A History of Korea (12 page)

In response to this crisis, Kogury
ŏ
carried out a preemptive strike against the Chinese region west of the Liao River in 598. The Sui emperor, Wendi (581–604), sent out an expeditionary force, some 300,000 men, to launch a retaliatory attack on Kogury
ŏ
in the same year. But the Kogury
ŏ
forces held firm against the invading Chinese forces and defeated them. In 612, however, Yangdi (604–617), the next Sui emperor, mobilized some 1,130,000 troops and mounted an enormous invasion of Kogury
ŏ
.

Kogury
ŏ
stood up to the Chinese invasion with a force, said to be some 300,000, much inferior in number but better trained and more battle-experienced than the Chinese. Sui forces failed to take the Liaodong fortress, the anchor of Kogury
ŏ
’s line of fortifications on the Liao River. Yangdi then developed a new strategy to conquer Kogury
ŏ
, which was to keep Kogury
ŏ
fortresses in Manchuria at bay and meanwhile send a contingent army to take the Kogury
ŏ
capital of Pyongyang. But an estimated 300,000 Sui troops could not occupy Pyongyang. The retreating Sui forces were lured into an ambush by the Kogury
ŏ
commander
Ŭ
lchi Mun-d
ŏ
k, one of the most celebrated generals in Korean history, and suffered a crushing defeat at Salsu (present-day Ch’
ŏ
ngch’
ŏ
n River). It is said that only 2,700 of the 300,000 Chinese soldiers escaped alive. Yangdi was forced to withdraw his forces to China proper. The Kogury
ŏ
general now has a street (
Ŭ
lchi-ro) named for him in downtown Seoul. Again Yangdi sent his armies into Kogury
ŏ
in 613 and 614, once more without success. The great defeat of the Sui empire in part caused the downfall of the dynasty itself in 618.

When the Tang dynasty succeeded the fallen Sui dynasty, Kogury
ŏ
anticipated further Chinese invasions and therefore strengthened its defenses, including, in 628, the construction of its “Great Wall,” a thousand
li
(about 300 miles) in length across its northwestern frontier. At first the Tang emperor
Taizong sought to subjugate Kogury
ŏ
by diplomatic means, including sending envoys to urge Kogury
ŏ
to come to terms with Paekche and Silla, but to no avail. Kogury
ŏ
had no intention of recognizing China’s suzerainty over the state.

At about the same time an internal power struggle developed among Kogury
ŏ
’s ruling elite. In 642 Y
ŏ
n Kae-somun emerged as a military strongman by staging a coup. He slaughtered King Y
ŏ
ngnyu, who had attempted to kill him, and others who had opposed him. He enthroned King Y
ŏ
ngnyu’s nephew as King Pojang, but he himself retained absolute power. Y
ŏ
n Kae-somun took an increasingly provocative stance against Tang and Silla. When the Silla envoy Kim Ch’un-ch’u asked him for help in repelling attacks from Paekche, he demanded that Silla return the Han River basin to Kogury
ŏ
. In 643 Kogury
ŏ
assisted Paekche in occupying Tanghang-s
ŏ
ng in the Namyang Bay, Silla’s gateway to China. Exposed to the menace of both Paekche and Kogury
ŏ
, Silla asked Tang for military assistance. Y
ŏ
n Kae-somun rejected a Tang demand that Kogury
ŏ
halt its military operations against Silla, and the enraged Tang Taizong responded by launching a huge invasion of Kogury
ŏ
in 645, marshaling more than 300,000 men.

Taizong and his Chinese forces crushed almost all of Kogury
ŏ
’s network of defenses in the Liaodong region, and Tang forces took the Liaodong fortress, turning it into an advanced base. But they suffered a massive defeat at the Anshi fortress, the last link in the defense chain. The Anshi fortress withstood a siege of almost three months, during which Tang forces threw all their strength into as many as six or seven assaults in a single day. But the stubborn Kogury
ŏ
defenders, under the command of the legendary Kogury
ŏ
general Yang Man-ch’un, drove back each new attack and, in the end, won a striking victory. Taizong finally withdrew his troops with heavy losses, but he observed military courtesy by leaving behind 100 bolts of silk cloth for the Kogury
ŏ
commander. In 647 and 648 Taizong again dispatched expeditionary forces to invade Kogury
ŏ
, but these attacks, too, were repulsed by Kogury
ŏ
. Taizong never accomplished his ambition to conquer Kogury
ŏ
in his lifetime.

