posted 01-03-16 06:53 PM CT (US)
my fame would spread beyond the four seas... It has been my boast to lose no favorable opportunity, and, taking wings like
a dragon, I have subdued the East, chastised the West, punished the South, and smitten the North. Victories have
attended my life, which has been like the rising sun illuminating the whole earth.
Man cannot outlive his hundred years, so why would I sit chafing on this island? I will make a leap and land in China
and lay my laws upon her!
Should I carry out this purpose, Korea will be my vanguard. Let her not fail to do so, for my friendship with your country
depends solely on your conduct as I lead my army against China."
- Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Letter to the Korean King, 1589
In 1592, Toyotomi Hideyoshi invaded the Joseon Kingdom of Korea with 158,000 crack samurai and ashigaru. The mighty daimyo had consolidated his power in Japan laying the foundations for what he hoped would be an Asian empire. Before conquering China and the lands of Southeast Asia, Hideyoshi needed to establish a foothold on the mountainous peninsula of Korea. This small kingdom was almost an after-thought to Hideyoshi and his generals. Neither the Japanese nor the Ming Chinese who came to Joseon's aid expected much from the hermit kingdom. Known for their long-sleeved scholars and jade-glazed pottery, the Koreans were unlikely opponents to challenge Hideyoshi's elite samurai hardened by a century of war. What were a kingdom of bureaucrats and potters to the samurai clans?
The Japanese were relentless, seizing the Korean capital in mere months. With the kingdom on the verge of ruin, the Ming Emperor Wanli dispatched a Chinese army under Li Rusong to slow the invasion. In January 1593, however, this army was defeated by the Japanese at Byeokjegwan. With Korea's defense now reduced to militias, 30,000 victorious samurai continued their northward advance to a small mountain fortress on the Han River known as Haengju. There, a fifty-five year old civil servant turned militia leader named Kwon Yul and 3,000 Koreans prepared the defenses.
This small band would be the last stand of a hermit kingdom. Their destiny would decide the fate of all Asia.
The Imjin War was a series of Japanese invasions of the Korean peninsula in the 1590's. The first invasion, which began in 1592, resulted in the rapid occupation of most of the Korean peninsula. By year end, Japanese armies reached the Yalu and Tumen Rivers, Korea's border with the Jurchen tribes of Manchuria, and prepared for the invasion of Ming China.
The combination of Chinese reinforcements, naval victories by the Korean admiral Yi Sun-Sin, and a successful guerilla warfare campaign by Korean militias slowed and finally pushed back the Japanese tide. Korean victories at Jinju, Hansan Island, and Haengju, in which outnumbered Koreans repelled and defeated Japanese forces, were watershed moments in the war.
The Uibyeong, or Righteous Armies, were irregular militias which defended the Korean kingdom. Consisting of peasants, scholars, government officials, and Buddhist warrior monks, the Righteous Armies were critical to the survival of the kingdom after the regular army was defeated in the opening weeks of the invasion. Japanse commanders had anticipated that the defeat of the national army would result in the swift submission of the Korean populace and were surprised by the resiliency of Korean resistance.
[This message has been edited by Al_Kharn the Great (edited 03-12-2016 @ 08:50 AM).]
) where supposedly a hundred Koreans held ten thousand Chinese off for a week in a small town/outpost, long enough for the main Korean army to start marching that way.
