Gojoseon-Han War
| Gojoseon–Han War | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Wiman Joseon | Han China | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
King Ugeo † Gen. Seong Gi † Min. No In (POW) Min. Han Eum (POW) Min. Sam (POW) Gen. Wang Gyeop (POW) |
Yang Fu Xun Zhi |
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| Strength | |||||||
| Unknown | About 50,000 | ||||||
The Han conquest of Gojoseon was a campaign launched by Emperor Wu of Han China against Wiman Joseon between 109 and 108 BC. It resulted in the fall of Gojoseon and the establishment of the Four Commanderies of Han in the Korean Peninsula.
Since the time that Wi Man took the Gojoseon throne, relations between Han and Gojoseon had been deteriorating. King Ugeo of Gojoseon interrupted direct contact with envoys sent by chiefs of various tribes on the Korean Peninsula to the Han empire, thus Emperor Wu of Han dispatched the emissary She He (涉何) to Gojoseon. After an audience with the king, She He failed in securing the safe passage of the envoys. While returning to his nation, She He killed Wi Jang (長降), an assistant of the Gojoseon king. Due to this action, the king sent out troops to kill She He. The direct pretext for war thus came when King Ugeo had the Han envoy executed, which had angered Emperor Wu considerably. However, it is thought by modern historians that the initiation of war was also brought by the desire to remove the possibility that Gojoseon would ally with the Xiongnu against the Han or by the deteriorating relations between Han and Gojoseon when Wiman Joseon prevented trade between Jinbeon (진번, 眞番) and Han.
In 109 BC, Emperor Wu launched a Han military campaign into Gojoseon. Two forces—totaling about 50,000 troops led by Yang Fu (楊僕) and Xun Zhi (荀彘) respectively—set out from the Han empire to invade the kingdom. A navy sailed from Qi (present-day Shandong Province) across the Bohai Sea towards Gojoseon, while an army marched through Liaodong and headed towards Wanggeom, the capital of Gojoseon.
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