-The Ming army sent to Joseon was mostly heavily armored cavalry, but there were also gunmen/spearmen, Shaolin monks, Vietnamese tribal natives ("wolf men"), and even African mercenaries ("sea ghosts").
-The Ming generals and other commanders:
-Li Rusong- ethnic Korean from the Liaodong Peninsula. Father was a Ming general. He led about 36,000 Ming troops. He had gained prestige for leading Ming troops against a rebellion in Ningxia, China. He did this by diverting the Yellow River so that it flooded the city! He was quite brave in addition to being a master tactician.
-Song Yingchang- Ming Vice Minster of Defense. Boss of Li Rusong, but the two didn't get along. However, he was a logistical wizard, and was great at planning and managing supply routes.
-Shen Weijin- Ming negotiator who could also speak Japanese. Despised by Li Rusong and Song Yingchang. His goal was to negotiate peace as quickly as possible and under basically any terms that would get the job done. He didn't really care what happened so long as he secured peace and would thus get paid by the Ming government, even if the deal was shit. However, he quickly realized that Li Rusong was onto him, so he met with the Japanese and changed his terms so that the Japanese would have to abandon their claim to Joseon.
-The Japanese countered by saying that they would leave Pyongyang, but in exchange they would be allowed to have free trade with China (a highly-coveted privilege).
-Chinese armor- typical armor during this time was "mountain armor", made of many small pieces of of iron or steel shaped like the Chinese word for mountain (山).
-Also, a note about Chinese vs. Koreans- similar style for basic troops, but overall the Koreans were not "strong". Most of their manual labor was performed by slaves, and the yangban spent all of their time studying and trying to raise their social status, so they weren't exactly the toughest people on the block.
-The Ming, having learned about what happened when the Mongols went soft, decided the best way to keep strong was to draw their troops from tough places like the frontier, Tibet, or Vietnam.
-What was going on during this time in the lands of the Jurchen?
-There was a dude named Nurhaci, a unifier of all the different tribes together into a powerful horde! This began in 1586, and around 1635 they would become known as the Manchus ("Jurchen" had a negative connotation since they were considered to be barbarians by the Ming Chinese).
-During the Japanese invasions of Korea the Jurchen had offered to join the Ming army in driving off the Japanese, but both the Ming and Joseon didn't want this to happen because letting the Jurchen into Joseon would just result in chaos.
-It's possible, however, that a small number of Jurchen warriors were allowed to join the Ming army, but definitely not a vast horde.
-Meanwhile in Kyushu, Hideyoshi commanded the Japanese to fortify their holdings in Joseon and abandon the northeast of the peninsula.
-Katō Kiyomasa was ordered to return to Seoul with his army to defend it. All Japanese warships were ordered to go to Busan to protect the supply routes that led to and from Japan.
-During this time, resistance was still building against the Japanese.
-2000 monks managed to overtake a Japanese garrison at Seoraksan!
-Another important Joseon general to know about is Kwon Yul, a magistrate of Gwangju and leader of about 1000 troops he raised himself.
-He gathered about 10,000-20,000 more peasant troops to join him to link up with the Ming army near Seoul at Doksan Fortress.
-It was at this fortress that they were attacked by a Japanese force led by the General Ukita Hideie, and were besieged for one month.
-According to legend, Kwon Yul ordered his horses to be bathed in rice in sight of the Japanese, so that the Japanese would mistake the rice for water and think that troops had plenty of supplies (like water).
-This demoralized the Japanese troops, and they decided to abandon the siege. Kwon Yul then chased them back to Seoul, killing about 3000 Japanese troops in the process.
-Meanwhile, Li Rusong was meeting with Ryu Seong-ryong and King Seonjo at Uiju Fortress.
-Li Rusong argued that they should strike at Seoul ASAP. Although he only currently had an army of 44,000, he stressed that like 60,000 more Ming troops were on the way and would soon arrive.
-However, Ryu Seong-ryong was suspicious, as the actions of Shen Weijin had made him question the true motives of the Wan Li Emperor.
-Li Rusong assured Ryu Seong-ryong that the Ming were liberators, nothing more...
-Next, the Ming discussed their plan of action. A quick survey of the situation:
-They knew that Sō Yoshitoshi and Konishi Yukinaga had around 10,000 troops garrisoned at Pyongyang, and that these troops were under-supplied due to guerrilla fighters fucking up their supply lines. They were in pretty bad shape.
-Katō Kiyomasa was out on the east coast with 20,000 men, but were under constant guerrilla attack and pretty much stuck. However, he still had the 2 captured Korean princes in his clutches, and, besides, he still hadn't yet received word to come to reinforce Seoul.
-Kuroda Nagamsa was in Hwangha Province in the northwest with about 10,000 men.
-Ukita Hideiee was in Seoul with about 20,000 men.
-All of the Japanese troops were in Gyeongsang Province, hunting guerrillas and trying to secure supply routes.
-1593- because of disease, hunger, and guerrilla attacks, at this point about 30% of all the Japanese troops that had invaded Korea were now dead!
