-1592- Joseon is invaded by the Japanese!
-This war goes by many names: "The Seven Years War", "The Imjin War", "The Japanese Invasion of Korea", or even "The Japanese Calamity of the Year 'Imjin'".
-"Imjin" means "Black Water Dragon", which refers to the year 1592 in the lunar calendar.
-This was the first great war of Asia, fought between the 2 most powerful Asian nations- Japan and Ming China.
-Prologue:
-In 1543, Portuguese missionaries are attacked by waegu and decide to flee to Okinawa (instead of trying to make it back to Malacca (Portuguese colony in Malaysia)). However, there was a storm, and their boat ended up landing in Tanegashima, an island south of Kyushu (but still a part of Japan).
-The Japanese there had probably never seen white people before, but they were able to communicate by drawing Chinese characters on the beach with a stick (the boat captain was Chinese).
-The Portuguese also had some firearms, 2 of which the Japanese bought out of curiosity.
-These firearms were arquebuses (precursor to the musket).
-This wasn't actually the first time the Japanese had encountered gunpowder, as they had seen it before when the Mongols had attempted to invade (bringing with them Chinese-style cannons). However, the Japanese at the time believed that these cannons were unreliable, heavy, and a pain in the ass to lug around (especially in the Japanese mountainous countryside). Therefore, the Japanese hadn't bothered to copy or modify this technology.
-The Japanese ended up being interested in the arquebus enough to try and create some for themselves, but had too much trouble getting it exactly right, so eventually they just hired a Portuguese blacksmith to show them how to do it properly. Soon, all the Japanese warlords were frantically trying to manufacture these weapons for themselves, believing that this technology held the key to the domination of Japan.
-Eventually, the daimyō Noba Nobunaga realized that it was dumb to try and equip his samurai warriors with arquebuses because they were much better with their longbows. However, peasants armed with these weapons was a different matter...
-The Battle of Nagashino was a watershed moment for Japan, in which Nobunaga's strategy of peasants armed with arquebuses as an addition to his army really made it obvious that warfare in Japan was changing.
-Oda Nobunaga died in 1582 and was replaced by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a loyal supporter and eventual unifier of all of Japan!
-However, he did not receive the title of "shogun" by the Japanese Emperor because he didn't come from a noble family. Thus, Hideyoshi was always insecure about this, which maybe played a role in his lust for constantly expanding his power and attaining respect.
-Also, Hideyoshi knew that he had to keep all of the warlords under him busy, otherwise they could turn on him.
-He soon realized that Ming China was just a shell of its former self, and that it was only a few days away by ship from Japan...
-1580s
-At this point, the Ming dynasty was like 300 years old and had been in bad shape for awhile, but things were actually improving during this time and they weren't actually doing THAT badly.
-The Ming also had firearms too, but they were inferior to the Portuguese/Japanese arquebuses.
-However, one of the biggest problems in the Ming dynasty during this time was that its military generals were ruling over their respective provinces as if they were lords themselves, and the state was rife with corruption.
-These generals also inflated their troop numbers in order to get more funding from the Ming government.
-It was reported that overall, the Ming had a standing army of 3 million soldiers, but really it was probably more like roughly 900,000 (or less). The corruption went all the way up to the Wanli Emperor himself, who would use the army for extortion.
-It was obvious that this was a huge problem when, at one point, a Mongol warlord was able to lead an army almost to Beijing before meeting any resistance.
-The Ming also tried to alleviate their military problem by having barbarians on the borders fight for them and act as buffers against other barbarians.
-They finally seemed to get it together, however, and things began to slowly improve internally.
-During this time also the ruler of China was the Wanli Emperor, who had been enthroned as a boy in 1572 and would rule until 1620, the longest of any Ming dynasty ruler.
-Early on, he was a seemingly good ruler who was energetic and active.
-Joseon
-Meanwhile, the Joseon dynasty was experiencing a lot of the same corruption as the Ming.
-Due to the nature of Joseon taking Confucianism even more seriously than the Chinese, corruption was widespread and there was a strong opposition to any attempt at change or reform.
-Also, in order to prevent generals from amassing too much power away from Seoul, they were all kept close to the capital, which meant that the army was poorly maintained since the higher-ups didn't really know what was going on with their men out in the provinces.
-The quality of regular officers was low as well, due to the military exam being very easy and the general requirements being only to be physically able to fight and be brave. However, this was really outdated in terms of how you would go about looking for whoever is qualified to lead as an officer.
-Also, in the Confucian hierarchy, being in the military wasn't very prestigious, and was usually a back-up plan for those who failed the Civil Service Exam.
