On the fourteenth the Manchu army entered Whang-hă Province and almost immediately the news came that they had arrived at Chang-dan only 120 li from Seoul. There they caught the prefect, cut off his hair, dressed him in Manchu clothes and forced him to act as guide. At noon the next day the king and the Crown Prince passed out the South Gate on their way to Kang-wha, when suddenly messengers came hurrying up saying that the Manchu horsemen had already arrived at Yang-wha-jin on the river and that the road to Kang-wha was consequently blocked. The king and his immediate followers went up into the pavilion above the gate and conferred together. The native chronicler says that “their faces were white and their voices were like the croaking of country frogs.” And well they might be. Chi Yö-hă said, “They have come down from the border in five days and must be very tired. I will take 500 men and go out and hold them in check until the king can get to Kang-wha.” But Ch’oe Myŭng-gil said, “We must decide immediately, for the enemy is at our very doors. We cannot fight them, but I will go out the gate and parley with them and meantime the king can escape to Nam-han.” To this the king eagerly assented and Ch’oe took ten cattle and ten tubs of wine and went out to meet the enemy. All the gates on the south side of Seoul were closed and the king and his suite started for the East Gate. The crown prince’s groom ran away and the prince was compelled to hold the bridle himself. The people crowded around the royal party so closely that it was almost impossible to move, but finally the gate was passed and the party hurried forward. At seven o’clock that night the royal cavalcade entered the welcome gate of Nam-han. So rapid had been the pace that only six men in the king’s retinue remained until they arrived at their destination. The rest arrived some time before midnight. They all urged the king to start at day light and reach Kang-wha by a circuitous route. This was determined upon, but a storm of sleet and rain came on, which rendered the roads so slippery that the king was compelled to dismount and walk. It soon became evident that this would not do. The king was very cold and the progress was hopelessly slow. So they placed him in a litter hastily extemporised and brought him back to the fortress. It turned out that this was fortunate, for the Manchus had guarded every approach to Kang-wha so carefully[carefully] that the king never would have been able to get through. Gen. Ch’oe, who had gone to parley with the enemy, went beyond the Peking Pass and met Gen. Mabudă and said, “We made a treaty with you some time since, but now you come down upon us with this great array. How is this?” The Manchu answered. “It is not we who have broken the treaty but you, and we have come to learn from the king the reason of it.” Gen. Ch’oe replied, “Well, you cannot see him. He has gone to the fortress of Nam-han.”
Together they entered Seoul and there the Manchu general had Gen. Ch’oe send a letter to the king as follows, “The Manchu general has come to make a treaty with us, but he says we are all afraid of him and that even the king has fled. He says that if the king wants to make peace he must send his son and the prime minister together with the man who advised the king to break the treaty. They demand an immediate answer.” That night no answer came and Mabudă charged Gen. Ch’oe with having deceived him and wanted to kill him on the spot, but the rest dissuaded him saying “Let us go to Nam-han ourselves.” They made Gen. Ch’oe act as guide and soon they stood before that renowned fortress. Gen. Ch’oe went ahead and entered alone. The king seized his hand and said, “You are come to save us.” But the general said “The Manchu general was exceedingly angry because you did not answer my letter last night, so he has now come with a third of his whole force. In order to pacify him we cannot but comply with his three conditions.” The king replied, “You are deceived by him. Do you think he has come all this way to be satisfied so easily as that?”
Chapter VII.
Manchu camps.... the garrison of Nam-han.... a trick.... divided counsels.... the king determines to fight it out.... Koreans eager to fight.... the garrison put on half rations.... terrible cold.... message to the provinces.... successful sallies.... the king’s kindness.... the Manchu fence.... the gift refused.... help from the outside....unsuccessful[unsuccessful] venture.... plenty and want.... imperial edict.... the answer.... a night attack.... relief party defeated.... other attempts to relieve the king.... a cowardly general.... a clever trick.... Korean defeat.... mutual recriminations.... a ghastly trick.... desperate straits.... correspondence.... a starving garrison.... a heroic answer.... king wants to surrender.... Manchu demands.... fighting continued.
The Manchu army encamped along the southern side of the city from Mo-wha-gwan to the South Gate and outside the East Gate, and the air resounded with the sound of music and drums. At first the soldiers committed no excesses beyond the theft of a few cattle and an occasional woman, but now that it was learned that the king had run away to Nam-han the license became unbounded and men and women were killed in large numbers. The royal treasure houses were looted and nothing was too sacred to be dragged about the streets. That same night a band of the Manchus completely encircled Nam-han, which must be well-nigh ten miles around.
The king set a strong guard all about the wall, appointing Gen. Sin Kyöng-jin to guard the East Gate, Gen. Ku Kweng the South Gate, Gen. Yi Sö the North Gate and Gen. Yi Si-băk the West Gate. Generals Wŭn Tu-p‘yo, Ku In-hu, Han Whe-il and Pak Whan went all about the wall with strong bodies of troops, to prevent the entrance of any scaling party. The whole number of troops in the fortress was about 12,000. Gen. Nam An-gap held the important position of Commissariat Chief. The king’s retinue and court consisted of 200 officials, 200 of his relatives, 100 clerks, and 300 servants of different degrees. All these received their salary in rice. Officials of the first and second grades were allowed to have three servants and two horses, those of the third, fourth and fifth grades could have two servants and one horse, while those below these could have but one servant and one horse, The commander-in-chief was Gen. Kim Nyu. His advice to the king was to send the crown prince and the prime minister at once and make the best terms possible. It was decided to deceive the enemy if possible, so Neung Pong-su, a distant relative of the king, assumed the name of the king’s younger brother, and Sim Chip assumed the role of crown prince. Together they sallied out to try their hand on the Manchus. When they came before Mabudă, that hardheaded warrior looked them over, turned them inside out and sent them back to the king with the curt reply that, “As you have been trying to play a trick on us we will now consent to treat with no one whatever except the crown prince himself. If you will send him we will talk with you.” This they demanded in spite of the statements of the messengers that the crown prince was still in mourning for his mother.
