It was seven o’clock when the king entered the gate of Seoul. The city was almost deserted. Dead men lay in heaps along the streets. The houses on both sides of the street were in ashes. All the poultry and pigs were gone and only dogs remained, and these had been transformed into wolves and were gorging themselves on the dead bodies along the way. As the Ch‘ang-gyöng Palace was nearest the East Gate the royal party went there to spend the night. All night long, in spite of the Emperor’s orders, Manchu soldiers scoured the streets, burning and pillaging and working their terrible will for the last time on the deserted capital. Two days later the Manchu army was to start on its long journey to the north and the king went three miles outside the East Gate to bid adieu to the emperor, for it was determined to pass around Seoul on the east and so strike northward. It took thirteen days for the whole army to get on the move. There were 120,000 men in all. Thirty thousand of these were Mongols and they took the road to the east through Ham-gyŭng Province and crossed the Tu-man River. There were 70,000 Manchus and 20,000 Chinese from Liao-tung. Generals Kong Yu-dŭk and Kyöng Myŭng-jung with 20,000 men took boat at Yong-san and sailed north to strike Ka-do Island. The day following that on which the king took leave of the Emperor, the generals Yonggolda and Mabuda came to the palace to confer with the king. The Minister Kim Nyu, as if to anticipate them, said “The relation between us now is that of son and father. We stand ready to fulfill our obligations on that basis even though you ask for soldiers to help on the invasion of China and the seizure of Nanking.” Hong Sö-bong asked that in view of the scarcity of gold in Korea part of the tribute be remitted, but it was not granted. Kim Nyu’s daughter had been carried away captive to Manchuria and he had plead with the two generals and the king himself had aided him but without avail. He now offered a thousand ounces of silver for her ransom. It was accepted but the result was disastrous to others for it set a precedent, and a like sum was asked for each of the high-born captives, with the result that few of them were ever ransomed. The Emperor’s ninth brother had charge of all the captives, and on the fifth day of the second moon the crown prince was allowed to go to the king to say farewell. He was accompanied by a guard of six Manchus who cut the interview very short and hurried him away to the camp outside the East Gate. On the seventh the king and his court went out to this camp to say good-bye, and the Manchus set out a fine banquet, at which some of the Koreans ate greedily while others would not touch a morsel. The next day the order was given to start on the long march into Manchuria. The royal hostages were accompanied by fifteen high officials. The king and his court accompanied the party twenty _li_ out, as far as Chang-neung, where with many tears the final separation took place.