Entry

The flight of Si Shun from Man-mo was found to be the fault of Liu Ting. Previously, as Ting was the son of a great general and he had command of the men who were formerly commanded by his father, many of whom were tough soldiers, he was conceited and cocky. In the expedition against Ava-Burma, he stopped the troops at Jin-sha and there he built a general's platform on the site of Wang Ji's former platform. He then gathered together the various yi and realized achievements in taking heads. His achievements were only second to those of Gao Guo-chun's victory at Wu-zhang. However, he was greedy and incapable of controlling his men. When the troops returned to Teng-yue, they were in armour and in a great clamour. On the pretext that the squad commanders Liao Wen-yao and Wang Hua-long had reduced their rations, they set fire to over 170 houses of residents of the city. The subprefectural official then tied the seal to his forearm in preparation to flee. At the time, Ting was in Man-mo handling matters. When he heard of the incident, he rushed to Teng-yue and, with 500 men, took over defence himself. The troops did not dare move against him, but were unwilling to withdraw. He thus issued his private funds to reward them and made plans with Fu Chong of the military defence circuit. They expended 5,000 liang of silver intended for expenditure on rations, with each person being given one jin. Only then were the troops quieted. He then returned to handling the previous matter, but Si Shun had fled. At this time, the grand coordinator and the regional inspector memorialized: "The Regional Vice Commander Ting accepted gold, precious stones, ivory, brocade and other goods from Si Shun and he allowed the Squad Commanders Xie Shi-lu, Xia Shi-xun and Chen Qi-zheng to sexually abuse Si Shun's wives and sisters. Being unable to bear this, Si Shun suddenly fled. Ting's crimes should be punished." The Emperor, considering Ting's achievements, showed leniency and only demoted him to mobile corps commander and ordered that he be removed from his post, and await further employment. It was further ordered that Xie Shi-lu and the other subordinates be arrested and investigated by the grand coordinator and regional inspector, while the Military Defence Circuit Intendent Fu Chong, the Vice Prefect Chen Yi-hua and the Assistant Prefect Chen Chen were all demoted or dismissed as appropriate.