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Admiral YI Sun Shin

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  Quote Gun Powder Ma Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Admiral YI Sun Shin
    Posted: 02-Sep-2006 at 19:27
Who has left the cage door open?
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  Quote Omnipotence Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02-Sep-2006 at 23:58
A quote from Warhead in CHF
----------------------
The Seibatsu Ki says that all together, 208,650 men crossed over to Korea and only 97,460 remained at Nagoya.
The Tensho Ki gives number of troops in Korea as 201,000 and those remained at Nagoya as 102,300 a total of 303,500.
The Taiko Ki gives total troops who crossed Korea as 205,570 and those remained at Nagoya as 102,450 making a grand total of 307,985.
In any case it would seem some 2/3 of the entire Japanese force were in Korea. Those troops that were left behind in Nagoya, some 28,00 belonging to Hideoshi and 74,000 troops belonging to Eastern and Northern Daimyos were to remain as a provision against any possible attack from China. It was an all out war on the part of Japan.
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  Quote Preobrazhenskoe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03-Sep-2006 at 04:59
@ Gun Powder Ma
 
 
Your population parameters for 1600 had me thinking, and so I decided to check it out for myself. The above sight shows a bunch of other timelines, like comparisons of GDP between regions of the world and so forth through the epoch of history starting at Christ's birth, and here's the population figures it gives for world regions at that time of 1600 AD, specifically.
 
Western Europe --> 73.7 million people
Eastern Europe --> 16.9 million people
Former U.S.S.R. --> 20.7 million people
Western Offshoots (North America) --> 2.3 million
Latin America --> 8.6 million
Japanese Islands --> 18.5 million people
Asia (except Japan) --> 360 million people
Africa --> 55 million people
 
Source:Maddison's The World Economy,  Table B-10, World Population, 20 Countries and Regional Totals, 0-1998. (000's)
 
According to Maddison's data (which you referenced before, Gun Powder Ma), the entire population of Japan (18.5 million) is roughly 0.25%, or 1/4 the entire size of Western Europe's population alone. In comparison to Western Europe, Asia (except Japan) is 360 million people (largely from China and India), which was 5 times bigger than Western Europe's population of 73.7 million people, which still isn't bad for Europe at all (considering the feudal age largely dead right before the emerging Renaissance of the 15th century and birth of tons of new tons in Europe to undermine the strength of the local vassal lords in every European region), it's just that by this point in time, roughly 200 million people in Asia were from China alone, which isn't a far stretch considering China's enormous population in the past alongside better living conditions, more and more advanced methods of agriculture and agrarian technology/techniques over the ages from the Han Dynasty, as well as the the emergence of mass markets and early, proto mass production era of the Song Dynasty (960 - 1279 AD) centuries before the European 19th century Industrial Revolution. It's pretty wierd to think about if the conditions were a bit different way back in the Roman Empire, if the attitudes of social environment, economic and cultural systems, as well as policies of government didn't hinder a lot of Hellenistic Greek geniuses like Heron of Alexandria, then Rome might well have gone through a type of proto-industrial era as well with the implementation of devices employing steam power that were already experimented with. Pretty funny to think about a steam-powered cart or chariot back in the Roman period. Lol. Damn. That's a mind trip.
 
It's funny that you mention that the reason European naval warfare in this period was more sophisticated and advanced because they had largely abandoned the old graple and board technique, when it was the Imjin War where the Japanese learned the hard way that this style of war was over when confronted with longer range Korean cannons and bombards, working to the advantage of Admiral Yi and not the Japanese, although the Japanese employed a much, much larger amount of arquebus firing units at close range while at sea or marching on land. It was Oda Nobunaga, the powerful warlord who came directly before Hideyoshi Toyotomi, that destroyed the forces of his enemy Takeda by employing a technique similar to Leonardo Da Vanci's rotating triple set of rifles. Oda built a stockade on the other side of a river and waited for Takeda's cavalry (which was still considered the most powerful advantage on the field), Takeda believing Oda's guns were useless and ruined because it was raining like hell that grisly day. Takeda had his best bodyguard units defend the stockades while three long lines of an estimated 1,000 arquebus riflemen took in this shift order: one team is firing their weapons, while the other is allowing their weapons to cool down, and the third row of riflemen are reloading. With this continuous volley of gunfire, Takeda's cavalry charge was absolutely decimated, one of the greatest strategic battles of the Sengoku Era, the Battle of Nagashino. Most importantly, unlike in previous uses of arquebuses in Japanese battles, these bullets were capable of ripping through Takeda's cavalry troops' armor and piercing flesh in one round at a distance of 50 meters. An estimated 10,000 people died from this battle as well, although cavalry charges weren't even a big aspect of Japanese warfare, something that the Japanese would come into grave contact to when facing the dominant force of Ming Dynasty Chinese cavalry in Korea allied against the Japanese.
 
