ion of the writers.

The emperor approved of Lisin's estimate, and gave him the command,
dismissing the older warrior as an over-cautious dotard. The event told
a different tale. Lisin was surprised during his march and driven back
in utter defeat, losing forty thousand men, as the records say, in the
battle and the pursuit. What became of the defeated braggart history
fails to state. If he survived the battle, he could hardly have dared to
present himself again before his furious master.

Hoangti now sent for the veteran whom he had dismissed as a dotard, and
asked him to take command of the troops.

"Six hundred thousand: no less will serve," repeated the old man.

"You shall have all you ask for," answered the emperor.

This vast host collected, the question of supplies presented itself as a
serious matter.

"Do not let that trouble you," said the emperor to his general. "I have
taken steps to provide for that, and promise you that provisions are
more likely to be wanting in my palace than in your camp."

The event proved the soundness of the old warrior's judgment and his
warlike skill. A great battle soon took place, in which Wang Tsein,
taking advantage of a false movement of the enemy, drove him in panic
flight from the field. This was soon followed by the complete conquest
of the principality, whose cities were strongly garrisoned by imperial
troops, and its rulers sent to the capital to experience the fate of the
preceding princely captives. The subjection of several smaller provinces
succeeded, and the conquest of China was at length complete.

The feudal principalities, which had been the successors of the
independent kingdoms into which the Chinese territory was originally
divided, were thus overthrown, the ancient local dynasties being
exterminated, and their territories added to the dominion of the Tsins.
The unity of the empire was at length established, and the great
conqueror became "the first universal emperor."

Hoangti the Great, as we may justly designate the man who first formed a
united Chinese empire, and to whom the mighty conception of the Great
Wall was due, did not exhaust his energies in these varied labors.
Choosing as his capital Heenyang (now Segan Foo), he built himself
there a palace of such magnificence as to make it the wonder and
admiration of the age. This was erected outside the city, on so vast a
scale that ten thousand men could be drawn up in order of battle in one
of