Volume 1
Travels in Tartary, Thibet and China, 1844-1846 / translated by William Hazlitt; now edited with an introduction by Professor Paul Pelliot.
- Évariste Régis Huc
- Date:
- [1928]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Travels in Tartary, Thibet and China, 1844-1846 / translated by William Hazlitt; now edited with an introduction by Professor Paul Pelliot. Source: Wellcome Collection.
403/446 page 349
![From Ping-Lou-Hien to Ning-Hia, fifty lis. Northwards to Ping-Lou-Hien, five lis. Southwards to Ning-Hia, forty-five lis. In time of war, the square tower serves during the night for giving signals by means of fireworks, com¬ bined in particular ways. The Chinese relate that the Emperor Yeou-Wang [Yu-wang], the thirteenth emperor of the Tcheou [Chou] dynaTy, 780 b.c., yielding to the absurd solicitations of his wife, ordered one night the signals of alarm to be made. The Empress wanted at once to amuse herself at the expense of the soldiers, and to ascertain, at the same time, whether these fireworks would really bring the troops to succour the capital. As the signals passed on to the provinces, the governors dispatched the military Mandarins and their forces to Peking. When the soldiers learned, on their arrival, that they had been called together for the capricious amuse¬ ment of a woman, they returned home full of indig¬ nation. Shortly afterwards, the Tartars made an irruption into the empire, and advanced with rapidity to the very walls of the capital. This time the emperor gave the alarm in grave earnest, but through¬ out the provinces not a man Tirred, thinking the Empress was again amusing herself ; the consequence was that the Tartars entered Peking, and the imperial family was massacred. The profound peace which China has enjoyed so long has much diminished the importance of these guard-houses. When they decay they are seldom repaired ; in mod cases their doors and windows have been carried off, and no one lives in them at all. On some of the more frequented roads they keep in repair the diredtion-boards and the podts. The barrack where we halted was deserted. After having tied our beasts to a thick podt, we entered a room, and took in peace a wholesome refreshment.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b3135953x_0001_0403.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
