The year 1811 is marked by an uprising in the north, where Hong Kyöng nă attempted to set up a kingdom of his own. He was a resident of P‘yŭng-an Province and was a man of enormous wealth. He was disaffected against the government because the men of his section were discriminated against in the distribution of offices; so he conferred with the miners who were engaged in digging gold in various places, and he told them an exaggerated story of how ill they were being treated by the government. He ended by proposing that, as he had enough money for them all, they set up a kingdom of their own. The hardy miners, 5,000 in number, accepted the proposal with alacrity and war was on foot. This company of undrilled but hardy miners were formidable and at first carried everything before them. They first took the town of Chöng-ju, putting to death the prefect and his whole family. When news of this reached Seoul the king appointed Yi Yo-hön as general-in-chief against the rebels. Five thousand soldiers were given him with which to do the work. He acted in a characteristic manner, settled himself comfortably at the governor’s house outside the New Gate and called it the headquarters. From that point he sent to the front Generals Sŭ Kum-bo, Kim Kye-on and Pak Keui-p‘ung. Meanwhile the rebels were carrying everything before them. Ch‘ŭl-san, Ka-san, Song-ch‘ŭn, Yong ch‘ŭn, Pak-ch‘ŭn and Son-ch‘ŭn fell in quick succession. All the government provisions and arms fell into their hands. The main camp of the rebels was in the vicinity of An-ju and they wished to take that place. Here they met with strenuous opposition and it was only after a desperate struggle that they ever took the town. It took ten days to reduce the place; but the back bone of the revolt was broken before the government troops from Seoul arrived on the scene. The various captains and local commanders joined their forces, and by the time the government troops had collected in P’yŭng-yang the rebels had been driven into their last remaining fortress, Chöng-ju, and were being held in siege. During the retreat of the rebels four of Hong’s lieutenants were captured and, being sent to Seoul, were there summarily executed. The reduction of Chöng-ju by siege was a work of some time, and the king becoming impatient, supplanted Gen. Pak Kye-p‘ung and put Gen. Yu Hyo-wŭn in his place. The latter immediately decided to attempt to blow up the town of Chöng-ju. Constructing a fence, or barrier of some kind, a hundred and fifty paces from the wall, he began, under cover of this, to mine the wall, supporting the passage with beams of wood. When he had extended the passage well under the wall he placed a large amount of powder in it and attached a long fuse. After igniting the fuse the soldiers all hastened out of the mine. No explosion followed. No one dared to go in, for fear that the fuse might be burning slowly and that the mine might explode while they were within.