Eric


Edited by Preobrazhenskoe - 03-Sep-2006 at 05:34
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  Quote Gun Powder Ma Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03-Sep-2006 at 10:01
@ Omnipotence

And how did they ship these troops across? All at once or by ferry service?

@ Preo

Interesting data, but I am not sure what is your argument now?

That Japan's population is 1/4 the entire size of Western Europe's population alone is certainly impressive, but as the other figures by Maddison indicate, it still did not exceed significantly those of France, Germany, and Italy each, even in the high count.

One could likewise say that the population of France of 1600 was 3/5 of the entire Southeast Asian population in the 17th century (Anthony Reid: An Age of Commerce in Southeast Asian History, p.23), but exactly what for?

The Portuguese, not much more than one million in their homeland, beat off 14 attacks by the Acehnese against Melakka with ridiciously low numbers. For instance, in 1568 the Acehnese embarked with 15.000 troops, newly imported Turkish cannon, and after a month, they left badly  beaten with 3.500 dead. Against a garrison of 200 (!) Portuguese soldiers aided by 1.300 local Christians (Pierre-Yces Manguin: Of Fortress and Galleys. The 1568 Acehnese Siege of Malakka).

So much for organisation, determination & technology vs. human wave.






Edited by Gun Powder Ma - 03-Sep-2006 at 10:03
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  Quote Omnipotence Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03-Sep-2006 at 15:38

And how did they ship these troops across? All at once or by ferry service?

Of course it is not all at once. It is done by various expeditions having up to tens of thousands, not hundreds of thousands, at least in my knowledge. But these expeditions were mostly done all at once, minus the supplies and reinforcements. They blitzeriged across Korea and caught it with its pants down, but then Korea recovered.




Edited by Omnipotence - 03-Sep-2006 at 17:37
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  Quote Preobrazhenskoe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03-Sep-2006 at 18:03
Your point about the Portuguese in Melakka brings to mind another event where a small amount of European forces faced much greater, gigantic odds against them but also claimed victory by superior strategy and calling upon the help of some local factions of indigenous aid: Cortez in Aztec-era Mexico, but of course. Lol. That and Cortez understood with the workings of their society, if you topple the power of the Aztec Great Speaker (Emperor, if you will), then you become the next Great Speaker, in another sense, Governor of New Spain. 
 
Gun Powder: My earlier point about Japan was, with a population size roughly equal to that of early 17th century France, one of the highest populated regions of Western Europe (even back in the high middle ages), Japan could easily muster large armies of over a hundred thousand, and in the 16th century Sengoku Era Japan, with so much mobilization for warfare amongst rivaling factions of diamyos (am I spelling that right?), Japanese society and organizations for military were pretty much ready for war when Toyotomi came a knockin' and organized a naval campaign against Korea. As to the conversation of what you and Omnipotence were having, it would have to take several trips of several tens of thousands of ferried troops deployed to Busan Harbor (and other points of entry as the war raged on) and back to Japan to collect more. I'll have to read into that, because I'm not sure the exact total of ships used for this, although I believe it was roughly 400 or more (once again, that's a guess). Considering the amount of ships that were destroyed by Admiral Yi in the battles of Hansando and the like, the Japanese by the second invasion phase of the war might have been forced to craft more vessels to make up for the lack of those decimated when confronting Admiral Yi.
 
