Chapter 821: The Father-Claiming Gene Runs in the Blood

Wang Jian was, one might say, a natural-born hero sent by Heaven to the peninsula.

Without the move he made in the tenth century AD, the Korean Peninsula would most likely have stayed split into three or four pieces, mired in endless chaos.

Without Wang's Goryeo, the later Joseon of the Yi clan could never have been established at all — it would have had neither the legal basis nor the vision.

For before that, the northern part of the peninsula had belonged first to Jizi Joseon, then to Wiman Joseon, then to the Han Four Commanderies, then to Goguryeo — and had essentially nothing to do with the Three Han peoples of the south.

Even Silla had at most pushed as far as the south bank of the Daedong River and never held the whole peninsula.

Only Wang Jian, that ambitious lord who claimed descent from the Wang clan of Lelang, a great Han family, after unifying the peninsula turned his gaze northward and began, with great impatience, to find a father for all the people of the peninsula.

As soon as his state was founded, Wang Jian immediately made a northern tour, elevated Pyongyang to the Western Capital, and often told those around him: "The old lands of Dongmyeong are the green felt of my house; I must sweep them up and possess them." And he at once changed the name of his state to Goryeo.

This Dongmyeong was the name of the legendary ancestor of the Goguryeo people. With these words, Wang Jian dragged Goguryeo, which had vanished into wind and smoke more than a hundred years before, back out and restored its soul, finding for this mixed and fused people of the peninsula a father with a somewhat imposing record of deeds.

Goryeo and Goguryeo are in fact the same word, differing only slightly in translation.

Thus, more than a thousand years later, the most nauseating retort that the northern and southern fools hurl at the Chinese was born.

Certain things — like claiming fathers and stealing culture — really do have a tradition! In this respect, Wang Jian is the true cultural ancestor of the fool nation.

But Wang Jian was also well aware that the name Goguryeo was not something one could simply put on one's head; if mishandled, it could call down thunderous wrath.

So in his tribute letter to the Later Tang, he said he was a descendant of the Wang clan of Lelang, a great family of Liaodong, whose ancestors had come from the Jianghuai region.

This made the Later Tang court believe him completely, and an imperial edict praised him as fully displaying the beauty of the magpie's nest — commending Wang Jian for unifying the peninsula as king in the identity of a Han man, holding that his magpie seizing the dove's nest as a Han was worthy of praise.

But at home, to steady the people's hearts and forge a sense of identity, Wang Jian called himself a descendant of Goguryeo survivors, and further claimed that his ancestor had married the daughter of Li Zhengji.

Li Zhengji was a genuine Goguryeo survivor; his ancestors had been moved en masse to Shandong, and by Li Zhengji's time the family began to rise. Li Zhengji, Li Na, and Li Shidao — father, son, and grandson — held the post of Military Governor of Ziqing-Pinglu for three generations and even proclaimed themselves King of Qi, so they were extremely famous on the peninsula.

Wang Jian could not take the surname Li, so he found himself a maternal line with some claim to continuity.

Under these circumstances, with Wang Jian and his son desperately covering things up, even though Wang Jian had been dead only twenty or thirty years, who their ancestors really were had already become impossible to say clearly.

Wang Jian may have been a descendant of Han settlers from the Han Four Commanderies, or of Balhae, Yemaek, or Three Han stock — but one thing is certain: he was an ambitious lord who knew how to survive.

Since he claimed to be a descendant of Goguryeo, pushing north to retake Liaodong seemed to become a matter of course.

Wang Jian did exactly that. After founding his state, Pyongyang and other places that had been occupied by the Jurchens and left desolate were gradually rebuilt.

He moved more than a hundred thousand commoners from the southern peninsula to firm up the border, and transferred his younger brother Wang Shilian to Pyongyang as Defender of the Western Capital.

After taking office, Wang Shilian actively organized the restoration of production, repaired the Paesu Long Wall from the Silla period along the Daedong River north of Pyongyang, and built more than a dozen forts occupying strategic points — the most critical of which was Anbuk-bu, the very place Murong Xinzhang was preparing to attack.

Anbuk-bu, near the later Korean city of Gaecheon, is Korea's most important anthracite coal producing area.

The "Gae" in Gaecheon should actually be this character "ga," also read "gae" — same character as in "value," different pronunciation, meaning "very great."

So Gaecheon means the place where very great mountains and rivers converge — specifically, the Jeokyuryeong and Myohyang mountain ranges northwest of Anbuk-bu.

