As mentioned in the previous article, tomorrow the peace talks between the two countries will break down and the war situation will begin again. Some of the troops of the invading Japanese army in the Central Plains had already returned to China, and at this time they also returned to Korea again to fight, which was called the "Battle of Gyeongchang". The Shimazu family originally had more than 3,000 people stationed on Geoje Island in North Korea, and after Shimazu Yoshihiro returned to China, he gathered more than 7,000 people as an incentive to redistribute the "floating land" detected in the inspection site. After Shimazu Yoshihiro crossed the sea and joined the Shimazu Tadahitoshi Division, the Shimazu family had a total of about 10,000 troops in Korea. As a result, the Shimazu family was able to take on some of the more important combat tasks in the Battle of Keicho and was very active, which was very different from the inaction in the Battle of Bunroku.
As soon as the Battle of Keicho began, the situation was quite favorable to the Japanese army:
First, during the peace talks between the two countries, the main force of the Ming army to aid the DPRK has returned to China, and although the Ming Dynasty has decided to send troops to rescue the DPRK again, the expedition of the large army is not so easy, and it will take several months to prepare. What's more, at that time, the enemy of the Ming Dynasty was not only Japan, but also had to fight with the Mongols, Tatars, and Yang Yinglong, the Tusi of Guizhou, at the same time, and the strength of the troops was inevitably stretched. To this end, the Ming Dynasty even had to transfer troops from Zhejiang, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou and other places to Korea. According to the information transmission and traffic conditions at that time, this back and forth, a year and a half of time almost passed. The period before the arrival of ming reinforcements was a good time for the Japanese army to launch a strategic offensive.
The Ming Dynasty mobilized a large army to support Korea
Second, North Korea destroyed the Great Wall and imprisoned the famous admiral Li Shunchen, and the Japanese army lacked a strong opponent.
Third, the Korean naval army without Li Shunchen was nothing, and was defeated in the Battle of Qichuanliang, and the warships were lost. The Japanese army's sea communication supply line was relieved of the threat, and there was no worries, and it was safe to attack on land.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="7" > I. Battle of Nanyuan</h1>
After the Battle of Qichuanliang, the Japanese army's sea traffic supply lines were strengthened, and the confidence of the Japanese army was also encouraged. After the good news reached Japan, Toyotomi Hideyoshi personally made a deployment, ordering the left and right armies to attack north according to the original route, targeting the Korean king Jing hancheng, in an attempt to reproduce the glorious record of the Japanese army driving straight into the battle of Wenlu to attack Wang Jing in one fell swoop.
According to Toyotomi Hideyoshi's deployment, the Left Route Army attacked Jeonju and Raju with Ukita Hideya as the general and Governor Konishi as the vanguard, and the strategic task was to suppress Jeolla Province and ensure the safety of the rear of the Right Route Army, and the Right Route Army, with Maori Hidemoto as the general and Kato Kiyomasa as the vanguard, attacked Gongju and Cheongju, and the strategic task was to break through Chungcheong-do and take Wangjing Hancheng directly.
The Japanese offensive route at the Battle of Keicho
Yoshihiro Shimazu's forces were placed under the command of the Left Route Army, Ukita Hideya. Shimazu Yoshihiro personally led his main army, with Shimazu Tadaharu, Shimazu Toyohisa, Shimazu Tadanaga, Kawakami Tadashi and other important ministers, landed in Busanpo from Gadeok Island, left Kamada Masahide, Shinna Ryuan, and other personnel to collect and dispatch military food and materials in Busan Castle, and the rest followed the army from Busan Castle, passing through Gimhae, Changwon, Yining, and Jinju, and marched toward Jeonju, the capital of Jeolla Province.
