Page:Romance of the Three Kingdoms - tr. Brewitt-Taylor - Volume 1.djvu/32

 horde of rebels led by Chang Chio. So they separated and the three brothers with their troop made their way of Kuangtsung.

They found the Prefect in camp, were admitted to his presence and declared the reason of their coming. The Prefect received them with great joy and they remained with him while he made his plans.

At that time the rebels there were three to one and the two armies were facing each other. Neither had had any success. The Prefect said to Liu Pei, “I am surrounding these rebels here but the other two brothers Chang Liang and Chang Pao are strongly intrenched opposite Huangfu Sung and Chu Chien at Yingch‘uan. I will give you a thousand more men and with these you can go to find out what is happening and we can then settle the moment to attack.”

So Yüan-tê set off and marched as quickly as possible. At that time the imperial troops were attacking with success and the rebels had retired upon Changshê. They had encamped among the thick grass, and, seeing this, Huangfu decided to attack them by fire. So he bade every man cut a bundle of dry grass and laid an ambush. That night the wind blew a gale and at the second watch they started a blaze. At the same time the rebels were attacked. Their camp was set on fire and the flames rose to the very heavens. The rebels were thrown into great confusion. There was no time to saddle horses or don armour; they fled in all directions.

The battle continued till dawn. Chang Liang and Chang Pao, with a few flying soldiers, found, as they thought, a way of escape. But suddenly a troop of soldiers with crimson banners appeared to oppose them. Their leader was a man of medium stature with small eyes and a long beard. He was one Ts‘ao Ts‘ao, also known as Ts‘ao Mêng-tê, a P‘eikuo man, holding the rank of Chi-tu-yü. His father was Ts‘ao Sung, who had been born to the Hsiahou family, but he had been brought up by the eunuch Ts‘ao T‘êng and had taken his family name. This Ts‘ao Ts‘ao was Sung’s son and, as a lad, bore the name of A-man.

As a young man Ts‘ao Ts‘ao had been fond of hunting and delighted in songs and dancing. He was resourceful and full of guile. An uncle, seeing the young fellow so unsteady, used to get angry with him and told his father Tsʻao Sung of his misdeeds. His father remonstrated with him.

But the youth was equal to the occasion. One day, seeing his uncle coming, he fell to the ground in a pretended fit. The uncle alarmed ran to tell his father, who came, and there was the youth in most perfect health.

“But your uncle said you were in a fit; are you better?”

“I have never suffered from fits or any such illness,” said Ts‘ao Ts‘ao. “But I have lost my uncle’s affection and he has deceived you.”