The name of the Jeokyuryeong range has been translated by many later people as "the mountains crossed by Chinese bandits," which is inaccurate.

Because historically Korea always regarded itself as the Little Central Efflorescence, and was consistently contemptuous of the Jurchens, Yemaek, and other peoples north of the peninsula, calling them barbarians, Yi, and bandit slaves.

The three characters of Jeokyuryeong do not come from "mountains crossed by Chinese bandits."

Rather, it was because the Khitan, the real Jurchen Jin state, and the fake Jurchen Jin state, whenever they grew powerful, all liked to cross this range to give the Koreans a good beating — hence the name Jeokyuryeong.

This "Jeok" does refer to Chinese people, but more specifically, it should refer to the various peoples of China's Liaodong.

And this time, the main force led by Murong Xinzhang was also following the Daeryeong River and crossing the Jeokyuryeong range on this route southward.

Wang Shilian was a man of real vision — one can see it from how he threw all his strength into building up Anbuk-bu.

The Anbuk-bu fortress was squeezed between the Jeokyuryeong and Myohyang ranges, and the Cheongcheon River, rushing down along the Myohyang range, formed a natural moat for the fortress.

This allowed Anbuk-bu not only to shelter behind a great river, but also to block almost the only passage from the two steep mountain ranges to Pyongyang.

On the twenty-second day of the third month, after Murong Xinzhang settled the line of advance, the army set out in three columns.

In fact, north of Anbuk-bu, Wang's Goryeo had built many small stockades and forts.

They had even seized a small patch of territory from the Ding'an state while the Zhou and Liao were at war, and shamelessly established a "Pinglu Garrison" — a key strongpoint on the upper Cheongcheon River.

As if his Wang Goryeo were not itself "lu" — a barbarian captive.

But though the vision was there, the strength still fell somewhat short.

This Pinglu Garrison stockade held only one hundred and fifty soldiers, several dozen of whom were local Jurchens and Balhae people from the mountain forests.

Of course, the main purpose of Pinglu Garrison was not defense but warning, so it was also equipped with ten fast horses.

Upon discovering the Zhou army advancing south in force, the garrison commander of Pinglu immediately sent several mounted scouts galloping downstream on warhorses, then ordered several other soldiers to climb the mountainside and light the wolf-smoke.

But Wang Jing had long been prepared. Before the main army arrived, he had sent his son Wang Tingyi ahead with a hundred cavalry; the horses under his command were all Hexi dragon horses, whose burst speed far surpassed these peninsula mountain horses.

The result was that the mounted messengers were overtaken by Wang Tingyi's elite riders and hacked to death.

The soldiers climbing the mountain were caught one by one in the woods by a dozen Jurchen warriors and killed; not one man reached the summit to light the wolf-smoke.

Wang Jing frowned, summoned Xiang Xun, and said: "I did not expect stockades and wolf-smoke here as well. It seems Wang Shilian was indeed a man of talent. Though he has died of illness, this river-defense system he left behind can still do its work.

If we move downstream at normal speed, I fear that by the time we reach Anbuk-bu, the Goryeo army will have finished its preparations."

Xiang Xun nodded. "Does the lord want me to lead light cavalry south by forced marches, day and night?"

"Exactly. The Great King is taking the Daeryeong River route. Though the current is gentle, the river is not deep, so not everyone can go downstream by water. The bulk of the army must still cross mountains and ridges, then cross rivers afterward — certainly slower than us. So we can only go ahead first."

As he spoke, Wang Jing used a few small stones to lay out the terrain around Anbuk-bu. "According to scout reports, the Cheongcheon River curves around the Anbuk-bu fortress. The north and west walls are no more than twenty-three paces from the riverbank, so a large army cannot find footing there.

Only on the south side is there a broad sandbar, large enough to camp more than a thousand men. Xingmin, you may lead a thousand cavalry ahead to seize this spot, protect the pontoon bridge on the river, and await the main army's arrival."

The greatest reliance of Anbuk-bu was still the Cheongcheon River. The fortress city backed against a great mountain and was ringed by water on three sides; apart from the south side, there was simply no way to gain footing on the riverbank near the fortress.

If they could not hold that large stretch of sand on the south side, they would have no choice but to gnaw at the Cheongcheon River, whose surface was more than two hundred zhang wide.

Xiang Xun did not hesitate after hearing this. He clasped his hands in salute, stuffed a dry flatbread in his mouth, and went down to pick his elite troops.

