A Chinese general. Mo Mun-nyŭng, had been stationed by the Emperor on Ka-do Island near the mouth of the Yalu, to withstand the Manchus, but this man was not loyal to China, and had a leaning himself toward the Manchus. He could see that the Manchus were destined to become masters of the situation. He was very angry when Korea made a treaty with the Manchus for he feared that they would try to hurt his reputation with them. When the Manchus attacked the Chinese in the neighboring mainland of Liao-tung he never raised a hand in their defense, though it is said, perhaps wrongly, that he had an army of 300,000 (!) men. On the other hand he vented his spite against Korea by harrying her northern shores and killing many captives on their way home from the Manchu territory. The Emperor tried to call him to account for this but received no reply. Meanwhile this Gen. Mo Mun-nyŭng styled himself “Son of Heaven beyond the Sea.” As he thus showed his hand, the question as to his disloyalty was settled, and Gen. Wŭn Sung-han came from China to call him to account, a thing he had not foreseen. When Gen. Wŭn approached and called on him to come and report to him, he dared not refuse, fearing that the troops under him would not be willing to attack their fellow-countrymen under Gen. Wŭn. As may be surmised he lost his head as soon as he arrived in the camp of the latter. In spite of her military activity Korea was anything but strong. The two leading parties, the _Noron_ and _Soron_ were quarrelling like cats and dogs together. There was one constant succession of banishments and recalls, as one party or another obtained temporary control of the government. There was no sort of harmony or unanimity in the discharge of the public business and it had to look out for itself, while those who should have been attending to it were wrangling. There was a high honorary title called Chŭl-lang, and the leading men quarrelled so much over it that the king was at last compelled to abolish it altogether. And yet in the midst of this strife the king found opportunity to establish the Mu-hak, a body of 200 men to act as swift couriers. It is said they could cover 300 _li_ a day, or 100 miles.