The History of Korea Volume 2

HOMER B. HULBERT

Seoul, 1905

The Methodist Publishing House

Chapter I

China’s reply to the Japanese.... the Chinese army.... the Chinese commander interviews the King.... march on P’yŭng-yang.... Chinese treachery.... the new year.... Chinese help not all a blessing.... P’yŭng-yang invested.... the Chinese force an entrance.... Japanese driven to bay.... how they escape.... they retreat.... they mass at Seoul.... Chinese stop at Song-do.... Koreans bridge the Im-jin.... Chinese retire to P’yŭng-yang.... Korean victory in the north.... great victory at Hăng-ju.... the Japanese sue for peace.... conference on the Han.... Japanese evacuate Seoul.... the terrible condition of the city.... Chinese enter Seoul.... they prevent pursuit.... Japanese desecrate a royal tomb.... Chinese accused of bad faith.... Japanese line of camps.... Chinese reinforced.... the great battle of Chin-ju.... a loyal dancing-girl.... admiral Yi still active.... Chinese troops retire.

We must now return to the north and witness the final struggle which was to begin the Japanese retreat from the whole north. It was not till long after the fifty days had expired that Gen. Sim Yu-gyŭng returned from Nanking. The Japanese had sent time and again, asking why he did not make his appearance, but now on the sixth day of the twelfth moon he entered the city of P’yŭng-yang, making no excuses for his tardiness but delivering his message as follows: “I have seen the Emperor and he says that if you wish to become vassals of China you must first give up all the territory taken from Korea. You must also give up the two princes whom you have captured. If you do not see fit to comply with these demands the Emperor will send a million men and destroy you.” He then gave to each of the Japanese leaders an ornament for the hat, from the Emperor. This was a trick to 2discover how large the Japanese force might be. It was determined that there must be about 20,000 Japanese troops in the city. What reply the Japanese gave to the Emperor’s demands is not told, but that it was a negative one seems sure from what followed.

The Chinese army of counter-invasion lay just beyond the Ya-lu River. It was an enormous host and, as armies went in those days, it was a thoroughly efficient one. In connection with this army was an official who held the rank of “Military Adviser,” by the name of Song Eung-ch’ang. The office carried no active power in the field but it seems to have been a sort of check upon the commander-in-chief, for the duties of the office were to keep the Emperor informed of what was going on at the seat of war. The actual General-in-chief was Yi Yŭ-song. Under him were three generals, of the right, left and center respectively. The General of the Left was Yang Wŭn and under him were Generals Wang Yŭ-jung, Yi Yŭ-mă, Yi Yo-o, Yang So, Sa Tă-su, Son Su-ryŭm, Yi Ryŭng and Kal Pong-ha. The General of the Center was Yi Yŭ-băk and under him were Generals Im Cha-yang, Yi Pang-jin, Ko Ch’ak, Chön Sŭ-jong, Ch’ŭk Keum, Chu Hong-mo, Pang Si-whi, Ko Seung and Wang Mun. The General of the Right was Chang Se-jak and under him were Generals Cho Seung-hun, O Yu-ch’ung, Wang P’il-jŭk, Cho Chi-mok, Chang Eung-ch’ung, Nak Sang-ji, Chin Pang-ch’ŭl, Kok Su and Yang Sim. The rear guard was under the command of Gen. Pang Si-ch’an and the engineering corps was commanded by Generals Yu Whang-sang and Wŭn Whang. The main army was composed of 43,000 troops, while in the rear was a reserve force of 8,000. This army crossed the Ya-lu on the twenty-fifth of the twelfth moon, the dead of winter. It is said that when on the march this army stretched along the road a thousand li (three hundred miles and more) and that the sound of their drums was continuous along the whole line.

General-in-chief Yi Yŭ-song, dressed in crimson robes and riding in a crimson chair, arrived in Eui-ju and immediately sought an interview with the king. The latter said, “I have governed this country badly. The Emperor has been put to a great deal of trouble on my account and all these 3good men have come a long, cold road to fight for us. Though I lay open my vitals with a sword I cannot repay you all for this kindness.” Gen. Yi smiled and said, “The Emperor’s might reaches to the heavens. For the sake of Your Majesty’s happiness we have been sent, and all your enemies will soon be put to flight.” To this the king rejoined, “Our nation’s life hangs by a thread, and the result lies with you.” Gen. Yi raised his two hands in salute and answered, “I am come at the Emperor’s orders and life or death are all one to me. When I started out my father said to me, ‘Fight valiantly for Korea and return victorious,’ and so how can I do less than my best?” The Koreans say that this man’s father was a native of Eun-san in the province of P’yŭng-an, Korea, but that for some offence he had fled to China and together with many of his relatives was enjoying high position under the Emperor.

Gen. Yi started for P’yŭng-yang with his whole army, 80,000 bags of rice and 20,000 pounds of powder. His troops were not provided with muskets but they had small cannon. The Japanese on the other hand had muskets but no cannon. Upon the arrival of the Chinese at An-ju they were met by the Prime Minister, Yu Sŭng-nyŭng, who laid before Gen. Yi a map showing the roads leading to P’yŭng-yang. Gen. Yi took red ink and indicated on the map the various routes by which he intended to lead his forces to that city. Calling Gen. Sa Tă-su he sent him forward to deceive the Japanese by saying that a few Chinese had come to effect a peaceful solution of the difficulty. The Japanese were pleased at this and sent twenty of their people to meet, as they supposed, Sim Yu-gyŭng at Su-an. Gen. Sa feasted them there but meanwhile had the place surrounded and in the midst of the banquet the Japanese were treacherously assaulted and cut down, only three escaping. From these the Japanese learned of the hostile intentions of the Chinese and were greatly disturbed, but being forewarned they put themselves in readiness for an assault.

And so the old year died—the terrible Im-jin year which witnessed the indescribable horrors of the ruthless invasion which swept it from end to end; which saw, too, the gradual awakening of the dormant military spirit of the people, until 4at its close the wave of invasion had not only broken and spent itself but had left the remnant of the invaders cut off from their home land by one of the greatest naval geniuses of his own or any other age, surrounded on all sides and hemmed in by forces which though perhaps unable to cope with them in the open field in a pitched battle could yet harrass and cut them off on every side. It must be clearly borne in mind that the Chinese did not raise a hand to help Korea until the invasion virtually collapsed. The Koreans without the aid of China could probably have starved the Japanese out of P‘yŭng-yang and driven them southward, cutting them off on the left and right till they would have been glad to take ship for home. In a sense the Chinese counter-invasion was an extremely unfortunate thing for Korea, for the dormant energies of the people were just rousing themselves to action. Armies were being levied, every day saw the Japanese forces melting away and there was a magnificent opportunity for Korea to turn upon her devastators and drive them headlong into the sea. It would have given a tremendous impulse to patriotism and national self-respect, and it might have been a stepping-stone to a strong national life; but the coming of the Chinese soldiery immediately threw everything into Chinese hands and they reaped all the benefits of the situation. Even the Koreans themselves did not realize how they were playing into the hands of China. The Japanese in P‘yŭng-yang were weary and sick, and at heart glad of any excuse for retreating if it could be done without too great a loss of dignity. It was at just this moment that the Koreans put the game, already won, into the hands of China to reap all the credit and all the prizes of success. The Koreans leaned back upon China and relapsed into their old self-complacent “fool’s paradise.”

With the beginning of the new year Gen Yi moved southward toward P‘yŭng-yang as far as Suk-ch‘ŭn where he intended to halt for the night, as the winter days were short, but hearing of the massacre at Sun-an and wishing to give as little time for preparation as possible, pushed on by night, and in the morning planted his banners before the ancient city of P‘yŭng-yang. The city was forthwith surrounded. The Japanese could be seen covering the slope of the hill within the wall with their blue and white flags, and soon they opened 5fire on the besiegers. At the same moment they rushed to the walls and manned them. The Chinese Generals of the Left, Center and Right were stationed with their respective forces before the three gates Ch’il-sŭng, Ham-gu and Po-t’ong. The General-in-chief Yi, with a banner in one hand and a drum-stick in the other, rode swiftly from one division to another encouraging the men. His forces could hardly be held in check, they were so eager, in spite of their long, cold night march, to rush at the wall and scale it. They were not long kept from their desire, for at eight o’clock word was given for the whole assaulting force to advance to the wall. The cannon thundered, the fire-arrows flashed through the air, the very ground fairly trembled with the noise of battle and the tramp of eager feet. One of the fire-arrows alighted in the quarters of the Japanese general-in-chief and it was soon in flames, which rapidly spread to all the surrounding buildings. The Japanese guarded the walls with the greatest gallantry, and with spear and arrow, hot water and stones they made it quite impossible for the Chinese to effect an entrance. The wall bristled with weapons, so that in the words of a native chronicler it was “a hedge-hog’s back.” So it happened that the Chinese forces fell back from the fierce defense of the Japanese. Many of them contemplated a general retreat and started to leave the field, but Gen. Yi, who was always found where most needed, saw the defection of his men and, pursuing them, struck off the heads of a few as an example to the rest. Then he turned and cried, “Fifty ounces of silver to the first man to set foot upon the battlements of P’yŭng-yang.” This was doubtless a more powerful appeal than he could have made had he called upon their patriotism or love of glory. Immediately the tide of battle turned. A Chinese captain, Nak Sang-ji, a man well along in years and whose proportions were so ample that the Korean chronicler says of him that he weighed a thousand pounds, led on a company of men and by a mighty effort succeeded in reaching the top of the wall. He held his ground there while others could scale the wall at his back, and so an entrance was effected. The Japanese began to desert the wall, and soon the Chinese entered by the Po-t’ong and Ch’il-sŭng gates, while Korean allies entered by the Ham-gu Gate. By this time the Japanese had entirely 6left the wall and had massed themselves as best they could in various parts of the city, determined to make a desperate stand. The Chinese infantry and cavalry both swarmed in on every side and all Japanese stragglers were cut off, while the fight throughout the city became general. Before the Japanese could firmly establish themselves upon the hill and in other defensible parts of the town they lost two captains, 2,285 men, and 45,002 weapons of various kinds, besides 1,051 Koreans whom they had held as captives.

Many of the Japanese had taken refuge in various government buildings which they had barricaded as best they could. The Chinese went to work systematically to burn these down, and in the few hours remaining before the fall of night nearly half of the entire Japanese force succumbed to the weapons of Chinese. One instance will suffice to illustrate the method of procedure. Many of the Japanese had taken refuge in a large building on the wall, well up on the side of the mountain and looking directly down upon the waters of the river. Gen. Yi had it surrounded with piles of wood, the timbers of houses and hewn logs, and these were set on fire. The entrapped Japanese then had the choice of roasting to death or leaping down upon the ice of the river. Hundreds chose the latter alternative, but the ice was not strong enough to stand the tremendous strain and they were all engulfed in the river and carried under the ice below. As for those that remained, it is said that the smell of burning flesh could be discerned a quarter of a mile away.

