-June 9, 1952- the court is evacuating Seoul, and heading to Pyongyang.
-However, it started to rain, so the royalty had to get out of their litters and ride on horses, including the women! Probably the most physical exertion they'd ever experienced in their lives up to that point.
-Also, due to the rain, muck, and panic, the royalty got separated from supplies and went to bed hungry for the first time probably in the history of Korean royalty.
-Finally arrived at Gaeseong, the old capital of Goryeo.
-Konishi Yukinaga and Sō Yoshitoshi both continued on towards Seoul, as did Katō Kiyomasa.
-Both arrived on June 11.
-In Seoul, King Seonjo had left behind Kim Myeongwon, the commander-in-chief of all of Joseon's armed forces, to defend the city.
-Joseon had the advantage of being able to hide behind the Han River and attack the Japanese as they forded across the river, but Kim Myeongwon only had 1000 troops at his disposal! Way too small!
-However, the Japanese began chopping down trees to make lumber for rafts, and soon they were crossing over the Han with them.
-Kim Myeongwon finally realized that he was fucked, and fled the capital along with many of his troops.
-Konishi Yukinaga was the first to arrive, once again beating Katō Kiyomasa to the punch. They had found the city deserted and looted, with many of its palaces and buildings having been burned by its own citizens in the chaos.
-Kuroda Nagamasa soon arrived too with his army, along with the 8th Division commander (and overall commander-in-chief) Ukita Hideie.
-Hideyoshi had adopted this dude after his infant son died, and had named him to oversee the operation until he could arrive and take over overseeing the operation himself.
-The reason Hideyoshi wasn't there now was because of health problems- he was losing his eyesight and also was having severe stomach problems.
-Also, his court urged him to stay in the country, fearing that if he left, Japan would just collapse back into a civil war again.
-At this point, about 150,000 Japanese troops had landed in Joseon.
-Divisions 1-3 and 8 were in Seoul, and 4, 7, and 9 occupied the countryside.
-Hideyoshi then began to prepare to move west with his navy, as it was critical that his ships had a suplly line via the Yellow Sea into China.
-Because there had been little naval resistance by Joseon, Hideyoshi believed that they didn't have any navy at all to defend the sea.
-Meanwhile, Yi Sun-shin was still biding his time and waiting for reinforcements from the countryside, and the Jeolla Right navy (under the command of Yi Eok-gi).
-He finally was forced to make a move when the court ordered him to move and reinforce the Gyeongsang Right navy, but it was obvious based on the info in the letter that the court didn't know that Won Gyun had destroyed nearly his entire fleet. Clearly, Won Gyun hadn't told the court what he had done in order to save face.
-June 16- the Battle of Okpo Harbor! The Jeolla navy snuck up to the harbor while Japanese forces were plundering inland and set fire to the port! Trapping the Japanese ships in the harbor, they fired off their heaven cannons from their panokseons and obliterated the Japanese ships.
-The Koreans wanted to pursue the Japanese inland as they fled the onslaught, but Yi Sun-shin stopped them. He knew that this would be dumb because his troops were poorly armed to fight on land, and the Japanese would gain the upper hand.
-By the end of the battle, 26 Japanese ships were destroyed and thousands of Japanese soldiers were killed. 0 Joseon ships were sunk, and only 3 Joseon soldiers were wounded due to idiotic friendly fire by Won Gyun's troops. This royally pissed off Yi Sun-shin.
-Yi Sun-shin immediately sent a report to the court, along with a Japanese ear and a musket, a curious thing to him.
-June 17- Yi Sun-shin's navy came upon 16 Japanese ships and destroyed them, but still didn't pursue them when they fled inland.
-By then they also found out that the Japanese had captured Seoul, and the court had fled to Pyeongyang.
-Yi Sun-shin decided to retreat back to a port near Yeosu to regroup and make a new plan.
-We actually have Yi Sun-shin's own records still, and are one of the best primary sources during this time.
-According to Japanese records, it's most likely that Joseon hadn't yet fought a naval battle with any legit Japanese warships yet, as they were using most of the ships docked at these harbors as transports, and were probably lightly armored and kind of shitty anyway.
-Meanwhile, the Japanese who marched on Seoul from Busan were still fucking exhausted, so they hadn't moved on yet.
-On their way to Pyeongyang, King Seonjo decided to hold court at Gaeseong and take inventory of what the common folk had going on there.
-The people, naturally, were pissed off at the incompetence of the government. So, King Seonjo decided to hold court in Gaeseong and take inventory to see what the common folk had going on there.
-The people, naturally, were pissed off at the incompetence of the government. So, King Seonjo decided to try and shake things up and move positions around, but this just seemed kind of cosmetic ultimately.
-The court finally arrived at Pyeongyang on June 16 with 3000 troops. They decided to make a plan:
-They knew that the Japanese had already controlled all of the southern peninsula except for the southwest.
-General Kim Myeongwon was sent to (or maybe he was already there?) the Imjin River to defend the crossing with 10,000 soldiers.
-Most of the Joseon forces were still garrisoned in the north to guard against the Jurchen.
