After the death of Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi took over his hegemony and succeeded in unifying Japan. However, under Toyotomi Hideyoshi's rule, there were still many unstable elements, and daimyo such as Tokugawa Ieyasu, although subservient to Hideyoshi, secretly looked for opportunities for independence.
Therefore, even if Japan has completed its reunification, it is possible to relapse into the dangerous situation of the Daimyo melee at any time. In order to achieve "unification", Toyotomi Hideyoshi formulated a grand plan, hoping to use the Korean Peninsula as a springboard to seize Korea first, so that Japanese troops could transport troops to the mainland without hindrance, and then further attack the Ming Dynasty.
When Korea was invaded by Japan, it appealed to the suzerain, the Ming Dynasty, for help. In the twentieth year of Wanli of the Ming Dynasty (1592 AD), that is, the first year of Wenlu in Japan, Ming Chengzu sent Song Yingchang and Li Rusong to lead the Liaodong Army to Korea and officially declared war on Japan.
After six years of fierce fighting, Japan was eventually defeated, but the Ming dynasty also paid a huge price in this war.
After Toyotomi Hideyoshi unified Japan, although he was unable to weaken the power of the major daimyos, this created a situation in which both ** and local were strong. This made it possible for the daimyo to rebel against his rule at any time, but they were unwilling to bear the charge of being a rebel and a thief.
In addition, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's division of the major names also caused their dissatisfaction, causing the major names to be unwilling to obey his orders. In order to divert domestic contradictions, Hideyoshi planned to launch a war against the Ming Dynasty, and his first step was to start from Korea, intending to open up a sea passage from Japan to Korea, so as to establish a base in Japan and facilitate the transportation of troops and war against the Ming.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi wanted to use Korea to launch an attack on the Ming Dynasty, but the Joseon king refused. So, he sent his adopted son Ukita Hideya to lead 150,000 Japanese troops to attack Korea and take charge of the front line command.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi's ultimate goal was to bring all 400 states of the Ming Dynasty into his territory and implement his political ideas within billions of years. He expressed appreciation that all overseas vassal states would not be abandoned under his rule, and that Korea had already done a good job diplomatically.
When Toyotomi Hideyoshi attacked the Ming Dynasty, he would lead his soldiers and act alongside the Korean army as his vanguard. Since the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, Korea has been under the protection of the Ming Dynasty, so it has not attached importance to national defense construction and development.
In most counties of the country, there is not even a construction of city defense facilities. The Japanese army of the Ukita Hideya captured Seoul, the capital of Korea, in only one month with a brave fighting style.
The naval power of Korea was unable to withstand the attack of the Japanese navy, half of Korea had fallen, and the king was forced to flee and ask the Ming dynasty for help. Japan was originally a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, but now it is carrying out a large-scale attack on Korea, which is also a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, which is unacceptable to the Wanli Emperor.
Therefore, at the request of the king of Joseon, he sent the Liaodong Army to the Korean battlefield and officially declared war on Japan. After the Ming army arrived in Korea, after several years of fierce fighting, it finally achieved a great victory in Pyongyang.
Although the Ming Dynasty only invested more than 40,000 troops, logistics supply became a huge problem due to expeditionary operations. As a result, peace talks began between the Ming Dynasty and Japan, and the two sides made a temporary truce and obtained a period of peace.
The troops of the Korean king Yi Haoming crossed the border between the two countries and marched to Korea, but they faced many problems, the biggest of which was the transportation of grain and grass. Although it was possible to transport it by sea, ships were limited and the amount of food and supplies that could be transported was limited.
Even if the transportation by sea is successful, it is necessary to transport the grain and grass to the Ming army camp and the pioneer camp by land, which is a long distance, the Ming army is limited in number, and the protection of the grain route is also extremely difficult, and it is easy to be cut off by the Japanese army.
Therefore, we need to look for residents in the territory of Korea who have sea vessels, negotiate the license and allocate the grain rules, and go directly from the canal to the mountains and seas through Tianjin, so as to prepare for the conscription of Japanese soldiers and ensure that they are prepared.
Song Yingchang saw from this fact that the Ming army was not in trouble because of the shortage of grain and grass in the country, in fact, the imperial court had already reserved a large amount of grain and grass for the Liaodong region and made efforts in many aspects.
However, due to transportation constraints, these grains and grasses could not be directly transported to the front line. At the same time, the Ming Dynasty also needed to collect grain and grass from all over the country in order to reach the Liaodong region, which was far away.
