The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 350 This battle was outrageous
Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the regent of Japan, personally stationed at Nagoya and led his troops across the sea to prepare for an attack on Korea, a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty.

Nine legions, numbering 150,000 to 160,000 troops and countless food and supplies gradually gathered on Tsushima Island.

A fleet of more than 700 warships was constantly moving back and forth.

At this time, Wanli, who was thousands of miles away, knew that Japan had sent troops, but Korea, a vassal state just over a hundred miles away, was still unaware of it!
They didn't know whether they were pretending or really didn't know, but at this time, there was no movement from the vassal state of North Korea.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi did not seem to be in a hurry. It was not until April 13, when everything was ready, that he ordered an attack on the Busan Port of Korea, a vassal state.

The vassal state of Korea was completely unprepared. On April 14, the First Legion of Japanese pirates captured the Port of Busan!

Toyotomi Hideyoshi was launching a sneak attack right under their noses, and it is really unacceptable that the vassal state of Korea was not prepared at all.

Doesn’t a certain Korean like to brag about how powerful Asia’s No. 1 God of War is, saying that in the Battle of Noryang, Yi Sun-sin single-handedly led his army to defeat tens of thousands of Japanese pirates, sank over a hundred enemy ships, and killed more than nine thousand of them?
With just over 10,000 troops and less than 20,000 men, they captured Busan, their largest seaport in the south, in just one day!

To be honest, this is a bit outrageous.

This is nothing, even stranger things are yet to come.

Immediately afterwards, the Japanese pirates divided their troops into three groups and launched attacks on Gyeongsang Province, Jeolla Province and Chungcheong Province of the vassal state of Korea respectively.

Among them, Chungcheong Province was the main attack direction, and the Japanese pirates' most elite First Corps, Second Corps, and Fourth Corps, totaling more than 50,000 troops, were responsible for the attack. Their target was Gyeonggi Province north of Chungcheong Province.

As a result, more than ten cities of various sizes along the line from Busan to the Korean capital, including Gimhae, Ulsan, Gyeongju, Seongju, Sangju, Cheongju, Chungju, Yeoju, and Suwon, seemed to be made of paper. On May 2, the Japanese pirates captured the Korean capital!

Even the Joseon King Yi Sun was stunned.

The road from Busan to Wangjing is almost entirely mountainous, with many passes and winding paths stretching for more than 800 miles.

What's more, they are not completely without troops. There are over 100,000 troops in Gyeonggi alone, and more than 200,000 troops in the entire Korea.

There are at least 70,000 to 80,000 troops stationed in the cities and passes along the way. Some of the passes are extremely dangerous. Instead of 70,000 to 80,000 troops, only a few thousand are needed to guard them. It is estimated that tens of thousands of Japanese pirates will not be able to capture them even after several months.

Originally, he wanted to wait and see how the battle went before considering whether to ask for help from the Ming Dynasty.

Who would have thought that there was no war at all, but in less than 19 days, the Japanese pirates actually came to Wangjing!
How did this guy kill me?
Can Japanese pirates fly?
The mountain road is over 800 miles long. If you are not familiar with the route, you will probably get lost in the mountains and may not be able to reach Wangjing even after running for several months.

The Japanese pirates arrived in Wangjing in less than 19 days!
It is obvious that the Japanese pirates just ran all the way here and did not encounter any resistance at all. There were even people leading the way for them!

King Yi Sun of Joseon was shocked and had no choice but to lead the remaining troops in Gyeonggi to flee northward and seek refuge in Pyongyang.

Who would have known that the 50,000 Japanese pirates had no fear at all of being surrounded and annihilated if they advanced deep into the enemy's territory alone, and they chased him all the way to kill him!
After fleeing to Pyongyang, King Yi Sun of Korea finally realized something was wrong.

When the Japanese pirates captured Busan, Li Shanhai, the Prime Minister, who was equivalent to the Prime Minister of the Ming Cabinet, actually tried his best to dissuade him from asking the Ming Dynasty for help. He even refused to report the news of the Japanese pirates' invasion to the Ming Dynasty.

The reason Li Shanhai gave was that he was afraid that the Ming Dynasty would suspect that they were secretly communicating with the Japanese pirates.

Only then did he realize that Li Shanhai was most likely the one who was secretly communicating with the Japanese pirates!
After he realized what was happening, he immediately dismissed the Western leader Li Haishan from his post and exiled him to Pinghai County.

Immediately afterwards, he promoted the leader of the Eastern people, Liu Chenglong, to be the Prime Minister.

Liu Chenglong did not resist like Li Shanhai.

After taking office, he immediately suggested to King Yi Sun that he issue an order to defend the king, and mobilized all the troops in Gyeonggi Province and Hwanghae Province to defend the line from Kaesong, Hwangju to Pyongyang with all his strength.

At the same time, Kwon Il, a military scholar from the Andong Kwon family, was promoted to the position of Jeolla Province Surveillance Commissioner, and he organized the military and civilians of Jeolla Province to resist the invasion of Japanese pirates. In the fourth year of Wanli, Lee Sun-sin, a military scholar, was promoted to the position of Jeolla Left Province Navy Governor, and he assembled warships to harass the Japanese pirates at sea.

To be honest, Liu Chenglong is still quite capable. If King Yi Sun had appointed him as the Prime Minister from the beginning, the Japanese pirates with more than 100,000 troops would probably not be able to take over Gyeongsang Province, let alone the royal capital.

However, King Yi Sun seemed to be possessed by a demon, and he actually let the pro-Japanese Yi Sanhae serve as the Prime Minister. He also believed this guy's words and did not inform the Ming Dynasty at all, let alone ask for help from the Ming Dynasty.

