Initial attacks Landing of the First Division On 23 May 1592, the First Division of the Japanese invasion army, consisting of 7,000 men led by
Konishi Yukinaga, departed from
Tsushima Island in the morning, arriving outside the Korean port city of
Busan in the evening. Korean naval intelligence had detected the Japanese fleet, but
Wŏn Kyun, the Right Naval Commander of
Gyeongsang Province, misidentified the fleet as trading vessels on a mission. A later report of the arrival of an additional 100 Japanese vessels raised his suspicions, but he did nothing about it.
Sō Yoshitoshi landed alone on the Busan shore to ask the Koreans for safe passage to China one last time. The Koreans refused as they had previously done, and Sō Yoshitoshi
laid siege to the city. Konishi Yukinaga
attacked the nearby fort of Dadaejin the next morning. Japanese accounts claim that the battles resulted in the complete annihilation of Korean forces (one claims 8,500 deaths, and another, 30,000 heads), while a Korean account claims that the Japanese themselves took significant losses before sacking the city of Busan.
Chŏng Pal, the Korean commander at Busan, was killed by a Japanese bullet, and with his death, Korean morale collapsed. In the meantime, Konishi took the fort of Dadaejin, where under heavy volleys of supporting fire, the Japanese were able to place ladders against the walls, and took the fort. Konishi ordered that
no prisoners be taken, and the entire garrison was massacred. Konishi and the First Division then turned north, marching to take
Hanseong. The disciplined Japanese brought down a rain of bullets that was lethal to anyone not taking cover.
First Division attack On the morning of 25 May 1592, the First Division arrived at the
Dongnae Fortress. Konishi sent a message to
Song Sang-hyeon, the commander of the fortress, explaining to him that his objective was the conquest of China and if the Koreans would just submit, their lives would be spared. Song replied, "It is easy for me to die, but difficult to let you pass", which led Konishi to order that no prisoners be taken to punish Song for his defiance. The resulting
siege of Dongnae lasted twelve hours, killed 3,000, and resulted in a Japanese victory. The Japanese took no prisoners and killed everyone at Dongnae, civilian and military, even killing all of the cats and dogs there. Konishi's intention was to terrify the Koreans into submission by showing them what the price of resisting Japan was, but he instead stimulated Korean resistance, as ordinary Koreans were enraged at an enemy who invaded without provocation and behaved so brutally. After taking Dongnae, Konishi took the castle of
Miryang, which he followed up by taking
Daegu, which surrendered without opposition as the Koreans were concentrating their army further north. Having crossed the
Nakdong River, Konishi learned that the Koreans were concentrating their troops at
Sangju. In the meantime, desperate Korean envoys had been sent to the
Forbidden City in Beijing to ask the
Wanli Emperor to protect his loyal tributaries in Korea by sending an army to drive out the Japanese. The Chinese assured the Koreans that an army would be sent, but they were engaged in a
major war in Ningxia, and the Koreans would have to wait for the arrival of their assistance.
Occupation of Gyeongsang Province Katō Kiyomasa's Second Division landed in Busan on 27 May, and
Kuroda Nagamasa's Third Division, west of Nakdong River, on 28 May. The Second Division took the abandoned city of Tongdo on 28 May, and captured Gyeongju on 30 May. The Third Division, upon landing, captured nearby
Kim hae castle by keeping the defenders under pressure with gunfire while building ramps up to the walls with bundles of crops. By 3 June, the Third Division captured
Unsan,
Changnyeong, Hyeonpung, and
Seongju. Meanwhile, Konishi Yukinaga's First Division passed the
Yangsan mountain fortress (captured on the night of the Siege of Dongnae, when its defenders fled after the Japanese scouting parties fired their arquebuses), and captured Miryang castle on the afternoon of 26 May. The First Division secured the
Cheongdo fortress in the next few days, and destroyed the city of Daegu. By 3 June, the First Division crossed the Nakdong River, and stopped at
Seonsan mountain.
Battle of Sangju Upon receiving news of the Japanese attacks, the Joseon government appointed General
Yi Il as the mobile border commander, as was the established policy. General Yi headed to
Mungyeong near the beginning of the strategically important Choryong Pass to gather troops, but he had to travel further south to meet the troops assembled at the city of Daegu. There, General Yi moved all troops back to
Sangju, except for the survivors of the Siege of Dongnae, who were to be stationed as a rearguard at the Choryong Pass. On 4 June, General Yi deployed a force of less than 1,000 men on two small hills to face the approaching First Division. Assuming that the sight of rising smoke was from the burning of buildings by a nearby Japanese force, General Yi sent an officer to scout on horseback. However, as he neared a bridge, the officer was ambushed by Japanese musket fire from below the bridge, and was beheaded. The Korean troops, watching him fall, were greatly demoralized. Soon the Japanese began the
Battle of Sangju with their arquebuses. The Koreans replied with their arrows, which fell short of their targets. The Japanese forces, having been divided into three, attacked the Korean lines from both the front and the two flanks. The battle ended with General Yi Il's retreat and 700 Korean casualties.