-The government bureaucrats also had more power than the military officers. Bureaucrats were allowed to change military commands and take over as commanders themselves if they wanted to. The only prestigious military positions were generals, who were usually just civilian bureaucrats anyway.
-It was believed that a great scholar would also make a great military leader, which is obviously bullshit.
-The Joseon dynasty also for whatever reason failed to keep up their system of fire beacons built around the peninsula (which included 700 mountaintop stations!), which would belch forth smoke during the day and fire at night.
-Civilians didn't want to do it, and it was usually left up to political exiles to operate the beacons...which was obviously a terrible idea.
-During this time the Joseon dynasty army wasn't completely inactive with their army.
-There were constant skirmishes with Jurchen hordes and/or other barbarian hordes of the north, plus constant waegu raids in the south.
-Army recruitment was difficult since so many citizens were exempt from duty, plus 30% of the Joseon population were actually slaves (and thus unable to serve in the army)!
-The actual warriors of the army were good fighters, but poorly led.
-The Joseon cavalry was pretty badass though, and great in hand-to-hand combat (although they still weren't as good as the Jurchen in this respect).
-Joseon cavalry's favored weapon was the pyeongon, a kind of wooden flail inspired by the tool used by farmers to thresh rice.
-Joseon infantry were set up mostly as anti-cavalry troops with polearms, spears, and tridents, and usually only wore padded armor and a felt cap. They also occasionally had bamboo shields.
-Joseon archers were some of the best in the world during this time, with the powerful gakgung (composite bow), which could fire up to 450 meters! In comparison, samurai bows could only shoot up to 300.
-During this time Joseon archers also used flaming and explosive arrows.
-Joseon also had the mighty hwacha rocket launcher, capable of firing up to 200 singijeon (fire arrows) in a volley at once!
-Joseon also created a new kind of boat that had a bunch of cannons and was covered so that it was more difficult to capture by pirates- the panokseon ("board-roofed ship"). Joseon loved loading these up with hwachas as well.
-It also had a giant-ass cannon called "heaven cannon" (cheonja-chongtong) weighing 300 kg and had a huge 1.3 long barrel with a caliber of 12cm.
-The heaven cannon usually fired an iron-tipped wooden bolt that also had gunpowder inside sometimes. It also had iron fins which made it heavier, but also more aerodynamic. Really brutal stuff. Sometimes also fired small stones or lead, like a grapeshot.
-Also, Joseon warships were made of really tough pine wood.
-To attack coastal fortifications, the Joseon navy would usually use a primitive, inaccurate, 300kg bronze mortar that could fire a heavy stone at about 400 meters. The name of the projectile roughly translates as "Flying Striking Earthquake Heaven Thunder", and was a hollow iron ball packed with gunpowder and a timed fuse.
-During this time, King Seonjo was the ruler of Joseon.
-Started out as a capable ruler, and quickly worked to try and put an end to the pesky raiding of the northern barbarian hordes, but found that the political Neo-Confucian system was too fucked up to get anything done.
-The court was split between the "East" and "West" factions, and was stuck in a brutal deadlock and completely paralyzed.
-Because of this, Joseon faced an existential threat when Japan threatened to invade, but couldn't do anything about it due to this paralysis.
-Diplomacy
-Diplomacy between the Ming dynasty, Joseon, and Japan during this time was complex.
-Usually the Japanese wanted Ming luxury goods and would obtain them through Joseon because Joseon had a bunch of Ming stuff.
-During the early days of the Ming dynasty, the Japanese had actually sent tribute to the Ming and in return had been acknowledged as a tributary state (really a bunch of states, but was technically considered one I guess due to being "unified" under the Japanese emperor).
-The Ming in return offered gifts for their submissions.
-However, relations had soured due to Japanese piracy, a riot by Japanese traders in a Chinese port city, and the collapse of centralized power in Japan during the warring states period.
-Although the Japanese still continued to trade with Joseon, they were still butthurt that Joseon had participated in Kublai Khan's invasion of Japan.
-Joseon always viewed Japan as a backwards, superstitious barbarians. This was probably due to so many Japanese resorting to piracy over the years.
-Joseon viewed China as the pinnacle of civilization, and always tried to emulate their style and culture, seeing them as like an older brother.
-There were religious components to this too:
-Joseon wanted to be SO Confucian (like the Chinese) that they ended up being more Confucian than the Chinese actually were.
