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Machine transcription
Knight of Farsight. That was in the sixth year of the reign of Yuan-shu (124 B.C.). The next year Chang Ch'ien, as a commander of the guards, together with General Li (Li Kuang) launched a campaign from Yupeiping against Hsiungnu. General Li was surrounded by the Huns and his troops incurred great losses. And Chang Ch'ien for failing to come at the appointed time to the rescue was sentenced to death but allowed to ransom his life with his office and title deprived of.
That year Han sent General Ho Chü-ping to attack Hsiungnu, who wiped out its troops at the West City to the number of several tens of thousands, and advanced as far as the Chilien Mountains. The next year Prince Hunshe led his people to surrender to Han. Thus there were no longer Huns in Chingcheng and Hohsi, and westward from the Linked Southern Mountains to the Salt Lake. Occasionally messengers from Hsiungnu did arrive, but they were few. Two years afterwards Han attacked the Khan and drove him out of the northern part of the Desert.
Afterwards the Emperor asked Chang Ch'ien several times about Tahsia and its subject countries. Chang Ch'ien who had lost his knighthood said: "When I stayed among the Huns I heard about Kunmo, King of Usun. Kunmo's father had been the king of a small country to the west of Hsiungnu. The Huns killed his father and left baby Kunmo in the wilderness. Crows brought him meat and wolves fed him with milk. The Khan learnt about this with surprise and, taking him for a god, had him brought up under protection. When Kunmo grew up, he was given commandership over troops and won repeated successes. The Khan returned to Kunmo the leadership over his father's people and ordered him to guard permanently the West City. Kunmo took care of his people and attacked and occupied small countries nearby. He organized several tens of thousands of archers and trained them in the art of war. After the Khan died, Kunmo led his people and troops to move far away and, keeping neutrality, refused to pay further homage to Hsiungnu. Hsiungnu made a surprise attack on him but failed to win, and, taking him for a god has kept away and ceased attacks, only maintaining a nominal authority over him. Now, the Khan of Hsiungnu is hard
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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.