Koreans ever since have seen these victories against the Sui and Tang empires as sterling examples of resistance against foreign aggression. Kogury
ŏ
’s victories did not end in triumphs for the state alone, since the conquest of the Korean kingdom was just one stage in the grand imperial design of both Sui and Tang to dominate all of East Asia, including Paekche and Silla. Kogury
ŏ
served as a strong bulwark against repeated Chinese invasions, and, as a result, all the
Korean people were saved from the grave peril of Chinese conquest. Successive wars between Kogury
ŏ
and the Sui and Tang, however, exhausted Kogury
ŏ
’s national strength and increased animosity between the kingdom and China. Combined with an internal schism among the three sons of Y
ŏ
n Kae-somun, these wars against China led to Kogury
ŏ
’s final collapse in 668.

While Kogury
ŏ
was preoccupied with its life-and-death struggle against Sui and Tang, Paekche conducted a ruthless offensive against Silla. In 642 King
Ŭ
ija captured Taeya-s
ŏ
ng (present-day Hapch’
ŏ
n, South Ky
ŏ
ngsang province) and some 40 other strongholds in the fortified zone on the contested border between the two kingdoms. When Paekche forces took Taeya-s
ŏ
ng, they killed the daughter and son-in-law of Kim Ch’un-ch’u, who later became King Muy
ŏ
l of Silla, incurring his grudge. Silla was forced to retreat east of the Naktong River, and in 643 Paekche occupied Tanghang-s
ŏ
ng, Silla’s important outlet leading to China. The desperate Silla sent Kim Ch’un-ch’u to Kogury
ŏ
, asking for military aid. But Y
ŏ
n Kae-somun, who held power as
mangriji,
or prime minister, demanded the return of the Han River basin as the price for Kogury
ŏ
’s help. Silla then sought an alliance with Chinese Tang, offering Tang the opportunity to accomplish its failed ambition to conquer Kogury
ŏ
. The Chinese empire acceded to Silla’s request for a military alliance and settled on the strategy of first destroying the weaker Paekche and then striking out against the stronger Kogury
ŏ
.

Silla and Tang planned a joint military invasion of Paekche. In 660 the Tang emperor Gaozong sent 130,000 troops under the command of Su Dingfang over the Yellow Sea, while 50,000 Silla forces led by General Kim Yu-sin marched to attack Paekche. The Tang forces landed on the south bank at the estuary of the Paek River (present-day K
ŭ
m River), by which time the Silla army had already crossed the T’anhy
ŏ
n pass, east of present-day Taej
ŏ
n. King
Ŭ
ija, who had fought many wars against Silla and had taken hundreds of its towns and castles, gave little heed to military and government affairs. Having ignored the advice given him some time earlier by S
ŏ
ngch’ung, a high-level official, and now repeated by H
ŭ
ngsu, another loyal official, the Paekche king belatedly sent General Kyebaek to halt the Silla advance. Kyebaek organized 5,000 soldiers into a band, all of whom were determined to die. At Hwangsan (present-day Y
ŏ
nsan, South Ch’ungch’
ŏ
ng province), he won the battle but could not win the war, as he was killed in the battle. Now the allied forces of Silla and Tang
rushed to the Paekche capital, Sabi. Soon the capital fell. With the surrender of King
Ŭ
ija, who had taken refuge at Ungjin, the kingdom of Paekche, which had produced a brilliant civilization and transmitted its high culture to Japan, finally perished in 660. The king and crown prince and more than 12,000 others were taken prisoner and sent to Tang.

Tang established five occupied regions in the former Paekche territory and began to administer it directly. Meanwhile, the remaining Paekche forces gathered volunteers at Churyu-s
ŏ
ng (present-day Hansan, South Ch’ungch’
ŏ
ng province) and Imjon-s
ŏ
ng (present-day Taeh
ŭ
ng, South Ch’ungch’
ŏ
ng province). Their leaders Poksin, a member of the royal family, and Toch’im, a Buddhist monk, invited Prince Puy
ŏ
P’ung, who was visiting Japan, to become their king while they sought military aid from Japan. The Wae Japanese, who had maintained close ties with Paekche, tried their best to save the Korean kingdom by dispatching an army, some 30,000 strong, but at the estuary of the Paekch’
ŏ
n (present-day K
ŭ
m River), their naval forces were defeated by the joint Silla-Tang navy.

