Koryo Under
the Mongols
Beginning of the End
Kublai Khan's first attempt to invade Japan
in October 1274, ended prematurely and disastrously. Stung by the
defeat, Kublai Khan sent a special embassy headed by Suh
Chan to the Japanese Emperor to summon him to Khanbalik to answer for his actions. The
sudden arrival of this Mongol embassy both surprised and greatly alarmed the
Japanese, who beheaded Suh Chan and his entire
entourage as soon as they arrived in the capital of Kyoto. Kublai kept his diplomats at home for
a time after that, but he never lost sight of his ultimate goal. The
devastating defeat of an invasion that took over five years to plan would have
deterred a less resolute conqueror, but the Great Khan lived fixed in his
determination to follow Genghis Khan's dream to conquer the whole world. He had
hoped a victory against Japan
would bolster his image as a successful world conqueror, not a Chinese
bureaucrat, and give him legitimacy as the Great Khan. He ordered 1,000 new
ships to be built in Koryo shipyards to carry troops
for his next invasion.
With the conquest of the Song Empire out of the way, Kublai
Khan focused his attention on the matter of the Japan. The fate of the six Yuan
emissaries to Japan
convinced Kublai Khan that the island nation deserved to feel the fullest
measure of Mongol wrath and he set out to prepare it for them with painstaking
deliberation. He began by creating the special Office for the Chastisement of
Japan. Kublai Khan now controlled the Song Empire, which included not only the
defeated Song armies, but most of the Sung's nine
hundred ship imperial fleet in Canton.
Koryo's King Ch'ongyol, who
knew which way the political wind blew in Korea, eagerly allied himself with
the Mongols and offered to take personal command of the Office for the
Chastisement of Japan. Despite protests from some Koryo
officials that the kingdom's resources were already so strained that another
expedition would likely ruin the country, Kublai Khan proceeded with his plans
for the Japanese. The Mongols built a large fortress near Masan and stationed a large garrison army
there. The island
of Cheju-do was turned
into a vast pasture for Mongol horses.
The Japanese, fully alert to the extreme danger of their
situation, worked feverishly to prepare for a return visit by the Mongols. They
had no illusions about their fate if Kublai Khan's Mongol army ever established
a firm footing on their territory. They erected defensive positions at
virtually every principal harbor on the northern side of the islands, including
a twenty-kilometer-long stone sea wall along the beaches of Hakata Bay
near modern Fukuoka.
They also improved strategic roads and managed to build a small fleet of small
coastal craft and fireships with contributions from
every Japanese maritime province. Local defense forces were completely
reorganized and reinforced with hand-picked draftees who were given newer
weapons and a great deal more training.
Six years passed with both sides preparing for what each
side believed could be the final struggle. Kublai Khan knew that a successful
invasion would tax his resources and strength to the limit. The Japanese saw
the battle as a matter of life or death to their independence as a nation. In
1280, with preparations virtually completed, Kublai Khan dispatched a special
mission to Japan
for one final attempt to settle the matter diplomatically. By now however, the
Japanese were so stirred up and fired with national pride they dispatched the
Mongol embassy with even less consideration than its predecessor some six years
earlier. The former mission was at least allowed to reach the capital before
being executed. These new arrivals were captured as they landed and summarily
beheaded on the beach. The fatal reception left Kublai Khan with little choice.
He would now settle the matter they way he had always settled such matters; with a war. Early in 1281, Kublai Khan
set into motion the second invasion of Japan and opened one of the most
fateful chapters in East Asian history.
The Mongol expedition to Japan was a vast and complex
undertaking that involved not only the logistics of moving men, weapons, horses
and materiel to embarkation points in China and on the southern tip of the
Korean peninsula, but getting the two separate commands to coordinate their
departures and sailing routes so as to arrive together at the intended landing
points. Mongol General Hong Da-gu commanded the
30,000-man Eastern Route Army, augmented by 10,000 Koryo
fighters under the command of General Kim Bang-gyong.
