Читать книгу The History of Korea - Homer B. Hulbert - Страница 20

While Ko-gu-ryŭ was staggering under the terrible reverses inflicted by the Chinese, events of interest were taking place in the south. The kingdom of T‘am-na on the island of Quelpart had always been a dependency of Păk-je, but now found it necessary to transfer her allegiance to Sil-la. The king of T‘am-na at that time was To-dong Eum-yul.

The mischief-maker, Pok-sin, was again in the field. Now that he was relieved of pressure he came back to the charge and took Ung-jin from the Chinese. At the earnest request of the governor the Emperor sent Gen. Son In-sa with a small army to aid in putting down this dangerous malcontent. Pok-sin was obliged to retire to Chin-hyŭn where he fortified himself strongly. Success seems to have turned his head for he began to carry himself so proudly that his followers arose and put him to death and then sent a messenger to Ko-gu-ryŭ and to Japan asking aid against the Chinese. The latter responded by sending a considerable force to the shores of Păk-je to coöperate with this hardy band of men who were honestly fighting for the independence of their country.

In 663 the Emperor conferred upon the king of Sil-la the title of Tă-do-dok of Kye-rim.

It appears that when the Chinese retired from before P‘yŭng-yang and left the Sil-la forces in such a delicate position, some of the Chinese were allowed to remain there on the plea that if all were removed it would invite an outbreak of the Păk-je revolutionists. Now as the year 663 opened the Emperor reinforced them by a powerful army under Gen. Son In-sa. Sil-la also sent the flower of her army under command of twenty-eight generals to join the Chinese before P‘yŭng-yang. But the plan of operations was changed. It was decided to move southward and complete the subjugation of the troublesome Păk-je patriots and their Japanese allies. The combined Chinese and Sil-la armies marched toward Chu-ryu fortress where the revolutionists were supposed to be intrenched. On their way they met the Japanese disembarking, on the banks of the Pak River. They were put to flight and their boats were burned. The march was continued and the fortress was duly invested. It fell straightway and the pretender to the Sil-la throne was captured. This was followed by the surrender of all the revolutionists and their Japanese friends. The last fortress to fall was that of Im-jon, now Tă-heung, after a desperate struggle.

The war was now at an end. The dead were buried, a census was taken of the people in the Păk-je capital, aid was given to the poor, and the people were encouraged to return at their peaceful avocations. Expressions of satisfaction at what seemed to be the return of peace were heard on all sides.

Gen. Yu In-gwe, who had been left in charge of thethe Chinese troops before P‘yŭng-yang when the Emperor ordered the retreat, now sent word to the Chinese capital that as his soldiers had been in the peninsula two years without seeing home he feared they might mutiny. He received orders to return to China with his men but he decided to wait till the grain that his men had sown should ripen. The Emperor then appointed Pu-yŭ Yung the brother of the last king of Păk-je to the position of governor of all the territory formerly embraced in Păk-je. He received the title of Tă-do-dok of Ung-jin, and was urged by the Emperor to govern well. This was in 664.

Sil-la took advantage of the timely cessation of hostilities to send to the Chinese camp in Păk-je and have some of her men take lessons in music from the musicians there. They also took copies of the dishes, clothes and customs of the Chinese. All these were imitated by the king and his court. Buddhism received a sudden check in Sil-la at this time for the king took the surest way to crush it out, namely, by forbidding any one to give the monks either money oror rice.

In 665 Gen. Yu In-wŭn received orders from China to return to that country but before doing so he performed a significant act. He made the king of Sil-la and the new Tă-do-dok of Ung-jin take an oath in the blood of a white horse that they would fight no more. This was done at the fortress of Ch‘wi-ri San and the slaughtered animal was buried there under the oath altar. A written copy of the oath was placed in the ancestral temple of the kings of Sil-la. After Gen. Yu’s return to China he was followed by Gen. Yu In-gwe who took with him envoys from Sil-la, Păk-je, T‘am-na and Japan. To render the compact of peace more binding still the Emperor sacrificed to heaven in the presence of these envoys. It is said, however, that the new ruler in Păk-je stood in such fear of Sil-la that he fled back to China soon after this.

SILLA BOUNDARY STONE.

