they refused to give it to the Han envoy. The Han envoy got angry and walked out after voicing uncivil words and hammering the gold horse statuette to pieces. The Tayuan elders also became angry and said "The Han envoy, slighted us too much." They drove out the Han envoy and ordered him to be ambushed at Yuencheng in eastern Tayuan. The Han envoy was killed and his goods and money taken away. Thereupon the Emperor was roused to a great wrath. Yao Ting-han and others who had been to Tayuan as envoys said that the Tayuan troops were weak and that the country could be defeated and captured with no greater force than 3,000 Han troops armed with hard bows and arrows. Having sent the Knight of Chuyeh to attack Louland, who rushed ahead with seven hundred horsemen and captured its King, the Emperor approved of the opinion of Yao Ting-han and others. As a special favour to his beloved concubine Li, the Emperor appointed Li Kuang li the General of Erhshih to lead six thousand horsemen of the subject countries and several tens of thousands of aggressive youths of the feudal states to attack Tayuan. The general was entitled Erhshih because it was expected to invade the city of Erhshih and win the steed. Chao Shih-cheng was made Chief of the Headquarters; Wang Huei, formerly the Knight of Hao, the advance guard; and Li Chih the ruler of the army affairs. That was the first year of the reign of Taichu (104 B. C.) when numerous locusts plagued Kuantung and flew west to Tunhuang. When the troops of General Erhshih advanced to the west of the Salt River, the samll countries in the way be- came afraid and each shut tight their cities and refused to supply food. Those cities were not easily stormed. When they were taken, food was obtained, and when not, the troops had to depart after several day's siege. When they came to Yuehcheng, the troops only numbered several thousands and were all hungry exhausted. They attacked Yuehcheng, but were seriously defeated, with a great number killed and wounded. General Erhshih, together with Li Chih, Chao Shih-cheng and others, estimated that even Yuehcheng could not be won, how could they take the capital of Tayuan. So they led the remaining troops back. It took them - 16 -