Chapter VI.
The king moves to Kang-wha.... a slave rebellion.... Mongol anger.... second invasion.... Mongol charges.... popular insurrections.... palace building.... the north occupied by Mongols.... Mongols not good seamen.... suffering and distress.... nature of Mongol occupation.... diplomacy.... temporary peace.... Gayuk Khan.... Mangu Khan.... efforts to get the king out of Kang-wha.... great invasion of 1253.... an urgent letter.... king decides not to remove.... great fortress falls.... impossible demands.... siege of Ch‘un-ch‘ŭn.... Ya Gol-dă meets the king.... the king promises to return to the capital.... a ferocious governor-general.... exchequer depleted.... Cha Ra-dă before Kang-wha.... a beautiful reply.... a new viceroy.... succession of disasters.... viceroy overthrown.... Mongol ravages.... the north defenseless.
That neither the Koryŭ king nor any of the officials believed that the end of the trouble had come is evident. No sooner had the tumult of war subsided than the question arose in the Koryŭ councils as to the moving of the court. Some objections were made, but Choe U silenced them by killing off a few of the objectors. As for the king, he could not make up his mind to go; but the viceroy showed no hesitation. Seizing the government carts he loaded his household effects upon them and moved to the island of Kang-wha. He also urged the people to do likewise, and put up placards threatening with death anyone who should speak against removing. Meanwhile the people throughout the country were rising in revolt against the Mongol governors and were driving them out. This was sure to call down upon the troubled land another invasion, and the king at last made up his mind to follow the example of his viceroy and move to Kang-wha. A palace had been prepared for him there and on the appointed day a start was made from the capital. It happened to be in the midst of the rainy season when the roads are well-nigh impassable. The whole cavalcade soon found itself mired, and torrents of rain added materially to the discomfort. Even ladies of noble rank were seen wading with bared limbs in the mud and carrying bundles on their heads. The wailing and crying of this forlorn multitude was audible for a long distance. Gen. Kim Chung-gwi was left to guard the capital. When the king at last arrived on the island he found that the palace was not ready for occupancy and he was obliged to live in a common house while the officials shifted for themselves. Messengers were immediately sent in all directions ordering the people to leave the mainland and seek refuge on the islands.
The common people in Song-do were in utter confusion. Anarchy stared them in the face. A slave by the name of Yi T‘ong gathered about him a band of slaves and raised an insurrection. The general who had been placed in charge was driven out, the monks were summoned to help in the sack of the town and all the government buildings were soon looted. It is hardly complimentary to Buddhism that her monks were invited by this seditious rabble to help in these lawless acts but it is probably a true picture of the times. When this came to the ears of the king he sent Gen. Yi Cha-sung to put down the insurrection. The slaves barricaded the road but the general dispersed them and at night gained admittance to the city by feigning to be a deserter. Once within, he caught the slave leader Yi T‘ong and the rest soon dispersed.
When the news of this exodus from the capital and the driving out of the Mongol governors reached the Mongol capital is caused a sensation. The emperor, in a white heat, sent a messenger post-haste to Song-do and behind him came a powerful army. The demand was “Why have you changed the capital? Why have our people been driven out?” The king replied that the capital was changed because all the people were running away, but he affirmed that although he had removed to Kang-wha his friendly feelings toward the Mongols had not changed. To this the Mongols made the only answer that was to be expected from them. They fell upon the northern towns and put them to indiscriminate slaughter. Men, women and children fell beneath their swords. Gen. Sal Ye-t‘ap himself came to attack Cho-im fortress. In that place there was a notable archer. He shot with unerring skill and every arrow found its victim. Aided by this man the garrison offered such a stubborn resistance that the Mongols at last fell back in disorder. It is said that Gen. Sal Ye-t‘ap himself was one of the victims of this man’s superb marksmanship. The king offered him official position but he would not accept it.
The spring of 1233 found the emperor’s anger somewhat abated and instead of sending another army he sent another envoy with four formulated charges. (1) No Koryŭ envoy had come to do obeisance. (2) Highwaymen had killed a Mongol envoy. (3) The king had run away from his capital. (4) The king had given false figures in the census of Koryŭ. We are not told whether these were answered but we may infer that they were, and in the humblest tone.
It would be singular indeed if, in such lawless times, there were not many insurrections in the country. A considerable insurrection was gotten up in Kyŭng-sang Province but was put down with a heavy hand, for the records say that after the battle between the rebels and the loyal troops the road for six miles was lined with dead. In P‘yŭng-yang likewise there was a rising led by one Pil Hyŭn-bo. The King sent Gen. Chöng I alone to settle the difficulty. He had already been a P‘yŭng-yang prefect and had put down one insurrection. He was feared throughout the whole section. As he approached the northern city his servant besought him not to enter it, but he replied that such were the king’s orders. So he went to his death, for the insurrectionists, failing to win him over to their side, gave him his quietus. The viceroy then sent 3,000 picked troops to the rebellious city. They took the rebel leader, cut him in two and sent the fragments of his body to the king. The second in command named Hong Pok-wŭn, fled to the Mongols, by whom he was warmly welcomed. He became their guide in many subsequent expeditions. These renegades were a source of constant trouble between Koryŭ and the Mongols; so much so that the King took pains to show favor to the parents and relatives of those who had fled to the Mongol flag. This same year a second wall was built about Kang-wha. The king sent asking the Mongols to recall the rest of their troops, and it was done.
With the opening of the following year, 1234, great numbers of people were summoned to help in the building of a palace on Kang-wha. At this time the utmost favor was shown to Buddhism. Sacrifices were offered on all the mountains and beside the streams with the hope of enlisting the sympathy of the gods. The viceroy also looked out for himself, for we are told, probably with some exaggeration, that he built himself a house twenty li in circumference. It was in this same year that the Kin dynasty became extinct.
With the opening of the next year the real occupation of the land by the Mongols commenced. The north was systematically occupied, scores of prefects being seized. The king of[of] Kang-wha meanwhile was trying to secure a cessation of these hostilities by turning sun-worshipper, for every morning from seven to twelve the officials spent their time worshipping that very useful, but hardly divine, luminary. The year following increased the hopelessness of Koryŭ’s position a hundred fold, for the Mongols established seventeen permanent camps in P‘yŭng-an and Whang-hă Provinces. They came as far south as Han-yang, the present Seoul. They then proceeded southward to the very extremity of the peninsula, and camps were established through all that portion of the land. The only reverse the Mongols met in this triumphal march was at the hands of Son Mun-ju the prefect of Chuk-ju, now Chuk-san, who had learned the tactics of the Mongols while serving in the north. Every day he foretold successfully at what point the enemy would make the next attack. People said he was inspired.
It would seem that the Mongols, however, did not remain long in the south, for we read that when the standard of revolt was raised the following year at Na-ju, the Koryŭ forces, sent by the king, speedily overcame them. This would hardly have been likely had the Mongols been in force in that vicinity.