Yu Sa-ryong

Yu Sa-ryong (劉士龍, ? – 612) was a politician of the Sui dynasty. He was a person of Hongnong Commandery. He accompanied the Second Goguryeo–Sui War as a pacification envoy, and after the defeat he was executed because of his heavy responsibility for it.

Life

During the reign of Emperor Wen of Sui, he served as Vice Minister of Merit Assessment (考功侍郞) and was regarded as capable.¹ In 612 (8th year of Daye), at the time of the Second Goguryeo–Sui War, he was Vice Director of the Department of State Affairs (尙書右丞) and accompanied the army as a pacification envoy. In the third month (lunar calendar), when the Sui army succeeded in crossing the Liao River and besieged Liaodong Castle, Emperor Yang issued a general amnesty throughout the realm and ordered Yu Sa-ryong, together with Vice Minister of Justice Wei Wencheng, to pacify the residents east of the Liao River and exempt them from taxes for ten years.

In the sixth month (lunar calendar), he also accompanied, as a pacification envoy, the special detachment of Yuwen Shu, Yu Zhongwen and others, which had been organized to attack Pyongyang, the capital of Goguryeo, directly. When the detachment reached the Amnok River, the Goguryeo general Eulji Mundeok entered their camp under the pretense of surrender in order to probe their strength and weakness. Yuwen Shu and Yu Zhongwen, who had received a secret edict from Emperor Yang to capture him if he came, tried to do so, but Yu Sa-ryong strongly dissuaded them, causing them to let Eulji Mundeok escape. In the end, the special detachment fell into Eulji Mundeok's luring tactics and suffered a crushing defeat at the Salsu (present-day ) (). Yu Sa-ryong was beheaded in the eleventh month (lunar calendar) of that year for this crime.