28 t h e a n n a l s o f k i n g t’a e j o
and, then, marching another 700 li, he crossed the Yalu River. That day, a
strong purple energy was quite visible in the northern sky of the capital, and
its shadows extended all the way to the south. The officials of the Directorate
of the Astronomical and Meteorological Observatory (Sŏungwan), in their
report to the king, said, “This portends a valiant general.” Pleased with the
report, the king replied, “The sign must have to do with Yi [Sŏnggye], whom
I sent to the north.”
At that time, Yi Wulutiermuer, the associate administrator (tongzhi) of
Tongnyŏng Administration, heard that T’aejo was on his way [to China]
with his army, so he moved to Ura Mountain Fortress [in Kapsan] and tried
to stop T’aejo’s advance by blocking the main road.
As T’aejo arrived at Yedun Village, Yi Wŏn’gyŏng (Wulutiermuer in
Mongolian) attempted to mount a challenge but soon gave up. Taking off
his armor and kowtowing twice, he said, “My ancestors were originally
Koreans. So, let me be your servant.” Then he surrendered to T’aejo, bring-
ing three hundred households with him. However, Administrator Ko Anwi,
who was Wŏngyŏng’s superior, refused to surrender, staying inside the for-
tress walls. Consequently, T’aejo’s troops laid siege to him. T’aejo, however,
had no bows and arrows with him at the moment, so his subordinates
brought him the bow and arrows that he needed. T’aejo aimed at Anwi’s
face and shot seventy times, with each arrow hitting the target. The spec-
tacle demoralized the people inside the walls and threw Anwi into a panic
so that he ran away in the night, abandoning his wife and children.
The following day, some twenty enemy leaders surrendered their people
to T’aejo, and many other fortresses also joined them after the news reached
them. Thus, T’aejo managed to win over another ten thousand households
to his side. He then returned to their original owners over two thousand
oxen and several hundred horses that he had captured during battle, and this
gesture impressed the people in the Northern Region so much that they
gathered to follow T’aejo like crowds in a marketplace.
So the territories extending to Hwangsŏng [in Kanggye] in the east, the
Tongnyŏng Administration in the north, the sea to the west, and the Yalu
River in the south, were finally brought under control. Hwangsŏng was
originally the imperial capital of Jurchen rulers.
Bai Zhu, vice commissioner of military affairs (shumifushi) of the Yuan
dynasty, as well as the officials of the Tongnyŏng Administration, including
Yi Wŏn’gyŏng, Yi Paegan, Yi Changsu, Yi Ch’ŏnu, Hyŏn Tasa, Kim A, and