Page:History of Corea, ancient and modern; with description of manners and customs, language and geography (1879).djvu/162

 138 GAOGOWLI. seemed wholly unaware of each other's existence. They did not, at all events, open communications with each other ; for if they had done so, there seems no reason why the fleet should not feed the two armies for a brief time ; and the combined army, well fed, would overturn anything Corea ever could put in the field. But Joonggwan's bold language had ended in nothing. Provisions were now wholly gona The city of Pingyang, was so strongly situated by nature, and fortified by art, that there was no hope of a successful attack ; while Wundu, the Coreau Fabius, was always wide awake, never coming near enough to give the enemy an opportunity of grappling with him, never going far enough to let the Chinese breathe freely. Wun had, therefore, with heavy heart, to order the retreat, which his better judgment had decided on at the west side of the Yaloo. His state was desperate in any case, for Liaoyang was four hundred miles away ; and how could he, without provisions, retrace the steps of that large army over all that distance ? The diflBculty of his situation may have made him lose his head, otherwise he must have thought of Hoor only thirty miles away ; and even if Pingyang stood in the direct way, there was no reason why he could not send messengers to make enquiries, and both could then easily concoct a plan by which Pingyang must needs fall- He had an army large enough for the conquest of all Corea, but the fact that he yielded to the advice of his subordinate generals, proves that he was not the proper man to lead such an army. He was not without bravery, however ; a quality much more- common than wisdom. He took command of the rear himself, in the retreat which he ordered in August The Coreans no sooner beheld the great hosts retiring, than they swarmed like bees from all comers and directions, clinging like so many hornets to flank and rear. Wundu was, of course, the head of all that swarm ; and while giving all liberty to skirmishers, he kept his army well in hand till half of the Chinese were across the Sa, when he rushed with fury upon the rear. The general in command of the rear fell fighting; and his fall was the signal for a helter-skelter flight of the large but