At this time, the main force of the Ming reinforcements had not yet reached Korea, and the first to arrive was Yang Yuan, the deputy commander of Liaodong province closest to Korea. Yang Yuan was a native of Liaoyang, with 5,000 Liaodong soldiers, including 3,000 cavalry and 2,000 infantry crossbowmen, and was equipped with ten artillery pieces, a small number, but they were all the elite of the Ming army. Yang Yuan followed Li Rusong in the Second Battle of Pyongyang City during the Battle of Wenlu and made great achievements. Since then, when the two countries were in wartime and peace, Yang Yuankong had a brave martial art that could not be used, which was regrettable. Later, when the imperial court decided to conquer Korea again, Yang Yuan was very excited, and rushed to Korea as soon as he rushed to Korea, directly to Wang Jing, where he was received by King Li Fu of Joseon. Yang Yuan asked Li Fu to review the swords, guns, armor, and artillery of the Ming Army, and Li Fu was wide-eyed and full of praise. Yang Yuan triumphantly boasted of Haikou:
"I will go south to pacify the Wokou on the same day, and if I cannot destroy the Wokou this time, I will never see His Highness again."
After learning that the Japanese army was attacking Jeonju in a big way, Yang Yuan could not wait for Yang Ho, Xing Jiu, Ma Gui and other main generals to arrive, so he decided to lead his troops and horses to Jeonju to support. Yang Yuan came to Jeonju, asked Lee Fu-nam, the korean soldier and horse envoy of Jeolla Province, about the situation, and then looked at the map, believing that the terrain of Namwon was dangerous and was a barrier for Jeonju, and decided to leave the general Chen Yuzhen with 2,000 men to defend Jeonju, and he and Li Funan led a large army to defend Namwon.
Nanyuan was indeed a strategic stronghold, originally garrisoned by Luo Shangzhi, a staff general of the Ming Army. Later, Luo Shangzhi followed Li Rusong out of Korea, and Namwon Castle was abandoned as an empty city.
On June 14, the 25th year of the Wanli Calendar (1597, the second year of The Japanese Keicho), Yang Yuan entered Nanwon Castle. Yang Yuan was not a great general, but basic common sense was still there, he saw that the city wall of Nanyuan City was in disrepair, and immediately began to repair the city wall, dig trenches around the city wall, and set up artillery positions on the city wall, dig gun ports, evacuate the Korean people in the villages near Namwon City, demolish houses, gather grain and materials into the city, and implement the practice of clearing the field. After a meal of operation, the weather of Nanyuan City was new, and it was quite impregnable. Yang Yuan was proud again, and said to Li Funan: "A thief is like a sheep, I am like a tiger, how dare a thief approach me?" ”
On August 13, the Japanese left route army of Jeonju, Ukita Hideya, Governor Konishi, Yoshihiro Shimazu, Katsunobu Mori, and Bee-Suga Ieasa, who had been killed in Jeonju, arrived at Namwon Castle. Among the Left Route Army, there were almost 7,000 or 8,000 people in the Shimazu family alone, and counting several other daimyōs, the total number was about 50,000 people. On the side of the Ming and Korean forces, in addition to the two thousand Chen Yuzhen who remained in Jeonju, Yang Yuan also had three thousand Liaodong soldiers in Namwon City, and more than two thousand Korean Jeolla Dao soldiers, adding up to about 5,000 people.
The strength of the Japanese army was ten times that of the Ming Dynasty army. At that time, Yang Yuanshang did not know the specific number of Japanese troops, but as soon as he looked at the position of the Japanese army, he knew that the japanese army's strength far exceeded his own side, and he could not help but regret that he was too light on the enemy. But Yang Yuan quickly calmed down, and now there was no other way, only to hold the city first, wait for reinforcements, or look for opportunities to carry out surprise attacks, in order to turn defeat into victory. Therefore, he divided the defenders in the city into four teams, he personally led Liaodong Jing to guard the south gate, the deputy general of the Chinese army, Li Xinfang, guarded the east gate, The Qianzong Jiang Biao and Mao Chengxian guarded the west gate, and Li Funan led the Korean soldiers to guard the north gate.
Yang Yuan's deployment was very targeted, and it was completely based on the countermeasures implemented in response to the Japanese army's siege of the city on all sides. The formation of the Japanese army was that the general Ukita Hideka led the main force of the Left Route Army to attack the south gate, and Yang Yuan saw that the main force of the Japanese army was arranged at the south gate, so he personally led the elite horse to fight at the south gate for defense and defense. It was Governor Konishi, Munakata, and Arima Haruho who attacked the west gate, Yoshihiro Shimazu, Katsunobu Mori, and Iesema Ieasa who attacked the east gate, and takatoro Fujido, Kato Yoshiaki, Yasuji Wakosaka, and other sailors who attacked the north gate. The water army is naturally not a strong point in siege, but it can play a role in containing the defenders, and the combat strength is relatively weak, so Yang Yuan also put the weakest Korean soldiers in the defenders at the north gate.
