Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 3.djvu/304

 be ready with your posts and planks. On Kiâ-hsü I will commence my intrenchments;—dare not but be provided with a supply of these. (If you be not so provided), you shall be subjected to various punishments, short only of death. Ye men of Lû, from the three environing territories and the three tracts beyond, be ready with the forage, and do not dare to let it be other than abundant. (If you do), you shall suffer the severest punishment.'

state of Khin, at the time to which this speech belongs, was one of the most powerful in the kingdom, and already giving promise of what it would grow to. Ultimately, one of its princes overthrew the dynasty of Kâu, and brought feudal China to an end. Its earliest capital was in the present district of Khăng-shui, Khin Kâu, Kan-sû.

Khin and Kin were engaged together in 631 in besieging the capital of Kăng, and threatened to extinguish that state. The marquis of Khin, however, was suddenly induced to withdraw his troops, leaving three of his officers in friendly relations with the court of Kăng, and under engagement to defend the state from aggression. These men played the part of spies in the interest of Khin, and in 629, one of them, called Khî-ze, sent word that he was in charge of one of the gates, and if an army were sent to surprise the capital, Kăng might be added to the territories of Khin. The marquis—known in history as duke Mû—laid the matter before his counsellors. The most experienced of them—Pâi-lî Hsî and Khien-shû—were against taking advantage of the proposed treachery; but the marquis listened rather to the promptings of ambition; and the next year he sent a large force, under his three ablest commanders, hoping to find Kăng unprepared for any resistance. The attempt, however, failed; and the army, on its way back to