Battle of Chungju General Yi Il then planned to use the
Joryeong pass, the only path through the western end of the
Sobaek mountain range, to check the Japanese advance. However, another commander appointed by the Joseon government,
Sin Rip, had arrived in the area with a cavalry division and moved 100,000 combined troops to the
Chungju fortress located above Joryeong pass. Rather than face a siege, Sin Rip decided to fight a battle in the open fields of
Tangeumdae, which he felt ideal for the deployment of his cavalry unit. Since the cavalry consisted mostly of new recruits, however, Sin Rip was concerned that his troops may easily be tempted to flee the battle. As a result, he felt the need to trap his forces in the triangular area formed by the convergence of the
Tancheon and
Han rivers in the shape of a "Y". This field, however, was dotted with flooded rice paddies and was generally not suitable for cavalry action. On 5 June 1592, the First Division of approximately 18,000 men led by Konishi Yukinaga left Sangju and reached an abandoned fortress at
Mungyeong by nightfall. The next day, the First Division arrived at Tangeumdae in the early afternoon, where they faced the Korean cavalry unit at the Battle of Chungju. Konishi divided his forces into three and attacked with arquebuses from both flanks as well as the front. The Korean arrows fell short of the Japanese troops, which were beyond their range, and General Sin's two charges failed to break the Japanese lines. General Sin then killed himself in the river, and the Koreans that tried to escape by the river either drowned or were decapitated by the pursuing Japanese.
Capture of Hanseong The Second Division, led by Katō Kiyomasa, arrived at Chungju, with the Third Division camped not far behind. There, Katō expressed his anger against Konishi Yukinaga for not waiting at Busan as planned, and attempting to take all of the glory for himself;
Nabeshima Naoshige then proposed a compromise of dividing the Japanese troops into two separate groups to follow two different routes to
Hanseong (the capital and present-day Seoul), and allowing Katō Kiyomasa to choose the route that the Second Division would take to reach Hanseong. The division of the Japanese forces was mainly due to the rivalry between Katō and Konishi, but there was a certain "strategic merit" in dividing their forces in that Katō's advance into northeastern Korea would protect the Japanese from any attempt by the
Jurchen leader
Nurhaci to attack their eastern flank. However, the division of the Japanese forces also meant that Konishi would have to take on the Chinese alone when their army arrived in Korea. The two divisions began the race to capture Hanseong on 8 June, and Katō took the shorter route across the Han River while Konishi went further upstream where smaller waters posed a lesser barrier. Konishi arrived at Hanseong first, on 10 June, while the Second Division was halted at the river with no boats with which to cross. The First Division found the castle undefended with its gates tightly locked, as King Seonjo had fled the day before. The Japanese broke into a small
floodgate, located in the castle wall, and opened the capital city's gate from within. Katō's Second Division arrived at the capital the next day (having taken the same route as the First Division), and the Third and Fourth Divisions the day after. Meanwhile, the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Divisions had landed on Busan, with the Ninth Division kept in reserve on the island of
Iki. Parts of Hanseong had already been looted and torched, including bureaus holding the slave records and weapons, and they were already abandoned by its inhabitants. General
Kim Myŏngwŏn, in charge of the defenses along the Han River, had retreated. The king's subjects stole the animals in the royal stables and fled before him, leaving their king to rely on farm animals. In every village, the king's party was met by inhabitants, lined up by the road, grieving that their king was abandoning them, and neglecting their duty of paying homage. Parts of the southern shore of the
Imjin River were burnt to deprive the Japanese troops of materials with which to make their crossing, and General Kim Myŏngwŏn deployed 12,000 troops at five points along the river.
Japanese campaigns in the north Crossing of the Imjin River While the First Division rested in Hanseong (present-day Seoul), the Second Division began heading north, only to be delayed for two weeks by the
Imjin River. The Japanese sent a message to the Koreans on the other bank requesting them to open the way to China, but the Koreans rejected this. Afterwards, the Japanese commanders withdrew their main forces to the safety of the
Paju fortress. The Koreans saw this as a retreat, and 13,000 Korean troops launched an attack at dawn against the remaining Japanese troops on the southern shore of the Imjin River. The main Japanese body counterattacked against the isolated Korean troops, and acquired their boats. The Korean troops under General Kim Myŏngwŏn retreated with heavy losses to the
Kaesong fortress.
Distribution of Japanese forces in 1592 With the Kaesong castle having been sacked shortly after General Kim Myŏngwŏn retreated to Pyongyang, the Japanese troops divided their objectives: the First Division would pursue the Korean king in
Pyongan Province in the north (where Pyongyang is located); the Second Division would attack
Hamgyong Province in the northeastern part of Korea; the Sixth Division would attack Jeolla Province at the southwestern tip of the peninsula; the Fourth Division would secure
Gangwon Province in the mid-eastern part of the peninsula; and the Third, Fifth, Seventh, and Eighth Divisions would stabilize the following provinces respectively:
Hwanghae Province (below Pyongan Province),
Chungcheong Province (below
Gyeonggi Province);
Gyeongsang Province (in the southeast where the Japanese first had landed); and
Gyeonggi Province (where the capital city is located).