According to the Shimazu family's historical record of the Conquest of Korea, during the Battle of Namwon, the Shimazu family's main line was located at Kanewa Peak in the south of the city, not far from the general Ukita Hideya. Yoshihiro Shimazu was mainly working with Shimazu Tadao, Tadatoshi Kawakami and other seniors in the main camp, and the command of the front line was handed over to young generals such as Shimazu Tadaoheng and Shimazu Toyohisa.
Young Warrior
However, at first, the Japanese army did not know how many defenders there were in Namwon Castle. On the first day of the battle, Ukita Hideya sent only a small number of troops for a tentative attack.
At noon on August 13, two of Ukita Hide's generals, Togawa Tatsuan and Nobuhide Hanabo, led an iron artillery team to shoot at the defenders of Namwon Castle, kicking off the Battle of Namwon. The Ming army was also not ambiguous, and returned fire with the Shengzi cannon. The Shengzi cannon is a small sub-mother gun cast in brass, the lethality is acceptable, but the range is relatively short, generally about 200 meters, which is similar to the range of the Japanese iron cannon. The guns and artillery of the two sides were fired at each other for half a day, and the situation seemed to be favorable to the Japanese army and not to the Ming army. Because it is difficult to achieve accurate shooting, it is not effective against a small number of scattered Japanese troops, but there are some sharpshooters in the Japanese army with extremely accurate marksmanship, and from time to time, Ming soldiers will be taken away by the Japanese iron cannon bullet headshots when they show up on the city wall.
Victory cannon
The first day of fighting was fought intermittently for an hour or so, and neither side achieved much success, and the battle situation fell into a stalemate for a while. The next day, Ukita Hideya received information that there were 3,000 Ming troops, 2,000 Korean troops in Namwon Castle, and another 2,000 Ming troops in Jeonju City. Ukita Hideya was immediately relieved, and he immediately arranged two things, one was to send Kato Yoshiaki, Arima Qingfeng, Zong Yizhi and other troops north to attack Jeonju, and the other was to ask those in the army who knew Korean to write a letter of persuasion to Yang Yuan, advising him to recognize the reality of the disparity in troop strength and surrender Kaesong. Yang Yuan's ability was not great, but he was bold and temperamental, and as soon as he heard that it was a letter of persuasion, he did not read it, tore the letter to pieces, and drove the messenger out of the city.
Refusing to surrender meant continuing the war and having to resist the Japanese offensive. Yang Yuan knew that he could not be sluggish, so he quickly arranged defenses, artillery and crossbows were in their places, and iron diamonds were scattered under the city, and iron nail plates were prepared at the head of the city to prevent the Japanese army from climbing the city wall, and the defenders of each city gate were divided into three teams, patrolling day and night in turn, ready to fight at any time.
The Japanese army was not idle on this side, tens of thousands of troops surrounded the Nanyuan City, lined up the siege bridges and fishing wells in front of the formation, beat the war drums and blew the conch every day, lit torches and fired iron cannons at night, and posed a posture of attacking the city at any time, but in fact, the troops did not move, the purpose was to paralyze the defenders and let the defenders slack off.
Sure enough, the Ming Army tensed his nerves so tightly every day, but the result was that there was no fart, and after three days, he could not help but relax his vigilance. At night on August 16, it began to rain like a torrent, and when the Ming army guarding the city saw this ghost weather, they presumably would not come tonight, and they all looked for a place to hide from the rain. The Night Raid of the Japanese Army also began at the same time.
