Prime Minister Bizen

Chapter 617 The Imchen Japanese Invasion ([-]) The Battle of Yining——The Japanese Army’s First Defeat

Historically, Hideyoshi didn’t know North Korea’s attitude of resistance to him. He had always been fighting against Dae Ming. It wasn’t until Gyeongsang-do and Jeolla-do were disrupted by righteous soldiers that he formulated the strategy of "Separation of the Eight Kingdoms" and assigned various The generals launched raids on various countries.

Inspired by Hideyoshi in this life, Hideyoshi first made a plan for each legion, if North Korea obeyed the ten legions, the whole army would quickly go north to fight the Ming Dynasty in Liaodong.

If North Korea is very resistant to itself, each legion will attack the eight provinces of North Korea separately, suppress the local volunteer forces, give priority to digesting North Korea's land, and then launch an invasion of the daimyo.

Therefore, when Konishi Yukyo and Kato Kiyomasa entered Wangjing, the capital of North Korea, Kobayakawa Takakage, the Seventh Corps in charge of the Jeolla-do invasion, and Hachisuka's home economics, who was in charge of the Chungcheong-do invasion Fifth Corps, met with Mori Teru who had just landed. After Yuan exchanged the situation, he took people to Jinzhou.

Jinju is the location of Gyeongsang-do right barracks, and there are 5000 Fubing in the establishment, and 200~300 Fubing in each surrounding city.

In addition, there is a Tongying on the south side of Goseong not far from the southeast. There are 2000 Japanese soldiers stationed here all the year round, and more than 2000 sailors in the Usu Camp of Gyeongsang-do mentioned above. The total force exceeds tens of thousands.

Beiwa soldiers were professional soldiers recruited by North Korea through the recruiting system in reference to the Ming system. They may not be as good as the imperial army in terms of equipment, but they are comparable to the prison battalion soldiers, and their combat effectiveness is not inferior to the imperial army.

Not long ago, Chief Xiaoxi broke through Daegu, and the 3000 prison battalion soldiers in the city collapsed, and some of them fled to Jinzhou City.

The original envoy of Jinju City Shepherd and the former envoy of the right soldier of Gyeongsangdo fled for their lives with Xirou shortly after the Japanese army captured Daegu. Now the civil and military officials in Jinju City are headed by judge Jin Shimin.

Don't look down on him just because he holds the title of general judge. He is the 12th grandson of Kim Fang-kyung, a general of the Goryeo Dynasty. He practiced martial arts since childhood.

He saw the extremely bad state of the North Korean army.At that time, there had been no war in North Korea for more than 200 years, and the court emphasized civility over military affairs, which resulted in very poor weapons and equipment and extremely chaotic military discipline.

Kim Si-min wrote a letter to Bing Cao, the highest department of national defense, suggesting reform of the military.However, Bing Cao's verdict reprimanded Kim Si-min on the grounds that today is a peaceful and prosperous age.Jin Shimin proposed many times, but was rejected by Bing Cao's verdict.

In anger, Jin Shimin took off his military cap in front of Bing Cao's judge, threw it on the ground and trampled it, resigned and returned home.

In 1583, the Jurchen chief Nitangjie invaded North Korea (the Nitangjie Rebellion), Jin Shimin followed Zheng Yanxin and repelled the Jurchen attack.Since then, Jin Shimin has embarked on his official career again. In 1591, he was appointed as a judge of Jinzhou.

You have to remember that all the generals who can defeat the Jurchen in the middle and late period of Joseon are great people.

With just such a character, Ren Shi integrated the troops around Jinzhou under the crisis.

Although the Fubing soldiers in Jinju and surrounding cities also deserted, after integrating the Gucheng Beiwa soldiers and the prison camp soldiers who escaped from Daegu, they actually had an armed force of 7000 people in their hands.

The most important thing is that more than 3000 of them are the elite supervising battalion soldiers and preparing Japanese soldiers.Therefore, if Kobayakawa Takakage and Hachisuka Jiazheng want to win Jinju, it may not be easy.