Capture of Pyongyang The First Division under Konishi Yukinaga proceeded northward, and sacked
Pyongsan,
Sŏhŭng,
Pungsan,
Hwangju, and
Chunghwa along the way. At Chunghwa, the Third Division under Kuroda Nagamasa joined the First, and continued to the city of Pyongyang located behind the
Taedong River. A total of 10,000 Korean troops guarded the city against the 30,000 advancing Japanese. They were led by various commanders, including the Generals Yi Il and Kim Myŏngwŏn, and their defense preparations had assured that no boats were available for Japanese use. At night, the Koreans silently crossed the river and launched a successful surprise attack against the Japanese encampment. However, this alerted the rest of the Japanese army, which attacked the rear of the Korean positions and destroyed the remaining reinforcements crossing the river. The remainder of the Korean troops then retreated back to Pyongyang, and the Japanese troops gave up their pursuit of the Koreans to observe the manner in which the Koreans had crossed the river. The next day, using what they had learned from observing the retreating Korean troops, the Japanese began sending troops to the other shore over the shallow points in the river, in a systematic manner, and at this sight the Koreans abandoned the city overnight. On 20 July 1592, the First and Third Divisions entered the deserted city of Pyongyang. In the city, they managed to capture 100,000 tons of military supplies and grain.
Campaigns in Gangwon Province The Fourth Division, under the command of
Mōri Yoshinari, set out eastward from the capital city of Hanseong in July, and captured a series of fortresses along the eastern coast from
Anbyon to
Samcheok. The division then turned inward to capture
Jeongseon,
Yeongwol, and
Pyeongchang, and settled down at the provincial capital of
Wonju. There, Mōri Yoshinari established a civil administration, systematized social ranks according to the Japanese model, and conducted land surveys.
Shimazu Yoshihiro, one of the generals in the Fourth Division, arrived at Gangwon Province late, due to the Umekita uprising, and finished the campaign by securing
Chuncheon.
Campaigns in Hamgyong Province and Manchuria Katō Kiyomasa, leading the Second Division of more than 20,000 men, crossed the peninsula to
Anbyon County with a ten-day march, and swept north along the eastern coast. Among the castles captured was
Hamhung, the provincial capital of
Hamgyong Province. There, a part of the Second Division was assigned to defense and civil administration. The rest of the division, 10,000 men, continued north, and fought a battle on 23 August against the southern and northern Hamgyong armies under the command of Yi Yŏng at
Songjin. A Korean cavalry division took advantage of the open field at Songjin, and pushed the Japanese forces into a grain storehouse. There, the Japanese barricaded themselves with bales of rice, and successfully repelled a formation charge from the Korean forces with their arquebuses. While the Koreans planned to renew the battle in the morning, Katō Kiyomasa ambushed them at night. The Second Division completely surrounded the Korean forces, with the exception of an opening leading to a swamp. Those that fled were trapped and slaughtered in the swamp. The Koreans who fled gave alarm to the other garrisons, allowing the Japanese troops to easily capture
Kilju County,
Myongchon County, and
Kyongsong County. The Second Division then turned inland through
Puryong County toward
Hoeryong, where two Korean princes had taken refuge. On 30 August 1592, the Second Division entered Hoeryong, where Katō Kiyomasa received the Korean princes and the provincial governor, Yu Yŏngnip (), these having already been captured by the local inhabitants. Shortly afterward, a Korean warrior band handed over the head of an anonymous Korean general, plus General
Han Kŭkham, tied up in ropes. Katō Kiyomasa then decided to attack a nearby Jurchen castle across the
Tumen River in
Manchuria to test his troops against the "barbarians", as the Koreans called the Jurchens (
Orangkae in Korean and
Orangai, both derived from the Mongol term
Uriankhai "forest barbarian"). Kato's army of 8,000 was joined by 3,000 Koreans at Hamgyong Province, because the Jurchens periodically raided across the border. Soon the combined force sacked the castle, and camped near the border; after the Koreans left for home, the Japanese troops suffered a retaliatory assault from the Jurchens. Katō Kiyomasa retreated with his forces to avoid heavy losses. Because of this invasion, Jurchen leader Nurhaci offered military assistance to the Joseon and Ming in the war. However, the offer was refused by both countries, with Ming seeing Nurhaci as a serious and rising threat and Yu Sŏngnyong urging King Seonjo not to accept. The Second Division continued east, capturing the fortresses of ,
Onsong,
Kyongwon, and
Kyonghung Counties, and finally arrived at Sosupo on the estuary of the Tumen River. There the Japanese rested on the beach, and watched a nearby volcanic island on the horizon that they mistook as
Mount Fuji. After the tour, the Japanese continued their previous efforts to bureaucratize and administer the province, and allowed several garrisons to be handled by the Koreans themselves. Despite these measures, Katō Kiyomasa failed to maintain control of Hamgyeong Island. Because he encountered constant resistance except where his main force was located, Katō dispersed his troops by the hundreds in order to prove to Hideyoshi that he was in control of the occupied territory. This tactic, not used by other daimyo, proved to be his undoing. The cold and rough land of Hamgyong Province made it difficult for Japanese troops from the warmer southwestern regions to withstand Korean assaults and supply their troops. Unable to solve these problems, Kiyomasa Katō abandoned his ban on looting, provoking resistance from the Koreans. In response, on 20 October 1592,
Chŏng Munbu, an officer in Hamgyong Province, recruited men and reassembled the scattered government troops. With the support of the people of Hamgyong Province, the 3500 men easily recaptured Kyongsong, Hoeryong and Puryong and executed those who were collaborating with the Japanese, greatly spreading the movement throughout Hamgyong Province. On 30 October 1592, a Japanese army of 1000 men returning from looting Joseon villages is attacked by 500 Joseon cavalry at Seokseongryeong and forced to retreat, becoming isolated in the extreme cold on Mount Jangdeok. In response, the Korean soldiers set fire to the mountain the next day at sunrise, annihilating the Japanese army. Even in this situation, Katō was hesitant to send troops or retreat as the tide of battle slowly turned. Eventually, as the situation worsened and the Japanese suffered
heavy losses at Jinju Castle and were forced to concentrate their forces to the south, he ordered his troops to guard Kilju Castle and wait for relief. Eventually, the remaining Japanese forces in Hamgyong Province retreated to Kilju Castle, and the righteous armies laid siege to the castle for three months to prevent them from gathering firewood. In January, Kiyomasa Kato leads an army to retake Hamgyeongdo. On 21 January, the Righteous armies launched a mauling attack at Dancheon, inflicting heavy losses on the Japanese vanguard but suffering three defeats against the main Japanese army, which was forced to break the siege of Kilju Castle and withdraw, allowing the trapped Japanese to escape. However, Katō Kiyomasa was forced to abandon Hamgyong Province due to cold and supply problems, and withdrew to Hanyang on 29 February.
