King Yeongyang嬰陽王

King Yeongyang's name was Won (元), and he was the eldest son of King Pyeongwon. His bearing and his spirit were outstanding and clear, and he took upon himself the saving of the age and the settling of the people. In the seventh year of King Pyeongwon's reign he was set up as crown prince, and in the thirty-second year the king died and the crown prince ascended the throne. Emperor Wen of Sui sent an envoy to appoint the king Senior Commander with an Office Opened and Ceremonial Equal to the Three Excellencies, to let him succeed to the rank of Duke of the Commandery of Liaodong, and he granted him one suit of clothes.

In the second year, in spring, the first month, an envoy was sent to enter Sui, to present a memorial thanking the emperor for his kindness and to offer tribute, and on this occasion he asked that the king be invested. The emperor allowed it. In the third month the king was invested as King of Goguryeo, and carriages and robes were granted as well. In summer, the fifth month, an envoy was sent to give thanks for the kindness.

In the third year, in spring, the first month, an envoy was sent to enter Sui and offer tribute.

In the eighth year, in summer, the fifth month, an envoy was sent to enter Sui and offer tribute.

In the ninth year, in spring, the second month, the king led more than ten thousand of the Malgal host and raided Liaoxi. Wei Chong, the commander-in-chief of Yingzhou, struck them and drove them back.

Emperor Wen of Sui heard of it and was greatly angered. He ordered Liang, the Prince of Han, and Wang Shiji to be joint marshals, and they came to attack with three hundred thousand troops by water and by land. In summer, the sixth month, the emperor sent down an edict stripping the king of his office and rank.

The army of Liang, the Prince of Han, went out through Linyu Pass, but it met the long rains, the hauling of provisions did not keep up, food ran short in the camp, and then plague struck as well. Zhou Luohou set out from the east across the sea and made for the fortress of Pyeongyang, but he too met a wind, and many of his ships drifted away and sank. In autumn, the ninth month, the army went back, and eight or nine of every ten had died.

The king too was afraid, and he sent an envoy to beg pardon. In the memorial he sent up he called himself "So-and-so, the dung-and-dirt subject of Liaodong." The emperor then broke off the campaign and treated him as before.

Chang, the king of Baekje, sent an envoy to present a memorial and asked to be the guide for the army. The emperor sent down an edict telling him, "Goguryeo has submitted to its guilt and I have already pardoned it. It may not be attacked." He treated the envoy generously and sent him back. The king learned of this and raided and plundered the borders of Baekje.

In the eleventh year, in spring, the first month, an envoy was sent to enter Sui and offer tribute.

By edict Yi Munjin, doctor of the Grand Academy, was told to abridge the old history and make the Sinjip (新集) in five volumes. When writing was first used at the beginning of the country, someone had set down affairs in one hundred volumes, called the Yugi (留記), and now it was cut down and revised.

In the fourteenth year, in autumn, the eighth month, the king sent the general Go Seung to attack the Silla fortress of Bukhansanseong. The king of Silla led troops and crossed the Han River. Inside the fortress they beat drums and shouted and answered him, and Seung, seeing that the other side was many and the Goguryeo side few, feared he could not win and withdrew.

In the eighteenth year — earlier, when Emperor Yang went to the tent of Qimin, an envoy of Goguryeo was in Qimin's place. Qimin did not dare to hide him, and went with him to see the emperor.

Pei Ju, gentleman attendant of the Yellow Gate, coaxed the emperor and said, "Goguryeo was first of all the land enfeoffed to Gija, and under Han and Jin it was all commanderies and counties. Now it does not act as a subject and has become a separate region apart, and the former emperor long wished to campaign against it. Only Yang Liang was unworthy, and the army went out without merit. In Your Majesty's time, how can you not take it, and let a land of caps and sashes become at last a village of barbarians? Now their envoy has seen with his own eyes that Qimin has given his whole country over to your rule. You may seize upon their fear and press them into coming to court."