Taking advantage of the heavy rain, the Japanese army filled in the trenches under the nanyuan castle with firewood and earth and stones, cleared the iron ling, erected the "sky bridge" (cloud ladder), quickly climbed up the wall, removed the iron nail plate, seized the strongholds on the city wall, and opened the city gate from the city. The Japanese were very efficient, and the four gates moved at the same time, breaking through the gates almost at the same time. According to post-war exploits, the south gate "First Gun" (the first person to climb the city wall to engage the enemy) was The Shin kantarō Bing Guard under Togawa Tatsuyasu, the east gate was Aoi Zenbei under Wasuga's home economics, the west gate was Ōkawa Hidemoto under the overseer Ota Kazuki, and the north gate was Fujido Hitoshi's right guard gate under Fujido Takatoshi.
Japanese siege
The four gates of Nanyuan Castle were broken, and the Japanese army poured into the city like a tide. Yang Yuan was startled in his sleep, too late to put on his armor, only wearing a single coat, and with the deputy general Ning Guoyin, eighteen family soldiers, and more than three hundred guards knights, he took the road and fled.
After the last peace talks between the two countries, ukita Hideyoshi expected that there would still be peace talks in the future, and in order to meet at the negotiating table in the future to talk well, he deliberately let the Ming Dynasty generals have a way to live, and did not block Yang Yuan, but gave way to the north gate and let him escape. But the other generals were not so lucky. The chinese vice generals Li Xinfang, Qianzong Mao Chengxian, Jiang Biao, and more than 2,700 Liaodong soldiers were all killed. The Korean side also suffered heavy losses, and most of the 2,000 officers and men, including Jeolla Province's soldiers and horses, Li Funan, Wu Yingjing, the defensive general Kim Kyung-lao, the bei general Shin Ho, the namwon envoy Ren Hyun, the judge Lee Deok-ho, the general officer Lee Chun-lan, the governor of Qiuli County, Lee Won-chun, the governor of Gwangyang County, and other 2,000 officers and men died in the chaos, and a few survivors were taken prisoner by the Japanese army. The North Korean envoy Zheng Zhiyuan, who was Yang Yuan's translator, could have followed Yang Yuan to escape from the North Gate, but the horse he was riding slipped and fell in the rain and mud, and Zheng Qiyuan did not have time to get up, and even the people with their horses were trampled to death by the soldiers.
On August 24, Yang Yuan fled to Wang Jing Hancheng, counted the number of remnants of the soldiers, and brought 3,000 Liaodong elite horses, leaving only 117 people. Because he had said to the King of Joseon, Li Fu, "If you can't destroy the Wozi this time, you will never see Your Highness again", he had no face to see Li Fu, but only stayed overnight at the Enwan Pavilion, and the next day he quietly left the city and returned to Liaodong. After returning to China, Yang Yuan was imprisoned for the crime of bereavement, and the following year, on July 17, the twenty-sixth year of the Ming Dynasty (1598), Yang Yuan was beheaded in Liaoyang.
During the Battle of Minamihara, the Shimazu family followed a large army and also gained some gains. According to records such as the History of the Shimazu Kingdom and the Records of the Conquest of Korea, Shimazu Tadahide's troops were beheaded by 421 ranks, and Shimazu Toyohisa's troops were beheaded by the thirteenth rank. It can be seen that Shimazu Yoshihiro handed over most of his troops to Shimazu Tadahide, while Shimazu Toyohisa commanded only a small Einsatzgru, so the difference in the results of the two teams was so huge. Among them, Shimazu Tadaharu "took himself as an enemy and killed a lot", which was particularly prominent. This shows that after several years of military training, Shimazu Tadaharu is no longer a playboy who only takes pleasure in keju, but has grown into a samurai general who can lead troops to fight.
Tadahiro Shimazu
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="77" >2, Jishan Victory</h1>
After the fall of Nanyuan, Chen Yuzheng, who was stationed in Jeonju, abandoned the city and retreated to Gongzhou. Chen Yuzhen's troops were yansui soldiers, many of whom were cavalry and elite troops, but unfortunately there were only two thousand people, and they could not stop the tens of thousands of japanese troops. Chen Yu was not "stupid", he did not want to be the second Yang Yuan.
