The chapter opens with a soliloquy by the great general, who tells the audience that he has promoted the general, and that he rose from his lowly station into prominence after his defeat at the battle of talas. The two men are now at the end of their lives together, and the emperor has ordered the retreat of their troops. The general is being accused of stealing rations and valor, but he refuses to confess to these crimes. He says that if he were to be executed, then he would be punished for it, but that he would not confess to them because he is willing to die only for the "right reasons" . The emperor asks the general why he is looking at him like this, and he replies that if the emperor were to harm him, then the emperor would be defying the imperial decrees. He tells the general that all of his troops will be executed. The great general then turns to the audience and tells them that if they agree that he retreated because he feared the enemy, then they should say that he stole. If they disagree, he says, then say that they disagree. The end of the fourteen year of the tianbao , the emperor says, is near, and all of the soldiers and their families are to be killed. They are to die on the same day as the execution of the emperor. The next day, the new emperor, a lushan, proclaims himself emperor of dayan.