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CONQUEST OF SZCHUEN.

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overwhelming strength, for Taitsou had learnt, and wished to practise, the true humanity of war; and the campaign was fought and won without the shedding of a drop of blood. Two fertile provinces in the heart of the country, with a population of at least ten millions, were thus added to the dominions of the Sung Emperor.

In the north the Han prince and the kingdom of Leaoutung were still not only hostile, but defiant. The Emperor wished to wage war against them, but his prudent minister Chowpou dissuaded him from the attempt. The task would necessarily be a difficult and a dangerous one, and success would depend on a variety of circumstances over which it would be impossible to exercise any certain control. It would be wiser, he insisted, to leave the settlement of this question until the last; and Taitsou adopted his opinion.

In the south there was another question, scarcely less pressing than that in the north, awaiting solution, and one, morcover, which was attended with less danger. In Szchuen the old kingdom of Chow had been revived, and had maintained its own independence and tranquillity during the stormy century through which China had been passing. Incited by the representations of the Prince of Han, and encouraged by promises of support from various quarters, the ruler of this state came to the rash conclusion that he could cope with and destroy the new power of the Sungs. He accordingly declared war, and made preparations for the invasion of Honan. He had miscalculated his strength, but he had still more grievously mistaken his adversary. As soon as Taitsou learnt the hostile intentions of his neighbour he took prompt steps to anticipate the invasion of his dominions, by ordering sixty thousand troops to enter Szchuen from the side of Shensi. The success of his generals must have surpassed his most sanguine expectations. In less than two months the whole province was in his hands, and the ruling family prisoners at his court. A fertile province, commanding the navigation of the Great River, and twenty-six millions of new subjects were added at a stroke to the dominions of the new Emperor. Taitsou did not accompany this expedition in person, but in his palace his

thoughts were ever with his brave army. A heavy fall of snow reminded him of their privations, and, taking off his own furred coat, he sent it to the general in command with the wish that he had as many more coats as might provide each of his soldiers with one. This thoughtful act excited the enthusiasm of the army, which had already accomplished such remarkable and gallant actions.

Some years of peace followed these decisive successes, and in A.D. 969 Taitsou had made all his preparations for the prosecution of the war which had been threatening since the beginning of his reign with his northern neighbours, the Prince of Han, and the King of Leaoutung. Nor had his opponents been backward in preparations on their side, and when one of Taitsou's generals advanced from the frontier he found himself in face of an army numerically so much his superior that he was compelled to beat a hasty retreat. The Tartar troops pursued him, harassed his rear, and committed depredations within the frontier. At this Taitsou was greatly irritated, and blamed his lieutenant not for declining an unequal battle, but for a precipitate retreat which exposed many unprotected towns and villages to the insults and attacks of the enemy. Taitsou was far too practical to waste precious time in recriminations. Even while he censured his commander, he moved up reinforcements in large numbers, at the head of which he placed himself. The enemy in turn gave way, taking refuge in the Han capital, Taiyuen, to which Taitsou laid close siege.

Taitsou drew up his lines in front of this celebrated place, and surrounded it with a wall. He also endeavoured to flood the town by diverting two neighbouring rivers from their courses. In short, he employed every means known to the engineers of that time to render the place untenable; but the defenders gallantly held out, meeting every attack with resolution, and each device with some counter-device. In the meanwhile a Tartar army was advancing from Leaoutung to the relief of the garrison; but Taitsou went out to meet it, and won a signal victory. The King of Leaoutung resolved to make another attempt sooner than leave his army in jeopardy, and he collected the whole military force of the

A WILY PRINCE.

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state, and despatched it to the relief of the gallant garrison. still holding out at Taiyuen. In face of this great host, and also on account of the inclemency of the season, Taitsou adopted the prudent course of retreating from before the walls of Taiyuen. The disappointment was no doubt great, but the result showed the wisdom of the previous advice of his minister Chowpou. The campaign may be regarded as having closed without any decisive result to either side, but Taitsou undoubtedly returned baffled in his main object to his capital.

A fresh question awaited his consideration in the south. A prince of the Nan, or Southern Hans, held possession of Kwantung and a portion of Kwangsi, and was found to be implicated in several of the schemes formed for the overthrow of the Sung power.