Eric 


Edited by Preobrazhenskoe - 03-Sep-2006 at 19:18
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  Quote Gun Powder Ma Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03-Sep-2006 at 20:05
@ Preo

If you go back to my first post in this thread, you realize that I originally cast doubt on the number of Japanese casualties in Myong Rang as posted by user demon on page 1. Also the number of sunken Japanese seems to me too high.

As for the Japanese army strenght, I do not doubt that they, being at that time one of the most highly militarized societies, threw their 100.000-200.000 troops at Korea war theatre.

But it should be pointed out that army strength is not simply a function of population size, but at least as much of organization and centralized planning and coordination. For example, although France's population only increased from less than 15 million at the end of the Hundred Years War (1453) to less than 21 million in 1670 (33%) , its army strength had risen in the this period from max. 60.000 men in the field to max. 270.000, that is by 450%. (Lynn: The trace italienne and the Military Revolution)

Just take a look at the size of the Ming expeditionary corps. How often do we read boastful comments about "a standing army of 1 million soldiers", but when things got serious the Japanese invaded their ally, they did only muster 5.000 troops in the first mobilization and in the second only 40.000 more...

Thats the difference between paper and actual field strenght...




Edited by Gun Powder Ma - 03-Sep-2006 at 20:13
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  Quote Omnipotence Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03-Sep-2006 at 20:22

^actually that's because the Ming was fighting a three-pronged war, in which the Imjin war was of secondary importance, which in my opinion was because the war wasn't on Ming Chinese soil, so why bother.

 
btw, I thought the Ming had a total force of 80,000, not 40,000, during the Imjin War in Korea.


Edited by Omnipotence - 03-Sep-2006 at 20:47
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  Quote Preobrazhenskoe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03-Sep-2006 at 20:35
You definitely raise good points, especially about Ming China (which by this point had been decaying from its former glory and ability to maintain a powerful and effective central government). However, Emperor Wanli's sending of an initial 5,000 and then only 40,000 might not have been for reasons of stress on their military budget or abilities, but because of ulterior motives and turning to the past when deciding policies of aiding foreign powers, even if they appear to be allies for the while. In the Song period of China, when the ancient Jurchens in Manchuria were invading the Khitan-ethnicity Liao Kingdom to the north of Song China, the Chinese provided the Jurchens with economic and military aid in order to further the destruction of their Khitan rivals. This turned out to be a drastic error, as the Jurchens, upon conquering Liao, turned on Song China and besieged their capital at Kaifeng, snatching the entire northern half of China in the early 12th century. Then, a century later, when the Mongols were attacking the same Jurchens who established the Jin Dynasty over northern China, the Song Chinese once again aided who they believed to be friendly allies, the Mongols, against the Jurchens. They sent tons of grain to help the Mongol effort against the Jurchens, and what happened to the Southern Song Dynasty? Soon after, the Mongols turned on them and destroyed the Song Dynasty, establishing the Yuan Dynasty over all of China. So, you can understand why the Chinese would be a little suspicious of providing full military support for neighbors whom could also be percieved as potential military or even economic rivals later. 
 
Emperor Wanli might have sent small forces to aid Korea simply because he had motives to have Korea severely weakened economically and militarily by this Japanese invasion, so that the Koreans in the future wouldn't have the abilities to resist later Ming authority and imperialism (which by this point needed some strengthening). This policy also went hand-in-hand with inflicting heavy losses upon the Japanese while they were busy fighting Korea, letting them duke each other out and waiting at the sidelines to punch at the right moment. This was because Japan was a much greater percieved threat ever since the Wokou pirate raids along the Ming coast in the mid 16th century. But of course, the other motives could have actually been stresses upon the Ming economy, which were building at this point (and would come to a head during some nasty agrarian rebellions in the 17th century to follow), coupled with the mounting threats in the north with incursions coming from Inner Mongolia, as well as the rising power of the Jurchen-descendents, the Manchurians. These Manchurians would eventually overthrow the rebel power that had in turn destroyed the Ming (the last Ming Emperor hung himself by a tree in a palace courtyard once he was informed that rebel forces had infiltrated the capital gates by way of inner treachery against him), as the Manchurians would initiate the Qing Dynasty.
 
