vely resisted the further advance of the assailants and
held the walls, which, but for the valor of the heroine, must inevitably
have been lost.

Having thus checked the first onslaught of the enemy, Mongchi went
vigorously to work. The inhabitants of the place were armed and sent to
reinforce the garrison, the defences of the gate were strengthened, and
by promises of reward as well as by her presence and inspiriting appeals
the brave woman stirred up the defenders to such vigorous resistance
that the imperial forces were on every side repelled, and in the end
were forced to abandon the prize which they had deemed safely their own.
Not till after Chanyang was saved did Ginching return from an important
victory he had won in the field, to learn that his brave wife had gained
as signal a success in his absence.

The second woman whom we shall name was Houchi, wife of the king of Wei,
whose husband came to the throne in 515, but became a mere tool in the
hands of his able and ambitious wife. After a short period Houchi was so
bold as to force her husband to vacate the throne, naming her infant son
as king in his place, but exercising all the power of the realm herself.
She went so far as to declare war against the empire, though the contest
that followed was marked by continual disaster to her troops, except in
one notable instance.

As in the case above cited, so in this war a stronghold was
successfully held by a woman. This place was Tsetong, whose commandant
was absent, leaving the command to his wife Lieouchi, a woman of the
highest courage and readiness in an emergency. As before, the imperial
troops took advantage of the occasion, and quickly invested the town,
while Lieouchi, with a valor worthy of a soldier's wife, made rapid
preparations for defending it to the last extremity.

Her decisive resolution was shown in an instance that must have
redoubled the courage of her men. Discovering, after the siege had gone
on for several days, that one of the officers of her small force was
playing the traitor by corresponding with the enemy, she called a
general council of the officers, with the ostensible purpose of
deliberating on the management of the defence. The traitor attended the
council, not dreaming that his proposed treason was suspected. He was
thunderstruck when Lieouchi vehemently accused him before his
fellow-officers of the crime, showing such knowledge of his purpose that
he was forced to admit the jus