THE BATTLE OF SS SHUI .sx The emperor of Hsia was holding council in his tent when the news of the T'ang attack was brought .sx He ordered his cavalry to make a counter-attack to give the infantry time to form up .sx Unfortunately the generals were all at the council and could not get back to their posts in time .sx The impetus of the T'ang onslaught had thrown the Hsia army into confusion , in which the orders of the generals never reached the soldiers .sx Tou Chien-T attempted to control the situation , but finding himself in danger of capture fell back to the low cliff which formed the eastern boundary of the Ss Shui valley .sx With their backs to this natural wall the Hsia troops rallied for the moment .sx The battle was undecided when Shih-Min's young cousin , Li Tao-Hsuan Prince Huai Yang , a youth of eighteen , charged furiously through the Hsia line till he emerged behind the enemy , when , turning round , he cut his way back to the T'ang host .sx Repeating this exploit , he once more hacked a corridor through the enemy army till " His armour was thick with arrows like the quills of a " .sx This time , though his horse had been killed , he was remounted by Shih-Min , who led the cavalry after him into the heart of the melee .sx While the dust " filled the sky " veiling the confused battle from the enemy commanders , the T'ang prince and his cavalry cut their way through the enemy till they gained the high ground behind the army of Hsia .sx There they displayed the T'ang standards , and at this sight , which seemed to menace the only way of escape , the Hsia army broke into flight .sx The rout was disastrous .sx The T'ang army chased the flying mob for ten miles , slaying as they went .sx Though the killed did not number more than 3000 , Shih-Min took 50,000 prisoners , while the rest of the huge army of Hsia dispersed over the country-side .sx The fate of Tou Chien-T himself completed the disaster to his cause .sx Carried away in the press of the rout , he was thrown from his horse while being pur- .sx sued by two T'ang officers .sx As they were about to spear him , Tou Chien-T cried out , " Do not slay me .sx I am the emperor of Hsia , and can richly reward " .sx The T'ang officers thereupon dismounted and secured this valuable captive , whom they led back to Shih-Min .sx The capture of Tou Chien-T prevented any rally of his army .sx Only a few hundreds of horsemen escaped to Kuang P'ing Fu , the Hsia capital .sx The vast army of Hsia had ceased to exist .sx After this prodigious victory , which eliminated all danger from the east , Shih-Min led back his army and captives to Lo Yang .sx Some of the Hsia officers were sent into the city to make known the extent of the disaster , and Tou Chien-T himself was brought to the foot of the walls to inform his ally that all was lost .sx Wang Shih-Ch'ung , mounting the ramparts , heard from the lips of the deliverer in whom his hopes had reposed the melancholy tale of defeat .sx Unable to restrain their emotion , the two emperors , who met for the first time in these tragic circumstances , broke down and wept .sx After a brief discussion , the council of the Chng emperor urged Wang Shih-Ch'ung to make an unconditional surrender .sx There was no possibility of further resistance in starving Lo Yang .sx There remained no hope of escape to another refuge , or of relief from any other ally .sx At the head of his entire court , with his coffin at his side , Wang Shih-Ch'ung in mourning robes led the dismal procession out of the gates of Lo Yang to make submission to the conqueror .sx When the fallen emperor of Chng was brought into his presence , freely perspiring with the emotion of such a moment , Shih-Min said to him , " You always used to say , I hear , that you 'would like to meet that " boy " ' .sx Now you see the 'boy' , how are you going to behave ?sx " Wang Shih-Ch'ung bowed his head and made apologies .sx Except for certain Chng officials , who were regarded as traitors to the T'ang dynasty , and were decapitated , none of the inhabitants of Lo Yang suffered any harm .sx Only some ofthe magnificent palaces , which Yang Ti had erected at the cost of so much suffering , were , by Shih-Min's orders , burned .sx The prince remarked that this luxury , purchased as it was by the life's blood of the people , was the real cause of the downfall of the Sui dynasty .sx As a warning to the age and an example to posterity such buildings should be destroyed .sx The records of the Sui empire were found to have been burnt by Wang Shih-Ch'ung , though vast spoils and treasures still remained from Yang Ti's extravagant court .sx The fall of Lo Yang ended this war .sx The empire of Chng had ceased to exist , and that of Hsia was occupied without resistance .sx The remnants of Tou Chien-T's army , after looting the treasury of Kuang P'ing Fu , yielded the town to the T'ang troops and dispersed .sx The great battle of Ss Shui brought all North China from Tibet to the sea under the authority of Ch'ang An .sx Only the southern pretenders , Hsiao Hsieh and Li Tz-T'ung , remained outside the new empire .sx Shih-Min on his return to court made a triumphal entry into Ch'ang An .sx Clad in a suit of golden armour , the conqueror rode through the city , followed by two captive emperors and their courts , twenty-five of his own generals , and 10,000 heavy armed horsemen .sx Such were the fruits of the famous battle of Ss Shui which , since it established the T'ang dynasty on an unshakable basis , and made possible the reunion of China , may well be reckoned as one of the decisive battles in the history of the world .sx CHAPTER V .sx PACIFICATION AND CONSOLIDATION .sx A.D. 622-4 .sx Although the battle of Ss Shui really established the T'ang dynasty in an unassailable supremacy , there still remained a considerable military task to be accomplished before the whole of China was pacified and consolidated under the authority of Ch'ang An .sx The south still flaunted its independence , fortified by the long tradition of