Imjin war. Chinese response
The yibyon hides in the mountains, it inflicts damage on the enemy
At the initial stage of the war, Japanese troops occupied a significant part of the Korean Peninsula, including the capital. However, their situation soon deteriorated significantly. Actions of the Korean fleet under the command of Li Sunsin, they actually paralyzed the supply of Japanese troops by sea.
Another unpleasant surprise for the invaders was the guerrilla war unfolding in their rear. The first detachments of Korean resistance began to appear already at the beginning of the war, and as the Japanese troops moved north, their number began to grow rapidly. For the Japanese command, the massive resistance of the Koreans was an unpleasant surprise. Hideyoshi's commanders gained their military experience exclusively in intra-Japanese wars, fighting against an enemy who spoke the same language and had the same military traditions. During the wars between daimyo the peasants acted either as passive observers or as marauders, but by no means as an independent force.
One of the first detachments of the people's militia uibyon (Army of Justice) was created under the leadership of Kwak Chau. Kwak came from yangbans (Korean nobles) and at one time successfully passed the exams for the post of official, but was soon forced to leave him due to a conflict with his superiors - Kwak allowed himself harsh criticism of the government. Even at the beginning of the war, he gathered around him a detachment of fifty fighters, which gradually grew into a 2-strong army. Kwak Chau successfully fought against the Japanese in the southwestern part of Gyeongsang Province. Avoiding direct confrontation with the enemy, Kwak attacked lines of communication and small enemy detachments. Kwak Chau was perhaps the most colorful of the Uibyeong commanders. He always wore red clothes, for which he was nicknamed "the sky-sent great commander in a red robe."
Equestrian statue of Kwak Chau in Daegu city
Another prominent Justice Army commander was Ko Kyung-myeong. Like Kwak Chau, at the beginning of the war, he gathered around him a detachment of volunteers and operated on the territory of the southwestern province of Jeollado. Hearing of the capture of Seoul by the Japanese, Ko marched north to liberate the capital, but ran into Japanese troops in the Geumsan region in the north of the province. Connecting with government troops, Ko Kyung-myong fearlessly attacked the Japanese, but the poorly armed and trained militias were defeated, and Ko himself died in battle. Nevertheless, his heroic death inspired many other resistance commanders to take action against the invaders.
In the central province of Chungcheong-do, a 1-man militia detachment under the command of the Confucian scholar Cho Hong acted against the Japanese. This detachment launched an offensive against the city of Cheongju, occupied by the Japanese at the beginning of the war. On the way, a detachment of government troops of 100 people and the same number of Buddhist warrior monks under the command of Yongyu joined the militias. The fact is that in June 500, the authoritative Buddhist monk Hyudzhon, at the request of King Songjo, urged the monks to take weapon and stand up for the homeland. As a result, an 8-strong militia of Buddhist monks was formed. During the fighting, they proved to be very brave and disciplined fighters.
Cho Hong's detachment, with the support of government troops and warrior monks, managed to drive out the small Japanese garrison and recapture the city. The capture of Cheongju was a major success for the Korean resistance forces. After this victory, the militia moved to Geumsan, where Ko Kyung-myeong died a month ago. The city was under the control of the Japanese and was a convenient stronghold for an attack on the province of Jeollado. Not surprisingly, the militias sought to recapture it.
However, the inconsistency of the actions of the resistance forces ruined this undertaking. After the liberation of Cheongju, the governor of Chungcheong-do province, in his official report to the court, attributed the victory to the actions of government troops and warrior monks, barely mentioning Cho Hong. The latter was deeply offended and decided to act independently. Not coordinating his actions with government troops and warrior monks, Cho Hong decided to attack the city with only 700 fighters.
This decision was a pure gamble, since the Japanese outnumbered the attackers many times over - there were thousands of Japanese soldiers outside the walls of the city. The commander of the garrison, Kobayakawa Takakage, one of the most experienced commanders of Hideyoshi, led some of his people out of the fortress under cover of night and sent them to the rear of the Koreans. In the morning, Cho Hong's detachment was attacked by superior enemy forces in front and from the rear. The Korean warriors fought desperately, but the forces were too unequal. Soon the battle turned into a massacre, and the Korean detachment was exterminated to a single man. His commander, Cho Hong, was also killed.