Song Chinese General Fan Wenhu commanded the Southern
Route Army comprised of 100,000 mostly former Song Chinese soldiers pressed
into Kublai's service.
The overriding consideration in planning such an invasion involved the
weather. Northeasterly monsoons blow from November through March across the
East China Sea, making it difficult if not impossible for the bulk of Kublai
Khan's smaller transport ships to tack a course from the south China coast to
Japan. The light and variable winds of spring make sailing a long and tedious
process that would make concentrating the fleet before May impossible. June
through October marks the typhoon season, a period when violent Pacific storms
are possible, particularly in August, and no sailing vessel of the day could
survive being caught at sea in such weather.
Time became a critical factor in deciding when to go and
delaying the invasion through the summer was out of the question. Kublai Khan
could not assemble the entire fleet in Korea to wait out the typhoon
season, since his northern command had only supplies for itself. General Fan Wenhu's southern command had to carry all its supplies and
provisions aboard ship from Zhoushan
Island off the mouth of the Yangtze
River in Zhejiang
Province and would be
consuming them from the day they set sail. With the continual threat of violent
weather hanging over their heads, two separate armadas comprising the largest overwater invasion force in history set sail for Japan.
The two Mongol armies were due to arrive off Iki Island
in the Tsushima Strait sometime in May. General Hong Da-gu was ready for combat operations much sooner than the
Southern Route Army, decided to strike Tsushima and Iki islands on his own and without the support of the much
larger force sailing from China.
The Northern Route Army left Korea
in March 1281, with some 50,000 Koryo, Mongol and
northern Chinese troops aboard 1,000 ships. The Japanese never forgot the fate
of these islands in the first Mongol invasion and defended both in strength.
They engaged the Mongols almost immediately after their landings and
successfully drove them back into their boats, inflicting heavy losses on the
invading troops. General Hong Da-gu witdrew to Masan
with a great deal of dissension and recrimination among the ranks and remained
at anchor until time to sail to the rendezvous with General Bom
Mun-ho's Southern Route Army.
The far larger southern battle group under the command of
General Fan Wenhu did not sail from Zhoushan Island off the mouth of the Yangtze River in Zhejiang Province until June. General Fan's 3,500
ships and 100,000 man force finally made the rendezvous with the Koryo command's 1,000 ships off Iki Island.
The massive invading fleet of 4,500 ships set sail directly for the island of Kyushu. The Japanese were already aware
of the fact the Great Khan's army was on the move, having been alerted by the defender's of Iki and Tsushima Island. The Japanese defense force was
on full alert when, on June 23, 1281, lookouts first spotted the line of sails
stretching across the entire northern horizon heading directly for Japan.
The Northern Route Army, carrying Kublai Khan's spearheading
strike force, entered Hakata
Bay and anchored
bow-to-stern close to the shoreline along the Shiga Peninsula. Chained
together for mutual security, crews laid planking between ships to enable
troops to rapidly respond to any attempted boarding of any ship by the
Japanese. Ships equipped with catapults began bombarding the beach defenses
with heavy rocks while Mongol cavalry and infantry went ashore at an
unfortified beach to assault Japanese defensive positions. Fighting on their
home ground, the Japanese suffered heavy losses as they stubbornly resisted the
attack.
General Fan Wenhu took his
southern command into Imari Bay,
a good harbor about thirty miles further west, where defenses were weaker and
he anticipated an easy advance inland. After putting his entire 100,000 man
army ashore, General Fan began his eastward advance through high broken
terrain. The Mongols ran headlong into a large Japanese field army and became
entangled in a series of desperate battles in the hills. After days of fierce
fighting the advance stalled. Meanwhile, Japan's
small flotilla of ships managed to cut out or set fire to many of General Fan's
transport ships lying exposed in Imari Bay.
