Righteous Army
After the murder of Queen Min in 1895, Japanese-backed Gabo Reformers forced the King to sign an edict decreeing that all Korean males must cut their topknot. Choi and other Confucian conservative officials were outraged, with Choi himself declaring that he would rather cut off his head before cutting his hair. Choi and his colleagues led armed resistance, known as Righteous Army among the countryside, attacking Japanese soldiers, merchants, and pro-Japanese Koreans known as Chinilpa.