Eulji Mundeok
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Eulji Mundeok was a noted Goguryeo military leader in the early 7th century. Often numbered among the greatest heroes in Korean military history, he defended Goguryeo against the Sui Chinese.
Eulji Mundeok was born in the mid-6th century and died in the early 7th century, sometime after 618 though the exact date is unknown. At the time of his birth Goguryeo had grown to a powerful and belligerent empire, constantly warring with its neighbours, Chinese states to its north and west, and its fellow Korean kingdoms Silla and Baekje to its southeast and southwest respectively. A balance of power was stubbornly maintained between these so-called Three Kingdoms of Korea and it took the interjection of an outside influence to finally tip the advantage to Silla. This deciding influence was supplied by the peninsula's much larger western neighbor, the Tang Dynasty. In 589 the Sui Dynasty had reunified China for the first time since the fall of the Han Dynasty over three centuries previous. The Sui was eager to reestablish the glory of the Middle Kingdom at the height of the Han Dynasty, and to this end early on launched several large military campaigns against what it viewed as a recalcitrant Goguryeo unwilling to submit to Sui dominance in the region. Such were the political currents that swirled around Eulji Mundeok as he came of age.
Eulji Mundeok (most Korean scholars posit that the Eulji 乙支 in his name is some form of Goguryeo rank or title) was an educated man, skilled in both the "mun" 文 political and the "mu" 武 military sciences, and he eventually rose to become Minister of Goguryeo. However, when the very existence of the Goguryeo state was threatened by alliances between its rival neighbors, it was Mundeok's military skills that were called upon.
The Battle of Salsu River
Since its founding in 589 the Sui Dynasty had enjoyed but a precarious peace with its neighbor to the northeast, Goguryeo. Sui suspicions of Goguryeo ambitions seemed confirmed in 597 when the Goguryeo king launched raids across the Liao River (the traditional border with China). A Sui invasion of 597 in an attempt to chastise Goguryeo met in failure as the army and naval force was scattered by a typhoon. Neverthless, the campaign of 597 was enough to win from Goguryeo, fearful of further Sui attempts at conquest, a token submission to Sui. In the early 7th century, however, the new Sui emperor Yangdi Emperor Yang of Sui learned of secret Goguryeo correspondence with the Eastern Turkish khanate. Yangdi took a hard stand and demanded the Goguryeo king come and submit personally to Sui or face an "imperial tour of his territories". When no such tribute mission was forthcoming Yangdi prepared for war. He mustered an army of over 1,138,000 troops and auxiliary of more than 2 million men and personally led them against Goguryeo in 612. They quickly overran Goguryeo's border defenses, camped on the banks of the Liao River and prepared to bridge it. Eulji Mundeok, commissioned as a Field Marshal, was called upon to assist in the defence of the nation, and prepared his troops to meet the superior Sui forces with a strategy of false retreat, deception and attack.
After the Sui forces crossed the Liao River, a small contingent was sent to attack the Goguryeo city of Liaodong, but Field Marshal Eulji sent his forces to meet them there and drove them out. As the rainy season progressed, the Sui forces tried other probing attacks, but these were not really of any significance, as they were mainly biding their time until the rainy season passed.
When the rains stopped, Yangdi Emperor Yang of Sui moved his forces to the banks of the Yalu River in northwestern Korea and prepared for a major assault. General Eulji visited the Chinese camp under the pretense of surrender in an attempt to discover any Sui weaknesses. Yang Di's generals, Yu Zhongwen 于仲文 and Yu Wenshu 宇文述, listened to Field Marshal Eulji and allowed him to leave the camp, but shortly after changed his mind and set out after him. But it was too late – the general had discovered what he needed to defeat the force. He had learned that the Sui forces were short of provisions and had overstretched their supply lines, and so he decided to pursue a strategy of gradual retreat, hoping to lure his enemy deeper and deeper into hostile territory. He drew the Sui on and fought a kind of guerrilla warfare, picking when and where he fought and allowed the Sui forces to feel as though victory was close at hand, while luring them deeper into his trap. A Sui advance force of over 305,000 men was sent to take the city of Pyongyang. Field Marshal Eulji continued to lure them closer and closer to the city, but led them to a strategic point where he could strike. His forces attacked from all sides, driving the Sui troops back in utter confusion. His troops pursued the retreating army, slaughtering them at will, so that it is recorded that only 2,700 troops successfully made it back to the main body of forces. This was the great battle of Salsu, and it has come to be known as one of the most glorious military triumphs in Korea's national history. Following this defeat, winter began to set in and the Sui forces, short on provisions, were forced to return home.
The Sui Dynasty was beginning to disintegrate and Yangdi decided that he urgently needed to expand his empire in order to regain power, but the two more desperate attacks on Goguryeo by Yang Di following spring met with similar disaster, and eventually internal rebellion in China forced the Sui to give up its desires on Goguryeo. By 618, the relatively short-lived Sui Dynasty was replaced by the Tang Dynasty. Field Marshal Eulji Mundeok's strategy and leadership had protected Goguryeo from the Chinese expansion to the Korean peninsula.
Probably the most distinguished military leader of the Goguryeo period and one of the most famous figures in ancient Korean history, Eulji's leadership and tactical acumen was the decisive factor in sparing Goguryeo the destruction and conquest of the Chinese Sui Dynasty. Facing forces of far superior numbers he not only turned them back but was able to pursue and destroy them with such vigor that they were neither able nor inclined to return. Such spectacular tactical success was sufficient to earn him a permanent place among Korea's most remembered. This being said, it was only in the early 20th century that Eulji Mundeok began to acquire the veneration he enjoys today among Koreans. This reassessment of Mundeok arguably began with the Korean nationalist historian Sin Ch'ae-ho 申采浩 (1880-1936), who published a biography of Mundeok in 1908 and held him out as an example of Korea's traditional nationalist spirit at a time when Korea was suffering under the yoke of Japanese colonization. Eulji Mundeok is still celebrated as a great Korean hero. One of the most preeminent Korean scholars of the 20th century, Lee Ki-baik, noted that Mundeok's efforts in styming the Sui attempt at conquest stand as one of the earliest examples of Korean attempts to fend of foreign domination. Today a main thoroughfare in downtown Seoul, Eulji-ro, is named after Eulji Mundeok. The second highest Military Decoration of South Korea, Field Marshal Lord Eulji's Order of Military Merit, is also named in his honour.
See also
Gabriel, Richard A. and Donald W. Boose, “The Korean Way of War: Salsu River.” Richard A. Gabriel and Donald W. Boose, The Great Battles of Antiquity: A Strategic and Tactical Guide to Great Battles that Shaped the Development of War. Westport, CN: Greenwood Press, 1994.