In modern times, Japan has launched a terrible war of aggression against China, in fact, as early as the Ming Dynasty, Japan launched a tentative attack, but it was defeated by the Ming Dynasty, which was still dominant at that time.
In November of the 26th year of the Wanli Calendar, hundreds of Japanese warships docked on the coast of the southern tip of the Korean Peninsula, ready to launch an attack on Korea after dawn, why did Japan have the audacity to attack Korea head-on?
At that time, the situation in Northeast Asia suddenly changed, and the unification of the whole territory of Toyotomi Hideyoshi of Japan ended the chaos of the Warring States Era, and at the same time, the growing ambitions made Toyotomi Hideyoshi no longer limited to making a fortune on the mainland, extending his magic palm to Ryukyu and the Korean Peninsula, and then invading China, knowing that at this time these two regions were still ming territories, the Ming Dynasty naturally would not sit idly by.
In 1591, Japan threatened Korea to submit, was categorically rejected by the King of Korea, and then became angry and sent 300,000 troops to attack Korea, the war was about to break out, Korea had been good friends with the Central Plains Dynasty since ancient times, and had always relied on the protection of the Central Plains Dynasty to survive, and its ability to protect itself was worrying, and it could only ask for help from the suzerainty, when the Ming Empire was in power, the Ming Dynasty was in power, although after fifteen years of the Wanli Calendar, the Ming Emperor was lazy and lazy, but the Ming Empire's official system was not chaotic at all, and the country still operated in an orderly manner.
Especially after experiencing Zhang Juzheng's reform and Qi Jiguang's military training, the Ming Dynasty was still one of the largest empires at that time, and after receiving a report from Korea, the Ming Dynasty quickly gathered troops to assist Korea.
By 1598, the battle had been fought for seven years, both sides were somewhat exhausted, on the whole Japan was in a disadvantage, at first it was able to suppress Korean officers and soldiers, and when the Ming army went to the battlefield in full swing, the Japanese army was defeated and could only retreat to the south of the peninsula, and the Ming army did not have the intention of pursuing deeply, and the two sides fell into a state of anxious confrontation.
Later, Japan could not survive, sent people to seek peace, the Ming army did not want to spend energy for Korea, the two sides reached an agreement, the Japanese side asked the Ming Dynasty to crown Toyotomi Hideyoshi as the king of Japan, the imperial family sent a princess to marry the emperor, for Korea must obey the Japanese leadership, for these harsh requirements, the Ming envoys did not play truthfully, resulting in toyo later Toyotomi Hideyoshi on the grounds that the Ming Dynasty did not abide by the agreement, the second time to send troops to Korea.
Although Toyotomi Hideyoshi has attacked Korea many times, but within Japan has always reserved opinions on the decision to invade Korea, many people think that the invasion of Korea is not only not delicious, but also greatly depletes national strength, the Japanese general Governor Konishi has vigorously opposed, and even revealed the Japanese army's march plan to the Korean side before the outbreak of war, but the Korean side did not pay attention to it, at that time the Korean regime was turbulent, indulged in power struggles, and did not realize the impending crisis.
This is also why Japan penetrated into the hinterland of Korea so easily, Governor Konishi only took control of the whole territory of Korea's Jeolla and Chungcheong with less than 50,000 horses, providing conditions for sea operations, and the Japanese side took advantage of the Korean infighting to remove the gap of the famous naval general Li Shunchen, launched a large-scale attack, and seized the opportunity to occupy the Liaodong region.
Hearing the news that the Japanese army was attacking again, the Ming Dynasty on the one hand scolded Korea for being incompetent, on the other hand, it could only come to the aid again, the war was 60,000 people, the number of soldiers was superior, but because of the improper command, the losses were heavy, of course, it also brought a heavy blow to the Japanese invaders.
Japan has learned from the experience of the last time and is ready for a protracted war, but the Ming army does not want to give Japan any chance, and as far as the domestic forces of the Ming Dynasty are concerned, it can easily raise hundreds of thousands of troops and has a strong logistical supply capability.
In 1598, after two transfers, another batch of reinforcements moved into Korea, at this time the coalition strength of up to 150,000, including 30,000 navy, according to the shipbuilding technology at that time, the Ming warship equipment is far stronger than Japan, equipped with large-scale lethality of the "Flang machine", as the ancestor of modern artillery, "Flang machine" can be filled with 1 kg of gunpowder, the range of up to 5 miles, is the best artillery equipment at that time.
In addition to artillery, the Ming army has been able to skillfully use rockets, ignite arrows and then fire enemy ships in unison, which is extremely lethal, and the "flying spray canister" can carry sulfur, arsenic and other fillings, and the poisonous smoke produced by combustion is very deadly.