After capturing Jeonju, ukita Hideka's Left Route Army turned south to attack the important towns of Raju and Gwangju, aiming to suppress Jeolla Province. At the same time, at the initiative of Yoshihiro Shimazu and others, the Japanese army also took some political measures to consolidate its rule in Jeolla Province and implement long-term management and domination. According to the History of Shimazu Kingdom:
"Gong (referring to Yoshihiro Shimazu) and Beesuga Awa Shou Iwa Shou Izumi, Ikoma Aki Mori Ichisei, Governor Konishi, Mori Yoshinari, Nabeshima Kaga Mori Naoshige, Ikeda Iyoshi Hideo, Nakagawa Repair Doctor Hidenari, Kumagai Uchizo Yoshinori, Akimi Kazumi Mori, Hayakawa Zomato Nagamasa, Yoshikawa Tibetan Tou Hiroya, Nagamasa Ibu Tosa Morimori personally wrote the list of the three links. Its main words: Gather the people and eliminate the remnants. One implements Danseong and the other implements Kunyang, both of whom are ruled by gong, and the other by Jeolla Province, and by Governor Konishi. ”
This shows that the top brass of the Japanese army has gradually realized that in the case of logistical supply difficulties, relying solely on looting is tantamount to killing chickens and taking eggs, and only by allowing the local people to settle down and engage in production can they continue to provide resources such as food and materials. Shimazu Tadaharu's "Diary of Entering Goryeo" also records that Shimazu Tadahiro suggested that his father, Shimazu Yoshihiro, set up markets in Jinju, Kunyang and other places to trade grain with the local Korean people with materials and goods brought from Japan.
However, some insightful figures such as Shimazu Yoshihiro and Shimazu Tadaharu were only a minority among the Japanese generals, and the actual implementation of these measures such as the list and the bazaar was very limited. According to Gyeongnian, a medical monk who followed the overseer Ota Kazuki to Korea, in the "Joseon Day Diary", he recorded the tragic situation after the Japanese army conquered Namwon Castle:
"After dawn, soldiers set fire to houses and hunted down the remnants, both military and civilian, young and old. Dead bodies cover the road, and the fishy wind fills the city, making people cover their noses and can't bear to breathe. ”
This shows that the Japanese army slaughtered the city in Namwon Castle, and the policies advocated by Shimazu Yoshihiro, such as "gathering the people", have not been implemented.
The tragic situation after the destruction of the city
While the Left Route Army was running Jeolla Province, Maori Hidemoto's Right Route Army attacked Chungcheong Province north through Jeonju, with Kuroda Nagamasa attacking Gongju and Kato Kiyomasa attacking Cheongju, all of which were directed at the Joseon king Of Seoul.
On the Side of the Ming Dynasty, after Yang Yuan's defeat and retreat, Ma Gui, the commander-in-chief of the Beiwu Army, led the second batch of reinforcements and entered Korea in late August of the twenty-fifth year of the Wanli Calendar (1597, the second year of the Japanese Kyung-chang). On August 30, Kuroda Nagamasa captured Gongju and began to enter the territory of Gyeonggi Province, where Seoul was located. Although Ma Gui was a general soldier, in fact, there were not many troops in his hands, and he did not dare to confront the Japanese army head-on, but ordered the deputy general Xie Sheng, the staff general Chen Yuzhen, and the guerrilla Niu Boying to deploy on both sides of the Han River to defend the Han River.
On September 1, Yang Ho, who was in charge of the Korean military affairs, led the main force of more than 20,000 infantry to Seoul, which slightly eased the pressure on the Ming army. When Yang Ho arrived in Seoul, the first thing he did was to find Ma Gui to understand the situation of the war, ma Gui believed that the difference in the number of troops between the enemy and our army was too large, and advocated taking the King of Korea to retreat to the Yalu River, waiting for reinforcements to arrive, having the capital in hand, and then launching a counterattack.
Ma Gui is a veteran general who has been fighting at the border pass for a long time, he considers the problem mainly from a pure military point of view, since the disparity between the enemy and our troops, it is not advisable to be tough, anyway, Seoul can not be defended, it is better to use space for time, wait for reinforcements, wait for the opportunity to counterattack, this is a common strategy in actual combat, but also a very realistic choice.