The self-sacrifice of 700 warriors of Cho Hong made a deep impression on the monk-commander Yong-gyu. He led a new attack on the Geumsan fortress, but the monks suffered heavy losses and were forced to retreat. Yong-gyu himself died in battle.
Despite the heavy losses of the Koreans near Geumsan, these sacrifices were not in vain. The active actions of the militias led to the fact that the Japanese troops did not dare to move deep into the province of Chollado, and it remained unconquered.
The actions of the Justice Army units had an important impact on the course of the war. Of course, the poorly armed and untrained detachments of the Korean militias could not compete with the samurai in open battle and often ceased to exist after the first major clash with the Japanese. Nevertheless, they managed to pull off significant Japanese forces.
In addition, their combat effectiveness and level of organization gradually grew. Like Li Sunxing's fleet at sea, the detachments uibyon struck at the enemy's communications, making it difficult to supply. By ambushing Japanese foragers, the Koreans made life difficult for the Japanese. In fact, the Japanese troops in Pyongyang and Seoul were cut off from the rest of the country and were on the verge of starvation.
Attack on Busan
In October 1592, the Koreans were able to win a significant victory over the Japanese - though not on land, but at sea. By that time, after a series of defeats from Li Sunsin, the Japanese fleet had retreated to Pusan and did not dare to engage in active hostilities. Admiral Lee, on the other hand, hatched a bold plan to attack Pusan. Joining forces with the squadrons of Lee Okki and Won Gyun, Lee Sunsin moved towards Busan at the head of a large fleet of 166 ships, including 74 panoksona.
Arriving at the place, the Korean admiral found that a huge Japanese armada was at anchor in the Pusan harbor. In his report, Yi Sun-sin estimates her strength at about 500 ships! In no previous battle had the Koreans faced more than a hundred enemy ships. Nevertheless, the naval commander decided to attack the enemy.
Entering Pusan harbor, the Koreans ran into the enemy's advance detachment of four large ships and destroyed it. There were 470 Japanese ships near the coast. Noticing the approach of the Koreans, the Japanese left their ships and settled in the fortifications erected on the heights that towered over the harbor.
The Korean ships fired cannonballs and fire arrows at the empty Japanese ships. The Japanese, defending on the shore, responded with a hail of arrows and musket fire, as well as "metal balls the size of a forest apple, and sometimes stones the size of a china cup." However, as in previous battles, they were unable to stop the Koreans.
During the battle, according to Li Sunsin's report, over 100 enemy ships were destroyed. Probably, the losses of the Japanese fleet would have been even higher, but the onset of darkness prompted the admiral to withdraw the fleet to the open sea. Initially, Yi Sun-sin planned to resume the attack the next day, but abandoned this idea, deciding that the complete destruction of the enemy fleet would make it impossible for the Japanese to retreat from Korea. In the opinion of the admiral, only a combined attack on Pusan by land and sea would be the right action in this situation. As a result, Lee decided to return with the fleet back.
Despite the fact that the Korean fleet attack on Pusan did not achieve all the goals, it was quite successful. Having destroyed a fifth of the Japanese fleet, the Koreans lost only five people killed and 25 wounded. Not a single Korean ship was sunk. The strike on the Japanese fleet finally put an end to the hopes of the Japanese to turn the tide of the war at sea in their favor, as well as to attempts to deliver reinforcements to Japanese troops in the north.
Hero City of Jinju
In November 1592, one of the bloodiest and most dramatic battles of this war broke out in the south of the Korean Peninsula. The city of Jinju, located on the Namgang River west of Busan, had remained under Korean control since the beginning of the war. The Japanese command sought to capture Chinju for two reasons. Firstly, the capture of this city opened the way for the Japanese to the recalcitrant province of Chollado. Secondly, the partisan detachments of the already mentioned Kwak Cheu were actively operating in this territory, and therefore the capture of Chinju would become an important trump card for the Japanese in the anti-partisan struggle.
