A small force was dispatched towards the city of Siangtan with instructions to circle around the hills and join the main body, which, on the night of November 30, crossed the river on a pontoon bridge and marched westward to Yiyang. Their simple ruse had sent the imperialists scurrying along the east bank to Siangtan, thus permitting the rebels to escape without molestation. They had beleaguered Changsha since the tenth of September.

The mountaineer will not leave his rock, nor the savage his hut; neither are we willing to give up our present mode of life, with all its advantages and disadvantages, for any other that could be substituted for it.

to repair a house, a road, a shoe, a ship

The off-season brought quarterback turnover, with Kurt Warner retiring and stalwarts like Donovan McNabb and Jake Delhomme changing teams. These veterans were not replaced by veterans or free agents, but by homegrown understudies, throwbacks to the days when Craig Morton spent four seasons behind Don Meredith in (depending on your point of view) apprenticeship or indentured servitude. The first of the padawan has already flopped. Matt Leinart appears to have once again returned a gift-wrapped starting job in Arizona.