Though Anbuk-bu sounded imposing, as if it were something like the Great Tang's Anbei Protectorate, for Wang's Goryeo at this time, Anbuk-bu was basically the northernmost end of the country — not a good place.

Its location was important, but its population was small; the surrounding prefectures together had only a bit over ten thousand households, seventy or eighty thousand people in all.

So in practice, Anbuk-bu was a purely military fortress: three thousand garrison troops, plus seven or eight thousand family members of officers and soldiers — about ten thousand people in total.

The farmland around it was mostly tilled by garrison families, and supplies relied almost entirely on the Western Capital, Pyongyang.

The garrison commander of Anbuk-bu was Park Seunggyeong, second son of Park Sulyeong — a founding meritorious official of Wang's Goryeo, a maternal relative, and the key supporter who had enabled the current Goryeo Great King Wang So to take the throne.

This man was no pampered heir, but he was certainly no cautious, steady garrison commander either — he could not even be called diligent.

At the very least, the warning system Wang Shilian had painstakingly designed along the Chongchon River, and the strict military discipline that went with it, had not been seriously implemented by Piao Chengjing.

Xiang Xun advanced down from the Chongchon River, smashing through the Goryeo army stockades along the way, capturing and killing the officers responsible for raising the alarm, all while covering a hundred li a day.

By the time he charged to within less than twenty li of Anbuk-bu, the Goryeo garrison there had still received no warning.

Xiang Xun made an immediate decision. Originally, the task Wang Jing had given him was to seize the sandy ground south of the city, hold the pontoon bridge, and prevent the main army from being unable to cross the river when it arrived. But seeing how utterly negligent the Goryeo garrison was, he looked at the thousand-odd soldiers behind him and said in a loud voice:

"When we were in the Central Plains, we followed the Sage and the Great King on campaigns in every direction. The elite cavalry of the northern kingdoms and the fierce infantry of the Jianghuai could not defeat us. Now that we have come to this barbarous land east of the sea, how can we lose our edge?"

"I intend to select two hundred men for the first assault, strike hard at the northern face, drive out the slave-thieves in the city, and display the might of our Central Plains heavenly troops."

The soldiers under his command were fired up by Xiang Xun's words and responded eagerly.

Xiang Xun then picked two hundred men for the first assault and placed them under the command of the fierce general Zhang Jianxiong. Disguised as merchants, they rushed to the outskirts of Anbuk-bu at dusk, then seized boats on the Chongchon River and drove straight for the north gate of Anbuk-bu.

On the north gate side, the river was only thirty-odd paces away, so only a small gate had been opened there. Moreover, since the terrain made it impossible for an enemy to deploy a large force, the Goryeo garrison had never paid it much attention in ordinary times.

Although Piao Chengjing could be said to have trained diligently in martial arts and studied military texts thoroughly, it was all theory on paper — he had no actual battlefield experience at all.

When he saw two hundred strange armored soldiers suddenly appear to seize the city, he stood stunned for a good while before he remembered to issue orders.

The deputy general of Anbuk-bu beside him likewise failed to grasp the seriousness of the situation.

For Anbuk-bu had three thousand garrison troops, and among them, those of military-aristocrat background alone numbered over a hundred.

At this time, the Wang clan's Goryeo had just been founded, and its military system was in complete chaos. Every great family kept large numbers of private soldiers, and the so-called Great King was merely the one with the most private troops. It would be another fifty years before a national military system of two armies and six guards was established.

This led to one outcome: only the private soldiers of the Goryeo king and the various ranks of nobility had any fighting strength. The armies that properly bore the name of the state had no fighting strength at all, being little more than slaves of the nobles at every level.

So with the armies of Wang-clan Goryeo, the question was not how many men there were, but how many nobles were in the army.

Now Anbuk-bu had over a hundred of the lowest-ranking military aristocrats, and the Deputy General Piao Chengjing himself came from a great noble family, so its strength was by no means weak.

At this point, Wang-clan Goryeo had been founded only thirty-four years, and these "elite soldiers" forged in the wars of the peninsula's Three Kingdoms era had not yet completely rotted away.

The hundred-odd military aristocrats were all armored men, each with anywhere from as few as three or five to as many as a dozen brave fighters brought from their home regions, plus Piao Chengjing's own hundred armored men — in Goryeo, this was a force of considerable quality.

The deputy general looked from a distance. Those charging the north gate looked imposing enough, but they wore outer robes, so he could not tell whether they wore armor underneath.

