Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Black Water Dragon II

-Busan and Dongnae Fortress were crushed, and almost all of the Korean captives who weren't killed in combat were decapitated :(
-Yi Sun-sin gathered the remains of his 24 panokseon fleet and formed a defense at Yeosu Harbor.
   -During this time, the Japanese began to move out from Busan to march on Seoul.
      -Hideyoshi's pan was to have one army lead the charge on Seoul alone while the main army followed in a 3-pronged assault so that they wouldn't starve on the way.
         -Meant to be a targeted strike on Seoul, not a genocide of Koreans- Japan wanted to prove that they were better rulers than the Joseon rulers.  This, of course, was the plan on paper, because obviously the Japanese soldiers raped women, slaughtered civilians and animals, etc.
-The Japanese experienced little resistance as they began to move up the peninsula, since the local governor had ordered an evacuation of the common folk.
   -May 28- the Japanese take Daegu with very little resistance.
      -Yi Sun-sin found out about how the noob Joseon naval commanders of Gyeongsang Right and Left Navies fucked up, and began to freak out.
      -King Seonjo finally received news of the Japanese invasion during this time, and immediately began to finally make military preparations.
         -Kim Myong-won was appointed as military commander over all the Joseon armed forces, but he didn't have any military experience and was just some random Confucian official.
            -Below him was Sin Ip, a sub-commander with experience fighting the Jurchen, but was also overconfident.
               -Below HIM was Yi Il, another sub-commander.
            -Also, the court was STILL being plagued by infighting and petty bickering (instead of getting shit done).
-Sin Ip and Yi Il were then sent south to fight the Japanese while Kim Myong-won stayed in Seoul to manage the city.
   -Yi Il was promised 300 elite warriors for the defense of the south, and expected to lead this band of warriors south and amass a peasant army along the way.
      -However, he came to find that the troops given to him were scholars- not soldiers!
         -The Neo-Confucian philosophy was that education and knowledge were the ultimate source of power, so these men were "elites" in that sense, but not soldiers.
         -Yi Il dismissed them and angrily road south with 60 of the best archers he could find.  However, in every district he went to he had trouble raising troops because the army reserve lists were kept by the local government bureaucrats who didn't really give a shit, so they were old and outdated, and the people who were on the lists were able to get out of duty through loopholes, excuses, etc.
-Meanwhile, later that day, the 2nd Division Japanese troops (led by Katō Kiyomasa) landed in Busan.  These troops were comprised entirely of Nichiren Buddhists.
   -Hideyoshi now had 40,000 Japanese troops in Joseon, with 100,000 more on their way.
   -Kiyomasa, not to be outdone by the initial attack into Joseon led by Konishi Yukinaga and Sō Yoshitoshi, immediately thrust north, taking Ulsan with very little resistance.  He then marched onto Gyeongju, where he made the really dickhead move of putting the entire city to the torch, burning a shitload of temples, books, treasures, etc., and decapitated more than 3000 citizens.  Then he marched on to conquer Yongcheon and Andong.  Really fucked up dude.
-At this same time, Kuroda Nagamasa landed with Hideyoshi's third division, near Busan.  Nagamasa was young, only 23, and wasn't really interested in competing for glory like all the other commanders were.
   -He eventually moved into the countryside and captured Gimhae.
-May 30- Yi Sunshin received word from Gyeongsang Province that they were in desperate need of troops for defense, but Yi Sunshin refused and instead continued to bide his time, studying nautical maps and building morale among his own troops.  He also executed any deserters who fled from his camp, passing around the head among the troops to set an example.
-Yi Il arrived at Sangju in order to fortify the city and make a stand against the Japanese, but found the town mysteriously deserted... everyone had evacuated!
   -A scout came back to report that the Japanese were nearby, in a small village a few km away.  Yi Il couldn't believe it, and had the scout decapitated (!) for spreading nonsense.  However, other scouts soon confirmed that this was true :(
   -Yi Il realized that he either had to fight with his band of archers, or retreat.
      -Konishi Yukinaga had split his army by sending off Sō Yoshitoshi with 6000 men to scout, and now they were near Yi Il's position.
