Machine transcription
Han envoys who talked untruths, and convinced that Han troops could not come such a great distance, curtailed their food to persecute them. The Han envoys were thus placed in want and distress. Being grievous, they even attacked each other. Louland and Chushih were small countries, yet they were the fiercest in way laying Han envoys such as Wang Huei. And the Hsiungnu shock troops time and again raided Han envoys to the countries in the west.
The envoys all complained of the havoc they met with in foreign countries, and suggested that, since they had walled cities insufficiently garrisoned, it was easy to defeat them. Thereupon the Emperor sent Po Nu, the Knight of Chungpiao, leading royal horsemen and local troops to the number of several tens of thousands to the Hsiung River with the intention of attacking the Huns. But the Huns all fled. The next year (108 B.C.), they attacked Chushih Po Nu with 700 and more light horsemen, who advanced at the head ,captured King Loulan. So Chushih was vanquished. The armed force threatened Usun, Tayuan and other countries. When Po Nu returned, he was conferred the title of the Knight of Chuyai. Wang Huei who, as envoy, had been several times molested by Loulan had petitioned to the Emperor. The Emperor ordered him to assist Po Nu in the campaign. Wang Huei was afterwards conferred the title of the Knight of Hao. Then the military posts in Chiuchuan were extended further to Yumen.
Usun offered a thousand horses as the betrothal present. And Han sent princess Chiangtu, a girl of the royal house, to be wife to King Kunmo of Usun. Kunmo made the Princess his Right Queen. The Khan of Hsiungnu also sent one of his daughters to be Kunmo's wife. And Kunmo made her his Left Queen. Kunmo said, "I am old," so he made his grandson Chingchu take the Princess to wife. Usun was rich in horses. Some of the rich men had four to five thousand horses each.
When the Han envoy first came to Anhsi, the King of Anhsi ordered twenty thousand horsemen to welcome him at the eastern border which was several thousand li from the capital. The envoy
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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.
