Читать книгу Atrocitology - Matthew White - Страница 27

GOGURYEO-SUI WARS

Death toll: 600,000¹

Rank: 67

Type: wars of conquest

Broad dividing line: Sui China vs. Goguryeo

Time frame: 598 and 612

Location: Korea

Who usually gets the most blame: China

AFTER A FEW CENTURIES OF DIVISION, CHINA WAS REUNITED UNDER THE Sui dynasty, but the northern Korean kingdom of Goguryeo decided to raid across the border one last time before the new rulers got organized. The Chinese emperor responsible for the reunification, Wendi,^a was furious and retaliated in 598 with a massive invasion designed to conquer Korea all the way down to the tip. He sent an army of 300,000 across the Liao River, Goguryeo’s Manchurian border, and down the Korean peninsula toward the capital at Pyongyang. The invasion went very badly. The Chinese apparently forgot that July and August are the rainy season in Manchuria. The roads were muddy and the fleet that accompanied the army was battered by storms. Whenever the Chinese ships docked, Goguryean troops attacked them, until finally the Goguryeo navy sailed out and smashed the Chinese armada. Meanwhile, Korean guerrillas harassed the Chinese army all the way in, and then all the way out, and the Chinese lost most of their men along the way.²

It took awhile for China to recover from the disaster, but Wendi’s son, Yangdi,^b his successor and probable assassin, tried again in 612. He recruited a million soldiers and many times that number of support personnel. He repaired and expanded the Grand Canal that connected the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers in order to bring men and supplies from south to north. He established massive stockpiles and gathered coastal transportation to shadow the army as it moved over land. As long as his army stayed within an easy wagon ride of the coast, the Chinese navy could keep the forces supplied.

The Chinese crossed the Liao River again with 305,000 troops, but when progress slowed, the fleet zipped ahead and landed a large force of marines to take Pyongyang castle. After scattering the defenders, the Chinese marines broke ranks to loot, which left them exposed to a Goguryeo ambush in which the marines were slaughtered and chased off. Only a couple of thousand made it safely back to the fleet.³

The Chinese army, meanwhile, pushed onward. For a time, the Goguryeo and Sui commanders played mind games, trying to lure one another into negotiations in order to spring a trap or gather intelligence. Finally, the Goguryean commander Eulji closed this phase by sending a rude poem to his Sui counterpart, and the campaign resumed. After pushing south, the Chinese began crossing the Salsu River. The Goguryeans, however, had secretly dammed the river above the crossing, and when the Sui army was halfway across the deceptively shallow water, the Goguryeans released the flood. Thousands of Chinese drowned, and the rest fled. Of the 305,000 Chinese soldiers who had invaded Korea, only 2,700 returned.⁴

The repeated defeats in Korea fatally weakened the Sui dynasty. It didn’t last much longer and would shortly be replaced by the Tang dynasty.