Disputes arising from the Goryeo-Mongol border area at fifth year of King Kongmin’s reign are fundamentally related to the ownership of control over Goryeo's political body and its people.
And for most of the so-called ‘Yuan intercession period’, th ...
Disputes arising from the Goryeo-Mongol border area at fifth year of King Kongmin’s reign are fundamentally related to the ownership of control over Goryeo's political body and its people.
And for most of the so-called ‘Yuan intercession period’, the king of Goryeo had the first priority. This is based on the multi-layered status granted to the King of Goryeo within the imperial order. In this order(=qa’an ulus), King of Goryeo, the royal deputy of the royal estate, is the master of the territory, and in nominal top rank in the haengseong(行省) system in Goryeo, and has independent authority as the king of Goryeo. This means that Goryeo has a complex nature, which belongs to the interior of the Yuan empire but also to the exterior of the empire.
As a result, after the era of the King Chungryul, when this multi-layerd status was completed, the King of Goryeo was guaranteed the position of the highest official through the territory of Goryeo and its people by the ulus system and the imperial order both.
The limitation of this position, however, was that the authority of King of Goryeo was not based on itself, but based on the imperial order centered on the Yuan empire. Since such superior authority was relative only, there was a fundamental problem that its robustness and persistence were rather thin.
This problem was realized due to the emergence of Ki clan in the late Goryeo. The figure that became the background of the Ki clan’s rise in earnest is The Empress Ki. She was a spouse of the emperor of Yuan who had an advantage over the king of Goryeo in royal order of Yuan empire. This resulted in the composition of the Goryeo royal family in relative inferiority to the Ki clan in affinity with the imperial family. In this scheme, even though the Ki clan are subordinates of the king of Goryeo within Goryeo, their status may overtake the king of Goryeo in the Imperial order. This situation was a serious threat to the king of Goryeo's priority over the territory and people of Goryeo.
The main character, Ki Chul was a persone who had powers both in and out of Goryeo before the appointment of King Kongmin. In Goryeo, he acted as the chief executive of JeongdongHaengseong(征東行省) after the dethronement of King Chung Hye and the death of King Chung Mok. In addition, He obtained position that a minister of Goryeo and the noble title of Buwongun(府院君). Meanwhile, in the Liaodong region adjacent to Goryeo, he and his son had appointed the position of the Pyungjangjungsa(平章政事) in the LiaoyangHaengseong(遼陽行省). In the Haengseong system of the Yuan empire, Haengseongseungsang(行省丞相) is the chief of the this system. And Pyungjangjungsa is the vice chief. But if Haengseongseungsang is not exist, Pyungjangjungsa became the chief of the system. It was a powerful position not only to rule over the people of the region, but also to exercise military power in that region.
On the other hand, the SsangsungChongguanbu(雙城摠管府), which was installed on the territory of Goryeo, was also organized under LiaoyangHaengseong, so it was under the influence of the person of Ki clan who appointed Pyungjangjungsa.
Therefore, in order for the King Kongmin to dominate the monopolistic sovereignty in Goryeo, he had to exclude Ki clan, who could stand above himself in the order within the Yuan empire. In addition, since they were building strong power inside and outside Goryeo, to remove them stably, they had to use the means of political upheaval by means of surprise attack rather than official personnel orders.
The military action at the fifth year of King Kongmin(1356) reign was unusual. Because it was a new armed conflict nearly 100 years after the war between Goryeo and Mongol empire(=Yuan empire) ended. This is accompanied by a strong political burden. This is even more so since this military action began with the preemptive strike of Goryeo. The purpose of the King Kongmin, who took such political burdens and carried out armed conflict, was to secure, in the name of the king of Goryeo, the exclusive control of the territory and people of Goryeo. In other words, it was a political act carried out in the same context as Ki clan removed.
In May 1356, King Kongmin ordered an attack on the same day in the direction of eight Yam to the west and ssangsung to the east. These two military operations were linked military actions aimed at one purpose.
The attack to eight Yam that the first of these two attacks was close to the outpost action to secure the SsangsungChongguanbu Area. This attack was not aimed at securing territory or people. The attack aimed to break contact and traffic, and to concentrate the empire's attention by destroying important points of the shortest road connecting the Goryeo and the Yuan empires. This was to delay the transfer of the political affairs of May 1356 to the original empire as much as possible, and to conceal military action towards the SsangsungChongguanbu. The attacking unit to eight Yam achieved its goal in early June by destroying three Yam, including the Passaboo(婆裟府). Indeed, the Yuan empire took action only after the dispatched envoy was attacked by the Georyo army in mid-June. The envoy who was attacked was an envoy trying to appoint Ki Chul, who was already dead, to Taesado(太司徒). But even at that point the Yuan empire was unable to obtain accurate information. Later, in early July, Goryeo army under Yu In-woo(柳仁雨), dispatched to the east, cooperated with local forces and recaptured Ssangsung Area.
The Yuan empire sent inquiries to Goryeo in mid-July asking about the destruction of the Yam. Therefore, King Kongmin took an apology to the Yuan empire. On the other hand, King Kongmin asked for the Empire to accept the explanation of King Kongmin that Ki-Chul had attempted to rebellion against the king and removed him. The Yuan empire accepted this request. Thus, the removal of Ki clan in May 1356, was recognized by the Yuan empire as a legitimate act of suppressing rebellion.
And on the basis of this, King Kongmin also newly requested that the Yuan Empire recognize the Goryeo's possession of the Ssangsung Area.
Along with the justification that this area was the former territory of Goryeo, King Kongmin suggested a logic that since the Ssangsung Chongguanbu is a party of Ki Chul, if the removal of the Ki-Chul is justified, the attack on the SsangsungChongguanbu is justified too. It was first requested in October 1356, and the following year it was requested again through the Do-dang(都堂). In this time, in addition to the existing logic, Goryeo added a condition to guarantee the payment of gold in the Ssangyong area. Afterwards, Goryeo gathered people around this area and established a manhobu(萬戶府) in this area, indicating that the Yuan empire approved the territory of the Ssangyong area of Goryeo.
Finally, in 1356, the civil and military acts of the King Kongmin, which began with the elimination of Ki clan in Goryeo, were successfully concluded as the Yuan empire recognized Goryeo's possession of the Ssangsung area. However, Ki clan, who remained in the original empire, continued in political and military conflict with King Kongmin's regime until the late period of King Kongmin.