A reply to General Xi of Xiangyang答襄陽郄將軍書

On the fourth day of the seventh month of the second year of Zhonghe, Gao, with his titles set out, respectfully replies to the General. I have glanced sidelong at the histories of former days and have long admired the worthies of old. That one gives another the most earnest words is the warning Laodan left; that the man who makes me is a good friend is the kindness Guan Zhong knew. I only regretted that the customs of a late age have gradually gone astray and that the fragrant standard is all but lost. How could I have looked to see, this very day, what remains of that old manner? The General, fearing only that the jade might be hidden, wished to have its flaw ground away. You have troubled your colored brush and honored me from afar with a long letter. When I first sought out the words of praise that turn all beauty back on me, sweat started and soaked my back. When I then read the admonition that holds up a man in danger, tears burst out and wet my chin. It is brilliant and worth the looking; how should I dare answer lightly? So I lean on brush and paper and look up to set out the loyalty of my blood, hoping in the end for your kindness, that you will glance over this in brief. It would be most fortunate, most fortunate. From the spring of last year I knew that the bandits had invaded the land of Qin and that the Emperor had gone to Shuchuan, and I meant to gather troops at Daliang. So I sent the call to arms to the outer garrisons, drilled the ranks, and fixed the date of march. Then Wuning suddenly raised a campaign, invading the borders of Sizhou first and trespassing on the banks of the Huai after. In word they said they were looking back like wolves to their old fief, but their true intent was to swallow this poor garrison like a whale, and they drove their fierce ranks far and struck straight at the nearby border. Therefore I sent out subordinate officers, and they did destroy the vile crowd. When midsummer came I sent out the main army, and knowing that their northern road was blocked and hard, I decided on the easy water route of a western campaign. Then I received an imperial edict: "Your armored soldiers are few in number, and there are many places before your eyes to guard. Only hold the borders of Huainan, act in concert with the armies of Zheyou, keep whole for me the land of Wu and Yue, and leave me without care for the southeast. As for the merit this hands down, it will surely not decay." I held that the moment of war is truly hard to delay of oneself, and that there are commands of a ruler one does not follow. I had already set about the campaign and was bent on setting out; I read the wind and chose the day, wanting only to rise and fly. Then I received the edict of the eleventh day of the seventh month: "The armies of the several circuits attack and punish on all four sides, and the recovery may be reckoned the matter of a morning or an evening. You should block the bandit host and send grain and silk by cart. Why must you leave your post for it to be service to the king? There is a fear that the remnant brood may flee, and what matters most is to set your dispositions beforehand." Having thus received the imperial word a second time, I halted the boat forces, only widened the control of the state revenues, and met the costs of war as I ought. I never knew that though my advance and retreat followed orders alone and there was no lapse from first to last, I would suffer the slander and false charges of a neighboring garrison and the sage court would grow suspicious and uneasy. How should I dare hope to eat the fine flesh of a jueti colt? The swift hooves of a qiji steed are hobbled, and there is nothing I can do. So my loyalty has not been unfolded, and the praise of the wise sovereign is hard to look for. It is not that I dare betray of myself the hearts of men within the seas; I have only nourished the military strength of the Huai border, and if you ask reason of it, there is truly a cause. The General, because Sizhou once belonged to Pengmen, says that I have wrongly taken it for my own to protect, and you are surely troubled by it; but you do not know the crafty scheme in detail, and it may be that you have picked up floating words. Moreover Xuzhou has been deceitful of late and has not reined itself in at all. Its power is already great, and its cruelty grows deeper. It saw that from the beginning of the fifth month I was planning a campaign again, that I had drawn up hardy soldiers to aid his lordship, and that I had further sent the chief yaya Han Wen ahead with a million strings of cash to relieve the army of the Commander-in-chief, all of it loaded on boats and about to take the road. Then it raised arms once more, came to trouble the border, cut off the Huai River, and massed up a stockade. Therefore the plan of march is still blocked, and the feelings of the many are not at ease. Look closely at what Xuzhou does, and it is acting as Huang Chao's answer from outside. If not, why is it that each time this army is about to set out, they drive their vile band against it? And why do they hold the bank of the Si and cut off the Bian road? Linhuai has a lone city and scant spirit and barely keeps its worn and weary people; Pengmen has hard ground and strong soldiers, and it is to be feared that it will act in mad perversity. Weighing this, one sees the thread that Heaven shows. Besides, there are no transport boats of the several circuits but pass by the main road of Sizhou, and now all of them, because of these bandits, are held back. Nearby are Zhedong and Zhexi, far off are Rongfu and Guangfu, and from none of them is the carriage of grain heard of. With what, then, shall the urgent need be relieved? As for my sending out the troops of Chu to cut down the remnant brood, the first reason is to follow the imperial edict and rescue a neighboring fief, and the second is to quiet the long Huai and set foot on the road of campaign. Truly it is not that I covet the taxes of the people of Sizhou or would push aside the soldiers of the commander of Xuzhou. It is to divide the threads of wrong from right and to keep my constancy whole from first to last. For two years Sizhou has shut its ramparts, and in the whole district the smoke has ceased. The weaving women have stopped their shuttles, and the plowing men have laid down their plows. The army's food for the whole city is still supplied by this poor province, and the levies and carts of the entire commandery truly cannot be raised from so worn a people. The General says that I have leaned on the advantage of that ground and framed this quarrel with a neighbor. I have read your words closely, and their deep meaning is hard to know. Sizhou raised a mighty name not only in the time of Xiantong; in the years of Tianbao too it followed the straight way. Moreover Minister Yu Tao has set his rules of governance in order and is skilled in war besides. He has gathered the glad hearts of the people and won the strength unto death of the three armies, and the General would have him cast aside and not asked after. What sort of reason is that? Xuzhou has a great fault indeed, and it is no small trouble. If one is to help such cruelty, how can that be called offering loyalty? What I wait for now is to kill the jackals and wolves that block the road and to rouse the eagles and ospreys that ride the autumn air, to set out early under the stars and strike like lightning with the campaign wholly in my charge. I shall surely know his lordship Wang as heart knows belly, answering head to tail, driving the snake ranks side by side, unfolding the arts of war to the full, recovering the upper capital, and welcoming the imperial carriage. Nor shall I dare fail the military governor of Moling or contend for the fame of the Powerful Crossbow general. What I hope for is to carry on my earlier labor and guard of myself against later trouble, so that the humble virtue of Lin Xiangru does not lessen a mighty authority, and the slanderers of Fei Wuji's kind all come to open execution. Beyond this I have nothing more to say. I wear your good admonition with respect; how should it ever leave this foolish breast? I humbly beg you to look into it. I bow twice.