ch the Chinese were driven by the incessant raids of the desert
hordes. In addition, there have been invasions of Corea and Indo-China,
but merely as passing incidents in the long era of Chinese history, not
as inaugurating a career of conquest. The great invasion of Japan in the
thirteenth century, the only pure war of conquest of China, was made by
Kublai Khan, a Tartar emperor, and largely with Tartar troops. In brief,
the Chinese have shown themselves in disposition one of the most
peaceful of nations, only asking to be let alone, and are very unlikely
to begin the war of conquest which some modern military writers fear.

Yet there is one instance in Chinese history which seems to contradict
what has here been said, that of the career of a great conqueror who
carried the arms of China over the whole width of Asia, and who seemed
actuated by that thirst for military glory which has inspired most of
the great wars of the world and brought untold misery upon mankind. This
was the great leader Panchow, who lived under three emperors of the Han
dynasty, and whose career is full of interest and event.

Panchow first appears in the reign of the emperor Mingti, who came to
the throne in 57 A.D. His victories were won in the west, in the region
of Kokonor, where he brought to an end the invasions of the Tartar
tribes. Under Changti, the succeeding emperor, Panchow continued his
work in the west, carrying on the war at his own expense, with an army
recruited from pardoned criminals.

Changti died, and Hoti came to the throne, a child ten years of age. It
was under his reign that the events to be described took place. During
the preceding reigns Panchow had made the power of China felt in regions
far west of that realm, bringing several small kingdoms and many tribes
under subjection, conquering the city of Kashgar, and extending the
western borders of China as far into the interior of Asia as the great
upland region of the Pamir. The power of his arms had added Eastern
Turkestan to the Chinese empire, a region which it continues to hold
to-day.

But these conquests were not enough to satisfy the ambition of the
veteran general. Under the boy emperor Hoti he was free to carry out his
designs on a much larger scale. With a powerful army he set out on the
only campaign of ambitious warfare in which China ever indulged. His
previous victories had carried the terror of his name far over the
kingdoms of the west, and he now led