The emperor followed his words and commanded Niu Hong to set forth his will: "I have found beautiful the sincere heart with which Qimin serves the state, and so I have come to his tent in person, and next year I shall go to Zhuo Commandery. On the day you go back, tell your king that he should come early and appear at court, and not doubt and fear on his own account. The rite by which I keep him and nourish him will be the same as with Qimin; but if he does not come to court, I shall lead Qimin and go to tour that land."

The king was afraid, for he had rather neglected the rites of a vassal and the emperor was about to attack him. Qimin was the khagan of the Tujue.

In summer, the fifth month, troops were sent to attack the Baekje fortress of Songsanseong, but it did not fall. They moved and fell upon the fortress of Seokduseong, and came back with three thousand men and women taken captive.

In the nineteenth year, in spring, the second month, a general was ordered to fall upon the northern borders of Silla, and eight thousand people were taken captive. In summer, the fourth month, the Silla fortress of Umyeongsanseong was taken.

In the twenty-second year, in spring, the second month, Emperor Yang sent down an edict to attack Goguryeo. In summer, the fourth month, the imperial carriage reached the Linshuo Palace in Zhuo Commandery, and the troops of the four quarters all gathered at Zhuo Commandery.

In the twenty-third year, in spring, the first month, on the day imo, the emperor sent down an edict and said:

"The small rabble of Goguryeo is dark and deluded and not respectful. They have gathered between Bohai and Jieshi and have eaten again and again into the lands of Liao and Ye. Though Han and Wei cut them down and killed them, and their nest and their burrow were overturned for a time, disorder and hindrance were many and the tribe gathered again. In ages past they came together at the rivers and the marshes, and they have spread and multiplied down to this day. Looking back on that shining land, it has been cut away and made a barbarian kind, and as the years have grown long their evil has ripened and is already full.

The way of Heaven sends calamity upon the wanton, and the sign of their ruin has already appeared. Their confounding of what is constant and their ruin of virtue cannot be reckoned through, and they cover their wickedness and harbor deceit, saying only that the day is not long enough. The stern word sent to them they have never received face to face, and the rite of coming to court they have not been willing to perform in person. They entice and take in runaways and rebels and know no end of it, they fill the borders and often trouble the beacon fires. The watchman's clapper at the passes has no quiet because of them, and living men have given up their callings because of them.

In the slight campaign of former days they already slipped through the net of Heaven. The killing of the beast first caught was put off, and the punishment of those who submitted later was not carried out; yet they have never thought upon that kindness and have instead let their evil grow. So they joined with the party of the Khitan and killed the garrison by the sea, and they learned the dress of the Malgal and raided Liaoxi.

Again, all beyond Cheonggu keep up the tribute of office and the shores of the blue sea alike receive the calendar; yet they have gone on to snatch away gems and gifts and to cut off the coming and the going. Their cruelty has reached the guiltless, and the sincere have met with disaster. Light carriages bore the envoys east as far as the sea, and where the standards and the tallies halted the road passed through the vassal's borders; yet they blocked the roads and turned away the king's men. They have no heart to serve their lord. How is this the rite of a subject? If this can be borne, what cannot be allowed?

Again, their laws are harsh and cruel and their taxes vexing and heavy; strong ministers and powerful clans all hold the cords of the state, and the forming of factions and cliques has become their custom.

Bribes are like a marketplace, and the wronged and the bent have nowhere to unfold their case. On top of this, year after year disaster and famine have come and house after house goes hungry; arms do not rest and the labor levies have no set term, their strength is spent in hauling and their bodies fill the ditches. The people are sad and bitter. Whom then are they to follow? Within their borders all is grief and dread, and they cannot bear the ruin of it. They turn their heads and look inward, and each harbors a plan for his own life; the white-haired and the young alike raise a sigh at this bitter poison.

Observing the customs and looking at the manners, I have come to You and Shuo. To comfort the people and to call them to account, there is no need to wait for a second setting out of the carriage. Therefore I myself take command of the six armies and set forth the nine punishments, and I shall save them from their peril. Following the will of Heaven I shall wipe out this fugitive filth and carry through the plans of the emperor before me.