partition which seemed to make a northern conquest unlikely .sx Hsiao Hsien , emperor of Liang , was the most notable pretender in these provinces .sx Descendant of the earlier emperors of Liang , who had reigned in the south from A.D. 503-55 , he was no mere upstart adventurer , claiming the crown by virtue of military strength .sx Hsiao Hsien posed , and was accepted , in the south as the legitimate heir of an old dynasty , restored after a period of usurpation .sx His authority had been acknowledged over a very large area , the provinces of Hupei , Hunan , Kiangsi , Kuangtung and Kuangsi , in so far as these two latter were colonised by the Chinese .sx Hsiao Hsien did not rule the south-east coast .sx After the murder of Yang Ti , that area , comprising the south part of modern Kiangsu province , Chekiang and Fukien , had fallen to one Li Tz-T'ung , who at first placed his capital at Nanking .sx In the summer of A.D. 621 orders were given for a general offensive against Hsiao Hsien , emperor of Liang .sx The T'ang dynasty had already acquired the great inland province of Szechuan , which submitted without offering resistance soon after the fall of Ch'ang An .sx They thus controlled the upper waters of the Yangtze and Han rivers , which gave them the very great advantage of having the current with them in any .sx operations against the territories of Liang , farther down stream .sx Hsiao Hsien realised the danger to which his estates were exposed by the T'ang occupation of Szechuan .sx As early as A.D. 619 he had been defeated in an unsuccessful attempt to force the Yangtze gorges and invade the province .sx Since then he had been too occupied suppressing minor revolts against his authority in Hunan to undertake major operations against his dangerous neighbours .sx This inaction was most prejudicial to the cause of Liang , for it allowed the T'ang generals to make lengthy and undisturbed preparations for the conquest of the lower river country .sx No warfare along the Yangtze river is possible without the command of the river in the naval sense .sx To secure this the T'ang generals constructed a large war fleet of junks manned by Szechuanese watermen , who , since the upper river is the most dangerous stretch of the Yangtze , are the most skilful and intrepid navigators of all the riparian people .sx When all was ready the joint expedition was placed under the supreme command of Li Ching with Li Hsiao-Kung Prince Chao as admiral in command of the fleet .sx Prince Chao , a cousin of Li Shih-Min , was the son of Li Shn-T'ung Prince Huai An .sx The emperor of Liang , though aware of the T'ang preparations , did not believe that any invasion would be possible until the winter was far advanced , as the gorges and rapids would not be safely navigable until the low-water season had come .sx Prince Chao and Li Ching , who knew that Hsiao Hsien's main strength was far away to the south , .sx and would take many weeks to reach the Yangtze , decided to risk the perils of high-water navigation in order to achieve that most valuable of all advantages in war , surprise .sx Ching Chou , the Liang capital , might thus be taken before the Liang army from the south had reached the Yangtze valley .sx It was in the tenth month , late autumn A.D. 621 , when , though the falling river was still high , the dangers of the gorges were in some measure reduced , that Prince Chao with the fleet of 2000 war junks took the van , leaving Li Ching to follow with the army when the fleet had secured the passage of the narrow places .sx The surprise was complete .sx Prince Chao's fleet crossed the rapids in safety ; nor was the passage of the sombre gorges which divide Szechuan from Hupei disputed .sx Hsiao Hsien's failure to guard this , one of the most easily defended positions in the world , which nature alone has rendered very difficult of access , was a monumental folly , fatal to his cause .sx Sailing triumphantly out into the flat valley of the middle Yangtze , Prince Chao seized the city of I Tu below the first gorge , a point only fifty miles above Ching Chou , the Liang capital .sx The court of Liang , perturbed at the news of this unlooked-for invasion , hastily despatched the fleet up-river to block the advance of Prince Chao .sx The two fleets met in battle a few miles west of I Tu .sx Prince Chao skilfully used the advantage of the current which his up-stream position gave him .sx Breaking through the Liang fleet he inflicted a crushing defeat , taking more than 300 of their ships and making a slaughter of more than 10,000 men .sx Nothing now stood between the T'ang forces and the enemy capital .sx As soon as Li Ching with the army had passed the gorges and joined the fleet , the united T'ang forces moved rapidly down river , arriving before Ching Chou , well in advance of the Liang .sx southern army , which had to toil wearily up-stream against the force of the strong Yangtze current .sx Throughout this campaign the two T'ang commanders , though northerners , showed a remarkable grasp of the alien strategy of southern river warfare , in which the strong currents and seasonal fluctuations of the South China rivers have in all ages been factors of the highest importance .sx At Ching Chou the T'ang army found another Liang fleet awaiting them .sx Realising that any delay would be favourable to the enemy , who were anxiously awaiting the slow advance of their southern reinforcements , Li Ching at once gave battle .sx The story of I Tu was repeated before Ching Chou ; the whole Liang fleet was captured or burnt , and the army driven routed into the walls of the city , which was then closely besieged .sx Ching Chou , being a strong city with a large garrison , it was feared that the siege would not be successful before the Liang southern army arrived .sx Li Ching therefore devised a stratagem by which he hoped to delay these advancing succours .sx Taking all the captured Liang ships , he cut them loose , so that , carried away by the current , they drifted down river .sx