The effort to restore Paekche continued for four years. Paekche forces at one point laid siege to Sabi and Ungjin, and occupied other strongholds. They also harassed the Tang garrisons, and on a number of occasions defeated the Tang and Silla armies dispatched against them. But the restoration movement collapsed as a result of internal schism. Poksin, who distinguished himself on the field of battle and became increasingly arrogant, killed Toch’im, and was in turn killed by Puy
ŏ
P’ung, who escaped to Kogury
ŏ
. Seizing upon this opportunity, the allied forces of Silla and Tang attacked and captured the main restorationist stronghold of Churyu-s
ŏ
ng in 663. Two years later, in 665, the final redoubt of the restoration forces, Imjon-s
ŏ
ng, fell, putting an end to the struggle to restore Paekche.

Having destroyed Paekche in 660, the victorious allies of Tang and Silla continued their assault on Kogury
ŏ
for the next eight years. In 661 Tang armies, with the aid of Silla troops, encircled the Kogury
ŏ
capital of Pyongyang for several months. But they were defeated by Y
ŏ
n Kae-somun and had to withdraw in 662. Although Kogury
ŏ
survived this attack, its power to resist had been seriously weakened. The exhaustion caused by long years of continuous warfare with China together with the disaffection engendered by Y
ŏ
n Kae-somun’s dictatorial rule prompted Kogyry
ŏ
’s ultimate downfall.

After the death of strongman Y
ŏ
n Kae-somun in 666, a power struggle erupted among his three sons and younger brother. The eldest son, Nam-saeng, who succeeded his father as mangriji, was driven out by his two younger brothers, Nam-g
ŏ
n and Nam-san. He fled to the old capital of Kungnae-s
ŏ
ng and voluntarily surrendered to Tang. Y
ŏ
n Kae-somun’s younger brother, Y
ŏ
n Ch
ŏ
ng-t’o, surrendered to Silla, and was joined by the people of 12 castles in the southern region. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Tang mounted a fresh invasion of Kogury
ŏ
in 667 that was coordinated with a Silla offensive. This time the Tang army, commanded by Li Ji, captured most of the fortresses in Manchuria and encircled Pyongyang. After holding out for another year, the weary kingdom of Kogury
ŏ
met its final destruction in 668. King Pojang and more than 200,000 Kogury
ŏ
people were forced to settle in Tang.
⁶

After Kogury
ŏ
’s collapse, many of its people rebelled against Tang by starting a movement to restore the state. Among them, K
ŏ
mmojam, a former middle-ranking official, elevated Ans
ŭ
ng, King Pojang’s illegitimate son, to the throne and, in 670, carried on a resistance movement at Hans
ŏ
ng (present-day Chery
ŏ
ng, Hwanghae province). But the restoration movement ended in failure, mainly because of internal dissension. K
ŏ
mmojam was assassinated by Ans
ŭ
ng, who then fled to Silla for protection and was given the title of “King of Kogury
ŏ
,” which Silla later changed to “King Pod
ŏ
k.” To drive Tang from the Korean peninsula, Silla gave its full support to the Kogury
ŏ
people’s restoration efforts.

Although Tang succeeded in destroying two of the Korean kingdoms with Silla’s help, it did not share the fruits of the conquest with Silla but instead directly administered the former Paekche and Kogury
ŏ
territories. The Chinese expected to incorporate their Korean conquests into their empire, as had Han China. Tang broke its promise to give the territory south of the Taedong River to Silla and made no attempt to disguise its ambition to dominate the entire Korean peninsula. In 663 Tang created the Great Commandery of Kyerim as the means through which it would rule the Silla territory and appointed the Silla king Munmu (661–681) as its governor-general. In 664, to weaken the Paekche people’s resistance to its domination, Tang named Puy
ŏ
Yung, a son of King
Ŭ
ija, governor of the Ungjin Commandery in the former Paekche territory. The next year Tang forced Puy
ŏ
Yung and King Munmu to meet at Mount Ch’wiri (present-day Mount Ch’wimi) on the north bank of the K
ŭ
m River and to enter
into a pact of friendship. Tang’s action aimed not only at winning over the Paekche people but at thwarting Silla’s designs on the former Paekche territory. Immediately after the fall of Kogury
ŏ
in 668, Tang established nine additional occupational regions to govern the ruined kingdom’s former domains. At the same time it created the Andong Duhufu, or Protectorate-General to Pacify the East, at Pyongyang and gave it jurisdiction not only over the former Kogury
ŏ
territory but also over Paekche and Silla. Indeed, Silla feared for its survival, as it received the same treatment from the Chinese empire as did the conquered Kogury
ŏ
and Paekche domains.