Now the rules of war shall be given and the march begun, the standards divided and the roads taken; we shall cover Bohai and thunder over it, and pass through Buyeo and sweep it like lightning. Spears shall be set in line and armor looked to, and the host sworn before it goes forward; three times shall the order be given first and five times repeated, and only after victory is sure shall we fight.

The twelve armies of the left shall go out by the roads of Nubang, Jangjam, Myeonghae, Gaema, Geonan, Namso, Liaodong, Hyeondo, Buyeo, Joseon, Okjeo and Nangnang; the twelve armies of the right shall go out by the roads of Jeomseon, Hamja, Honmi, Imdun, Huseong, Jehae, Dapdon, Suksin, Galseok, Dongi, Daebang and Yangpyeong. One after another they shall take the road, and all shall gather at Pyeongyang."

In all they were one million one hundred and thirteen thousand eight hundred men, and they were called two million.

Those who hauled the provisions were twice that number.

Sacrifice was made to the altars of earth and grain on the bank of the Sangganshui to the south, the rite of lei was offered to the High Emperor south of the Linshuo Palace, and sacrifice was made to the Horse Ancestor north of the walled city of Ji. The emperor himself gave out the order of march. Each army had one senior general and one second general, and forty companies of horse. A company was a hundred men, and ten companies made a regiment. The foot soldiers were eighty companies, divided into four regiments, and each regiment had one deputy general; their armor and helmets, their tassels and plumes and their flags and banners were of a different color for each regiment.

One army was sent out each day, forty li apart from the next, the camps linked together and moving on by degrees, and only after forty days had all of them set out. Head and tail followed one another, the drums and the horns were heard from one to the next, and the flags and banners stretched nine hundred and sixty li. Within the imperial camp the twelve guards, the three terraces, the five departments and the nine courts were put together and assigned to six armies, inner and outer, front and rear, left and right, and these were sent out after the rest, and they too stretched eighty li. In recent ages there had never been so grand a sending out of an army.

In the second month the emperor led the army forward and reached the Liao River. The many armies all came together and drew up a great line of battle facing the water. The Goguryeo troops held the water against them and kept guard, and the Sui troops could not cross. The emperor ordered Yuwen Kai, the minister of works, to build three floating bridges on the western bank of the Liao River. When they were finished, the bridges were drawn forward toward the eastern bank, but they were short and did not reach the bank by a jang and more. The Goguryeo troops came in great numbers, and the bold and brave among the Sui troops vied with one another in leaping into the water and closing in battle; but the Goguryeo troops struck them from the high ground, so that the Sui troops could not climb the bank, and the dead were very many.

Mai Tiezhang leapt up onto the bank, but he and Qian Shixiong and Meng Jincha and the others all died fighting. So the troops were drawn back and the bridges pulled to the western bank again. The lesser treasury superintendent He Chou was then ordered to join the bridges, and in two days they were done. The armies went forward one after another and fought a great battle on the eastern bank. The Goguryeo troops were badly beaten, and the dead were counted by the ten thousand. The armies rode on their victory and went forward and surrounded the fortress of Liaodong, which is the fortress of Xiangping of the Han.

When the imperial carriage crossed the Liao River, an edict was sent down pardoning all under Heaven, and Wei Wensheng, the minister of justice, and others were ordered to soothe the people to the left of the Liao, to release them from labor for ten years, and to set up commanderies and counties so that they might be governed.

In summer, the fifth month — earlier, when the Sui generals went down to the east, the emperor had warned them, "In all the affairs of war, whether to go forward or to halt must be reported and the answer awaited. None of you may act as he pleases."

Liaodong had gone out to fight several times without advantage, and so they held the fortress and guarded it fast. The emperor ordered the armies to attack it, and he also commanded the generals that if Goguryeo should surrender they were to soothe them and receive them and not to loose the troops.