It was resolved to take advantage of the lull in the contest in the north to reduce this potentate to a better sense of his own position, and of his obligations to the Emperor. Taitsou entrusted the task to his general, Panmei, and he had the satisfaction of finding another of the great Chinese provinces speedily reduced and subjected to his authority. This conquest was particularly grateful to the Emperor because it gave him increased means of asserting his claims with regard to the peoples of the south, although it only added, according to the official statement, less than one million subjects to the Empire.

There now only remained, among the independent governors of the previous dynasty, to be brought to a sense of order the Prince of Tang, whose territory embraced the modern provinces of Kiangnan. Warned by the fate of others, the Prince of Tang was very circumspect in his conduct, and strove to deprive the Emperor of all excuse for attacking him. But Taitsou was as wily in artifice as he was brave in action. He detained the envoys sent by the Tang prince, and when he asked for an explanation he was informed that he should come in person to pay his respects to the Emperor. This the Tang prince refused to do, because Taitsou declined to send him a patent for his states as a prince of the first order. Taitsou at once ordered the invasion. VOL. I.

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of Kiangnan, and entrusted the task of its subjection to Tsowpin, his favourite general. The troops of the Prince of Tang fought well, but they were badly led, and had little affection for the cause in which they bled. Driven from the field, they took shelter in the few fortresses in the country, but these were captured one after the other by Tsowpin or his lieutenants. Within a year of the crossing of the frontier Kiangnan had been reduced to the condition of a province of the Sungs. There must in consequence have been a large addition to the population, but the exact number has not been preserved. This brilliant feat completed the task which Taitsou himself was destined to attain, and made his authority unquestioned in most of the provinces south of the Hoangho.

Taitsou completed the effect of these military successes by concluding a peace with the people of Leaoutung, thus depriving the prince of the northern Han of his chief allies. Having by this diplomatic success turned the rear of his adversary, he concentrated a large army, and marched on Taiyuen from which he had, some years before, been compelled to beat a hasty retreat. He now renewed the attempt with increased force, and such better hope of success, that he gave out that he intended conquering the dominions of the Pehan in the course of one campaign. But the progress of the war depended on a higher decision than his. The first skirmishes had been fought and won, and the operations for the capture of Taiyuen were in train, when the announcement of the Emperor's serious illness caused active measures to be suspended. The troops which had been in the course of performing several important movements retraced their steps, and were collected in the camp round the expiring Emperor.

Taitsou was at the end mindful of the advice of his dying mother. He left the Empire to his brother, Chow Kwang Y, Prince of Tsin, and his last words to him were, "Bear yourself as becomes a brave prince, and govern well." Taitsou had only occupied the throne for seventeen years, but in that short time he had done much towards effecting the reunion of the country. He had abased the pretensions of the ambitious and tyrannical governors who ruled only for their own pleasure and profit, and the peoples of China owed to his

A LAUDABLE OBJECT.

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generous sense of humanity a government which made the happiness and welfare of the nation its main object. Taitsou's reign was a succession of wars, decided, however, by the display of skill, and with as little carnage as possible. They were fought also for the most laudable of objects-the unity of the state, and the government of a great people by a sovereign of its own race. The founder of the Sungs received the Imperial dignity when it represented little more than an empty pretence, but in his hands it acquired such substance and reality that he left it to his successor as a possession of the greatest value.

The new ruler, on his accession to the throne, took the name of Taitsong, and his first acts showed that he was fully determined not only to keep what his brother had won, but also to complete the task which he had carried so far towards a successful conclusion. Of China Proper there only remained to be subdued a small portion of Kwantung and Fuhkien, besides the northern states of Han and Leaoutung. In preparation for the struggle with the latter, Taitsong caused the frontiers touching these independent states to be placed in a better state of defence, and entrusted the commands of the border posts to the most skilful of his lieutenants. The result of these prudent arrangements was clearly demonstrated in the hesitation shown by his neighbours to come into collision with him, although they might reasonably have expected that after Taitsou's death there would have been a decline in the vigour of the Emperor's authority.

The war with the northern Han, which Taitsou's death had interrupted, was not resumed until Taitsong had occupied the throne for three years. There were some opposed to its resumption on public grounds, holding that enough had been done towards the vindication of the national dignity; but the opinion of the Emperor himself, and of a majority in his council, was distinctly in favour of the view that the security of what had been accomplished was not assured so long as this hostile and military power held possession of the northern gates of the Empire. So it was resolved to renew the enterprise that had once resulted in failure, and that had a second time been abandoned; and forthwith the Imperial legions

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