In August 1597, in the middle of the Jeongyu Jaeran phase of the Japanese invasions of Korea, a Japanese force of some 56,000 troops laid siege to Namwon Fortress from every side. The allied Korean-Ming defenders numbered only about 4,000 in total — 3,000 Ming soldiers and 1,000 Joseon government troops. Joining them were roughly 7,000 ordinary residents and officials inside the fortress walls, who helped defend the city alongside the soldiers. Over four days of fighting, from August 13 to 16, Namwon Fortress fell, and nearly everyone who had defended it — soldiers and civilians alike — was killed in battle or slaughtered by Japanese forces afterward.
After the war ended, the people of Namwon gathered the remains of countless fallen defenders — most of whose identities could never be confirmed — into a single mass grave. This became known as Manin-uichong. The name doesn't refer to a literal figure but means "the mound of the many righteous." A shrine, Chungnyeolsa, was later built to honor them, and memorial rites have been held there every year since. Given the sheer disparity in numbers, this was arguably an unwinnable fight from the start. And yet the fact that the defenders held out for four days before being wiped out entirely speaks to something beyond simple defeat — it's a record of people who refused to abandon their city even facing overwhelming odds.