ch was that the Chinese fled in
haste over the Injin, losing ten thousand men in their retreat.

But, though the Japanese had thus shaken off the pursuit, it was
impossible for them to continue in occupation of Seoul. The
conditions existing there were shocking. Widespread famine menaced,
with its usual concomitant, pestilence. According to Korean history,
the streets of the city and the roads in the suburbs were piled with
corpses to a height of ten feet above the wall. The Japanese,
therefore, made proposals of peace, and the Chinese agreed, on
condition that the Japanese gave up two Korean princes held captive
by them, and retired to the south coast of the peninsula. These terms
were accepted, and on May 9, 1593, that is to say, 360 days after the
landing of the invaders' van at Fusan, the evacuation of the Korean
capital took place. The Chinese commanders showed great lack of
enterprise. They failed to utilize the situation, and in October of
the same year they withdrew from the peninsula all their troops
except ten thousand men. Negotiations for permanent peace now
commenced between the Governments of Japan and China, but while the
pourparlers were in progress the most sanguinary incident of the
whole war took place. During the early part of the campaign a
Japanese attack had been beaten back from Chinju, which was reckoned
the strongest fortress in Korea. Hideyoshi now ordered that the
Japanese troops, before sailing for home, should rehabilitate their
reputation by capturing this place, where the Koreans had mustered a
strong army. The order was obeyed. Continuous assaults were delivered
against the fortress during the space of nine days, and when it
passed into Japanese possession the Koreans are said to have lost
between sixty and seventy thousand men and the casualties on the
Japanese side must have been almost as numerous.

THE NEGOTIATIONS

After the fall of Chinju, all the Japanese troops, with the exception
of Konishi's corps, were withdrawn from Korea, and the Japanese
confined their operations to holding a cordon of twelve fortified
camps along the southern coast of the peninsula. These camps were
nothing more than bluffs overlooking the sea on the south, and
protected on the land side by moats and earthworks. The action at
Chinju had created some suspicion as to the integrity of Japan's
designs, but mainly through the persistence and tact of the Chinese
envoy, Chen Weiching, terms were agreed upon,