About General Gang Gamchan
When Gang Gam-chan was born, an envoy from Song China was in the county of Siheung late at night when he saw a huge star fall on a house and sent a clerk to check, to learn that the woman of the house had just given birth to a boy. The Song envoy visited the home, where, upon seeing the baby offered a bow and said that he was the auspicious star Mungokseong, which had long disappeared. The virtual starting point is at the birthplace of general Ganggamchan, but it is a play anywhere wherigo so you may start anywhere.
General Ganggamchan is famous in the Nakseongdae area because of his exemplary military explits in the Goryeo-Kitan Wars. There is even an annual festival every summer dedicated to his memory at Nakseongdae Park. At the coordinates you can read about Ganggamchan and even see a mural dedicated to his birth.
In 993, the Liao Dynasty ordered General Xiao Sunning to invade Goryeo. The opinions among the court officials were divided, either to fight against the Khitans or to negotiate with them. Gang supported the use of negotiations, which was also supported by the king as the official decision. Seo Hui was sent to General Xiao as Korean representative, and the successful truce negotiation led to the withdrawal of Khitan forces and establishment of friendly relationship between Liao and Goryeo.
In 1004, the Khitans defeated the Chinese Song Dynasty and forced its emperor to pay tribute to the Khitan. With Song defeated, the only threat remaining against the Khitans was Goryeo. Also in 1009, General Gang Jo of Goryeo led a coup against the government; he deposed and murdered King Mokjong and began a military rule, and broke the peaceful relationship with the Khitans. The Khitans saw this as their reason to attack Goryeo, and in 1010, Emperor Shengzong of Liao led a massive invasion with a contingent of 400,000 soldiers, commanding the troops himself. Suffering heavy casualties in five major engagements, the Khitans finally defeated the Goryeo army and executed their commander General Gang Jo.
However, Gang urged King Hyeonjong to escape from the palace, not to surrender to the invading Liao troops. The King followed Gang's advice, and managed to escape from the burning capital. A Korean insurgency began to harass Khitan forces, which finally compelled Shengzong to withdraw his army. The Khitans won the war, but gained no benefit from it; rather spending precious resources in vain and reducing the national treasury. Thus another bloody war between the two nations was foreshadowed, and tensions would further lead to the Third Goryeo-Khitan War. Gang was later promoted to Prime Minister.
In 1018, General Xiao Baiya, under orders of the Liao administration, led an expedition to Goryeo with a 100,000 man contingent. This time, many officials urged the king to commence peace negotiations, since the damage from the Second Goryeo-Khitan War had been so great, leaving Goryeo difficult to recover. However, Gang advised the king to declare war against the Liao, since the enemy contingent was much smaller than in previous invasions. He volunteered to be the acting deputy War minister for the duration of the war, at the age of seventy-one. He led about 208,000[1][circular reference] men toward the Goryeo-Liao border.
The first battle of the war was the Battle of Heunghwajin, which was a significant victory of Goryeo by blocking the stream and destroying the dam when Khitans were crossing the water. However, General Xiao did not give up the hope of capturing the capital Kaesung, and continued to march south. Later, Xiao realized that the mission was impossible to accomplish, and decided to retreat. General Gang knew that the Khitan army would withdraw from the war, and awaited them at the fortress of Gwiju, where he encountered the retreating Khitans in 1019.
Discouraged and starving, the Khitans were defeated by the Goryeo army. Only General Xiao and few remaining survivors managed to escape from the devastating defeat. This battle is known as the Battle of Gwiju. General Gang returned to the capital and was welcomed as the military hero who saved the kingdom. After the war, Gang retired from both the military and the government to rest, since he was too old, already having become a national hero. He was appointed as Prime Minister in 1030, one year before his death. He died in 1031 on the 20th day of the 8th lunar month (9 September 1031).
About this cache
This geocache is not at posted coordinates, but I think it's a great place to start. You can see the birthplace of general Ganggamchan there. This wherigo cache is a little different from other wherigo caches. This is a reverse wherigo. You can start your reverse Wherigo journey from the listed coordinates or from anywhere on Earth! This Wherigo converts your player into a virtual version of the "Reverse Cache Box" which tells you the distance to the cache, but not the bearing. Your search begins using either your smartphone or Wherigo compatible GPS to navigate to the cache. The cartridge was created by Waldmeister and can be downloaded HERE.
Your task is to find the cache by periodically querying your Reverse Cache Box for the distance to the final location. Try to use your Reverse Cache Box as few times as possible. All instructions and necessary information needed to complete the cartridge is contained within it. The cartridge is multilingual (but unfortunately no Korean). When entering the language you can shorten it to 2 digits, example: English to EN. To begin, you will have to type this code into your player:
113112 : 745972 : 237756
It is suggested that you take the code with you on your journey. It will be needed if it becomes necessary to restart your player for any reason. Bringing some scratch paper and a writing utensil will also come in handy to keep track of the distance to the cache provided by the virtual reverse cache box. This will assist you in narrowing down your search. Optional: Please indicate the number of times you used the "reverse cache box" in your log. At the end of the game, you will be given a personal pass-code which you can enter into the cartridge if you select "create" rather than "play" when you start the cartridge. Save this code, and if you ever wish to create your own reverse cache, you can do so. -Waldmeister- would like you to inform him of your new edition of his handiwork.
Please do not include hints in your log about where and how you found the cache or post photos that would give away the final location. This spoils the fun for future finders of this cache. Any Spoilers in the logs will be deleted. Have Fun!