The Japanese fiercely defended their territory and managed
to hold Mongol gains to little more than the beachheads at each of their
landing points. The Mongols had no success in turning or even breaching the
Japanese defensive lines. Desperate fighting continued through July as the
Mongols vainly tried to breakout of their coastal positions. The Chinese and Koryo troops fought with little enthusiasm. With no hope
for reinforcements, the Mongols began to realize they had insufficient troops
to take Japan.
General Fan's army was stalled in the hills east of Imari Bay and Kublai Khan's vaunted strike
force was still heavily engaged in trying to take the Hakata Fortress,
stubbornly holding out against the best siege tactics in contemporary military
science.
Both commands had suffered heavy casualties and supplies
were running low with no hope of resupply. Such was
the state of affairs into mid-August, the height of the typhoon season in the
area of southern Japan.
Koryo sailors in Hakata Bay
had every reason to expect the arrival of at least one of these great storms
during the campaign and Mongol commanders totally ignored every warning that
any insolent ship captain had to offer. On the afternoon of August 15, 1281, a
major typhoon roared through the southern Japanese islands and caught the
invaders in precisely the same predicament that had been foretold by comparable
circumstances in 1274. At the urging of the Koryo
naval captains, particularly those anchored at the northern end of the line
along the Shiga Peninsula, many of Koryo's
troops scrambled back aboard ship. Although they sailed before the height of
the storm reached the area, the approaching typhoon overran and sank many ships
after they reached the open sea.
The Chinese ships under General Fan, crowded at anchor in Imari
Bay, took the full fury
of the storm. In their panic to get underway, most of the soldiers who managed
to get aboard the ships drowned as ships collided and sank while trying to
clear the narrow neck of the harbor. The blackened skies, driving rains,
mountainous seas, and roaring wind provided a backdrop to the deafening sounds
of colliding ships, snapping cables and masts, and the screams of terrified men
caught in a deadly display of nature's fury. Many of the ships that managed to
reach open water were subsequently blown onto the rocks. Although the admirals
and generals escaped with their capital ships, only a small remnant of the
gigantic armada ever returned to the mainland.
The sudden Mongol retreat abandoned thousands of soldiers on
the beaches cut off from supplies and reinforcements. The Japanese were quick
to take full advantage of the situation. Abandoning their defensive positions,
they furiously attacked the stranded survivors on the beaches. Although they
took some prisoners, later to become slaves, the Japanese rounded up the
scattered remnants of the Mongol force stranded on the beaches and executed
them en masse. A lonely Mongolian burial ground on one of these remote beaches
near Hakata bears the only witness to the punishment inflicted by the typhoon.
From August 16, 1281, until the Japanese surrender on August 15, 1945, no
invading soldier ever again set foot on the Japanese islands.
To the Japanese, the heaven-sent storm and the manner in which the Mongols
had been repulsed reconfirmed their belief in their own divine origins. From
that deadly August afternoon in 1281 down to the present time, the "divine
wind" that destroyed the Mongol invasions of Japan has been known by its more
popular name, kamikaze.
The 1281 defeat broke Kublai Khan's image of invincibility,
and when he tried to re-establish it by campaigns into Southeast
Asia, he failed there as well. In a determined effort to
demonstrate his will to win and secure his place as the Son of Heaven, Kublai
Khan had no alternative but to mount another invasion. He assigned combat
forces, commandeered commercial vessels, stockpiled supplies and ordered the
construction of new ships along the east China
coast on the Gulf of Bo Hai, in Manchuria, and in Koryo. He
commuted prison sentences in order for prisoners to take part in the upcoming
adventure. Even surrendered pirates were commissioned into service.
Now an old man, Kublai Khan faced major troubles along the outer reaches of
his vast imperial perimeter. His once ruthless and hardy Mongol soldiers who
were, "of all men in the world ... the best adapted for conquering
territory and overthrowing kingdoms," became degenerate and dissolute.
Even those warriors intended for the third invasion deserted almost as fast as
they could be assembled. In 1286, he unexpectedly issued an imperial edict from
Khanbalik that canceled all preparations for war
against Japan,
explaining there was no longer any need to bother the empire with another
expedition.
