Page:Frank Owen - The Scarlett Hill, 1941.djvu/289

RV 284 (AN LU-SHAN) Within a month, the debris had been carted away and the incident was all but forgotten. What need was there for extensive armament when China was the mightiest Empire in the world? No other country would dare threaten its security.

As that year drew to a close, Li Lin-fu breathed the vapors of death and expired. For nineteen years he had been an official, and for a large part of that time Premier. Ming Huang and An Lu-shan were desolated. They stood over his body, bowed with grief. But the populace of Changan was little troubled by the fact that the Prime Minister had hung up his hat.

Kuo-chung was gratified, and for the first time in many months he smiled. "Li Lin-fu was a vile creature," he said, and with good reason, for the Premier had been responsible for An Lu-shan's presence at the Court.

There were other reasons for the epithet, reasons that were beyond Kuo-chung's comprehension, for it was largely through Li Lin-fu's instigation that the Court had fallen into decadence. He had urged the Emperor on to fantastic excesses, for in the weakness of Ming Huang lay his greatest strength.

Li Lin-fu had been subtle and ambitious, cold, calculating and without mercy if anything challenged his power. Numerous instances of his cunning were written in Court annals, including the case of one of his close relatives, Wei Chien, a native of Wannien in Shensi. Through the connivance of the Premier, Wei Chien RV 284 (284)