-Meanwhile, Buddhism continued to spread to Japan from the Korean peninsula, so the Japanese ended up being more hardcore about Buddhism than anyone else (like how Joseon became more Confucian than China).
-Joseon would have perhaps been a similar case to Japan regarding Buddhism, but during this time Joseon's hardcore Neo-Confucian philosophical elite suppressed the practice of Buddhism in the kingdom.
-The waegu were also becoming a problem again, especially from Tsushima Island where the lord there had lost control of the island during Japan's Warring States period, so during the chaos there the waegu were thriving.
-Because China was the center of the Asian world and the Ming dynasty its rulers, the power-hungry Hideyoshi felt that it should belong to him.
-Mounting Tensions
-Tensions rose between Joseon and Hideyoshi when Hideyoshi sent emissaries all over Asia, but Joseon didn't even know who Hideyoshi was and probably thought he was just some noob.
-After meeting his emissaries Joseon believed that Hideyoshi wasn't actually a real shogun that should be shown respect a legitimate representative of Japan (a fellow tributary state of the Ming dynasty). In their eyes, Hideyoshi was just some upstart rebel.
-1586- Hideyoshi commanded Lord Sō Yoshitoshi of Tsushima Island to go to Joseon and demand submission to Japan, and also for Joseon to begin preparations for the invasion of Ming China.
-Yoshitoshi was screwed either way because if Joseon said yes, then he would lose his trade monopoly with Joseon, but if they said no then they would then see him as their enemy and close their ports to him.
-Yoshitoshi decided to take a risk, and altered the message, saying that Joseon was to send an ambassador to Hideyoshi with a message of goodwill instead of submission.
-In order to have a degree of deniability, Yoshitoshi sent a messenger instead of himself so that he could blame the messenger in case the shit hit the fan.
-However, the messenger was a noob who acted like an asshole when he arrived in Joseon, so this naturally probably pissed off the Joseon court. Embarrassed, Yoshitoshi had the noob messenger executed when he returned to Tsushima Island.
-The Joseon court reaction about Hideyoshi was split, but to bide their time they sent a message to Yoshitoshi saying that they couldn't send a diplomatic mission to Japan because Japan was too far away and also that they were poor sailors (haha).
-Many Joseon courtiers felt that Hideyoshi was bluffing- he was still fighting resistance forces in Japan (they believed)! How could he possibly have enough power to conquer the Ming dynasty?
-Hideyoshi decided to test the Joseon defenses, and sent scouts to make light attacks against Joseon ships. The scouts reported that the Joseon ships were timid and weak.
-The Joseon response? Jack shit. Some courtiers wanted to conscript peasants to guard the coast, but there was still the threat of the Jurchen hordes in the north, and so the Joseon decided it was best to make sure that the defense of the north was their main priority.
-1588- Hideyoshi sends a new envoy to Joseon, this time Yoshitoshi himself. However, King Seonjo still refused to send a friendly envoy to Japan.
-In 1589, Yoshitoshi tried once more to persuade King Seonjo to get in bed with Japan.
-The Joseon government finally said that they would consider sending an envoy to Japan, but only if they could first receive some Korean criminals who had fled the kingdom and become waegu. Yoshitoshi arranged for some random Koreans living in Japan to be brought back (who knows if they were actually criminals), The "criminals" were then executed at Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul.
-At the event, King Seonjo was given a gift from the Japanese- an arquebus. In return, King Seonjo selected a beautiful warhorse from his personal stable.
-Oddly enough, the Joseon government didn't really bother to check out the arquebus with much interest, seeing it as a barbarian toy more than anything else. Big mistake!
-Meanwhile, Joseon spies began reporting back that the Japanese threat was legit- Hideyoshi was building hundreds of warships, raising a huge army!
-The Joseon court was completely paralyzed with so many options, but most of the court seemed to believe that the Japanese didn't pose a significant threat to Joseon.
-Another problem was that there was too much petty Neo-Confucian bickering and shit that obstructed any realistic, effective legislation.
-Finally, in 1590 King Seonjo agreed to send a diplomatic envoy of friendship and goodwill to Japan. Hwang Yun-gil (leader of the Western faction) and Kim Seong-il (leader of the Eastern faction) were sent from Busan to Japan. They first arrived, however, at Tsushima Island, where they stayed for a month. While they were there, there was some drama with the seating arrangements not being correct or something, and Kim Seong-il had a meltdown!
-In order to calm things down, Yoshitoshi had some servants executed, which I guess smoothed things over.
-They finally arrived in Kyoto in August, but Hideyoshi was gone, putting down some rebels. They had to wait for another few months (until December!), and during that time were forced to stay in a boring temple and eat boring food.
