Page:History of Corea, ancient and modern; with description of manners and customs, language and geography (1879).djvu/127

 CHINESE HATBED. 103 ordered Ping to get 300,000 men under arms, and crush the now advancing Mung. He also summoned a Council of State to advise upon the matter. la Fung, one of the ministers, said that the men of Chin were few and poor, and in no respect a foe worthy of the Yen power. Ping might have used the same words. Gao, another minister, replied that the safety of a state did not so much consist in the number of its soldiers, as in the quality of its generals ; that not numbers but strategy secured victory ; and that if Mung was to be prevented from advancing, strategy * alone could do it But while Yen officials were speaking, Mung was acting ; and as th^ were deliberating, he entered the city of Hoogwun, taken after a storm. And the estimation in which Ping was held by the country, may be inferred from the fact that every city of every district, through or by which Mung was passing, opened its gates. And, at last. Yen Court was aroused to a sense of danger; one minister being bold enough to declare that Ye itself could not stand. Yang An was besieging Kinyang ; but as it was well stocked with provisions, it defied him. Mmg left a garrison in Pooban, and went himself to the assistance of An. A local country magistrate entered the city with a few hundred countrymen, pretending to be a friend ; but once inside, he fell upon the* guard with a great shout. He opened the gates to Mung, whose army marched in, took possession, and seized the chief officers in command. ' To partially account for this and similar incidents, let it be remembered that the Chinese hate the rule of any other monarch than one of their own people ; and would gladly exchange the rule of outer barbarians, even if the better rulers, for a native dynasty of China, which was Chinese, if it was but poor ; they would joyfuUy see the forces of the northern Yen barbarians driven back into their native wilds, and would hail with delight a native dynasty. before that time, or since in China. Nor can we well understand how able modem writeis bring themsdyeB to believe that bmte strength decided all the wars of the middle ages.
 * It 18 mineoessaiy to say tbAt this opinion was that of all the able men then»