Gen. Konishi had taken refuge with a large body of troops in a building called the Yŭn-gwang-jŭng, very near the Ta-dong Gate which opens directly upon the water front. Night had fallen and the fight had lulled for a time. What took place at this time may be open to some doubt. The Korean account says that the Chinese commander sent a message to Konishi demanding the surrender of his whole force and that Konishi replied, “Our remaining force is small and we wish to evacuate the city and retreat if we may be allowed to leave quietly.” It is affirmed that Gen. Yi consented to this and left the Ta-dong Gate unguarded, and in the dead of night the Japanese troops passed swiftly out and crossed the river. On the face of it this statement is hardly credible, but judging 7from future events the Koreans believe that Gen. Yi received a large bribe from the Japanese as the price of this act of leniency. It is true that future events justified the Koreans in suspecting some such thing, but as the Japanese were immediately beside the Ta-dong Gate and, under cover of night, might easily have forced their way out, especially as the Chinese were exhausted by their long forced march and the fight about the city, we may well believe that the Japanese did not need to appeal either to the pity or the avarice of the Chinese in order to effect their escape. It may be, too, that Gen. Yi did not wish to be hampered with so many prisoners of war and was rather glad than otherwise to let them get away. Of course the Koreans who had suffered so terribly at the hands of the Japanese would have been glad to see every one of them massacred, and their anger at seeing them escape may have led them to impute wrong motives to Gen. Yi. Subsequent events, however, gave some color to these suspicious, as we shall see.

This retreat from P’yŭng-yang in the dead of winter was like Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow, on a small scale. The Japanese were without provisions or proper clothing. Many of them threw aside their arms and luggage and, turning from the main road, begged their way from house to house. When at last they reached the city of Seoul and found food and safety they were in a savage humor. Most of the Koreans who had fled from the capital had now returned, and on them these half-famished and wholly disappointed Japanese wreaked their vengeance. They seized hundreds of the unoffending people and put them to the sword. Scores of them were taken outside the South Gate and slaughtered like oxen.

Gen. Kato, who had led an expedition eastwards into Ham-gyŭng Province, hearing of the evacuation of P’yŭng-yang, immediately put his troops in motion and hastened down to Seoul, burning and ravaging as he came. And in a short time all the remnants of the Japanese army were congregated in the capital.

The Japanese retreat from P’yŭng-yang was not without its casualties. A Korean general, Ko On-băk, met a body of the Japanese, probably a part of the retreating army, at P’a-ju, seventy li out of Seoul, and punished them severely, taking 8as it is said, seventy heads; not a great achievement when we remember that the Japanese were practically unarmed.

But by this time the Chinese Gen. Yi was on his way south from P’yŭng-yang, rather tardily as the Koreans thought, but hearing of this engagement of Gen. Ko, he quickened his pace. Coming to He-on Pass, some seventy li out from Seoul, his horse slipped, throwing him heavily on his face. He was severely though not dangerously hurt. At that moment a company of Japanese was sighted on the mountain side and Gen. Yi ordered instant pursuit. The Japanese, probably a foraging party from Seoul, closed with them and as the Chinese were on a marshy piece of land, where they sank to their knees in the mud, and had no other weapons with them but their swords, the Japanese inflicted severe punishment on them, killing eighty of their number. Gen. Yi was so weak from loss of blood that he did not dare to prolong the fight. So he called a retreat and the next day went into camp at Tong-p’a, a hundred li from Seoul. From that point he immediately despatched a letter to the Emperor saying: “There are 20,000 Japanese firmly intrenched in Seoul and with my present force I dare not attack them. I am also ill and cannot fight. I would be glad if you would send someone to relieve me of the command.” Then he retreated fifty li further, to Song-do, in spite of the earnest entreaties of the Koreans. The Korean General Yi Pin said, “You came to render aid to our country. Why is it that you now retreat?” whereupon one of the general’s staff promptly kicked him out of the house.

Gen. Yi ordered Gen. Sa Tă-su to go and guard the ferry at the Im-jin river which was now partly frozen but impassable for boats and ordered the Koreans to go to work building a bridge for the transport of the Chinese army. Here was a piece of work that might have daunted a better engineer than the average Korean general. But the way the Koreans went about it and the brilliant success they achieved show what the Korean was capable of when really in earnest. And it shows as well how thoroughly they were determined to see chastisement inflicted upon the Japanese. A swift broad river partly frozen, no possibility of driving piles nor of erecting any supports from the bed of the river itself. It must be a suspension bridge or none at all. On either side of the 9river heavy timbers were planted firmly in the ground some twenty feet apart. Behind these horizontally were laid heavy logs. Then between these supports on either bank were stretched fifteen heavy strands of the tough fibrous vine called chik by the Koreans. It is the pueraria thunbergiana. Of course these sagged in mid-stream so that they swept the water. To remedy this, stout levers were inserted between the strands and twisted until the cables swung clear of the water by many feet. The foundation having thus been laid, willow branches were spread thickly upon the cables and finally a heavy layer of earth was added and the whole was packed down tight by the treading of many feet. And so was completed the first suspension bridge which history records. We see that during this war the Koreans had originated three important things, namely the iron-clad, the mortar and bomb, and now the suspension bridge. And on this bridge the whole Chinese army crossed in safety.

But Gen. Yi was tired of the war and was extremely anxious to get back to China. So when he heard that Kato was crossing the peninsula he said, “He may come to P’yŭng-yang and in that case I must hasten back to that place and hold it against him.” So he started back toward that city, leaving Gen Wang P’il-jŭk in charge of the forces that were advancing on Seoul.

At this point mention must be made of the victories of Gen. Chöng Mun-bu in Ham-gyŭng Province. In three successive fights he had defeated a large, though not the main, body of Japanese and seems to have entirely cut it off from forming a junction with Gen. Kato as he retreated toward Seoul with his dwindling though still formidable army. After the departure of the Japanese, Gen. Chöng went to the far north, even to the far Tu-man River and inflicted severe punishment on all those who had aided the Japanese or had sided with them in the betrayal of the two princes. This done, he pacified the disturbed province as much as he could and then disbanded the militia and sent them to their homes.

Kwŭn Ryŭl, the governor of Chŭl-la, of whom we have heard before, took 4000 men and marched on Seoul, not by the main road but by way of Yang-ch’ŭn. Crossing the Han 10at that point he went into camp at Hăng-ju and surrounded it with a paling of heavy logs. The Japanese in Seoul ridiculed it but sent a strong body of troops to attack it. A long fierce fight ensued and the result was doubtful. At last the Japanese succeeded in setting fire to the wooden paling and had it not been for the most strenuous efforts on the part of the Koreans they would have been burned out. But they succeeded in quenching the flames. When their arrows were gone their outlook was again apparently hopeless, but in the very nick of time Admiral Yi Pin of Chŭl-la Province came up the river by boat with 20,000 arrows and as the camp was immediately on the river bank the Koreans were saved, and soon the Japanese were driven back. Kwŭn Ryŭl took the bodies of the Japanese who had fallen, cut them in pieces and impaled the fragments on the top of the stockade. The next day the Chinese general Sa Tă-su arrived and, seeing these trophies of victory, praised Gen. Kwŭn highly and sent him to P’a-ju to guard against any possible northward movement of the Japanese. At the same time small companies were sent in all directions to cut off foraging expeditions of the enemy. In this way the Japanese in Seoul were cut off from all supply of fuel. The Japanese general who had suffered defeat at Hăng-ju thirsted for revenge, and he led many a fierce sally from Seoul, but always with great loss.

In the third month confidence was so far restored in the north that the king began to think of returning toward the capital. The first stage of this journey was as far as Yong-yu. At this same time the Japanese sent a letter to the Korean general Yu Sŭng-nyong saying that they wished to conclude a treaty of peace. Gen. Yu as in duty bound sent this message on to the Chinese Gen. Yi in P’yŭng-yang. He in turn despatched Sim Yu-gyŭng, who had before acted as an emissary of peace between the Japanese and the Emperor, to take charge of the negotiations and with instructions more or less definite. When this commissioner arrived in the vicinity of Seoul a meeting took place between him and the two Japanese leaders, Konishi and Kato, in mid-stream off the village of Yong-san. Gen Sim opened the conference by saying, “If you had listened to my advice in P’yŭng-yang you would have saved yourselves all this trouble. The Chinese, 1140,000 strong, are all about you. They have gone south to fortify the Cho-ryŭng Pass and thus cut off your retreat. The Han River is guarded so thoroughly that you cannot cross; Gen. Yi Yŭ-song is returning from the north with 300,000 fresh troops (an unblushing lie) and I am prepared to offer you the only possible way of escape. You must give up the two princes; you must leave the capital and move south to the coast of Kyŭng-sang Province. Then and not till then will we conclude peace and the Emperor will recognize your king as his vassal.” The vanquished invaders saw that there was nothing to do but comply, and so in the name of the thirty-seven Japanese generals they engaged to evacuate Seoul on the nineteenth day of the fourth moon. It was further agreed that they should leave untouched 20,000 bags of rice which were stored in the government granaries. The two princes were to accompany the Japanese as far as Fusan and were to be handed over to the Korean authorities there.

In accordance with their promise, the Japanese evacuated the city on the very day appointed, and Gen. Yi Yŭ-song, who seems to have recovered his health rapidly after he found that the Japanese did not mean fight, entered the city the following day. The condition in which he found things is almost indescribable. The Ancestral Temple and three palaces had been burned. Only the Nam-pyŭl-gung, which the invaders had used as headquarters, was standing. The country all about was lying fallow and a great famine stared the Koreans in the face. A thousand bags of rice were hastily brought and made up into soup or gruel, mixed with pine leaves, and a few of the starving thousands were fed. As Gen. Sa Tă-su was passing along the street he saw a young child trying to suck milk from the breast of its dead mother. The sight aroused his compassion and he carried the child to his quarters and ordered it to be cared for. Rice was so scarce that a whole piece of cotton cloth could be purchased with about three quarts of it. A horse cost but three pecks of rice. Famishing men fought and killed each other, the victors eating the vanquished, sucking the marrow from the bones and then dying themselves of surfeit. It is even said that when a drunken Chinese soldier vomited, half starved men would crawl to the place and fight over the possession of 12this horrible substitute for food. This state of things naturally brought on an epidemic of the native fever, a species of typhus, and the dead bodies of its victims lay all along the road, the head of one being pillowed on the breast of another. The dead bodies in and immediately around Seoul were gathered and piled in a heap outside the Water Mouth Gate and it is affirmed that the pile was ten feet higher than the wall.

It was on the twentieth of the fourth moon that Gen. Yi entered Seoul. He took up his quarters in the Nam-pyŭl-gung. He seemed to be in no haste to pursue the Japanese, so Gen. Yu Sŭng-nyong hinted that as the Japanese were in full flight it might be well to hurry after them and cut them down as occasion offered. The Chinese general had no intention of leaving his comfortable quarters that soon, but he gave consent to the project of pursuit and detailed 10,000 men under the lead of Gen Yi Yŭ-băk. A day or so later this doughty warrior returned saying that he had a pain in the leg. So ended the first attempt at pursuit. Then the Korean Gen. Kwŭn Ryŭl came in from P’a-ju and urged that there be immediate pursuit, but for some unexplained reason the Chinese commander forbade it, and the native accounts even add that he sent secretly and had the boats on the Han destroyed so as to render pursuit of the Japanese impossible.

After crossing the Han River, the retreating Japanese seem to have been in very ill humor, for they did not confine their exhibitions of temper to the living alone but even attacked the dead. They dug open the royal tomb at Chung-neung a short distance the other side of the river. Digging fifteen measures deep they found some rags and a few bones. These they scattered about on the ground. They then filled in the hole with rubble. Another royal tomb was opened and the casket and remains were burned.

In the beginning of the fifth moon a letter arrived from the Military Commissioner, Song Eung-ch’ang, in P’yŭng-yang, ordering a general pursuit of the Japanese. The Koreans believe this to have been a mere blind, for the Japanese had twenty days the start of them and pursuit was of course out of the question. At this point again the Koreans make a 13serious charge against the Chinese, asserting that the Japanese, before leaving Seoul, sent large sums of money toward P’yŭng-yang for Gen. Yi Yŭ-song and Song Eung-ch‘ang, and that by this means they secured immunity from pursuit. The delay was a cause of great wonderment to the Koreans and it is not unlikely that this theory of a bribe explained for them most fully the actions of the Chinese. And it must be confessed that there is little in the temperament or antecedents of the Chinese on which to base a refutation of the charge. An instance is cited to bring home the charge. A Korean who had come upon a Japanese straggler and killed him was severely beaten by order of the Chinese general in charge.

