The next day a letter came from the Manchu Prince Yi Wan urging that a treaty be made and the solemn oath be sworn, and he added, “Either there must be such a treaty or we must fight.” He ordered that the king have an altar made at once, on which to slay the animals and swear the oath. The Koreans hung back and said, “Have we not sent gifts and hostages to the north? Why then should we be compelled to take this oath?” In a rage the Manchu messenger rode away toward P’yŭng-san. This sudden departure was ominous and it frightened the Koreans, so that they hastened to set about building the altar. When, therefore, a few days later the Manchu generals Kang Hong-rip and Yu Hă came with an escort and demanded that a treaty should be ratified at once, the Koreans hastened to comply. The king went with Gen. Yu Hă to the altar and the king was ordered to plunge the knife into the victims, a white horse and a black bullock which signified the heavens and the earth respectively. At this the courtiers all exclaimed, “The king cannot do it. It must be done by deputy.” The king replied. “It makes no difference now. We have eaten their insults and the people are all about to perish. I will do it.” But still they opposed it so strongly that at last Yi Chŭng-gwi was appointed as substitute for the king.
It was on the third day of the third moon of 1627 when the ceremony was performed outside the West Gate of the fortress of Kang-wha. They killed the white horse and black bullock and sacrificed to heaven. The Manchu oath ran as follows: “The second king of the Manchus makes a treaty with the king of Korea. From this day we have but one mind and one thought. If Korea breaks this oath may heaven send a curse upon her. If the Manchus break it may they likewise be punished. The two kings will have an equal regard for truth and they will govern according to the principles of religion. May heaven help us and give us blessings.” The Korean oath was as follows: “This day Korea takes oath and forms a treaty with the Keum (Kin) Kingdom. We too swear by this sacrifice that each shall dwell secure in the possession of his own lands. If either hates and injures the other may heaven send punishment upon the offending party. These two kings have minds regardful of truth. Each must be at peace with the other.” The next day the three highest Korean officials went to the Manchu camp to settle the details of the treaty. They said, “As we have made a treaty with you, of course you will not let your troops advance on Seoul. It will be best for you to move backward at once. Now you are the ‘elder brother’ and we the ‘younger brother,’ so you will see the propriety of staying on the other side of the Yalu River. The Ming dynasty of China has been as a parent to us for two hundred years and our kings have always received investiture from the Emperor. We have made a treaty now with you, but that does not require us to cast off the suzerainty of China.” This raised a storm about the Koreans’ ears, and for days they disputed over the point with the Korean commission, but could not move them a hair’s breadth from this position. At last in astonishment Gen. Yu Hă sat down, folded his hands and said “The Kingdom of Korea is like a small island or like a hair, and if we should but raise our foot it would be destroyed, and yet though destruction stares them in the face they will not forswear their fealty to China. This is greatness. Such righteousness and faithfulness are admirable. If the Manchu king consents, you shall do as you please in this respect.” They sent to the Manchu Prince who was with the army at P‘yŭng-san and he gave his consent. Gen. Yu Hă then put in the Manchu claim for yearly tribute. It was an enormous amount but the Koreans decided they would send at least a small part of what was demanded.
The Manchu army then moved northward beyond[beyond] P’yŭng-yang to An-ju, being opposed there by Gen. Chöng Ch‘ung-sin they told him that they had made a treaty with Korea and were on their way back to Manchuria. He thought they were retreating and were trying to deceive him, so he said, “I have received no intimation of all this from headquarters, so you will have to wait here until I get word from the king.”
The Manchu army on its way north through Whang-hă Province had stolen right and left, oxen, horses and women. They bored holes through the hands of children and fastened them together with cords and drove them north to make slaves of them. In the province of P‘yŭng-an they did not commit these outrages, for there was a large sprinkling of Manchus among the people. When they left P’yŭng-yang they burned it to the ground. North of that place they put a garrison in every large town, namely An-ju, Chöng-ju, Sŭn-ch‘ŭn and Eui-ju. Strangely enough Koreans were put at the head of these garrisons. Of course these bodies of troops had to live off the people, and it seems that they did not scruple to plunder and confiscate in a wholesale manner. This is indicated by the fact that Chöng Pang-su the prefect of Chŭn-san got out of patience and said it could no longer be borne. So gathering about him as many soldiers as possible, he began to make war on the Manchu garrisons wherever encountered. The Manchus were cut down by hundreds, as the country was being scoured by small bands of foragers who fell into this prefect’s hands. Three of the Manchu captains joined their forces and tried to make headway against this Korean combination, but they were all killed and their forces cut to pieces. The king, when he heard of these actions, was loud in praise of the Koreans who so successfully opposed the unlawful acts of the Manchu garrisons.
