"I am a connoisseur, your Majesty. Once I traveled fifteen hundred miles merely to taste a certain Landing wine of which I had heard extravagant tales. It was late at night when I arrived at the Tavem. The tavernkeeper was sleepy. Through rheumy eyes in the shadowy hostelry in which only a single candle burned, he took down a kettle and filled a cup with the amber fluid. I drank it eagerly, then I made a wry face. It took my breath away. I thought I had been poisoned but the host quickly allayed my fears.
"'It is onion wine,' he explained. 'No better medicine exists in the world. It spawns a new stomach when the old one is worn out.'
"'Too bad I cannot be sick to be worthy of it,' I said. 'And now, quickly, bring on the Lan-ling wine.'
"'At once,' he yawned. 'At once.' He lighted another candle. He heated the wine well. It was all that any man might desire. Need I add that I stayed at the Tavem until the supply of Lan-ling wine was exhausted?"
The Emperor signaled to Kao Li-shih who loitered near by.
As though by pre-arrangement, Kao brought wine cups. He was followed by three eunuchs. The first carried a lamp already lighted; the second, a table; the third, two kettles of wine. After setting them in place, the eunuchs withdrew, even Kao, though undoubtedly the Grand Eunuch did not go far. Although Ming Huang had special bodyguards, their positions were sinecures, for Kao performed their functions admirably.
Then the Emperor, with his own hands set about
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