The Sui made three expeditions to Goguryeo, but all of them ended in failure, and even led to civil strife, which eventually led to its demise. When the Tang Dynasty was first established, its main focus was on dealing with the Turks. After defeating the Eastern Turks and Tuyuhun and recovering the empire from the devastation of the civil war, Tang Taizong could not accept the heavy setback suffered by the Tang army in the northeast, so he began to consider conquering Goguryeo.
This article is excerpted from Medieval Wars: 300-900, with slight consolidation and modifications.The motive of Tang Taizong's expedition to GoguryeoIn 641, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty began to consider conquering Goguryeo. The reason given by Tang Taizong was that the territory of Goguryeo was once an integral part of the Han Empire. As historian Howard Wechsler has argued, Tang Taizong's motives for his conquest of Goguryeo may have been much more complex:or have ambitions to go far to Emperor Yang of Sui; There may be practical concerns that Goguryeo will not be able to sit idly by and watch Goguryeo rule the Korean Peninsula, thus posing a threat to Northeast China; It may even be that the aging emperor wanted to escape the chaos of the court by regaining his life on the horse and reliving the glory of his youth。The following year, the Goguryeo magnate Yuan Gai Suwen killed the king and set up another clan as a puppet. Tang Taizong had a legitimate excuse to send troops to conquer.
Author: David Graff.
Publisher: Chongqing Publishing House.
Producer: Huazhang Homo.
Book series: Huazhang History.
Translator: Liu Xiaohu.
Publication year: 2023-11
Preparations before the Crusades
In 644, preparations for a major military campaign began. The Tang Dynasty built a vast naval division of 500 ships along the southeast coast and the Yangtze River, which could transport 40,000 conscripted soldiers and 3,000 recruits (elites from Chang'an and Luoyang) from the Shandong Peninsula to the Korean Peninsula. At the same time, 60,000 Tang troops and nomadic auxiliary troops of unknown strength were assembled in Youzhou on the northeastern border. Li Shichang led this army and marched to the Liao River by land.
Tang Taizong personally led nearly 10,000 heavy armored cavalry to strengthen the main force of Li Shichang all the way. The scale of these forces was relatively small, and it can be seen from historical sources that there were only 113,000 men by land and sea. This shows that the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty had learned from the mistakes of Emperor Yang of SuiUnwilling to allow more troops to be dispatched than they could afford to carry food supplies, leading to disaster。However, the road ahead is no easier than it was thirty years ago. Not only did the Tang army face obstacles that prevented the Sui army from reaching full force in the first place, but also the weather, weather, and terrain, but the man-made fortifications east of the Liao River were stronger than before. Because Goguryeo spent nearly ten years along the front line of Buyeo City (now Siping) to the Liaodong Peninsula for hundreds of kilometers, and built a new fortified fortress belt.
A big victory was followed by a crushing defeat
In April 645, Li Shichang led his army from the forward base of Yingcheng (present-day Chaoyang). On May 1, Li Shiqian led a large army to cross the Liao River. This move was farther north than the enemy had expected, and it took the opponent by surprise. Li Shichang's first target was Gaimu City, and he began to attack the city on May 16, and it fell eleven days later, and he received more than 20,000 mouths and more than 100,000 stone (6 million liters) of grain. Then Li Shiqian turned to the southwest and waved his army to Liaodong City.
In 612 and 613, this fortified city had stopped Emperor Yang of Sui. On June 7, Li Shichang defeated 40,000 Goguryeo reinforcements. A few days later, Tang Taizong led the cavalry of the forbidden army to join Li Shichang. Like Gaimu City, the Tang army unexpectedly took Liaodong City lightly. On June 16, the besieging Tang army set fire to the wind and spread to the whole city, opening the passage for a smooth landing of the city. Subsequently, the Tang army advanced to Baiyan City, not far east of Liaodong City, and on June 27, the troops approached the city. The defender will surrender the city. Tang Taizong refused to sack the city and plunder the people.