But Yang Ho is engaged in politics in the court, and he must consider it from a political point of view. When the Battle of Wenlu korea abandoned Wangjing Hancheng, it was a helpless move when it had not yet asked the Ming Dynasty for help, and now that Korea has the support of the Ming Dynasty, it still has to abandon Seoul, which will definitely hit the DPRK's confidence in the Ming Dynasty and let the Ming Dynasty have a face? Moreover, he Yang Ho was ordered to go on a crusade to the east, and before he could engage the Japanese army, he abandoned the strategic town, so how could he go back to the emperor and the imperial court? Therefore, Yang Ho resolutely disagreed with abandoning Seoul, and he secretly told Ma Gui that the court's policy was actually "Yang War Yin Peace, Open Suppression and Secret Care", as long as a few victorious battles were fought, they could begin to talk about peace.
Ma Gui understood the intention of his superiors and immediately had an idea. Gritting his teeth, he decided to send his elite cavalry to a tough battle with the Japanese. Ma Gui had served as the commander-in-chief of Xuanda (Zhenshou Xuanhua, Datong) and the general of Yansui (Zhenshou Yan'an, Suide), and trained a number of generals and cavalrymen with fierce combat effectiveness, many of whom were Mongols. The northwest elite horse sent by Ma Gui this time was led by five people, xie sheng, deputy general Xie Sheng, counselor general Niu Boying, Yang Denge, guerrilla quite expensive, and pendulum race, among these five people, except for Niu Boying, were all Mongols who had grown up on horseback since childhood. Moreover, Ma Gui learned the lesson that Li Rusong's Liaodong cavalry was not as sharp as the Japanese army when fighting the Japanese army, and was equipped with a large number of strike weapons such as iron whips, iron hammers, and iron hammers, and specially restrained Japanese swords. No matter how much the Japanese knife cut iron like mud, it could not do these five big and three thick iron rods.
Chinese-style iron hammer, iron whip
On September 7, the 25th year of the Wanli Calendar (1597, the second year of Keicho, Japan), the Magui sect xiesheng, Niu Boying, Yang Denge, Po gui, and pendulum five would march south from Wangjing to Jishan, the only place to travel from Chungcheong Province to Wangjing. When the Ming army reached Jishan, Kuroda Nagamasa, the spearhead of the Japanese Right Route Army General Maori Hidemoto, also came to the county seat of Cheonan south of Jishan. According to Kuroda Ieyo's calculation of nakatsu's 120,000 stones, Kuroda Nagamasa's army should have about 5,000 people, and the Ming army such as Xie Sheng was slightly less than Kuroda Nagamasa, but it would not be much less, estimated to be about 3,000 or 4,000.
The two armies met in a narrow way, and there was no strategy available, only to rely on strength to fight hard. According to North Korean historical records:
"The next day, in the bright future, the thieves and soldiers fired a company of cannons, Zhang He's wings advanced, and the white blades were waved, killing the sky, strange shapes, and frightening people's eyes. The heavenly soldiers should burst out of the cannon, under the iron whip, the thieves are good hands, and the combined battle is not much, and the thieves are defeated and run, and they go to Kigawa and Cheongju. ”
This tough battle between the two sides ended in the fiasco of Kuroda Nagamasa. This greatly damaged the morale of the Japanese army, and also refreshed the Japanese army's understanding of the combat effectiveness of the Ming army, which not only hindered the Japanese army's offensive to go north to Wangjing, but also forced the Japanese army to abandon the strategy of capturing Wangjing, which was the turning point of the Battle of Gyeongchang, known in history as the "Great Victory of Jishan".
Mongol cavalry
Around the eve of the Battle of Namwon, the de facto commander-in-chief of the Japanese army, Takaaki Kohayakawa, fell ill and died. Hideaki Hayakawa was just a small child, and he could not control the unruly generals such as Kiyomasa Kato and Governor Konishi. After the Japanese army's Wangjing offensive was thwarted, no one could decide what to do next.
At this time, several things happened, and the situation on the Korean battlefield began to develop in a direction unfavorable to the Japanese army.
Hideaki Kobayakawa
The first was that Ming reinforcements kept coming, and in addition to Yang Ho, who was in charge of the Korean military affairs, heavyweight officers such as Yuwu Jingluo Xing Jiu brought a large number of elite troops. In the Battle of Jishan, Magui casually sent a few thousand cavalry to make Kuroda Nagamasa suffer, and in the face of the increasing number of Ming reinforcements, how could the Japanese generals not be afraid?