Eric


Edited by Preobrazhenskoe - 03-Sep-2006 at 21:00
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  Quote Gun Powder Ma Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03-Sep-2006 at 22:07

Originally posted by Omnipotence


btw, I thought the Ming had a total force of 80,000, not 40,000, during the Imjin War in Korea.


Looks you are right. 40.000 were from the northern military districts. My bad.

 Wiki: "The salvage army had a prescribed strength of 100,000, made up of 42,000 from five northern military districts and a contingent of 3,000 soldiers proficient in the use of firearms from South China. The Ming army was also well armed with artillery pieces."


Originally posted by Omnipotence

actually that's because the Ming was fighting a three-pronged war, in which the Imjin war was of secondary importance, which in my opinion was because the war wasn't on Ming Chinese soil, so why bother.


Alright, it were 100.000 troops, but do you really believe that the emperor did not bother about a foe who had publicly announced to the world, that he would overran China and become emperor himself?

The Ming could not better and had in fact to rely on the stubborn defense of the Koreans and the genus of a single man at sea. It was undoubtedly the Korean contribution to the war effort which turnt the tables, the Ming rather looked throughout most of the war like grandpa who had been shooed out of his comfortable armschair.


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  Quote Omnipotence Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03-Sep-2006 at 23:52
Looks you are right. 40.000 were from the northern military districts. My bad.

 Wiki: "The salvage army had a prescribed strength of 100,000, made up of 42,000 from five northern military districts and a contingent of 3,000 soldiers proficient in the use of firearms from South China. The Ming army was also well armed with artillery pieces."

 

Well, we are both wrong then, for I said 80,000.

Alright, it were 100.000 troops, but do you really believe that the emperor did not bother about a foe who had publicly announced to the world, that he would overran China and become emperor himself?
The Ming could not better and had in fact to rely on the stubborn defense of the Koreans and the genus of a single man at sea. It was undoubtedly the Korean contribution to the war effort which turnt the tables, the Ming rather looked throughout most of the war like grandpa who had been shooed out of his comfortable armschair.

 
Actually, the newly risen-to-power Manchus already announced that they wanted to take the Ming down, and THEY are bringing the fight to the Ming, not Korea as in the case of the Japanese.
 
As for the Imjin War, Korea did the most at sea, while the Ming helped a lot at land. To say the Ming acted like the grandfather in the war would really undertalk the help Korea received from the Ming land armies, not that grandfathers are useless or anything. In fact, Korea was caught with its pants down so bad that its real troops was pretty much all decimated initially during the war, so that it had to rely on the general populace for its pool of land soldiers. Because the general populace, being the general populace, have little military training, Korean troops at land were not anywhere near the degree of Korean troops at sea. In fact, during the siege of PyongYang, the Chinese ordered their soldiers to dress in Korean uniforms to attack one side of the wall while other troops attacked another side. The Japanese thus underestimated these "Korean" troops and sent minimum soldiers to guard that side of the wall, and as a result the city was breached from that side. That is not to say the Ming did all the work, for without the Korean navy the war would have dragged on much longer, but without the Ming army, the war would also drag on a lot longer than it had.
 
Everybody in the war, Japanese included, performed very well in the war, meaning that everybody on all sides pretty much emptied all the tricks up their sleeves. Unfortunately when everybody on all sides perform very well, it usually means the war would drag on and on and on, resulting in that the populace suffers the most.