When the fortress of Liaodong was about to fall, the men inside would say that they asked to surrender. The generals, holding to the emperor's will, did not dare to seize the moment, but first sent word galloping to him. By the time the answer came, the guard inside the fortress was ready again, and they would come out and give battle against the Sui. This happened two and three times, and the emperor never saw through it, and so the fortress went long without falling.

In the sixth month, on the day gimi, the emperor went south of the fortress of Liaodong and looked at the lay of its wall and its moat, and then he called the generals and rebuked them: "You gentlemen hold your offices to be high, and you trust in the standing of your houses, and you would meet me with dullness and weakness. In the days when we were in the capital you all wished me not to come, for you feared to be seen sick and beaten.

I have come here now just to see what you gentlemen do, and to behead you. Now you fear death and are unwilling to put out your strength. Do you think I cannot kill you?" The generals all trembled with fear and lost the color of their faces.

The emperor then halted a few li west of the fortress and went into the fortress of Yukhapseong, but the fortresses of Goguryeo held fast and did not fall.

Lai Huer, general of the guard of the left wing, led the naval forces of the Yangtze and the Huai, and his ships stretched several hundred li. He sailed the sea and went forward ahead of the rest, entering by the Paesu, and came within sixty li of Pyeongyang. He met the Goguryeo army, went forward and struck them and broke them badly. Huer wished to ride his victory and make for the fortress, but Zhou Fashang, the deputy commander-in-chief, stopped him and asked that they wait until the other armies came and go forward together. Huer would not listen. He picked out several ten thousand of his best armored men and came straight up beneath the fortress.

A Goguryeo general hid troops in an empty temple inside the outer wall, sent out troops to fight Huer, and then feigned defeat. Huer chased them into the fortress and loosed his troops to take captives and plunder, so that there were no ranks left. The hidden troops rose, and Huer was badly beaten and barely got away, and of his soldiers those who came back were no more than a few thousand. The Goguryeo army pursued them as far as the ships, but Zhou Fashang had set his line in order and was waiting, and so the Goguryeo army withdrew. Huer led his troops back and camped at the sea inlet, and he did not dare stay any longer to support the other armies.

Yuwen Shu, great general of the guard of the left wing, went out by the road of Buyeo; Yu Zhongwen, great general of the guard of the right wing, by the road of Nangnang; Jing Yuanheng, great general of the brave guard of the left, by the road of Liaodong; Xue Shixiong, great general of the guard of the right wing, by the road of Okjeo; Xin Shixiong, general of the garrison guard of the right, by the road of Hyeondo; Zhang Jin, general of the imperial guard of the right, by the road of Yangpyeong; Zhao Xiaocai, general of the militant marquis guard of the right, by the road of Galseok; Cui Hongsheng, prefect of Zhuo Commandery and acting general of the militant guard of the left, by the road of Suseong; and Wei Wensheng, acting tiger-brave court gentleman-general of the imperial guard of the right, by the road of Jeungji. All of them met west of the Amnok.

The troops of Yuwen Shu and the rest were given a hundred days' provisions for every man and horse at the two garrisons of Luhe and Huaiyuan, and they were given armor and spears and lances as well, and clothing and supplies and weapons and tents, so that each man had more than three seom, a weight they could not bear. An order was given in the camp: "Whoever throws away rice or grain shall be beheaded." The soldiers all dug pits under their tents and buried it, and they had barely come to the middle of the road when the provisions were already running out.

The king sent his great minister Eulji Mundeok to their camp to make a false surrender; in truth he wished to see where they were empty and where they were full. Yu Zhongwen had earlier received a secret order: "If the king or Mundeok should come, you must take him." Zhongwen was about to seize him, but Liu Shilong, right assistant of the department of state affairs, was the commissioner of consolation and firmly stopped him. Zhongwen listened to his words at last, and Mundeok went back; then he repented of it and sent a man to deceive Mundeok, saying, "There is more that I would say. You may come again." Mundeok did not look back, but crossed the Amnok and went away.