Finally, when all too late, Gen. Yi made a pretense of pursuit, but after crossing Cho-ryŭng Pass and still finding himself no nearer the enemy than before, he turned back and resumed his comfortable quarters in Seoul. If he thought the Japanese would hasten to take boat and return to their native land, he was much mistaken. It may be that they wished to do so, but the terrible punishment that Admiral Yi Sun-sin had inflicted upon the army of reinforcement made them wary of approaching the coast, and so the Japanese forces in the south found themselves practically entrapped. Had the Korean land forces been led at this time by a man of the skill and bravery of old admiral Yi the country would have been spared long years of war.

The Japanese in their flight south were brought face to face with this stern fact, and like the soldiers that they were they set themselves to solve the problem. They wanted to be near the sea, perhaps with a view to taking advantage of any opportunity that might present itself of slipping across to Japan, and yet they were so numerous that, living as they must on forage, it would be impossible for them all to encamp at the same place. So they adopted the plan of fortifying a long strip of the southern coast, reaching from the harbor of So-sang in the district of Ul-san in Kyŭng-sang Province to Sun-ch‘ŭn in Ch‘ŭl-la Province, a distance of over two hundred and seventy miles. There were in all between twenty and thirty camps. Being thus about ten miles apart they had room for forage and still were near enough each other to render assistance in case the Koreans or their allies the Chinese should besiege them 14at any point. These fortified camps were all of the same general kind, overlooking the sea from a bluff and on the land side surrounded by a moat and earthworks. These preparations were made with the utmost care, for there was no hope of immediate succor and the Japanese foresaw stirring times.

In course of time the Chinese court was informed of these events and the success of their generals in the north seems to have given them some enthusiasm for prosecuting the war; so additional troops were sent to the front under the command of Generals Yu Chung and Hŭ Kuk-ch‘ŭng. These troops numbered 5,000 and were from southern China. Among them there are said to have been many “ocean imps,” or savages from the southern islands. These men could enter the water, it is said, and scuttle the enemy’s ships from beneath. We are told that there were also in this army some men of immense stature who came in carts rather than on foot. These forces went into camp at Sŭng-ju in Kyŭng-sang Province. At this place there was also a large Korean army under Generals Kim Ch‘ŭn-il, Kim Sang-gön, Ch‘oé Kyŭng-whé, Ko Chong-hu, Yang San-do and Yi Chong-in. Under them were large numbers of militia and raw recruits, and this accounts in part for the speedy fall of the town and the terrible slaughter that ensued. The Japanese laid siege to the place and after nine days, during which time the Japanese made a hundred separate assaults, the latter were reinforced and the defenders, exhausted by the long struggle, were finally driven from the wall and the Japanese effected an entrance. But even after they got in, the Koreans fought desperately and sold their lives as dearly as possible. Of this most sanguinary battle only one incident is preserved in the Korean accounts. When the Japanese entered the city and had advanced to a point on the wall which overlooks the waters of the Nam-gang (river), a desperate encounter took place, in the midst of which the Korean general, Yi Chong-in, seized two of the Japanese about the waist and, dragging them to the brink of the precipice, threw himself and them into the water below. Korean accounts say that in this battle the almost incredible number of 70,000 Koreans were killed and that an equal number of the Japanese perished. This latter must be an exaggeration, 15for the loss of that number must have swept well-nigh the entire Japanese army from the country. We must remember that the Japanese army had received practically no reinforcements from the time it first landed on Korean soil, and it is safe to say that what with the losses by sickness and accident, together with the thousands who had fallen at the hands of the Koreans and Chinese, the original force must have dwindled to 150,000 or less; in which case the loss of 70,000 men must have put them hors de combat at once. This battle is called the greatest in the whole war, by the Koreans, though it is not considered the most important.

An interesting story is told of a dancing-girl of this town. When the Japanese took possession of the place she was appropriated by one of the Japanese generals. One day while they were feasting in a summer-house on the wall overlooking the river, she began to weep. He asked her the reason and she replied, “You have come here and driven away our people and our king. I do not know whether my sovereign is living, and yet I sit here and feast. I can hardly claim to be better than the beasts, to sit here and make merry. I must put an end to my life.” Thereupon she threw her arms about her paramour and flung herself and him over the edge, thus ending her weary life and helping to avenge her native land at the same time. For this reason she was canonized at a later date and her spirit was worshiped at this place each year by royal edict.

All this time the great Admiral Yi was in camp at Han-san Island off the coast of Kyŭng-sang Province. His force was not large, but during his enforced idleness he prepared for future work. He set all his men to work making salt by evaporating sea water, and by this means he got together a great store of provisions. Needing barracks for the soldiers, he offered to the carpenters and workmen about a bag of salt for a day’s work. His energy and patriotism were so contagious that many worked for nothing, and the barracks were soon built. At this point the king conferred upon him the admiralty of the three provinces of Ch’ung-ch’ŭng, Chŭl-la and Kyŭng-sang.

In the ninth moon the Commissioner Song Eung-ch’ang and Gen Yi Yŭ-song collected their forces and started back 16for China. They evidently considered the back bone of the invasion broken, and so it was; but like most spinal diseases it was destined to linger on for years before it came to an end. When these generals set out on their homeward way they left 10,000 Chinese soldiers in the hands of the Korean generals Yu Chŭng and O Yu-ch’ang to act as a bodyguard for the king. In spite of their suspicions of the corruptibility of Gen. Yi Yŭ-song, the Koreans speak in high terms of him. They describe him as a young man of thirty, of handsome person, broad mind and possessed of great skill in the art of war. When he was on the eve of returning to China he bared his head and showed the Koreans that his hair was already turning gray. He told them it was because he had worked so hard for them, which piece of bathos seems to have impressed them deeply.

Chapter I-A

The King re-enters Seoul.... temporary palace.... a royal lament.... a profligate prince.... imperial rebuke.... “The Flying General”.... uneasiness in Seoul.... revenue reform.... reforms in the army.... King refuses to make peace with the Japanese.... the Chinese retire.... plot against Konishi.... Japanese envoy in Nanking.... robbers put down.... a good man ruined.... Japanese trickery.... a patient envoy.... he absconds.... his flight covered by his second.... home-sick Japanese.... Konishi sarcastic.... Chinese envoy in Japan.... Korean envoy.... Japanese army leaves Korea.... prince refuses the crown.... rebellion.... death of a loyal general.... envoys ill-treated in Japan.... return.... a new invasion determined upon.... comparison of Japan and Korea.... Japanese scheme to get Admiral Yi into trouble.... Admiral Yi degraded.... second invasion.... Cho-ryŭng pass fortified.... Chinese give aid.... Admiral Yi’s successor a failure.... great naval victory for the Japanese.

It was on the fourth day of the tenth moon of the year 1593 that the king reentered the gates of Seoul after his long hard exile in the north. But he found the city almost a desert. The palaces were burnt and the ancestral temple was level with the ground. Under the circumstances he decided to stop for some time in that part of the city which is called 17Chong-dong, the present foreign quarter, near the West Gate. Here there had been the grave of one of the wives of the founder of the dynasty, but her body had long ago been disinterred and removed to a place outside the Northeast Gate. So the king took up his quarters at the Myŭng-ye-gung. It is the exact spot where the King of Korea lives today. A considerable tract of land about it was surrounded by a stake fence with a gate at the east and at the west. This royal residence was named the Si-ö-sa or “Temporary Residence.” Here the king lived thirteen years while the palace now known as “The Old Palace” was being built. The king was desirous of rebuilding on the spot where his palace had stood before, the Kyöng-bok-kung, but he was told by the geomancers that that would be an unpropitious site. In order to build the new palace a tax of half a piece of cotton cloth was levied upon each man throughout the country. In some cases rice was accepted as a substitute.

After the king had entered the city, one of his first acts was to go to the site of the ancient Confucian Temple and, standing on the melancholy spot, utter the following lament: “The spirit of Confucius permeates space as water permeates the soil beneath our feet. If my faithfulness is great enough, let the spirit of Confucius rest down upon this spot.” He noticed that none of the people were in mourning and so ordered that all those who had lost parents in the war should assume the mourner’s garb.

At this time a strong faction arose whose wish was to see the king lay aside his royal prerogative in favor of his son. This prince was a son by a concubine, for the queen had no children. He was an ambitious but profligate fellow and had in his heart no loyalty for his father. Some of the courtiers went so far as to memorialize the King to the effect that it might add to the contentment of the people if the king should put the reins of government into the hands of his son. He hesitated to do this, for he knew the young man and how unfit he was to rule. At the suggestion of Song Eung-ch‘ang, the emperor sent to the king appointing the Crown Prince to the governorship of the southern provinces in conjunction with the Chinese general, Yu Chung. The prince was delighted at this and hastened to his post at Chŭn-ju. He practically took 18the whole jurisdiction of the south out of the hands of the king and even held the competitive examinations for literary degrees, which was an exclusively royal prerogative.

Another of the Chinese generals accused the king before the emperor of effeminacy and love of luxury and suggested that one of the best of the Korean generals be elevated to the throne in his place, but Gen. Suk Sŭng, who was very loyal to Korea, induced the emperor merely to send a letter upbraiding the king for his love of luxury and claiming that this was the cause of Japanese successes in the peninsula. The letter ended with an exhortation to arouse himself, work up a competent army, and complete the work of driving out the Japanese. The envoy bearing this missive was met at P‘a-ju by Gen. Yu Sŭng-nyong and an escort. The Chinaman told him that his arrival in Seoul would be the signal for some very important disclosures. General Yu and Gen. Chŭk conferred together about this matter and decided that the king must in any event be prevented from abdicating, for their official heads depended upon his retention of the reins of power. They also persuaded the envoy to their view, so that when the king read the letter and declared his intention to abdicate, the envoy objected that this could not be done until he had sent a letter to the emperor and obtained his consent.

Meanwhile there was going on in the south a sort of geurilla warfare against the Japanese. It was led principally by Kim Tŭk-nyŭng, a self-made man who had the confidence of the prince. This man had put his whole fortune into the cause and had himself fitted out 5,000 men. His method was to pass from place to place with great rapidity and strike the enemy when they were least expecting attack. In this way he earned from the Japanese the name “The Flying General.” He is said to have been uniformly successful.

Of another ilk were Song U-jin, Yi Neung-su and Hyŭn Mong. These gathered about them bands of desperate men and went about the country looting and burning. In Seoul there was consternation. At any moment one of these bands might enter the city and work their will. The Crown Prince, a cause of great uneasiness, was still at Chŭn-ju and for aught anyone knew he might be plotting the overthrow of the government. 19In fact this impression was so strong that the highwaymen dared to write to him complaining of the king and asserting that they were going to make a clean sweep. The implication was plain, that they intended to put the prince upon the throne. The solicitude of the people in Seoul took form in the rumor that Yi Tă-hyŭng himself, the Minister of War, was in league with the rebels. For forty successive days this injured minister went and knelt at the palace gate and begged that the king would have him executed, as he could not endure the charge of unfaithfulness.

It was customary for the emperor to nominate an heir apparent for the Korean throne, but at the beginning of this war it had seemed necessary to appoint one immediately and so the king had informally promised the prince that he should be king. The latter now demanded that this be confirmed by the emperor and a messenger was sent to the Chinese court for that purpose; but as the emperor had no son himself except by a concubine and was loath to put him on the throne of China, so he was unwilling to see this prince put on the throne of Korea. The result was that he sent back a prompt refusal, which for the time dashed the hopes of the ambitious prince.