Edited by Omnipotence - 04-Sep-2006 at 00:08
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  Quote I/eye Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04-Sep-2006 at 00:51

Originally posted by Gun Powder Ma

Of what use is crossing the T with the small fire power of the Korean ships? Did they sink ships by artillery?
Korean naval artillery was not weak, and yes they sank ships by artillery


That would mean that two-thirds of the initial Japanese expeditionary corps (reinforcements aside) were annihilated by the Korean navy? I find that not easy to believe, where do you have your battle stats from?

defeated, not annihilated. lost the battle, not their lives

 
 
Originally posted by Omnipotence

 
In fact, Korea was caught with its pants down so bad that its real troops was pretty much all decimated initially during the war, so that it had to rely on the general populace for its pool of land soldiers.
not decimated. more of the battles to drive back the Japanese was fought by regulars than the righteous army


Edited by I/eye - 04-Sep-2006 at 00:54
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  Quote Gun Powder Ma Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04-Sep-2006 at 09:11
@ Omnipotence

We may be not too far apart in our general assessments of the war, but I would definitely maintain that the decisive war contribution was made by the Korean navy (where was the Ming one by the way?). With their supply lines at sea under such a severe strain,  it was not possible for the Japanese to win the war on the ground, even though they had qualitatively superior forces in the field. Compare it in a way to the Battle of the Bulge in 1944/45: Without air superiority, and even though they had the element of surprise and qualitatively better troops, the offensive of the Wehrmacht against the Americans was from the outset doomed to failure. 


Edited by Gun Powder Ma - 04-Sep-2006 at 09:15
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  Quote Preobrazhenskoe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04-Sep-2006 at 12:01

After many centuries and continuous Chinese dynasties upholding strong riverine and oceangoing navies (riverine to patrol the rivers and lakes in the southern half of China to maintain forces against rebellion and defense in general, oceangoing to escort and protect merchant fleets traveling abroad) the exploits of Admiral Zheng He in the previous 15th century seemed to mark the height of Chinese naval superiority in the East, as the Ming oceangoing navy was largely disassembled after his voyages. This was because of internal policies against expenditures that seemed frivolous, unneccessary, and favoring to eunuchs by the Confucian gentry-scholar elite, who retook power of Beijing away from the hands of the eunuchs (and of course, Zheng was a eunuch). With the policies of largely shutting their doors to trade, determining that China could produce most of what she needed within her own realm, the situation was only exacerbated with Japanese pirates raiding the eastern coast in the mid 16th century. This was concurrent with European merchants (as well as missionaries) who came into the scene and filled the vacuum of trade between China and Japan after China had pretty much excommunicated Japan from direct trade (Japan still assumed trade of incoming mainland goods by trading with China's trade partners, including Korea). As for the presence of the Ming navy in the Imjin War, they weren't entirely absent, since they fought all the way up to the last battle of the war, the Battle of Noryang Point. After leading the Japanese into an ambush at the narrow straight, the Koreans and Chinese shelled the Japanese ships from afar until the Chinese under Chen Lin, seeing that the Japanese under Konishi had suffered considerable damage, charged with his ships to engage in fierce melee, grapple-and-board style combat. With this the Japanese actually had a chance to inflict some damage with close range firing and grappling onto Chinese boats, and when Chen's flagship came under direct attack, Admiral Yi Sun Sin gave command to sail up ahead as well. This was the decisive last blow to the Japanese, and much like Nelson at Trafalgar, Admiral Yi was killed in the end, killed by a stray Japanese bullet.

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  Quote Omnipotence Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04-Sep-2006 at 19:04
 I would definitely maintain that the decisive war contribution was made by the Korean navy (where was the Ming one by the way?).
 
The decisive factor is completely arguable, but when talking about the Ming navy, they usually fought alongside the Korean navy of admiral Yi, just like how Korean troops fought alongside Ming troops on land.
 
One can't win a war without any of the military limbs, be that air, ground, or navy. Of course, people back then barely had the air spectrum of military power, unless you are talking about using kites as spies.


Edited by Omnipotence - 04-Sep-2006 at 19:05
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  Quote jiangweibaoye Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06-Sep-2006 at 14:57
Admiral Yi definitely made great contributions to the defeat of the Japanese in the Imjin War, but he was not alone.  The Ming Navy also deserves credit.
 
