Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/262

 224 THE KUSHAN OR INDO- SCYTHIAN DYNASTY as far as the confines of the Roman empire. The King of Khotan, who had first made his submission in 73 A. D., was followed by several other princes, including the King of Kashgar, and the route to the west along the southern edge of the desert was thus opened to the arms and commerce of China. The reduction of Kuche and Kharachar in 94 A. D. similarly threw open the northern road. The steady advance of the victorious Chinese evi- dently alarmed Kadphises IE, who regarded himself as the equal of the emperor and had no intention of accepting the position of a vassal. Accordingly, in 90 A. D., he boldly asserted his equality by demanding a Chinese princess in marriage. General Pan-chao, who considered the proposal an affront to his master, ar- rested the envoy and sent him home. Kadphises IT, unable to brook this treatment, equipped a formidable force of seventy thousand cavalry under the command of his viceroy Si, which was despatched across the Tsung-ling range, or Taghdumbash Pamir, to attack the Chinese. The army of Si probably advanced by the Tashkurghan pass, some fourteen thousand feet high, and was so shattered by its sufferings during the pas- sage of the mountains, that, when it emerged into the plain below, either that of Kashgar or Yarkand, it fell an easy prey to Pan-chao, and was totally defeated. Kadphises IE was compelled to pay tribute to China, and the Chinese annals record the arrival of several missions bearing tribute at this period. This serious check did not crush the ambition of