-Desperate for defense, the Joseon court began to consider calling to the Ming Chinese for help.
-Some advisers believed that the Chinese would drive off the Japanese and restore the status quo, but others believed that the Ming would just send barbarian mercenaries and then occupy Korea for itself.
-Nevertheless, they sent to the Ming for help. Apparently, the Ming didn't believe the messengers. How could the Japanese cross the peninsula so fast? Were these just pirates, or was this a legit invasion?
-However, the Ming had its own wars and shit to deal with, so the Wan Li Emperor sent 1000 cavalry to go fight the Japanese.
-Meanwhile in Seoul, the news was that many people had moved back into the city for work, and that they were actually living relatively peacefully under the Japanese occupation.
-Apparently, Hideyoshi had ordered his forces to treat the Koreans well and to not harm those who kept the peace and didn't resist, and also to pay fair prices for shit.
-Koreans were also appointed to positions of authority, and this was especially appealing to those who were negatively affected by the hierarchical system of Korean Neo-Confucianism.
-Some Koreans even offered their own daughters to Japanese officers for marriage to ensure the benefits of Japanese rule. Joseon women began to be shipped off to Japan, as having a Joseon wife was apparently all the rage over there.
-Of course, rape was also very typical as well :(
-At the Imjin River, General Kim Myeongwon began to make plans for the defense of the river, but had a disagreement with one of his co-generals, Shim Gak, who instead relocated his own troops away from the Imjin River to Yangju, just north of Seoul.
-Shim Gak's troops ended up ambushing a small group of Japanese forces on their way to Yangju, but the royal court found out about this too late and after they had already sent the order for him to be killed for disobeying Kim Myeongwon, and so Shim Gak was executed before they oculd send a counter message to stop it from happening.
-At the Imjin River, some Japanese forces arrived but were quickly defeated and turned back to Seoul. Some noob Joseon commanders ordered their troops to chase them, but this was a trap!
-Obviously the Joseon forces who chased the retreating Japanese walked into an ambush and were slaughtered.
-However, Kim Myeongwon had known better and had held his troops back, but with their morale broken and rumors circulating about General Kim himself fleeing, the army itself broke down and fled.
-Because of this, the Japanese pushed on and conquered Gaeseong without much resistance.
-The Japanese then tried to make plans on how to move forward.
-Kuroda Nagamasa was to go west and attack the towns on the west coast before heading north to Pyeongyang.
-Konishi Yukinaga and Sō Yoshitoshi were to lead the main force northwest to Pyeongyang.
-Katō Kiyomasa was to lead his forces up into the mountains of the northeast and to attack the towns up in there, as well as to secure it so that the Jurchen didn't just come in during the chaos and start attacking the Japanese.
-Japanese morale, however, was starting to drop. Yeah, they had conquered a lot of territory, but they had moved too quickly and were tired, knowing that they still had to fight the Ming Chinese. They were also constantly being harassed by guerilla fighters, and their supply lines were stretched too thin. They needed naval reinforcements!
-The Japanese probably didn't even realize that Joseon still had a navy, so they began to sail along to the west coast along the south to link up with their forces at Gaeseong and Seoul.
-Yi Sun-sin summoned the Jeolla Right naval commander, Yi Eok-gi, to join with him, and they sailed east to attack the Japanese.
-They planned on first attacking some of the ships who were docked at Sacheon, but they were spotted by a Japanese scouting ship. Luckily, they caught this scouting ship before it could sail back and sound the alarm.
-July 8- Yi Sun-sin and co. arrived near Sacheon, but found it was heavily fortified and contained about 12 battleships and other smaller boats.
-Yi Sun-sin only had like 30 battleships total, pretty puny when compared with the numbers of the entire Japanese invading fleet.
-So, Yi Sun-sin was able to lure the Japanese out of the harbor, and then immediately began firing!
-Japanese battleships were called "atakebune" (安宅船), and were actually quite similar to the Joseon panokseon in their build, but weren't as good because they weren't as sturdy and were set up for more for getting in close and grappling, which was a shitty strategy if you were going up against the cannon-filled panokseons.
-Also, the atakebunes were made with iron nails that rusted easily and low-quality wood. They also have less cannons, and these cannons were smaller than the Joseon ones. Finally, although they were faster than the panokseons, they turned more slowly.
-As the Japanese ships got closer and closer, Yi Sun-sin gave the signal to unleash his secret weapon- the powerful "turtle ship" (gobukseon)!!
-The gobukseon had a super-strong wooden frame, like the panokseon.
-Also had a powerful ramming speed.
-Had newer, smaller, more powerful cannons.
-Its spiked roof to make enemy boarding difficult, but it's unclear as to if the gobukseon was actually ironclad. This point is quite controversial, especially because Korean nationalists are super-serious about it.\
-Its dragon head was scary and could shoot out smoke or act as an additional cannon.
-The gobukseon really fucked up the Japanese ships, which could take their puny cannons and bullets and then dish out incredible firepower.