Also, the naval part of the Imjin War was important, but the ground war is still paramount.  History will show that the one how command the ground will eventually win.  Look at what is happening in Iraq or even the current Isreali's incursion into Lebanon.  Naval power or superiority is a critical component to a full blown military campaign, but the unappreciated infantry usually win or lose the wars.
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  Quote Gun Powder Ma Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06-Sep-2006 at 15:02
What I just wonder is from where the Korean navy actually operated with the Japanese occupying large chunks of the peninsula? How could they get so close to Japanes supply lines when the south was under Japanese control?
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  Quote Omnipotence Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06-Sep-2006 at 17:39
^The victories of admiral Yi gained him the control of the Korean straits.
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  Quote Preobrazhenskoe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06-Sep-2006 at 18:54
Originally posted by Gun Powder Ma

What I just wonder is from where the Korean navy actually operated with the Japanese occupying large chunks of the peninsula? How could they get so close to Japanes supply lines when the south was under Japanese control?
 
Hmm...this isn't going to be an easy one to answer here, and it's going to need some lengthy explanation along with the realization that there were many different phases of the war along with several strategic battles which turned chain of events in favor for Admiral Yi. Before the invasion, Toyotomi Hideyoshi had underestimated the Koreans and assumed they had no defensive navy to challenge his. Although the Korean navy was small to his in comparison, Admiral Yi used superior strategy and timing to inflict incredible losses upon the Japanese fleet in and around Jeolla Province to the southwest in the beginning of the war.
 
When the Japanese had already captured Busan and Dongnae, destroyed the Korean General Shin Lip's attempts to thwart the invaders in the south, and in a lightning-fast attack took the capital of Hanyang (modern-day capital of Seoul), Admiral Yi was still stationed at his headquarters of Yosu, west of Namhae Island, patrolling around the shores of Jeolla Province (southwest Korean Peninsula) with his small fleet. He waited for word coming from the capital and King Seonju's court for a while, yet heard of nothing for weeks until local reports from fisherman and the like. He decided to engage the Japanese finally at Okpo Harbor near Koje Island, where Japanese troops were busy looting the nearby countryside and killing Korean civilians in the process. Admiral Yi decided to take them by surprise and begin shelling their ships while troops were still on land. They immediately tried to reboard their ships and Toda Takatora ordered to fire arquebus rounds at Yi's fleet, but they were out of range. In the following two-day scuffle he inflicted somewhat heavily losses on a larger Japanese fleet because of superior firing range of his cannons (apparently the only casualty on Yi's side was an oarsman who was injured by a bullet). The Japanese finally retreated from Okpo.
 
The next two battles were but small skirmishes, the Battle of Happo where 5 Japanese vessels were ambushed and sunk, the Battle of Jeokjinpo where 13 Japanese ships were abandoned (the Japanese fled into the nearby mountains) once they confronted Admiral Yi on May 8th of 1592, and Admiral Yi demolished the abandoned ships. On the 29th of May, however, a pivotal moment in the war occured, because this was the first time Admiral Yi was ready to use his Geobukseon (Turtle Ship) in battle, a strategic element of surprise he was eager to test on the waters (the Turtle Ship was hailed for its abilities to ram and barge into enemy formations while the Panokseons bombarded the enemy from afar; the iron-plated roof-siding of the Geobukseon deflected arquebus rounds and largely deflected fire arrows and fiery explosions from Japanese bombards). The battle was set when the somewhat untrustworthy sub-admiral Won Kyun (his forces were late to arrive at the earlier Battle of Okpo) sent Admiral Yi a report at his base in Yosu that Japanese ships were harbored at Sacheon, which alarmed Yi Sun Sin to the idea that the Japanese intended to attack his position at Yosu. Admiral Yi met Won Kyun at Noryang Straight (also the site of the last battle of the war), and spied on the Japanese as they moved their troops on land, 12 large Japanese vessels with smaller surrounding vessels meanwhile anchored at bay. Admiral Yi came to the conclusion that the best fight would be on the water, not on land, where the Japanese might have a tactical advantage. Therefore, Admiral Yi decided to play a little game of cat and mouse with the Japanese, using the tactic of a lure to trick the Japanese into following his 'retreat' and straight into an impending ambush. Near the dusk and twilight hours of the day, the Koreans made the necessary ploy of the retreat and lure, and once they were in a favorable position, bombarded the Japanese from afar with cannon rounds and fire arrows. The Japanese tried using arquebus firing and boarding of ships extensively, which pretty much failed, inflicting only four severe casualties upon Yi's troops, along with Yi sustaining an injury himself of a Japanese bullet wound in his left arm (which he recovered from).
 
