Gundemar makes one expedition against the Basques,…

The Sui soldiers have been gathered at Zhuo Prefecture by 612, and …

…Emperor Yang launches his attack with a reported one million men, attacking a number of cities in Goguryeo territory, but targeting mainly the important city of Liaodong (in modern Liaoyang, Liaoning) and …

…Goguryeo's capital Pyongyang.

However, contrary to the desires of the generals, Emperor Yang orders that their tactical decisions must first be submitted to and approved by him before they can be carried out.

Thus all the Goguryeo forts and cities are able to withstand Sui forces and thus Manchuria does not have much of a chance to be conquered.

Emperor Yang, however, makes a new plan to keep the Goguryeo forts at bay while sending another army of three hundred and fifty thousand troops, alongside the navy, to siege the Goguryeo capital.

The navy arrives first and under a hastily given order, the navy attacks the capital but is defeated by ambush.

The navy then waits for the land army to arrive.

The supply of food has also been delayed much and many Sui soldiers die of famine.

Then the Goguryeo General Eulji Meundeok rallies Goguryeo forces and constantly ambushes Sui forces while feigning retreat.

The Sui army reaches the Salsu (Chongchon River), but Eulji and the Goguryeo forces are waiting in ambush.

A dam had been made at the Salsu River to make the river seem it is shallow.

When the Sui army is in the middle of the River, the dam is opened and many Sui soldiers drown.

Out of the three hundred and five thousand men that had entered the river, only twenty-seven hundred soldiers escape death.

Thus the Sui army, or what is left of it, makes a speedy retreat retreats back to the Liaodong Peninsula.

This war, which Gorguryeo eventually wins, leaves the Sui dynasty with devastating losses in soldiers, money and support from the people.

Crippled by the enormous loss of manpower and resources as a result of its Korean campaigns, the Sui dynasty soon starts to crumble from within and will finally be brought down by internal strife, to be replaced soon thereafter by the Tang.

The Korean performer Mimashi introduces into Japan in 612 gigaku, the Chinese form of Buddhist processional drama, in which actors wearing masks impersonate Buddhas, demons, and men in comic sketches that ridicule lust, violence, and other human sins.

Masks for the characters Brahman and Garuda originate in India.

Emperor Yang again orders that soldiers be gathered at Zhuo Prefecture, as he prepares a second campaign against Goguryeo in spring 613.

He also selects the most elite of the soldiers into a specialized corps, the Xiaoguo Army (meaning, "the strong and brave").

Hereafter, the Xiaoguo Army becomes his own personal guard.

In response to the conscription order, even more men desert and joined the agrarian rebels, throwing the northern central part of the empire into a state of confusion.

With the prefecture officials having little military training, the rebels largely go unchecked but for the efforts of the general Zhang Xutuo, who is able to defeat some of the rebels but is not able to generally suppress them.

Emperor Yang crosses the Liao River again and puts Manchuria under siege in summer 613.

However, at this time, news arrives that Yang Su's son Yang Xuangan had rebelled near Luoyang.

With the people disaffected by the Goguryeo campaigns, Yang Xuangan receives much popular support and threatens Luoyang.

Emperor Yang, in fear, lifts the siege on Liaodong and also orders the southern offensive to be terminated, returning to Zhuo Prefecture while …

…sending Yuwen and Qutu Tong south to aid Luoyang.

The general in charge of defending Chang'an, Wei Wensheng, also comes to Luoyang's aid.

Together, these forces outnumber Yang Xuangan's and deal him several defeats.

Yang Xuangan decides to try to advance west to capture Chang'an as a base of operations, but on the way is again defeated, and he has his brother Yang Jishan kill him, to avoid capture.

At Emperor Yang's orders, the officials Fan Zigai and Pei Yun carry out mass-scale reprisals, executing a large number of people who had followed Yang Xuangan.

The external menace of the Avars and the Persians is the most threatening problem faced by Heraclius, and neither people has abated its pressure on the empire during the first years of the new regime.

The Persians, having thoroughly penetrated Asia Minor, now turn to the south.

Khosrau's ablest general, Shahrbaraz, leads a second invasion of Mesopotamia in 613.

Damascus is taken in this year.

Emperor Heraclius’ forces besiege Antioch in 613, but lose Syria, Tarsus, and Armenia to the Persians within the year.