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[[underlined]] Chapter II. [[/underlined]]
26.

the following day. Warned that the region was infested by bandits, we arranged for the customary military protection.
   Next morning, Sept. 8th, we went south by train to Hsin Chêng railway station. Here we were met by a guard of eight soldiers, with whom we set out for the town itself, an hour's walk to the west. The country was at first level; but soon we entered a region of much-dissected loess. After about a mile we found confronting us, along the opposite bank of a shallow stream flowing southward across our course, a great rampart of earth. This extended for a considerable distance both to right and to left until hidden by folds in the ground. About it the country people could tell us nothing save that it went back to the days of Yao and Shun. The local history, we learned later, ascribed its construction to Huang Ti, the mythical "Yellow Emperor". In other words, its ^[[real]] origin and purpose had in the course of time been completely forgotten.
   Passing through a gap in the embankment, we walked on a couple of miles more to the present town of Hsin Chêng Hsien, on a low plateau forming the northern bank of the Wei Ho 洧河. The latter, a pleasant stream navigable by fair-sized boats, rises in a group of barren hills, the Yang Ch'êng Shan 杨城山 (known locally as the Yang Shan 羊山), visible a few miles away to the southwest.
   Before us, as we approached the town, was a deep and narrow ravine. Its junction with the Wei described nearly a right angle. Within this lay the town, whose wall, said to be of Ming date, followed the brink of the plateau. At the projecting southeast corner stood a small brick pagoda ^[[ [[strikethrough]] (fig. X). [[/strikethrough]] (pl. [[strikethrough]] XXI [[/strikethrough]] 9, fig 1).]] The town, we were told, had a circuit of five [[underlined]] li [[/underlined]] --- something under two miles.
   The country roundabout has considerable strategic significance.
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