Jeonchuk Hayseong (丁丑下城) refers to the event in which Injo of Joseon, who had taken refuge in Namhansanseong during the Second Manchu invasion of Korea, surrendered to Hong Taiji, Emperor of the Qing dynasty, after 59 days of siege, left Namhansanseong on 24 February 1637 (the 1st day of the 1st lunar month, the year of Jeongchuk, 30th day of the 1st lunar month), and performed the rites of surrender at Samjeondo. It is commonly described as the Humiliation at Samjeondo (三田渡의 屈辱). However, at the time Injo never admitted to surrender and instead described it as hayseong, meaning simply "coming out of the fortress," and he also forced his officials to use this term. The Siege of Namhansanseong ended with the Jeonchuk Hayseong.
Progress of the Second Manchu invasion
The dates below are based on the solar calendar.
Mobilization and failure of the royal relief armies
The Second Manchu invasion began when a Qing army of about 100,000 men led by Hong Taiji crossed the Yalu River. News of this reached Hanseong on 7 January 1637, by which time the Qing army had already advanced close to Kaesong. Upon hearing of the Qing invasion, Injo attempted to flee to Ganghwa Island, but because the Qing advance was too fast and there was insufficient time, he had no choice but to head for Namhansanseong on the night of 9 January 1637. After entering Namhansanseong, Injo sent sealed letters to each province in an attempt to gather royal relief armies. (A sealed letter is a secret message written in small characters, wrapped in wax, and delivered covertly.) During the Second Manchu invasion, the Qing army carried out a blitzkrieg aimed only at Hanseong and Injo, so the areas behind the front, apart from Hanseong and its surroundings, suffered almost no damage. In particular, the Samnam region remained intact, so it was judged that if relief armies were organized there and encircled the Qing army besieging the fortress, the situation could be turned to Joseon's advantage.1 However, Kim Jajeom, the Deputy Commander-in-Chief responsible for commanding the relief armies, did not move from Yangpyeong in Gyeonggi Province, and the relief armies coming up from each province failed to join forces. They were defeated one by one by Qing detachments and were unable to rescue Namhansanseong.
The movements of each relief army were as follows. First, on 12 January, Governor of Gangwon Province Jo Jeong-ho organized a relief army of about 7,000 men and marched toward Namhansanseong. The vanguard of more than 1,000 men led by Commandant Kwon Jeong-gil of Wonju succeeded in advancing as far as Geomdansan near Namhansanseong on 19 January, but the next day it was routed by a Qing detachment, and the relief army, its morale broken, disintegrated.2 Jo Jeong-ho withdrew to Gapyeong with the remaining troops, seeking to join the other relief armies.
On 22 January, Governor of Hamgyong Province Min Seong-hwi gathered 7,000 relief troops and advanced, but a dispute over command arose between the Northern Military Commander Seo Woo-shin and Min Seong-hwi. Seo Woo-shin insisted on marching directly to Namhansanseong, but Min Seong-hwi argued that they should join Kim Jajeom at Yangpyeong and build up their strength first. In the end, following Min Seong-hwi's opinion, the Hamgyong relief army moved toward Yangpyeong, but Deputy Commander-in-Chief Kim Jajeom did not move from there. Although the force at Yangpyeong, which included the Hamgyong troops, veteran elite soldiers experienced in fighting the barbarians of the northern frontier, the central army garrison, and the remnants of the Gangwon relief army, numbered 23,000, Kim Jajeom ultimately failed to move his troops and therefore exerted no influence at all on the war.
Governor of Chungcheong Province Jeong Se-gyu received the sealed letter on 13 January. Jeong Se-gyu immediately gathered a relief army, departed Gongju on 20 January, and on 27 January arrived at Heomcheon, south of Namhansanseong, where he signaled the fortress with fire arrows. However, once again a Qing detachment seized the high ground west of Heomcheon and intercepted the relief army. The relief army succeeded in holding off more than ten attacks, but ran out of gunpowder and arrows, and commanders including Kim Hong-ik, Lee Gyeong-jing, and Lee Sang-jae were killed in large numbers, so it had no choice but to withdraw without achieving anything.3
The first region through which the Qing army passed on its way from crossing the Yalu River toward Hanseong was Pyeongan Province. At the time, Governor of Pyeongan Province Hong Myeong-gu, upon receiving news of the Qing crossing of the Yalu River, organized forces and entered the Jamosan Fortress north of Pyongyang in an attempt to defend against the Qing army, but since the Qing army ignored this and simply continued southward, he could take no effective action. Hong Myeong-gu combined forces with the troops under Yu Rim, Military Commander of Pyeongan Province, and departed Pyongyang on 13 January 1637 to head south, but he was blocked by Qing detachments stationed at Cheorwon, Yeoncheon, and other places to halt their advance, and could get no closer. On 22 February 1637, a battle with the Qing army took place near Geumhwa in Gangwon Province. In this battle, Hong Myeong-gu was killed. Yu Rim succeeded in repelling the attacking Qing army while positioned on high ground, but because his arrows and gunpowder ran out, he had no choice but to withdraw.
