Page:History of Corea, ancient and modern; with description of manners and customs, language and geography (1879).djvu/232

208 KITAN. himself a superior minister of Tang come to make terms of peace. His captor was, therefore, afraid of imperial vengeance if he put this man to death, and saved him alive. To carry out his deceit^ the fugitive would not bow to the king when presented ; and though the king was very angry, he treated him with the respect due to a minister from the Tang court. When he was about to depart, the king ordered an escort of a hundred men for him ; but instead of being thankful, he said that this was wholly inadequate to manifest respect to the honour of the Chinese court ; and though the escort men were good men, — ^when they appeared at court, the emperor would not have a high estimate of the ability of BLitan. The king, therefore, ordered three hundred of his best men to attend on Soogan. When they were near the Chinese city of Pingloo, Soogan sent a messenger with a letter before him, stating that three hundred of the best men of Eitan were coming, nominally on terms of amity, but in reality to take Pingloo by surprise. Pingloo should, therefore, be ready to receive them. Acting on this information, an army was marshalled as if to honour the escort ; which, when it came up, was butchered to the last man, the commander alone being kept a prisoner and sent to Yowchow. Showgwei, commandant of Pingloo, considered the act of Soogan as one of extraordinary merit, and recommended him to the emperor, who agreed as to the merit of the perfidious liar, praised him and gave him the name of " Brilliant-thought^ with more substantial rewards. It is impossible here to overlook the remarkable car^^ of a man saved from execution to shake all China to its centra An Looshan was a native of Tingchow. When his father died, his mother rettimed to her original home with her boy, among the Tookiie in Anting, which was sometime after broken up, and she, again with her boy, fled back into China. This boy, and Soogan- the " Brilliant-thought, were bom on the same day, and the two were bosom friends. Looshan was a man of undoubted parts, for he appears first on the scene as an officer, sent by Showgwei, at the head of a force