-Finally, they met with Hideyoshi and gave him his gifts and shit. Because of the misunderstanding due to Yoshitoshi, Hideyoshi didn't feel the need to see the envoys again due to them being there to give him tribute, and gave them a letter instead for King Seonjo warning that Joseon was to aid him in conquering Ming China, or else face obliteration!!
-Kim Seong-il felt that this wasn't serious, and that Hideyoshi was just being a moron. However, Hwang Yun-gil knew that war was imminent, and immediately sent messengers to Seoul to warn the king.
-King Seonjo finally made a decision- there was no way he could betray the Ming dynasty! They were like an older brother/father to Joseon!
-Joseon began to make preparations for war in the south, especially in Gyeongsang Province near Daegu, Dongnae, Busan, and Jinju, with earthen walls, fortifications, etc.
-One official who oversaw these preparations was one of the greatest naval commanders / Korean heroes of all time- Yi Sun-sin!!
-Born to an upper-middle class family in Seoul. Had served the government since the Goryeo dynasty until his grandfather had been purged from service in 1519, and afterwards the family had declined a bit.
-Yi Sun-sin went into the military because he had older brothers who were prepping for the civil service exam, and his family couldn't support all of them doing so.
-In the military he became renowned as a skilled swordsman and archer.
-Established himself early as a capable military officer when he was stationed in Hamgyong Province (in modern-day North Korea) fighting the Jurchen.
-1580- Became a naval officer and was stuck in Jeolla Province.
-Although he was obviously a badass, his stubbornness and unwavering ethics/morals caused the higher-ups to dislike him since he was not susceptible to corruption.
-1583- Sent back to the north to fight the Jurchen again.
-Actually managed to capture a Jurchen chief- Mu Pai Nai.
-Had to leave the army for 3 years (because his father died), but he returned in 1586.
-He had further success against the Jurchen and was noted for his bravery, but the other officers were jealous assholes and so they lied and had claimed that Yi Sun-sin had deserted a battle, so he was demoted, imprisoned, and tortured. He continued to serve after this, however, as a normal soldier.
-However, Yi Sun-sin's luck changed when his old childhood friend, Ryu Seong-ryong, had become a high-ranking minister who decided to help him out.
-1590- Yi Sun-shin was appointed as a military commander in Jeolla Province, stationed at a garrison on Wan Island.
-Before that he had also been appointed as a garrison commander at several other places too, but this was his first big position before finally hitting it big as an admiral.
-1591- Yi Sun-sin was appointed as naval commander of the "Left Jeolla" (eastern half of Jeolla Province) thanks to Ryu Seong-ryong's favor with King Seonjo.
-This was considered a cushy job since the Left Jeolla navy was kind of a joke and poorly managed.
-However, Yi Sun-sin immediately began to turn things around by running it pretty tightly, with harsh punishments, executions (for major defenses), but also rewards as well.
-Also began to repair badly maintained ships, construct new ships, and build fortifications and defensive stations and weapons.
-Soon, Yi Sun-sin had transformed the navy under his command into the best in the kingdom, and also had a strength of 24 panokseon ships.
-Why didn't the Ming dynasty combine forces with Joseon to fight Japan?
-Because the Ming found out about what was going on via messengers from the Ryukyu Islands, who had heard from the Japanese messengers that Joseon had allegedly agreed to attack the Ming along with Hideyoshi.
-This was because Hideyoshi had believed Joseon had sent him tribute, not a "good will" mission like Joseon had thought they were doing.
-The Ming, naturally, were really pissed off! Joseon hadn't mentioned anything to them about this, so they felt betrayed!
-Finally, soon after the Ming found out about what was going on from the Ryukyu messengers, the Joseon messengers arrived. Japan was about to attack Joseon!
-Joseon had many allies in the Ming court, but the Wanli Emperor was still very suspicious.
-1591- Ming sent diplomats twice to Joseon to see when the deal was.
-Fall of 1591- Hideyoshi had finally had enough of Joseon, and soon Japanese merchants and travelers began to be mysteriously absent from Busan...
-Hideyoshi's plan:
-Initially wanted to invade the Ryukyu Islands before hitting Taiwan and then southern China, which at the same time another force would travel through Joseon (assuming they were friendly) and attack Beijing.
-Finalized plan: the above was too complicated. Just go straight through Joseon, full-strength!
-After taking Joseon and the Ming, Hideyoshi had his sights set on conquering Vietnam, Thailand, and even India!
