Goguryeo Crushes Sui China at the Salsu River
300,000 Chinese soldiers march in; 2,700 make it home
Quick facts
- Battle
- Salsu River, 612 CE
- Goguryeo general
- Eulji Mundeok
- Traditional casualty figure
- 300,000 Sui troops in, 2,700 returned
- Defensive wall built
- 628 CE, c. 480 km / 300 miles
What happened
In the 6th century Goguryeo allied with Baekje against Silla while China's newly reunified Sui dynasty emerged as a fresh threat to the north. Goguryeo struck first, attacking Sui border regions, and Sui responded with a massive invasion. At the Battle of the Salsu River in 612 CE, the Goguryeo general Eulji Mundeok destroyed the Sui army: according to the traditional account, of a 300,000-strong invading force, only 2,700 soldiers made it back to China. Two further Sui invasions in 613 and 614 CE were also repelled, and Goguryeo followed up by building a defensive wall roughly 480 kilometers (300 miles) long in 628 CE to deter future Chinese attacks. The succeeding Tang dynasty tried again in 644 CE with a combined land and naval force and was defeated a second time, with the Goguryeo general Yang Manchun holding the fortress of Ansi through a three-month siege.
Why it matters
Goguryeo's repeated defeats of Sui and early Tang China proved a Korean kingdom could stop a unified Chinese empire outright, and the campaigns are credited by some historians with helping exhaust Sui China's resources and hasten its collapse in 618 CE. The victory bought Goguryeo decades more independence, though Tang China would eventually return with Silla as an ally and succeed where it had twice failed alone.
How we know
The Salsu River battle and the Sui and Tang invasions of Goguryeo are recorded in both Korean chronicles (the Samguk Sagi) and Chinese dynastic histories of the Sui and Tang periods, giving two independent textual traditions for the same campaigns.
Sources
- World History Encyclopedia. Goguryeo · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- World History Encyclopedia. Unified Silla Kingdom · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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