Therefore, the Ming Dynasty hoped that Korea would be able to provide the grain and grass needed by the Ming army. However, local governance in North Korea has spiraled out of control and is unable to meet this demand. Therefore, Song Yingchang could only reorganize the army and strengthen the defense of the battalion while trying his best to open up the grain route between the Ming army battalion from Liaodong to the territory of Korea.
During this period, he could only hope to obtain a small supply of grain and grass from the country.
According to the information provided by the DPRK when it requested assistance, the Ming Dynasty learned that there were only about a thousand Japanese troops in the Pyongyang area. However, after the Ming army engaged the Japanese army, it was discovered that the number of Japanese troops actually reached 10,000.
Due to the erroneous information initially provided by the Joseons, the Ming Dynasty initially sent only two thousand soldiers. As a result, the Ming army suffered a crushing defeat in the battle with the Japanese army. The guerrilla Shi Ru led a small number of soldiers to Pyongyang, but due to his unfamiliarity with the terrain and the continuous rain, Shi Ru was finally defeated and killed.
Deputy General Soldier Zu Chengxun then led 3,000 soldiers to reinforce, but also suffered a setback.
North Korean Minister Yi Hengfu once said that the Korean army annihilated most of the Japanese army, causing more than 100,000 casualties. However, according to the specific situation at that time, only more than 10,000 people of the Japanese army were wiped out.
The Japanese army only dispatched a total of 150,000 troops, and if the 100,000 Japanese troops had really been eliminated, Korea would not have been so badly defeated. North Korea has not strengthened its national defense for many years, and there are very few troops in the country that can defend itself against the enemy, and it is still difficult to confront the Japanese army, let alone annihilate.
At this time, the king of Joseon and ** could no longer understand the specific situation in the country, the place was completely out of control, and the place ** was nowhere to be found, and the contact with the king had long been cut off.
The Ming army could not know the real-time position and movements of the Japanese army, which would put the Ming army in a passive position from the beginning. In addition, the Ming army carried a large number of firearms into the battle, but due to the haste of the battle, not all of the firearms carried were the most advanced, and the firepower was limited.
After entering the DPRK, when he fought with the Japanese army, he encountered heavy rain for several days, and his firearms were damp and could not be used, so he could only fight the enemy in close combat.
The Ming Dynasty suffered an intelligence mistake in Korea, which led to heavy losses in the vanguard of the Ming army, and the death of many commanders. The Ming army was forced to retreat to the large camp in North Korea, waiting for the arrival of Korean and Chinese reinforcements.
In order to deal with the Japanese army, the Ming army urgently sent scouts to investigate the strength, deployment and movement of the Japanese army. In January of the following year, a total of 16,000 people from the Liaodong Iron Cavalry, the elite cavalry of Xuanfu Datong and the infantry from Baoding, Jiangsu and Zhejiang had arrived at the Ming army camp, and the grain and grass also arrived.
At this time, the number of Ming troops in Korea had reached more than 40,000 people, all of whom were elite divisions from all over the country. "There are 48,005 heavenly soldiers. ”
In the Wanli Korean War, the Ming army, with the Liaodong Iron Cavalry as the vanguard, quickly marched to the city of Pyongyang and engaged in fierce battles with the Japanese First Army. Under the command of Li Rusong, the Ming army successfully surrounded and captured the city of Pyongyang with sophisticated siege equipment and strong strength.
However, despite the victory of the Ming army, the problem of grain and grass remained a difficult problem. The grain routes were not smooth, the supply lines were stretched, and if they were cut off by the Japanese army, the Ming army could face the risk of total annihilation.
Therefore, Li Rusong decided to fight a quick battle and pursue the Japanese army. However, he made a command error in the Battle of Bihokan and strayed into the Japanese encirclement, resulting in heavy losses for the Ming army.
Despite this, the Ming army's heroic fighting still inflicted heavy losses on the Japanese army, and they were eventually forced to flee south and switch from attack to defense.
In Nagoya, the 21st year of Wanli, the Ming Dynasty and Japan held peace talks, and the First Wanli Korean War came to an end. The war was fought with the joint efforts of the Ming Dynasty and the Korean Navy, which dealt heavy losses to the Japanese Expeditionary Force.
Japan is small, resource-scarce, and sparsely populated, so being too large will adversely affect it. When Toyotomi Hideyoshi asked for troops again, the daimyo would be even more reluctant to provide troops, which meant that the number of Japanese reserves and reinforcements would be greatly limited.
Therefore, the Japanese side also had to choose peace talks with the Ming Dynasty, and the First Wanli Korean War ended in Japan's defeat.