Unlike many other fortresses in Korea, Jinju was a well-fortified stronghold. In the south, it was protected by high cliffs and the Namgang River, and on the other sides by high walls. The city was defended by a garrison of 3 soldiers, and Kim Simin, who led it, was a brave and capable commander who was in the right place at the right time. S. Turnbull mentions that the defenders of the fortress were armed with 800 muskets made by the Koreans according to the Japanese model. S. Hawley calls a smaller figure - 170 muskets.
On November 8, 1592, a 30-strong Japanese army approached the walls of Chinju. Anticipating an easy victory, the samurai rushed to storm the fortress, followed by ashigaru in dense ranks. Having let the enemy closer, the defenders of the fortress showered the attackers with arrows, cannonballs and stones. Korean riflemen standing on the walls opened heavy fire from muskets.
The Japanese, not expecting such fierce resistance, retreated. Having built large shields of bamboo, they resumed their advance after a while, supported by the massed fire of their musket shooters. The Koreans responded with cannon and musket fire. Finally, the Japanese managed to approach the fortress wall and put siege ladders against it. Then the defenders began to bombard the attacking enemy soldiers with gunpowder bombs. Many Japanese found their death.
Nevertheless, they stubbornly pushed forward, as the samurai were eager to receive the title. ichiban nori, awarded to the warrior who was the first to break into an enemy stronghold. One such samurai was Hosokawa Sadaoki, brother of Hosokawa Tadaoki, one of the commanders of the Japanese army besieging Chinju. Before climbing the stairs, he gave the following order to the foot soldiers surrounding him:
“Until I personally climb the castle wall by ladder, no one should step on this ladder. If anyone climbs up, I will cut off his head.”
Kim Simin directs the defense of Jinju
Sadaoki managed to climb the wall to the cheers of the Japanese soldiers, but did not enjoy his success for long. Struck by Korean spears, he fell into a moat that surrounded the fortress walls. The entire foot of the wall was littered with the corpses of Japanese soldiers. The Japanese continued to storm, but could not climb the walls of Chinju.
While the soldiers went on the assault, the workers erected a simple siege tower, from which the Japanese musketeers could fire at the fortress, but it turned out to be ineffective. In the next three days, the Japanese continued to storm Chinju, but did not achieve success.
Soon a detachment of Kwak Cheu came to the aid of the besieged city. Under his command there were only a few hundred fighters, and in order to mislead the enemy, Kwak ordered everyone to carry five torches and shout war cries. This trick worked - the Japanese decided that a large detachment had come to the aid of Jinju, and withdrew part of their forces from the city walls, intending to hold back the Koreans on the outskirts of the city. Soon, reinforcements approached the Kwak Chau detachment, which made it possible to increase its number to 2 fighters.
At the same time, the Japanese command launched a decisive assault on the recalcitrant fortress. Fiery arrows flew over the walls and hit the wooden and tiled roofs of Korean houses. The city burned, but the Chinju defenders fought to the death. In the midst of the battle for the north gate, a musket bullet hit Kim Simin's forehead, mortally wounding the Korean commander. Seeing this, the Japanese threw their main forces to capture the northern gate, but the Koreans were not demoralized and managed to give a worthy rebuff, bringing down a hail of arrows and bullets on the enemy. The assault was repulsed.
Despite another failure of the Japanese attacks on the city, the position of the garrison was very difficult, as ammunition and food were running out. Just at this critical moment, a cargo of fresh food, gunpowder, cannonballs and other weapons was delivered along the Namgang River to Jinju. The Koreans perked up, while the Japanese command stopped any attempts to take over the city. Due to huge losses and fear of a counterattack from the rear, it decided to lift the siege of Chinju and retreat. In fact, it was an admission of defeat. For the Koreans, the victory at Jinju was the first major victory on earth after a series of humiliating defeats.
