On November 17, 1598, in order to rescue Governor Konishi who was besieged by the Ming army, Shimazu Yoshihiro, Tachibana Muneshige and other Japanese generals who successfully broke through decided to return to Suncheon Castle. The next day, the Japanese army met with the Ming Dynasty and the Korean water army, and the two armies immediately launched a fierce battle, and the bravery and goodness of the Japanese army exceeded the expectations of the Ming and North Korean forces, and finally the "Battle of Luliang" ended with the victory of the Japanese army.
In the historical records of the Three Kingdoms, there is much controversy about the record of the "Battle of Luliang", for example, the Korean side records that more than 100 Japanese warships were captured, 200 were destroyed, more than 500 Japanese first class were captured, more than 180 prisoners were taken, and countless drowned, while in the Japanese records, the number of Shimazu family killed as the main battle was only a few dozen. From my personal point of view, I think that the Japanese record should be more credible than the records of the Ming Dynasty and the Korean side, because in the "Battle of Luliang", none of the Japanese generals were killed, but the Ming and North Korean coalition forces killed such generals as Deng Zilong, the deputy general of the Ming Army, and Li Shunchen, the chief general of the Korean army, and even the commander Chen Xuan was once surrounded by the Japanese army.
If we only talk about victory or defeat regardless of casualties, some people think that the Japanese army fled in the wilderness, so it should be the Victory of the Ming Dynasty, which is actually wrong. Yoshihiro Shimazu, Tachibana Muneshige, and others had originally been to rescue Governor Konishi and retreat, rather than to fight against the Ming and Korean alliances, so judging from the results, the Ming and Korean coalition forces failed to successfully prevent the Japanese army from withdrawing, but the Japanese army successfully rescued the trapped Governor Konishi, so this battle should be won by the Japanese army. There is nothing shameful about admitting failure, and learning from it is key.
Yoshihiro Shimazu
Back to the Shimazu family, the Shimazu family was not very peaceful after returning from the Korean battlefield. On March 9, 1599, the son of Yoshihiro Shimazu, Shimazu Tadaharu (Ietoku), the son of Yoshihiro Shimazu, summoned the Shimazu family's mansion in Fushimi Castle, where he was killed. Ijiin Tadato was a very active vassal of the Shimazu clan when they unified Kyushu, and after the Kyushu Conquest, he personally met Witha Hideyoshi in Shangluo, contributing greatly to the survival of the Shimazu family. The reason why Shimazu Tadaharu killed Ijiin Tadao is unknown, probably because Shimazu Tadao was not in good logistics when he was in Korea, so he believes that Ijiin Tadao did not do his best. After Ijiin Tadao's death, Ijiin Tadao's sister-in-law, Ijiin Tadamasa, rebelled in the domain, and Shimazu Tadao was allowed to return to Kyushu to suppress the civil unrest, which ended in peace talks with the intervention of Tokugawa Ieyasu.
In the fifth year of Keicho(1600), the Shimazu family once again encountered a problem. Due to Tokugawa Ieyasu's arbitrary actions within the Haba family after The death of Hashiba Hideyoshi, his political ambitions were unmistakable, causing other daimyō to fight back. Uesugi Keikatsu, one of the "Five Elders" (officially known as "Gobōgyuki", and is officially referred to as Ishida Sansei, who is often referred to as "Gobuyuki") of the Habuki regime, had strengthened the castle and recruited troops within his domain since returning to Aizu territory the previous year, while also rejecting Tokugawa Ieyasu's request to gora. To this end, Tokugawa Ieyasu eventually took the Hashiba regime as the great righteousness and gathered the daimyo to form a coalition and prepare to go to Aizu to attack the Uesugi family.
On June 16, Tokugawa Ieyasu led a coalition army from Osaka Castle, and in order to garrison the empty rear, Tokugawa Ieyasu invited Yoshihiro Shimazu to lead an army into Fushimi Castle to assist in the defense. After Tokugawa Ieyasu marched east, Maori Keikin, Ishida Misei, and others suddenly raised troops, announced Tokugawa Ieyasu's crimes, and decided the world's general trend of the Sekigahara War broke out.
According to the general theory, due to the unstable movements of Ishida Sansei and others, he was rejected by the shogun Torii Mototada when Shimazu Yoshihiro requested to enter Fushimi Castle, causing Shimazu Yoshihiro to join the Western Army led by Maori Keimoto in a fit of rage, but this was probably not the case. During the Edo period, the Shimazu family claimed that Ishida Sent Emissaries several times from July 2 to 17 to persuade Shimazu Yoshihiro to join the Western Army, but Shimazu Yoshihiro refused. However, in fact, Shimazu Yoshihiro sent emissaries back to Satsuma on July 14, saying that the situation in Gyeonggi was chaotic and requesting reinforcements, and even exchanged letters with Uesugi Keikatsu, judging from Shimazu Yoshihiro's performance, it did not look at all like he was forced to join the Western Army.
In fact, the reason why we now mistakenly think that Yoshihiro Shimazu was forced to join the Western Army is actually misled by the works of art such as film and television dramas and games. Among these works of art, the position of the leader of the Western Army often fell into the hands of Ishida Sansei, so we have the illusion. In fact, the main commander of the Western Army during the Sekigahara War was Mori Keigen rather than Ishida Sansei, and the Shimazu family and the Maori family were originally allies in the Sengoku period against the Otomo family, so it is not surprising that Shimazu Yoshihiro joined the Maori family's side. What Yoshihiro Shimazu did not expect was that the war between the Western Army and the Eastern Army was decided in Sekigahara in Mino Province in just one day.