-Hideyoshi still had about 100,000 troops back in Japan, but was too scared to deploy them for fear of Ming invasion.
-Also, there wasn't enough food in Joseon to sustain the troops that were already there anyway.
-Li Rusong then intercepted Shen Weijin on the way back to Beijing.
-He briefly considered executing the diplomat. The only reason he kept him alive was so that the Japanese would still think that their negotiations were on the table.
-Li Rusong then continued south from Uiju Fortress to Anju, about 30 km north of Pyongyang.
-There he linked up with 10,000 Joseon troops, led by General Yi Il, the same dude who was defeated at Sangju (see Black Water Dragon - Part 2).
-So, by January 1593 Li Rusong was leading the Ming army (about 45,000) along with 10,000 Joseon troops and 4,000 Buddhist monks, led by the venerable Master Hyujeong (even tho Joseon had been suppressing Seon (Zen) Buddhism for like 200 years at this point).
-The monks were badasses, possessing little to no armor, had sticks for weapons, and only their religion as fuel for their fighting spirit.
-Defending Pyongyang were the pathetic remains of Konishi Yukinaga's forces (about 10,000), who were in horrible shape.
-A band of soldiers were sent north to meet with the Ming envoy, Shen Weijin.
-The Ming army then ambushed the meeting to kill the Japanese, but one Japanese soldier managed to escape, fleeing back to Pyongyang to tell them that the Ming were coming and that the meeting had been a setup!
-The Ming finally set up camp outside of Pyongyang.
-There was some concern about the Joseon citizens still trapped int he city, and they set up a huge banner announcing that any citizen who didn't leave was a traitor, but it's not like Konishi Yukinaga would have let them leave anyway.
-The Taedong River made it almost impossible to attack the city from the west.
-Konishi dispatched about 2000 men each for each of Pyongyang's four gates. 2000 were kept as reserves in the middle of the city under the command of Sō Yoshitoshi.
-Because the walls built by the Koreans were kind of shitty by contemporary standards, the Japanese instead focused on building a powerful inner citadel at Moronbong in central Pyongyang.
-At one point the Japanese even sent out assassins (possibly ninjas) to try and assassinate Li Rubai, the Ming general who would be attacking the city from the south (also Li Rusong's younger brother).
-The attack on Moranbong- the north attack was led by General Wu Weizhong, who led the Ming troops and the Korean monks in an effort take the hill (in which Konishi Yukinaga was located).
-Wu Weizhong was actually injured in this battle to take the hill, but continued to fight on.
-Meanwhile, Sō Yoshitoshi was attempting to rush the reserves up the mountain to reinforce the Japanese fighting there and to defend the citadel.
-Finally, Sō was able to get Konishi out of the citadel and back into Pyongyang.
-Early February, the omens for an attack on Pyongyang were good, so Li Rusong gave the order to attack!
-The cannons were shot, archers let loose arrows, and the soldiers began scaling the walls.
-The Ming/Joseon army had like 200 different artillery cannons, a massive arsenal!
-The Ming used "cloud ladders", which were like vehicles that had ladders you could fold on top and pull out. The top of the ladder had hooks that could dig into the wall. Thus, the base of the ladder was away from the bottom of the wall.
-Still, the "cloud ladder" was obviously dangerous, as the defenders still had musketeers, long spears, huge rocks, boiling water, etc.
-Realizing the situation was hopeless, Konishi and Sō quickly prepared to flee the city.
-Historical records are contradictory as how exactly they were able to escape, whether it was through bribery or incompetence on the part of the Ming/Joseon army, but the Japanese leadership at Pyongyang did indeed manage to abandon the city.
-6000-8000 Japanese troops remained in the city to defend it even though they probably knew they were doomed, many of whom were already freezing to death or starving.
-Eventually, Sō and Konishi reached a nearby fort, occupied by Kuroda Nagamasa's army.
-The Japanese were unsure of what to do next. Should they regroup or should they try to take on the Ming/Joseon army head-on?
-Ukita Hideie made the decision to make the stand at Seoul, as it was closer to Busan and better fortified than Pyongyang.
-Meanwhile, Pyongyang was absolutely devastated from the Ming/Joseon attack, and many of the Japanese defenders were slaughtered.
-The Ming also got the heads of slain Pyongyang citizens and deformed them to look more Japanese so that they could claim they were slain Japanese soldiers in order to bigger rewards.
-King Sonjo then declared that the Joseon capital was to be restored at Pyongyang.
-Li Rusong then sent an envoy east to meet with Katō Kiyomasa.
-The Ming demanded the return of the Joseon princes and the surrender of Katō's unit.
-In response, Katō had a beautiful Joseon female prisoner executed in front of the messengers. Of course, the messengers fled back to Li Rusong.
-February 17, 1593- Ming/Joseon forces retake Gaeseong.
-The Japanese 1st Division returns to Seoul in a completely miserable, pathetic shape, apparently resembling corpses!
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