But judging from their running speed, even if they were armored, they could not all be wearing iron armor. His confidence soared, and he said to Piao Chengjing:

"Since last year, there have been rumors that the Liao kingdom to the north intends to invade southward. Now it seems those rumors are very likely true."

"These must be the Liao vanguard sent to seize the pass. I ask the Deputy General to give me fifty military aristocrats and fifty armored men, and I will surely drive back the thieves on the northern side."

"The Deputy General should hold the south city firmly, and if necessary cut the pontoon bridge — that will be enough for the defense."

The deputy general's confidence was overflowing, because it had never occurred to him that in this world there could be heavy armor weighing only thirty-odd jin, still less that any state could casually assemble two hundred men wearing fifty or sixty jin of armor who could still move as swiftly as if flying.

Piao Chengjing had never experienced battle, and his heart was pounding like a drum. Hearing the deputy general speak with such complete assurance, he let out a long breath of relief and immediately granted the request. He then at once sent men to the south city to warn the Western Capital's Acting Governor and to prepare to cut the southern pontoon bridge.

The deputy general's surname was Ryu, of the Jeongju Ryu clan, a great Goryeo family. A cousin of his father's had been married to the founding king, Wang Geon.

However, since his relation to this royal consort was rather distant, Deputy General Ryu had not benefited much from the connection. So when he saw that real war had broken out, he keenly realized that his "opportunity" had come.

As long as he led his fierce, tiger-wolf armored men and blocked the first wave of the northern invaders' attack, the merit would be enormous. Fortunately, this second young lord of the Piao family was somewhat timid — otherwise this great achievement would never have fallen to him.

Asige suddenly dropped the long-handled axe in his hands, took up an iron shield in one hand, and with a wild roar hurled himself at the north gate, because the Goryeo soldiers were about to close it.

Asige weighed two hundred and ten jin. One can imagine the force when he ran at full speed and then slammed into it with all his might!

A physique like his was extremely rare in this age of scarce food, whereas the Goryeo soldiers opposite him were of basically normal build — around one meter sixty or even shorter, weighing a hundred and twenty or thirty jin.

With bodies like that, no matter how many of them there were, how could they possibly withstand Asige's charge? Clang! — and then screams followed.

The ox-like Asige was struck by three or four long spears, but the iron shield was sturdy enough, and he was completely unharmed. Instead, the Goryeo soldiers who had been closing the gate and thrusting with spears were sent crashing to the ground.

Then more of the first-assault bear-tigers came sprinting over. They took up their long-handled axes and hacked a huge hole in the north gate, so that it could no longer be closed at all.

Asige, having bowled over the Goryeo soldiers, did not stop. He raised his iron shield and began smashing down with it in a frenzy.

These were only the lowest-grade soldiers, utterly unable to take a beating. There looked to be dozens or even a hundred of them, but under the charge of Asige and six or seven others, they were scattered in less than a minute, and the gate was completely opened.

Deputy General Ryu rushed over with over a hundred armored men and several hundred picked soldiers beside him, but when he drew near the north gate, his heart gave a jolt.

Not because the gate had already been completely opened, but because those two hundred men opposite were clearly not to be trifled with.

Asige roared, and the iron shield flew from his hand, spinning through the air with a whistle toward the Goryeo armored men opposite.

Clang! It smashed down three or five men. Then he picked up a long-handled axe that someone had dropped and charged straight at the enemy.

By now, more than a hundred of the two hundred first-assault troops had already charged in. Seeing Asige and the others attacking fiercely, the skilled archers in light armor immediately seized the rooftops on both sides, and arrows fell like rain upon the Goryeo men opposite.

The Goryeo armored men were actually fairly elite, for they could hold formation steadily and even knew that in such a situation the best shots should seize the high ground. But unfortunately, the gap in armor between the two sides was simply too great.

At this time, the iron armor popular in Goryeo and Japan was a thing called "hanging armor."

Although strictly speaking it was a kind of lamellar armor, they could not forge armor plates with good flexibility, nor did they possess complex weaving techniques.

So unlike lamellar armor, whose iron plates were harder and tightly woven, hanging armor merely strung the armor leaves loosely together.

This kind of armor looked fine in ordinary times, but on the battlefield, when struck by weapons with strong armor-piercing ability or kinetic energy, the leaves of hanging armor would be knocked apart, so that even without penetrating the leaves, the armor could still be broken through.

The arrows shot by the Goryeo archers turned Asige, who wore two layers of cloth-faced iron armor, into a porcupine — but they did him no real harm at all.