Most of the records of the process of the Sekigahara Joint Battle today are created by later generations, and the map of the Sekigahara Combined Battle that we see today is also imagined by later generations on the basis of military records, not to mention the very famous German instructor's assertion that "the Western Army will win". So, what about the real Sekigahara Battle?
According to Yoshikawa Hiroshi's recollection, on the night of September 14, ishida Learned that Tokugawa Ieyasu's Eastern Army had arrived at Okayama, not far from Ogaki Castle, and worried about Otani Yoshiji's safety, he decided to take advantage of the night to turn to Sekigahara. In fact, in addition to the fear of Otani Yoshiki, the unclear movements of Hideaki Kohayakawa at that time were also one of the opportunities that prompted Ishida Sansei to leave Ogaki Castle, and in addition, Ogaki Castle, as a small city, was difficult to accommodate too many military forces, and was not conducive to the defense of the Western Army. That is to say, Sekigahara is not the decisive battlefield that Ishida Mitsunari found in advance as in the novels and TV series, and is actually a helpless move caused by many factors when Ishida 3sei leads his army to Sekigahara.
Hiroshi Yoshikawa
Yoshihiro Shimazu also marched toward Sekigahara with the daimyōs of the Western Army, and due to the lack of troops, Shimazu Yoshihiro's position was actually far from the battlefield. Unlike the fierce battle in the general theory, which lasted for several hours, the historical Sekigahara Battle actually decided the victory or defeat at the moment of the war. According to the recollections of the Shimazu family, when the Western Army's Otani Yoshiyoshi engaged the Eastern Army, Hideaki Kohayakawa, Yasuharu Wakosaka, and others who were positioned behind the Otani Army immediately defected to join the Eastern Army, and surrounded and annihilated Otani Yoshiyoshi who had penetrated alone (there was no incident in which Tokugawa Ieyasu shelled Kohayakawa Hideaki), and at this time, the Ukita Army was also attacked by the Fukushima Masanori of the Eastern Army, while Ishida Mitsunari was not ready for battle.
Judging from the above process, the Battle of Sekigahara was not actually a head-on battle, but a surprise encounter. The Western Army was forced to march toward Sekigahara in order to rescue Otani Yoshiji in Sekigahara, but before they could prepare for battle, they were attacked by the Eastern Army, and Otani Yoshiji's army was completely destroyed under the attack of the Eastern Army. With the death of Otani Yoshiji, the Eastern Army pounced on Ishida Sansei, and ishida's army was unable to resist the attack of the Eastern Army, and could only retreat to the rear of the Shimazu Army position.
There was also a small episode during this period, when ishida's army was attacked by the Eastern Army, Ishida Sansei sent the emissary Hachishima to help Shimazu Toyohisa to ask for help. Unlike in the general theory, the Shimazu Toyohisa Army and the Shimazu Yoshihiro Army are not together as in the TV series, but are two separate forces, and Ishida Sansei's request for help is actually Shimazu Toyohisa, not Shimazu Yoshihiro. Because Hachishimasuke did not get off his horse and salute in the Toyohisa Formation, but directly passed orders to Shimazu Toyohisa on horseback, the Shimazu Army felt insulted and clashed. After that, Ishida Misei personally came to Shimazu Toyohisa and asked the Shimazu army to march, but Shimazu Toyohisa refused Ishida Sansei's request.
Mitsunari Ishida
Why did Shimazu Toyohisa refuse to march when the Western Army was under attack? This is probably also because the Battle of Sekigahara was an encounter. As the main general, Maori Huiyuan was not on the battlefield, and the Western Army came and went in a hurry when it marched into Sekigahara without prior consultation, and in addition, Ishida Mitsusei did not have the authority to command the Shimazu Army within the Western Army, and if the Shimazu Army was arbitrarily summoned by Ishida Sansei in this way, it would be a great insult to the Shimazu family.
Soon after Ishida Sansei left, Ishida's army was completely defeated and fled towards the positions of Shimazu Toyohisa and Shimazu Yoshihiro. At this time, Shimazu Yoshihiro was still shaking his fan in the formation, and he did not even have time to put on the armor, and he was confused after learning that the Ishida Army had been defeated in such a short period of time. In order to prevent his own military from being affected by the defeat, Shimazu Yoshihiro ordered indiscriminate shooting of the military positions that appeared in front of the Shimazu army.
When the Eastern Army approached, Shimazu Toyohisa ordered the initiative to attack and engage the Eastern Army until he was killed, while Shimazu Yoshihiro, believing that fleeing directly westward would be caught up sooner or later, decided to take advantage of the chaos and retreat towards the Ise State. The Shimazu army continued to meet the Eastern Army along the way of retreat, and the sparsely represented Shimazu Army did not rush all the way to Tokugawa Ieyasu's main line as in the TV series, but covered Shimazu Yoshihiro's escape at the expense of some of his military strength after several waves of shocks.
Sekigahara Battle
After returning to Satsuma from Sekigahara, Tokugawa Ieyasu once wanted to go on a crusade against the Shimazu family. However, due to the recent battle of sekigahara, in order to stabilize the situation in Japan, coupled with the mediation of various forces, the political focus was on the replacement of the Haba family, Tokugawa Ieyasu finally decided to pardon the Shimazu family, and the Shimazu family was proud to become the lord of the Edo shogunate from then on, and continued to exist until the end of the shogunate.