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. Tsʻao Tsʻao heard of the young man’s death with pleasure. “The putrid bookworm has just cut himself up with his own sharp tongue,” said he. As there was no sign of Liu Piao coming to join him, Tsʻao Tsʻao 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 Tsʻao Tsʻao took the advice. After the departure of Yüan-tê, Tung Chʻêng and his fellow conspirators did nothing else day or night but try to evolve plans for the destruction of their enemy. But they could see no chance to attack. At the new year audience Tsʻao Tsʻao was odiously arrogant and overweening and the chief conspirator’s disgust was so intense that he fell ill. Hearing of his indisposition the Emperor sent the Court physician to see his “State Uncle.” The Court physician at this time was a native of Loyang, named Chi Tʻai, more commonly known as Chi Pʻing. He was very famous. He devoted himself wholly to the treatment of his Court patient. Living in his Palace and seeing him at all times he soon found that some secret grief was sorely troubling Tung Chʻêng. But he dared not ask questions. One evening, when the physician was just taking his leave, Tung Chʻêng kept him and the two men had supper together. They sat talking for some time and Tung by and by dropped off to sleep dressed as he was. Presently Wang Tzŭ-fu and the others were announced. As they were coming in Wang cried, “Our business is settled!” “I should be glad to hear how,” said Tung. “Liu Piao has joined Yüan Shao and fifty legions are on their way here by different routes. More than this, Ma Tʻêng and Han Sui are coming from the north with seventy-two legions. Tsʻao Tsʻao has moved every soldier outside Hsütu to meet the combined armies. There is a great banquet in the Palace to-night and if we get together our young men and slaves, we can muster more than a thousand, and we can surround the palace, while Tsʻao Tsʻao is at the banquet, and finish him off. We must not miss this.”