After Lee Sun-chen returned to the navy on the Korean side, his combat effectiveness was restored, and he relied on the "turtle ship" to continuously attack the Japanese sea defense line; although it is said that the water battle achieved a certain advantage, but in the ground war it was extremely difficult, the large army was divided into three roads, the Middle Route Army encountered the main Japanese force, the position was in chaos, the whole army of more than 30,000 people was damaged, most of the remaining men and horses were wounded, basically lost the ability to continue fighting.
Only more than 40,000 people of the Eastern Route Army successfully defeated the enemy army after several months of confrontation with the Japanese, and although the Western Route Army besieged the Japanese army at the Tuoqiao Fortress, it was affected by the disastrous defeat of the Middle Route Army and did not dare to act hastily, missing a good opportunity to suppress the main force of the enemy army.
The war entered a fever pitch, the Japanese side fell into a crisis, before Toyotomi Hideyoshi died of illness, the next edict ordered Japan to retreat completely, but the red-eyed Governor Konishi and others did not withdraw to the country at the first time, but chose to camp in Suncheon, Korea, and was blocked by the Ming general Chen Jiao, who sent someone to test and hoped that Chen Jiao would let him go, but Chen Ling was not moved at all, and the History of Ming records that Chen Jiao "had a strategy, was good at soldiers, but was greedy, and was impeached again" before and did not command the water army. It was not easy to encircle the Japanese naval forces this time, and to a certain extent, it suppressed Japan's naval offensive strategy.
On the North Korean side, Li Shunchen sent a message: "It has been four days since the warships have gone out, and reinforcements will surely arrive." My generation should go to Cat Island and other places to intercept it. For Li Shunchen's reminder, Chen Jiao did not dare to set up an ambush in the Luliangjin Strait, and sure enough, it was not long before a small boat swayed, and this ship was a small detachment of another Japanese general, Shimazu Yoshihiro, who came to inquire about the news, hoping to rescue Captain Konishi without missing a sound, in addition, Shimazu Yoshihiro's brigade had arrived, a total of 500 warships, plus the trapped Commander Konishi, the total strength of the Japanese army was about 28,000 people.
In the early hours of the morning, Shimazu Yoshihiro's fleet sailed into the Luliang Strait, and it didn't take long to hear the shouts of the mountain roaring tsunami, lit up by artillery in the middle of the night, Shimazu Yoshihiro immediately realized that he was ambushed, hurriedly turned around and retreated, at this time the Ming army general Deng Zilong, who was responsible for cutting off the escape route, suddenly increased the pressure, history records that Deng Zilong was more than seventy years old, but he vowed not to retreat, desperately killed thieves, unfortunately killed in battle, Deng Zilong's desperate resistance gave Chen Jiao time to pursue, at this time the Ming army attacked back and forth, seeing that the general trend had gone, Shimazu Yoshihiro had to order a decisive battle.
Li Shunchen attacked first, leading the "turtle ship" to attack, Chen Jiao then went up, ordered the soldiers to lean down, the Japanese thought that there was no one on the ship, dared to approach, and in an instant the Ming soldiers suddenly jumped up and killed in close combat.
The Japanese army desperately tried to break through, and after dawn, Li Shunchen was shot in the chest, and was helped left and right into the cabin to rest, and before dying, he instructed his nephew to "be anxious in battle, be careful not to say that I am dead." After excessive blood loss and death, the nephew took over the baton and continued to command the battle in the name of Li Shunchen.
The Japanese side also suffered heavy casualties, most of the warships ran aground, Shimazu Yoshihiro desperately fled back to Japan, this naval battle, the Japanese lost more than 500 warships, but also Shimazu Yoshihiro's desperate struggle gave Governor Konishi a chance to breathe, with the remnants of the force to regain Japan.
The Battle of Luliang confirmed the importance of maritime power, from 1593 onwards, the two aid to Korea took 6 years, successfully helped Korea resist Japanese aggression, and at the same time thwarted Japan's ambitions to invade China, saying that after the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi of Japan, the era belonging to Tokugawa Ieyasu came, during the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate, Japan did not invade the outside world again, and implemented a closed country policy until the beginning of the Meiji Restoration.
Looking back at the war again, it is clear that the importance of sea control, although there was no major move after the Japanese retreat, but this "temptation" also let Japan know that the Ming Dynasty is not an insurmountable mountain, 300 years later it is still in Korea, this time the Japanese are irresistible, and China finally fell into the humiliation of cutting off the land and paying compensation.
The Ming army spent 9 million taels of military expenses to aid North Korea, and at that time it was criticized by many people, for a simple North Korea is not worth it, but more than 300 years later, in the Sino-Japanese Naval Battle, the Chinese side spent 200 million silver but swallowed the bitter fruit of the total annihilation of the army.
The Battle of Luliang was also the last glory of the Ming Empire.