It appears that the rebuke which the emperor administered to the king was in some senses deserved. The king after all his wearisome exile in the north, probably paid more attention to the pleasures of peace than was for his own good or the good of the country. If so the rebuke had its effect, for the king immediately roused himself and set to work reorganizing the finances of the country and putting the army on a better working basis. Hitherto the revenue had all been collected in rice but now he allowed the revenue to be collected in any kind of produce, and the collection of it was farmed out to various individuals, a practice which at the time may have had its good points but which at the same time had within itself very bad possibilities. The reorganization of the army was a matter of great importance and the king set himself to it with a will. Heretofore each general had had his own following and there was no central power nor seat of authority. Each body of troops followed the caprice of its leader with no reference to any general plan. Before the 20Chinese general Yi Yŭ-song left he put into the hands of the king a book treating of the art of war, a work written by Ch’ŭk Kye-gwang. This book the king put into use and appointed Cho Kyŭng and Yu Sŭng-nyong to have charge of the whole matter of military reorganization. In order to put the new plan into operation a large number of poor and destitute soldiers were gathered. They had to pass a physical test which consisted in lifting a rice bag full of earth, and of leaping over a wall as high as their heads. In ten days two thousand men were found who endured the test. The drill consisted of three parts, (1) firing with guns, (2) shooting with bow and arrow, (3) using the battle axe. In time these men became the royal guard and escort. The number gradually increased to 10,000, 2,000 being attached to each of the government departments. The whole force was divided into two parts and while one part was drilling in the city the other was set to work farming in the suburbs. In this way they raised the food necessary for the sustenance of the whole force. The plan was extended to the country, and teachers were sent to practice the country soldiers. It became a species of militia. From this time the quality and discipline of the Korean army improved in a marked degree.

The Laundry

It appears that the Koreans were not the only ones who suspected Gen. Yi Yŭ-song of showing favors to the Japanese, for the emperor took notice of it and deprived him of his high rank. He was supplanted by Gen. Ko Yang-gyŭm. This new appointee advanced toward the border of Korea as far as Liao-tung and from that point sent a letter to the king saying that the Chinese had already lost enough men and treasure in the war and that the king had better hasten to make friends with the Japanese and induce them to come and do obeisance to the emperor. It appears plain that this man wanted peace to be patched up before he should be called upon to do active work in the field. When the king saw this letter he said, “When the Crown Prince becomes king he can do as he pleases but as for me I will never make peace or friendship with the Japanese.” But Yu Sŭng-nyong urged the helplessness of Korea alone and the need of securing China’s help at all hazards. Sŭng Hon urged the fact that the new Chinese general had a large force in hand and he 21must be conciliated at any cost. So the king reluctantly sent an envoy to China asking that overtures of peace be made with the Japanese. Even while this envoy was on the way, the emperor, apparently thinking the war at an end, sent an order commanding the immediate return of Gen. Yu Chung, with all his forces, from the province of Kyŭng-sang. The Crown Prince sent begging him not to go. The people all about the country were in distress about it. He was believed to be the only hope against the Japanese. The command of the emperor however was law and the general was forced to obey. Taking his army, together with the wives and children of those who had been married to Korean women, he went back to Liao-tung. It is said that over 10,000 of the Chinese took back their Korean wives to China, but six years later they all returned to their native land.

Kato was desirous of meeting and having a talk with the Korean general Kim Eung-sŭ, the general of Kyŭng-sang Province. To this end he sent a Japanese named Yo-si-ra to arrange a meeting, and in course of time they met at the town of Ham-an and had a conference. Kato opened the conference as follows: “If Korea will help us to become the vassals of China we will remove all our troops from Korea immediately and we will also consider it a great favor.” But Gen. Kim, who knew of the enmity which existed between Kato and Konishi, waved the main question by asking, “Why is it that you and Konishi cannot agree? It is plain that so long as he is here such a plan as you recommend cannot be carried out.” Kato answered, “I have long wished to make an end of him, but can never get a chance. If in some way we could work up a charge against him and circulate it among the troops we might be able to get all the army removed to Japan.” As to the further deliberations of these two men we are not informed, but we judge from this passing glimpse that Konishi the younger man was so firmly intrenched in the affection of his troops that Kato despaired of making head against him until that affection was in some way alienated. In this Kato acknowledges his virtual defeat at the hands of his youthful rival.

The emperor was not as anxious as his generals to make peace with the Japanese, and when he heard that his new appointee 22to the peninsula was in favor of a treaty with the invaders he promptly ordered his retirement, and Gen. Son Kwang was sent to take his place. Hardly had this happened when the envoy Ho Ok, from the Korean court, arrived, asking that a treaty be made with the Japanese. When his message was delivered all the court was in favor of the plan; but the Prime Minister said that as they had been deceived once by the Japanese general So Sŭ-bi, who had accompanied Gen. Sim Yu gyăng from Pyŭng-yang on a similar errand before, it would be well to test them with three propositions. “(1) We will give the king of Japan the royal investiture. (2) Every Japanese soldier must leave Korea. (3) The Japanese must promise never to disturb Korea again.” This plan pleased the emperor and Gen. So Sŭ-bi was sent for, that he might appear before the emperor and accept these conditions. On arriving at Peking the Japanese readily acceded to the terms and exclaimed, “We will gladly agree to this and will swear by heaven to abide by the terms.” Thereupon Sim Yu-gyăng, who had always had a strange leaning toward the Japanese, now exclaimed, “Japan now evidently desires to become China’s vassal. An envoy must be sent to invest Hideyoshi with the royal insignia, and all this trouble will end.” But Hŭ Hong-gang had a truer estimate of the visitor and remarked, “The Japanese are a subtle people, and all this talk of becoming vassals of China is mere pretense. There is no use in sending an envoy to Japan.” Gen. Sŭk Sŭng said, “This man seems to be honest in what he says. Gen. Sim Yu-gyŭng should accompany So Sŭ-bi back to Korea and there confer with the Japanese leaders and then arrangements can be made for investing the king of Japan.” The emperor so ordered and at the same time appointed Yi Chong-sŭng as envoy extraordinary to Japan to perform the ceremony of investiture. Yang Pang-hyŭng was appointed his second. These events all occurred in the latter part of the year 1593.

As the new year opened the political sky was dark enough. Not only were the Japanese intrenched in the south but predatory bands infested the country and the government troops had all they could do to hold them in check, let alone any offensive operations against the Japanese. However, after a hard chase a large band of the miscreants were brought to bay 23at Hoe-mun Mountain and cut to pieces. At this time also the king sent again to Nanking asking that his successor be nominated, but again he was refused.

The career of Gen. Kim Tŭk-nyŭng whom, as we have seen, the Japanese had dubbed “The Flying General,” affords us another example of the fatal weakness of Korea, in the envy excited against any really successful man; for even while Gen. Kim was successfully combatting the Japanese in his own way, his very successes aroused the spleen of Gen. Yun Keun-su who accused him to the king of having killed plenty of Koreans, but never a Japanese. On the strength of this groundless charge, and without questioning its truth, the king brought Gen. Kim to Seoul and imprisoned him a year. And so a man of highest loyalty, of such unselfish patriotism as to devote the whole of his private fortune to the fitting out of soldiers to fight his country’s foes, was dragged away from a successful field of work to languish in prison, simply because a less successful man begrudged him his fame.

And now began an amusing comedy between the Chinese, who took the Japanese seriously, and the latter who were merely playing off the Chinese in order to save time.

In the fourth moon of 1395 the embassy from China to Japan arrived in Seoul, and immediately Gen. Sim Yu-gyŭng posted southward to see Kato and tell him that the Chinese embassy had already come and that he must hasten to get all the Japanese troops out of the country before the embassy should arrive at Fusan. To all this the wily Kato answered gravely, “You had better stay here a few weeks while I take a run over to Japan and ask Hideyoshi about it, and if he gives the order to take the troops back, it can be done immediately.” When he came back, instead of answering the main question he said that it would be well for a Korean to accompany the envoy to Japan. Meanwhile the Chinese envoy Yi Chong-sŭng, in Seoul, sent messenger after messenger urging the speedy removal of the Japanese troops from the peninsula; but Kato kept putting it off on one ground or another, and made no move to go. When, however, this part of the comedy had proceeded to such a point that the Japanese began to fear the Chinese would see that it was indeed a comedy, Kato took a few regiments of men from Ung-ch’ŭn and Kŭ-je and made 24preparations as if to depart, meanwhile sending Gen. Sim to Seoul to say that he was waiting for the envoy and his suite to come south and accompany the departing army to Japan. Five months had already elapsed since the envoy had arrived in Seoul, and he therefore determined to accept this invitation. Moving southward, he came to Nam-wŭn in Chŭl-la Province where he stopped, fearing to go directly into the Japanese camp. While there he gained the soubriquet of “frog-eater,” for he was so fond of the flesh of that reptile that he compelled the people to hunt for and procure it for him.

Gen. Son Kwang, from his comfortable quarters in Liao-tung, sent him a letter charging him with cowardice and ordering him to proceed at once on his way. Under this stimulus he proceeded to Fusan; but Kato would not come to see him, saying, “I must receive instructions from Japan before I can take you across the straits, so I will cross once more and find out the will of my royal master in regard to the matter.” After an absence of two months he came back and opened another act of the comedy by asserting that he must first take Gen. Sim across to Japan and arrange the ceremony of investiture, and that the envoy proper might follow when all was ready. By this time, what with the fear of the Japanese and bewilderment at the intricacy of Japanese diplomacy the poor envoy was well-nigh distraught. When therefore, with the beginning of the new year 1596 a Chinaman named So Hak-myŭng came from Japan and informed him that Hideyoshi had not the remotest idea of becoming a vassal of China and that if the Chinese envoy should cross to Japan he would never come back again, it capped the climax, and that very night the wretched envoy, taking only one servant and a few clothes tied up in a cloth, made his escape from the Japanese camp and fled away northward. He traveled by night and hid by day, until at last he arrived at Seoul. And so the curtain drops on another act of the comedy.

When the Japanese found out that the envoy had made his escape they were in a quandary, fearing lest they might be punished for letting him go and so spoiling the fun. They therefore gave chase, but not being able to overtake the light-footed 25envoy, they contented themselves with surrounding the house of the vice-envoy Yang Pang-hyŭng. The latter knew of his chief’s flight, but to draw away suspicion from himself he pretended to sleep late that morning and claimed to know nothing about the matter. When at last he was told of it by the Japanese general Kuroda, he said quietly, “Well, he was a young man and a little nervous. He should have gone to Japan long ago instead of waiting around here. It will be of no use for you to chase him.” He then deliberately arose, went to the room lately occupied by his chief, took possession of the Emperor’s letter and returned to his own apartments. By his coolness and presence of mind he allayed the excitement of the Japanese and perhaps saved his own life.

The Japanese soldiers who had been detailed to return to Japan were of course delighted to go back to their homes and were eager to set sail from Fusan. They had their baggage all on board and were hoping to start at any moment. But when they heard of the flight of the Chinese envoy they knew there would be a long delay and they were sorely disappointed; so much so in fact that many of them wept aloud. It is probable that every Japanese soldier in the peninsula would have been glad of an opportunity to return to Japan. Only the severe discipline of the Japanese army and the lack of boats prevented them from deserting in large numbers; at least we may gather as much from the frequent references to the home-sickness of the Japanese soldiers.

