Some busybody told the emperor that Koryŭ had no desire to hold faith with China and in consequence an envoy came in haste to Song-do demanding why the people who had fled to the islands did not return to their homes. The reply was that the detention of the prince in China was a cause of uneasiness and that even if he returned it would take at least three years to get the people back to their homes; how much less could it be done with the prince in China. This then became the standing complaint of the Mongols, that the Korean people would not come back to the mainland. By this time the uncertainty of affairs and the fact that the central government was weak and the Mongols still numerous caused great instability in the north. The people were easily induced to revolt on the slightest provocation. It became a regular custom for the people, if they did not like their prefect, to kill him and transfer their allegiance to the Mongols. The central government did not dare to punish them, for this would provoke the Mongols, and reprisals would be in order. At the same time there was trouble in the south, for pirates from both Japan and the Sung kingdom of southern China kept ravaging the island of Quelpart. An official was sent from Song-do to take in hand the defense of the island but the people found him worse than the pirates had been. It was in 1260 that the crown prince followed the emperor southward, but soon after reaching the emperor’s camp the latter died in the town of Hap-ju and Gen. A-ri Pal-ga took the reins of power arbitrarily. The prince knew that the great general Hol-p‘il-ryŭl (Kublai) would doubtless become emperor in spite of this seditious movement on the part of A-ri Pal-ga; so he secretly effected his escape from the latter’s camp and struck directly across the country to Kang-nam where he found Hol-p‘il-ryŭl in charge of an army, and, informing him of the emperor’s decease, they both hastened toward Peking. It was not till the crown prince returned to Peking that he learned of his father’s death and he hastened to assume the mourner’s garb.