The failures of the Japanese at sea and the desperate resistance of the Justice Army detachments thwarted the ambitious plans of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The Japanese firmly controlled only the strategically important points in the provinces of Gyeongsangdo and Chungcheong, as well as large cities in the center and north of the country, while the rest of the territory, including the province of Jeollado, remained under the control of Korean troops or Uibyon.
Meanwhile, a third participant, China, was preparing to enter the war.
Dragon Strike
At that time, vast China was under the control of the Ming Dynasty, headed by the 29-year-old Emperor Wanli. It cannot be said that the Japanese aggression against Korea was a complete surprise to him. So, a year before the war, the ruler of the Ryukyu Islands notified Beijing of the impending invasion of Korea. Nevertheless, Wanli's reaction to the Japanese landings in Korea was at first lukewarm. Many courtiers even suspected the Korean monarch Sonjo of colluding with Hideyoshi. But the flight of the Korean king from the capital and his pleas for help proved the groundlessness of such suspicions, and the Ming dynasty decided to send troops to help Korea.
Despite the requests of the Korean king to send a 100-strong army, Wanli was physically unable to do this, since the most combat-ready units of the Chinese army at that time fought against the rebels in the west of the country. In addition, despite repeated clashes with Japanese pirates, the authorities of the Celestial Empire clearly underestimated their potential enemy. It was decided to send an expeditionary force of only 3 people under the command of the military leader Zu Chenxun to Korea. In July, he performed in Korea. Due to reinforcements, its number grew to 000, which was still not enough. Nevertheless, the Chinese commander was confident of victory.
Zu Chenxun intended to drive the Japanese out of Pyongyang, the second most important city in Korea. The Chinese managed to freely enter the city, but fell into a trap. They were surrounded by superior enemy forces and were defeated. Zu Chenxun himself barely escaped death in this battle.
The defeat of the Chinese expeditionary force showed that victory over such a serious enemy as the Japanese is impossible without the involvement of a large army. Under these conditions, the Chinese commander in August of the same year concluded a 50-day truce with Konishi Yukinaga. After that, active hostilities in the Pyongyang region ceased. This allowed the Chinese to gain time. In January 1593, after the defeat of the rebels, the Chinese commander Li Zhusun entered the territory of Korea at the head of a large army.
The Chinese army had many of the same shortcomings as the Korean. It was recruited mainly from poorly trained peasants. When conducting offensive wars, as in this case, detachments of mercenaries and exiled criminals were used mainly. The maintenance of such an army was expensive for the treasury, besides, it was not distinguished by reliability and discipline. Thus, soldiers often robbed peasants and even killed civilians, presenting the heads of the killed "enemies" to the authorities as proof of their military prowess. The commanding staff, as in the Korean army, was represented mainly by those who failed to become a civilian official and were forced to join the army.
Warriors of the Ming Empire. XNUMXth century
At the same time, one should not go to extremes and underestimate the military capabilities of the Ming Dynasty. So, according to Turnbull, the Chinese field and siege artillery at that time were the best in the region. The Chinese army, which came to the aid of Korea, was armed with a large number of guns, gunpowder and edged weapons.
The Chinese commander-in-chief acted cautiously. He slowly moved towards Pyongyang, carefully conducting reconnaissance and collecting information about the enemy. On February 5, 1593, the army of Li Zhusun with the Korean detachments that joined it approached the city. The joint Sino-Korean army was to fight to liberate this important city.
Commander of the Ming Army in Korea Li Zhusun
Battle of Pyongyang
It should be said that Pyongyang was a well-fortified fortress. From two sides, the approaches to the Pyongyang fortress were covered by rivers: Taedongan from the east and Pothongan from the northwest. To the north of the Pyongyang fortress rose the high hill of Moranbong. In addition, Pyongyang was surrounded by powerful walls and was one of the most powerful fortresses in Korea at that time.
