The Battle of Salsu: Salsu Daechup, Grandest defeat in asia's history Options

[hi-head]

I'm sure most of yall heard about the 4 failed Sui invasions of koguryo, particularly the infamous 2nd invasion where General Ulchi Mundok wiped out 302,300 chinese men in a single battle at Salsu and therefore crippled Sui's military capability and economy. Well i came across a book that had some details in it, and i just want to share it. Damn, they should make a movie out of this.

A little background leading up to the 2nd invasion: The northern Zhou dynasty fell as Yang Chien(a.ka. Wen ti) took over the throne, and renamed it Sui in 581 A.D. Sui also invaded the southern chinese dynasty of Chin in 589, destroyed it and unified China. This was the first unified chinese empire in 400 years. Yang Chien was an ambitious dude, and koguryo's diplomats warned koguryo's kings that Yang chien could possibly dream of an invasion, judging by his ambitious character. There was also a rule that whenever china unified, it was a threat to its neighbors, so all of china's neighbors were at high alert of their security, and paid tribute to Yang Chien.
Their predictions were on the spot as Yang turned his eyes to the north after the unification, and demanded tribute from the Turkish empire and Koguryo. The turks submitted to his pressure, but koguryo refused. Many times Yang sent spies and delegates to koguryo and demanded tribute, but koguryo ignored it. Soon, koguryo was the only nation bordering Sui that didnt pay tribute. Yang was furious, and prepared an invasion.

Upon notice that Yang was gathering 300,000 troops for koguryo, koguryo launced a preemptive strike across the Liao river with 10,000 magyar(manchu) troops in 598. Yang responded by launching the invasion, across the Liao and the Bohai bay. Upon receiving an insulting letter by the Sui, koguryo's king and generals decided that instead of responding with the pen, "they shall respond to such disgraceful treatment with the sword". The Liao division in the north failed because of the rainy season, which stopped their supplies from connecting. The seaborn army met Kang Ishik of Koguryo and lost most of their troops and ships. The Sui retreated, and Yang put his generals in jail out of anger. (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/embarassedlaugh.gif) 2

Koguryo offered a peace treaty, and Sui took it gladly. For a while there was peace. Paekche offered Sui help in invading koguryo (since paekche knew koguryo geography by heart, from the hundreds of years of war), but Sui refused to invade. This just resulted in koguryo attacking paekche (and Shila), a resumption of an ages-old hanbando front wars, and assaulted both countries' northern fortifications to insure they wouldn't attack in the case of another Sui invasion. Koguryo took 3000 prisoners from Paekche.

Meanwhile, the Sui royalty faced a major conflict between Yang and his son, Yangdi, resulting in the son killing his father and taking the throne (604). This meant the end of peace, because Yang junior was even more ambitious than his father. He constructed a canal between beijing and the sui capital, and reinforced the Turk's tributary status by visiting the turkish capital with his army, and forcing their king to visit Chang'an. He also demanded tribute from koguryo, the only "rogue" state, and demanded that koguryo's prince visit his palace on his birthday, but koguryo ignored his requests. Yangdi decided to launch an invasion that koguryo couldn't possibly stop, to do what his father failed to do.

Koguryo prepared for the worst by invading shilla and paekche to deter a possible two-front war, and took their northern fortifications, weakening both's military.

In the April of 611, Yangdi gathered troops from all over China and prepared for a 2nd invasion, organizing at Beijing. The total number of troops for the koguryo invasion was 1,133,800 men. He began the invasion in January of 612. The following excerpt from Sui archives (隨書) describes the greatest presentation of force in chinese history:

- The army was organized into the Left Army and the Right Army, each with 12 divisions, total divisions being 24. In each division there was a senior commander and secondary commander. The troops were organized into Da and Dan, Da being 100 men and Dan being 10 Da. Each Dan had different colors in their helmet straps and flags of their own. A division contained 40 Da of cavalry and 80 Da of footsoldiers(spearmen), which was divided into 4 Dan with a captain each.
They started marching division after division, leaving 40 li (20 km) distance between each. Trumpets and drums were played between every division. The army's flags from one end to the other stretched 960 li (480 km). The emperor himself with 6 divisions followed behind, which itself stretched 80 li (40km).
It took 40 days for the entire army to start marching. This was the greatest military show one has ever seen. -

The left army, which included the emperor's army, went to koguryo via the northern route, crossing the liao into koguryo territory in manchuria. The Right army crossed the ocean via the Shandong penninsula, attempting to reach koguryo's capital directly by climbing the river.

Yangdi's left army penetrated koguryo's defenses on the other side of the Liao river, and koguryo's troops retreated into the Yodong(Liaotong) fortress. For months the chinese couldn't capture the grand fortress, which had very high walls. Summer came and Yang vent his frustration on his generals, and diverted his troops to attack another fortress instead, the Yukhap fortress, but it couldnt be captured either.

Meanwhile the Right Army finished its shipbuilding and set sail. It's captain Lai hao wo commanded the ships, and they arrived at koguryo's shores and Lai started up the river towards the capital with half the armada. They were only 60 li from the capital when koguryo troops started to harass them. The koguryo troops feigned defeat and retreat, and Lai chased after the bait. By the time he realized that his armada was tricked into entering too deep into enemy territory, his armada was surrounded. The surrounding troops attacked at once, and the panicked Lai ordered frantic retreat. However koguryo troops were hiding all along the river in places the ships were expected to retreat to, all the way down to the ocean, and Lai's armada was thoroughly demolished. Lai himself survived and returned to the rest of the troops anchored at the sea.

While the right army lost half of its forces, the left army was making little progress and incurring heavy costs in manchuria. The lead army lead by the two Wu generals decided to go around the koguryo defense and headed towards the capital. Their army consisted of Sui's 305,000 finest troops.
General Ulchi Mundok, upon the koguryo king's order, walked into the enemy camp alone and met the two Wu generals. This highly daring tact was made despite the fact that Yangdi ordered all of his generals to kill koguryo's king or Ulchi Mundok on sight. This type of daring individual risk and sacrifice was common among the three korean kingdoms who warred with each other. Ulchi Mundok's bravery surprised the Sui generals, who were confused as what to do when Ulchi Mundok offered a surrender. Mundok requested their army to retreat, in promise that koguryo's king would follow them to the palace to establish tributary relations. The Wu generals let him go, and soon after Mundok left their camp, they regretted it. The Sui army pursued Mundok.

This was all calculated and expected by Mundok, who lured the sui army deep into koguryo territory. Although one of the generals insisted that they wait for the supply line, the other insisted on taking koguryo's capital by the end of the day. A favorite of Yangdi, he wanted to please Yangdi so badly that he wanted to be able to send a victory notice that night. Of course, Ulchi mundok knew Wu very well enough to predict this behavior. As Sun Tsu says in the ARt of War, "know thyself and thy enemy and you will win a hundred battles". Yangdi failed to understand the koreans' resolve, believing in overwhelming numerical superiority alone, which was why the 1 million-man army wasn't very effective against an enemy that knew them so well.

As the Sui army advanced deep into koguryo territory, still in pursuit of Mundok, it faced 7 battles with small dispatches of koguryo troops, all of which the Sui won. All of which, under Mundok's plan, was feigned defeat and retreat. This the Wu generals did not realize, and with their troops' morale high but stamina/supplies dropping, they set camp 30 li outside of the capital, by the Salsu river.

Ulchi Mundok sent a now-famous letter to General Wu, which said the following:

Your brilliant strategies have ascended over the heavens,
and your tactics have shaken the earth,
you have won the battles and accomplished high standards,
so why not be satisfied and go back home

The Sui generals realized that their supplies ran thin and their troops were tired, indeed too tired to capture the capital, and turned around. When the 305,000 men started crossing the Salsu river, Ulchi Mundok and his troops attacked from both sides of the river.

