Toyotomi Hideyoshi was not only one of the three masters of the Warring States Period, but also one of the most ambitious tyrants in Japanese history, although he was from a humble origin, but his luck was like a rainbow, after gaining the trust and weight of Oda Nobunaga, he rose all the way to become one of the top names in Japan at that time; after Oda Nobunaga died in the Honnō-ji Rebellion, his power quickly dispersed, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi completely inherited the family foundation left by Oda Nobunaga after defeating many opponents.
After that, Toyotomi Hideyoshi began to attack other separatist forces on a large scale, such as the Tokugawa clan, the Nagamasa Ibu clan, the Sasa Narimasa of Etsuchin, the Shimazu clan, and the Hojo clan, and finally completed the unification of Japan. But in Toyotomi Hideyoshi's mind, the unification of Japan was only the first step, and his dream was to move the capital to Beijing and "live in Ningbo Province" himself in order to "honor the holy will and occupy Tianzhu India."
As a Japanese at that time, I really doubted whether Toyotomi Hideyoshi had traveled back in time, otherwise how could he have such lofty ideals and clear goals with his poor background? You know, even the aristocratic Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu did not have such a grand ideal, it was almost as if Japan's strategic planning appeared in advance hundreds of years later.
In order to achieve this goal, Toyotomi Hideyoshi gathered most of Japan's military strength and launched a war to invade Korea; perhaps many people looked down on Japan and thought that the Japanese Sengoku period was nothing more than a "village chief fight"; in fact, it is recorded that Toyotomi Hideyoshi sent 100,000 troops when he pacified the Nagamasa I clan, 300,000 troops when he attacked satsuma kingdom, and 260,000 troops when he destroyed the Hojo clan.
Moreover, after more than a hundred years of melee, Japan's military strength has made great progress, the use of firearms is also relatively skilled, and most of them are veterans, brave in battle, and it is not exaggerated to call it the division of tigers and wolves; so when Toyotomi Hideyoshi invaded Korea, the Korean state did not have the slightest resistance, and was gradually defeated and retreated, and was pushed all the way to the vicinity of the capital city of Pyongyang, if it were not for the Ming Dynasty sending troops to aid in time, I am afraid that Korea would have fallen.
Many people say that the Ming Dynasty army fought Japan very easily, is this really the case? In fact, this is a bit of blind arrogance, although the Japanese army at that time may have a certain gap with the Ming Dynasty army in terms of equipment and physical fitness, but this gap is actually not large, especially the Japanese samurai class, as the Japanese nobles, they are not lacking in exercise and nutritional supplies, and they are well equipped and very brave.
What kind of preparations did Toyotomi Hideyoshi prepare to achieve his goals? He mobilized a total of 306,250 troops, divided into nine legions of 158,700 men and rushed to Korea, with Ukita Hideya as the commander-in-chief, and also prepared a reserve of 105,000 troops at Hizen Nagoya; the Ming Dynasty drew 70,000 troops from various guard houses to Go korea, you know, the army of the Nine Border Guard was the most elite force of the Ming Dynasty at that time.
The battle was won and lost, not the crushing victory as it is now called, but in the end it still had the advantage, crushing the Japanese army in the Jincheng area in southern Korea; at this time, it was the battle of the water army, and Lee Shun-chen, who is now touted by the Koreans, is indeed the genius of Korea's unborn water warfare, but it is only the genius of Korea, although several victories such as the Battle of Tampo and the Great Victory of Idle Mountain Island were achieved, but Toyotomi Hideyoshi, at the suggestion of the minister, quickly changed his thinking and let Lee Shun-chen lose the Battle of Busanpo.
After that, the naval battle also reached a stalemate; how did the first Korean War end? It was because of the stalemate in the war situation, coupled with the excessive destruction of Korea, the epidemic of plague, the difficulty of local grain requisition, and the eagerness to preserve the results of the battle to occupy the four provinces in southern Korea, toyotomi Hideyoshi decided to negotiate peace with the Ming Court, that is, in the first war, the Japanese side did not lose, after all, it still occupied busan and other Korean territories, but did not want to continue the stalemate.
Moreover, Toyotomi Hideyoshi was still contemplating a second invasion of Korea; the North Koreans soon gave Toyotomi Hideyoshi an excuse. After summarizing the experience of the first engagement, the second invasion of Toyotomi Hideyoshi again sent 150,000 troops; while the Ming dynasty gathered 80,000 troops to aid Korea, the two sides still won and lost each other, but the Losses of the Ming army were obviously far more than the first, for example, in the Battle of Sacheon, due to the explosion of the Ming army's powder depot, Shimazu Yoshihiro took the opportunity to attack, causing heavy losses to the Ming army.
Just when the generals on both sides were fighting in full swing, Toyotomi Hideyoshi died of illness, and after this news reached Korea, the morale of the Japanese army was frustrated and they began to prepare for retreat; when the Japanese army retreated, the Ming general Deng Zilong and the Korean general Li Shunchen led their troops to pursue the retreating Japanese sailors in order to expand the results of the battle, so the Battle of Luliang broke out, and as a result, it was not Deng Zilong, let alone Li Shunchen, who laid the foundation for the victory in the Luliang Sea, because these two people were not killed in battle after the battle began; it was Liu Ling and Chen Lu who really won the victory in the Luliang Sea.
But in general, although the two Korean Wars, so that the Japanese army suffered heavy losses (before and after the loss of about 80,000), but the Ming army losses are also a lot, casualties as high as 30,000 to 60,000, which is a huge loss for the Ming Dynasty, especially the loss of most of the town to defend the Liaodong border army, because these excellent soldiers died in battle, so let the later Jianzhou Jurchen Nurhaci expand the power to provide an opportunity.
In fact, if it were not for the sudden death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the outcome of the Second Korean War would have been bad, after all, before his death, the Japanese army was dominant; and the Ming Dynasty at that time was actually difficult to persevere. At the time of the first aid to Korea, the Ming Dynasty's grain and grass salaries were already difficult to insist on; the second time, the Ming Dynasty's treasury was almost hollowed out.
Moreover, although the Ming Dynasty army at that time was as many as three million (in fact, only more than 800,000), it was only the border army that could be used, and the total number of border troops was about half a million, but these half a million to defend the vast northern frontier of the Ming Dynasty were actually very scattered, and it could only be said that it was barely enough. If Toyotomi Hideyoshi could still launch the Third Korean War, the Korean Peninsula would definitely fall, and as for the Liaodong region, it would depend on who was stronger, the Japanese army and Nurhaci's Jurchen Eight Banner Army, in short, the Ming Dynasty was powerless and could only be passively defensive.