 However, before the joint investigation could be launched, a party of 400 Chinese farmers whose lands were cut by the irrigation ditch, armed with agricultural implements and pikes, drove the Koreans away and filled in much of the ditch.The Japanese consular police thereupon fired rifles to disperse the mob and to protect the Korean farmers but there were no casualties.The Chinese farmers withdrew, and the Japanese police remained on the spot until the Koreans completed the ditch and a dam across the Itung River.