The result was a massacre of a truly grand scale. Nowhere to run, trapped, and scared, the Sui troops started to run for their lives in all directions, jumping into the water. Out of the 305,000 men of the Sui lead army, only 2700 went back home alive.

As news of Wu's defeat reached Yangdi and Lai(of the right army), Lai immediately set sail for china, and Yangdi retreated with general Wu locked up in chains. (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/embarassedlaugh.gif) 2
The second invasion thus ended in complete failure for the Sui, and it cost the new empire so much that it bankrupted it. Even so, the vain Yangdi attempted two more invasions, both of which he had to turn back because of widespread rebellion across the empire. He wanted to invade again, but his advisers all voted against it, and talked him out of it. Eventually the Sui collapsed, as rebels assassinated Yangdi and the empire split up, lasting only a decade after starting out with high expectations and hopes for a unified chinese hegemony.

Talk about wartime presidential popularity. Bring the troops home!! (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Also notable is the fact that Paekche was supposed to help Yangdi in the invasion of koguryo. However, as yangdi's million-man army poured into koguryo, with all bets on yangdi, paekche merely watched. Either it didnt feel the need to help yangdi, or more likely, it knew that koguryo's demise would also mean its own demise. Therefore as much as paekche and shilla hated koguryo, they tacitly knew that the entire korean penninsula and the korean people's destiny rested on her shoulders.

This post has been edited by hi-head: Jul 6 2005, 10:38 PM

[Mr. Tree]

um is it just me or does this sound like a load of crap//

please dont use a quote from Sun Tzu when you dont know what he was all about k. If your claiming the Koreans knew him better than the Chinese, you really are a joke.


o yea sources would be nice

This post has been edited by Mr. Tree: Jul 6 2005, 09:32 PM

[EvilAsianDude]

Ulchi Mundok is pure genius, oh yeah and whats even scarier is this

According to the History of the Sui Dynasty, 1,138,000 combat troops were mobilised. The support troops, responsible for logistics and transportation of resources, are believed to have dwarfed even that number. The total strength of the army is in dispute, with estimates ranging from 3 to more than 5 million.

305,000 Chinese troops wiped out, the entire Koguryo army probally wasnt even above 100,000. And the number of troops Ulchi had at the battle of salsu was less than 40,000 I believe. Amazing how he won, numerical superiority loses to brains.

[hi-head]

The entire koguryo population at its peak was 3.5 million. Basically the invasion could have been observable from space lol, with an equivalent number of people moving into a land occupied by the same number. Koguryo in its history was able to muster up to 100,000 troops at most, most of the time just 50,000.

And mr.tree, i've never seen an idiot as dumb as you are. I request that you never respond to my posts anymore cuz i wont even argue with you. Now you even call famous accounts in history as bull$hit. This info comes directly from chinese sources as i stated, and is undisputed, even by your retarded country's academia. Didn't you even learn history? Have you even heard of the Sui dynasty and why it collapsed? Everything is bull$hit to you? Is it because you were born in a pile of bull$hit? Judging from your stupidity, your mom could be retarded enough to give birth on a cowfield.

[CTM2000]

Hmm interesting stuff indeed you guys ever read the book titled "Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History" by Bruce Cummings? He did a little piece on this famous story and regarding General Ulchi Mundok, he quoted:

"There is much merit to the argument; had Koguryo not beaten them (foreign invaders) back, all the states of the peninsula might have fallen under long-term Chinese domination and ultimate absorption. Thus commander like Ulchi Mundok became models for emulation thereafter, especially during the Korean War."

P.S. don't be surprised if bitter Chinese (looks like I was already too late) are going to come here and whiny incessantly.

[hi-head]

well, at chinese-forums.com the chinese formers there are fantasizing about what could have happened if koguryo couldnt repulse Sui, LOL.

I dont think the whole of korea would have been dominated however, especially since the tang failed at that only a few decades later.

