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“My proposal is that we gain the support of Cao Cao. As we know, he has made a clean sweep of the empire. Lu Bu went first, and both the Yuans followed, all exterminated. Lately he has destroyed Ma Chao. In short he is the one man against whom no one can stand. Therefore, my lord, prepare me worthy gifts to take to the capital, and I will get Cao Cao to march an army against Hanzhong, which will keep this Zhang Lu occupied so that we shall be left alone.”

This met Liu Zhang's views, and so he prepared gold and pearls and rich stuffs, worthy presents for the man of power. And when these were ready, he appointed Zhang Song his emissary. Zhang Song in the meantime occupied his leisure in secretly copying maps and plans of the west country. When all was ready, he started with a small escort.

They heard this in Jingzhou, and Zhuge Liang sent a trusty person to the capital to keep him informed as to all the doings.

Zhang Song arrived in Xuchang, and, after he had established himself in his lodging, he made daily visits to the Prime Minister's palace to try to obtain an interview. But the last success had filled Cao Cao with insufferable pride, and he did nothing but give banquets. He never appeared except for the most important affairs, and even carried on the business of the state in his own residence. So Zhang Song waited many days. But when he got to know the persons who were nearest the Prime Minister, he bribed them and obtained an audience.

Cao Cao was seated in the high place, and after his visitor had finished his salutations, he said, “Your master Liu Zhang has sent no tribute for several years; why?”

“Because the roads are dangerous and thieves and robbers infest them. Intercourse is restricted.”

Cao Cao interrupted in a loud harsh voice, saying, “What thieves and robbers are there when I have cleansed the empire?”

“How can you say the land is tranquil when one sees Sun Quan in the south, Zhang Lu and Liu Bei in the west, and every one of these with armies reckoned in legions? The weakest of them has one hundred thousand troops.”

The mean appearance of the emissary had prejudiced Cao Cao from the outset; and when Cao Cao heard these blunt words, he suddenly shook out his sleeves, rose and left the hall.

Those in attendance were annoyed with Zhang Song and said, “How can you behave so rudely when you come on a mission? Your whole attitude was blunt and discourteous. Happily for you, our lord remembered you had come from afar and did not take open notice of your fault. The best thing for you is to go home again as quickly as you can.”

But Zhang Song smiled.

“We have no plausible flatterers and glib talkers in our western country,” said he.

At this, one from below the steps called out, “So you call us plausible and glib then; and you have none such in your country, eh?”

Zhang Song looked around and saw the speaker was a man with thin delicate eyebrows crossing narrow eyes set in a pale spiritual face. He asked his name. It was Yang Xiu, son of the former Regent Marshal Yang Biao. The young man was then employed as Chief of the Secretariat of the Prime Minister. He was deeply read and had the reputation of being a clever controversialist, as Zhang Song knew. So on one side was a desire to confound and on the other overweening pride in his own ability, with contempt for other scholars. Perceiving the ridicule in Zhang Song's speech, Yang Xiu invited him to go to the library where they could talk more freely. There, after they had got settled in their respective places, Yang Xiu began to talk about the west.

“Your roads are precipitous and wearisome,” said Yang Xiu.

“But at our lord's command we travel, even through fire and water; we never decline,” replied Zhang Song.

“What sort of a country is this Yiazhou?”

“Yiazhou is a name for the group of western counties and territories known of old as the state of Shu. The roads are intersected by streams, and the land bristles with steep mountains. The circuit is over two hundred stations and marches and the area over one hundred thousand square miles. The population is dense, villages being so close that the crowings of cocks in one waken the people in the next, and the dogs barking in this excite the curs in that. The soil is rich and well cultivated, and droughts or famines are equally unknown. Prosperity is general and the music of pipes and strings can always be heard. The produce of the fields is piled mountain high. There is no place its equal.”

“But what of the people?”

“Our administrators are talented as Sima Xiangru; our soldiers able as Ma Yuan; our physicians are expert as Zhang Ji; our diviners are profound as Yan Zun. Our schools of philosophy and our culture stand forth as models, and we have more remarkable people than I can enumerate. How should I ever finish the tale of them?”

“And how many such as you, Sir, do you think there are at the orders of your Imperial Protector?”