On June 2nd of 1592, Admiral Yi recieved word that a Japanese naval commander Kurushima Michiyuki was stationed at Dangpo Harbor with 21 ships (including his flagship), looting coastal towns along the way. Admiral Yi made his Geobukseon his flagship, and personally led the attack against Kurushima, who was largely unprepared. In the chaos that ensured, Kurushima was actually killed by a Korean archer on board the Geobukseon, and his head was later retrieved. The Koreans retreated once they heard of Japanese reinforcements coming from Koje-do, and Admiral Yi decided it best to retire and figure another tactical advantage. While searching for fleeing Japanese ships of Kurushima in and around the nearby straights, he met up witht the forces of the sub-admiral Yi Ok-ki two days later on the 4th of June. The combined Korean fleet was now 51 ships, and Admiral Yi was pleased by the news that another Japanese fleet of 26 ships (including another flagship) were anchored at Danghangpo. Once again, like Dangpo before, here the Japanese were busy looting, burning, and pillaging. Admiral Yi sent a few patrol boats into the bay to test Japanese defenses, and sure enough, the Japanese lined their vessels up for a naval conflict, whereupon Admiral Yi set his Geobukseon out to stir things up. The Japanese were dismayed once the ship neared them and actually began ramming their own ships while the Panokseon resumed a continuous volley of cover fire from afar. Fearing a Japanese retreat soon into the battle like at earlier Jeokjinpo, Admiral Yi feigned a retreat, which the Japanese followed, the flagship taking the lead. Once they were out on the open waters outside of the protection of the bay, Admiral Yi assumed the crescent formation to continue shelling the enemy and encircle the Japanese while the Geobukseon once again added the surprise element of ramming and barging right into enemy ranks to cause chaos and disorder. Once again, this battle went to Admiral Yi's forces.
 
By this point in time, Toyotomi Hideyoshi was growing gravely concerned of Admiral Yi's prowess, as Admiral Yi's position in the southwest not only threatened supply lines moving north up the Korean Peninsula, but also threatened future supply routes that had to be secured over the Yellow Sea in the northwest of Busan between the Chinese mainland and the Korean Peninsula if Toyotomi was to ever invade Ming China (his original goal). To make matters apparently worse, the rebellion stirred by Kim Myeon in Gyeongsang Province in southeastern Korea against General Mori Terumoto was inspired largely by Admiral Yi's own resistance around the shores of Jeolla Province. Toyotomi was determined to crush Yi's apparent wave of success by assembling a massive naval fleet to once and for all crush this rising resistance along the southwestern shores. Toyotomi ordered for his general Wakizaka Yasuharu to combine his fleet of 73 ships (36 mutli-decked adake bune, 24 medium-sized seki bune, and 13 small kobaya scout ships) to combine forces with those of commanders Kato Yoshiaki and Kuki Yoshi-taka to seek out and destroy the Korean navy. It made sense that Toyotomi placed a great deal of trust in this man, Wakizaka, as he was not only the diamyo of Awaji Island in Japan, but also one of the famed shichi-hon-yari (Seven Spears of Shizugatake). This was a very highly-trusted officer position in Toyotomi's ranks, for he was one of the seven responsible for Hideyoshi's turning-point success at the Battle of Shizugatake in 1583, after the death of his late master Oda Nobunaga. However, Wakizaka did not wait patiently for Kato or Kuki's reinforcements, and sailed on ahead with his 73-ship fleet towards Hansan Island (Hansan-do). In this fight, however, Admiral Yi combined forces with sub-admirals Won Kyun and Yi Eok Ki, with a total of 54 Panokseon vessels and 2 or 3 Geobukseon ships. Admiral Yi was informed by a local farmer that a Japanese fleet (Wakizaka's fleet) was approaching his by westward direction, anchored north of the Kyonnaeryang Straight, which was a narrow straight between Koje Island and the mainland peninsula.
 