[EvilAsianDude]

Its also in the book Graff, David A., Medieval Chinese Warfare

Arthur F Wright, The Sui Dynasty

and a bunch of other books you can probally find in your library or at amozan.com

I dont think this issue will be found in Chinese books though. Either that or they will only briefly comment on the issue and go somewhere else, despite the fact that over a million Chinese lost their lives during the wars. By todays numbers it would have been the equivalent of im estimating over 20 million chinese dieing today. Hardly an issue that should be skimmed or ignored in Chinese history.

This post has been edited by EvilAsianDude: Jul 6 2005, 09:50 PM

[hi-head]

the book that i referred to for the above post is korean, so i had to translate an entire chapter! hard work for me, any props?

i did thoroughly enjoy writing that story.

btw visit this link, people are talkin about the salsu massacre there

http://www.chinese-forums.com/archive/index.php/t-2328.html

This post has been edited by hi-head: Jul 6 2005, 09:46 PM

[Mr. Tree]

The entire koguryo population at its peak was 3.5 million. Basically the invasion could have been observable from space lol, with an equivalent number of people moving into a land occupied by the same number. Koguryo in its history was able to muster up to 100,000 troops at most, most of the time just 50,000.

And mr.tree, i've never seen an idiot as dumb as you are. I request that you never respond to my posts anymore cuz i wont even argue with you. Now you even call famous accounts in history as bull$hit. [/B] and is undisputed, even by your retarded country's academia. Didn't you even learn history? Have you even heard of the Sui dynasty and why it collapsed? Everything is bull$hit to you? Is it because you were born in a pile of bull$hit? Judging from your stupidity, your mom could be retarded enough to give birth on a cowfield.

your already sprouting out bs, i might not be some academic jack off but at least im not a bs artist. *pointing to you* yea and where did you state that it came from Chinese sources? moron, you just said that after you posted what an idiot

[hi-head]

what a retard, can you fu-kin read? Didn't i state Sui-she as source right before the excerpt on the details of Yangdi's army?

go back to your retarded mom's womb, and reborn in the right place now. This time tell your fu-kin mom not to give birth on a cowfield.

This post has been edited by hi-head: Jul 6 2005, 09:49 PM

[Mr. Tree]

the book that i referred to for the above post is korean, so i had to translate an entire chapter! hard work for me, any props?

i did thoroughly enjoy writing that story.

btw visit this link, people are talkin about the salsu massacre there

http://www.chinese-forums.com/archive/index.php/t-2328.html

then thats disputable, unless it was translated my a REAL Academic which you clearly are not (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/Talktohand.gif)

[hi-head]

the book that i referred to for the above post is korean, so i had to translate an entire chapter! hard work for me, any props?

i did thoroughly enjoy writing that story.

btw visit this link, people are talkin about the salsu massacre there

http://www.chinese-forums.com/archive/index.php/t-2328.html

then thats disputable, unless it was translated my a REAL Academic which you clearly are not (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/Talktohand.gif)

haha what a fu-kin imbecile, you're genetically deformed. I believe i'm a fairly good translator, i really like how i converted that poem which was written in chinese.

[Mr. Tree]

what a retard, can you fu-kin read? Didn't i state Sui-she as source right before the excerpt on the details of Yangdi's army?

go back to your retarded mom's womb, and reborn in the right place now. This time tell your fu-kin mom not to give birth on a cowfield.

Well i came across a book that had some details in it, and i just want to share it. Damn, they should make a movie out of this.

how is that a source fu-k wit, all you said so far is details about the battle, in what part did you say 'Sui-she' as a source. um yea, i looked in a book and it says this and that .. yea right

if that wasnt dumb enough, your using a forum as a source; how stupid can you be, its like trying to beleive half the $hit they post on stormfont, idiot. the people on that site arnt even Academics and are using recycled info from a number of other sites, there is not ONE reference to a book.... you suck

This post has been edited by Mr. Tree: Jul 6 2005, 09:59 PM

[EvilAsianDude]

^
Mr. Tree most of what hes saying is true, and can be found in books. The books I listed give out the exact details about Sui dynasty numbers and lossesss as well as the tactics used. Mind you these books come from professional academics who happen to be neither Korean nor Chinese. The stuff they write is simply true and has the evidence to back them.

