Story 16~Episode 2. The original cause of the ‘war between the Daedaero (Tatar) and Malgal (Mogol) families’ was the return to the homeland of the ‘DaeDaero (Tatar)’ family.

 

Story 16~Episode 2. The original cause of the ‘war between the Daedaero (Tatar) and Malgal (Mogol) families’ was the return to the homeland of the ‘DaeDaero (Tatar)’ family.

We learned that the ‘Tatar race’ is the ‘Daedaero family’ and that the ‘8th Khan of the Tatars, Suyunji’ is none other than the grandson of Cheon Namsaeng泉男生 , who defected to Tang, Cheon Hyeonjeong 泉玄靜. He was the youngest of the three sons of ‘Cheon Heonseong’. His official title in Tang was ‘General of the Left Army’, Gaeboksun 蓋覆順’. He was the main character of the “War between the Tatars and Mogol” that <Taikh-I Arba' Ulus, 四汗國, Four Khan Countries >talks about. If so, the war between Tang and Balhae and its aftermath, which was caused by the Tang Dynasty’s policy of opposing the Heuksu Malgal, all originated from the family of Cheon Heon-seong, the eldest son of Gaesomun, Cheon Nam-saeng泉男生, who defected to Tang.

Then, what was the original cause of the war between the “Tatar (generational) family” and the “Mogol (Malgal) family”?

First, we should briefly examine the process of Goguryeo’s collapse. As Goguryeo entered its later period, the royal kings’ authority weakened and the power of the nobles strengthened. The aristocratic coalition came to control national power along with the royal authority. The era of King Great Gwanggaeto 廣開土大王and King Jangsu 長壽王was the peak of Goguryeo, when the royal authority was strengthened by expanding the territory through foreign conquest wars, but in Goguryeo, which was an aristocratic coalition, the heads of the Daeros, the Daedaero大對盧, were elected among the Daeros對盧 by consensus for a three-year term through a consultative body of nobles.

However, this could not stop the Gaesomun family, which held powerful military power, from monopolizing it, and Yeon Gaesomun, succeeding his father Daejo, took over both the Makliji莫離支, which could command the seven local Malgal divisions, and the Daedaero大對盧, the administrative head of the aristocratic Daeros對盧 in the five central divisions, succeeding Yeon Gaesomun's father Taejo, and continued his monopoly on power by executing about 100 opponents. The aristocratic coalition was causing a great rift due to the monopoly of one family.

However, Yeon Gaesomun did not completely control the opposition nobles and local Malgal forces. One example was the lord of Ansi Fortress安市城, a hero of the war with Emperor Taizong of Tang, who opposed Yeon Gaesomun's coup, and Yeon Gaesomun was unable to subdue him and compromised with the lord of Ansi Fortress. Despite the presence of opposition forces in the local and central regions, his power was strengthened, and after Yeon Gaesomun's death, power was transferred to his three sons, but this led to the path of self-destruction for Goguryeo.

First, the eldest son, Namsaeng泉男生, inherited the positions of Makliji莫離支 and Daedaero大對盧. In order to strengthen his power, he left the capital city to inspect the local Malgals. At this time, his younger brother Namgeon seized power and became the Daemagriji 大莫離支himself, and Namsaeng 泉男生led the nobles who followed him, as well as the six fortresses in the Liaodong region, including Guknaeseong(big fortress), and 100,000 households, and surrendered to Tang. The defection of these noble forces was a fatal blow in the war with Tang. On the other hand, Yeon Jeong-to, the younger brother of Yeon Gaesomun, who felt threatened by the power seized by Nam Geon, Namsan, also surrendered to Silla in December 666, leading 12 southern Goguryeo fortresses and nobles.

After that, Cheon Nam-saeng泉男生, the eldest brother of this family, led the Tang army to Goguryeo with the help of “Commander-in-Chief of the Liaodong Expeditionary Force” Kerbir Kori (Gye Pil-ha-ryeok), and led the Tang army to Goguryeo as “the Commander-in-Chief of the Pyongyang(capital) Expeditionary Force” and “Commander-in-Chief of the Jijeolan Expeditionary Force”, in order to regain power in Goguryeo.

