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For this purpose, more envoys were sent to Anhai, Tentsai, Lihsien, Tiaochih and Hindu. As the Emperor was fond of Tayuan horses, envoys followed on each other's heels all along the way. Among the missions to foreign countries, the bigger ones each consisted of several hundred people while the smaller of one hundred and more. And the goods and gifts they took with them far surpassed those at the time of the Knight Far sight. But then when these became more and more common, the fashion again slackened. At the time of Han, sometimes more than ten missions were sent each year, and no less than five or six. It took eight or nine years for a distant mission to return, and no less than a few years for the nearer ones. At that time Han had annexed Yueh, and the Yi peoples to the southwest of Shu were awed and began to pay homage to the Emperor. There were established the counties of Yichou, Yuehchun, Yangki, Shenli and Wenshan, and the aim was to extend the route up to the border of Tahsia. From these counties more than ten envoys led by Po Shih-chang, Lu Yueh-jen and others were sent for Tahsia. But they were again blocked at Kunming, killed and robbed, and never succeeded in reaching Tahsia. Then Han dispatched Generals Kuo Ch'ang and Wei Kuang leading criminals of the area round the capital and several tens of thousands of people of Pa and Shu to attack those in Kunming who barred the way of the Han envoys. The troops under the generals killed and took prisoners several tens of thousands and then returned. But afterwards when Chinese envoys reached -11-