The two major campaigns against the Japanese were but a
momentary tempest for Koryo compared with the more
significant destructive changes wrought in the fabric of Koryo
itself. The Ch'oe military regime's struggle against
the Mongols dramatically affected Koryo's
relationship with Yuan. The relationship between Koryo
and Kublai Khan's Yuan dynasty developed in the strange atmosphere of
simultaneous repression and conciliation. While sizable portions of Koryo territory were placed under direct Mongol dominion to
hold the nation under a burdensome restraint, the Yuan rulers also worked hard
to soothe Koryo feelings. Instead of dominating Koryo themselves, the Mongols instituted a policy which
completely subordinated the royal court and the Kaesong government to the Yuan emperor.
Following the Mongol invasion of Koryo,
a community of 1,500 Koryo families established
itself in the area of Liaoyang, an area the
Mongols referred to as Shenyang.
The population of this community eventually grew to over 5,000 families,
including a small branch clan of the Koryo royal
house. The Mongols exploited the situation by appointing members of the small
royal clan to governorships over Koryo communities
scattered throughout southern Manchuria and parts of the Liaodong Peninsula.
They also invested the "King of Shenyang" as the recognized leader of
the Koryo people living in Manchuria.
This not only made it easier to control the Koryo
populace in the Liaodong region, but it proved a useful way to maintain Mongol
control over Koryo itself.
Not long after Koryo reached a
peace agreement with the Mongols, King Wonjong,
thinking he could strengthen royal authority within Koryo,
sought permission for his son to wed a Yuan princess. In the spirit of Kublai
Khan's policy of reconciliation with his vassal states, the Mongols granted his
request. Koryo's crown prince, later to become King Ch'ungnyol, subsequently married a daughter of Kublai Khan; the first Mongol queen of a Koryo
king. During the crown prince's visit to the Yuan capital the Mongol court
invested him as the King of Shenyang.
Beginning with King Ch'ungnyol,
the Mongols effectively controlled Koryo through the
system of royal marriages. A succession of Koryo
kings took princesses from the Yuan imperial house. Since the sons of these
Mongol princesses normally inherited the throne, Koryo
became a "son-in-law" nation under the Yuan dynasty, an appendage of
the Mongol imperial house. The Mongols insisted that Koryo
change all names and titles, particularly their important relics of rule, to
indicate that Koryo officials held a lower rank than
either the Mongols or the Chinese. The most striking example of this change was
in the posthumous titles of Koryo kings. They could
no longer use the ending jo
(progenitor) or jong (ancestor). Instead,
beginning with King Ch'ungnyol (1274-1308) six Koryo kings had the prefix ch'ung
(loyal) attached to their title to indicate their subordination to the Yuan
emperor. Once the Mongols succeeded in diminishing the political and social
stature of Koryo's ruling elite, they used Koryo's autocratic regime as a tool to rule the peninsula.
Since no king could rule two territories simultaneously, and
since Yuan emperors could enthrone or depose kings at will, frequent and bitter
struggles broke out between Koryo kings, their heirs
and the King of Shenyang over succession to the Koryo
throne. This divisive Mongol policy produced a politically turbulent and
unstable environment in Koryo. The degradation of the
Koryo royal house virtually erased any enhancement of
royal authority. The Koryo king no longer ruled as an
independent monarch over his own kingdom, but occupied a fixed position within
the Yuan empire. The royal houses of the two nations
became as a single family.
During this period, Koryo kings took Mongol names,
wore their hair in Mongol style, wore Mongol dress, and used the Mongol
language. Once the Mongols established their domination, Koryo's
crown princes regularly traveled to the Yuan court at Khanbalik where they were obliged to marry a
Mongol princess and live until the death of the reigning king in Koryo. Through this system, the Koryo
royal family became so thoroughly Mongolized that
Yuan emperors had little to fear from the Korean kingdom.
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