Ch’oe Chung used his wits for the purpose of personal emolument and his credulity also led him into all kinds of difficulties. His grand mistake was in casting off an aged slave, Kim In-jun, who had served his father and grandfather faithfully and deserved better treatment at the young man’s hands. The worm, thus trodden upon, turned and bit to the bone. It was as follows. The aged servant, gaining access to the king, told him that the young viceroy was dead and in a moment secured another man as leader of the soldiers. Clad with his new power the vengeful old man caught and killed some of the most intimate friends of the viceroy and in the early morning gained access to the viceroy’s house and hunted him from room to room. He found him hidden in a disused chimney flue from which he was speedily drawn forth and dispatched. When the old slave announced this to the king the latter said “You have done me a great favor”, and could hardly refrain from tears. The king then destroyed the picture of Ch’oe Chung-heun who had founded the viceroyalty, and distributed the ill-gotten wealth of the Ch’oe family among the people. It is said that even the lowest citizen received at least three bags of rice or other grain. At the same time all Ch’oe’s following were banished. The year 1258 had now come, the last that the aged king Ko-jang was destined to see. In this year the Mongols came again as usual. They began by building and garrisoning a fortress at Eui-ju. Then Gen. Cha Ra-dă with a small body of a thousand troops came southwards as far as Su-an in Whang-hă Province. It shows how utterly shorn of power Koryŭ was, that this general should dare to penetrate so far into the land with only a thousand men at his back. Hearing of this the aged king decided to try a little artifice. He came out of Kang-wha, across the straits to Tong-jin on the opposite bank, in order to make it appear that he had complied with the emperor’s command. Gen. Cha demanded that the crown prince also come out. He made a line of camps all the way from Song-do to Tong-jin and settled down as if he intended to stay and see his orders obeyed. The king had retired to the island again upon the near approach of the Mongols and now the latter redoubled their demands and ravaged more remorselessly than ever. They swarmed all about Kang-wha and nothing but a narrow strip of water lay between the king and that more than half savage army. The water proved, however, an effective barrier. All this time another Mongol force under Gen. San Gil-dă was wasting the northern and eastern districts, The people of Wha-ju and of fourteen other towns, led by one Sin Chip-pyŭng sought refuge on Cho-do island but finding this insecure, moved to another; but some Koryŭ renegades led Mongol troops there and overthrew the little colony.