Zhongwen and Yuwen Shu and the rest, having now lost Mundeok, were uneasy within. Shu wished to go back because the provisions were spent. Zhongwen argued that if they pursued Mundeok with their best troops there could be merit in it, but Shu firmly stopped him.

Zhongwen was angry and said, "The general leans on a host of a hundred thousand and cannot break a small bandit. With what face will he see the emperor? And Zhongwen knew from the first that there would be no merit on this march. Why? Because among the good generals of old, those who could accomplish anything did so because the affairs of the camp were settled by one man.

Now every man has a mind of his own. How shall we defeat the enemy?"

At that time the emperor, holding that Zhongwen had plans, had made the armies ask him for the order of march, and that is why he spoke so. For this reason Shu and the rest could not help but follow him, and with the other generals they crossed the water and pursued Mundeok.

Mundeok saw that Yuwen Shu's soldiers had a hungry look, and so, wishing to wear them out, he ran away whenever they fought. Shu won seven battles in a single day. Trusting now in his sudden victories, and pressed as well by the talk of the many, he went forward at last, crossed the Salsu to the east, came within thirty li of the fortress of Pyeongyang, and made his camp with a mountain at his back.

Mundeok sent an envoy again to make a false surrender and asked of Shu, "If you will turn the army back, I shall bring the king to appear at the place where the emperor is staying."

Shu saw that his soldiers were worn and broken and could fight no more, and he reckoned too that the fortress of Pyeongyang was steep and firm and hard to take at a stroke, and so he took their deceit as his occasion and went back. Shu and the rest marched in a square formation, and the Goguryeo army plundered and struck them on all four sides, so that Shu and the rest fought as they went.

In autumn, the seventh month, they came to the Salsu, and when half the army had crossed, the Goguryeo army struck their rear guard from behind, and Xin Shixiong, general of the garrison guard of the right, died fighting. At this the armies all broke up and could not be held. The generals and the soldiers fled back, and in one day and one night they reached the Amnok, having gone four hundred and fifty li. The general Wang Rengong of Tianshui took the rear, and he struck the Goguryeo army and drove it off. Lai Huer heard that Shu and the rest had been beaten, and he too led his troops back. Only the one army of Wei Wensheng was whole.

At first, when the nine armies crossed the Liao River, they were three hundred and five thousand in all; and when they came back to the fortress of Liaodong there were only two thousand seven hundred men, and the supplies and the stores and the weapons, reckoned in the tens of thousands, were all lost and gone. The emperor was greatly angered. He put Shu and the rest in chains, and on the day gyemyo he led the army back.

At first, Jang, the king of Baekje, had sent an envoy asking that Goguryeo be attacked. The emperor had him spy out the movements of Goguryeo, but within, Jang was secretly in touch with Goguryeo. When the Sui army was about to set out, Jang sent his subject Guk Jimo to enter Sui and ask the date of the campaign. The emperor was greatly pleased and gave him rich rewards, and he sent Xi Lü, gentleman of the works bureau of the department of state affairs, to Baekje to tell him the time of the meeting. When the Sui army crossed the Liao, Baekje too put its troops in readiness on the border and gave out that it was helping Sui, but in truth it held to both ends.

On this march, all that was done was to take the Goguryeo fort of Muryeora west of the Liao River and to set up the commandery of Liaodong and the garrison of Tongding.

In the twenty-fourth year, in spring, the first month, the emperor by edict called up the troops of all under Heaven and gathered them at Zhuo Commandery. He raised men from the people to be the Brave and Bold, and he repaired the old fortress of Liaodong to store the army's grain.

In the second month the emperor said to his attendant ministers, "The small barbarians of Goguryeo insult and slight the upper kingdom. Now even the pulling up of the sea and the moving of mountains may be hoped to succeed. How much more this barbarian?" So the attack was discussed again.

Guo Rong, grand master of the glorious light of the left, remonstrated and said, "That barbarians lose the rites is a matter for the subjects below. A crossbow of a thousand gyun does not spring its trigger for a field mouse. How should you disgrace in person the lord of ten thousand chariots by facing a small bandit?" The emperor did not listen.

