却说夏侯惇败回许昌，自缚见曹操，伏地请死。
When Xiahou Dun reached the capital, he presented himself to his master in bonds and craved death.
惇曰：“惇遭诸葛亮诡计，用火攻破我军。”
And Xiahou Dun said, "I was the victim of Zhuge Liang's evil machinations: He attacked with fire."
操乃赏二人。
Cao Cao rewarded Li Dian and Yu Jin +who had warned their leader.
操曰：“吾所虑者，刘备、孙权耳；余皆不足介意。
"He is one of my anxieties," replied Cao Cao. "Sun Quan is the other.
The rest do not count.
今当乘此时扫平江南。”
We must take this chance to sweep the south clean."
便传令起大兵五十万，令曹仁、曹洪为第一队，张辽、张郃为第二队，夏侯渊、夏侯惇为第三队，于禁、李典为第四队，操自领诸将为第五队。
Then orders were issued to prepare an army of five hundred thousand troops, ^+1 in five divisions of ten legions each. +Each division had two leaders: Cao Ren and Cao Hong were in command of the first division; Zhang Liao and Zhang He, the second; Xiahou Dun and Xiahou Yuan, the third; Yu Jin and Li Dian, the fourth.
The fifth body was led by Cao Cao himself.
又令许褚为折冲将军，引兵三千为先锋。
The van was commanded by Xu Chu. -
选定建安十三年秋七月丙午日出师。
The "horse" day of the seventh moon of the thirteenth year of Rebuilt Tranquillity was fixed for the march (AD 208).
太中大夫孔融谏曰：“刘备，刘表皆汉室宗亲，不可轻伐；孙权虎踞六郡，且有大江之险，亦不易取。
The High Minister, Kong Rong, offered a remonstrance.
He said, "Liu Bei and Liu Biao are both of the Imperial House and should not be attacked without grave reasons.
Sun Quan in the six territories of the South Land is terrible as a crouching tiger and, with the Great River as his defense, he is very secure.
今丞相兴此无义之师，恐失天下之望。”
If, Sir Prime Minister, you undertake this unjustifiable expedition, you will forfeit the respect of the world, I fear."
操怒曰：“刘备、刘表、孙权皆逆命之臣，岂容不讨！”
"All three of them are disobedient ministers and rebels, and how can I fail to punish them?"replied Cao Cao.
遂叱退孔融，下令：“如有再谏者，必斩。”
+Cao Cao was angry, and bade the adviser go from his presence.
Presently Cao Cao gave formal orders that he would put to death anyone who remonstrated on the subject of his expedition.
孔融出府，仰天叹曰：“以至不仁伐至仁，安得不败乎！”
Kong Rong went forth from the Palace sadly.
Casting his eyes up to heaven, he cried, "Where is the chance of success when the perfectly inhumane attacks the perfectly humane?” He must be defeated!"
时御史大夫郗虑家客闻此言，报知郗虑。
One of the clients of the Imperial Inspector Chi Lu, ^+1 whom Kong Rong had always treated contemptuously and disdainfully, happened to hear this apostrophe and told his patron
虑常被孔融侮慢，心正恨之，乃以此言入告曹操，且曰：“融平日每每狎侮丞相，又与祢衡相善。
^-1 who carried the tale to Cao Cao.Chi Lu also added to it, saying, "Kong Rong habitually speaks disrespectfully of the Chief Minister and has been very friendly with Mi Heng.
衡赞融曰‘仲尼不死’，融赞衡曰‘颜回复生’。
^+1 In fact the insults that Mi Heng had hurled at you had been deliberately arranged and intrigued by Kong Rong. +Kong Rong and Mi Heng seemed to admire each other hugely, and Mi Heng used to say, 'Confucius is not dead, because Kong Rong is he,' and the other used to reply, 'And his treasured disciple, Yan Hui, has risen again, because Mi Heng is he.”
操大怒，遂命廷尉捕捉孔融，融有二子，年尚少，时方在家对坐弈棋。
Chi Lu's tale angered Cao Cao, who ordered the arrest execution of the high minister.
Now Kong Rong had two sons, both young, who were sitting at home playing chess,
左右急报曰：“尊君被廷尉执去，将斩矣！
when one of their servants ran in and said, "Your father has just been carried off for execution.
近闻刘景升病在危笃，可乘此机会，取彼荆州为安身之地，庶可拒曹操也。”
Liu Biao is ill and failing fast, so this is the time to take his region as a base where we may be safe against Cao Cao."
二子曰：“破巢之下，安有完卵乎？”
The youths replied, "When the nest is pulled down, are the eggs left unbroken?”
言未已，廷尉又至，尽收融家小并二子，皆斩之，号令融尸于市。
Even at that moment the same executors came and carried off the whole household.
The two youths were beheaded.
The father's corpse was exposed in the streets.
京兆脂习伏尸而哭。
Minister Zhi Xi wept over the corpse.
今融死而来哭，乃义人也，不可杀。”
+However, this additional punishment was prevented by Adviser Xun Yu, who said, "You should not slay a righteous man who came to mourn over his friend's corpse. ^+1 Zhi Xi had often warned Kong Rong against the danger his severe rectitude might lead him into."
习收融父子尸首，皆葬之。
Zhi Xi took up the remains of father and sons and buried them.