The last act in the tragedy of Ko-gu-ryŭ opens with the death of her iron chancellor, Hap So-mun. It was his genius that had kept the armies in the field; it was his faith in her ultimate victory that had kept the general courage up. When he was laid in his grave the only thing that Ko-gu-ryŭ had to fall back upon was the energy of despair. It was her misfortune that Hap So-mun left two sons each of whom possessed a full share of his father’s ferocity and impatience of restraint. Nam-săng, the elder, assumed his father’s position as Prime Minister, but while he was away in the country attending to some business, his brother, Nam-gŭn, seized his place. Nam-săng fled to the Yalu River and putting himself at the head of the Mal-gal and Kŭ-ran tribes went over with them to the Emperor’s side. Thus by Nam-gŭn’s treachery to his brother, Ko-gu-ryŭ was deprived of her one great ally, and gained an implacable enemy in Nam-săng. The Emperor made the latter Governor-general of Liao-tung and he began welding the wild tribes into an instrument for revenge. Then the Chinese forces appeared and together they went to the feast of death; and even as they were coming news reached them that the Ko-gu-ryŭ general, Yŭn Chŭn-t‘o, had surrendered to Sil-la and turned over to her twelve of Ko-gu-ryŭ’s border forts. It was not till the next year that the Chinese crossed the Liao and fell upon the Ko-gu-ryŭ outposts. The Chinese general had told his men that the strategic point was the fortress Sin-sŭng and that its capture meant the speedy capitulation of all the rest. Sin-sŭng was therefore besieged and the struggle began. The commandant was loyal and wished to defend it to the death but his men thought otherwise, and they bound him and surrendered. Then sixteen other forts speedily followed the example. Gen. Ko-gan hastened forward and engaged the Ko-gu-ryŭ forces at Keum-san and won a decided victory, while at the same time Gen. Sŭl-In gwi was reducing the fortresses of Nam-so, Mok-jŭ and Ch‘ang-am, after which he was joined by the Mal-gal forces under the renegade Nam-săng. Another Chinese general, Wŭn Man-gyŭng, now sent a boastful letter to the Ko-gu-ryŭ capital saying “Look out now for the defenses of that precious Am-nok River of yours.” The answer came grimly back “We will do so.” And they did it so well that not a Chinese soldier set foot on the hither side during that year. The Emperor was enraged at this seeming incompetence and banished the boastful general to Yong-nam. A message had already been sent to Sil-la ordering her to throw her army into Ko-gu-ryŭ and for the Chinese generals Yu In-wŭn and Kim In-t‘ă to meet them before P‘yŭng-yang. These two generals were in Păk-je at the time.