Second, after the death of Yuan Jun, Korea revived the use of Li Shunchen as the commander of the water army. Li Shunchen did not live up to the expectations of the people, and made an extraordinary move, defeating the water forces of Takaho Fujido, Yasuji Wakasa, and Raishima Tōsō in the Battle of Mingliang, and Laishima Tōsō was killed by stray bullets in the fierce battle, becoming the only Japanese daimyō general killed in the Battle of Bunroku and Keicho. Previously, the Japanese army dared to launch an offensive to attack Wangjing Hancheng, largely because the sea supply line was unimpeded and the rear was relatively stable. Now the re-emergence of the Korean Navy has once again placed the Japanese army's maritime supply line under a major threat, and it is unable to launch a large-scale strategic offensive deep into the Hinterland of Korea.
Battle of Mingliang
Third, gossip came from Japan that Toyotomi Hideyoshi was seriously ill, bedridden, and his life was in danger. As we all know, the invasion of Korea was entirely the result of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's willful will, and as long as Toyotomi Hideyoshi died, this battle would never be able to continue. Therefore, all the generals are watching the situation and are not willing to waste their troops in this foreign country.
On September 16, 1597, the 25th year of the Wanli Calendar, under the organization of several overseers, including Takenaka Shigemon, Akimi Nobu, Naomori Kumagaya, and Kazuyoshi Ota, the leaderless congregation held a coordination meeting in Jeonge-eup County, Jeolla Province, known in history as the "Jinge-eok Military Council". As a result of the military discussion, the generals unanimously agreed to withdraw their troops to the south and defend the strongholds along the southern coast of Korea. Hideaki Kohayakawa, Hideya Ukita, and Hidemoto Mori were stationed in Busan, Kiyomasa Kato was stationed in Ulsan, Tachibana Muneshige was stationed in Nankai, Kuroda Nagamasa was stationed in Liangshan, Nabeshima Naoshige was stationed in Takeshima, Governor Konishi was stationed in Suncheon, Shimazu Yoshihiro was stationed in Sacheon, and so on.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="78" > third, the Ming army counterattacked</h1>
The Japanese army instigated it, but the Ming army was doubly confident and the war spirit became more and more prosperous. On November 29, the twenty-fifth year of the Wanli Calendar (1597, the second year of the Japanese kyōjō), the Imperial Emperor arrived at Wangjing Hancheng through Xing Jiu, met with Yang Ho and Ma Gui, and decided to take advantage of the high morale and launch a counterattack against the Japanese army. As for the target of the counter-offensive, the three big men of the Ming army unanimously selected Kato Kiyomasa of Ulsan.
Kato Kiyomasa was born in Nakamura, Aichi-gun, Owari Kingdom, a fellow of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and seems to be somewhat related by blood (kato Kiyomasa's mother is said to be the cousin of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's mother), and has followed Toyotomi Hideyoshi since childhood as a "small surname", and has repeatedly made military achievements and rose to the position of daimyō. Kato Kiyomasa was extremely loyal to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and he carried out Toyotomi Hideyoshi's orders one by one, and he was one of the few generals who actively fought in the invasion of Korea, and could be said to be the biggest enemy of the Ming and North Korean alliances. Although Governor Konishi fought with Kato Kiyomasa, in fact, Governor Konishi was not active in fighting, and he even played tricks to deceive Toyotomi Hideyoshi in order to induce Toyotomi Hideyoshi to make peace with the Ming Dynasty. However, Kato Kiyoshi was a hardline fighter in the Japanese army, and he had always been the main fighter and not the main peace, and if the generals of the Ming Army wanted to implement the policy of "yang war yin and yin peace, and clear suppression and secret care", they had to get rid of Kato Kiyomasa, who was trying his best to obstruct peace talks.
Kato Kiyomasa's garrison at Ulsan at this time was about 16,000 men, and according to the plan of xing jie, Yang Ho, and Ma Gui, the Ming army would concentrate 44,800 troops, divided into left, center, and right triasons and reserves, and surrounded Kato Kiyomasa in three ways. The specific deployment is:
The Left Association had 12,600 men, commanded by deputy commander-in-chief Li Rumei (Li Rusong's brother), and had lu degong, Dong Zhengyi, Mao Guoqi, Chen Yin, Chen Gang and other battalions under its command.