[chynagongju]

Mr. Tree and Hi-head both warned for personal attacks and flaming [<--more hi-head for the "retarded country academics" remark]

keep it clean. discuss the topic at hand without attacking the poster please. thank you!

[hi-head]

wow now is that fu-kin bias. you give me more warning for attacking YOUR country?

you shouldnt be mod.

loot at this situation, dont you fu-kin understand how pissed off i am? Mr.Tree is a fu-kin moron, and he disses korea all the time, without any, ANY knowledge whatsoever. Never seen a chinese so ignorant. This kid is no contribution to this forum

[chynagongju]

wow now is that fu-kin bias. you give me more warning for attacking YOUR country?

you shouldnt be mod.

loot at this situation, dont you fu-kin understand how pissed off i am? Mr.Tree is a fu-kin moron, and he disses korea all the time, without any, ANY knowledge whatsoever. Never seen a chinese so ignorant. This kid is no contribution to this forum

wow. did you or did you not attack Mr. Tree personally? Did you or did you not attack the whole nation of China for having "retarded academics?" Regardless of WHAT country it was, it would have warranted a warning. Chill out.

So get mad at him, PM him with all the expletives, bashing his mom whatever you want. Don't do it on the forum and DO NOT take it out on me. I don't deserve your crap.

EDIT: Oh yeah, btw you both got ONE warning regardless of what I said it was for. How about CHECKING your warning stuff BEFORE reporting me as a bias mod to the other mods? (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/icon_rolleyes.gif)

This post has been edited by chynagongju: Jul 6 2005, 10:26 PM

[hi-head]

well i still think my flaming was totally called for.

god, i couldnt imagine that a thread as harmless and objective/unbiased as this could go to $hit by the chinese. I guess i overestimated you people.

let's get back on topic

[k0r34n jjashik]

I'm sure most of yall heard about the 4 failed Sui invasions of koguryo, particularly the infamous 2nd invasion where General Ulchi Mundok wiped out 302,300 chinese men in a single battle at Salsu and therefore crippled Sui's military capability and economy. Well i came across a book that had some details in it, and i just want to share it. Damn, they should make a movie out of this.

A little background leading up to the 2nd invasion: The northern Zhou dynasty fell as Yang Chien(a.ka. Wen ti) took over the throne, and renamed it Sui in 581 A.D. Sui also invaded the southern chinese dynasty of Chin in 589, destroyed it and unified China. This was the first unified chinese empire in 400 years. Yang Chien was an ambitious dude, and koguryo's diplomats warned koguryo's kings that Yang chien could possibly dream of an invasion, judging by his ambitious character. There was also a rule that whenever china unified, it was a threat to its neighbors, so all of china's neighbors were at high alert of their security, and paid tribute to Yang Chien.
Their predictions were on the spot as Yang turned his eyes to the north after the unification, and demanded tribute from the Turkish empire and Koguryo. The turks submitted to his pressure, but koguryo refused. Many times Yang sent spies and delegates to koguryo and demanded tribute, but koguryo ignored it. Soon, koguryo was the only nation bordering Sui that didnt pay tribute. Yang was furious, and prepared an invasion.