The generals under Taizong's command were unhappy and believed that this move violated military practice. Tang Taizong promised to pay out of his own pocket to reward meritorious soldiers. On July 18, Tang Taizong went south and arrived at Anshi, an important town. The next day, Tang Taizong learned that the combined forces of Goguryeo and Jin Ya had come to the aid of Anshi with heavy troops. He ordered Yi Shichang to lead 15,000 men to act as bait to lure the Goguryeo army into the bait, and at the same time hide with a considerable number of troops in a position where the enemy's rear road could be copied. On July 20, a major battle broke out between the two sides, and Tang Taizong broke the enemy army. The remnants of the Goguryeo army retreated to a nearby hilltop and were surrounded by the Tang Legion. The next day, 36,800 Goguryeo people surrendered to Tang Taizong. The Tang army also captured 50,000 horses, 50,000 cattle and 10,000 iron armor. Of these captives, three thousand five hundred ** and chieftains were moved into China, and three thousand three hundred were put to death. The rest of the ordinary Goguryeo soldiers were all released, and Tang Taizong allowed them to return to their hometowns.
However, after this great victory, the Tang army began to encounter difficulties in the progress of the war. The tenaciousness of Anshi City was more tenacious than all the cities that Tang Taizong had attacked before. As time goes on, the season for combat is coming to an end. Tang Taizong considered several times whether it was possible to bypass the fortified fortress and find an easier target to break through, or to penetrate deep into Goguryeo. Each plan was rejected because the bypassed stronghold would threaten the rear of the Tang army, and even more so the grain route between the Tang army and the grain storage in Liaodong City. Tang Taizong seemed to have to pay the price for the relatively small size of his troops
Unlike Emperor Yang of Sui, Tang Taizong was unable to effectively deter these border towns while penetrating deep into enemy territory. At this critical juncture, the Tang army, which had conquered Goguryeo by sea, was also unable to help much. On June 1, the main army was to capture the city of Beisha on the Liaodong Peninsula and threaten several places along the coast, but the main general did not cooperate effectively with the land division and did not directly attack Pyongyang. The Tang army, which was besieging Anshi City, finally made a desperate gamble and built a huge earthen hill and condescended to the southeast corner of the city wall. The defenders suddenly attacked and captured the dirt mountain. The Tang army attacked for three days and failed to drive it away. On October 13, Tang Taizong decided to issue an edict. The class division was at the right time, and the officers and men of the Tang Army had been tortured by the cold weather, and the grain stocks in Liaodong City were basically exhausted. Historical sources do not mention the loss of troops of the Tang army. However, the Tang army dragged on until the end of the season suitable for combat and experienced severe ordeals. The Tang army had to fill the roads with bundles of firewood, and even sink the baggage vehicles into the water to pass through the muddy waters of the waterlogged Liaoze. At the end of October, a heavy snowstorm took the lives of a large number of officers and soldiers of the Tang Army.
After this fiasco, Tang Taizong temporarily adopted a new strategy: that is, to send generals to lead partial divisions to harass the Goguryeo border, with the aim of forcing the enemy to maintain a high level of defense and vigilance at all times, so as to weaken it. In the spring and summer of 647, this method was quite effective. At that time, 10,000 Tang troops took the sea route by boat and threatened the coast of Goguryeo. Li Shichang led his army to cross the Liao River. The following year, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty issued an order to prepare for another large-scale expedition to Goguryeo. However, Tang Taizong died suddenly in June 649, and preparations were interrupted.
Joining forces with Silla, they attacked Goguryeo from the north and south
This does not mark the end of the fighting. In the 50s of the 7th century, the Tang Empire and Goguryeo continued to be at loggerheads. In the winter of 654, the Khitan, who lived in the southern part of Northeast China and was attached to the Tang Dynasty at that time, was attacked by Goguryeo and the Jin Dynasty. In the spring of the following year, the Tang army crossed the Liao River and defeated the defenders near Xincheng. In 658 and 659, the Liaohe border made a comeback. In 660, however, the situation changed. The Tang Dynasty once again sent troops to the Korean Peninsula in the hope of delivering a decisive blow.