Naval campaigns of 1592 Having secured Pyongyang, the Japanese planned to cross the
Yalu River into Jurchen territory, and use the waters west of the Korean peninsula to supply the invasion. However,
Yi Sun-sin, who held the post of the Left Naval Commander However, ultimately, the Korean fleet retreated, failing to take over Busan. In the contemporary official Korean history text
Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty, it is recorded that the Korean navy failed to defeat the Japanese at Busan. However, in other primary historical sources, such as the official Joseon compendium (李忠武公全書) written by Joseon bureaucrats, and Yi Sun-sin's war diary
Nanjung ilgi and military reports to Yi, it is recorded as a decisive Korean victory. These militias were raised throughout the country and participated in battles, guerilla raids, sieges, and the transportation and construction of wartime necessities. There were three main types of Korean "righteous army" militias during the war: the surviving and leaderless Korean regular soldiers,
yangbans (aristocrats) and commoners, and Buddhist monks. By the summer of 1592, there were about 22,200 Korean guerrillas serving the Righteous Army, who tied up much of the Japanese force. During the first invasion, Jeolla Province remained the only untouched area on the Korean peninsula. In addition to the successful patrols of the sea by Yi Sun-sin, the activities of volunteer forces pressured the Japanese troops to avoid the province in favour of other priorities.
Kwak Chaeu's campaigns along the Nakdong River Kwak Chaeu was a famous leader in the Korean militia movement, the first to form a resistance group against the Japanese invaders. He was a land-owner in the town of
Uiryeong, situated by the
Nam River in Gyeongsang Province. In Korea, Kwak is remembered as an enigmatic, romantic hero. As the Korean regulars abandoned the town and an attack seemed imminent, Kwak organized 50 townsmen. However, the Third Division went from
Changwon straight toward
Seongju. When Kwak used abandoned government stores to supply his army, the Gyeongsang Province Governor,
Kim Su, branded Kwak's group as rebels, and ordered that it be disbanded. When Kwak asked for help from other landowners, and sent a direct appeal to the king, the governor sent troops against Kwak, in spite of having enough troubles already with the Japanese. However, an official from the capital city then arrived to raise troops in the province, and, since the official lived nearby and actually knew him, he saved Kwak from troubles with the governor. Kwak Chaeu deployed his troops in guerilla warfare under the cover of the tall reeds on the union of the
Nakdong and the Nam rivers. This strategy prevented Japanese forces from gaining easy access to Jeolla Province where Yi Sun-sin and his fleet were stationed.
Battle of Uiryeong/Chongjin The Sixth Division, under the command of
Kobayakawa Takakage, was in charge of conquering Jeolla Province. The Sixth Division marched to Seongju through the established Japanese route (i.e. the Third Division, above), and cut left to
Geumsan in
Chungcheong Province, which Kobayakawa secured as his starting base for his invasion of the province.
Ankokuji Ekei, a former Buddhist monk made into a general due to his role in the negotiations between
Mōri Terumoto and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, led the units of the Sixth Division charged with the invasion of Jeolla Province. The units began their march to Uiryeong at Changwon, and arrived at the Nam River. Ankokuji's scouts planted meters measuring the river's depths so that the entire squadron could cross the river. Overnight, the Korean militiamen moved the meters into the deeper parts of the river. As the Japanese troops began to cross, the militia of Kwak Chaeu ambushed them, and caused them heavy losses. In the end, to advance into Jeolla Province, Ankokuji's men had to try going north around the insecure grounds and within the security of the Japanese-garrisoned fortresses. At Kaenyong, Ankokuji's target was changed to
Geochang, to be taken with the aid of Kobayakawa Takakage. However, the entire Jeolla campaign was then abandoned when and his guerillas successfully ambushed Ankokuji's troops by firing arrows from hidden positions within the mountains.