Not long after this a letter came from the Manchu headquarters saying, “Having made a treaty of peace with us, why do you now set upon and kill our people?” To which the Koreans boldly replied. “It was one of the conditions of that treaty that all Manchus should move beyond the Yalu. If they had done so, there would have been no trouble. But many of your people stopped in P‘yŭng-an Province and stole our cattle and our women. The people could not endure it and so revolted. But it was not at our instigation. It is evident that the trouble began with you. It would be well if you would send back the 2,000 people you have carried away captive to Manchuria.” The argument was conclusive, as the Manchus acknowledged by sending back the captive Koreans. When the Japanese heard that the Koreans had been successfully opposing the Manchus they sent a present of 300 muskets, 300 swords and 300 pounds of powder, but the Koreans wisely declined the gifts and sent them back to Japan.
Chapter VI.
The king returns to Seoul.... military reforms.... message from China.... Manchu familiarities.... conspiracies frustrated.... Manchu complaints.... pacified.... Japanese offers.... a naval station.... a lawless Chinaman.... beheaded.... factional fights.... courier system.... a disloyal Chinaman.... envoy to China meets Roman Catholics.... quarrel with the Manchus.... tribute.... Chinese renegades.... two great Manchu generals.... a stirring memorial.... a frightened envoy.... war inevitable.... omen.... Emperor congratulates the king.... divided counsels.... fatal mistake.... panic in Seoul.... the king takes refuge in Nam-han.
On the tenth of the fourth moon the king started back towards Seoul, which he entered two days later. He was now fully awake to the need of a well drilled army, and he set to work in earnest drilling one. He stationed a general at Kang-wha permanently and instituted the custom of requiring military duty of every citizen under forty years of age and over fifteen. Some were sent to Seoul to drill for three years. The first year was spent in learning the methods of guarding gates and walls, the second in musket practice, and the third in swordsmanship and archery. When they had been thoroughly[thoroughly] drilled they were sent to the country to drill the militia. In this way an available force of 700,000 men is said to have been trained. If this is the estimate of the number of able-bodied men between fifteen and forty it gives a valuable clue to the entire population of the country at the time. At this time the custom was revived of having the men stand in squads of ten, five in front and five behind. When the front rank had discharged their pieces they fell back and the rear line stepped forward and discharged theirs, while the others reloaded. A Chinese envoy was sent from Nanking with a message to the king but refused to come further than Ka-do Island, from which place he forwarded his message, which ran, “How does it happen that you have made peace with the Manchus?” The king made reply, “The Manchus overwhelmed us with their vast numbers and it meant either a treaty or our extinction. We had no time to send and explain matters to the Emperor.” The Emperor sent a reply to this saying, “I have received your reply and I am truly sorry for you. You are in no wise to blame. Now hoard your wealth and by-and-bye you and I will rise and strike these Manchus to the earth.”
It will be remembered that the king had sent one of his relatives as hostage to the Manchus, but now, according to the stipulations of the treaty, he came back, escorted by the Manchu general Yu Hă. The king sent high officials to meet them outside the South Gate, but this did not satisfy the Manchu, who was angry that the king did not come in person. So the king had to go out and meet them and give a feast to the returning party. When Gen. Yu Hă met the king he wanted to kiss him, saying that it was a custom by which he showed friendship and a demonstration that the oath still held firm between them; but the king refused the osculatory salute and so the general compromised by patting him on the back.
Late in this year two dangerous conspiracies were made against the government. The first was by Yi In-jo a former official living in Kang-wŭn Province. He had a goodly following among the people and made bold to liberate all the criminals. After looting several towns he went into camp on a mountain top. The government troops, however, surrounded him and finally captured him and sent him up to the capital where he was beheaded together with his two sons. The other attempt was of a different nature. Yu Hyo-rip, an exile in Che-ch‘ŭn, a relative of the deposed king’s wife, decided to work up an insurrection. He sent his son up to Seoul in disguise to make arrangements with a disloyal eunuch. Soldiers also came disguised as merchants, but all armed to the teeth. The palace was to be seized on the fourth day of the new year. As fortune would have it. Hŭ Chŭk, a relative of one of the conspirators, learned of the plot in time, but only just in time, to inform the Prime Minister. So when the attack was made the whole party was seized and with them Yu Hyo-rip himself, who had come up to Seoul in woman’s clothes and in a woman’s chair. Being questioned about the affair he testified that he was not the prime mover in the matter but that he had been set on by the queen dowager, who wanted to put the king’s uncle on the throne. That aged and respectable woman indignantly denied any knowledge of the plot and as proof of her innocence she urged that the said uncle be put to death. All united in this request and it was finally granted, though against the better instincts of the king who believed him innocent. We shall see later that the king was right.