Autumn at Ansi Fortress
Wind, campfire and river sounds change with every scene, and the music follows the story.
In 631, after Tang tore down Goguryeo’s victory mound, the “gyeonggwan,” Goguryeo began building a wall a thousand li long on its western frontier. In 642, Yeon Gaesomun, who was overseeing the building of the wall, staged a coup, killed King Yeongnyu and his ministers, set the king’s nephew King Bojang on the throne, and made himself Mangniji. Emperor Taizong of Tang waited for the right moment to strike Goguryeo.
Characters
His name is not recorded
Imagined character
Leads a great army in person
Commander-in-chief of the Liaodong Route Army
Builds the earthen mound
Leads a relief army of 150,000
In 644, Emperor Taizong’s envoy Xiangli Xuanjiang came to Goguryeo. By then Yeon Gaesomun had already attacked Silla and taken two of its fortresses.
and next year Tang will send troops.
Silla seized five hundred li of our land.
the fighting will not stop!
In the end, the Mangniji would not heed Tang.
Luoyang, the 11th month of 644. Having resolved to attack Goguryeo himself, Taizong summoned Zheng Tianshu, an old official who had gone to Goguryeo with Emperor Yang of Sui.
The Eastern Yi defend fortresses well; they don’t fall easily.
You need only watch.
All his ministers tried to stop him, but Taizong would not change his mind.
In the 3rd month of 645, as he set out from Dingzhou, he wore a bow and arrows himself and tied his rain cape behind his saddle with his own hands.
For China, I will avenge its sons and brothers;
for Goguryeo, I will wash away the shame done to its king.
朕今東征 欲爲中國報子弟之讎 高句麗雪君父之恥耳 — Samguk Sagi, 4th year of King Bojang
In the 4th month, the Tang vanguard under Li Shiji crossed the Liao River.
Now for the fortresses of Liaodong!
Goguryeo’s fortresses were thrown into alarm, and each one shut its gates and stood on guard.
Liaodong Fortress, the 5th month. The Tang army’s catapults hurled great stones more than 300 paces, smashing whatever they hit.
On a day of strong south wind, the Tang army set fire to the southwest tower, and the flames spread into the fortress. Liaodong Fortress finally fell.
Gaemo Fortress in the 4th month; Bisa and Liaodong fortresses in the 5th; Baegam Fortress in the 6th. One after another, the fortresses east of the Liao River fell to the Tang army.
The lord of Baegam Fortress secretly surrendered and raised the Tang flag over the fortress.
The Tang army turned its horses south once more.
There, in its path,
one mountain fortress barred its gates tight.
Ansi Fortress, a mountain fortress south of Liaodong Fortress. Refugees poured in from the fallen fortresses.
It’s all… burned down.
come this far?
The lord who defended Ansi Fortress. His name was not recorded.
fall too?
these walls, isn’t it?
are a defender of this fortress.
Taizong said that this was what he had heard about the lord of Ansi Fortress.
in his hands.
At the time of Mangniji Yeon Gaesomun’s coup, the lord refused to go along and held his fortress. Yeon Gaesomun attacked it, so the story goes, but could not take it.
In the 6th month, as the Tang army reached Ansi Fortress and began its attack, a Goguryeo relief army of 150,000 came pouring in.
Our army is here!
It was an army of Goguryeo and Mohe troops led by Go Yeon-su, Yoksal of the Northern Division, and Go Hye-jin, Yoksal of the Southern Division. A Yoksal was the governor of a great provincial fortress.
Go Jeong-ui, a minister old and seasoned in affairs, spoke to Go Yeon-su.
Don’t give battle; hold out and cut his supply lines.
Go Yeon-su would not listen and marched straight on to within 40 li of Ansi Fortress.
When Tang’s Turkic cavalry fought and then pretended to flee, Go Yeon-su, calling them “easy prey,” gave chase and made camp at the foot of a mountain 8 li southeast of Ansi Fortress.
attack all at once.
That night, a shooting star fell on Go Yeon-su’s camp.
The next morning, as the drums and horns sounded, the hidden Tang troops poured out from every side.
