Na Se

Na Se (羅世, 1320 – 8 October 1397 (17th day of the 9th lunar month)) was a military commander of the late Goryeo and early Joseon periods who had defected from the Yuan dynasty.

Biography

Calculating backward from the record in the Veritable Records of King Taejo (《太祖實錄》) that he was 78 years old at the time of his death, his birth year becomes 1320 (the 7th year of the Yuan Yanyou era, the 7th year of King Chungsuk of Goryeo).

As a defector from the Yuan, he became a Second-Class Meritorious Subject in 1363 (the 12th year of King Gongmin) for his achievements in suppressing the Red Turban Rebellion. In the first month of the following year, when the Choe Yu's Rebellion broke out, he replaced Commander-in-Chief Hong Seon (洪瑄), who had been captured by the enemy at Jeongju (定州), and became Commander-in-Chief of the Military Affairs Office. Together with An U-gyeong (安遇慶), Yi Gwi-su (李龜壽), Ji Yong-su (池龍壽), and others, he fought in charge of the left wing of the Goryeo army. However, later, as Captain of Gyodong, he failed to stop a Japanese pirate (wokou) incursion and fled back, for which he was imprisoned in the Sunwi Office (巡衛府).

In the 23rd year of King Gongmin (1374), he served as a deputy commander under Ji Yun (池奫), Commander-in-Chief of Gyeongsang Province, as one of the commanders tasked with subjugating the Mongol Mokho (牧胡) of Jeju, who had refused the Goryeo court's order to send 2,000 horses to the Ming court and sent only 300.

In August of the 2nd year of King U (1375), he was appointed Upper Commander-in-Chief of Seohae Province and concurrently Commissioner-General, as a military commander tasked with blocking the troops of the Northern Yuan who sought to enter Goryeo to escort the Sim (King of Shim) Tultuk Pulhwa (脫脫不花) and his mother. (The Vice Commander-in-Chief of Seohae Province was Park Bo-ro (朴普老), Vice Commissioner of the Privy Council, who also served concurrently as Commissioner of Inspection.)

In September of the 3rd year of King U (1376), he became Upper Commander-in-Chief of Jeolla Province and concurrently Pacification Commissioner. In October, when a fleet of 50 Japanese pirate ships anchored at Ungyeon (熊淵), crossed Jeokhyeon (狄峴), raided Buryeong County (扶寧縣), and burned the Dongjin Bridge (東津橋) to block the advance of the Goryeo army, Na Se, together with Byeon An-yeol (邊安烈), Jo Sa-min (趙思敏), and others, built a bridge at night and attacked the pirates, surrounding and attacking from all sides the pirates who had fled to Haengan Mountain (幸安山), defeating them.