Yang Pang-hyŭng called the weeping soldiers before him and said, “We have waited here so long that my chief got tired and went back. But I remain and the imperial missive is with me. He has fled only to Nam-wŭn and if you send there you will doubtless find him.” This led them to believe that their fond hope of returning home would soon be gratified.

All this time the young Konishi, the rival of Kato, sat disdainfully silent watching the empty game which his unpopular rival was playing with the Chinese. When he heard of the flight of the envoy he laughed and said, “I knew he was no genuine envoy from the Emperor, for if he had been he would not have dared to show his heels like this.” This remark 26was intended to imply that while Kato had been trying to hoodwink the Chinese, they, on the other hand, had hoodwinked him.

Yang Pang-hyŭng lost no time in informing the Emperor of the perfidy of his chief, and the Emperor immediately ordered the recalcitrant official to be caught and imprisoned. He raised Yang Pang-hyŭng to the position of Chief of the Embassy and appointed Sim Yu-gyŭng as his second. We will remember that Sim Yu-gyŭng had already gone to Japan with Kato, bearing the imperial gifts, which consisted of a royal robe with the embroidered design of a dragon, a jade belt, royal head-gear, a map of China, a book on war and various other kinds of treasures. He there married the daughter of a Japanese named Arima, and is said by the Koreans to have become a thorough Japanese. This may have been part of the game he was playing, and we may see the fruits of it later.

Kato was determined that a Korean envoy should accompany the Chinese one to Japan and to this end he told one of the Korean officials, “If a Korean envoy does not accompany the Chinese embassy to Japan the peace will be only between Japan and China, and Korea will have no part in it. This will lead to grave troubles.” Gen. Sim also sent his nephew back from Japan to ask that a Korean envoy accompany the Chinese embassy. So the king appointed two men, Whang Sin and Pak Hong-jang to this work, conferring upon them the title of T’ong-sin-sa or “Faithful Messenger.”

In the fifth moon of this year 1596 Gen. Konishi massed his troops in forty-six regiments on the southern coast and, leaving only four regiments to guard Fusan, set sail for Japan. With him went all the envoys, both Chinese and Korean.

Now that lasting peace seemed to be assured, the king no longer hesitated to hand over the reins of power to the Crown Prince. He accordingly sent the royal insignia south to him, and so doffed the responsibilities as well as the prerogatives of royalty. But, strange to say, the prince strenuously refused to accept them, insisting that he had no desire to take the scepter from his father’s hand. Seven times he sent to his father protesting his unwillingness to have the honor thrust upon him. But the king would not listen. It was 27only after the courtiers had assembled before the palace for twenty days in succession and besought him to retain the scepter that they finally prevailed and he consented to continue in the exercise of the royal prerogative.

Yi Mong-hak, an unprincipled ruffian, ignorant but ambitious, had joined the forces of Gen. Han Hyŭn and had fought during the war. Now he started out on an independent line. Gathering a force of over ten thousand men he attacked and took Hong-san in Ch‘ung-ch‘ŭng Province, and he followed it up by taking Im-ch‘ŭn, Ch‘ung-yang, Chöng-san and Hong-ju. Yi Mong-hak had been deceiving his followers by saying that Gen. Kim Tŭk-nyang was interested in this scheme. But now they found that this same Gen. Kim was arrayed against them and they saw they had been duped. That night every man deserted the adventurer and the next day he fell into the hands of the loyal troops and his head was forwarded to Seoul. This shows the extremely unsettled state of the country, and how any unprincipled man with money and effrontery could offer serious opposition to the government.

Here again we find a striking example of that petty jealousy which deprived Korea of most of her capable men. This Gen. Kim Tŭk-nyŭng was a celebrated man. He was known throughout the Korean army for his strength and prowess. It is said of him that single-handed he would attack a tiger and pin it to the ground with a spear. They also say that he rode into battle with an iron mace of a hundred pounds weight in each hand and he gave the Japanese so many hard knocks that they gave him the name, “The General from under the Rock.” The ministers at Seoul were suspicious of his rising fame and went their ways to have him dragged down. They charged him with having been in league with Yi Mong-hak and won the king over. He was arrested and brought to Seoul, where after a most disgraceful trial he was put to death. The Japanese had such a high opinion of this man’s parts that Konishi sent and had a portrait made of him. When he saw the picture he exclaimed, “This man is indeed a General.” When his death was announced, the Japanese held a great feast in honor of the event. This was just on the eve of their departure for home.

28As we have seen, it was in the summer of 1596 that the Chinese and Korean envoys crossed to Japan with the returning army of invasion. When they were brought into the presence of Hideyoshi he treated them with scant courtesy. When asked why he did not bow before the imperial missive he replied that he had a sore leg and could not. He treated the Korean envoy much worse than the Chinese, and said to him, “I sent back the two princes as I agreed, but your king never so much as thanked me. He has now sent as envoy a man of inferior rank on purpose to insult me. I believe the original Chinese envoy ran away at the instigation of your king. I will treat the Chinese envoy civilly, but as for you I shall send another army and be avenged on you.” After this there was but one thing to do. Both the envoys packed up their effects and started back home. When the Chinese envoy arrived at Nanking bringing insult instead of submission from Japan the Emperor was in a terrible rage and charged Sim Yu-gyŭng with having betrayed his country. The chief envoy was executed and the official who had advised the sending of an embassy was thrown into prison and starved to death, but Sim Yu-gyŭng in some way escaped with his head.

Chapter II

A new invasion determined upon.... comparison of Japan and Korea.... Japanese scheme to get Admiral Yi into danger.... Admiral Yi degraded.... second invasion.... Choryŭng Pass fortified.... Chinese give aid.... Admiral Yi’s successor a failure.... great naval victory for the Japanese.... Admiral Yi reinstated.... siege and fall of Nam-wŭn.... Korean naval victories.... Admiral Yi’s policy.... Japanese advance checked.... rejoicing in Seoul.... siege of Ul-san.... siege raised.... Roman Catholic missionaries.... the Japanese army.... the “ear and nose mound”.... number of Chinese.... a Japanese settlement.... Chinese admirals.... Admiral Yi’s diplomacy.... Gen. Yang Ho recalled.... the King accused.... the defense.

We have now reached the halfway point between the two invasions, or rather between the two parts of the double invasion. Hideyoshi was still furious over the failure of his great plan of invading China, and he must needs find some way to 29vent his spleen. He determined upon a second invasion of Korea, not this time with a view to the invasion of China but with the more modest desire to punish Korea, though what Korea had done to deserve punishment it would be hard to say. To be sure she had proved an obstacle to his vaulting ambition, for had Hideyoshi’s original army sailed straight for China instead of landing at Fusan, it probably would have overthrown the Chinese capital. We must notice the changed conditions which existed between the two countries. Korea had now experienced the worst possible at the hands of the Japanese and knew what to expect. Their soldiers had felt the prick of Japanese swords and had in turn tasted the delights of victory. That terrible glamor which surrounded the dreaded islanders upon their first appearance had worn off and some sort of equality had been effected between them. The Koreans had meanwhile become possessed of firearms and were measurably skilled in their use. They had learned never to trust themselves to open battle when geurilla warfare was feasible. They had demonstrated their great superiority on the sea in the person of the Admiral Yi. When therefore we remember that the Japanese had to leave their base of supplies and live on what they could forage in the peninsula, it appears that in spite of their prowess they had not much advantage over the Koreans. But before making this second descent upon the shores of Korea it was necessary for the Japanese to get the redoubtable Admiral Yi Sun-sin out of the way. No fleet from Japan would risk an encounter with him in his “Tortoise Boat.” The Japanese had seen how the mutual jealousies of the Koreans worked in their favor and they determined to use this in getting Admiral Yi removed. So one day a Japanese named Yo-si-ra made his appearance at the camp of Gen. Kim Eung-sŭ, saying that he was tired of being a Japanese and that he wanted to become a Korean. He dressed in Korean clothes and kept going back and forth between the Japanese and Koreans, giving the latter what seemed to be much valuable information. He seemed to be devoted to the Korean interests. One day he came in a state of great excitement and said that the Japanese General Kato was coming to Korea with a great fleet and that, as he was to pass a certain island off the coast, Admiral Yi ought to be sent 30to lie in wait there and drive the invading fleet back or to sink it. So Gen. Kim wrote to the king about it and asked for orders. The king, trusting in the prowess of Admiral Yi, gave his consent; but when that officer received these orders he promptly replied that it was a trick to entrap him and thus clear a way for a descent upon the mainland of Korea. He therefore declined to run the risk, especially as the place mentioned was studded with sunken rocks and was specially dangerous for navigation. But the Japanese Yo-si-ra kept urging Gen. Kim to see to it that the plan was carried out and at last the General wrote to the king saying that Admiral Yi declined to go. As may be supposed Admiral Yi had enemies at court who could not let such an opportunity pass of getting him into trouble. Consequently the iniquitous decree went forth that Admiral Yi be seized and brought to Seoul and that Wŭn Kyun be put in his place. The king intended to put Admiral Yi to death, but one of the officials urged his former services in palliation of his present offense and so the punishment was commuted to loss of position alone. So it was that Admiral Yi, the best soldier that Korea contained and to whom the king owed his crown twice over, was degraded to the ranks and became a common soldier. But most remarkable of all, he made no complaint, but went quietly about his work as if nothing had happened.

In the first moon of the year 1597 the Japanese fleet set sail from Japan. This army was led by Kato and Konishi although the nominal commander in chief was a lad of seventeen named Hideyaki. It is said that it took a thousand boats to bring the army across the straits. Had Admiral Yi Sun-sin been at his old post this fleet would never have touched keel on the Korean coast but as it was there was no difficulty, and the entire army landed safely at So-sang Harbor and immediately threw up fortifications and went into camp.

The first thought of the Koreans was to fortify Cho-ryŭng Pass the one break in the mountain chain which the Japanese must pass if they wished to march on Seoul. Gen. Kwŭn Ryŭl with 23,000 men and other generals with troops hastily gathered from various districts hastened to that important pass and put the fortifications in good order, and the king forthwith sent Kwŭn Hyŭp as envoy to Nanking to 31implore the intervention of China. And now we see the evil results of Hideyoshi’s ill-treatment of the Chinese and Korean envoys in Japan; for instead of making the Koreans send time and again asking for help the Emperor was eager to send troops into the peninsula to avenge himself upon the Japanese. The Chinese army was put in charge of three men: Gen. Yang Ho with rank of Military Commissioner, Gen. Hyöng Kă as general-in chief and Admiral Ma Gwi as commander of all the naval forces. Under these were Generals Yang Wŭn, O Yu-ch’ung, U Păk-yŏng, Chin U-ch’ung, So Eung-gung, Chin Hyo and Tong Han-yu. Gen. Yang Ho came no further than P’yŭng-yang, his duties not requiring his presence on the field of battle. Admiral Ma Kwi and all the others came on to Seoul. From that point they branched out in several directions, one going to Nam-wŭn in Chŭl-la province, another to Song-ju in Kyŭng-sang Province, another to Chŭn-ju, Chŭl-la Province, and another to Ch’ung-ju in Ch’ung-ch’ŭng Province.

Admiral Wŭn Kyun, who had supplanted Yi Sun-sin, went to Han-san where Admiral Yi had worked so diligently to build barracks with the proceeds of salt manufacture. His first work was to overthrow all the rules and regulations which his predecessor had so wisely promulgated. He then drove away all who had been at all intimate with the former admiral, who was now a common soldier under Kwŭn Ryul. He then built a paling about the council-hall that Yi Sun-sin had built and there he housed his harem and spent his time in revelry and feasting. He would frequently have innocent men called up and severely punished for mere amusement. And thus he soon alienated the good will of all the troops stationed there.

