Small stone forts sit on every cape along Ganghwado's shore because after the island fell in the Second Manchu Invasion, 48 were built in the single year 1679 instead of a long wall

How we checked

Checked October 3, 2026. We compared against the Korean translation and the original Classical Chinese text of the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty (entries from King Injo year 15 and King Sukjong years 4–5) published by the National Institute of Korean History; the Korea Heritage Service's National Heritage Portal (Ganghwa Gwangseongbo, Chojijin, Deokjinjin, Gapgotdon, Outer Wall, Gyeryong Dondae and Bugilgot Dondae); Ganghwa County Culture and Tourism's "Ganghwa Gyeryong Dondae"; the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture compiled by the Academy of Korean Studies; and the Incheon Foundation for Arts and Culture's "All About Ganghwa Dondae" archive. No sentence was confirmed only through news reports. The Chief State Councilor's judgment that "the land is too vast to build a wall" (sentence 14) is not in the Korean translation of the Annals for the same day and was confirmed only as a sentence quoted by the Incheon Foundation for Arts and Culture, so we treated it as secondhand, since we did not see the original record, and marked it △. That the jin and bo were too far apart (sentences 9 and 10) and that neighboring dondae were placed to cover each other with fire (sentence 17) were confirmed through the Incheon Foundation for Arts and Culture's commentary.

• The numbers of people and days for building the dondae all differ between Ganghwa County (8,900 monk soldiers · 4,262 Eoyeong troops · about 80 days), the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture (3,000 · 8,000 · 40 days), the Korea Heritage Service (8,000 · 4,300 · 40 days) and the Incheon Foundation for Arts and Culture (more than 8,000 · more than 4,000 · past 40 days), so the video used only the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty's "more than 10,000 from distant places."
• The Incheon Foundation for Arts and Culture says the Eoyeongcheong soldiers of the fourth month "relieved" the monk soldiers, while Ganghwa County says they built together. The video said "joined them."
• The dondae count differs: 53 for Ganghwa County and the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, 54 for the Incheon Foundation for Arts and Culture (including Yongdu Dondae). Two were abolished in 1718, and some are inside military areas. The video's "there are more than fifty" refers to the number built and does not mean that all remain intact today.
• The Chief State Councilor's proposal in the Annals in the 9th month of 1678 was for "earthen walls," but the actual dondae were built of stone. The video's "stone forts" describes how they were actually built.
• We read the Annals' "remit this year's jeonjo" as meaning that the field tax was not collected that year and said "exempted that year's tax." We did not check whether other taxes were also exempted.
• We could not confirm the numbers killed in Byeonginyangyo and Sinmiyangyo, so the video did not state them.
• We do not list personal names or street addresses.