One more sacrifice was necessary before the last remnant of opposition to the Manchus should be extinguished. It was now six years since the surrender. Soon after that surrender the king had sent to China explaining that it was a hard fate and not his own inclination which had forced the surrender from him. Not knowing whether the letter had ever reached the Chinese capital he sent another letter two years later by a monk, Tok-po, who had come from China to ascertain whether Korea had really surrendered or not. Arriving at P’yŭng-yang he had been received by Gen. Im Kyŭng-ŭp who sent him on to Ch‘oé Myŭng-gil the Prime Minister. He was handsomely treated and was provided with a new vessel and a complete outfit of clothes and provisions for the return journey. He carried a letter from the king stating his excuses as above narrated. Four years passed and at last in the year under review the emperor’s answer was forwarded by way of Chefoo. In it he exhonerates Korea from all blame and mourns the fact that he cannot come to her aid as when the Japanese invaded the peninsula. The bearer of this missive was feasted and treated with the most flattering attentions by the governor of P‘yŭng-an. This would have amounted to nothing had it not been known to Yi Kyu the prefect of Sŭn-ch‘ŭn who was carrying on trade with China by junk across the Yellow Sea. He was seized by the Manchus and carried north. Fearing the worst, he offered to tell his captors an important secret as the price of his life. He thereupon unfolded the whole transaction between Seoul and Nanking. The Manchus were furious and sent a demand to the king for the persons of Ch‘oé Myŭng-gil, Im Kyöng-ŭp, Yi Kyöng-yo and Yi Myŭng-han, all leading men. There was nothing to do but comply, and as these men went the king wept and gave Ch‘oé Myŭng-gil 500 ounces of silver for traveling expenses. Arriving at Pong-whang Fortress beyond the Yalu they were taken in hand by Generals Yonggoldă and Mabudă. Ch‘oé asserted strongly that he alone was to blame for the whole transaction. When the emperor had looked over the evidence he sent word that fines should be accepted from the others, but that Ch‘oé be sent in a cangue and hand-cuffs to Puk-kwan goal. And there he leaves the stage of history, on which he had played no mean part. The traitor Yi Kyu plumed himself on his newly acquired Manchu citizenship and presumed on his services to write the emperor a memorial under twelve heads; but the emperor in fine contempt exclaimed that a man who was not true to his own king must be a rascal at heart and ordered him bound and sent back to Korea where we may well believe the axe did its work without delay.