The Song of Silk and Iron

In the fifth year of Xianqing during Emperor Gaozong's reign in the Tang dynasty (660 AD), Su Dingfang, commander-in-chief of the Tang army on the Shenqiu Road, led his forces across the sea to conquer Baekje and capture King Uija. On Baekje's former territory, he established the Tang Protectorate of Ungjin, placing Goguryeo under attack from both north and south. The campaign against Liaodong, which had dragged on intermittently for more than half a century since Emperor Yang of Sui launched his invasion in the seventh year of Daye (605 AD), at last seemed close to victory. But just after Su Dingfang presented Baekje's royal captives in Chang'an, Baekje erupted in rebellion. Gwisil Boksin, a distant member of the royal house, and the monk Dochim brought back Prince Buyeo Pungjang, who had been held hostage in Wa, and launched a restoration movement. The Wa people seized the opportunity to send troops to the peninsula, hoping to reclaim their former lands in the “Four Counties of Imna.” Meanwhile, the celebrated general Wang Wendu, newly appointed governor of Ungjin, fell gravely ill and died as soon as he disembarked. Their ally Silla remained evasive, and Tang rule in Baekje teetered on the brink of collapse. At this perilous moment, Wang Wenzuo, a transmigrator from a thousand years in the future, turned the tide and fulfilled the long-cherished wish of generations of Sui and Tang rulers. He avenged the fathers and brothers of hundreds of thousands of people from the Central Plains, making the lands east of the sea part of Tang territory. And that was only the beginning: the world set out on a different course.