Jinju is an important route leading to Jeolla-do from the south of Gyeongsang-do. Kobayakawa Takakage and Hachisuka Housejeong want to sweep Jeolla-do and Gyeongsang-do. The fastest route is to enter Jeolla-do through Jinju, and then go from south to north attack.

Correspondingly, Masayoshi Fukushima will follow the footsteps of Governor Konishi to enter Chungcheong-do according to the plan, and then attack Chungcheong-do and Jeolla-do from north to south, and eventually the two sides will reunite.

Geoje Island and Goseong on the south side of Jinju are the bases of Gyeongsang-do Usui Camp. After taking Jinju, they can cooperate with the Japanese naval forces to take down the water counterattack force in southern North Korea.

Therefore, for Kobayakawa Ryukei and Hachisuka House Economics, winning Jinju City is crucial to their strategic goals.

Because conquering Gyeongsang-do is my goal, so at the beginning

On April 4, 16 soldiers from the two armies marched westward from Dongnae. Along the way, Gimhae, Xiongchuan, Yeongsan, and Changwon were captured with almost no resistance.

Then the army divided into two groups in Changwon. The Fifth Corps of Fengsuga Jiazheng marched westward along the Nakdong River and Namjang, and captured Qiwon, Xianan, and Yining along the way, while Kobayakawa Longjing fought against Jinhai, Guzhou along the coastline. Cheng and Sacheon attacked, and finally the north and south joined forces in Jinzhou.

However, it was this division of troops that resulted in the first defeat of the Japanese army since the invasion of Korea.

Yoo Sung-in, governor of Haman County, was a famous Korean general during the Imjin Japanese Invasion. Because he followed Kim Si-min and made great contributions in fighting the Japanese, he took over as the right soldier of Gyeongsang-do after Kim Sung-il was promoted to the inspector of Gyeongsang-do.

He used the only more than 300 yamen and fubing in his hands, plus a total of more than 1000 people who were temporarily conscripted to set up an ambush along the way, which caused a lot of trouble for the Fifth Corps of Hachisuka's housekeeping. The Jinzhou Battle of the Fifth Corps cast a shadow.

However, he knew very well that Xianning City was not easy to defend, so after gaining a certain advantage, delaying the enemy's pace and transferring the people in the city, he moved to Jinzhou with hundreds of soldiers, and Xian'an declared the fall.

Yining and Xian'an counties face each other across the South River. After taking Xian'an, Fengxuhe Jiazheng, who marched on the North Road, crossed the river to pull out the city of Yining.

The envoy of Yining Prefecture has long since left, and now the local patriotic aristocrat Guo Zaiyou paid for the defense of Yining City, and the number of farmers and servants in his own land is over a thousand.

However, with just over a thousand troops, Yining City, which was only 2 meters high, held on for more than 3 days.

The location of Xianning City is very special. He didn't build it near the river, but built it in the valley of Jiangxi, blocking a mountain road leading to Jeolla Province.

As a result, the superior force of the Japanese army could not be deployed. Only the east side of the entire Yining City faced the enemy. Yining City was built on the mountain, and part of the mountain on the north side was also protected by the city. Therefore, Guo Zaiyou could occupy the high point of the mountain system in the city and look at the overall situation. Command the battle.

In order to facilitate the siege of the city, Fengsuhe Jiazheng prevented the main formation on Nanshan, but Nanshan was not connected to the city. There was a 10-meter-wide river flowing from west to east to Nanjiang, which naturally became the moat of Yining City.

However, the slope on the Nanshan Mountain is relatively steep, which is not suitable for large corps formations. Therefore, only 500 people from the Fengxu Hejia Banner are stationed on the mountain, and more than [-] troops are all stationed on the east plain.

It was this kind of arrangement that gave Jinzhou the chance to judge Jin Shimin. He used the cover of night to walk on a trail connecting Jinzhou and Yining. A bend, so the banner on Nanshan was not found at first.

It wasn't until later that it was discovered that there seemed to be a condensed fire in the valley on the north side, so people were sent to investigate, but it was already too late.