Upon notice that Yang was gathering 300,000 troops for koguryo, koguryo launced a preemptive strike across the Liao river with 10,000 magyar(manchu) troops in 598. Yang responded by launching the invasion, across the Liao and the Bohai bay. Upon receiving an insulting letter by the Sui, koguryo's king and generals decided that instead of responding with the pen, "they shall respond to such disgraceful treatment with the sword". The Liao division in the north failed because of the rainy season, which stopped their supplies from connecting. The seaborn army met Kang Ishik of Koguryo and lost most of their troops and ships. The Sui retreated, and Yang put his generals in jail out of anger. (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/embarassedlaugh.gif) 2

Koguryo offered a peace treaty, and Sui took it gladly. For a while there was peace. Paekche offered Sui help in invading koguryo (since paekche knew koguryo geography by heart, from the hundreds of years of war), but Sui refused to invade. This just resulted in koguryo attacking paekche (and Shila), a resumption of an ages-old hanbando front wars, and assaulted both countries' northern fortifications to insure they wouldn't attack in the case of another Sui invasion. Koguryo took 3000 prisoners from Paekche.

Meanwhile, the Sui royalty faced a major conflict between Yang and his son, Yangdi, resulting in the son killing his father and taking the throne (604). This meant the end of peace, because Yang junior was even more ambitious than his father. He constructed a canal between beijing and  the sui capital, and reinforced the Turk's tributary status by visiting the turkish capital with his army, and forcing their king to visit Chang'an. He also demanded tribute from koguryo, the only "rogue" state, and demanded that koguryo's prince visit his palace on his birthday, but koguryo ignored his requests. Yangdi decided to launch an invasion that koguryo couldn't possibly stop, to do what his father failed to do.

Koguryo prepared for the worst by invading shilla and paekche to deter a possible two-front war, and took their northern fortifications, weakening both's military.

In the April of 611, Yangdi gathered troops from all over China and prepared for a 2nd invasion, organizing at Beijing. The total number of troops for the koguryo invasion was 1,133,800 men. He began the invasion in January of 612. The following excerpt from Sui archives (隨書) describes the greatest presentation of force in chinese history:

- The army was organized into the Left Army and the Right Army, each with 12 divisions, total divisions being 24. In each division there was a senior commander and secondary commander. The troops were organized into Da and Dan, Da being 100 men and Dan being 10 Da. Each Dan had different colors in their helmet straps and flags of their own. A division contained 40 Da of cavalry and 80 Da of footsoldiers(spearmen), which was divided into 4 Dan with a captain each.
They started marching division after division, leaving 40 li (20 km) distance between each. Trumpets and drums were played between every division. The army's flags from one end to the other stretched 960 li (480 km). The emperor himself with 6 divisions followed behind, which itself stretched 80 li (40km).
It took 40 days for the entire army to start marching. This was the greatest military show one has ever seen. -

The left army, which included the emperor's army, went to koguryo via the northern route, crossing the liao into koguryo territory in manchuria. The Right army crossed the ocean via the Shandong penninsula, attempting to reach koguryo's capital directly by climbing the river.

Yangdi's left army penetrated koguryo's defenses on the other side of the Liao river, and koguryo's troops retreated into the Yodong(Liaotong) fortress. For months the chinese couldn't capture the grand fortress, which had very high walls. Summer came and Yang vent his frustration on his generals, and diverted his troops to attack another fortress instead, the Yukhap fortress, but it couldnt be captured either.

Meanwhile the Right Army finished its shipbuilding and set sail. It's captain Lai hao wo commanded the ships, and they arrived at koguryo's shores and Lai started up the river towards the capital with half the armada. They were only 60 li from the capital when koguryo troops started to harass them. The koguryo troops feigned defeat and retreat, and Lai chased after the bait. By the time he realized that his armada was tricked into entering too deep into enemy territory, his armada was surrounded. The surrounding troops attacked at once, and the panicked Lai ordered frantic retreat. However koguryo troops were hiding all along the river in places the ships were expected to retreat to, all the way down to the ocean, and Lai's armada was thoroughly demolished. Lai himself survived and returned to the rest of the troops anchored at the sea.

