Joseon - Part 3

-1418- King Sejong is enthroned!  Arguably Korea's greatest king!
-The political makeup of East Asia at this time:
   -Like a Confucian family:  the father is Heaven, the eldest son is the Emperor of China, and the the younger brothers are China's tributary states (Korea, Japan, and many others).
-During this time, many waegu were based out of Tsushima Island, loosely controlled by the Ashikaga Shogunate (Japan).
   -One of King Sejong's first actions as king was to invade the island (although it's likely that this was a plan originally devised by King Taejeong).
      -Korea's strategy in the past was always to just try and defend itself from the attacks, which was costly and ineffective.
      -King Sejong raised a navy of 800 warships and 60,000 soldiers to go fight the waegu, and to also defend Gyeongsan-do (Busan, Gyeongju, and Geoje Island).
   -Joseon's plan was to start with an attack on Tsushima Island, and then retreat back to Geoje Island, hoping that the pirates would chase them and then fight at the island so that they could have home territory advantage (and cannon support!).
      -It took awhile (for various reasons), but finally in June the fleet set sail!
         -They were able to capture 129 pirate ships, execute 114 pirates, take 21 prisoners, and rescue 131 Chinese slaves.  Unfortunately, Joseon's reinforcement fleet got lost and were ambushed by waegu, resulting in the death of 300 soldiers.
            -The leader of these pirates was also captured, too!  However, Joseon failed to ultimately subdue the waegu as a whole.
   -Overall, this was considered a victory, but still proved that Joseon had a long way to go in terms of having strong national security and defense.
-Joseon then officially decided to annex Tsushima Island, making it a part of Gyeongsan-do.
   -This annexation caused an uproar with the Ashikaga shogunate, and Joseon sent diplomatic relations to Kyoto to try and smooth things over.
      -However, King Sejong refused to back off, but unfortunately, due to a lack of resources caused by a drought (and the death of King Sejong's dad, King Taejeong in 1422), couldn't get it together enough to conquer the island.
-Finally, Joseon reached a diplomatic agreement with the Ashikaga shogunate, and the Japanese agreed to reign in Tsushima Island.  In return, Joseon granted the Japanese exclusive trading rights, which increased trade and made Joseon a bunch of money.
   -They especially made a lot of money selling Buddhist scriptures that had been printed with their movable type.
      -King Sejong wasn't Buddhist, so he didn't really have a problem with making money off of this.
-King Sejong also trimmed spending on celebrations for holidays and stuff like that.
   -Also an intellectual and loved debates and shit.