Because Jin Shimin led 2000 prepared Japanese soldiers to climb up the mountain from the valley on the north side, directly attacked from the flank of Hachisuka Kezheng's main camp, and killed Hachisuka Kezheng by surprise.

No one on the Japanese side expected that the frightened rabbit would dare to take the initiative to attack.

Therefore, the sudden outbreak of fighting at Nanshan frightened the Japanese camped in the east of the city.It was late at night at this time, and there was no specific force for the night attack on the North Korean army.

Under the circumstances that the Japanese army did not know anything about the real situation of the North Korean reinforcements, as Nanshan Hachisuka's banner originally covered the Hachisuka's retreat, the Hachisuka's army closest to the main line was defeated first, which led to the general collapse.

As one of the two main forces of the Fifth Corps, Shimadzu Yoshihiro wanted to organize the army to retreat slowly, but the Hachisuka family's army rushed towards him, and instead broke down his camp.

In fact, the North Korean army did not pursue very far. It was more of the Japanese trampling and killing each other under the roar of the camp at night.

After dawn, Shimadzu Yoshihiro and others retreated to Qiyuan to reorganize and found that there were only more than ten thousand soldiers left in the entire army, and more than one-third of them were still alive or dead.

In the end, after 3 to 5 days of preparations, it was possible to regain the strength of more than 1.4 troops, but the courage of the Fifth Corps after the Battle of Yining was no longer what it used to be.

The difference from the defeat in the battle of Hachisuga Housekeeping on the north side is that due to the confiscation of Goseong Beiwa soldiers and the lack of support from the Jeolla-do Navy led by Yi Sun-shin as in history, Geoje Island and Gyeongsangdo Yousu Camp in Goseong was destroyed, more than 30 warships sank, more than 40 were captured, and more than 1000 sailors died in battle.

After Gucheng was captured, Longjing Kobayakawa continued to march westward and came to the city of Sizhou.

Sizhou city guard is Hong Yi, who was temporarily promoted by Jin Shimin. He performed well in the first battle of Jinzhou in history, and also showed a historical level in the battle of Sizhou. Sizhou City was also blocked for 2 days.

However, he led only 1500 government soldiers, and there were only more than 2000 strong men recruited by Hui and Sizhou.

Moreover, only the west side of Sizhou City is backed by mountains, but it is surrounded by enemies from the northeast to the south. Facing the Japanese army with absolute superiority, they can only break through to the north after holding on for two days.

It's a pity that Tachibana Muneshige is in charge of the north side. This person can be praised by the Japanese daimyo as the "Number One Soldier of the Western Kingdom" because he has his own skills. In the end, the only way to face Hong Yi is to die in battle.

However, on the second day after taking Sizhou, when Kobayakawa Takakage was preparing to go north to encircle Jinzhou, he suddenly received a letter from Shimadzu Yoshihiro, saying that they had suffered a defeat in Yining and had returned to Qiyuan for repairs.

[The North Korean army dared to go out of the city to fight back, and even defeated our Japanese army? 】

When receiving this letter, Takakage Kobayakawa's first reaction was disbelief, but he soon realized that there was no need for Yoshihiro Shimadzu to give himself a basin of cold water when such triumphant songs were playing frequently.

The defeat record at this time is likely to affect the perception of the daimyo around you. Seriously, it will make Sekibaku Hideyoshi doubt your ability, replace you as a way of saving face, and maybe even make you seppuku.

No samurai would risk his honor or his life!

As for why the letter was written by Shimadzu Yoshihiro instead of Hachisuka's family economics, you can understand it after thinking about it.

Yi Ning was defeated, and Hachisuka, as the general, could hardly shirk the blame. He is probably in a panic all day long, thinking of what kind of rhetorical techniques to use to restore his image with Hideyoshi.

However, the defeat of Yining also sounded the alarm for Kobayakawa Longjing. He was keenly aware that the Jinzhou defender did not seem to be as fat as other North Korean defenders. Since the 16500 people of the Fifth Corps would be defeated, nearly 2 of his own It may not necessarily be a decisive victory.

