Having thoroughly subdued the island, the next move of the victors was to rejoin the main army encamped before Nam-han. As a preparatory measure they burned all the government buildings on the island and put to death all the people they could find, that had not already perished. Then taking the Crown Princess and her retinue, and all the officials, they crossed the ferry and marched toward Nam-han. The Princess was treated with all deference, as befitted her exalted station. As the company was about to leave the fortress of Kang-wha on their way to Nam-han, the aged Minister Kim Sang-yong was so deeply moved that he determined to end his life. He entered the pavilion above the South Gate where he found a box containing powder. Yun Pang also accompanied him, saying that he too was weary of life, but Minister Kim said to him, “You are in charge of the ancestral tablets, you must not prove recreant to that sacred trust.” So Yun Pang sadly went about that task. Divesting himself of his outer garments the Minister gave them to an attendant and told him to bury them in place of his body. Then lighting his pipe with flint and steel he thrust it into the box of powder. The explosion which followed blew the whole gate to fragments and Minister Kim Sang-yong and Kim Ik-kyŭm and Kwŭn Sun-jang and the minister’s little grandson, thirteen years old, were blown to atoms. In order to convey the ancestral tablets in safety to Nam-han, Yun Pang put them in a bag, but the Manchus, who did not care to be burdened with such impedimenta, threw the whole thing into a ditch. Yun recovered them and cleaned them off as well as he could, and managed to carry them along. Perhaps it was only because the Manchus wished to show an indignity toward these most sacred of all the royal treasures. The following are the names of the most noted men killed in the taking of Kang-wha. Sim Hyŭn, Yi Sang-gil, Yi Si-jik, Song Si-hyŭng, Yun Chŭn, Chöng Păk-hyŭng, Kim Su-nam, Kang Wi-bing, Yi Ton-o, Yi Ka-sang, and the following ladies of rank were killed: The wives of Sim Pyŭn, Yun Sŭn-gŏ, Yi Sang-gyu, Han O-sang, Kwŏn Sun-jang, Yi Ton-o, Hong Myŭng-il and the mother of Kim Kyŭng-jeung. These people died, some by the sword, some by strangling and some by drowning. There were darker crimes than murder too, for the Manchus did not hesitate to seize and insult many honorable women, and even to this day a slight taint clings to one family of the nobility because the wife and daughter-in-law were subjected to indignities than which death were preferable. From among the women taken there, the daughter of Whe Wŭn, a relative of the king, became sixth wife to the Manchu[Manchu] Emperor, but shortly afterward he gave her to one of his favorites as a present. And so we leave this long line of captives wending their way eastward, and find ourselves again within the grim walls of Nam-han.
The ravages of hunger were beginning to make the Manchu proposition seem more feasible. The council came to the conclusion that the men whom the Manchus demanded must be bound and sent to their fate. When the Crown Prince heard of this he said, “I have a son and several brothers and there is no reason why I should not go myself.” Then Chöng On said “I am the one who have most strenuously opposed the Manchu claims. Let me go.” Kim Sang-hon exclaimed, “Who opposed them more than I? I am surely the one to send.” Yun Whang, Yun Chip and O Tal-ch’e all offered to go and immolate themselves on the altar of Manchu vengeance. While the council was going on many of the soldiers came down from the wall and looked in at the doors and shouted, “As the Manchus have demanded these men why do you not send them rather than let us come thus to skin and bone?” It was with difficulty that they were sent back to their places. It was remarked that the soldiers under Gen. Yi Si-băk did not participate in this unruly demonstration. That night at nine o’clock a party of Manchus approached the West Gate and one of them actually scaled the wall before the guard was aware of it. He was speedily driven back with a battle-club, and stones and other missiles were rained down upon the assaulting party. Gen. Yi Si-băk was twice wounded but did not make it known until the skirmish was over. At the same time an assault was successfully warded off on the eastern side by Gen. Sin Kyŭng-jin who, not content with simply driving off the attacking party, sallied out and killed their leader and many of his followers.
TORTURING A WITNESS.
The Manchus next tried to reduce the fortress by bombardment, and it is said that the projectiles came over the wall with such force as to bury themselves twenty inches in the earth.
On the morning of the twenty-fifth the Manchus sounded a parley at the West Gate and three of the officials accompanied them to the camp of the enemy. There they were told, “The Emperor is very angry because you do not surrender, and has ordered the destruction of the kingdom. He is to leave tomorrow and then you will have no opportunity to surrender, though you should wish.” The bombardment was renewed and many breaches were made in the wall and many of the garrison were killed, but the survivors quickly piled bags of sand in the breaches and poured water over them. This instantly froze and made a good substitute for a wall. But the soldiers were discouraged and came to the king in crowds demanding that the men whom the Manchus had called for be sent. It was evident that something must be done at once, and Hong Sö-bong undertook another visit to the enemy’s camp, where he said, “Tomorrow the Crown Prince and the other men that you have demanded will come out to you.” But they answered, “We do no want to see the Crown Prince, but the king himself.” To emphasize this, letters were shown proving that Kang-wha had fallen into Manchu hands, and a letter was delivered to them from one of the captive princes to the king. They were likewise told, “The Crown Prince and one of his brothers must go to Manchuria as hostages. The king must understand that there is nothing to fear in coming out. The kingdom[kingdom] will in that way be preserved.” So they took the prince’s letter and wended their way back to the fortress. When the letter was opened and read a great cry of sorrow arose from the whole court. Someone suggested that the Manchus were trying to deceive them, but the king answered, “No, this is my son’s own hand,” and he added, “As Kang-wha is taken of course the ancestral tablets have been destroyed. There is then no longer any need to delay our surrender.” As a preliminary to that final act the king ordered that all documents in which the Manchus were spoken of slightingly be collected and burned.