Jeolla coalition and Battle of Yongin When the Japanese troops were advancing to Hanseong,
Yi Gwang, the governor of Jeolla Province, attempted to check the Japanese progress by launching his army toward the capital city. Upon hearing the news that the capital had already been sacked, the governor withdrew his army. However, as the army grew in size to 50,000 men with the accumulation of several volunteer forces, Yi Gwang and the irregular commanders reconsidered their aim to reclaim Hanseong, and led the combined forces north to
Suwon, south of Hanseong. On 4 June, an advance guard of 1,900 men attempted to take the nearby fortress at
Yongin, but the 600 Japanese defenders under Wakizaka Yasuharu avoided engagement with the Koreans until 5 June, when the main Japanese troops came to relieve the fortress. The Japanese troops counterattacked successfully against the Jeolla coalition, forcing the Koreans to abandon arms and retreat.
First Geumsan campaign Around the time of the mobilization of the volunteer army of General Kwak Chaeu in Gyeongsang Province,
Ko Kyŏngmyŏng in Jeolla Province formed a volunteer force of 6,000 men. Ko then tried to combine his forces with another militia in Chungcheong Province, but upon crossing the provincial border he heard that
Kobayakawa Takakage of the Sixth Division had launched an attack on
Jeonju (the capital of Jeolla Province) from the mountain fortress at
Geumsan. Ko returned to his own territory. Having joined forces with General , Ko then led his soldiers to Geumsan. There, on 10 July, the volunteer forces fought with a Japanese army retreating to Geumsan after a defeat at the
Battle of Ichi two days earlier on 8 July.
Warrior monks Prompted by King Seonjo, the Buddhist monk
Hyujeong issued a manifesto calling upon all monks to take up arms, writing, "Alas, the way of heaven is no more. The destiny of the land is on the decline. In defiance of heaven and reason, the cruel foe had the temerity to cross the sea aboard a thousand ships". Hyujeong called the samurai "poisonous devils" who were "as virulent as snakes or fierce animals" whose brutality justified abandoning the pacifism of Buddhism to protect the weak and innocent. Hyujeong ended his appeal with a call for monks who were able-bodied to "put on the armor of mercy of
Bodhisattvas, hold in hand the treasured sword to fell the devil, wield the lightning bolt of the Eight Deities, and come forward!". At least 8,000 monks responded to Hyujeong's call, some out of a sense of Korean patriotism and others motivated by a desire to improve the status of Buddhism, which suffered discrimination from a Sinophile court intent upon promoting
Confucianism. In Chungcheong Province, the
abbot Yeonggyu proved to be an active guerrilla leader and together with the Righteous Army of 1,100 commanded by
Cho Hŏn attacked and defeated the Japanese at the
Battle of Cheongju on 6 September 1592. After the victory, the Korean leaders began to quarrel among themselves over who was most responsible, and it was that when the Koreans took the offensive, the regulars under Yun Songak refused to take part while the Righteous Army under Cho Hŏn and the warrior monks under abbot Yeonggyu marched separately. On 22 September 1592, Cho Hŏn, with 700 Righteous Army guerrillas, attacked a Japanese force of 10,000 under
Kobayakawa Takakage. Turnbull described the second battle of Geumsan as an act of folly on Cho's part as his outnumbered force took on "10,000 of the toughest samurai", who encircled the Righteous Army and "exterminated" them, wiping out the entire Korean force as Kobayakawa ordered that no prisoners be taken. Feeling obligated to come to Cho's aid, the abbot Yeonggyu now led his warrior monks against Kobayakawa at the third battle of Geumsan, who likewise suffered the same fate—"total annihilation". However, as the Geumsan salient had taken three successive Korean attacks in a row in a single month, the 6th Division under Kobayakawa was pulled back as Toyotomi Hideyoshi decided the salient was not worth the trouble to hold it, and to the suffering people of the region that was all that mattered. The Japanese withdrawal inspired further guerrilla attacks and one Righteous Army leader,
Pak Chin, had an object hurled over the walls of the Japanese-held town of
Gyeongju, which caused "the robbers", as Korean accounts always called the Japanese, to go examine it. The object turned out to be a bomb that killed 30 Japanese. Fearing his garrison was now under-strength, the Japanese commander ordered a retreat to the coastal
wajo (castle) at Sosaengpo.