Therefore, after careful consideration, he decided to garrison the whole army in Sizhou without moving. At the same time, he sent two letters to inform Shimadzu Yoshihiro and Hachisuka Jiazheng in Qiyuan, and Mori Terumoto who was on standby in Dongnae.

The Battle of Yining made Kobayakawa Takakage attach great importance to the troops and generals of Jinju City, so he planned to write to Mori Terumoto to ask him to increase his troops while comforting the newly defeated Hachisuka Family Economics.

In his letter, he stated that only by winning Jinzhou can he prove himself, otherwise if Guan Bai knows about it, you will be condemned and dealt with.

Three days later, Mori Huiyuan mobilized troops from Dongnae and came to Jinju. After all, Jinju belongs to Gyeongsang Province. If Kobayakawa Longjing can't pull out this hard bone, he will have to pull it out himself in the end.

Simply take advantage of the opportunity of the three legions with more than 6 combined troops and have an absolute advantage, and take Jinju in one go.

He headed west along the Nakdong River from the northern line, and continued westward along the Nanjiang River after reuniting with the headquarters of the Fifth Army.

Since the battle of rewarding Yining, Jin Shimin paid more attention to Yining, thinking that it was the gateway to cover the north of Jinzhou, so he promoted Guo Zaiyou to Wanhu and gave him 1000 additional troops, of which 500 were Daegu supervising soldiers.

He did this to strengthen Yining's defensive strength, so that he could support each other with Jinzhou Hu Chengjiao, which was even more important after the fall of Sizhou.

However, he missed two things. One is that the number of Japanese troops attacking on the northern front this time exceeded 3.5. It is completely possible to divide the troops to surround Yining and Jinju, so that you can't look at each other from head to tail.

The second is that Guo Zaiyou is a volunteer soldier organized by himself. Wanhu, who was temporarily promoted because of his meritorious service in Yining's defense, has not received a formal appointment from the court.

However, the two thousand households he handed over to Guo Zaiyou were real military officers of the court, especially the Qianhu who was in charge of the camp was a sixth-rank position. Naturally, these two people did not like Guo Zaiyou.

However, Guo Zaiyou had only a few hundred soldiers in his hands after the previous consumption, and neither his power nor his methods were enough to tame the two of them, which caused a rift in Yining City.

Jin Shimin originally wanted 1+1 to produce an effect greater than 2, but because the two sides couldn't see each other and commanded each other, it eventually resulted in the result that 1+1 was less than 2 and stumbling each other.

Fengxuhe Jiazheng was the one who encircled Yining this time. He learned the lesson from last time. Although the formation was still in Nanshan, he searched the entire Nanshan fortress, and the western valley was also full of fortifications. surrounded.

In this way, even if the enemy has reinforcements coming, he can be warned in advance and respond, so that he will not be driven away in embarrassment like last time.

And this time Mori Terumoto personally led the troops to the south and surrounded Jinzhou City from the north and east.

After the Battle of Jinju in history, Jinzhou City became a strong city with the same reputation as North Korea. However, although Jinzhou City has no historical merits at this moment, it has already shown a certain degree of strength.

The south of Jinzhou City was built near the Nanjiang River, and the city wall was built almost against the river bank in the north of the river. There was only a stone bridge on the southeast side connecting the north and the south. After the fall of Sizhou, Jin Shimin ordered people to tear down the stone bridge to block the route of the Japanese army attacking Sizhou.

And there is a small river in the west of Jinzhou City, and the Koreans specially built a moat to connect with the Dasi Pool in the north of the city.In other words, only the northeast and east sides of Jinzhou City are completely unprotected by the moat.

But in this weakest area, the Koreans built a two-layer city wall, that is, to break the city at the east gate, you need to break the outer city first and then attack the inner city of Jinzhou. The Japanese side is completely unaware of this.

Received the news of Mori Terumoto's siege of Jinzhou, Kobayakawa Takakage left the city from Sizhou on April 4 and headed north, and arrived in the south of Jinju City that afternoon, across the Nanjiang River from Jinzhou City.

(End of this chapter)