The arguments flew back and forth in the Japanese court.
One side pushed for war against Silla, the other side urged caution and fancied building
up defenses at home instead.
It was the year 650, and the court had just received the news that Silla allied itself
with the Tang Dynasty.
Crown Prince Naka no Oe decided against war.
Instead he sent diplomatic missions to China in hopes of improving relations.
These missions were the ancient kingdom equivalent of waving on Facebook, except it doesn’t
get you caught stalking your ex on the phone.
“Oh uh hi Megan, how’s the new boyfriend.
If you have one, that is, not that I know if you do, or not.
I really don’t know, I just assumed haha…
can I have my DVDs back?”
The Tang were delighted with the visits, but rumors soon spread that Tang and Silla would
attack Koguryo.
This was bad news, and Prince Naka no Oe made plans to move the capital
from the port city of Naniwa
to the safer, more inland Asuka region.
The Prince was ballin, so he decided to put the new capital on top of a mountain.
It was a massive public works project.
They had to dig a canal for boats to bring in huge boulders.
The money and labor needed made the project unpopular with the people and the court.
Some disgruntled nobles even plotted to remove Prince Naka no Oe because of it, but they
got caught before anything happened.
In 660, Tang and Silla defeated Paekche, as we saw in the previous video.
Paekche was placed under Tang military supervision, prompting a wave of Paekche refugees to flee
to Japan.
When they arrived, Japan said,
“Welcome, you’ll be safe here.
Now get to work!”
The refugees brought over new technologies and became a major source of skilled labor.
Tang forces soon left Paekche.
Their next target:
Koguryo.
Immediately after daddy left, Paekche rebels emerged vowing to restore the Paekche royal
family.
They just needed one thing: someone from the Paekche royal family.
The rebels sent an envoy to Japan and asked for two things.
One, military help please oh god please.
And two, a member of the Paekche royal family.
If you remember the previous video, Paekche had sent a person to Japan as hostage in 631.
This was Prince Pung, of the Paekche royal family, and the rebels wanted him on the Paekche
throne.
The Japanese court wholeheartedly supported the Paekche restorationists.
They may have decided to help even before the rebels came to ask.
It was a time of falling kingdoms.
They feared that Koguryo would fall next, and then there would be nothing stopping Tang
or Silla from coming after Japan.
At this time, Prince Naka no Oe ascended the Japanese throne to become Emperor Tenji.
His first order of business: a war to restore Paekche.
He sent Prince Pung home to the rebels.
On the peninsula, the rebels were already at war with Silla forces.
Emperor Tenji sent 27,000 men to assist them.
The fighting went on until in 663, Silla forces besieged the rebels at their base of operations
along the Paekkang River.
What ensued was called the Battle of Paekkang, or Battle of Baekgang, depending on which
bad pronunciation you prefer.
The historical texts are not clear on the details of the battle, but here’s what we
know.
A Japanese fleet moved up the Paekkang River to lift the siege.
It was 10,000 Japanese soldiers strong.
We don’t know how many ships it had.
Some Paekche restorationists also came along, but we don’t know how many of them were
there either.
The other side sent their own ships down the river.
They had 170 Tang ships and an unknown number of Silla ships.
Whatever their size, the Japanese fleet was apparently many times bigger.
Normally, that kind of numbers advantage would allow the Japanese to encircle the other side
and crush them, but the narrow river allowed the Tang to cover its entire width and fend
off attacks and flanking maneuvers.
The Japanese, confident of their size advantage, tried to pound the enemy with brute force.
Waves of Japanese ships broke against the Tang barrier, but failed to penetrate it.
Over time, the repeated attacks tired the Japanese, who were no doubt frustrated that
it was taking so long.
Seizing upon a moment of disorder from the other side, the Tang navy pierced through
the Japanese flanks.
They surrounded the Japanese and just went to town, demolishing the larger force.
The historical texts say that 400 Japanese ships were destroyed.
Remember that the Tang only had 170 ships.
This was checkmate for the Paekche restoration plans, and the rebels surrendered.
After the battle, the remaining Japanese forces retreated back home, bringing with them another
batch of Paekche refugees.
The Tang placed a Muppet government in Paekche.
The Battle of Paekkang actually wasn’t a big deal to the Tang, and turned out, it wasn’t
a big deal to the Japanese either.
It was kind of anti-climatic.
Sure, it was Japan’s largest defeat on the continent so far.
And with Kaya defeated decades ago, and now with Paekche gone, Japan lost any political
hold it had on the peninsula.
But in just a few years, after Tang and Silla sent some diplomatic missions, Japan resumed
friendly relations with the peninsula and China.
Sure enough, pretty soon Tang and Silla finished off Koguryo.
All in all, Silla came out ahead, controlling the entire peninsula.
Japan also came out ahead.
The feared foreign invasion never came.
Japan ended up with a large pool of skilled labor in the form of immigrants from the peninsula.
These immigrants brought with them new technology, culture, and administrative techniques for
strengthening the central government.
So I kinda glossed over things that happened after the Battle of Paekkang, because it’s
mostly Korean history, not Japanese.
I think I’ll write a blog post about what happened on Patreon for the patrons.
See that?
Marketing.
Nah.
But hey I put a lot of work into these videos.
If you like them, please consider supporting me on Patreon.
You’ll get to read blog posts about stuff that didn’t go into the videos, plus access
to our Discord chat server.
But mostly, you’ll be supporting an independent creator.
Thanks guys!
And thank you to our new patron NeoNippon, welcome!