The total number of defenders of Pyongyang, who were under the command of Konishi Yukinaga, was 15 people. If the eastern part of the wall, covered, like a moat, by the wide Taedongan River, was poorly defended, then each of the four gates located on the other sides of the wall was defended by a detachment of 000 soldiers. A detachment of the same size fortified itself on the hill of Moranbon. The rest of the troops, the Japanese commander placed in the center of the city, intending to use them as a reserve.
Initially, the Chinese army under the command of Li Zhusun numbered 43 people, but during the campaign against Pyongyang, its numbers increased significantly due to the addition of 000 Korean soldiers and a 10-strong detachment of warrior monks. Lee pitched his headquarters on the high ground near the Potongan River, standing here with 000 warriors. Having surrounded the city, the Chinese and Korean commanders had to attack the enemy from three sides at the same time.
Pyongyang fortress. Modern look
The battle for Pyongyang was started by Buddhist monks. On the morning of February 6, 3 warrior monks under the command of Hyudzhon, already familiar to us, approached Moranbong Hill from the north. The Japanese fired furiously at them with muskets. Having lost hundreds of people killed and wounded, the warrior monks nevertheless did not flinch and fearlessly marched forward. Later, the Chinese detachment of Wu Weizhong came to the aid of the attackers, hitting the Japanese positions on Moranbong from the west.
After a hard battle that lasted two days, luck favored the Koreans, and the Japanese were surrounded. Only a daring counterattack from the city under the command of So Yoshitoshi made it possible to break through the encirclement and save the remnants of a 2-strong detachment on Moranbong Hill. Nevertheless, the Japanese were forced to leave their positions and retreat to the city.
Hyudzhon and his warrior monks in the battle for Pyongyang
The next morning, February 8, Li Zhusong's army launched a general assault on Pyongyang. Heavy fire from Japanese arquebuses fell on the advancing allied army, stones flew on the heads of Korean and Chinese soldiers and boiling water poured. In turn, the Minsk artillery hit the gates and walls of the fortress. The fiery arrows of Chinese and Korean warriors flew into the city, setting fire to everything around.
The losses of the allies in the wounded and killed grew rapidly, but the Chinese and Koreans did not abandon their attempts to climb the walls of the fortress. Seeing that the attack had stalled, Li Zhusun rushed forward on his horse and hacked down a deserter soldier who caught his eye with his own hands. Then the Chinese commander, addressing his soldiers, promised a reward of 5 liang of silver to the brave man who was the first to climb the city wall, which was almost 000 times the size of the annual soldier's salary. There were many who wanted to receive a reward, and the inspired fighters again rushed to the assault.
Finally, the artillery shelling and the continuous attacks of the Chinese infantry gave a result - the Japanese defense began to burst at the seams. The Chilsongmun gate, located in the northwest of the fortress, was broken, and the Chinese, with the support of the monk warriors who survived the battle for Moranbong, broke into the city. Soon, the Minsk detachments overturned the enemy in other directions. The Japanese hastily took refuge behind the walls of a wooden fort built by them inside the fortress.
It seemed that this unsightly, hastily erected fortress would not withstand the powerful blow of the allied forces. However, her appearance was deceiving. The Japanese made hundreds of loopholes in the walls, so that the fort looked like a bee hive. Heavy fire from the arquebus fell on the dense orders of the Chinese and Koreans. Japanese arrows massively mowed down enemy soldiers. Seeing that the enemy soldiers were hastily retreating, Konishi Yukinaga rushed in pursuit with a small detachment of warriors, but was driven back by Chinese artillery fire.
The results of the day for the Japanese were quite controversial. On the one hand, they managed to hold the fort, on the other, they suffered heavy losses. Li Zhusong ordered the troops to be withdrawn from the city to rest and regroup. Nevertheless, the next attack by the allied forces with a very high degree of probability could be a disaster for the Japanese.
Realizing this, Konishi Yukinaga and his commanders made the decision to retreat. Under cover of night, the Japanese garrison left the city, crossed the Taedong River on the ice and moved south. A participant in the campaign, samurai Yoshino Jingozaemon recalled:
“Our wounded were left behind, while those who were not wounded, but simply exhausted, crawled along the road almost exhausted.”