Siege of Jinju Jinju was a strategic stronghold that defended
Gyeongsang Province. The Japanese commanders knew that control of Jinju would mean easy access to the ricebelts of Jeolla Province. Accordingly, a large army under
Hosokawa Tadaoki approached Jinju. Jinju was defended by
Kim Simin, one of the better generals in Korea, commanding a Korean garrison of 3,000 men. Kim had recently acquired about 170 new arquebuses that were equal in strength to the Japanese guns. As customary, the Japanese began to collect heads, with the
Taikōki mentioning how a samurai named Jirōza'emon "took the first head and raised it aloft. The other five men also attacked and took some excellent heads". The Japanese had usually had little trouble with taking Korean castles and towns, and a certain contempt for the fighting abilities of the Koreans was common among the samurai, so it was a great surprise for the Japanese when they assaulted Jinju to be hit with a barrage of fire as Kim 's men dropped heavy stones and bombs while firing their arquebuses, stopping their assault cold. Hosokawa ordered a new assault with the samurai advancing this time under bamboo shields with covering fire from their arquebuses, which allowed them to place ladders across the walls of Jinju. A scene of carnage occurred, with the Koreans dumping rocks and delayed action bombs down on the Japanese. For three days, the Japanese attacked Jinju fruitlessly with the moats becoming full of their dead. On 11 November 1592, a force of Korean guerrillas led by Kwak Chaeu arrived as the relief force, and to fool the Japanese into thinking his force was much larger than it was, Kwak ordered his men to light fires at night on the hills while blowing their conch shells. On 12 November, Hosokawa Tadaoki ordered a final attempt to storm Jinju, with heavy fighting on the northern gates, with General Kim being killed when a Japanese bullet went through his head, but the Korean arquebus fire drove off the Japanese. At that time, another Korean relief force bringing badly needed ammunition arrived up the Nam River, causing Hosokawa to break off the siege, who argued that with the Japanese deep in enemy territory and no reserves to cover his rear that it was too dangerous to continue the siege. Toyotomi Hideyoshi was enraged when he heard of the defeat, saying the Japanese should never be defeated by Koreans, and vowed vengeance. With the help of arquebuses, cannon, and mortars, the Koreans were able to drive the Japanese from Jeolla Province. The result of the battle at Jinju prevented the Japanese from entering Jeolla Province.
Intervention of Ming China Unable to repel the Japanese invasion, Korea ultimately had to rely on the intervention of Ming China to halt the Japanese advance, despite the various logistical and organizational difficulties suffered by the Japanese. Korean Court historian and politician
Yu Sŏngnyong stated that the Korean naval victory stalled the entire strategy of the invaders by "cutting off one of the arms" with which Japan tried to envelop Korea, isolating
Konishi Yukinaga's army at Pyongyang and securing Chinese waters from the feared Japanese attack, such that "the Celestial Army could come by land to the assistance" of Korea. of the Ming dynasty Viewing the crisis in Joseon, the
Wanli Emperor and the Ming court were initially filled with confusion and skepticism as to how their tributary could have been overrun so quickly. The Korean court was at first hesitant to call for help from the Ming dynasty, and began a withdrawal to Pyongyang. After repeated requests by King Seonjo, and after the Japanese army had already reached Korea's border with China, China finally came to the aid of Korea. The local governor at
Liaodong eventually acted upon King Seonjo's request for aid following the capture of Pyongyang by sending a small force of 5,000 soldiers led by Zu Chengxun. Zu, a general who had fought successfully against the Mongols and the Jurchens, was over-confident, holding the Japanese in contempt. This cavalry force advanced almost unhindered and managed to enter Pyongyang, but was promptly and decisively defeated by the Japanese troops in the city. On 23 August 1592, the Chinese attacked under the cover of a heavy rainstorm, taking the Japanese by surprise. Once the Japanese realized that they outnumbered the Chinese by six to one, they allowed the Chinese cavalry to spread out over the streets of Pyongyang and counter-attacked, using their superior numbers to annihilate the Chinese. As the Chinese retreated into the muddy fields outside of Pyongyang, the samurai cut them down in the hundreds. One of their leading generals, Shi Ru, was killed in this engagement. The Japanese were elated at having defeated an army from China, the foremost power in East Asia, but Konishi Yukinaga grew despondent over the fall of 1592 as it became clear that no reinforcements would arrive from Japan. The fleet of Admiral Yi Sun-sin was preventing any Japanese ships from landing, while the attacks of the Korean Righteous Army guerrillas left the Japanese forces in northern Korea largely cut off from the forces in southern Korea. At conference in Hanseong, Konishi told
Ukita Hideie that he was not certain if Pyongyang could be held if the Chinese were to attack again with greater numbers. During the later half of 1592, the Ming sent investigation teams into Pyongyang to clarify the situation. The Ming became fully aware of the situation and made the decision for a full reinforcement by September 1592. With the victory in
Ningxia, the Chinese finally had the forces available for Korea, and
Li Rusong, the general who crushed the
Ningxia revolt was sent to expel the Japanese from Korea. By then, it had become clear that this was a situation much more serious than something that could be handled by local forces. Thus, the Ming Emperor mobilized and dispatched a larger force in January 1593 under the general Li Rusong and Imperial Superintendent
Song Yingchang, the former being one of the sons of Ming dynasty's Liaodong military magistrate,
Li Chengliang, and the latter being a bureaucratic officer (Ming military law stipulated that any military officer would have an accompanying bureaucrat appointed by the Imperial Court acting as the general's superior). According to the collection of letters left by Song Yingchang, the strength of the Ming army was around 40,000, composed mostly of garrisons from the north, including around 3,000 men with experience against Japanese pirates under
Qi Jiguang. Li wanted a winter campaign as the frozen ground would allow his artillery train to move more easily than it would under the roads turned into mud by the fall rains. On 5 January 1593,
Wu Weizhong led an advance force of 3,000 men across the
Yalu River into Korea, followed by two battalions of 2,000 men each later the same day. At
Uiju, King Seonjo and the Korean court formally welcomed Li and the other Chinese generals to Korea, where strategy was discussed. -era
matchlock firearms used in the 15th to 17th centuries
Thailand, a longtime faithful
tributary state of the Chinese dynasties, offered to directly attack Japan to intervene in Toyotomi Hideyoshi's plans, but Ming did not accept, instead ordering Thailand to attack
Burma.
