We return now to the north, the real scene of war. In the ninth moon the Chinese general, Sim Yu-gyŭng, whose name will figure largely in these annals from this point on, was sent from China to investigate the condition of affairs in Korea with a view to the sending of a large Chinese force, for by this time China had become alive to the interests at stake, namely her own interests. This general crossed the Ya-lu and came southward by An-ju as far as Sun-an. From that point he sent a communication to the Japanese in P‘yŭng-yang saying, “I have come by order of the Emperor of China to inquire what Korea has done to merit such treatment as this at your hands. You are trampling Korea under foot and we would know why.” The Japanese general, Konishi, answered this by requesting that the Chinese general meet him at Kang-bok Mountain ten li north of P‘yŭng-yang, and have a conference with him. To this Gen. Sim agreed and, taking with him three followers, he repaired to the appointed place. Konishi accompanied by Kuroda and Gensho came to the rendezvous with a great array of soldiers and weapons, Gen. Sim walked into their midst alone, having left his horse outside the enclosure. He immediately addressed them as follows; “I brought with me a million soldiers and left them in camp beyond the Ya-lu. You, Gensho, are a monk. Why do you come to kill and destroy?” Gensho answered, “For many a year Japan has had no dealings with China. We asked from Korea a safe conduct for our envoy to Nanking but it was refused and we were compelled to come and take it by force. What cause have you to blame us for this?” To this Gen. Sim replied, “If you wish to go to China to pay your respects to the Emperor there will be no difficulty at all. I can arrange it without the least trouble,” Konishi said nothing, but handed his sword to Gen. Sim in token of amity and after they had conferred together for some time it was arranged that Gen. Sim go to Nanking and represent that Japan wished to become a vassal of China. Fifty days was agreed upon for the general to make the trip to Nanking and return with the answer, and a truce was called for that time. A line was drawn round P‘yŭng-yang ten li from the wall and the Japanese agreed to stay within that limit while the Koreans promised not to cross that line. Gen. Sim was sent upon his way with every mark of esteem on the part of the Japanese who accompanied him a short distance on the road.
The Japanese lived up to the terms of the truce, never crossing the line once, but the fifty days expired and still Gen. Sim did not appear. They then informed the Koreans that in the twelfth moon their “horses would drink the water of the Ya-lu.”
During these fifty days of truce what was going on in other parts of the peninsula? Cho Ung a soldier of Ch‘ung-ch‘ŭng Province was a man of marvelous skill. With a band of 500 men he succeeded so well in cutting off small foraging bands of Japanese that they were at their wits end to get him put out of the way. One foggy day when the mist was so thick that one could not see his hand before his face the Japanese learned that this dreaded man was on the road. They followed him swiftly and silently and at last got an opportunity to shoot him in the back. He fell from his horse but rose and fled on foot. But they soon overtook him and, having first cut his hands off, they despatched him.
The governor of Kyŭng-geui Province was Sim Tă. He had found asylum in the town of Sang-nyŭng, two hundred li north of Seoul. Having gotten together a considerable body of soldiers he formed the daring plan of wresting Seoul from the hands of the Japanese. For this purpose[purpose] it was necessary that he should have accomplices in that city who should rise at the appointed time and join in the attack. Through treachery or otherwise the Japanese became aware of the plot and sending a strong body of troops to Sang-nyŭng they seized the governor and put him to death.
Gen. Kim Si-min had charge of the defense of the walled town of Chin-ju in Kyŭng-sang Province. The Japanese invested the town with a very large force. Within, the garrison amounted to only three thousand men. These were placed on the walls in the most advantageous manner by Gen. Kim who was specially skilled in the defense of a walled town. All the soldiers were strictly commanded not to fire a single shot until the Japanese were close up to the wall. The Japanese advanced in three divisions, 10,000 strong. A thousand of these were musketeers. The roar of the musketry was deafening but the walls were as silent as if deserted. Not a man was to be seen. On the following day the assault began in earnest. The Japanese discarded the muskets and used fire arrows. Soon all the houses outside the wall were in ashes. Gen. Kim went up into the south gate and there sat and listened to some flute playing with a view to making the Japanese think the defending force was so large as to make solicitude unnecessary. This made the Japanese very careful. They made elaborate preparations for the assault. Cutting down bamboos and pine trees they made ladders about eight feet wide and as high as the wall. They also prepared straw mats to protect their heads from missiles from above. But the defenders had also made careful preparations. They had bundles of straw with little packages of powder fastened in them, to cast down on the attacking party. Piles of stones and kettles of hot water were also in readiness. As the assault might take place at night, planks bristling with nails were thrown over the wall. This proved a wise precaution for in fact the attack was made that very night. It raged fiercely for a time, but so many of the Japanese were lamed by the spikes in the planks and so many were burned by the bundles of straw, that at last they had to withdraw, leaving heaps of dead behind. More than half the attacking force were killed and the rest beat a hasty retreat.
