within, the treasured friends, the devoted comrades, the slimy gentlemen with ingratiating personalities who had wormed their way into the core of the Empire? The sages had written to beware of the man who has a smiling face, but the people were without guile. For the most part they were peasants and artisans, highly domesticated. They loved their homes and their farms. They were complacent, satisfied. They knew the songs of poets, they loved the soil and the trees and the sun in splendor. They had barely enough to eat, but their hearts were well fed. What need had they to be conversant with the ways of treachery and deceit?
An Lu-shan smiled grimly. Loyang, the Eastern Capital, was an open city, ripe for any conqueror who cared to pluck it. From headquarters at Loyang the conquest of all China might be accomplished, with little opposition, by a well-trained army whose soldiers were ambitious.
6.
An Lu-shan showered Yang Kuei-fei with gifts, for two reasons, that he might not slip from her thoughts, and to impress upon her that his wealth was without limit. He did not acquaint her with the fact that he had a son as tall as himself and equally ambitious. His name was An Ch'ing-hsü. Although he served as an officer under his father, he mistrusted him because An Lu-shan had pushed forward into a key position the son of one of his concubines.
Yang Kuei-fei thrilled at the continuous stream of