On the morning of August 14th, 1592, Admiral Yi decided to lure Wakizaka's fleet through the narrow channel by sending in six panokseon battleships. Wakizaka fell for the ploy, and followed them out into the open sea right before Hansan Island. What Wakizaka confronted was a new formation devised by Admiral Yi into a large crane-wing formation of ships, whereas before Admiral Yi had relied upon relays of ships to provide continuous loading and fire, Yi's new formation was like a giant letter "U" where the heaviest battleships were placed at the center and the lighter ships on the wings. Admiral Yi carefully placed reserve ships behind the larger battleships in the center and would plug in the gaps once the formation would need to stretch and expand horizontally. Ships in the front faced broadside to maximize the number of cannons facing the enemy. The crane or "U" shape also allowed the Korean ships to surround and hit the oncoming Japanese ones from several different angles, the classic enfilade maneauver (similar to "crossing the T" as someone mentioned before). The Japanese on the other hand employed the tactic of placing the fastest ships in the vanguard to keep the Korean forces occupied, followed by the larger ships to move in rapidly to grapple and board the Korean vessels. This played right into Yi's plot, and the harder the Japanese pushed into his formation, the quicker his crane formation enveloped and surrounded the Japanese at all angles. Some hand-to-hand fighting occurred, but this was largely after many of the Japanese ships were sunk or severely damaged by cannon fire and fire arrows. In the opening moments of the battle, sub-commanders Wakizaka Sabei and Watanabe Shichi'emon were killed in action, commander Manabe Samanosuke committed suicide by seppuku while aboard his burning, sinking ship,and after being shot with several arrows (into his armor, not wounded), Wakizaka Yasuharu fled in a hasty retreat with a remaining 14 ships back to Busan, after 59 had already been completely lost. With this monumental loss to the Japanese fleet, Toyotomi's hopes of securing the Yellow Sea were lost, alongside his now grave inability to effectively move supplies north to Konishi Yukinaga at Pyongyang, and troops could hardly be sent to him as reinforcements due to lack of food needed to be eaten on the trip there (which before was largely supplied by way of naval movements along the coast). Hideyoshi also had ambitions much like Imperial Japan's during WWII, and after conquering regions of northern China, he wished to invade the Philippines and other important trade areas dominated now by European traders (the Philippines are where China amassed a lot of Mexican and Peruvian mined silver, which was essential now to the Ming Dynasty economy, as they were amassing so much silver that farming peasants in the countryside were being taxed by it; this would be replaced shortly after by copper when silver inflated and caused disastrous disruptions in the economy).
 
To close this post, here's a comment by the British Vice Admiral George Alexander Ballard (1862 - 1948) on Admiral Yi Sun Sin:
 
"This was the great Korean admiral's crowning exploit. In the short space of six weeks [actually about 9 weeks, May 7, 1592 July 7, 1592] he had achieved a series of successes unsurpassed in the whole annals of maritime war, destroying the enemy's battle fleets, cutting his lines of communication, sweeping up his convoys, imperilling the situation of his victorious armies in the field, and bringing his ambitious schemes to utter ruin. Not even Nelson, Blake, or Jean Bart could have done more than this scarcely known representative of a small and cruelly oppressed nation; and it is to be regretted that his memory lingers nowhere outside his native land, for no impartial judge could deny him the right to be accounted among the born leaders of men."
 
Big smile
Eric


Edited by Preobrazhenskoe - 06-Sep-2006 at 19:11
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Baron
Baron


Joined: 03-Aug-2004
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  Quote I/eye Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09-Sep-2006 at 04:01
Originally posted by Gun Powder Ma

What I just wonder is from where the Korean navy actually operated with the Japanese occupying large chunks of the peninsula? How could they get so close to Japanes supply lines when the south was under Japanese control?
 
that's one more reason to worship admiral Yi.
 
built a navy from practically nothing, with enemies all around him, including within the Korean government.
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