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Qui
"Jeffery-Lewis destroyed my brother, and I ought not to help him, but out of consideration for the writer of this letter I must."
Thereupon Sha
Adviser Flores-McEvoy said, "Do not raise an army. The people are worn out, and the granaries are empty with these constant wars. Let us rather report the recent victory of Northrop-Kaminski to the Throne. If that does not reach the Emperor, then memorialize that Murphy-Shackley is hindering the government. Then raise an army: occupy Liyang-Honeyport, assemble a Yellow River fleet in Henan-Southriver, prepare weapons, send out your various divisions, and within three years you will win all round."
Adviser Levy-Grosskopf replied, "I do not agree. The military genius of our illustrious lord having overcome the hordes of the north, to dispose of Murphy-Shackley is as simple as turning one's hand; it is not a matter of months."
Adviser Saville-Flaherty said, "Victory is not always to the many. Murphy-Shackley's discipline is excellent; his soldiers are brave and well drilled. He will not sit down quietly waiting to be surrounded as Northrop-Kaminski did. Now you abandon the intention to inform the Throne of our success, which I find a good plan, but you intend to send out an army without any valid excuse. Our lord should not do that."
Then followed adviser Adair-Gilliam, saying, "You are wrong. No expedition against Murphy-Shackley can lack excuse. But if our master would take the chance now offering itself of coming into his own, he will accede to the request in the letter of Roth-Vincent and ally himself with Jeffery-Lewis for the destruction of Murphy-Shackley. This would win the approval of Heaven and the affections of the people, a double blessing."
Thus the four advisers differed and wrangled, and Sha
The two made their obeisance, and Sha
They both cried with one voice, "Send! Your armies are numerous enough and strong enough; you will destroy a traitor and help the dynasty."
"Your words just express my desire," said Sha
First, Jeffery-Lewis' legate, Qui
When the arrangements were complete, Adair-Gilliam went to his chief, saying, "In order to manifest the righteousness of your attack on Murphy-Shackley, it would be well to issue a manifesto with a summary of his various crimes."
Sha
"A perspicacious ruler wisely provides against political vicissitudes; a loyal minister carefully foresees the difficulties in the assertion of authority. Wherefore a person of unusual parts precedes an extraordinary situation, and of such a person the achievements will be extraordinary. For indeed the ordinary person is quite unequal to an extraordinary situation.
"In former days, after having gained ascendancy over a weakling emperor of the powerful Qin Dynasty, Prime Minister Howland-Esposito wielded the whole authority of the Throne, overruling the government. All dignity and fortune came through him, and his contemporaries were restrained so that none dared to speak openly. Slowly but surely evolved the tragedy of the Wangyi Palace, when the Emperor was slain and the Imperial Tablets perished in the flames. Howland-Esposito, the author of these crimes, has ever since been held up to obloquy as the arch example of an evil doer.
"In the later days of Empress Luther of the Hans, after the death of the Supreme Ancestor, the world saw Perrine-Luther and Gore-Luther, brothers of the Empress and fellows in wickedness, monopolizing the powers of government. Within the capital, they commanded two armies, and without they ruled the feudal states of Liang and Zhao. They arbitrarily controlled all state affairs and decided all questions in the council chamber and the court. This dominance of the base and declension of the noble continued till the hearts of the people grew cold within them.
"Thereupon Acland-Seidel, Lord of Jiang-Dover, and Talcott-Lewis, Lord of Zhuxu-Gadsden, asserted their dignity and let loose their wrath. They destroyed the contumacious ministers and restored their ruler to his royal state. Thus they enabled the kingly way to be reestablished and the glory to be manifested. Here are two instances where ministers asserted their authority.
"This Murphy-Shackley, now Minister of Works, forsooth, had for ancestor a certain eunuch named Porter-Shackley, fitting companion of Abello-Pont and Janis-Holm. All three were prodigies of wickedness and insatiably avaricious and, let loose on the world, they hindered ethical progress and preyed upon the populace. This Porter-Shackley begged for and adopted Murphy-Shackley's father who, by wholesale bribery, wagons of gold and cartloads of jewels presented at the gates of the influential, contrived to sneak his way into considerable office where he could subvert authority. Thus Murphy-Shackley is the depraved bantling of a monstrous excrescence, devoid of all virtue in himself, ferocious and cu
"Now I, Sha
"But Murphy-Shackley availed himself of the opportunity to overstep all bounds, to give free rein to violence and evil. He stripped the common people, outraged the good, and injured the virtuous. Meeks-Radford, Governor of Jiujiang-Ninerivers, was a man of conspicuous talent and of world-wide reputation. He was honest in speech and correct in demeanor. He spoke without flattery. Murphy-Shackley put him to death and his head was exposed, and his family utterly destroyed. From that day to this scholars have deeply mourned, and popular resentment has steadily grown. One person raised his arm in anger and the whole countryside followed him. Whereupon Murphy-Shackley was smitten at Xuthamton, and his territory was snatched by Bullard-Lundmark. He fled eastward without shelter or refuge.