The 11,600-strong chinese people of the CENTRAL Association, under the command of Deputy Commander Gao Ce, were under the command of Zu Chengxun, Po Gui, Li Ning, Li Hualong, Chai Dengke, Yuan Jinzhong, Wu Weizhong and other battalions.
The Right Committee had 11,600 men, commanded by deputy commanders Li Fangchun and Xie Sheng, and had Niu Boying, Fang Shixin, Zheng Yin, Wang Jian, Lu Jizhong, Yang Wanjin, and Chen Yuwen under their command.
The reserve team of 9,500 people, led by the counselor General Yang Dengshan, had the battalions of The Pendulum and Zhang Weicheng under its command.
In addition, there were 12,500 North Korean soldiers under the command of marshal Kwon Kwan of the Dprk.
The combined ming and north Korean armies totaled about 57,000 men, four or five times the size of the Ulsan garrison, and were equipped with a variety of heavy firearms, including 1,240 guns of various types ( racks ) , 118,000 fire arrows , 69,000 kilograms of gunpowder , and 1,796,000 kilograms of projectiles.
On December 4, the 25th year of the Wanli Calendar (1597, the second year of the Japanese kyaw Chang), the combined forces of the Ming and The Dynasty held a grand oath-taking meeting in Wangjing Seoul, where they ascended the altar to sacrifice and feast on the three armies. The North Korean people watched like clouds, and Mo Buhao sighed: "Since growing up, I have never seen this prestige!" ”
The three commanders of the Ming army, Xing Jiu, with the rank of Shangshu of the military department, had the most honorable status, staying behind Wang Jing to sit in town, and Yang Hao and Ma Gui personally came to the battle front and led their troops to battle, as if they were victorious and expected to win.
At this time, the situation in Ulsan was also favorable to the combined forces of the Ming and The DPRK. Ulsan Castle is a Chinese-style castle that the Japanese army is not used to. At the Battle of Wenlu, the Japanese army could not defend the city of Pyongyang, largely due to the lack of habit of using walled Chinese cities for defensive operations. Therefore, Kato Kiyoshi is building a separate Japanese-style castle on Shimayama, southwest of Ulsan Castle, called "Shimayama Castle" or "Ulsan Castle". Shimayama Castle is a typical Japanese-style Hirayama Castle with a triple curved wheel, and there is also a "Koshi castle" connecting the Taehwa River in the south, which can enter Ulsan Bay by water and then enter the sea. Whether the besieging side breaks through the "Big Hand Gate" (main gate) by land or the "Koshi Castle" from the water, it still has to advance along the curved wheel and withstand the condescending blow of a condescending defender inside, which is very difficult to attack.
However, when the Ming army attacked Ulsan, Shimasan Castle was not yet completed, and many facilities such as city walls, stone walls, and arrows had not yet been built. Kato Kiyoshi is a famous builder of the castle, the quality of building materials is very high, for this reason, he personally went to Busanpu, Niyseiura area to accept the building materials shipped from all over the world. That is to say, when the Ming army attacked Shimayama Castle, Kato Kiyomasa, the leading general, was not in the city, so was this not a good time for the Ming army to attack the city?
Kiyomasa Kato
Kato Kiyomasa was not in Ulsan, and those who remained behind to oversee the construction of Shimayama Castle were Kato Yasumasa, a member of Kato Kiyomasa's family, and the "second generation" of the Toyotomi regime, such as Asano Yukinaga and Kuki Hirotaka. Inspector Kazuyoshi Ota was also in Shimayama Castle.
Can Kato Yasumasa, Asano Yukinaga, and others hold Ulsan Castle under the fierce attack of the Ming Dynasty army? How will Kiyomasa Kato, who is far away in Sangpo, Insan, The West of Busan, respond to the Ming siege of Ulsan? What did Yoshihiro Shimazu, who was stationed in Sacheon, do in the Battle of Ulsan? When will the Battle of Keicho be decided?
Stay tuned to the next article in The Hundred Years of the Shimazu Family.