Konishi Yukinaga intended to take his men to the nearby Punsan Fort and give them some rest. An unpleasant surprise was that the commander of the fort, considering Konishi Yukinaga's corps destroyed, ordered the fort to be burned and left for Seoul. As a result, Konishi Yukinage had no choice but to retreat in the same direction.
Hit under Hanju
The victory of the troops of the Ming Empire near Pyongyang, combined with the successful actions of the fleet of Li Sunsin and the strikes of the Army of Justice, led to a turning point in the war. Chinese troops confidently advanced south, while the Japanese, on the contrary, rolled back. The liberation of the Korean capital seemed inevitable.
Confident in an easy victory, the Chinese commander-in-chief separated from the main body of the army and moved forward with 1 horsemen. At Pyeokjaegwang, about 000 km from Seoul, the Chinese came across a small group of Japanese soldiers who had settled on a hill. Chinese horsemen immediately attacked the enemy. The Japanese ran down the other side of the hill. The Chinese rushed after them and found themselves in a narrow valley face to face with the numerous corps of Kobayakawa Takakage.
Japanese arrows from everywhere fired rifle fire at the Chinese horsemen. The samurai hacked riders and horses with swords. The main forces of the Ming army came to the aid of the Chinese horsemen, and the battle began to boil with renewed vigor. Finally, Li Zhusong, who barely escaped death, ordered a retreat. The battle was lost, and the Chinese army rolled back north. She needed time to recover from the defeat.
Despite the tactical victory, the position of the Japanese army in Seoul did not improve. Soon the Japanese were dealt a new blow. The capable Korean commander Kwon Yul, having heard about the victory of the allied forces near Pyongyang, moved to Seoul with a detachment of 2 fighters, intending to support the advancing Chinese army. Kwon and his people occupied the dilapidated fortress of Hyangju, located only 300 km from the Korean capital. The defeat of the Chinese at Pyokchaegwan and their retreat allowed the Japanese to assemble a powerful group and send it to Haengju.
The commander of the Japanese troops, the young commander Ukita Hideie, approached the fortress at the head of a 30-strong army, which included the corps of Konishi Yukinaga, who was well known to us, and the winner at Pyokchegwan, Kobayakawa Takakage. According to these data, the Japanese had more than a tenfold superiority. According to other data given by K. Swope, the number of Kwon Yul's troops was probably about 10 fighters. In any case, the Japanese were overwhelmingly outnumbered.
In the early morning of March 14, Ukita's army surrounded Henju and began to storm the fortress. However, this attack did not come as a surprise to the Koreans. Kwon Yul made good use of the time by fortifying Hanju. His warriors brought down on the enemy a hail of arrows and stones. The defenders of Hanju also used firearms - arquebuses and cannons. Particularly effective weapons used by the Koreans were hwacha, which was the first stories salvo fire system. It looked like a two-wheeled cart, on which a launcher was installed with sockets in which small rockets with sharp metal tips were placed. Hwacha was capable of launching a hundred rocket arrows filled with gunpowder in one volley, which made her a formidable weapon.
Hwacha - Korean volley fire system
Despite the use hwacha, the huge numerical superiority of the Japanese made itself felt - Kwon Yul ordered to withdraw his soldiers to the second line of defense. The Japanese increased their pressure, but the Korean artillery inflicted horrendous losses on them. Nine times the Japanese attacked Hanju, but each time they rolled back, leaving many corpses. It is believed that the total Japanese losses in the Battle of Henju reached 10 killed and wounded, which was one third of the strength of Ukita Hideie's troops. Shocked, Ukita ordered a retreat.
Thus, being in a difficult situation without any help, Kwon Yul managed to defeat an opponent many times superior to his own strength. The Battle of Haengju, along with Hansando and the First Battle of Jinju, is considered one of the three most glorious triumphs of Korean weapons in the Imjin War.
