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The Battle of Salsu was an enormous battle that occurred in the year 612, during the second Goguryeo-Sui War, between the Korean kingdom of Goguryeo and Chinese Sui Dynasty. Goguryeo cavalry forces, although outnumbered, outmaneuvered and overwhelmed the Chinese troops in combat and eventually emerged victorious.
In 612, the Sui Emperor Yangdi invaded Goguryeo with a million men.[2][3] However, at this time, Goguryeo General Eulji Mundeok defended fortresses against the Sui army and navy for several months and destroyed the Sui troops while retreating into Goguryeo territory. An ambush at Salsu (Chongchon River) caused massive Sui casualties. When the Sui army had reached Salsu, the water level was shallow, as Eulji Mundeok had already cut off the flow of water with a dam. When the Sui army had crossed the river halfway, Eulji opened the dam, and the onslaught of water caused many thousands of Sui soldiers to drown. The Goguryeo cavalry then charged the remaining Sui forces. The surviving Sui forces were forced to retreat at a breakneck pace to the Liaodong Peninsula to avoid being killed. This led to an overall campaign loss of all but 2,700 Sui troops out of 305,000 men, a casualty rate of slightly over 99%.[4] The Battle of Salsu is listed among the most lethal "classical formation" battles in world history.
With the victory over Sui dynasty at the Salsu, Goguryeo eventually became the victor of the war itself, while the Sui Dynasty, crippled by the enormous loss of manpower and resources expended to conduct the campaigns, started to crumble from within and was finally brought down by internal strife, to be replaced soon thereafter by the Tang.
[edit] References
- ^ "The Three Kingdoms". National Assembly of South Korea. http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition.php. Retrieved on 2007-02-12.
- ^ KBS World
- ^ Goguryeo War - Kokuryo.com
- ^ Association for Asia Research- The forgotten glory of Koguryo