-Hideyoshi then changed his HQ from Kyoto to Karatsu, Kyushu, and constructed Karatsu Castle as his center of power.
-He raised a massive army of 335,000 men. 100,000 were to remain in Japan as a defensive force should the Ming decide to launch a counterattack.
-3 divisions leading the attack:
-First division:
-Led by Konishi Yukinaga (AKA Agostinho (converted to Catholicism), from Osaka, Kansai region) and Sō Yoshitoshi (AKA Dario (converted to Catholicism under the influence of Konishi Yukinaga), from Tsushima Island), and some other minor generals.
-Second Division:
-Led by Katō Kiyomasa (from Nagoya, Chūbu region), Nabeshima Naoshige (from Hizen, Kyushu). and other minor generals.
-Third Division:
-Led by Kuroda Nagamasa (from Himeji, Kansai region), and some dude named Otomo Yoshimada.
-During this time, some of the commanders were Christians (see above), and many of the Japanese soldiers actually were as well. These were not the samurai of the Japanese old days- this was the NEW Japanese army, made up of both samurai and peasants, some of whom were Christian.
-Hideyoshi actually hated Christianity himself, but saw Christians as important in his success. However, some speculate that Hideyoshi sent many of these Christian commanders and troops as the first in line during the invasion (shock troops, kind of) so that they'd die before the non-Christian troops.
-Before the arrival of the Japanese troops, the Joseon court was still discussing the potential threat. General Sin Rip believed that the Japanese were short, weak, and bad fighters. Also, he believed that their guns were lousy and inferior to Korean bows.
-The main problem and reason for why the Japanese were so dangerous to Joseon was because of incompetence.
-Too many government officials stupidly believed that Hideyoshi was an idiot and didn't have the strength or intelligence to pull off an invasion.
-Also, the generals or officials in charge of preparations were incompetent, or didn't believe the Japanese were a threat.
-Meanwhile, Yi Sun-sin had been developing an experimental new ship, which was to be revealed very soon...
-April 13, 1592- Hideyoshi launches his attack from Tsushima Island!
-Due to bad tower upkeep and management, the tower beacon warning system wasn't able to carry the message to Seoul and was only confined to Gyeongsang Province.
-The Japense ships (about 90) began to group at Busan Harbor.
-By evening, around 300 had arrived. By night, 400!
-Both Gyeongsang navies (right and left) didn't attack and just watched, unable to believe the size.
-They believed that maybe it was a huge tribute mission from Japan as an apology (yeah fucking right!).
-They had 150 panokseon ships that could have easily taken on the shitty Japanese ships (which didn't even have cannons).
-That night, the Japanese met with the commander of the forces of Busan one last time to demand that Joseon allow the Japanese passage into Ming China. Joseon officials refused, so the Japanese decided that time was up and war had begun!
-The Japanese troops began to disembark and lay siege to Busan.
-While Sō Yoshitoshi laid siege to Busan, Konishi Yukinaga laid siege to Dadaejin Fortress.
-At Busan, Sō Yoshitoshi asked the Busan commander (Jeong Bal) one last, final time to surrendur to the Japanese, but Jeong Bal refused. So, the Japanese attacked!
-Joseon quickly realized that their poorly-trained conscripts, armed with bows and spears, were no match for the Japanese arquebus firepower.
-By the next morning, Busan had fallen and Jeong Bal was dead, and the Japanese had really fucked up the city, killing men, women, and even dogs and cats!
-During this time, the Japanese ships remained unprotected in the harbor, but the cowardly Park Hong was not too scared to strike and fled north with his fleet.
-There was also a sea battle fought against Won Gyun of the Gyeongsang Right Navy, but he was defeated due to the aggressive Japanese tactics of assaulting the ships and drawing them into hand-to-hand combat.
-40 panokseon were destroyed.
-Won Gyun led the retreat to Geoje Island, and then Hansan Island. As boats loomed closer, Won Gyun believed they were Japanese, so he began sinking the panokseons...but stopped when he found out that they were just Joseon fishing boats.
-Only 4 panokseons remained lol.
-Only the Jeolla commanders remained now, and they only had 100 panokseons between them.
-Also, even though Busan had fallen, Dongnae Fortress nearby remained as a rallying point for Joseon forces.
-However, once the poorly-trained conscript peasant forces realized that Busan had been crushed, the army began to dissolve as people panicked and fled.
-The governor of the area even declared Dongnae as officially fucked, and fled to Seoul.
-Forces remained at Dongnae Fortress, however, but refused to submit to the Japanese and were quickly annihilated :(
