On December 18, 1811, in the eleventh year of King Sunjo(純祖), Hong Kyŏng-Re rose in rebellion, discontented mainly with political corruption wrought by the Kim(金) family of Andong(安東) then in power and with discriminative treatment given to people of the Pyong’an(平安) Province for generations. In several days, the rebellion spread rapidly in the neighboring localities as many of the officials and government slaves in each Up(邑) (town) joined up. But Hong’s army was fatally defeated in the battle of Songrim-ri(松林里), Bakch’ŏn(博川), which was its first contact with the government army, during a river-crossing operation.
Beaten in this battle, Hong’s army attempted to inspirit itself anew with base at the Chŏng-ju Castle, which was an important fortress north of the Ch’ŏngch’ŏn(淸州) River. Completely besieged by the government army and isolated, Hong’s army held on for four months in the castle, which was its last base, thanks largely to its terrain. Only about 13 ri(里) in circumference, the Chŏng-ju Castle was so impregnable as to neutralize the repeated offensives launched by the government and volunteer forces, which were far superior to Hong’s army in men and equipment. The castle was covered by high mountains to the north, and below its east and west walls on mountain ridges flowed two big rivers, one from the northeast and the other from the northwest, that joined in the southeast of the castle. From the castle, furthermore, a wide road led to Kusŏng(龜城) and Tech’ŏn(泰川) in the northeast, another to Unhŭngkwan(雲興館) in Kwaksan(郭山) in the northwest, another to the Up of Kwaksan in the southwest, and a broad road to Seoul in the southeast.
The government army, supported by volunteers, could bring about the fall of the castle by mere siege of it in view of limited provisions and arms in the castle, but prestige compelled them to bring Hong to immediate surrender. Finally, the government army captured the castle successfully on April 19, 1812, by employing the tactics of digging a tunnel under the northeast wall of the castle and blowing it up with explosive. Thus, the Chŏngju Castle reminds us of Hong’s Rebellion, and vice versa.
A few years ago, by the way, an antique map of the Chongju Castle came into the writer’s possession. Finding that the map was of Hong’s Rebellion, the writer was overjoyed indeed. As a map of siege or troop disposition apparently used by the government army, which laid siege to the castle on all corners, it is considered a valuable material for study of Hong’s Rebellion. A relatively detailed map in bird’s eye view, made with rice paper, it is ninety centimeters long and seventy-seven centimeters wide. With the Chongju Castle in a scalene triangle, showing gates, lookouts, castle walls, sluice gates, and so on in the center, the map depicts the surrounding mountain terrain, currents (in dotted lines), roads, bridges, fields and paddies, villages, official houses, etc. outside the castle, including the fences installed by the government army and the disposition of soldiers at the headquarters and camps with their numbers. The date and drawer of the map is unknown, but its antiquity is proof that it was either drawn at the operations center then or copied immediately thereafter. As for the date, Bang U-chŏng’s(方禹鼎) Chinjung-Ilki(陣中日記) (Diary at the Front) gives a clue: The passage for March 21, 1812 in the diary records the total number of troops as 8,355 men, which coincides with that written on the map. At any rate, it is beyond question that the map is an invaluable reference material for study of Hong’s Rebellion. Its only flaw regrettably is that it has no representation of the activities of Hong’s Army.
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