         -The Koreans tried to make a stand, but were obviously easily overpowered immediately by the Japanese, and Yi Il quickly retreated to Chunju, where he regrouped with Shin Ip's army.
-By now, Shin Ip had like 8000 men in his army, mostly warriors who had retreated north as well reinforcements from Seoul.
   -Shin Ip felt that it was best to fight with the Japanese in a rice field near Chungju with his cavalry, but Yi Ip warned him that it made more sense to retreat to the mountains and force the Japanese to attack them at a disadvantaged lower position.  But Shin Ip was a cavalry general, and DGAF and wanted to shit done his way.  He believed that his cavalry was far superior to the Japanese forces.
      -Shin Ip felt that Yi Il was a coward and embarrassed that he had been defeated by the Japanese.
-Meanwhile, Konishi Yukinaga and Sō Yoshitoshi arrived at Bird Pass, and soon also met with Kato Kiyomasa, who was pissed off that they had forged ahead so quickly without sticking to the invasion plan.  Combined, they now had about 40,000 troops.
-June 6- Marching first, Konishi's forces then split off again on to go attack Chungju, defended by Shin Ip.
   -Shin Ip stupidly chose a position where his army was trapped, with the Han River behind him and a big hill to his right, leaving no convenient way to retreat.
      -However, this may not have been a total blunder.  Shin Ip was an experienced, educated general, and perhaps he felt like his cavalry was all that stood in protecting Seoul from the Japanese- his real mistake, however, was underestimating the Japanese.
         -Also, it was a classic Chinese strategy to fight with your back against the wall.  However, this was an obsolete strategy in the 16th century...
   -Konishi had about 10,000 men, and Sō Yoshitoshi had about 5,000 men.  Basic organization was musketeers in the front and swordsmen in the back.
      -The Japanese forces quickly attacked the Korean army's wings, and they fell so quickly that Shin Ip sent his cavalry to charge on the Japanese gunners, where they were quickly shot down before they could do any real damage.  The Japanese also tied burning reeds to draft animals and sent them into the Korean defensive lines, which caused confusion and more panic.
         -Shin Ip's forces began to flee, and many were run down or found and killed by the advancing Japanese.
            -Shin Ip drowned himself in the river in disgrace.
            -Yi Il survived, and hastily retreated back to Seoul.
   -A group of ninjas then were sent to infiltrate Chungju, and they were successful.  They set fires and soon opened the gates.
   -After the battle, Konishi and Kato got into a fight since Konishi was hogging all the action and glory.
      -They finally agreed on a plan to move forward after calming down, but when Kato went back to his camp he ordered his army to immediately pack up and move out.  Konishi then did the same.
         -After leaving Chungju, Kato's forces soon met with Kuroda Nagamasa's forces, and they marched on Seoul together.
-June 7- news of the battle at Chungju arrived at Seoul via a half-dead survivor who came to the gates announcing that Seoul needed to be evacuated immediately.
   -Seoul began to panic.
   -That night, the Joseon court had a meeting- Prime Minister Yi Sanhae argued that Seoul should be evacuated.  Yi Il agreed.
      -However, most argued that this was dumb because King Seonjo would lose popular support, and that also how could the court abandon their family's ancestral tombs and burial sites?
         -Realistically, it was clear that Seoul should be evacuated.  They only had only raised a pitiful army of 7,000 men, and Seoul had 27 km of walls that needed defending!
            -Many of these troops were rapidly deserting as well.
   -Finally, King Seonjo realized that it was extremely fucking obvious that defending Seoul was a ludicrous proposition, so he agreed to flee with the court north to Pyeongyang, which hadn't been a Korean capital since Gogoryeo.
      -King Seonjo also named his son, Gwanghae, as heir, and sent him to Jeolla Province to rally troops.  Another son, Imhae, was sent to Gangwon-do to do the same.
-June 8- the court packed as much of their shit as they could and evacuated the city.  Left behind were books, paintings, treasure, etc.
   -As they left the capital, many peasants hurled garbage and insults at them for being such shitty rulers.
      -Rioters immediately began looting and trashing the city.  Many buildings were ransacked, including the offices which contained all the slave records...

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