In the ninth moon Gen. Pak Chin of Kyŭng-sang Province took 10,000 soldiers and went to attack the walled town of Kyöng-ju which was held by the Japanese. It is said that he made use of a species of missile called “The Flying Thunderbolt.” It was projected from a kind of mortar made of bell metal and having a bore of some twelve or fourteen inches. The mortar was about eight feet long. The records say that this thing could project itself through the air for a distance of forty paces. It doubtless means that a projectile of some kind could be cast that distance from this mortar. The records go on to say that the “Flying Thunder-bolt” was thrown over the wall of the town and, when the Japanese flocked around it to see what it might be, it exploded with a terrific noise, instantly killing twenty men or more. This struck the Japanese dumb with terror and so worked upon their superstitious natures that they decamped in haste and evacuated the city. The inventor of this weapon was Yi Yang-son, and it is said that the secret of its construction died with him. It appears that we have here the inventor of the mortar and bomb. The length of the gun compared with its calibre, the distance the projectile was carried with the poor powder then in use and the explosion of the shell all point to this as being the first veritable mortar in use in the east if not in the world. It is said that one of these mortars lies today in a storehouse in the fortress of Nam-han.
All through the country the people were rising and arming against the invaders. A list of their leaders will show how widespread was the movement. In the province of Chŭl-la were Generals Kim Ch’ŭn-il, Ko Kyung-myŭng and Ch’oé Kyăng-whe: in Kyŭng sang Province Generals Kwak Chă-o, Kwŭn Eung-su, Kim Myön. Chöng In-hong, Kim Hă, Nyu Wan-gă, Yi Tă-geui and Chang Sa-jin; in Ch’ung-ch’ŭng Province Generals Cho Heun, Yŭng Kyu (monk), Kim Hong-min, Yi San-gyŭm, Cho Tún-gong, Cho Ung and Yi Pong; in Kyŭng-geui Province Generals U Sung-jun, Chăng Suk-ha, Ch’oé Heul, Yi No, Yi San-whi, Nam On-gyŭng, Kim T’ak, Yu Ta-jin, Yi Chil, Hong Kye-nam and Wang Ok; in Ham-gyŭng Province Generals Chöng Nam-bu, and Ko Kyŭng-min; in P’yŭng-an Province Generals Cho Ho-ik and the monk Yu Chŭng. The country was filled with little bands of fifty or a hundred men each, and all were fighting separately. Perhaps it was better so, for it may have prevented jealousies and personal enmities that otherwise would have ruined the whole scheme.
Chöng Mun-bu was the “Military inspector of the north” and it was his business to investigate annually the condition of things in the province of Ham-gyŭng and to superintend the annual fair on the border at Whe-ryŭng in the tenth moon of each year. He was caught by the Japanese on the road and was held captive, but made his escape by night and found a place of hiding in the house of a certain sorceress or fortune-teller in Yong-sŭng. After five days of flight he reached the town of Kyöng-sung where he found the leaders Ch’oé Pa-ch’ŭn and Chi Tal-wŭn at the house of a wealthy patriot Yi Pung-su who had given large sums of money to raise and equip soldiers. The common people entered heartily into the plan and a force of 10,000 men, indifferently armed and drilled, was put into the field. This force surrounded the town of Kil-ju where the Japanese were encamped, and after a desperate fight the Japanese were totally defeated, leaving 600 heads in the hands of the victors. A few days later a similar engagement took place with a like result, sixty more heads being taken.
And so it was throughout the country. The Japanese were being worn away by constant attrition; here a dozen, there a score and yonder a hundred, until the army in P‘yŭng-yang, by no means a large one, was practically all that was left of the Japanese in the peninsula.
Kwŭn Yŭl, the governor of Chŭl-la Province, said to the provincial general, “If you will remain in Yi-hyŭn and guard the province I will take 20,000 men and move northward to the capital.” He advanced as far as Su-wŭn. The Japanese tried to draw him into a general engagement but he avoided it and kept up a geurilla[geurilla] warfare, cutting off large numbers of stragglers from the Japanese camp. By this means he accomplished the important work of opening up a way to the north, which had been closed; so that from now on messengers passed freely from the southern provinces to the king.