But Kato, the astute Japanese general, through his tool Yo-si-ra, kept at Gen. Kim, urging him to have a fleet sent to intercept a fleet of Japanese boats. He named a day on which the Korean fleet would be sure to intercept a fleet of the enemy. At last the order was given for Admiral Wŭn Kyun to carry out this manoeuvre and though he had no stomach for the enterprise he could not well demur, for this was the very thing that had cost Admiral Yi his position. So he got his boats together and sailed out to Chŭl-yŭng 32Island off Fusan. But a strong breeze sprang up and the sea was rather rough and in the darkness of night the Korean fleet became scattered. The next day the larger part of them rendezvoused at Ka-dok Island where they unexpectedly met the Japanese fleet and were vigorously attacked. Almost immediately all Admiral Wŭn’s forces deserted him and his only recourse was flight. Beaching his boat on Ch‘il-ch‘ŭn Island he landed and drew about him what remnants of his force he could find. When Gen. Kwŭn Ryul heard of this he sent a stern order demanding that the admiral come out and fight. That valliant man first filled himself with wine then sallied forth only to be deserted again by his men. So the doughty admiral again ran his boat aground and took to his heels. He was so fat however that he could not run far, so he sat down under a tree to get his breath. There the Japanese overtook him and carried away his head in triumph. The second in command, Yi Yŭ-geui, fled by boat after burning all the barracks and provisions that were stored at Han-san.

When these events became known the whole country was in consternation. Yi Hang-bok, the king’s trusted councillor, said, “Yi Sun-sin must be reinstated in his former position.” It was a case of dire necessity and so the king sent and conferred upon that faithful man his former office. The trusty Yi set out on foot and rested not day nor night until he reached his former position, Han-san. On all sides he met the scattered and flying remnants of his former force. He rallied them about him, promising that the Japanese should still be held in check.

But before Admiral Yi arrived on the scene of action a tremendous force of Japanese both military and naval had landed on the southern coast. Their objective point was Nam-wŭn, where the Chinese general Yang Wŭn had pitched his camp. Upon the approach of the Japanese the latter burned all the houses outside the wall to prevent their offering cover to an attacking force; but the Japanese soon built a rough fence or palisade about the town, from behind which they picked off the Chinese soldiers on the wall, at leisure. The Chinese attempted to make a sortie but in their eagerness to get out of the gate they became jammed in it and were mown down by the long swords of the besiegers. Unfortunately 33for the Chinese and Koreans the following night was full moon and the Japanese cut down every man that attempted to escape. To the line of stakes which they had planted about the town the Japanese fastened swords, and when the people from the town tried to make good their escape they found themselves impaled upon these weapons. The Chinese commander, Yang Wŭn, rode at this barrier and his horse was so impaled, but he succeeded in getting over and making good his escape. The Japanese attacked the wall in its weakest point and forced an entrance. The massacre within the town beggars description. The Korean generals Chöng Keui-wŭn, Yi Pong-nam, O Eung-jung, Kim Kyöng-no, Sin Ho, Im Hyŭn, Yi Tŭk-whe and Yi Wŭn-ch‘un were all killed, which indicates how sanguinary must have been the fight.

Immediately all northern Chŭl-la was in confusion and the troops everywhere began to fall back toward the north. In Seoul itself there was consternation. The king called his officials about him and asked what should be done. They all urged that the king stay in the capital. The queen and the crown prince however were sent to Su-an in Ham-gyŭng Province and the king prepared to move whenever it should seem necessary.

But by this time Admiral Yi was again on the stage of action and as alert as ever. He had as yet only ten boats under him, but he had no lack of men, for the people all along the coast, when they heard of his reinstatement, flocked to him. He drew up his little fleet of ten boats in the shadow of a mountain on Chin-do (island) and sent out reconnoitering boats which returned just at night saying that the Japanese were approaching. As the moon dropped behind the mountain it left the Korean fleet in complete darkness and soon the Japanese boats came sailing along in single file. Admiral Yi deployed his boats in a long line and suddenly they all raised a loud shout and fired point blank at the unsuspecting Japanese. The latter thought they had run into a powerful fleet and soon scattered in all directions. The next day there was more serious work, however, for a fleet of several hundred boats appeared. The Koreans were in some trepidation, but the fearless admiral made straight for the 34enemy and though soon surrounded he succeeded in sinking thirty of the enemy’s boats. The rest evidently recognized the master hand of Admiral Yi and turned and fled. He gave chase, and before the battle ended the Japanese commander Ma-da-si was killed. Returning from this remarkable fight Admiral Yi proceeded to Han-san and set to work rebuilding the barracks and making salt. It is said that in two months time he stored away 20,000 bags of rice. His former captains and soldiers came back to him in “clouds.” He also found another source of revenue. The wealthy men all through the south desired to get away from the disturbed districts and so loaded their effects upon boats and sailed away. Admiral Yi however stood in the way and made them pay a toll of from one to three bags of rice for each boat. From this source alone he collected above a thousand bags of rice. He used this revenue in the purchase of copper for the casting of cannon, and for the building of boats. Thousands of people who feared to live on the mainland came and built huts about his camp, until the island actually became too small to hold more.

After the fall of Nam-wŭn the Japanese, flushed with victory, started northward toward Seoul, thinking without doubt that they would have as easy a victory as before. Yang Ho, hearing of the defeat of the Chinese, came post haste from P’yŭng-yang and severely upbraided the generals and charged them with lack of bravery. Without an hour’s delay it was arranged that Generals Ha Sang, U Pak-yung, Yang Teung and P‘a Sa should take a strong body of troops and move southward to Ch‘ung-ch‘ŭng Province and intercept the Japanese. This was done and the army ambushed at Keum-o-p‘yŭng in the district of Chik-san. Soon the Japanese came streaming along, neglecting all precautions, for they had no idea of meeting an enemy. When therefore the ambuscade opened fire on them it took but a few moments to throw them into utter confusion. In the rout which ensued an enormous number of the Japanese were killed. On the following day the Japanese, who had mended their broken ranks as best they could, came on to the attack, but their losses had been so great that in spite of wonders of bravery which they showed they were again crushed. The remnant 35of their force fled southward to Mok-ch‘un and Ch‘ung-ju. This was one of the three great battles of the war and in importance it was exceeded by none; for, though the forces engaged were not so numerous nor the number of slain so great, it broke once for all the self-confidence of the Japanese, and they never again had the hardihood to attempt the approach to Seoul. By this battle the war was definitely confined to the southern provinces. The Commissioner Yang Ho suggested to the king that he go out and survey the battle field, and so the royal cavalcade rode out the South Gate. One of the Chinese generals suspected that the king was something of a coward and so, to test him, he gave the horse the king was riding a sharp cut with a whip. The horse leaped into the air with terror but the king held his seat and showed no sign of fear. The Chinese were pleased at this and their respect for the king was visibly increased.

Seoul gave itself up to universal holiday in honor of the victory, for it was still fresh in the minds of many how Seoul had fared before at the hands of the invaders.

In the tenth moon Gen. Konishi built a strong fort on a bluff overlooking the sea at Ul-san in Kyŭng-sang Province. He named it To-san. The Chinese Yang Ho determined to cut the war short by attacking and taking this position and by so doing he expected to cut off the right arm of the invading army. Collecting all the forces that were within reach, he started south to attack Ul-san. The army consisted of 40,000 men and it went in three divisions. The left or eastern division being led by Gen. Yi Pang-ch‘ŭn, the middle division by Gen. Ko Ch‘ak and the western division by Gen. P ăng U-dŭk. Gen. Ma Kwi was sent on ahead and acted as avant-coureur. Stopping a few miles from the Japanese position he ordered Gen. P‘a Sa to go and make a preliminary attack upon the fort to discover something as to the lay of the land, and if possible to discover the number and equipment of the enemy. The attack was made with fire-arrows. Almost immediately the Japanese made a sortie, but were driven back with a loss of four hundred and sixty men. Shortly after this the three grand army corps arrived. The Japanese were arranged in three divisions. In the middle was the fort proper. On the north was a fortified camp called the Pan-gu-jun 36and off the south was another called the P‘a-wha-gang. It was the first business of the Chinese and Korean allies to drive these outer divisions into the central fort. To this end the left division of the army attacked the Pan-gu-jun and the right division the P‘a-wha-gang. Gen. Yang Ho put on his armor and went into the thick of the fight and urged on his men. The air was filled with the noise of drums, musketry-fire and shouts of the combatants, and a cloud of arrows concealed the heavens. Some of the Japanese huts were on fire and great clouds of smoke and flame rolled heavenward. Slowly the Japanese were forced back and finally they all entered the gates of the main fort of To-san. This fort was set on a rugged hill where it was difficult for an attacking force to manoeuvre, but there was little water in the fort and the Japanese were forced to come out secretly at night and draw water from a well nearby. Being aware of this, Gen. Kim Eung-sŭ, a Korean, placed an ambush about the well and caught upwards of a hundred of the enemy. They were badly emaciated and said that surrender was a matter of only a few days. It came on to rain, and this was followed by severe cold, as it was now the beginning of winter. Many of the besieging army had their hands and feet frozen. One of Gen. Konishi’s lieutenants wrote repeatedly to the Korean general Song Yun-mun asking for terms of peace. Gen. Yang Ho answered, “Konishi must come out and surrender and he will be treated well.” By this time the Japanese were well-nigh exhausted. They had neither food nor water, and every day they died in such numbers that it is said they had “a mountain of dead.” Many a time Gen. Konishi meditated suicide but each time was restrained by one means or another. As a last resort the Japanese threw gold and silver over the wall to bribe the soldiers without and keep them from making an attack.

But the tables were about to be turned. All the other Japanese forces in the south had become aware of the desperate straits to which their comrades were reduced at To-san. And so now at the last moment a large fleet appeared and the hard won victory was snatched from between the teeth of the Chinese and Korean allies. The exposure had greatly weakened the besieging force. Their provisions were almost exhausted 37and they had used up all their arrows. They were far stronger than the beleagured Japanese but were not fit to cope with the fresh army which was burning with zeal to avenge their starving compatriots. So it was that Gen. Yang Ho was compelled to raise the siege and fall back toward Seoul. During this siege the Chinese loss was fourteen hundred, though many thousands were wounded.

From this time date the first efforts of the Roman Catholic Church to enter Korea. Japan had already many thousands of converts to Romanism and Hideyoshi was determined to leave no means untried to eradicate the foreign cult. To this end he sent many of the Catholic converts to Korea. But the most distinguished of them all was the young and vigorous Gen. Konishi who had received baptism at the hands of the Catholics and had received the name of Augustine Arimandano. It may have been because of Hideyoshi’s desire to get the Catholics out of the country that Gen. Konishi was appointed to the post in Korea. Kato was as pronounced a Buddhist as Konishi was a Christian and this of course intensified the hatred and rivalry between them. Gen. Konishi was desirous of having Catholic teachers come over to the peninsula and attend to the spiritual needs of the Christians in the army; and to this end the Vice-provincial of the Jesuits in Japan appointed Padre Gregoris de Cespedes to this arduous and important post. With him went a Japanese priest. The two first went to Tsushima and finding no means of getting to the peninsula remained there over the winter and carried on a successful mission work. The next spring they made their way to Korea and finally reached Gen. Konishi’s headquarters at a place that the Japanese call Comangai, which was without doubt the fort of Ul-san. Here they worked a year but finally, through the machinations of Gen. Kato, who worked upon the prejudices of Hideyoshi, both the foreign and native priests were sent back to Japan, and this had no little to do with the return of Gen. Konishi, who went to clear himself before his master.

