“We had better leave” said he. “An empty city cannot be held.”
So he and Kao Shun, taking their chief’s family with them, abandoned Tingt‘ao. When Ts‘ao Ts‘ao’s soldiers got into the city they met with no resistance, one leader burned himself to death, the other fled to Yüan Shu.
Thus the whole of Shantung fell under the power of Ts‘ao Ts‘ao.
How he tranquillised the people and rebuilt the cities will not be told here. But Lü Pu in his retreat fell in with his foragers and Ch‘ên Kung also rejoined him so that he was by no means broken.
“I have but few men,” said he, “but still enough to break Ts‘ao Ts‘ao.” And so he retook the backward road.
Thus does fortune alternate, victory, defeat,
The happy conqueror to-day, to-morrow, must retreat.
What was the fate of Lü Pu will appear later.
