[3] Dongnae was a walled citadel on a hilltop commanded by the 41-year-old prefect, Song Sang-hyeon, and the fortress was packed with over 20,000 soldiers, poorly trained and equipped conscripts, and panicked civilian refugees from Busan and surrounding areas.

The besieged Koreans, including women, fired arrows and spears at the Japanese as Song beat a drum from the upper floor of his donjon to urge the defenders on.

Even though the men that Song Sang-hyeon wielded were ill-equipped and poorly trained, the gallant defenders fought for eight hours before the enemy effected an entrance over their dead bodies.

During a lull in the fighting, a Japanese vanguard of 100 men scaled the walls with ladders and the rest followed, taking the fortress in hand-to-hand combat.

He was dissuaded from deserting his command by his subordinates, by which time he had only four vessels remaining [2] With the fall of Dongnae the Japanese bridgehead was secured and the road to the north was open.

The Japanese general in command So Yoshitoshi was so impressed with the bravery of this prefect that he had his body decently buried and erected over his grave a wooden monument on which he wrote “A Loyal Subject”, an epitaph than which none could be more grateful to a true Korean gentleman.

The cool defiance of Song Sang-hyeon has become a legend in Korea, and in the Chungnyolsa shrine at the foot of the castle hill in Dongnae, where he is honored beside Jeong Bal and Yun Heung-sin, there is a dramatic painting of him sitting impassively in his chair as the fierce Japanese approach.