According to the Chinese dry branch calendar, nong belongs to the dragon and Tatsu belongs to the water. Therefore, the year of nongchen is usually considered to be an auspicious year.
However, in 1592, the year of the Japanese invasion of Korea, took place. The severity of its horror has led North Koreans to see "Nongchen" as a synonym for death and disaster, or even the end of the world.
The main participants in this battle included the invading party Japan, the invaded party Korea, and supported the FangMing Dynasty.
The history books of the Ming Dynasty refer to it as the "Battle of Korea". Together with the "Battle of Ningxia" and the "Battle of Bozhou", it is collectively known as the "Three Great Marches of Wanli". For North Korea, the battle was a life-and-death battle for the country. The North Koreans refer to it as the "Nongchen Rebellion."
(The Main Warship of the North Korean Admiralty, the Banya Ship)
Samuel Holly, a Canadian who has lived in South Korea for a long time, collected and sorted out a large number of historical materials on the "Nongchen Rebellion", spent four years researching, and published the book "Nongchen War".
The book looks at the war from the perspective of the Koreans, focusing on the reasons why Japan launched the war, as well as the state and changes of the three countries that participated in the war before, during, and after the War of Nongchen.
Japan: The ambitious Toyotomi Hideyoshi, after unifying Japan, tried to conquer the world as he knew it
From the 1660s to 1590s, Japan was in the Sengoku period. The country was ruled by warlords from all over the country for 130 years. These warlords are known in history as "daimyōs". Wars often broke out between the daimyo for land, slaves, and possessions.
(Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who first appeared in the Japanese ukiyo-e "Inabayama No Tsuki")
Toyotomi Hideyoshi was originally just an unnamed subordinate of the daimyo Oda Nobunaga. After Oda's death, Toyotomi Hideyoshi took over Oda's property and army using the arquebusiers that had been passed down to Japan from the Portuguese and his masterful political skills, and gradually subordinated other daimyōs to him.
As long as they sent their relatives to Toyotomi Hideyoshi as hostages and paid taxes on time, they could continue to have the right to govern the land under their name. By 1591, Toyotomi Hideyoshi had unified the Sixty-Six Kingdoms of Japan and became the supreme ruler of all of Japan. But his ambitions don't stop there.
Korea, the Ming Dynasty, Luzon (now the Philippines), Siam (now Thailand), and other overseas lands he knew were all targets of his invasion. Launching a war of aggression against Korea was his first step.
(Japanese warships to Korea in 1592)
Toyotomi Hideyoshi did this first because of the lack of resources in Japan, and the daimyo he ostensibly adopted were insatiable. If there are no resources to plunder, they are likely to create trouble and fight each other on the Japanese mainland, and serious situations will lead to the re-fragmentation of a unified Japan.
Second, as the supreme ruler of Japan, Toyotomi Hideyoshi wanted his hegemony to last forever. However, he was over fifty years old and still childless. The lack of a direct heir, in the event of unstable rule, is likely to be replaced by toyotomi Hideyoshi immediately after his death. Therefore, he believes that it is necessary to establish an unshakable authority and then hand over hegemony to his chosen heirs in order to ensure the continuation of the inheritance.
Third, in the eyes of the arrogant Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the Ming and Koreans wearing "long shirts" and "wide sleeves" were vulnerable to their arquebusiers; the rest of the small surrounding countries were more like pockets.
So he began to invade Korea at the end of May 1592.
(The Battle of Xayama Island (Collection of the Korean War Memorial))
North Korea: The North Korean people who are willing to be slaughtered have changed from "long shirts" to bloodthirsty warriors
Before Toyotomi Hideyoshi actually invaded, the Koreans were actually alert, but they didn't know or believe that Japanese firepower would be as far away as they could have imagined.
Therefore, on the eve of the war, North Korean officials were still in a state of "weak monarchy and strong subjects". Every day, courtiers stand in front of the monarch and divide into two factions, "Easterners" and "Westerners", accusing, dumping, and framing each other.
It was not until Toyotomi Hideyoshi's army, in just one day, broke through the first line of defense of Korea that the Korean monarch Seonjo and his courtiers began to panic.
At The port of Busan, Japan's first landing port, the Japanese went on a killing spree as soon as they landed. Despite the Korean defenders' efforts to fight back, the traditional swords, guns and bows and arrows in their hands were powerless under the Japanese arquebusiers. The local officers and soldiers were completely annihilated, and the people scattered and fled for their lives.