To anticipate a little, we might here say that many Koreans who were carried captive to Japan from time to time during this war, became Christians at Nagasaki and though slaves were so firm in their belief as to be willing to suffer 38martyrdom during the terrible persecutions which raged in Japan between 1610 and 1630, but with the departure of Cespedes from Korea the distinctive work in Korea was abandoned.

Let us pause a moment here to compare the two contending armies. In this second invasion the total number of Japanese that reached Korean soil was 105,400, or about half as many as formed the first army of invasion. They were led by twenty-seven generals, prominent among whom were Kato and Konishi. As a mark of his spiteful spirit, Hideyoshi ordered that in this second invasion the noses and ears of all Koreans killed or captured should be cut off and sent to Japan. And so from time to time these half-savage soldiers sent loads of Korean noses and ears, pickled in salt, and they were buried in the monastery of Ta-bul-sa in the city of Kyoto, there to remain to all ages a disgusting memento of the most unprovoked and wanton cruelty that ever disgraced the annals of a great people. Many of the Koreans who lost their noses or ears at that time survived many years, and it cannot be wondered at that the Koreans have never since cared to accept favors at the hands of their island neighbors.

The total number of Chinese was 210,000. With them came 2,000,000 ounces of silver to pay for their sustenance. From Shantung were sent by boat 200,000 bags of rice. There were also sent for the relief of the army 5,832,000 ounces of silver. And for the relief of the Korean famine sufferers an additional 3,000,000 ounces were sent. When we consider the vast number of men and the millions of wealth that China poured into Korea at this time it may well be believed, as the Koreans affirm, that China, by so doing, impoverished herself so that she became an easier prey to the Manchus who, a few years later, wrested the scepter from her.

Large numbers of Japanese who had been in the country for years and were tired of the war deserted from the ranks, married Korean women and settled down to farming in various places in the south. At Mi-ryang in the Province of Kyŭng-sang there was a whole settlement of them. It was called the Hang-wă or “Settlement of the Surrendered Japanese.” Some of them were also to be found in Ham-gyŭng and P‘yŭng-an Provinces. These had been left behind and 39abandoned by their fellows for one cause or another when the Japanese retired from the north. They were all destined to be destroyed a quarter of a century later during the rebellion of Yi Kwal.

About this time there arose in the Chinese court a determined enemy of Gen. Yang Ho named Chŭng Eung-t‘ă who accused Gen. Yang to the Emperor in twenty-five specifications, five of which implicated the king of Korea and which at a later date caused a deal of trouble.

We now enter upon a new phase of the war, the closing epoch. In the first moon of the following year, 1598, the Emperor sent two admirals to Korea, the one being Tong Il-wun and the other Chil Lin. The former was to have charge of the naval operations off the coast of Chŭl-la and the other of those off Kyŭng-sang Province. Chil Lin, under the title of Great Admiral came up the Han River with 500 boats as far as Tong-jak, the first village above Yong-san. The king and the court went down and reviewed this fleet and saw it start off to join Admiral Yi Sun-sin in the south. This admiral, Chil Lin, was a good soldier but inordinately vain. He would take no one’s advice, and it looked as if stormy times were in store for the plain, blunt Admiral Yi. The king told Admiral Chil Lin that he was not sure about Admiral Yi, and this of course had its influence with the Chinese admiral. Admiral Yi was then at Ko-geum Island off Chŭl-la Province. When he heard that Admiral Chil Lin was coming he showed by his first act that he was as good a diplomat as soldier. He may or may not have known what sort of man the Chinese admiral was but he knew that in any case it would not do to antagonize him, and he acted accordingly. He collected a great store of fish and game and wine and went out to meet the approaching fleet. Returning with the Chinese admiral he spread a great feast and the whole company got splendidly drunk and vowed that Admiral Yi was a royal good fellow. Admiral Chil Lin himself joined in the praise. Soon after this Admiral Yi had the good luck to take two score of Japanese heads, but instead of claiming the honor himself he handed them over to the Chinese admiral to forward as his own trophies. This finished Admiral Yi’s conquest of Admiral Chil Lin’s good graces. From this time on it was Gen. 40Yi who suggested and planned and it was Admiral Chil Lin who assented and reaped the praise. This course of conduct was a master-piece of genius on the part of Admiral Yi, for by so doing he accomplished at least three important things. In the first place he kept himself in his position, which he would have lost had he antagonized the Chinaman. In the second place he saved himself to his country at a time when she could not have spared him. He was willing to forego the praise and let others reap the commendation if only he might ward off the enemies of his country. In the third place he made the Chinese seem successful and so encouraged them and got out of them for Korea all that was to be hoped. He was willing to seem to be toadying to Admiral Chil Lin when in reality that gentleman was, to use a pregnant Korean phrase, “in his sleeve.” Being always near the Chinese admiral he could always see to it that no great blunders were made. At first the Chinese soldiery committed great excesses among the people of the country, stealing their valuables and otherwise injuring them. Admiral Yi quietly asked that the discipline of the army be put in his hands and from that day on the smallest irregularity was severely punished and the most perfect order prevailed. This did not escape the eye of Admiral Chil Lin, and he wrote to the king that Admiral Yi was a remarkable man and that the world did not contain another soldier like him. One day as they sat in a summer-house overlooking the sea a fleet of Japanese boats appeared in the distance. Admiral Chil Lin was much excited and a little nervous but Admiral Yi laughed and said, “Sit here and watch me give those fellows a whipping.” He got out his boats and in an hour he had forty of the enemy’s boats on fire and the rest fled. Admiral Chil Lin could not praise him enough after this and declared that the universe did not contain another man who could perform the feats that Admiral Yi apparently found easy.

In the seventh moon of this year the enemies of Gen. Yang Ho in Nanking were successful and he was called from Korea, much to the regret of the king who vainly sent an envoy to the Chinese court specially to plead that the decree be not carried out. Gen. Yang had been the best of all the generals that China had sent and his departure was a great loss to 41Korea. When he went, the king and a large number of the people accompanied him beyond the Peking Pass, and a stone tablet was raised there in his honour. All of this of course made Gen. Yang’s enemies hate the king as well, and so that official named Chung Eung-t’a fabricated some astonishing stories about him. He claimed that while he had been in Korea he had found a manuscript which proved that the king had received investiture from Japan. He also charged the Koreans with showing disloyalty to China by prefixing the word ta (great) to the posthumous titles of their kings. He also claimed that the first coming of the Japanese was with a secret understanding with the king of Korea that they would attack Liao-tung together. To these he added many minor charges. The Emperor apparently believed these things and immediately despatched an envoy, So Kwal-lan, to investigate the matter and report. When the king was informed of these charges he was dumbfounded. All his scrupulous care of the interests of his Chinese suzerain and the extremes of hardship which he and his people had endured, rather than grant the Japanese a free passage through Korea to strike China—all this was thrown back upon him and his devotion was counted treachery. He left his palace and took up his abode in a straw hut for one whole month as penance for having been even suspected of such baseness. The whole country was stirred to its depths by these unnatural and evidently baseless charges. The king immediately sent his most trusted councillors Yi Hang-bok and Yi Chung-gwi to Nanking with the following memorable reply to the charges which had been preferred:

“These charges which have been made against me are very grave and if they are true I deserve death. In order to answer them I must repeat them, even though it defile my mouth. In the first place the origin of the Japanese is far in the eastern sea. The way thither by boat is exceeding far. They are such barbarians that heaven has separated them far from other men. They have always been bad neighbors, for they live by piracy; they come like a flash and are gone as suddenly. Since the time of the fall of the Koryŭ dynasty great uneasiness has prevailed in Japan. Law has been in abeyance and bands of freebooters have been allowed to devastate our southern shores until nothing but weeds and 42briers grow there. The founder of our present dynasty drove them out for a time but they grew bold again and continued their depredations. The natives of Tsushima liked to come and trade with us and we permitted it at their request; then Japanese from the more distant islands came in flocks like birds. Our people never liked them, but we permitted the trade, as it was mutually profitable. We gave them rice to eat and treated them kindly. We built a house in Seoul for the reception of their envoys. In the days of king Se-jong they asked us to send an envoy to Japan and we did so, primarily to spy out the land and discover whether the country was rich or poor, strong or weak. The envoy obtained the information and we immediately reported the matter to China. We could not well refuse to send an envoy to Japan, but it does not argue relations of friendship, much less of intimacy. In the days of the Emperor Chong-t’ong the Japanese started to ravage a certain part of the Chinese coast and took Quelpart on the way, but we attacked and drove them out and sent their leader alive to China to be dealt with. Also in the time of King Chung-jong the Japanese attacked the China coast at Yong P’a-bu. They killed the Chinese general and then made off, but we caught them and sent them to the Chinese authorities. Since that time we have twice prevented Japanese attacks on the China coast. Not once nor twice have we received high commendation from the Chinese Emperor for our firm loyalty. We have always used our wits and our strength in the interests of China. This was the duty of a vassal and this we have done. We let the Japanese live in the three harbors of Ch’e-p’o, Pu-san-p’o and Yŭm-p’o but we prescribed limits of five or ten li beyond which they could not go. On the whole then is seems plain that the charge that we called in the Japanese and asked them for troops must be a pure fabrication. Again the book which Chung Eung-t’a claims to have found is an actual book and is named the Ha-dong Keui-ryak. It was written by Sin Suk-ju the envoy to Japan, on his return from that country, and it deals with the laws and manners of the Japanese. It contains a map of Japan, a genealogy and also the rules of etiquette to be observed toward the Japanese envoy. This book our accuser seized upon as a sure sign of our leaning toward Japan, and he twisted 43its meaning to correspond to his theory. The Japanese have a different name for the year from that which we use, and the writer of this book put the Chinese name beneath the Japanese name as a sort of commentary, so that the reader could understand what year was referred to. In a Japanese book one must put the Japanese name of the year and if he wants to make plain the meaning he must put the Chinese name underneath or in the margin. As to the charge that we gave too high a title to our deceased kings we can only say that we live beyond the sea and are ignorant and secluded. From the days of Sil-la until now we have been accustomed to name our dead kings in this way. The founder of the dynasty was scrupulously careful not to overstep the recognized limits of his authority as a vassal of China and we never for a moment have forgotten the gap which separates a vassal king from his suzerain. The custom of giving these posthumous titles dates from the days of Sil-la, so how could we be expected to know that it was wrong, especially as it has never been called in question before? If we are blamed for ignorance and boorishness we cry guilty, but if for lack of loyalty, we humbly deny it. We have our calendar, our official dress and writing all from China. This alone should speak for our loyalty. The year before the beginning of the present war Hideyoshi murdered his master and usurped his throne. Burning with a desire to spring at the throat of China he sent us letters inviting us to join in an invasion of that country. We sent his letter back with contumely. In all this we advanced solely the interests of China. This is as clear as day. When the invading army came it seemed as if all Japan had alighted upon our shores. They covered our whole eight provinces and ravaged them. They seized our three capitals and desecrated two royal tombs. They burned our ancestral temple and other sacred places and then swept northward to P’yŭng Yang. We were unable to hold them in check or save our capital from their hands. We were driven to the verge of desperation and were about to cross into the parent land to die. Is it conceivable that if we had the least friendship for Hideyoshi we would have suffered all this at his hands? If we look at nature do we find any analogy for such a thing? If this charge is true why did our forces join with yours in 44striking the invaders and why have we been hanging on their flanks and harassing them for years? Let the Emperor know that there is a reason why we have suffered this slander at the mouth of Chung Eung-t’a. It is because we took Gen. Yang Ho’s part when Chung Eung-t’a desired his recall from Korea in disgrace. Gen. Yang Ho was with us a long time and he was a true friend of Korea. We all had the utmost confidence in him and it was a great pity that so good a man should have met the reward he did. It is a cause of poignant grief to us. We are a small people and our destruction is a matter of small consequence, but for a general of China to be treated in this manner is a serious matter. We are an outside people and we have never had the pleasure of visiting the Emperor’s court, and so there is no one to plead our cause for us, but the Emperor will be able to judge our case without further plea. Chung Eung-t’a has called me a traitor, and I would rather die than live with such a charge upon me, even though it be untrue. Let the Emperor take this letter and sit in judgment on the case and if it appears that I am guilty let my head pay the penalty, but if not then let the Emperor acquit me before the world and I shall again be able to endure the light of day.”

