Duan Si wrote his letter urging Murong Chui to surrender in the Xianbei script. The messenger he sent was a household slave of the Duan Clan named Duan Tao, who had a younger brother named Duan Wu. Duan Tao volunteered to risk his life carrying the letter to Ye City. In return, his brother Duan Wu would be promoted to Commander of a Thousand Household Troops and rewarded with two hundred thousand cash and five hundred bolts of silk. Duan Si also bestowed one of his concubines on Duan Wu as a wife-
On the twenty-eighth day of the tenth month, as they parted at the river mouth in Gushu, the brothers clung to each other and wept bitterly. Duan Wu begged to go to Ye City in his brother's place, but Duan Tao said, "Your elder brother is past fifty, with few days left. If I can serve our master, I will die without regret. You aren't even forty yet, Wu. Live well, have children-"
Duan Wu fell to his knees and sobbed.
Duan Tao gazed up at the sky and added, "At the end of this year, Wu, burn all the things I used in daily life."
According to Xianbei funeral customs, the dead were buried secretly, without a grave mound or marked location. As for the funeral rites, an empty coffin and burial chamber were set up, and the carriages, horses, and utensils the deceased had used in life were all burned to send them on their way. Duan Tao gave his brother these instructions because he reckoned he could reach Ye City in a month and a half. The day he delivered the letter would also be the day he lost his life.
The day before, the Western Headquarters staff had each prepared gifts and sent