On the last day of the ninth moon, already well on toward winter, the three divisions deployed before the walls of Ul-san. Kato had not been idle all this time; after the terrible scenes of the last siege he had made the best of preparations. He had accumulated an abundance of food, increased the garrison, strengthened the defenses, and he could laugh at any force that should try to sit out the winter before him. The Chinese soon discovered this and turned aside to work that promised better success. Gen. Tong Il-wŭn took a powerful force and advanced on Sa-chŭn, the central station of the Japanese. It is probable that the garrison here was smaller than those under either Kato or Konishi, for when its commander saw the force that was brought to bear upon him he hastily evacuated the place and crossed over to the island of Pom-neut and fortified it. Gen. Tong was over-confident and pressed after him. The Japanese craftily drew him on and on until his force was immediately under the wall, when a mine was exploded which, though it killed but a few hundred men, threw the whole attacking body into such confusion that the Japanese rushed out and found them an easy prey. The Chinese lay in heaps where they had been cut down. Gen. Tong barely escaped with his life and fled to Sam-gă, being chased as far as the Nam-gang (river) where the Japanese contented themselves with making way with 12,000 bags of rice belonging to the Chinese commissariat. Gen. Yu Chung was commissioned to take a strong body of men and attack the fortress at Sun-ch‘ŭn in Chŭl-la Province. Arriving at the neighboring village of Wă-gyo he determined to overcome the old veteran Kato by treachery. He sent to that general a proposition to make peace. Kato was now an old man and the war in Korea was bringing him neither fame nor advancement, so he was ready to give up the contest, now that it had been demonstrated that the Japanese arms could not penetrate the north. He gladly assented and sent Gen. Yu a present of two handsome swords. It was agreed that they should meet at a certain point, accompanied by only 3000 men each; but Gen. Yu secretly placed an ambush in such wise that when the Japanese force should come out it could be cut off from return to the fort. A whistle was to be sounded as a signal when the Japanese came out. But Kato was too old a bird to be caught by such a child’s trick. He had seen two or three of the Chinese lurking about in the vicinity of the gate and so delayed his coming out. By mistake the signal was given and the Chinese ambuscade rushed out only to become an object of ridicule to the Japanese. But even as it was some eighty or ninety Japanese stragglers were cut off and taken by the Chinese. Gen. Yu then surrounded the stronghold and at the same time sent an urgent letter to Admiral Chil Lin to come that very night and join in an attack on the Japanese. The admiral obeyed the summons and hurried up with his fleet.