A memorial of congratulation on the recovery of the capital賀收復京闕表

Your servant So-and-so speaks. A dispatch has come from Wang Chongrong, military commissioner of Hezhong, saying that on the tenth day of the fourth month his own circuit, together with Li Keyong, military commissioner of Yanmen, and the horse troops of the several commands under Yang Fuguang the army supervisor, entered the capital city in one body and joined battle with the rebels, and killed more than ten thousand of the rebel foot. The rebel horse then went out of the city and took the road to the southeast, and the households of the rebel army and its money and silk were all left behind, and of Huang Chao it is not yet known whether he lives or has died. Horse and foot were sent at once after the rebels who fled, and the capital has already been recovered. The awe of heaven makes its arms shine, and month by month the victories carry their sound. Men look toward the palace stairs and sing the song of triumph for the first time, and the whole round world is lifted up and every part of it claps and dances. Your servant So-and-so is truly glad and truly leaps up, bowing his head to the ground, bowing his head to the ground. Your servant has quietly looked into the ages gone by and gathered widely from the old classics, and he sees that to govern the state in quiet one must stop killing with killing, and that to hold the altars of the land in peace lies truly in not resting even when one may rest. For this reason arms are used only when there is no other way, and things are warmed with no thought of self. Your servant humbly considers that Your Majesty has come to the precious throne and greatly opened out your vast design, that Your Majesty covers the four seas and no wave is seen to rise, and that Your Majesty sets the nine regions at peace and the grass everywhere lies down before you. And yet the rebel Huang Chao followed a crooked road in the dark and went deep into the gate of calamity, and long raised the sound of his barking, and dared to take his ease in boring through walls, and fouled the palace and dragged the years and seasons out. He steals a little comfort and plays a while inside the cauldron, but he will hardly escape the killing of the violent upon the block. Now the holy strategy goes abroad as the wind goes, and the royal armies gather as the rain gathers. Yang Fuguang holds his place as a trusted servant of the throne and Li Keyong has the name of a bold general, and each thought of repaying his debt and vied with the other in rousing his valor, and with one heart they overturned the owl's nest and with all their strength they won back the phoenix quarter. Huang Chao had no leisure to hold back his carts, and he fled in secret with his wheel tracks in confusion. Spear and shield scattered like hail and flew like the wind, and gold and silk filled the streets and choked the lanes. Let the pursuit be pressed once more, and the crowd grown hardened in evil will surely be taken. From this time the sun and the moon will shine doubly and the smoke and dust will cease forever. Your servant only longs for the return of the holy carriage, and waits to look upon the great rite of the feng and shan sacrifices. Your servant's office lies in the charge of troops, and his merit is a shame to him, for he has not run to the trouble. Though he has no heavy authority in his hand, and for several years his skill in striking hard has gone to waste, still his ear has caught this good sound, and in this far land his glad crying out is twice as keen. Your servant is bound to his frontier command and cannot give his congratulation at your traveling palace, and he cannot bear the utmost of his waving hands and stamping feet, of his rejoicing and his dread. He respectfully sends up this memorial to set forth his congratulation and make it heard. Your servant So-and-so is truly glad and truly leaps up, bowing his head to the ground, bowing his head to the ground. Respectfully spoken.