Yet the arrows loosed from the strong bows of the first-assault warriors could send the so-called Goryeo armored men tumbling head over heels.

The moment the two sides met, superiority and inferiority were decided at once.

Amid flesh and blood flying everywhere, Asige crashed into the Goryeo armored formation. The Goryeo armored men, who a moment before had been relatively intact and able to advance shoulder to shoulder in linked ranks, suddenly became like termites whose nest had been destroyed, scattering and rolling in every direction.

At the same time, Asige's long-handled axe was not fast, but against Goryeo armored men who generally did not even reach his shoulder, a casual swing could split their heads, and blood would immediately spray from their iron helmets.

The maces in the Goryeo armored men's hands could mostly only strike Asige's waist, belly, and chest — precisely the best-protected places. And because Asige charged so ferociously, very few could even get close to him.

The two sides had fought for barely a quarter of an hour before it turned into a one-sided slaughter.

Asige was fierce, but Zhang Jianxiong was no less so. He wielded a pair of fine-steel double-headed spears and fought at the very front, surrounded by seven or eight men armed with both long and short weapons.

These first-assault troops formed a highly flexible small formation with Zhang Jianxiong. At his strange battle cry, they struck out together with blades, spears, axes, and hammers.

Whoever stood before them, however many there were, was quickly beaten into pulp amid one strange cry after another.

Deputy General Ryu was not a timid man, but what unfolded before his eyes made him realize that resistance was utterly pointless.

He had brought over a hundred men against them, yet they had no power to strike back at all. Fighting up to now, the armored men opposite had been shot full of arrows like porcupines, yet not one had fallen — while over a hundred of his own armored men had long since been killed.

At that thought, Vice Commander Liu exchanged a glance with several of his trusted men, threw down their weapons, stripped off the cumbersome armor hanging from their bodies, turned and ducked into the surrounding houses, and vanished in an instant.

Piao Chengjing was still waiting for Vice Commander Liu's report of victory, but before long he heard heart-rending cries in a Goryeo accent ring out, and countless soldiers of Anbei Prefecture fled wildly through the city as if pursued by evil spirits.

The personal officer Piao Shouqing had assigned to Piao Chengjing took one look and decided there was no point struggling any further. He immediately ordered his men to hoist Piao Chengjing up, turned, and headed down from the wall toward the stables.

Run! In any case, his task was to preserve the young lord's life. As long as the family head survived, the charge of abandoning a city and fleeing meant nothing at all.

On the other side, once Zhang Jianxiong's vanguard had seized the north gate, Xiang Xun immediately led the remaining seven hundred men charging into the city, and a great pursuit began at once.

Although there were several thousand soldiers within the city, they were no match for Xiang Xun and his men. In a short while several hundred were killed, and the rest knelt and begged to surrender like quails.

On the twenty-eighth day of the third month, Wang Jing arrived with the follow-up main force and took complete control of Anbei Prefecture.

On the third day of the fourth month, Murong Xinzhang arrived with the main army of thirty thousand and tens of thousands of laborers. Seeing that Anbei Prefecture, which had been scheduled to fall before the twelfth of the fourth month, had been taken so quickly by Xiang Xun, Murong Xinzhang was overjoyed.

After richly rewarding Xiang Xun, he ordered Chen Sirang to lead light troops to clear out the scattered small towns and forts of Wang-family Goryeo north of Anbei Prefecture, while he began interrogating prisoners to clarify the enemy situation.

On the seventh day of the fourth month, Murong Xinzhang left Wang Jing to garrison Anbei Prefecture, turning this place where two rivers converged into a great rear base for stockpiling grain, fodder, and supplies for the army.

He himself then personally led fifty thousand troops and began advancing toward the Western Capital of Wang-family Goryeo, Pyongyang.

Almost at the same time, Zhe Deyuan led more than ten thousand infantry and cavalry advancing along the coastline with unusual smoothness. The main cities of Wang-family Goryeo here, Xuanzhou and Guizhou, had been established in little more than name; their garrisons and even their civilian populations were still sparse, and their walls were all just crumbling earthen ramparts.

After Zhe Deyuan took Xuanzhou, he began repairing the harbor and establishing defenses in accordance with Murong Xinzhang's orders, waiting for the arrival of Zhao Kuangyin and Chen Hui's naval force.

And the great war of the southern campaign against Goryeo had at this point only just raised its curtain. It was beneath the walls of Pyongyang that the real test would come.

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