her influence in Korea against the growing influence
of Japan, intrigued night and day in the Seoul Palaces, allying herself
with the Conservative Court party which was led by the notorious Korean
Queen who was afterwards assassinated. The Chinese agents aided and
abetted the reactionary group, constantly inciting them to attack the
Japanese and drive them out of the country.

Continual outrages were the consequence. The Japanese legation was
attacked and destroyed by the Korean mob not once but on several
occasions during a decade which furnishes one of the most amazing
chapters in the history of Asia. Yuan Shih-kai, being then merely a
junior general officer under the orders of the Chinese Imperial
Resident, is of no particular importance; but it is significant of the
man that he should suddenly come well under the limelight on the first
possible occasion. On 6th December, 1884, leading 2,000 Chinese troops,
and acting in concert with 3,000 Korean soldiers, he attacked the Tong
Kwan Palace in which the Japanese Minister and his staff, protected by
two companies of Japanese infantry, had taken refuge owing to the
threatening state of affairs in the capital. Apparently there was no
particular plan--it was the action of a mob of soldiery tumbling into a
political brawl and assisted by their officers for reasons which appear
to-day nonsensical. The sequel was, however, extraordinary. The Japanese
held the Palace gates as long as possible, and then being desperate
exploded a mine which killed numbers of Koreans and Chinese soldiery and
threw the attack into confusion. They then fought their way out of the
city escaping ultimately to the nearest sea-port, Chemulpo.

The explanation of this extraordinary episode has never been made
public. The practical result was that after a period of extreme tension
between China and Japan which was expected to lead to war, that
political genius, the late Prince Ito, managed to calm things down and
arrange workable _modus vivendi_. Yuan Shih-kai, who had gone to
Tientsin to report in person to Li Hung Chang, returned to Seoul
triumphantly in October, 1885, as Imperial Resident. He was then
twenty-eight years old; he had come to the front, no matter by what
means, in a quite remarkable manner.

The history of the next nine years furnishes plenty of minor incidents,
but nothing of historic importance. As the faithful lieutenant of Li
Hung Chang, Yuan Shih-kai's particular business was si