Governor of Jeolla Province Yi Si-bang received the royal order to rally on 15 January 1637. On 29 January he mobilized more than 6,000 troops and, together with Military Commander of Jeolla Province Kim Jun-yong, departed the military camp at Jeonju and marched north. Subsequently, more than 2,000 monk soldiers from Hwaeomsa joined them. Kim Jun-yong, who led the vanguard, advanced as far as the vicinity of Gwanggyosan on 29 January, but encountered the Qing army, which had defeated the Chungcheong relief army two days earlier. On 30 January, Kim Jun-yeong repelled a Qing charge, and the next day he achieved great results, including killing the Qing commander Yanggori. However, he was again unable to advance further due to shortages of supplies and had no choice but to withdraw to Suwon. Furthermore, the main body of the relief army led by Yi Si-bang mistook the Battle of Gwanggyosan for a defeat and withdrew toward Gongju.
Battle of Ssangnyeong
Meanwhile, the Gyeongsang relief army led by Governor of Gyeongsang Province Sim Yeon was a large force of roughly 40,000, led by Left Military Commander Heo Wan and Right Military Commander Min Yeong. Although there is room for debate as to whether all 40,000 soldiers were actually assembled under the Sokogun organizational system, the force of more than 8,000 men led by Heo Wan and Min Yeong advanced as far as the vicinity of Ssangnyeong in Gwangju on 28 January 1637. The Qing force that lay in ambush at nearby Buldang-ri to block them was a small unit made up of about 300 cavalry and about 1,000 infantry. Most of the Joseon troops were armed with matchlocks, but their level of training was very low. Panicking at the Qing cavalry charge, the soldiers fired indiscriminately without measuring distance, and in the end exhausted all their gunpowder and arrows. The Qing army first withdrew, confirmed that the Joseon gunpowder had been spent, and then charged again. The Left Army led by Heo Wan was completely broken and Heo Wan himself was killed. The Right Army led by Min Yeong fought bravely even as the Left Army was routed, but when the gunpowder ran out and it was being resupplied, the gunpowder exploded, killing dozens of soldiers, and the front line collapsed. Taking advantage of this, the Qing cavalry launched an all-out attack, the Right Army also completely collapsed, and Min Yeong was also killed in the chaos.
In the end, the Gyeongsang relief army, despite being several times larger than the Qing force, failed to make proper use of its superior numbers and was crushed. Sim Yeon, who was encamped at Yeoju leading the main force, heard of the defeat of the vanguard and hurriedly turned his army around and withdrew south of Jokryeong.3 Thus, with all eight provinces' relief armies defeated one by one by the Qing army, Namhansanseong was completely isolated, and no further relief armies could be organized.3
Famine and hunger
Because the Qing army was centered on cavalry and moved extremely quickly, rumors spread throughout the country that Qing soldiers appeared like the wind and vanished like ghosts. The Joseon army had attempted, based on the experience of the Imjin War, to use a defensive tactic of holding strategically located mountain fortresses to block the enemy's advance. However, the Qing army, centered on the Eight Banners, ignored this and marched straight for Hanseong, and the relief armies in each region were likewise defeated one by one by Qing detachments, which only proved that the Joseon army was no match for the Qing army.3 Injo was thrown into confusion by the retreat of the relief armies, and although he publicly declared that he would punish soldiers who retreated to escape the Qing army, this did not eliminate the Joseon army's fear and sense of helplessness toward the Qing army.
Moreover, the Joseon army had withdrawn to Namhansanseong without any preparations for war at all, so there were no stockpiled supplies to sustain the 12,000 soldiers who retreated inside the fortress along with tens of thousands of common people. After the Battle of Ssangnyeong, Namhansanseong was completely isolated, and no further supplies could be expected, so the morale of the Joseon army gradually declined. To make matters worse, many died of exposure in the severe winter cold, and food began to run out. Eventually even King Injo was reduced to surviving on a single bowl of porridge a day, and the soldiers, exhausted from hunger, even ate their war horses, but in the end deaths from starvation began to occur one after another.3 Yet Injo still refused to surrender, and on 4 February he began negotiations with the Qing army to end the war. Internally, however, the pro-war faction led by Kim Sang-heon and the peace faction led by Choe Myeong-gil remained in fierce conflict.