The last act in the tragedy of Ko-gu-ryŭ opens with the death of her iron chancellor, Hap So-mun. It was his genius that had kept the armies in the field; it was his faith in her ultimate victory that had kept the general courage up. When he was laid in his grave the only thing that Ko-gu-ryŭ had to fall back upon was the energy of despair. It was her misfortune that Hap So-mun left two sons each of whom possessed a full share of his father’s ferocity and impatience of restraint. Nam-săng, the elder, assumed his father’s position as Prime Minister, but while he was away in the country attending to some business, his brother, Nam-gŭn, seized his place. Nam-săng fled to the Yalu River and putting himself at the head of the Mal-gal and Kŭ-ran tribes went over with them to the Emperor’s side. Thus by Nam-gŭn’s treachery to his brother, Ko-gu-ryŭ was deprived of her one great ally, and gained an implacable enemy in Nam-săng. The Emperor made the latter Governor-general of Liao-tung and he began welding the wild tribes into an instrument for revenge. Then the Chinese forces appeared and together they went to the feast of death; and even as they were coming news reached them that the Ko-gu-ryŭ general, Yŭn Chŭn-t‘o, had surrendered to Sil-la and turned over to her twelve of Ko-gu-ryŭ’s border forts. It was not till the next year that the Chinese crossed the Liao and fell upon the Ko-gu-ryŭ outposts. The Chinese general had told his men that the strategic point was the fortress Sin-sŭng and that its capture meant the speedy capitulation of all the rest. Sin-sŭng was therefore besieged and the strugglestruggle began. The commandant was loyal and wished to defend it to the death but hishis men thought otherwise, and they bound him and surrendered. Then sixteen other forts speedily followed the example.

Gen. Ko-gan hastened forward and engaged the Ko-gu-ryŭ forces at Keum-san and won a decided victory, while at the same time Gen. Sŭl-In gwi was reducing the fortresses of Nam-so, Mok-jŭ and Ch‘ang-am, after which he was joined by the Mal-gal forces under the renegade Nam-săng. Another Chinese general, Wŭn Man-gyŭng, now sent a boastful letter to the Ko-gu-ryŭ capital saying “Look out now for the defenses of that precious Am-nok River of yours.” The answer came grimly back “We will do so.” And they did it so well that not a Chinese soldier set foot on the hither side during that year. The Emperor was enraged at this seeming incompetence and banished the boastful general to Yong-nam. A message had already been sent to Sil-la ordering her to throw her army into Ko-gu-ryŭ and for the Chinese generals Yu In-wŭn and Kim In-t‘ă to meet them before P‘yŭng-yang. These two generals were in Păk-je at the time.

In 668 everything beyond the Yalu had fallen into the hands of the Chinese; even Pu-yŭ Fortress of ancient fame had been taken by Gen. Sŭl In-gwi. The Emperor sent a messenger asking “Can you take Ko-gu-ryŭ?” The answer went back “Yes, we must take her. Prophecy says that after 700 years Ko-gu-ryŭ shall fall and that eighty shall cause her overthrow. The 700 years have passed and now Gen. Yi Jök is eighty years old. He shall be the one to fulfill the prophecy.”

Terrible omens had been seen in the Ko-gu-ryŭ capital. Earthquakes had been felt; foxes had been seen running through the streets; the people were in a state of panic. The end of Ko-gu-ryŭ was manifestly near. So tradition says.

Nam-gŭn had sent 50,000 troops to succor Pu-yŭ Fortress but in the battle which ensued 30,000 of these were killed and the remainder were scattered. Conformably to China’s demands, Sil-la in the sixth moon threw her army into Ko-gu-ryŭ. The great Sil-la general, Kim Yu-sin was ill, and so Gen. Kim In-mun was in command with twenty-eight generals under him. While this army was making its way northward the Chinese under Gen. Yi Jök in the north took Tă-hăng Fortress and focussed all the troops in his command upon the defenses of the Yalu. These defenses were broken through, the river was crossed and the Chinese advanced 210 li toward the capital without opposition. One by one the Ko-gu-ryŭ forts surrendered and at last Gen. Kye-p‘il Ha-ryŭk arrived before the historic city of P‘yŭng-yang. Gen. Yi Jök arrived next and finally Gen. Kim In-mun appeared at the head of the Sil-la army.

After an uninteresting siege of a month the king sent out Gen. Chön Nam-san and ninety other nobles with a flag of truce and offered to surrender. But the chancellor Nam-gŭn knew what fate was in store for him, so he made a bold dash at the besieging army. The attempt failed and the miserable man put the sword to his own throat and expired. The aged general, Yi Jök, took the king and his two sons, Pong-nam, and Tong-nam, a number of the officials, many of Nam-gŭn’s relatives and a large company of the people of P‘yŭng-yang and carried them back to China, where he was received with evidences of the utmost favor by the Emperor. The whole number of captives in the triumphal return of Gen. Yi Jök is said to have been 20,000.

Ko-gu-ryŭ’s lease of life had been 705 years, from 37 B.C. to 668 A.D., during which time she had been governed by twenty-eighty kings.