While the right army lost half of its forces, the left army was making little progress and incurring heavy costs in manchuria. The lead army lead by the two Wu generals decided to go around the koguryo defense and headed towards the capital. Their army consisted of Sui's 305,000 finest troops.
General Ulchi Mundok, upon the koguryo king's order, walked into the enemy camp alone and met the two Wu generals. This highly daring tact was made despite the fact that Yangdi ordered all of his generals to kill koguryo's king or Ulchi Mundok on sight. This type of daring individual risk and sacrifice was common among the three korean kingdoms who warred with each other. Ulchi Mundok's bravery surprised the Sui generals, who were confused as what to do when Ulchi Mundok offered a surrender. Mundok requested their army to retreat, in promise that koguryo's king would follow them to the palace to establish tributary relations. The Wu generals let him go, and soon after Mundok left their camp, they regretted it. The Sui army pursued Mundok.

This was all calculated and expected by Mundok, who lured the sui army deep into koguryo territory. Although one of the generals insisted that they wait for the supply line, the other insisted on taking koguryo's capital by the end of the day. A favorite of Yangdi, he wanted to please Yangdi so badly that he wanted to be able to send a victory notice that night. Of course, Ulchi mundok knew Wu very well enough to predict this behavior. As Sun Tsu says in the ARt of War, "know thyself and thy enemy and you will win a hundred battles". Yangdi failed to understand the koreans' resolve, believing in overwhelming numerical superiority alone, which was why the 1 million-man army wasn't very effective against an enemy that knew them so well.

As the Sui army advanced deep into koguryo territory, still in pursuit of Mundok, it faced 7 battles with small dispatches of koguryo troops, all of which the Sui won. All of which, under Mundok's plan, was feigned defeat and retreat. This the Wu generals did not realize, and with their troops' morale high but stamina/supplies dropping, they set camp 30 li outside of the capital, by the Salsu river.

Ulchi Mundok sent a now-famous letter to General Wu, which said the following:

Your brilliant strategies have ascended over the heavens,
and your tactics have shaken the earth,
you have won the battles and accomplished high standards,
so why not be satisfied and go back home

The Sui generals realized that their supplies ran thin and their troops were tired, indeed too tired to capture the capital, and turned around. When the 305,000 men started crossing the Salsu river, Ulchi Mundok and his troops attacked from both sides of the river.

The result was a massacre of a truly grand scale. Nowhere to run, trapped, and scared, the Sui troops started to run for their lives in all directions, jumping into the water. Out of the 305,000 men of the Sui lead army, only 2700 went back home alive.

As news of Wu's defeat reached Yangdi and Lai(of the right army), Lai immediately set sail for china, and Yangdi retreated with general Wu locked up in chains. (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/embarassedlaugh.gif) 2
The second invasion thus ended in complete failure for the Sui, and it cost the new empire so much that it bankrupted it. Even so, the vain Yangdi attempted two more invasions, both of which he had to turn back because of widespread rebellion across the empire. He wanted to invade again, but his advisers all voted against it, and talked him out of it. Eventually the Sui collapsed, as rebels assassinated Yangdi and the empire split up, lasting only a decade after starting out with high expectations and hopes for a unified chinese hegemony.

Talk about wartime presidential popularity. Bring the troops home!! (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Also notable is the fact that Paekche was supposed to help Yangdi in the invasion of koguryo. However, as yangdi's million-man army poured into koguryo, with all bets on yangdi, paekche merely watched. Either it didnt feel the need to help yangdi, or more likely, it knew that koguryo's demise would also mean its own demise. Therefore as much as paekche and shilla hated koguryo, they tacitly knew that the entire korean penninsula and the korean people's destiny rested on her shoulders.

nice post.. and yeah you did state sources.

[sirgika]

well i still think my flaming was totally called for.

god, i couldnt imagine that a thread as harmless and objective/unbiased as this could go to $hit by the chinese. I guess i overestimated you people.

let's get back on topic

Dude, you need to chill out and gain some common sense.

Yes, you've overestimated all of the Chinese "people". I guess we are nothing but inanimate objects towards you. (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/sure.gif)