The next day a letter from the king was taken to the Manchu headquarters, wherein he said, “As the emperor is about to return to the north, I must see him before he goes. If not, harm will result. If evil befalls me in this step it were better that I take a sword and end my life here. I pray you make some way whereby I can surrender without endangering my kingdom.” The messenger explained that the king feared that the Manchu soldiers might fall upon him when he came down from the fortress. The Manchu general answered, “Wait till you get orders from me; then come down.” Kim Sang-hön could not endure the thought of surrender and so attempted to take his own life by hanging, but someone cut him down. Chöng On likewise after an apostrophe to his “frosty sword” plunged it[it] into his bowels, but the wound did not prove fatal and the king had him well cared for.
On the next day, the twenty-eighth, two men who had most strenuously opposed the Manchus, O Tal-ch’e and Yun Chip, were made ready to send to the Manchu camp to meet their fate. Before setting out they were brought in before the king who wept and said, “Is it possible that we have come to this? I am ashamed to look you in the face.” But they answered cheerfully, “There is no cause for mourning on our account. It is our own fault.” The king then made them sit while a eunuch brought wine and poured it out. This[This] was the greatest honor the king could show them. Then he said, “I will see to it that your families are well cared for.” Then they set out to meet their fate. The emperor was pleased at this sign of submission and gave Ch’oe Myŭng-gil a fur robe and a cup of wine. Calling the two men before him the emperor asked them why they had always opposed the Manchu rule. They answered that after so many centuries of adherence to the Ming dynasty they found it impossible to give it up or to advise to do so. The emperor then ordered them to be loosed but to be kept in the camp under strict surveillance.
The next day Hong Sö-bong, Ch‘oe Myŭng-gil and Kim Sin-guk repaired to the Manchu camp and said they had come to complete arrangements for the surrender. They were told that an altar had already been prepared at Song-p‘a and that the ceremony must take place on the morrow. The Manchu general said, “We have a special form of ceremony for surrender. First, the one who surrenders is placed in a coffin; but as this is rather humiliating we will waive it this time and begin with the second article.” Ch‘oe asked, “Shall the king come out in his royal robes?” “By no means. He must come out dressed in blue.” This was because blue is the color corresponding to east, and was therefore appropriate for Korea, which has always been called the “East Country.” “Shall he come out the South Gate?” was the next question asked. “No, how can one who has done wrong come out the South Gate? He must come by way of the West Gate. After the surrender he will proceed to Seoul and he need fear no danger, for we have recalled all our foraging parties and no one will offer to molest him. We will send back all the Koreans that we have taken to Manchuria and we will have a new royal seal cut for the king.” That night the Manchu general Yonggolda brought the king a letter from the emperor saying, “Are you indeed afraid to obey the command to come out and surrender? You may rest assured of your safety, and not only so but I will make it to your great advantage to come. I will put you back on your throne, I will forgive the past, I will make a firm and binding agreement with you as between vassal and suzerain. If you would have your son and your grandson reign after you, you must receive a new seal of office from us. You must stop sending embassies to China and you must discard the Chinese calendar and adopt ours. The Crown Prince, the Prime Minister and the latter’s son must go with us as hostages. When you die I will send the Crown Prince to rule in your stead. I am about to invade China and you must give us boats and troops. I must first take the Island of Ka-do and to this end you must furnish us fifty boats and sailors to man them, and you must give us bows and arrows. Before our troops leave this place you must feast them. Hereafter you must observe the birthdays of the Manchu empress and Crown Prince. You must treat our envoys exactly as you have been accustomed to treat Chinese envoys. I will send back across the Yalu all our Korean captives but you must pay for them. Your people must intermarry with ours. You must release and return all Manchu captives that you hold in your border fortresses along the Tu-man River. As for commerce with Japan you may do as you please. I make no law about that. You must build no more fortresses. Now, behold. I lift you as it were from the very dead. I have recreated your Kingdom. Do not forget my great kindness and mercy. Beware of harboring guile in your heart. Every year you must send tribute; one hundred ounces of gold, a thousand ounces of silver, ten thousand bags of white rice, two thousand pieces of silk, three hundred pieces of white grass-cloth, ten thousand pieces of colored cotton, four hundred pieces of fine linen, one thousand pieces of coarse linen, one thousand quires of fine paper, one thousand quires of common paper, two hundred bows made of sea-cow’s horns, twenty-six swords the length of a man’s stature, four fine window screens, forty mats with red flowers, twenty common swords, two hundred pounds of dye-wood, ten pecks of black pepper, one thousand packages of tea, one hundred tiger skins, one hundred deer skins, four hundred otter skins, two hundred squirrel skins. You will commence sending this tribute three years from now. As I have taken one of the king’s relatives to wife I will remit nine thousand of the bags of rice.”
Such were the conditions on which the Manchus proposed to give the kingdom of Korea a new lease of life. The demand for tribute was so enormous that the Koreans never seem to have taken it seriously, and they never once attempted to fulfill more than the merest fraction of the demand.