The Eighteen-Year-Old King
Wind, campfire and river sounds change with every scene, and the music follows the story.
Baekje’s King Geunchogo drove back the Goguryeo army at Chiyang in 369 and in 371 attacked Pyongyang Fortress, striking down Goguryeo’s King Gogugwon, and the Seven-Branched Sword, a sword with seven branches, crossed the sea to Wa. Meanwhile in Goguryeo, King Gogugwon’s son King Sosurim set the kingdom back on its feet, and his younger brother and successor, King Gogugyang, made his son Damdeok crown prince in 386.
Characters
Takes the throne at eighteen
Seeks to retake Gwanmi Fortress
Asin’s paternal uncle
King Asin’s maternal uncle
In 414, a stone stele more than three times the height of a man was raised near Gungnae Fortress, the capital of Goguryeo.
It was the Gwanggaeto Stele, which King Jangsu raised to carve in stone the achievements of his late father.
The stele begins with the story of the founder, King Chumo (Jumong), and goes on like this.
Ascending the throne at eighteen,
he took the title Great King Yeongnak.
二九登祚 號為永樂太王 — Gwanggaeto Stele
In 391, King Gogugyang died, and Crown Prince Damdeok took the throne.
The king gave his reign the era name “Yeongnak,” the name by which the years were counted. People called him “Great King Yeongnak.”
The Samguk Sagi recorded that he was of large build from birth, with great ambitions and a bold, open-hearted spirit.
His grandfather, King Gogugwon, had died in 371 at Pyongyang Fortress, struck by a flying arrow while fighting the Baekje army.
In the seventh month of 392, Damdeok led 40,000 troops south into Baekje’s northern lands.
News that Damdeok, king of Goguryeo, had invaded with 40,000 troops reached Hanseong, the Baekje capital.
Hearing that Damdeok was a skilled commander, King Jinsa could not bring himself to go out and stop him.
Some ten fortresses, including Seokhyeon Fortress, and many villages north of the Han River fell into Goguryeo’s hands.
In the ninth month, Damdeok turned his horses around and attacked the Khitan in the north.
He captured 500 Khitan men and women.
Goguryeo people who had been carried off as captives were living in the Khitan lands.
Damdeok called out to them and reassured them, and brought 10,000 people home.
In the tenth month, the Goguryeo army reached Gwanmi Fortress on the coast.
It was a fortress with sheer cliffs on all four sides, ringed all around by the sea.
The king split his army into seven columns and pounded the fortress.
The assault went on for twenty days.
After twenty days, Gwanmi Fortress fell.
Around that time, King Jinsa had left the capital and was out hunting at Guwon.
The king did not return for more than ten days.
In the eleventh month, King Jinsa died at the temporary palace at Guwon.
Asin, the eldest son of King Chimnyu, succeeded King Jinsa on the throne.
It is said that Asin was still young when his father, King Chimnyu, died, so his uncle Jinsa became king first.
In the first month of 393, King Asin made his maternal uncle Jinmu Jwajang and entrusted him with military affairs.
Jinmu was calm, resolute and a great strategist, and people readily followed him.
In the eighth month of 393, King Asin summoned Jinmu.
Jinmu marched north at the head of 10,000 troops.
To win back five fortresses, Seokhyeon among them,
he first laid siege to Gwanmi Fortress.
Jinmu himself led from the front, braving arrows and stones.
The Goguryeo troops inside held the fortress stubbornly.
But the supply lines could not be kept open.
In the end, Jinmu withdrew his army. Goguryeo’s banners still flew over Gwanmi Fortress.
In the seventh month of 394, the Baekje army marched north again.
Damdeok himself led 5,000 swift cavalry to meet them head-on.
Beaten below Sugok Fortress,
the Baekje army fled under cover of night.
In the eighth month, Goguryeo built seven fortresses in the south of the kingdom to guard against Baekje.
In the second month of 395, a comet appeared in the northwestern sky and vanished after twenty days.
In the eighth month, King Asin sent Jinmu and others to attack Goguryeo once more.
By the Paesu River, Damdeok, the Goguryeo king, had pitched camp with 7,000 troops he led himself.
The Baekje army was badly defeated.
The dead numbered 8,000.
In the eleventh month, to avenge the battle of the Paesu River, King Asin himself led 7,000 troops across the Hansu.
When they reached the foot of Cheongmongnyeong Pass, heavy snow came pouring down.
Many soldiers froze to death.
The king led his army back to Hansan Fortress and comforted his exhausted soldiers.
Winter, 395. The king of the north and the king of the south were standing in the same falling snow.
King Asin’s resolve to retake Gwanmi Fortress had not yet been fulfilled.
The next year, 396, King Gwanggaeto the Great
takes to the sea at the head of his navy.