In summer, the fourth month, the imperial carriage crossed the Liao River, and Yuwen Shu and Yang Yichen were sent to make for Pyeongyang. Wang Rengong went out by the road of Buyeo, pushed his troops forward and came to the fortress of Sinseong. Several ten thousand Goguryeo troops blocked him and fought, and Rengong led a thousand hardy horsemen and struck them and broke them. The Goguryeo troops held the fortress and guarded it fast.

The emperor ordered the generals to attack Liaodong and allowed them to act as the occasion served. Flying towers and rams, cloud ladders and tunnels went forward together on all four sides, and there was no rest by day or by night. Goguryeo met each change and held them off, and for more than twenty days the fortress was not taken. The dead on both sides, the host and the guest, were very many.

The pole of a scaling ladder was fifteen jang long, and Shen Guang of the Brave and Bold climbed to its end and fought the Goguryeo troops from above the wall, closing with short weapons and killing more than ten men. The Goguryeo troops struck at him all together, and as he fell, before he reached the ground, there happened to be a rope hanging from the pole, and Guang caught it and climbed up again.

The emperor watched him and thought him valiant, and at once gave him the office of grand master of the court audience.

As the fortress of Liaodong went long without falling, the emperor had more than a million cloth sacks made and filled full with earth, meaning to pile up a great fish-weir road thirty paces wide and level with the wall, so that the fighting men might climb it and attack. He also made eight-wheeled tower carts, higher than the wall, to stand on either side of the fish-weir road and shoot down into the fortress. The day was set and the attack was to come, and inside the fortress all was peril and dismay.

Just then the letter came saying that Yang Xuangan had rebelled, and the emperor was greatly afraid. He heard too that the sons and the younger brothers of the high officials were all in Xuangan's place, and he grew more anxious still. Husi Zheng, vice minister of war, had always been on good terms with Xuangan, and being uneasy within, he fled and came over.

By night the emperor secretly called the generals and had them lead the armies back. The army's stores and weapons and siege engines were piled like hills and mountains, and the camps and the ramparts and the tents stood as they were and were not moved; but the hearts of the many were in dread, there were no ranks left, and they scattered by many roads.

The Goguryeo troops knew of it at once, but they did not dare come out and only beat drums and shouted inside the fortress. Not until noon of the next day did they come out little by little, and even then they suspected that the Sui army was deceiving them. Two days passed, and then they sent out several thousand troops in pursuit; but they feared the number of the Sui army and did not dare press close, and they always kept eighty or ninety li behind. When they came near the Liao River and knew that the imperial camp had all crossed, they dared at last to press the rear guard. At that time the rear guard was still several ten thousand men, and the Goguryeo army followed them and plundered and struck, and killed and took several thousand men.

In the twenty-fifth year, in spring, the second month, the emperor by edict had all the officials discuss an attack on Goguryeo, but for several days no one dared to speak. By edict the troops of all under Heaven were called up again, to go forward together by a hundred roads.

In autumn, the seventh month, the imperial carriage halted at the garrison of Huaiyuan. By that time all under Heaven was already in disorder, and many of the troops that had been called up missed the day and did not come; and Goguryeo too was worn and weary.

Lai Huer came to the fortress of Bisaseong, and the Goguryeo troops met him in battle. Huer struck them and won, and was about to make for Pyeongyang. The king was afraid and sent an envoy to beg to surrender, and with him he sent Husi Zheng in chains. The emperor was greatly pleased, and he sent an envoy bearing the tally to call Huer back.

In the eighth month the emperor turned the army back from the garrison of Huaiyuan. In winter, the tenth month, the emperor returned to the Western Capital, and he announced the Goguryeo envoy and Husi Zheng at the great ancestral shrine. Then he summoned the king to come to court, but the king would not go in the end. He commanded his generals to make ready in earnest and to plan a further campaign, but it never came about.

In the twenty-ninth year, in autumn, the ninth month, the king died. He was called King Yeongyang (嬰陽王).