Silla's appeal to the Tang Dynasty for help prompted the dispatch of troops. Silla is located in the southeastern part of the Korean Peninsula and has just lost part of its border territory due to the invasion of Goguryeo and Baekje, the third country on the Korean Peninsula. The Tang army's offensive was first directed against Baekje, a weaker Goguryeo ally on the western shore of the Korean Peninsula. In 630, the Tang general Su Dingfang, who had led the vanguard of the Tang army into the camp of Jieli Khan, led his army across the Yellow Sea to Baekje in August 660. Su Dingfang defeated the Baekje army at the mouth of the Xiongjin River, traced the river to conquer the capital of Baekje (near present-day Gongju, Korea), and captured the Baekje royal family. The 37 counties, 200 cities, and 760,000 households of the Baekje Kingdom were divided into the Five Governor's Mansions and belonged to the Tang Empire.
Relics of the Goguryeo Dynasty Ji'an, Jilin.
Next, the Tang Dynasty's troops went straight to Goguryeo. Goguryeo is now embattled. The Tang Dynasty recruited more than 44,000 soldiers from 67 states in the North China Plain, transported these soldiers across the sea, and then placed them under the control of Su Dingfang, and went straight to the heart of Goguryeo. In July 661, Su Dingfang traveled up the Taedong River and laid siege to Pyongyang. At the same time, another line of Tang troops advanced by land from the Liao River. As a Tang Dynasty general and Tiele chieftain, he Li commanded the Tang army deep into the Yalu River and defeated the Goguryeo army in September. Su Dingfang besieged Pyongyang until the spring of 662. At that time, the Tang army was defeated all the way, forcing Su Dingfang to withdraw from the siege and take the division from the enemy territory.
On this side, Su Dingfang tried his best to subdue Goguryeo, and the Tang army that stayed in Baekje over there was also in trouble. The people of Baekje had not yet submitted to the rule of the Tang Dynasty. In the winter of 660-661, a large-scale uprising broke out against the occupation by the Tang army. The Tang Dynasty, who led his army to stay in Baekje, was besieged in the capital. His colleague Liu Renliang led a coalition of Tang Dynasty defenders and Silla troops to break through the barracks erected by Baekje Fu ** to hold the mouth of the Xiongjin River, so that Liu Renyuan was willing to get out of trouble. The Tang army held some of the cities, while Baekje Fu controlled many other towns, and the two sides faced off from the spring of 661 to the autumn of 663.
During this period, both sides have made great efforts to obtain foreign aid. Liu Renyuan received more troops from Silla and conscripted 7,000 troops from the coastal states of Shandong. The Baekje monarch sent an envoy to the island nation of Wa (as it was called Japan at the time) and asked for help. In the autumn of 663, the Tang and Silla armies launched a major attack on the main base of the Baekje monarchs, Joojuseong. The king of Silla personally conquered, and the main force of the army advanced by land. Liu Renliang led the Tang Dynasty naval army and grain ships into the mouth of the Xiongjin River. Liu Renliang encountered the Japanese naval army, fought several battles, and completely defeated the Japanese naval army. According to history, the Tang army sank more than 400 Japanese ships. By October 14, 663, Zhou Liucheng had fallen into the hands of the Tang army, and the Baekje Restoration Movement was apparently suppressed.
In 666, the Tang dynasty once again prepared to concentrate on the conquest of Goguryeo. At this point, the strategic situation is very different. Not only were the Tang (and Silla) armies able to threaten Goguryeo from both the north and south, but the powerful Yongai Su-moon also died in the early summer of that year. The sons of Yuangai Suwen immediately killed each other, thus creating an ideal environment for the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty to display
In the summer and autumn of 666, the Tang army began to attack the border of the Liao River. At the beginning of 667, the aged Li Shiyun was given the title of the chief of the Liaodong Provincial March, and then marched in a large manner. Li Shichang attacked the new city first. On 6 October, the demoralized defenders surrendered the city. After winning this battle, Li Shiqian waved his army to defeat sixteen cities in a row. The successive sieges of the city and the help of a faction within Goguryeo enabled Li Shiyun to support and garrison a large army on the east bank of the Liao River for the winter. This feat was absolutely unattainable during the previous conquest of Goguryeo. In the spring of 668, because of his prominent position in the southeastern part of Northeast China, he was able to advance into the heart of Goguryeo. In February, the Tang army conquered the important town of Fuyucheng, and many other towns surrendered without a fight. After more than a month of siege, the defenders opened their doors and surrendered the city, and Pyongyang fell to Yi Se-hyun on October 22. Goguryeo fell to the same fate as Baekje, and was also divided into several prefectures, and from then on belonged to the Tang Empire.
