Hardly had he left before a Chinese force 3,000 strong arrived at Nam-yang off the town of Su-wŭn. They were commanded by Generals O Chang-gyŭng, Wang Sŭk-ch’ang, Ma Kŭn-sang and by a lesser officer named Wŭn Se-gă who was destined to play a leading part from this time on. These troops came, it can hardly be doubted, at the request of the conservative party and it was from this hour that that faction turned unreservedly towards China and gave the latter occasion for beginning a series of encroachments upon Korea’s practical independence which ended in the China-Japan war. These troops encamped all about the capital, some at Pă-o-gă outside the West Gate and some at the Ha-do-gam just inside the East Gate.
Some of the soldiers who had been most active in creating the disturbance lived at Wang-sim-yi three miles outside the East Gate. The Chinese made it their first work to seize these men by night. Ten of them were court-martialed and were torn to pieces by bullocks.
The Chinese general O Jang-gyŭng was told that the ex-Regent was at the bottom of the emeute, and he sent a letter informing the Emperor of this fact. The latter ordered him to seize the person of the offending party and bring him to China. The Chinese general thereupon visited the palace where the Prince Tai-wŭn was in full control and invited him to visit Yong-san on the river, where he said there was something important for him to see. Having once gotten him on board a Chinese boat there, under pretext of showing him over it, the anchor was quickly raised and the baffled Prince found himself on his way to China. When he arrived at Tientsin he was refused audience with Li Hung-chang but was banished by imperial decree to a place not far from Tientsin, where he was well cared for until his return to Korea three years later.
After this deus ex machina had spirited the ex-Regent away, an official, So Sang-jo, memorialized the throne stating that the Queen was still alive and ought to be brought back to the capital. It is said that Yi Yŭng-ik covered the space between the capital and her place of hiding, sixty-three miles, in a single day, carrying the message of recall. A large retinue of officials and soldiers were sent southward and brought the Queen back to Seoul where she arrived on the first day of the eighth moon. The people immediately doffed their mourning garb.
Toward the close of 1882 a Foreign Office was established in the capital and Kim Yun-sik was made Minister of Foreign Affairs. He invited P. G. von Mollendorf, a member of the customs staff of China, to act as adviser, and the Chinese generals Wang Sŭk-ch’ang and Ma Kŭn-sang were made attaches of the new department.
The year 1883 witnessed more advance in Korea than any year before or since. In May Gen. Foote, the first United States Minister, arrived and on the nineteenth of that month the treaty which had been drawn up at Chemulpo between Commodore Shufeldt and the Korean Commissioners was ratified. After this was done Gen. Foote left Korea to make preparations for the establishment of a legation in Seoul.
Kim Ok-kyun, one of the leading members of the progressive party was made “Whale Catching Commissioner” and departed for Japan to fit out an expedition to carry on this lucrative government monopoly along the Korean coast. He was selected for this work because of his intimate acquaintance with the Japanese. It was a move looking toward the development of Korea’s resources and was therefore in direct line with the wishes and plans of the progressionists. At about the same time a powder-mill was built outside the Northwest Gate, and a foreign mint was erected inside the Little West Gate. This was done with the aid of Japanese experts at a great and, as it proved, useless expense to the government. An office was founded for the printing and dissemination of useful literature on the subjects of agriculture, forestry, stock-raising and the like. The ports of Chemulpo and Wŭn-san were opened to foreign trade according to the stipulation of the Japanese and American treaties. In contrast to the progressive moves we find that eight men who were suspected of complicacy with the ex-Regent in the emeute of the preceding year were executed by poison. Of like character was the building of the Kwan-wang temple, devoted to the interests of sorceresses and exorcists who enjoyed the patronage of the Queen.
In the summer of 1883 Min Yŭng-ik was made special envoy to the United States. His second was Hong Yŭng-sik. Among his suite were Sŭ Kwang-bom, Pak Un and others, all of whom were members of the progressive party or at least well affected toward it. This same summer the king founded the American Farm some ten miles east of Seoul and stocked it with foreign seeds and cattle, with the idea of providing Korean farmers with a sort of object-lesson in farming, and to provide seeds for distribution among the people. The United States Department of Agriculture sent a large stock of seeds by the hand of the special embassy of which Min Yŭng-ik formed the head.
Late in the autumn the German representative arrived and concluded a treaty on behalf of his government. A month later a treaty was ratified with Great Britain and a Consulate General was founded in Seoul.
With the opening of 1884 the state of affairs in the peninsula was something as follows. The progressive and conservative elements in the government were clearly differentiated. The innovations effected by the progressives had raised in them the hope of being able to speedily reorganize the government on a foreign basis, and the degree of their success marked the increasing suspicion and opposition[opposition] of the conservative element. The latter were strengthened in their position by the presence and active support of the Chinese generals and troops, and the influence of the foreign adviser von Mollendorf was always on the side of Chinese interests. The ex-Regent was for the time being out of the war and a great stumbling-block to the Min faction was thus removed. The king and queen were both favorably inclined toward a progressive policy but the latter was gradually being drawn back into line with the conservative element of which the Min family was the leading representative. Min Yŭng-ik was still true to his better instincts and was an ardent supporter of the progressionist views but his return from America was the sign for a vigorous attack upon his enlightened views by the members of his family and he was being rapidly alienated from the party whose interests he had tentatively espoused. It was not, however, till later in the year that he broke away entirely from the progressive following.