Ts‘ao accepted the rebuke, changed his policy, thanked him and treated him all the better for it.
As soon as Ch‘ichou was settled, Ts‘ao sent to find out the movements of Yüan T‘an. He heard he was ravaging Kanling and the places near it in the south and west. Moreover, the scouts brought the news that Yüan Shang had fled to the hills. An expedition had been sent against him but Shang would not face a battle. He had gone away to Yuchou to his brother Hsi.
T‘an, having surrendered with all his army, yet prepared for another attempt on Ch‘ichou. Whereupon Ts‘ao summoned him. T‘an refused to come and Ts‘ao sent letters breaking off the marriage with his daughter. Soon after Ts‘ao led an expedition against T‘an and marched to P‘ingyüan, whereupon T‘an sent to Liu Piao to beg assistance. Piao sent for Liu Pei to consult about this and he said, “Ts‘ao is very strong now that he has overcome Ch‘ichou and the Yüans will be unable to hold out for long. Nothing is to be gained by helping this man and it may give Ts‘ao the loophole he is always looking for to attack this place. My advice is to keep the army in condition and devote all our energies to defence.”
“Agreed; but what shall we say?” said Piao.
“Write to both the brothers as peacemaker in gracious terms.”
Accordingly Liu Piao wrote thus to Yüan T‘an:—“When the superior man would escape danger he does not go to an enemy State. I heard recently that you had crooked the knee to Ts‘ao, which was ignoring the enmity between him and your father, rejecting the duties of brotherhood and leaving behind you the shame of an alliance with the enemy. If your brother, the successor to Ch‘ichou, has acted unfraternally, your duty was to bend your inclination to follow him and wait till the state of affairs had settled. Would it not have been very noble to bring about the redress of wrongs?”
And to Yüan Shang he wrote:—“Your brother, the ruler of Ch‘ingchou, is of an impulsive temperament and confuses right with wrong. You ought first to have destroyed Ts‘ao in order to put an end to the hatred which your father bore him and, when the situation had become settled, to have endeavoured to redress the wrongs. Would not that have been well? If you persist in following this mistaken course, remember the hound and the hare, both so wearied that the peasant got the hare.”
From this letter Yüan T‘an saw that Liu Piao had no intention of helping him, and feeling he alone could not withstand Ts‘ao, he abandoned P‘ingyüan and fled to Nanp‘i, whither Ts‘ao pursued him. The weather was very cold and the river was frozen, so that his grain boats could not move. Wherefore Ts‘ao ordered the inhabitants to break the ice and tow the
