Meanwhile the other division had marched northward and eastward, according to the plan of the campaign. Eight of these army corps, numbering 300,000 men, arrived and went into camp on the west bank of the Yalu River. In spite of express orders to the contrary, the soldiers had thrown away most of the hundred days’ rations of grain with which they started, and the commissariat was very low. The Koraian commander, carrying out the Fabian policy, tempted them away from their camp, and led them by skirmishing parties to within a hundred miles of Ping-an. The Chinese fleet lay within a few leagues of the invading army, but land and sea forces were mutually ignorant of each other’s vicinity. Daring not to risk the siege of a city so well fortified by nature and art as Ping-an, in his present lack of supplies, the Chinese general reluctantly ordered a retreat, which began in late summer, the nearest base of supplies being Liao Tung, four hundred miles away and through an enemy’s country.
This was the signal for the Koraians to assume the offensive, and like the Cossacks, upon the army of Napoleon, in Russia, they hung upon the flanks of the hungry fugitives, slaughtering thousands upon thousands.
When the Chinese host were crossing the Chin-chion River, the Koraian army fell in full force upon them, and the fall of the commander of their rear-guard turned defeat into a rout. The disorderly band of fugitives rested not till well over and beyond the Yalu River. Of that splendid army of 300,000 men only a few thousand reached Liao Tung city. The weapons, spoil, and prisoners taken by the Koraians were “myriads of myriads of myriads.” The naval forces in the river, on hearing the amazing news of their comrades’ defeat, left Corea and crept back to China. The Chinese emperor was so enraged at the utter failure of his prodigious enterprise, that he had the fugitive officers publicly put to death as an example.
In spite of the disasters of the previous year, the emperor Yang, in 613, again sent an army to besiege Liao Tung city. On this occasion scaling ladders, 150 feet long, and towers, mounted on wheels, were used with great effect. Just on the eve of the completion of their greatest work and tower the Chinese camp was suddenly abandoned, the emperor being called home to put [[29]]down a formidable rebellion. So cautious were the besieged and so sudden was the flight of the besiegers, that it was noon before a Koraian ventured into camp, and two days elapsed before they discovered that the retreat was not feigned. Then the Koraian garrison attacked the Chinese rear-guard with severe loss.
The rebellion at home having been put down the emperor again cherished the plan of crushing Korai, but other and greater insurrections broke out that required his attention; for the three expeditions against Corea had wasted the empire even as they had sealed the doom of the Sui dynasty. Though no land forces could be spared, a new fleet was sent to Corea to lay siege to Ping-an city. Even with large portions of his dominions in the hands of rebels, Tang never gave up his plan of humbling Korai. This project was the cause of the most frightful distress in China, and seeing no hope of saving the country except by the murder of the infamous emperor, coward, drunkard, tyrant, and voluptuary, a band of conspirators, headed by Yü Min, put him to death and Korai had rest.
To summarize this chapter. It is possible that Ki Tsze was the founder of Fuyu. The Kokorai tribes were people who had migrated from Fuyu, and settled north and west of the upper waters of the Yalu River. They entered into relations with the Chinese as early as 9 A.D., and coming into collision with them by the year 70, they kept up a fitful warfare with them, sustaining mighty invasions, until the seventh century, while in the meantime Korai, instead of being crushed by China, grew in area and numbers until the nation had spread into the peninsula, and overrun it as far as the Han River.
Thus far the history of Corea has been that of the northern and western part of the peninsula, and has been derived chiefly from Chinese sources. We turn now to the southern and eastern portions, and in narrating their history we shall point out their relations with Japan as well as with China, relying largely for our information upon the Japanese annals. [[30]]