Siege of Pyongyang On 5 February 1593, the Ming expeditionary army arrived outside Pyongyang accompanied by a group of Korean soldiers. Ming general Li Rusong was appointed the supreme commander of all armies in Korea. After initial attempts to negotiate with the Japanese defenders under Konishi Yukinaga broke down, and met only minor resistance from the Japanese defenders. Overconfident with his recent success and possibly misled by false reports, Li Rusong advanced towards the capital city of Hanseong with his allied army of 20,000 on 21 January 1593. On 26 January, the force ran into an unexpected confrontation at
Byeokjegwan with a large Japanese formation of about 30,000. Initially, the scouting party of the group under Zha Dashou and a Korean general confronted a small band of Japanese numbering no more than 600 men. The party overran them successfully but soon ran into a much larger host under
Tachibana Muneshige, and retreated to a nearby hill to defend themselves. Upon hearing of his scouting party's plight, Li decided to rush forward with the rest of his small host. He met up with his scouting party around noon, but by that time even more Japanese forces were converging on the area. The Ming forces gradually retreated north while fighting off several waves of attacks. Li Rusong and many other generals personally fought in the brawl, and they sustained heavy casualties before they met up with the rest of their army toward the later portion of the day. At that point, the Japanese gave up further attacks and both sides pulled back. Because the Ming suffered heavy casualties among their elite retinues, Li became reluctant to move aggressively for the remainder of the war.
Battle of Haengju The Japanese invasion into Jeolla Province was broken down and pushed back by General
Kwŏn Yul at the hills of Ichiryeong, where outnumbered Koreans fought Japanese troops in the
Battle of Byeokjegwan and gained a victory. Kwŏn Yul quickly advanced northwards, retaking
Suwon and then swung north toward the fortress
Haengjusanseong, a wooden stockade on a cliff over the Han River, where he would wait for Chinese reinforcements. After he was informed that the Ming army under Li Rusong was pushed back at Byeokje, Kwŏn Yul decided to fortify Haengju. Kwon's force of 2,300 men were a mixture of regulars, warrior monks, and Righteous Army guerrillas. Bolstered by the victory at the Battle of Byeokjegwan,
Katō Kiyomasa and his army of 30,000 men advanced to the south of Hanseong to attack Haengjusanseong, an impressive mountain fortress that overlooked the surrounding area. An army of a few thousand led by Kwŏn Yul was garrisoned at the fortress, waiting for the Japanese. Katō believed his overwhelming army would destroy the Koreans and therefore ordered the Japanese soldiers to simply advance upon the steep slopes of Haengju with little planning at about 6 am. Kwŏn Yul responded to the Japanese advance with fierce fire from the fortification using
hwachas, rocks, handguns, and bows. Kwŏn had trained his men to fire their ''hwach'as
all at once, and as the Japanese were packed closely together, the volley from the "fire wagons" inflicted heavy losses. The women of Hanseong joined their menfolk, bringing up rocks in their skirts. In the course of nine assaults, the Japanese pushed the Koreans back to their second line, but could advance no further. Korean sources estimate up to 10,000 Japanese may have been killed or wounded in the process. The Jingbirok'' wrote: "Kwŏn Yul ordered his soldiers to gather the dead bodies of the enemy and vent their anger by tearing them apart and hanging them on the branches of the trees". Facing unexpected resistance and mounting casualties,
Katō Kiyomasa burned his dead and finally pulled his troops back. The Battle of Haengju was an important victory for the Koreans, as it greatly improved the morale of the Korean army. By this time, the Japanese invasion force of about 150,000 men were down to about 53,000 men, with Chinese reinforcements arriving every day. Most of the Japanese were suffering from hunger, frostbite, and snow-blindness and some Japanese soldiers were so weakened by hunger that they were unable to defend themselves from tigers in the mountains. With the situation untenable, the Japanese retreated to the coast.
Stalemate After the
Battle of Byeokjegwan, the Ming army took a cautious approach and moved on Hanseong again later in February after the successful Korean defense in the Battle of Haengju. The two sides remained at a stalemate between the Kaesong to Hanseong line for the next couple of months, with both sides unable and unwilling to commit to further offensives. The Japanese lacked sufficient supplies to move north, and the defeat at Pyongyang had caused part of the Japanese leadership, such as
Konishi Yukinaga and
Ishida Mitsunari, to seriously consider negotiating with the Ming dynasty forces. This got them into a heated debate with other hawkish generals such as
Katō Kiyomasa, and these conflicts would eventually have further implications following the war in Japan when the two sides became rivals in the
Battle of Sekigahara. The Ming forces had their own set of problems. Soon after arriving in Korea, the Ming officials began to note the inadequate logistical supply from the Korean court. The records by
Qian Shizhen noted that even after the Siege of Pyongyang, the Ming forces were already stalled for nearly a week due to the lack of supplies, before moving on to Kaesong. As time went on, the situation only become more serious. When the weather warmed, the road conditions in Korea also became terrible, as numerous letters from Song Yingchang and other Ming officers attest, which made resupplying from China itself also a tedious process. The Korean countryside was already devastated from the invasion when the Ming forces arrived, and in the heart of winter it was extremely difficult for the Koreans to muster sufficient supplies. Even though the court had assigned the majority of the men on hand to tackle the situation, their desire to reclaim their country, along with the militarily inexperienced nature of many of their administrators, resulted in their continual requests to the Ming forces to advance despite the situation. These events created an increasing level of distrust between the two sides. Though by mid April 1593, faced with ever-greater logistical pressure from a Korean naval blockade of Yi Sun-sin, in addition to a Ming force special operation that managed to burn down a very significant portion of the Japanese grain storage, the Japanese broke off talks and pulled out of Hanseong.