Amid thunder and lightning, Xue Rengui, a Tang soldier in eye-catching white, charged in with a great shout. The Goguryeo army collapsed.
When even the bridges for their retreat were cut, Go Yeon-su and Go Hye-jin surrendered with 36,800 men.
has surrendered.
we hold it ourselves.
Taizong renamed the mountain where he had stayed “Mount Zhubi,” meaning “the mountain where the emperor halted.”
The Tang army surrounded the fortress. Whenever the people of Ansi caught sight of the emperor’s banners and parasol, they climbed onto the walls, beat their drums and shouted.
Taizong was furious. Li Shiji stepped forward and spoke.
let us put every man
to the sword!
When word of this reached the fortress, the people of Ansi defended it all the more stubbornly.
The siege dragged on. Go Yeon-su and Go Hye-jin, who had surrendered, told Taizong:
The people of Ansi cherish their homes;
every one of them fights of his own will.
安市人顧惜其家 人自為戰 — Samguk Sagi, 4th year of King Bojang
As the siege dragged on, the cooking smoke inside the fortress dwindled day by day. But one evening, a great noise of chickens and pigs rose from inside the walls.
They’ll sally out tonight.
Be ready!
That night, several hundred Goguryeo soldiers climbed down the walls on ropes.
The waiting Tang troops swarmed in with torches. Taizong himself came to the foot of the walls to drive his men on.
Day broke. Dozens of Goguryeo soldiers never came back.
The empty ropes swayed in the dawn wind.
After that, Li Daozong, Prince of Jiangxia and a kinsman of Emperor Taizong, began building an earthen mound at the southeast corner of the fortress.
Build it higher than the walls!
They built day and night for sixty days. It took 500,000 days of labor.
Inside, the defenders raised their own walls higher to hold it off. Fighting broke out six or seven times a day.
seal it at once!
Whenever stones smashed a tower or battlement, they at once put up a wooden palisade in its place.
The top of the mound stood only a few fathoms from the wall, and from it the inside of the fortress lay in plain view.
right into our house.
over yet.
Then the earthen mound collapsed and came crashing down onto the wall.
Part of the wall gave way.
As it happened, Fu Fu’ai, who was guarding the top of the mound, had left his post.
Take the mound!
Several hundred Goguryeo soldiers charged out through the breach, seized the mound, and held it by digging a trench around it.
Taizong executed Fu Fu’ai for leaving his post and tried for three days to retake the mound, but he never could.
Meanwhile,
autumn deepened.
Cold came early to Liaodong. With the grass withered and the water freezing, men and horses could not stay much longer, and the grain was running out.
for home.
Before leaving, the Tang army paraded its troops below Ansi Fortress in a show of strength.
No one inside the fortress so much as looked out.
Then the fortress lord climbed up onto the wall.
The fortress lord bowed to the departing emperor in farewell.
your fortress well.
Serve your king well.
Praising him for holding the fortress so firmly, Taizong granted him 100 bolts of silk.
they don’t fall easily.
The Tang army withdrew. The fighting, which had gone on for nearly three months, was over.
On the way back, carts and horses sank into the mire of the Liaoze marshes. Taizong himself loaded brushwood onto his saddle and helped fill in the road.
As they crossed the Bocuo River, a blizzard struck, and many soaked soldiers froze to death.
Having failed to achieve his aim, Taizong deeply regretted the campaign. Wei Zheng, the minister who had always spoken the truth without fear, had died two years earlier.
Had Wei Zheng been alive,
he would never have let me set out on this road.
魏徵若在 不使我有是行也 — Samguk Sagi, 4th year of King Bojang
what’s your name?
Like you.
The fortress was held by the people within it.
Five hundred years later, Kim Bu-sik, who compiled the Samguk Sagi, wrote:
That fortress lord may truly be called an extraordinary hero.
Yet history has lost his name.
It is a great pity.
其城主 可謂豪傑非常者矣 而史失其姓名 … 甚可惜也 — Samguk Sagi, 4th year of King Bojang, Kim Bu-sik’s commentary