When this ultimatum was delivered to the king there was a division of opinion. Gen. Kim Nyu and several others averred that there was nothing to do but comply with the demands But the king said, “I will die first.” Kim Sang-hön took the other side and said, “Whoever talks of surrendering so tamely is a traitor.” On the seventeenth the king sent Hong Sö-bong to the Manchu camp and said, “I am willing to send my second or third son to you but they are all in Kang-wha.” They answered as before, “We will see no one but the crown prince.” When the crown prince expressed his willingness to go, a courtier said, “We have a good strong garrison and shall we tamely surrender and send our future king into the clutches of these highwaymen? If he goes I shall strangle myself with my own bridle.” Another said, “Let us fight them. We are men, not straw manikins.” So the king made up his mind that it would be war and not surrender and he so proclaimed, “We shall fight to the bitter end. Let no one expect or hope for peace.” He then despatched a letter to Kim Cha-jŭm in P’yŭng-yang, saying “We are hemmed in here and our forces are small and food scarce, but we have determined to fight it out even though it ends the dynasty. So hasten and come to our aid with all the forces at your command.” The next day the guard of the North Gate made a successful sally, returning with six Manchu heads. This excited the soldiers almost to frenzy, and they were eager to rush out and engage the besiegers. Unfortunately all the rice that had been stored at the river for the provisioning[provisioning] of Nam-han had been seized by the Manchus, but the arms and ammunition were safe within the walls. The king took advantage of the elation of the soldiers over this successful sally to make them a little speech, in which he remarked, “Shall we surrender or fight? It is for you to say.” Sim Kwang-su answered grimly for them all and said “Show us the head of the man who advised to surrender.” This referred to Gen. Ch’oe Myŭng-gil, but the rest did not dare to second the request. From that time the walls were guarded with renewed vigilance. Day after day the smoke of the Manchu camps went up to heaven round about the beleagured[beleagured] fortress. On the nineteenth the king sacrificed at the tomb of On-jo, the founder of the ancient kingdom of Păk-je of which Nam-han was for many years the capital. On the same day Gen. Ku Kweng made a sally from the West Gate and took twenty Manchu heads. This again excited the garrison almost beyond control. The following day a renegade Korean who had gone over to the Manchus came near the gate and parleyed with the guard, urging that the king surrender and make peace; but when the king heard of it he ordered that if the man came again he should not be met at the gate but that the guard should only talk down at him from the top of the wall.
The matter of provisions was one of prime importance, and the king called the chief of commissariat and asked him how many days’ rations there were remaining in the store-houses. He replied that there were enough provisions to last sixty days, but that if great economy were exercised it might last seventy days. He said the horses could have but one measure of beans a day and the servants must get along as best they could, on barley and oats. Someone suggested that as there were a large number of people present who held no important position, the king ought not to feel obliged to support them, but the king vetoed this by saying, “They came here trusting in me and now shall I deprive them of food? No, we will all eat or go hungry together.” The weather was very cold and the men exposed upon the wall suffered severely. Their cheeks, being frost-bitten, cracked open in a very painful manner. In view of this the king ordered that night guards be dispensed with and that no old or feeble men should be put on picket duty in these exposed positions.
The king again sent out a letter to the governors of the different provinces saying, “We are here hemmed in; our life hangs by a thread. Let all loyal men rally to our support, and march against the besieging force.” To Kim Cha-jŭm he wrote, “For seven days we have now been immured and we have come to the brink of destruction. Come immediately to our aid.”
On the twenty-first there were two simultaneous sallies, from the East and West Gates respectively, and each resulted in the securing of a few trophies. For the encouragement of the soldiers Kim Sin-guk suggested that a schedule of rates be issued offering prizes for Manchu heads. The king’s intention not to surrender was still unshaken, for when a courtier memorialized him urging surrender he burned the document in anger. On the twenty-second a Manchu messenger rode up to the gate and asked if the king were ready to surrender yet. The answer came in the shape of fierce sallies on the South and East sides in which forty heads were taken and in which Gen. Yi Chi-wŭn, with an iron club, killed two mounted generals. The soldiers were so elated by these successes, which of course could make no difference in the strength of the besieging force, that on the following day they made simultaneous attacks on several sides, in each of which the Koreans had some advantage. The Koreans lost but twenty men while the Manchu loss was much greater. As the Manchus carried their dead from the field, however, the exact amount of their loss is not known. The king celebrated the victory by making a circuit of the wall. The next day was wet and foggy and the cold was even harder to endure than when the weather was clear. Both the king and the crown prince came out in the rain to encourage the soldiers and they and many of the officials gave mats and blankets and the mud-guards of their saddles to help the soldiers to keep dry. The inmates of Han-heung Monastery, inside the fortress, presented the king with forty quires of paper, and several bags of vegetables, but the king distributed them all among the soldiers. Other monks presented three large bowls of honey, for which the king thanked them and gave presents in return.