The reason for the success of the Tang Dynasty's conquest of Goguryeo in 668
Since 599, the Sui and Tang dynasties conquered Goguryeo and lost consecutive battles, and the reason why the Tang Dynasty was able to sing and play Kai in 668The main reason was the civil strife in Goguryeo after the death of Yongae Suwen。Not only was the Tang Dynasty able to find a large number of willing to cooperate within Goguryeo, but the defenders of the cities who had fought to the death in the past seemed to be generally demoralized.
Another important factor in the victory of the Tang Dynasty was that from the end of the 50s of the 7th century, the Tang army could not only exert pressure on Goguryeo from the sea and the Liaohe border (the traditional route of march), but also along the land border of southern Goguryeo on the Korean Peninsula. This was partly due to the Tang Dynasty's expansion of the scope of warfare, including the pacification of Baekje and, more importantly, an alliance with Silla. Prior to the conquest of Baekje, the Tang Dynasty had already cooperated militarily with the country, which was located in the southeastern part of the Korean Peninsula. Silla provided nearby grain bars and invested a large number of troops to make the Tang Dynasty's conquest of Baekje possible. Without the support of Silla, the Tang army that remained in the town would have been slaughtered in the Baekje Restoration Campaign in 661. The Silla army also exerted direct pressure on Goguryeo and played an important role in feeding the Tang army that besieged Pyongyang in 661–662.
How difficult it is to conquer, how quickly it is lost
However, in the long run, the goals of the Tang Dynasty and Silla were not aligned. As the events of the sixties of the seventh century demonstrate, the Tang dynasty aimed to turn the Korean Peninsula into an integral part of the Tang Empire – although it was clear that the Silla kings would be granted local autonomy, similar to other vassal chieftains who had been knighted by the Tang dynasty. Silla, on the other hand, had ambitions to unify the entire Korean Peninsula under his rule. In the end, Silla got his wish.
In 669, the newly pacified hometown of Goguryeo soon broke out in turmoil and uprisings. The Tang Dynasty's relocation of tens of thousands of Goguryeo people into China was nothing more than adding fuel to the fire. In the early 70s of the 7th century, the Tang general Gao Wei repeatedly defeated the Goguryeo rebels. The rebel leader simply hid in Silla, and after regrouping, he returned to fight the Tang army again.
At the end of 672, Silla directly sent troops into the war and openly supported the Goguryeo rebels. By the beginning of 674, Silla had conquered all of Baekje's former territory. In 674 and 675, Liu In-rail led the Tang army to conquer Silla. According to Chinese historical records, Yoo won a resounding victory, forcing the king of Silla to sue for peace. Ancient Korean historians recorded the defeat of the Tang army. In the early months of 676, the Tang dynasty moved several prefectures on the Korean Peninsula to the Liao River valley. This fact suggests that the version of the Korean historian may be closer to the truth of history. Silla had undisputed control over the entire Korean Peninsula. The Tang Dynasty did not send troops to recover it in a big way. How difficult it was to capture at the beginning, how quickly it is lost now. The Tang Dynasty's decision to withdraw troops from the Korean Peninsula must have been influenced by the serious threats that arose in other regions. In 670, the Tang army was defeated by the Tibetans on the banks of the Dafei River in present-day Qinghai Province. In 679, the Eastern Turks rebelled against Tang rule and regained their kingdom in the Mongolian steppe. These developments required the Tang Empire to take a defensive stance and begin to make major changes to the military system and imperial strategy.