Doom of Chinju
The victory won by the Koreans at Hyangju prompted Li Zhusun, who had fallen in spirit after the failure at Pyokchaegwan, to resume the offensive to the south. The Japanese troops stationed in and around Seoul were on the brink of disaster. A harsh winter by Japanese standards, hunger and disease reduced the number of soldiers in the ranks. In the spring of 1593, the Japanese army numbered only 53, which was only a third of the 000 troops that landed on Korean soil 150 months earlier.
Under these conditions, the Japanese command entered into negotiations with the Chinese. The very fact of these negotiations aroused the dissatisfaction of the Korean side, which advocated the continuation of the war until the complete expulsion of the Japanese. But the Chinese military leaders were inclined to stop hostilities. As a result, the parties agreed to a truce on the following terms:
1. China sends an embassy to Japan to conclude a peace treaty.
2. Chinese troops withdraw north of the city of Kaesong.
3. The Japanese army leaves Seoul and retreats south to Pusan.
4. The Japanese return two of his sons to the Korean king.
As a result, on May 19, the Chinese army entered Seoul, abandoned by the Japanese, without a fight. At the same time, leaving the city, the Japanese took with them the two sons of the king as hostages - they were supposed to return home only after the return of the Chinese ambassadors from Japan. Soon, Songjo himself returned to his liberated capital.
By then, both the Chinese and Japanese armies were exhausted and in need of a breather. The failure of Hideyoshi's plans to conquer not only China, but also Korea became obvious to the Japanese command. At the same time, the Chinese commander-in-chief Li Zhusun was not eager to fight for the interests of the Korean king and also sought to resolve the conflict as soon as possible. The Koreans, who wanted to take revenge on the Japanese for all the destruction and casualties, were forced to be content with the role of observers. As a result, military actions were replaced by diplomacy.
Li Zhusong sent envoys to Busan to negotiate with the Japanese military leaders. They discussed the withdrawal of Japanese troops from Korea. It should be said that the parties had different understandings of the purpose and content of the upcoming talks. The Japanese military leaders realized that Hideyoshi did not want to hear about anything other than victory. Under these conditions, sending a Chinese embassy to Japan could be presented as China's recognition of its defeat and acceptance of Japanese terms.
At the same time, the Chinese command sought to convince the imperial court in Beijing that, having lost Pyongyang and Seoul, the Japanese were ready to agree to the withdrawal of troops from Korea. The commanders of the Japanese forces in Korea managed to present Hideyoshi with the Chinese consent to send their embassy as evidence of his success, and soon the Chinese embassy went to Nagoya.
While waiting for the envoys to arrive, Hideyoshi, meanwhile, ordered his commanders to destroy the city of Chinju. The Japanese warlords, who suffered a humiliating defeat last year in an attempt to capture Chinju, also sought to wash away the shame.
The second battle for Chinju was one of the largest and bloodiest battles of the war. Upon learning of the upcoming Japanese offensive, the Korean commander Kim Jong-ir managed to gather 4 defenders in Jinju. In total, in the city at that time there were approximately 000 people, including women and children. On July 60, 000, the Japanese commander-in-chief Ukita Hideie arrived at the walls of Chinju at the head of a huge army of 20. Such an impressive number of Japanese troops can be explained by the fact that the Japanese used the vast majority of their troops stationed in southern Korea, as well as reinforcements recently sent by Hideyoshi, to attack the recalcitrant Jinju.
However, this figure, taken from Japanese sources and accepted by many researchers, looks very overestimated, given the losses of the Japanese since the beginning of the war, as well as the need to keep garrisons in the fortresses in the south of the peninsula. A more realistic figure is given by Korean sources: Seonjo sillok (Chronicle of the reign of Sovereign Seonjo) estimates the number of Japanese troops that attacked Jinju at 30 people. The corps of Konishi Yukinaga besieged the city from the western side, the warriors of Kato Kiyomasa were located in the north, and the commander-in-chief Ukita Hideie himself with his soldiers was located in the east.