The Qing army installed Hong-yi cannons on nearby Mangwolbong and began firing, aiming directly into the fortress.3 The Joseon army attempted a counterattack and even bombarded the battery where the Hong-yi cannons were installed using Cheonjachongtong cannons, but this too could not be sustained for long due to shortages of supplies. The projectiles fired from the cannon, with a barrel of 215 cm and a caliber of 10 cm, struck the walls of Namhansanseong, a natural fortress. Although the direct damage was minor, it was enough to break the morale of the Joseon army.4
On 16 February, Grand Prince Bongrim and the royal consorts, who had taken refuge on Ganghwa Island, were captured by the Qing army. This news reached Namhansanseong on 19 February, and the Joseon army's will to resist was decisively broken. Finally, on 22 February, Injo decided to surrender, and on 24 February he left Namhansanseong.4
Surrender
Injo offered to send a prince to the Qing dynasty as a hostage in order to have the Qing army withdraw. However, instead of an actual prince, grand prince, or royal son, he sent Yi I (李儞), the second son of Yi Jam, grandson of Yeongyang Prince Yi Geo and of Pungha-gun Yi Jam, whom he enfeoffed as Prince Neungbong (綾峯君) and falsely presented as the king's younger brother, to the Qing, and concluded a peace agreement. The Qing army partially withdrew. However, the disguised Prince Neungbong, together with Sim Jip (沈諿), Minister of Justice, who was falsely presented as a minister of state, was sent to Shenyang, but some Joseon man exposed their true identities, and they were eventually sent back. The Qing army halted its withdrawal and continued to urge the Joseon king to surrender.
In the end, Injo, who had held out for 59 days, resolved to surrender. However, Injo did not want to admit that he had surrendered,4 and he had his officials use the term hayseong. At first, the Qing army demanded the banham (飯哈) as the ceremony of surrender. This was a ritual in which, as if conducting a funeral, "the king's two hands were bound, and he surrendered with a jade in his mouth like a dead man, together with an empty coffin."5 Later, a compromise was reached with the Sambae-gu-go-dulye (三拜九叩頭禮), but this too was a humiliating ceremony in which one had to strike one's head on the ground three times for each of the three bows.5 On 24 February, Injo's royal palanquin, having left Namhansanseong, crossed the Han River, performed the Sambae-gu-go-dulye at Samjeondo, and officially surrendered to the Qing. For a king to submit to the Manchu army, which he had regarded as barbarians, was enough to cause enormous spiritual crisis and shock among the Joseon scholar-officials and intellectuals, who considered themselves Little China and proudly believed they carried on the way of the Middle Kingdom.
Taizong of Qing had a monument erected at Samjeondo to commemorate Injo's surrender.
Subsequent developments
As a result of the peace treaty of 1637, Crown Prince Sohyeon and his wife Lady Kang, Grand Prince Bongrim and his wife Lady Jang, Kim Sang-heon, and other officials were taken to Shenyang in the Qing. In 1639, the Samjeondo Monument was erected.
In 1640, at the request of the Qing, an army of 6,000 men under Im Gyeong-eop was dispatched to attack the Ming forces under Mo Wenlong stationed at Gaedo, but it failed, and Im Gyeong-eop surrendered to the Ming in 1643. Im Gyeong-eop received the rank of Deputy Regional Commander from the Chongzhen Emperor through Hwang Ryong, Governor of Dengzhou in the Ming dynasty, but the situation had already turned against the Ming, and shortly afterward Beijing fell and Taizong of Qing entered Shanhai Pass. The Ming fled to Nanjing and established the Southern Ming regime, but this too was soon suppressed, and Im Gyeong-eop was arrested and taken to Beijing.
In 1645, Crown Prince Sohyeon, who had been held hostage in the Qing dynasty, returned home, but two months after his return he died under suspicious circumstances. His wife, Crown Princess Consort Kang, was executed immediately afterward, and Grand Prince Bongrim was invested as crown prince and later ascended the throne as King Hyojong.
Significance
Joseon, whose founding king Yi Seong-gye had been enfeoffed in 1393 by Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of Akira, as Gwonji Joseon guksa,[2] had been a consistent vassal state of the Ming, but under the Mitawata Covenant it changed from a vassal state of the Ming to a vassal state of the Qing. Joseon formally became a vassal state of the Qing, and although the amount of goods paid as annual tribute afterward decreased, the broad framework of the Mitawata Covenant continued to be upheld until the Treaty of Shimonoseki (17 April 1895) after the Nisshin War. .
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