Second siege of Jinju Unlike the
first siege of Jinju, the second siege resulted in a Japanese victory. Toyotomi Hideyoshi was especially determined to take Jinju and ordered that the previous Japanese failure to take the city be avenged. Ukita Hideie led 90,000 Japanese troops to take Jinju, making it the largest mobilization of Japanese forces for a single operation in the entire war. The Koreans, not knowing where the Japanese were going, divided their forces, with
Kim Ch'ŏnil commanding the garrison of 4,000 soldiers at Jinju, who were joined by volunteers, guerrillas, a small Chinese force, and a large number of civilians including women and children, making for a total of about 60,000. On 20 July 1593, the Japanese began to construct wooden shields to allow them to advance against the walls. To the west were Konishi Yukinaga with 26,000 men, and to the north were Kato Kiyomasa with 25,000, while Ukita Hideie commanded the reserve of 17,000. On 21 July 1593, the Japanese attacked, breaking the dyke that filled the moat around Jinju, while the samurai advanced under their wooden shields, to be stopped by Korean fire arrows, cannonballs, and arquebuses. On 23 July, the Japanese attacked with wooden siege towers, which were knocked down by Korean cannon fire. On 25 July, under a flag of truce, Ukita sent a messenger to Kim, telling him that the Japanese would slaughter 10,000 Korean peasants whom they had taken prisoner if Jinju did not surrender at once, but Kim refused, and so 10,000 Korean peasants were beheaded. The Japanese now attacked with armored carts called "tortoise shell wagons", which allowed the Japanese to advance up to the walls, where the sappers would pull out the stones. But as a Japanese account complained: "They tried to attack, but from inside the castle, pine torches were thrown that set the grass alight. The soldiers inside the tortoise wagons were also burned and retreated". On 27 July, the Japanese again attacked with the "tortoise shell wagons", but this time, there was a heavy thunderstorm that prevented Korean attempts to incinerate the Japanese by dropping torches soaked in fat. The Japanese sappers broke down a section of the wall and a great rush broke out with the samurai pushed each other down as it was a great honor to be the first samurai to enter a fortress. The Korean garrison was out of ammunition and were short of swords, so many Koreans fought with wooden sticks against the onrush of samurai armed with
katanas. As usual, the Japanese took no prisoners, killing almost everyone, both military and civilian, and the Nam River ran red with blood as thousands attempted to swim across it, only to be cut down by the samurai waiting on the other side. Korean accounts mention that almost all of the 60,000 soldiers in Jinju were killed while Japanese accounts mention the samurai sent 20,000 heads back to Japan after their victory. Jinju was taken only for symbolic purposes, and instead of advancing, the Japanese force at Jinju retreated back to Busan as there was a larger Chinese force to the north.
Negotiations and truce between China and Japan (1594–1596) camped in
Ningxia There were two factors that triggered the Japanese to withdraw: first, a Chinese
commando penetrated Hanseong and burned storehouses at
Yongsan, destroying most of what was left of the Japanese troops' depleted stock of food. Secondly, Shen Weijing made another appearance to conduct negotiations, and threatened the Japanese with an attack by 400,000 Chinese. The Japanese under Konishi Yukinaga and Katō Kiyomasa, aware of their weak situation, agreed to withdraw to the Busan area while the Chinese would withdraw back to China. A ceasefire was imposed, and a Ming emissary was sent to Japan to discuss peace terms. For the next three years, there was little fighting as the Japanese retained control of a few coastal fortresses, with the rest of Korea being controlled by the Koreans. By 18 May 1594, all the Japanese soldiers had retreated to the area around Busan and many began to make their way back to Japan. The Ming government withdrew most of its expeditionary force, but kept 16,000 men on the Korean peninsula to guard the truce. Once peace negotiations between China and Japan finally got underway, Chinese negotiators gave the Ming emperor the mistaken impression that he was about to deal with a minor state that had been subdued by war. Furthermore, they conveyed the idea that the Japanese regent, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, was prepared to become his vassal. Under such conditions, the Chinese sought to resolve the issue in their favor by including Japan in their tributary system of foreign relations. They would establish Hideyoshi as king of Japan and grant him the privilege of formal tribute trade relations with the Ming dynasty. In Japan, Hideyoshi's negotiators apparently led him to believe that China was suing for peace and was ready to accept him as their emperor. Thus, Hideyoshi issued the demands of a victor; first, a daughter of the Ming emperor must be sent to become the wife of the Japanese emperor; second, the southern provinces of Joseon must be ceded to Japan; third, normal trade relations between China and Japan must be restored; and fourth, a Joseon prince and several high-ranking government officials must be sent to Japan as hostages. Bargaining from such fundamentally different perspectives, there was no prospect whatsoever for success in the talks. Early in 1597, both sides resumed hostilities. ==Korean military reorganization==