Page:History of Corea, ancient and modern; with description of manners and customs, language and geography (1879).djvu/302

 278 CORKA. Dingchow, and Hanshan chung. Many myriads of the people, soldiers and citizens, were slain ; and incalculable quantities of grain and stores burnt That same month they crossed the Chingchiien kiang, and took Anchow, which had been taken by the first Tang emperor, under the name of Anboo. The large city of Pingyang was then besieged. The officials and citizens all fled, and the army crossed Datong kiang and entered Joongho. Next month they arrived at Gwangchow ; and the whole kingdom, in great terror, prayed the Chinese to send urgent aid. And in response, Choonghwan despatched a number of large vessels and soldiers to support Pi island ; and nine thousand picked men to Sancha ho, on the west of the Liao, just above Newchwang. This move terrified the Manchus, lest the weakness of their position in Liaotung should be discovered, for their army was far away. They, therefore, collected every available man, and kept the most careful watch over the Liao river. Meantime the Corean capital was besieged ; the queen and her children, with all the great ladies, were removed to Ganghwa island, south of the city of Kaichow, and at the mouth of the Han river, which was inaccessible to the Manchus, who were destitute of vessels. The attacking army encamped on Pingshan, to which the king sent a younger brother, the prince of Yuenchang, with a peace- offering consisting of a hundred horses, a hundred tiger-skins, a hundred leopards, a hundred pieces each of satin, pongee, and linen, with fifteen thousand pieces of cotton cloth. Messengers were thereupon sent to Ganghwa island to make a treaty, at the ratification of which a white horse and a black ox were sacrificed, and a paper with the treaty provisions was burnt to inform Heaven and Earth. The principal part of the treaty was that by which , the two kingdoms were called " elder and younger brothers.^' The treaty was first sought by the Corean king, but the Man- chu chiefs were not slow in making it ; for they were becoming apprehensive lest the Chinese or Mongols should advance upon Liaotung in their absence. But the Beira Amin, coveting the