Yi I
Despite his beliefs, Yi I began to worry that his attempts at reconciliation were meaningless because the Easterners still saw him as biased towards the Westerners. To do so, he wrote an advice for the king to fire Sim Ui-gyeom and gave it to the Easterner Jeong In-hong, asking him to not change anything in the advice. However, Jeong added the single sentence "gathers other officials to create a faction" in the list of Sim's misdeeds in the advice. When Seonjo asked Jeong who "the other officials" were, Jeong replied that it was Jeong Cheol and the Yun Du-gu brothers, who were at the time the sole Westerners in court. Yi I was angered that Jeong had changed the words of his advice, forcing Jeong to revoke his former words by saying that though Jeong Cheol had done much wrong, he did not create a faction. He then retired to his hometown, causing the Easterners to be furious at Yi I. Both Yi I and Jeong Cheol were forced to step down, while Sim Ui-gyeom stayed in court. Despite Yi's later return, the outnumbered Westerners were powerless to stop the Easterners, leading to an Easterner government until 1589.