Gung Ye
Gung Ye first joined the troops of Gi Hwon in 891 but left shortly after as Gi Hwon did not fully trust him. Gung Ye joined Yang Gil's rebellion force in 892, and became leading general of the rebel forces by defeating the local Silla army and other rebel groups. Most local aristocrats of Myeongju and Paeseo, including Wang Gun, submitted to his force, making him even more powerful than his master Yang Gil. Silla, after nearly a millennium as a centralized kingdom was quickly declining, and Gung Ye instigated his own rebellion in present-day Kaesŏng in 898. After turning against his master, Yang Gil, he eventually defeated and subjugated him and other local lords in central Korea to proclaim himself king of Hugoguryeo in 901.With his rival Gyeon Hwon's Hubaekje taking control of the peninsula's southwest, he opened up the Later Three Kingdoms period of Korean History, a reference to the so-called Three Kingdoms period of Korea, several centuries earlier.