Least of all little Koguryǒ, a country the size of a Sui Commandery with a tiny military.' 'Your Majesty,' Yuwen Shu continued, 'it would be hard to imagine that any foreign power would be foolish enough to challenge the might of the Sui with its more than 1 million men under arms. Only recently had he been reinstated by the Emperor. As one of the key commanding officers in the War of Daye 8 (612), Yuwen had been brought back to Luoyang in chains after it had ended in ignominious defeat for the Sui. Silence gripped the hall for a while before a high-pitched, feeble voice from the audience said: 'Your Majesty, in my humble opinion, the Koguryǒ bandits are not strong enough to withstand another assault by our mighty army.' With an emaciated face and tall stature the speaker Yuwen Shucarried himself with a military bearing despite his advanced age of over 70. 'This time,' He resumed, 'I will lead in person.' If we so desire, we can pull up the Eastern Sea and remove Mount Tai, to say nothing of crushing these small-time bandits.We must launch another war against them.' Still, they have managed to humiliate our superior state-the Great Sui. Pausing briefly He continued in a raised voice, 'Now about the Koguryǒ. In a stately but factual tone, He spoke about, among other things, the widespread drought in the North, especially in Shandong, which had given rise to insurgency, and berated His generals for failure to stamp it out. The throne was positioned atop a marble dais above two flights of stairs at the northern end of the commodious hall. He was sitting on a yellow silk throne beneath an ornate yellow baldachin. The War of Daye 9One morning in late March, Daye 9 (613), the Emperor Yang, a soft-skinned man in his 40s, was speaking to a gathering of leading civil officials and top military commanders in the assembly hall of the Daye Basilica in Luoyang the Eastern Capital.

Heavenly Khan by Victor Cunrui Xiong