At this point, even if Liu Chenglong was replaced, it would be too late.

The Japanese pirates advanced rapidly and they suffered a crushing defeat.

At this time, even if all the troops in Gyeonggi Province and Hwanghae Province were mobilized to defend the line from Kaesong and Hwangju to Pyongyang, they would not be able to hold it.

The Japanese pirates seemed to be able to fly, but their troops couldn't. Mobilizing them would take time, not to mention that most of the generals were promoted by Westerners, and many of them pretended to obey but actually disobeyed, or even deliberately surrendered. In short, Liu Chenglong's orders were of little use. It was unknown whether there were any troops to support the king, and even if there were, they couldn't be assembled in just a few days to rush to Kaesong, Hwangju, and Pyongyang.

Kaesong, the last city in Gyeonggi Province, was captured after only six days of resistance. The Japanese pirates then entered Hwanghae Province and headed straight for Hwangju.

Huangzhou City is only a few dozen miles away from Pyongyang City!
Upon hearing the news, King Lee Sun hurriedly fled all the way to Yizhou City on the border of Ming Dynasty.

Later, historians from Korea, a vassal state, lamented that in just one month, the three capitals were captured, the eight provinces collapsed, and the whole thing was gone!
The way this battle was fought was really out of the ordinary.

The first army of Japanese pirates landed in Busan on April 14th. On May 2nd, the Korean capital was captured. On May 8th, Jungkyung and Kaesong were captured. In just one month, the three capitals and eight provinces of the entire vassal state of Korea almost collapsed. Only Kwon Yul and Yi Sun-sin, who were promoted on the spot by Liu Chenglong, were still struggling to hold on in Jeolla Province.

Wanli also guessed wrong in one aspect. If King Lee Sun of Korea had not replaced Liu Chenglong, the vassal state of Korea would have been destroyed by the Japanese pirates in about forty days instead of two months!
This is the horror of having a traitor, especially when the traitor is in power, the country's destruction is imminent.

The same thing happened in the Ming Dynasty in history. In the first year of Chongzhen, Han Yu, who represented the three major families and eight imperial merchants of Puzhou, became the chief minister. As a result, in the second year of Chongzhen, the Jiannu army inexplicably attacked the capital of the Ming Dynasty!

At that time, the important border towns of the Ming Dynasty were as strong as paper and completely useless.

The same thing happened to the vassal state of Korea at this moment. With a traitor in power, the Japanese pirates inexplicably broke through more than ten cities and countless passes in just over ten days, rushed over 800 miles, and inexplicably reached the royal capital!

Even the King of Joseon, Yi Sun, was stunned.

This battle was too outrageous.

He didn't even know how many traitors and colluders he had.

What else can he do at this time?

To be honest, it's good enough for the leader of a country not to go crazy when faced with such a thing.

Historically, during the Ji Si Rebellion in the second year of Chongzhen's reign, Chongzhen was driven crazy and had Yuan Chonghuan, who led his army to defend the king, executed by slow slicing!

Some people don't understand why Chongzhen skinned alive Yuan Chonghuan, who had led his troops thousands of miles back to defend the emperor.

The reason is actually very simple. Some people said that Yuan Chonghuan was a traitor and a guide, and Chongzhen believed it.

At that time, Chongzhen was indeed driven crazy because he had no backing and could only rely on himself. If he could not handle it, the Ming Dynasty would perish.

At this time, King Lee Sun of Korea was not yet crazy because he still had the Ming Dynasty as his strong backer.

After he fled all the way to Yizhou, he immediately sent several groups of envoys to ask for help from the Ming Dynasty, and he was as anxious as if his butt was on fire.

At this time, historical records became confusing, especially on June 15th.

Because so many things happened on June 15th.

According to historical records of the vassal state of Korea, they asked the Ming Dynasty for help on June 15th. The Japanese pirates had already occupied the three capitals and eight provinces of Korea, leaving only the small corner of Yizhou City that had not been captured.

According to historical records from Japan, they captured Pyongyang on June 15th.

According to historical records of the Ming Dynasty, on June 15th, the vanguard of the Ming army had already crossed the river to support the vassal state of Korea!
There is something fishy here.

There is definitely no problem with the records of the Ming Dynasty, because on June 15th, thousands of Ming cavalrymen who crossed the river suffered casualties, and the guerrilla general Shi Ru was killed in the battle.

If we go by the records of the vassal state of Korea, that would be incorrect, because Zhenjiang Fort is more than a thousand miles away from the capital of the Ming Dynasty, nearly two thousand miles away. Even if it is an expedited journey of eight hundred miles, it would take five or six days to go back and forth.

Moreover, Wanli had already stopped caring about state affairs at that time. Moreover, such a major matter as sending troops to support a vassal state was not something that could be decided on a whim.

In other words, the vassal state of Korea should have asked the Ming Dynasty for help in early June, otherwise the Ming Dynasty would not have sent troops on June 15. According to the records of the Japanese pirates in Japan, they only captured the vassal state of Korea, Pyongyang, on June 15.

What's more important is that neither Kwon Yul nor Yi Sun-sin died in the 20th year of Wanli's reign. They were still struggling in Jeolla Province. How could they have lost all three capitals and eight provinces?
It is obvious that there are major problems with the historical records of the vassal state of Korea.

Why are there such confusing records?
Who is recording this randomly, or for what purpose?

In short, this battle was fought in an outrageous way, so outrageous that it was incomprehensible.

(End of this chapter)