On the eighteenth a Manchu general came near the South Gate and demanded that the king should come out and surrender or else come out and fight. The king thereupon sent a letter to the Manchu headquarters saying that he wanted to come out and surrender but that he did not dare to do so while the Manchu soldiers were prowling about the wall. As the king handed this letter to the messenger Kim Sang-hön snatched it from the messenger’s hand and tore it in fragments saying, “How can you bear to send such a letter. Heaven will still favor us if we are patient, but if we send this we are truly undone.” Then followed a scene in which the courtiers almost came to blows. Ch’oe Myŭng-gil took the fragments of the letter and pasted them together and the next day in company with another general took it to the Manchus. They were met with the gruff reply, “We do not want your letters. We want your king to come out and surrender.” That night the Manchus scaled the wall on the east side and a great panic followed, but Gen. Yi Keui-ch’uk, with a body of picked men succeeded in driving back the enemy. On the twentieth an answer was received from the emperor who said, “The reason why we demand that you come out and surrender is that we may have a visible proof of your sincerity. If we depart now leaving you still king of Korea all will be well. Why should I deceive you since I am conquering the whole world besides? Need I use guile? I desire to punish only those who advised you to cleave to China and prove untrue to us. Before surrendering you must send those men bound to me. I shall kill them but the rest of you will be safe. One thing is certain. I will read no more of your letters.” When the king saw this he cried, “I cannot send those men bound to him.” In spite of the ominous closing words of the emperor’s letter the king again wrote saying, “Korea to the worshipful, glorious, puissant, merciful emperor, greeting. We are narrow and provincial people and very deficient in manners but the contrast between our present mental attitude and that of a few months ago is surprising. Among our councillors some argued one way and some argued another but now starvation has brought us all to the same point and we know that we must become subjects of the Manchu power. But since the days of Silla there has never been seen such a thing as a king going out from his fortress to surrender. We cannot do it in that way. If you insist upon it you will soon have nothing left but a fortress full of dead. I have signified my willingness to surrender but if I should go out to you the people would never again recognize me as king and anarchy will result. I long ago banished the men who opposed the making of peace with the Manchus, so I cannot send them to you, but the emperor must now be gracious and forgive our mistake.” When the Manchu general was about to send this scornfully back Yi Hong-ju told him that it was written by the