Page:Romance of the Three Kingdoms - tr. Brewitt-Taylor - Volume 1.djvu/368

 soon an attack began. He was taken aback and had to oppose the enemy with his men half armed, his steeds unsaddled. His army suffered and he had to retreat another fifty li. By that time his force was too enfeebled to show any resistance and as no other course was possible he sent to ask that he might surrender. Ts‘ao feigned to consent, but that night he sent a force to raid Shang’s camp. Then it became flight, abandoning everything, seals, emblems of office and even personal clothing. He made for the hills.

Then came an attack on Ch‘ichou and to help out this Hsü Yu suggested drowning the city by turning the course of the River Chang. Ts‘ao adopted the suggestion and at once sent a small number of men to dig a channel to lead the water to the city. All told, it was forty li.

Shên P‘ei saw the diggers from the city wall and noticed that they made only a shallow channel. He chuckled, saying to himself, “What is the use of such a channel to drown out the city from a deep river?”

So he made no preparations to keep out the water.

But as soon as night came on Ts‘ao increased his army of diggers tenfold and by daylight the channel was deepened to twenty feet and the water was flowing in a great stream into the city where it already stood some feet deep. So this misfortune was added to the lack of food.

Hsin Pʻi now displayed the captured seal and garments of Yüan Shang hung out on spears, to the great shame of their late owner, and called upon the people of the city to surrender. This angered Shên P‘ei, who avenged the insult by putting to death on the city wall the whole of the Hsin family who were within the city. There were nearly a hundred of them and their severed heads were cast down from the walls. Hsin P‘i wept exceedingly.

Shên P‘ei’s nephew Shên Yung, one of the gate wardens, was a dear friend of Hsin P‘i and the murder of P‘i’s family greatly distressed him. He wrote a secret letter offering to betray the city and tied it to an arrow, which he shot out among the besiegers. The soldiers found it, gave it to Hsin P‘i and he took it to his chief.

Ts‘ao issued an order that the family of the Yüans should be spared when the city should be taken and that no one who surrendered should be put to death. The next day the soldiers entered by the west gate, opened for them by Shên’s nephew. Hsin P‘i was the first to prance in on horseback and the men followed.

When Shên, who was on the southeast of the city, saw the enemy within the gates he placed himself at the head of some horsemen and dashed toward them. He was met and captured by Hsü Huang who bound him and led him outside the city. On the road they met Hsin Pʻi, who ground his teeth with rage