صفحة 253 من 266

[Tu Yu gives the best exposition of the meaning: "We

ostentatiously do things calculated to deceive our own spies, who

must be led to believe that they have been unwittingly disclosed.

Then, when these spies are captured in the enemy's lines, they

will make an entirely false report, and the enemy will take

measures accordingly, only to find that we do something quite

different. The spies will thereupon be put to death." As an

example of doomed spies, Ho Shih mentions the prisoners released

by Pan Ch'ao in his campaign against Yarkand. (See p. 132.) He

also refers to T'ang Chien, who in 630 A.D. was sent by T'ai

Tsung to lull the Turkish Kahn Chieh-li into fancied security,

until Li Ching was able to deliver a crushing blow against him.

Chang Yu says that the Turks revenged themselves by killing T'ang

Chien, but this is a mistake, for we read in both the old and the

New T'ang History (ch. 58, fol. 2 and ch. 89, fol. 8

respectively) that he escaped and lived on until 656.