CHAPTER XXIV.
Murder of a Kuei-fei:
Liu Pei Defeated; Flight to Yuan Shao.
The last chapter closed with the discovery of the “girdle” decree and the assembly of Ts‘ao Ts‘ao’s advisers to consider the deposition of the Emperor Hsien. Ch‘êng Yü spoke strongly against this saying, “Illustrious Sir, the means by which you impress the world and direct the government is the command of the House of Han. In these times of turmoil and rivalry among the nobles such a step as the deposition of the ruler will certainly bring about civil war and is much to be deprecated.”
After reflection Ts‘ao Ts‘ao abandoned the project. But Tung Ch‘êng’s plot was not to go unpunished. All five of the conspirators with every member of their households, seven hundred at least, were taken and put to death at one or another of the gates of the city. The people wept at such merciless and wholesale slaughter.
A secret decree in a girdle sewn,
In red blood written, the Emperor’s own,
To the staunch and faithful Tung addressed,
Who had saved him once when enemies pressed,
And who, sore grieved at his Sovereign’s fate,
Expressed in dreams his ceaseless hate,
Carried misfortune and death in its train
But glory to him who died in vain.
Another poet wrote of the sad fate of Wang Tzŭ-fu and his friends:—
Greatheartedly these signed the silken roll,
And pledged themselves to save their King from shame.
Alas! black death of them took heavy toll,
To write their names upon the roll of fame.
But the slaughter of the conspirators and their whole households did not appease the wrath of the cruel Minister. The Emperor’s Kuei-fei was a sister of Tung Ch‘êng and, sword in hand, Ts‘ao Ts‘ao went into the palace determined to slay her also. The Emperor cherished her tenderly, the more so as she was then in the fifth month of pregnancy. That day, as they often did, the Emperor, his Consort and the Kuei-fei were sitting in their private apartments secretly talking of the decree entrusted to Tung Ch‘êng and asking each other why nothing seemed to have been done. The sudden appearance of the angry Minister, armed as he was, frightened them greatly.