This letter is clear, logical and to the point, and it breathes a spirit of self-respect which does credit to the king. It shows not a servile dependence but a true self-respecting loyalty, and in the firm denial of the charges and the final demand for condemnation or public acquital there is the ring of genuine manhood which would do honor to any man in any age.

When the Emperor read this letter his judicial mind found in it the ring of conscious rectitude and like the man he was he instantly acknowledged his error. He ordered the letter to be printed by the thousands and tens of thousands and scattered broadcast over his empire, for he apparently felt it a personal honor to have so true and genuine a man for a vassal. He answered the letter in the following terms:

“I believed the words of slander spoken by that small man Chung Eung-t‘a, and doubted in my mind as to the loyalty of the king of Korea. I cannot now be oblivious to the unmerited sufferings of Gen. Yang Ho. Chung Eung-t‘a is 45a radically bad man. I was on the brink of a disastrous mistake. I will now deprive him of rank and make him one of the common herd. Let him appear before me at once.”

When Chung Eung-t‘a arrived in Nanking he was cut in two at the waist.

Chapter III

Japanese mix with Koreans.... Chinese and Korean advance.... Japanese victory.... attempts at bribery.... Admiral Yi Sun sin’s last fight.... a young Korean captive.... Hideyoshi poisoned.... his character.... Japanese recalled.... a Korean teacher in Japan.... a memorial temple.... party changes.... Japanese envoy.... posthumous honors.... factional strife.... revenue.... envoy to Japan.... a welcome heir.... negotiations with Japan.... a dark outlook.... Chinese commissioner duped.... treaty with Japan.... reign of terror.... the young prince murdered.

By this time the Japanese were becoming mixed with the Korean people among whom and near whom their camps were placed. They were probably good customers and the people doubtless felt that it was not their business to fight them; so all up and down the coast for a distance of three hundred miles the Japanese lived in their “holes” as the Koreans called them, and in many cases they took wives from among the women of the country and devoted themselves to farming, except at such times as the Korean or Chinese forces came into their vicinity. There were three Japanese military centers. One was at Ul-san on the eastern coast, held by Konishi. In the west was Sun-ch‘ŭn in Chŭl-la Province where Kato had his headquarters, while half way between these two in the town of Sa-ch‘un on the Si-jin River a third station was held by Gen. Sok Mang-ja. These three stations kept up regular communication with each other, and in case of need rendered each other assistance.

We now enter the last campaign of this eventful war. We are not informed as to the numbers of the Japanese at this time but it probably fell short of 100,000 men. The Chinese had assembled again in force at Seoul and in the ninth moon 46of 1598 a grand move was made against the invaders. The Chinese forces were led by Generals Hyöng Kă and Man Se-dŭk. The whole army was divided into four grand army corps. Gen. Ma Kwi led the eastern division southward to attack Ul-san. Under him were eleven other generals and 24,000 men.

The central division, of 13,000 men, was led by Gen. Tong Il-wŭn under whom were eight other generals. The western division was led by Gen. Yu Chung and six other generals with a force of 13,000 men. The admiral of this campaign was Chil Lin who was already in the south with eight other commanders handling 13,200 men. It is said that the entire expedition numbered 142,700 men, but the above items sum up to less than half that and we must conclude that there were something less than 100,000 men in all.

On the last day of the ninth moon, already well on toward winter, the three divisions deployed before the walls of Ul-san. Kato had not been idle all this time; after the terrible scenes of the last siege he had made the best of preparations. He had accumulated an abundance of food, increased the garrison, strengthened the defenses, and he could laugh at any force that should try to sit out the winter before him. The Chinese soon discovered this and turned aside to work that promised better success. Gen. Tong Il-wŭn took a powerful force and advanced on Sa-chŭn, the central station of the Japanese. It is probable that the garrison here was smaller than those under either Kato or Konishi, for when its commander saw the force that was brought to bear upon him he hastily evacuated the place and crossed over to the island of Pom-neut and fortified it. Gen. Tong was over-confident and pressed after him. The Japanese craftily drew him on and on until his force was immediately under the wall, when a mine was exploded which, though it killed but a few hundred men, threw the whole attacking body into such confusion that the Japanese rushed out and found them an easy prey. The Chinese lay in heaps where they had been cut down. Gen. Tong barely escaped with his life and fled to Sam-gă, being chased as far as the Nam-gang (river) where the Japanese contented themselves with making way with 12,000 bags of rice belonging to the Chinese commissariat.

47Gen. Yu Chung was commissioned to take a strong body of men and attack the fortress at Sun-ch‘ŭn in Chŭl-la Province. Arriving at the neighboring village of Wă-gyo he determined to overcome the old veteran Kato by treachery. He sent to that general a proposition to make peace. Kato was now an old man and the war in Korea was bringing him neither fame nor advancement, so he was ready to give up the contest, now that it had been demonstrated that the Japanese arms could not penetrate the north. He gladly assented and sent Gen. Yu a present of two handsome swords. It was agreed that they should meet at a certain point, accompanied by only 3000 men each; but Gen. Yu secretly placed an ambush in such wise that when the Japanese force should come out it could be cut off from return to the fort. A whistle was to be sounded as a signal when the Japanese came out. But Kato was too old a bird to be caught by such a child’s trick. He had seen two or three of the Chinese lurking about in the vicinity of the gate and so delayed his coming out. By mistake the signal was given and the Chinese ambuscade rushed out only to become an object of ridicule to the Japanese. But even as it was some eighty or ninety Japanese stragglers were cut off and taken by the Chinese. Gen. Yu then surrounded the stronghold and at the same time sent an urgent letter to Admiral Chil Lin to come that very night and join in an attack on the Japanese. The admiral obeyed the summons and hurried up with his fleet. Not knowing about the tides and supposing that the shouts that he heard were the shouts of battle, he sailed straight up under the walls of the fortress. But he found that there was no fight on for Gen. Yu had failed to connect, and the ebbing tide left the astonished Admiral high and dry on the mud flats under the very noses of the enemy. In the morning the Japanese trooped out and burned forty-eight of the stranded ships and killed most of the men. Admiral Chil escaped in the early morning by boat and hurried to the camp of his tardy compatriot, Gen. Yu. In a rage he tore down with his own hands that general’s flag and rent it in pieces, meanwhile heaping upon him every species of abuse for having gotten him into such a plight. Gen. Yu was exceedingly ashamed and his face, they say, was “the color of dirt.” He beat upon 48his breast and acknowledged that he deserved death. So Chil Lin went back to his decimated camp to nurse his wrath.

But Gen. Yu knew that Kato really desired to put an end to the war, and so he sent another messenger saying, “This time I really mean peace. If you will take all your forces and depart I will give you a clear path to escape. Our army numbers 140,000 men and you cannot hope to face that number.” To this proposition Kato assented and began immediately to embark his soldiers to send them back to Japan. But as it happened they had to pass the position of Admiral Chil Lin who naturally sallied out and gave fight, sinking or burning a dozen or more of Kato’s boats. The rest put back in haste to the starting place and Kato blamed Gen. Yu for having deceived him; but the latter claimed that he had merely forgotten to inform Admiral Chil Lin of the agreement and that he would do so. At the same time he advised Kato to send Admiral Chil a slight testimonial of regard, which he did in the shape of a hundred ounces of silver and forty-five swords. So Admiral Chil acquiesced. Again the Japanese fleet set out and succeeded in getting by Admiral Chil Lin’s place; but they had not reckoned upon Admiral Yi Sun-sin and his faithful warriors. Kato was again obliged to turn back and go to work to bribe that doughty leader. He sent him guns and swords in large numbers but the old gentleman remarked that as for weapons he was already pretty well supplied, and sent them back. He was then approached with an offer of 1,000 ounces of silver if he would wink at Kato’s passage. This he likewise refused.

The Japanese were all embarked and it was determined to try and slip by the terrible Admiral in the gray of morning; but he was well aware of the intentions of the enemy, and before break of day he massed all the ships at his command and came down upon the Japanese fleet as it lay at anchor before the fortress of Sun-ch’ŭn. As he approached he is said to have uttered the following prayer to his gods: “To-day I am to die. Give me but one more victory over these Japanese and I shall die content.” He well knew that he had enemies at court who would eventually secure his downfall and so he determined to make an end in one last 49desperate struggle. The fight was short and fierce and when the morning breeze swept the smoke of battle away it disclosed fifty of the Japanese boats in flames and the water filled with struggling forms. The old veteran had taken upwards of two thousand heads in that brief time. But Gen. Kato had slipped away in a small boat and made his escape. The work however was only begun. The sea was covered with boats frantically endeavoring to escape from the dreaded arm of the merciless Admiral Yi. The good work went on and every hour added to the score that Admiral Yi had sworn to made before the night should fall. Notice reached him that a fresh Japanese fleet had come and was attacking Admiral Chil Lin’s fleet. Hurrying thither he found that it was indeed true. He now changed his tactics and without coming to a hand to hand fight he circled round and round the Japanese fleet driving them closer and closer together. When all was ready he began playing upon them with a new machine of his own manufacture called the pun-t’ong or “spraying tube.” What this was we can not exactly discover, but in a short time it sufficed to set the Japanese fleet on fire. A wind sprang up and fanned the flame and ere long the Japanese fleet was one mass of fire. Hundreds of boats were consumed with all their occupants. After seeing this well under way Admiral Yi turned his attention to the fugitive craft that were striving to make their escape. Standing in the prow of his boat in an exposed position he urged on the chase. While he stood in the midst of one of the grandest victories of the war, he was pierced by a bullet. They caught him as he fell, and his last words were, “Do not let the rest know that I am dead, for it will spoil the fight.” Then he expired—the man who may well be called the Nelson of Korea.

Yi Wan, the nephew of the fallen Admiral, still urged on the battle; but the work was almost done. The fugitive boats became fewer and fewer. Admiral Chil Lin happened to come near the boat of the dead admiral and noticing that the sailors in it were quarrelling over some Japanese heads he exclaimed, “The Admiral must be dead.” He entered the boat and found it even so. Throwing himself three times at full length on the deck he uttered this lament: “I thought 50that he would save me and still live, but here he lies dead and there is no soldier now left in Korea.”

We have now come to the end of actual hostilities in the peninsula but we must cross to Japan and inquire into the immediate causes which led to the final recall of all the Japanese troops. The Korean account of these events is very remarkable and faith is to be put in it only in-so-far as it is not directly antagonized by the Japanese account. For events that transpired in Korea the Korean account must be taken as the standard, but for events that transpired in Japan the Japanese account must of course be accepted as the more trustworthy. The Korean account is as follows.

The Farrier

CHRONOLOGICAL INDEX OF THE KINGS OF KOREA

The Farrier

Note. The names in the right hand columns are the posthumous titles of the various sovereigns. In the left hand columns are the ordinary names.

Ancient Chosun

Kingdom of Mahan

Kingdom of Silla

ngdom of Pakche

Kingdom of Koguryu

Kingdom of Koryu