In the south, the Silla army attacked Goguryeo and forced several fortresses of Goguryeo to surrender. He received the title of “Great General of Liaodong, Duke of Xuantu” from the Tang emperor the following year, and together with Li Jeok of Tang, he entered Pyongyang the capital and captured King Bojang, whom his father Gaegeum had put forward as king, and destroyed Goguryeo. In 668, Goguryeo’s 700-year-old great empire collapsed in vain.

However, after the war, the Tang emperor gave Cheon Namsaeng泉男生, who had made such merits, the title of “General of the Right, Duke of Byeonguk,” at best, and did not return Goguryeo to his hands. However, the Mogol family, which was descended from his own grandfather and Dae Joyeong’s lineage, led the people of Goguryeo and established Jin-guk = Balhae in 698, six years after the death of Heonseong. In response, the Tang Dynasty sent Bo-won, the grandson of King Bojang, in 688, and then sent Deok-mu, the son of King Bojang, to Andong in 699 in an attempt to win the hearts of the people and have the Goguryeo refugees continue to settle down.

However, the old people of Goguryeo broke away from them and went to Balhae-Malgal, and the family tree of Deok-mu, the Go clan leader, also fled to the Gokturks, a region of Central Asia that includes present-day Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan.

Then, 27 years later, around 715, Go-mun-gan, the son-in-law of the Gokturk Khan Bo-tur (Muk-cheol), returned to Tang and became the King of Liaoxi. In this situation, the eldest son of Gaesomun, Yeon Namsaeng泉男生, who was waiting for an opportunity to return to Goguryeo, finally plotted to separate the Heuksu Malgal from Balhae as the first step in provoking Emperor Xuanzong of Tang and neutralizing Balhae. Only then could they re-enter the land of Balhae=Goryeo, which succeeded Goguryeo, and enjoy the glory of the past.

 Of course, Balhae's second king Daemuye, despite his younger brother Daemunye's opposition on the grounds that this policy of the Tang Dynasty would lead to a crisis of a new war with the Tang Dynasty, did not just sit by and watch the Tang Dynasty's sinister plot. King Daemuye's decision was to dispatch troops to the Heuksu(Amur river) to stop the Tang Dynasty and the Daedaero family's plot. Of course, Daemunye, who led the army toward Heuks(Amur river)u, opposed his brother, the king, even after reaching Heuksu(Amur river), and eventually fled to Tang. Instead, his cousin Ilha took his cousin Daemunye's place and attacked Heuksu Malgal.

On the other hand, the next Balhae king, Dorihaeng, who went to Tang to summon Daemunye who had fled to Tang and demanded that Tang cease its policy toward the Heuksu Malgal, was assassinated. As a result, the enraged King Mu Daemuye finally made a decision. He attacked Dengzhou in Tang. This was the "Great War between the Tatars and the Mogol Tribe" that <Taikh-I Arba' Ulus, 四汗國, Four Khan Countries> talks about.

If we look at the birth and life of the three generations of the family from Namsaeng泉男生 → Heonseong → Hyeonjeong泉玄靜, and the official positions they held, through the above-mentioned family history, this family was the Tatar family, the 8th Khan of Tatar that <Taikh-I Arba' Ulus, 四汗國, Four Khan Countries> talks about. The son of Namsaeng, Yeonheonseong, had three sons. They were Yeonhyeon-eun, Yeonhyeonil, and the youngest, YeonHyeonjeong泉玄靜. This youngest, Hyeonjeong泉玄靜, was “General of the Left Army, Gaeboksun 蓋覆順, and the Suyunji Khan” mentioned in <Taikh-I Arba' Ulus, 四汗國, Four Khan Countries>.

In the end, the “great war between the Tatar clan and the Mogul clan” mentioned in <Taikh-I Arba' Ulus, 四汗國, Four Khan Countries>, that is, the great war between Balhae and the Tang dynasty, was caused by the great families who had fled to the Tang dynasty and the Tang dynasty’s desire for hegemony in Northeast Asia, which attempted to utilize them. In response, Goguryeo-Malgal conquered Dengzhou and Laizhou of the Tang dynasty and then launched a special operation against Luoyang. However, the Tang-Silla-Heuksu-Shilwi allied forces launched a counteroffensive against Balhae, and Balhae’s conquest of the Tang dynasty ended in defeat.

 

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