When the attack came off, Gen. Yi stormed the South Gate and Gen. Yu Man-su the West Gate, and soon an entrance was effected. It is said that after entering the city the first attack upon the royal forces was made by Gen. Yu alone and that he was driven back. When this was told Gen. Yi he seemed not to care but sat on his horse and let it crop the grass along the path. After a time he partook of some food and then leisurely arose, drew up his forces and in full view of them all took a shot at a small pine that stood a hundred paces away. The arrow cut it sheer off and the soldiers hailed it as a sign of victory, for was not the pine the symbol of Koryŭ? So they marched on the palace. The old men and boys mounted the city walls and cheered the attacking forces. Gen. Yi did not lead the attack in person and his lieutenant was beaten back by the royal forces under Gen. Ch‘oe. Gen. Yi thereupon took in his hand a yellow flag, crossed the Sön-juk bridge and ascended South Mountain from which point he obtained a full view of the interior of the palace. He saw that Gen. Ch‘oe and the king, with a band of soldiers, had taken refuge in the palace garden. Descending the mountain he led his troops straight through every obstacle, entered the palace and surrounded the royal party. Gen. Ch‘oe was ordered to come out and surrender but as there was no response the garden gate was burst open and the king was discovered holding the hand of Gen. Ch‘oe. As there was no longer hope of rescue the king, weeping, handed over the loyal general to the soldiers of Gen. Yi. He stepped forward and said “I had no intention of proceeding to these extremes, but to fight the Ming power is out of the question. It is not only useless but suicidal to attempt such a thing. I have come back to the capital in this manner because there was no other way open to me, because it was a traitorous act to attack our suzerain, and because the people of Koryŭ were suffering in consequence of the withdrawal of protection.” Gen. Ch‘oe was then banished to Ko-yang and Gen. Yi, as he sent him away, wept and said “Go in peace.” The records say that long before this the evil-minded Yi In-im had foretold to Gen. Ch‘oe that one day Gen. Yi T‘ă-jo would become king, but at the time Gen. Ch‘oe laughed at it. Now he was forced to grant that the prophecy had been a true one. A popular song was composed at this time, whose refrain states that “Outside the wall of P‘yŭng-yang there is a red light, Outside the wall of An-ju a snake. Between them comes and goes a soldier, Yi. May he help us.” When Gen. Ch‘oe had thus been disposed of, Gen. Yi turned to the king and said “It was impossible to carry out the plan of conquest. The only thing left was to come back, banish the man who gave such bad advice and make a new start. We must now be firm in our allegience to the Ming emperor, and we must change back to the Ming costume.”