took the throne for himself. However, Gyeon Hwon escaped to Goryeo. Military affairs For much of its existence, Hubaekje was troubled by Wang Geon's naval raids in Naju region. These worked to disrupt trade and diplomatic ties with Southern Chinese kingdoms. Hubaekje possessed considerable military strength, and Lee (1984, p. 99) writes of Gyeon Hwon that "Had Gung Ye and Wang Geon not stood in his way, he surely would have had little difficulty in toppling Silla." Hubaekje showed its greatest strength in 927. In that year its armies attacked and pillaged the Silla capital at Gyeongju, slaying King Gyeongae and establishing King Gyeongsun as the ruler. Before the attack, Silla had sent for aid from Goryeo, and Wang Geon arrived with a large army shortly after Gyeongju was taken. The two armies met near Palgong Mountain in present-day Daegu. Wang Geon's forces in the battle reportedly numbered 10,000 men. Hubaekje triumphed, and Wang Geon himself only escaped through the daring self-sacrifice of his general Shin Sung-gyeom and Kim Nak. However, when the two armies met again at the Battle of Gochang near Andong in 930, Goryeo scored a decisive victory. Hubaekje was pushed back into its heartland, and there suffered a further crippling defeat at Hongseong in 934. Diplomatic ties As Wang Geon sought to maintain legitimacy through diplomatic ties with northern China, Gyeon Hwon strove to do the same by maintaining ties with the rulers of southern China, particularly Wuyue. However, because Hubaekje's existence largely coincided with the turbulent Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period in China, neither side was able to parlay these ties into military support. Fall After he was deposed by his sons in 935 and fled to Goryeo, Gyeon Hwon himself came to lead the armies against Hubaekje. Together with Wang Geon, the Samguk Yusa reports that he led an army of 100,000 against his former kingdom. The Goryeo and Hubaekje armies met at Seonsan, today part of Gumi in North Gyeongsang province, and the Hubaekje forces were destroyed. Hubaekje thus finally fell in 936, one year after King Gyeongsun had surrendered Silla to Wanggeon. The battle of Seonsan thus marked the end of the Later Three Kingdoms period. In his own characteristically open-handed style, Wang Geon conferred a title upon the defeated leader Singeom. Singeom's younger brothers Yanggeom and Yonggeom, who were judged to have been to blame for the coup d'etat, were