Page:Frank Owen - The Scarlett Hill, 1941.djvu/307

RV 302 (VICTORY)

His Majesty was annoyed that so many of the greatest poets were leaving the Court. Li Po was a wandering minstrel, preferring a swashbuckling existence, to a life of ease at the Palace. Wang Wei, in his mountain retreat, was groping out wisdom from the wild. Tu Fu also had been gripped by nostalgia, and begged leave to return home. Except for this poetical desertion, Ming Huang would have had no cause for complaint. He was so blinded by his love for Yang Kuei-fei, he could find no fault with Kuo-chung, his Premier. He believed that the reins of government were in competent hands, and in a measure, they were, for Kao Li-shih had taken over when Kuo-chung became so absorbed in affairs of the army he could think of nothing else. Kao was trustworthy, dependable, selfless. All that he asked as reward, was to be able to serve his Emperor.

Once the Arabian Envoy had sneeringly whispered, "A eunuch rules China."

He said it in the privacy of his own rooms where only his wife could hear. She was a woman famed for her keenness.

"With so many beautiful women at the Palace," she told him, "it takes a eunuch to rule so that he will not be swayed by slender bodies and ripe red lips."

Month after month, Kuo-chung perfected a mighty war machine. He was an armchair general, guided by RV 302 (302)