Goguryeo–Tang Wars

The Goguryeo-Tang Wars occurred in the 7th century between Korean Goguryeo and an allied Chinese Tang Dynasty and Silla. Exhausted from numerous attacks by China, Goguryeo finally succumbed to a two front attack by Tang and Silla. Silla eventually unified the Korean peninsula while the Manchurian areas of Goguryeo was divided between the Tang and Balhae, which considered itself as the successor to Goguryeo.

First War of 645

Although Goguryeo had repulsed the Sui Dynasty, attacks by the Tang Dynasty from the west exhausted the kingdom. King Yeongryu governed Goguryeo at this time. Under Tang Taizong, Sui's succeeding dynasty Tang Dynasty forged an alliance with Goguryeo's rival Silla after defeating Goguryeo's western ally, the Göktürks. In 642, Yeon Gaesomun killed King Yeongnyu and seized military control over the country.

Later in Tang Taizong reign, he also began campaigns against the Korean kingdom of Goguryeo, much to the opposition of many advisors. In 645, A war In the beginning. Taizong commanded an army of 100,000 Tang soldiers. ["New Book of Tang", vol. 220 [http://ef.cdpa.nsysu.edu.tw/ccw/02/ntan23.htm] .] Taizong's noted army enabled him to conquer a number of border city fortresses of Goguryeo (Yodong fortress 요동성, Gaemo fortress 개모성, Bisa fortress 비사성, Baegam fortress 백암성 fell). The Tang army in several cases defeated the Korean forces on open battlefields. Outside the Ansi Fort, Go Yeonsu and Go Hyezin had mobilized 150,000 troops, though it proved to be fruitless. After tatics by Taizong with Li Shiji commanding 15,000 men, Zhangsun Wuji with 11,000 coming from behind, and Taizong personally leading 4,000, the Korean generals were confused and defeated, the losses were 20,000 for the Koreans and 36,000 captured. This battle was won with 100,000 Tang troops in comparison to 150,000 Korean troops. The Tang army had won a significant victory over Goguryeo.

However, forts would be the one issue that the Tang Taizong couldn't solve, most particularly Ansi fortress itself. the remaining Goguryeo troops get in inside Ansi fortress. Ansi was under siege by the Tang army. However Tang was not able to conquer Ansi fortress. After a protracted siege, Taizong ordered the construction of a large siege ramp. However the siege ramp collapsed, at the same time commander Yang Manchun (It should be noted that Yang was the only commander to defeat Tang on the battlefield, as Yeon's earlier efforts to take the Ansi Fortress during the civil war that took place after Yeon's coup was unsuccessful.) mobilized the remaining Goguryeo troops to defeat the Tang army. In the end, the Tang army retreated with heavy losses (many of the 10,000-20,000 deaths on the Tang side resulted from this siege). Taizong was defeated by not being able to take Ansi.

The 20th century Korean historical work "Joseon Sangosa" claimed that Yeon Gaesomun also defeated the Tang army. According to the "Joseon Sangosa", as a result Goguryeo was able to repel the attack and Taizong, caught between Yang's forces in the front and Yeon's counter-attacking forces closing in behind him--as well as suffering from the harsh Manchurian winter was forced to flee back to China. With Yeon in close pursuit, Taizong's desperate, fleeing forces were decimated by Yeon, and Taizong himself barely escaped with his life. The account relayed in the "Joseon Sangosa", however, directly contradicted Chinese accounts of an orderly retreat with minimal losses and no pursuit by Goguryeo forces, described in the "Book of Tang" ["Book of Tang", vols. 3, 199 [http://ef.cdpa.nsysu.edu.tw/ccw/02/tan21.htm] .] , "New Book of Tang" ["New Book of Tang", vols. 2, 220 [http://ef.cdpa.nsysu.edu.tw/ccw/02/ntan23.htm] .] , and the "Zizhi Tongjian" ["Zizhi Tongjian", vols. 197, 198.] . The "Joseon Sangosa"'s account is also contradicted by the ancient Korean history of the Three Kingdoms period, the "Samguk Sagi"."Samguk Sagi", vol. 21 [http://147.46.181.118/IMAGE/SNUG0021.PDF] .]

econd and third War and Goguryo's fall

After Taizong's death in 649, the conquest of Goguryeo and the personal rivalry with Yeon became an obsession with Taizong's son Gaozong. He invaded Goguryeo numerous times but Yeon turned the Tang back every time--perhaps most notably during Yeon's celebrated annihilation of the Tang forces in 662 at the Sasu River (Korea) (蛇水) where the invading general Pang Xiaotai (龐孝泰) and all 13 of his sons were killed in the battle. As a result while Yeon Gaesomun was alive, Tang was not able to conquer the Goguryeo.

Goguryo's ally in the southwest, Baekje, fell to the Silla-Tang alliance in 661 the victorious allies continued their assault on Goguryeo for the next eight years. Meanwhile, in 666 (though dates vary from 664-666), Yeon Gaesomun died and civil war ensued among his three sons. One of his sons, Yeon Namsaeng fled to Tang and was a big part in the next invasion of Goguryeo by the Tang. diagonally opposite another son, Yeon Namgeon resist in the face of death.

Silla-Tang eventually vanquished the weary kingdom, which had been suffering from a series of famines and internal strife. Goguryeo finally fell in 668.

Silla thus unified most of the Korean peninsula in 668, but the kingdom's reliance on China's Tang Dynasty had its price. Silla had to forcibly resist the imposition of Chinese rule over the entire peninsula, which they did and eventually expelled the Tang. Silla'a unification of Korea was short lived for the former Goguryeo General Dae Joyeong led the remnants of Goguryeo, united with the Mohe and established Balhae, Known to Koreans as the successor of Goguryeo and retained much of its former territory. The Balhae Kingdom would become a buffer in trade and was a powerful empire that Tang could not bother. Their end would come from the Khitan tribe. This end was a decisive event in Northeast Asian history for it was the last Korean Kingdom to hold Manchurian territory.

ee also

*Battle of Baekgang

References