-Yi Sun-sin was actually wounded by a Japanese sniper, but he survived (obviously). Fun fact: during this time, muskets only had a range of about 300 feet or so in terms of accuracy.
-Surprisingly, Japanese muskets were quite advanced for their time, maybe a century ahead of China and Joseon, but unfortunately for them their cannons were kind of old and shitty.
-Why didn't the Japanese just use Chinese/Korean or European cannons on their ships?
-One theory is that the Japanese ships weren't strong enough to even handle the recoil of a "modern" cannon!
-This is also makes sense for why the gobukseon wasn't ironclad, because it wouldn't even need iron armor due to the shitty quality of the Japanese cannons. The wood was strong enough!
-Anyway, with the battle won, I'm assuming that the Japanese forces on land ran away, and so even though he was kind-of wounded, Yi Sun-sin allowed the men to celebrate- booze, women, who knows? But they did indeed party!
-July 10- Yi Sun-shin and his men press onto the village of Dangeo (near Geoje Island, west of Busan), where they had heard that the Japanese were raiding.
-They arrived to find Japanese warships and 12 smaller battleships in the harbor.
-Yi Sun-shin immediately attacked! Using the brutal firepower of their gobukseon and panokseons, they also used fire arrows and man-to-man combat (via a giant hook that sounds similar to the Roman "raven") to quickly fuck up the Japanese ships, and the remaining Japanese forces were forced to flee inland.
-21 Japanese ships were destroyed, and there were ZERO Joseon casualties. They also rescued numerous Joseon women that had been forced into sex slavery :(
-After the battle, Yi Sun-shin learned some new info- it was thought the Japanese were planning on a mass invasion of Jeolla Province. They also found out that a top Japanese commander had been killed in the recent battle they had just fought at Geoje Island. Finally, many local Koreans had begun fighting the Japanese army, probably out of desperation and/or anger towards the corrupt Joseon crown.
-At this point also, Yi Eok-gi and his fleet had joined up with Yi Sun-shin fleet. Combined, they now had roughly 50 panokseons.
-The Jeolla fleet then pressed on to Danghang Port, where they had intel that some Japanese forces were trapped in the village by a guerrilla army that had been raised by peasants, somehow.
-There they found 9 large warships, 4 medium warships, and 13 smaller warships.
-The Koreans immediately attacked, and while they did some damage, Yi Sun-shin felt that the Japanese were just going to flee inland as usual, so he ordered a retreat. However, the Japanese felt that the Koreans were legit retreating (as a sign of weakness) and tried to escape with their ships from the bay.
-Obviously, the Japanese ships were trashed.
-Yi Sun-shin also avoided burning the remaining enemy ships, so that later when the Japanese forces trapped in the town tried to escape, they were destroyed on these ships as they tried to leave the bay.
-July 15- patrolling the remainder of the area, 5 more ships were sunk.
-July 16- Meanwhile, Konishi Yukinaga and Sō Yoshitoshi had arrived at the Taedong River, just outside of Pyeongyang.
-However, they had no boats to cross, so they decided to just set up camp and see how Pyongyang would react.
-The people of Pyongyang of course immediately began to panic, and the king even sent his familyh (and their sacred ancestors' tablets) north. Even the king began to make preparations to leave as well, much to the chagrin of the people, who began to form into angry mobs.
-July 17- as usual, the Japanese made an effort to get Joseon to surrender, sending the same Japanese monk, Genso, as they always did.
-Of course, Joseon refused, saying that they would never betray the Ming Chinese, even if it meant the destruction of Joseon.
-The Japanese then began to fire on Pyongyang with their muskets, and this frightened King Seonjo so much that on July 19 he fled the city.
-Kim Myongweon was given the task of defending Pyongyang and the river. However, he had only about 10,000 soldiers! Everyone else had fled the city when they heard that the king left.
-July 18- Yi Sun-shin's fleet was finally running out of supplies, so they returned back to their home territory to re-supply.
-At this point, roughly 70 Japanese ships had been sunk, with Joseon losing ZERO.
-Less than 100 Koreans had died, but Japanese casualties must have been in the thousands.
-Meanwhile back in Pyongyang, the Koreans learned that because the Japanese had encountered such little resistance, they had grown complacent and overconfident. So, they decided to mount an attack on the Japanese while they were sleeping and not expecting a direct assault.
-This was actually a success, and the Joseon warriors managed to slay several hundred Japanese soldiers.
-However, Kuroda Nagamasa soon arrived to save the day for the Japanese, which resulted in the Joseon forces retreating. Unfortunately, as they fled back into the city, the Japanese decided to launch a full assault by crossing the Taedong River at the same shallow points that had been revealed by the Joseon troops.
-Thus, Pyongyang finally fell on July 22.
-Kunishi Yukinaga had now conquered all 3 of Joseons "capital" cities (Gyeongju, Seoul, and Pyongyang), and had marched more than 600 km in 2 months!
-July 23- Ming General Zu Chengxun, along with his subcommander Shi Ru, crossed the Yalu River with 1000-5000 troops! The Ming Chinese were about to enter the fight!
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