“Mi Hêng shamed me too deeply before all the world. I am going to borrow Liu Piao’s hand to remove him. And you need say no more,” said Ts‘ao.
Then Ts‘ao sent Han Sung back to his former master to tell him what had happened. He came and was full of praise for the virtues of the Court and was keen on persuading Piao to espouse that side. Then Liu Piao suddenly turned angry, charged him with treachery and threatened him with death.
“You turn your back on me;” cried Han Sung. “I did not betray you.”
K‘uai Liang remarked that Han Sung had foretold this possibility before he left, it was only what he expected. Liu Piao, who was just and reasonable, went no further.
Presently came the news that Mi Hêng had been put to death by Huang Tsu on account of a quarrel begun over the wine cups. Both being worse for liquor they had begun to discuss the worth of people.
“You were born in Hsütu,” said Huang. “Who was there of worth?”
“The big boy was K‘ung Jung and the little on Yang Tê-tsu. There was no one else to count.”
“What am I like?” said Huang.
“You are like a god in a temple; you sit still and receive sacrifice, but the lack of intelligence is pitiful.”
“Do you regard me as a mere image?” cried Huang Tsu, angry.
So he put the impudent speaker to death. Even at the very point of death Mi never ceased his railing and abuse.
“Alas!” sighed Liu Piao, when he heard of his fate. He had the victim honourably interred near Yingwuchou. And a later poet wrote of him:—
Huang Tsu could brook no rival; at his word
Mi Hêng met death beneath the cruel sword.
His grave on Parrot Isle may yet be seen,
The river flowing past it, coldly green.
Ts‘ao Ts‘ao heard of the young man’s death with pleasure. “The putrid bookwork has just cut himself up with his own sharp tongue,” said he.
As there was no sign of Liu Piao coming to join him, Ts‘ao Ts‘ao began to think of coercion. The adviser, Hsün Yü, dissuaded him from this course.
Said he, “Yüan Shao is not subjugated, Liu Pei is not destroyed. To attack Liu Piao would be to neglect the vital to care for the immaterial. Destroy the two chief enemies first and Chiang-han is yours at one blow.”
And Ts‘ao Ts‘ao took the advice.
After the departure of Yüan-tê, Tung Ch‘êng and his fellow conspirators did nothing else day or night but try to evolve