The rest of the troops were left in reserve in case the Chinese army approached. To block the approach of any reinforcements, the Japanese occupied all the heights in the vicinity of the city. The hills to the north of the city were occupied by Kobayakawa Takakage, in the northeast by Mori Hidemoto, in the south near the Namgan River by Kikkawa Hiroe.
The Japanese made their first attack on the city on 21 July. The Koreans filled the moat with water from the Namgang River in advance, so the main task of the Japanese was to drain the moat. The advanced Japanese units managed to destroy the dam and drain the moat. The Japanese filled it with earth, stones and brushwood. The next day they launched an assault on Chinju. The Japanese covered themselves with large bamboo shields, which may have been movable frames. The Japanese soldiers fought furiously and did not weaken the onslaught for a minute, but the Koreans, thanks to the competent use of artillery and fire arrows, managed to push the enemy back.
At dawn on July 23, the Japanese attacked again. They built a large siege tower that allowed them to fire arquebuses at the city. But the fire of the Korean guns destroyed the tower, and the assault bogged down. At this time, local detachments of the Justice Army arrived to help the besieged, but they were driven back by Mori Hidemoto. This failure sealed the fate of Chinju, as the Japanese had a colossal numerical superiority.
On July 25, Ukita Hideie sent a messenger to Kim demanding to surrender, but the commander of the Korean garrison left him unanswered. On July 26, the Japanese launched another assault on Chinju. In doing so, they used kikkosha, "turtle wagons".
These were mobile covered canopies that protected the attackers from enemy fire. From under them, Japanese sappers could dig, and the roof protected them from the bullets of the city's defenders. The Koreans managed to repulse the attack by dropping bundles of combustible material soaked in oil and grease onto the turtle wagons, causing the roofs of the wagons to catch fire.
However, the Japanese did not abandon their attempts to capture the recalcitrant city. Kato Kiyomasa ordered his men to make new turtle wagons and upholstered them with ox skins to protect them from fire. On July 27, at the northeast corner of the fortress, the Japanese finally succeeded. The pouring rain that broke out that day played into their hands. Soon part of the wall collapsed, and through the gap, Japanese soldiers broke into the fortress. The Koreans resisted fiercely. When the supply of weapons ran out, the Chinju defenders fought back with wooden clubs and sticks, but the forces were too unequal.
Kim Jong Il was watching the battle from one of the city towers. Seeing that the battle was lost, he committed suicide by jumping into the river. Enraged by stubborn resistance, the winners did not spare anyone. Frightened Korean soldiers and townspeople tried to escape the Japanese swords by jumping into the Namgang River. However, on the other side, the fugitives were caught and beheaded by the soldiers of Kikkawa who were there. Japanese sources report that the Japanese killed at least 20 heads in Jinju. Korean sources give a figure of 000 killed soldiers and civilians. Be that as it may, the scale of the massacre perpetrated by the Japanese in Chinju was horrendous. That night, the waters of the Namgang River turned red with blood, and its banks were littered with thousands of decapitated corpses. Many Koreans also committed suicide or drowned.
Fort Chinju. Modern look
The second battle for Chinju ended with the victory of the Japanese, but it turned out to be truly pyrrhic. Although the samurai wiped out the recalcitrant city, this had no effect on the military situation on the Korean Peninsula. The Japanese did not have enough strength to conduct military operations against the combined Sino-Korean troops. Under the dominance of Li Sunsin's fleet at sea, Japanese communications remained vulnerable. On the ground, only coastal fortresses in southern Korea remained under Japanese control.
After the battle for Chinju, the parties actually concluded a truce. An embassy from the Ming Empire arrived in Nagoya, where Hideyoshi was located, to negotiate peace. Negotiations went on for several years, from 1593 to 1596. Gradually, Japanese troops began to leave Korea and return home. A year later, Japanese detachments remained only in 14 forts built by the Japanese in the south of the Korean Peninsula. At the same time, the Chinese also withdrew their troops from Korea. However, instead of the long-awaited peace, new shocks awaited Korea.
To be continued ...
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