Page:Frank Owen - The Scarlett Hill, 1941.djvu/79

RV 74 (PORTRAIT OF AN EMPEROR) Governor Chang was somewhat amused, and vastly pleased that the Emperor's plan was working so perfectly. What matter even though his narrators built up a reputation for him in which he became a being with supernatural powers. The populace listened in awe to the great Chang legend. They believed that some day his shadow would encompass the earth, a shadow matched only by that of the Emperor. Perhaps his Majesty, Ming Huang, would make the Governor his heir. They did not know that Chang Shou-kuei had one ambition only, to serve his country and his Emperor, to carry out orders to their uttermost completion.

So the legend of Chang Shou-kuei grew. It was whispered that he was superhuman. Invisible dragons and spirits fought with him. He was proficient in the arts of necromancy and geomancy. Myths with the substance of reality, for they aroused fear and panic. Soldiers would not fight the mighty Governor Chang, a Governor who personally directed his troops as they marched to battle. He rode on a white horse, with the speed of the wind, a horse that snorted fire. And so Chang, although he remained in Kua-chou as immobile as the Laughing Buddha, swept everything before him. He won battles without force. There were no casualties, so easily were his conquests accomplished.

It is a tribute to the good judgment of Governor Chang, that in a position in which it was an effort to practice humility, at heart he remained faithful to the trust of his Emperor. RV 74 (74)