grass on the river bank and hid. The soldiers scattered
He Miao looked around：
His enemies hemmed him in on every side.
He was hacked to pieces.
Yuan Shu bade his soldiers scatter and seek out all
the families of the eunuchs, sparing none.
In that slaughter many beardless men were killed in error.
Cao Cao set himself to extinguish the fires.
He then begged Empress He to undertake the
direction of affairs, and soldiers were sent to
pursue Zhang Rang and rescue the young
Emperor and the young Prince of Chenliu.
Meanwhile, Zhang Rang and Duan Gui had
hustled away the Emperor and the Prince.
They burst through the smoke and fire and
traveled without stopping till they reached the
Beimang Hills. It was then the third watch.
They heard a GREat shouting behind them
and saw soldiers in pursuit. Their leader,
Min Gong, a commander in Henan,
was shouting, “Traitors, stop, stop！”
Zhang Rang, seeing that he was lost,
jumped into the river, where he was drowned.
the two boys ignorant of the meaning of all this
confusion and terrified out of their senses,
dared not utter a cry. They crept in among the rank
grass on the river bank and hid. The soldiers scattered
in all directions but failed to find them.
So they remained till the fourth watch,
shivering with cold from the drenching dew and
very hungry. They lay down in the thick grass and
wept in each other’s arms, silently,
lest anyone should discover them.
“This is no a place to stay in,”
said Prince Xian. “We must find some way out.”
So the two children knotted their clothes
together and managed to crawl up the bank.
They were in a thicket of thorn bushes,
and it was quite dark. They could not see any
path. They were in despair when, all at once,
millions of fireflies sprang up all about them