("Map of the Martyrdom of Busan Town" (collection of the Korean Military Museum))
Yoshino, a Japanese who was fighting at the time, later recalled:
"Those who have nowhere to hide are begging for forgiveness. Our people paid no attention to what they were saying and stepped forward to hack them to death. Men, women, and even cats and dogs were beheaded. ”
The defenders of the other ports, hearing of the cruelty of the Japanese, were extremely panicked. The guards of two ports went so far as to order the sinking of a hundred ships of his fleet, the destruction of all weapons, and the burning of grain and grass in case they fell into enemy hands. Then, they fled with all their troops.
In just 20 days, Japanese troops captured Seoul, the capital of Korea. Emperor Xuanzu fled. North Korean officials finally stopped arguing over "easterners" and "westerners" and agreed almost unanimously to promote Li Shunchen, a general who had been abandoned in his early years.
Li Shunchen lived up to expectations and took advantage of the superiority of the Korean water army to attack the Japanese army. He held the Yellow Sea and cut off the Japanese supply routes. The North Korean army had its first record.
(In November 1592, Kim Shi-min led his troops to victory at the First Battle of Jinju (Collection of the War Memorial of Korea))
Officials and people in various places have gradually woken up. Civilians began to organize rebels and monks, and cooperated with officers and soldiers to harass the Japanese army. In the plains war, due to the disparity in the power of weapons, the Korean military and civilians avoided fighting the Japanese frontally. They fought back in guerrilla fashion, or in defensive battles.
Among them, the famous "heavenly red general" Guo Zaiyou (who always wears a conspicuous red robe on the battlefield) mobilizes the army and the people, which has his own style:
"The enemy is rapidly approaching. If you do not rise up to resist now, your wives and children will be killed. Are you going to sit here and wait for the enemy's sword to fall? Or are you going to join me now to keep your family safe? ”
It turns out that the North Korean people can fight to the death in order to protect their homeland. Throughout the War, a large number of heroes who defended their families and the country appeared, including an official prostitute named Nosuke.
(After the destruction of Jinju Castle, the official prostitute Nobusuke lures a Japanese samurai to a rock and jumps into the Namgang River with him.)
In the third month of the war, the Japanese army gradually understood that it was not easy to eat Korea. What's more, at this time, the Ming Dynasty, which had just withdrawn from the Battle of Ningxia, immediately sent 40,000 reinforcements to Korea.
Ming Dynasty: Strike it, strike it again
The arrival of the Ming army gave the Korean monarch Xuanzu the hope of recovering Jiangshan. At that time, Qi Jiguang had died, and the main leader who led the Ming army across the Yalu River was Li Rusong. Although the initial battle was unfavorable, it gradually gained the upper hand with the cooperation of the Korean army later.
Coupled with the fact that the supply lines in the Yellow Sea were cut off by Li Shunchen's sailors, the Japanese army entered a very difficult period of time in Korea. Hunger, cold, plague, homesickness, began to lose soldiers.
The combined Ming and Korean forces gradually forced the Japanese to retreat to a location in southern Korea. The Ming Dynasty then sent people to Nagoya in Japan to negotiate with Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The Ming Dynasty withdrew its japanese armies from Korea at the same time.
(The Combined Forces of the Ming and The DPRK attacked Pyongyang, and on the far left of the picture riding a white horse was the Ming general Li Rusong)
Soon after the war subsided, the greedy Toyotomi Hideyoshi army again pounced on Korea in 1597. This time, the Ming Dynasty did not think too much about it, and immediately dispatched more than 100,000 reinforcements to Korea. This is known in Korean history as the "Dingyu Rebellion", which is called the "Nongchen War" in conjunction with the "Nongchen Rebellion" of 1592.
After the "Nongchen Rebellion", both Koreans and Ming Dynasty people knew that Japan was a fanatic with the desire to steal the country. Therefore, in the past few years, both countries have maintained a defensive attitude toward Japan.
Therefore, although the Japanese army attacked bravely and the Koreans still suffered heavy casualties, the Ming and North Korean forces were more prepared than the last "Nongchen Rebellion". Moreover, shortly after the start of the war, Toyotomi Hideyoshi fell ill and died, and the Japanese army quickly retreated. "Ding You's chaos again" ended quickly.
However, the "anti-Japanese aid to the DPRK" led to the loss of the domestic military strength of the Ming Dynasty, and the emperor Song Shenzong did not ascend to the dynasty for more than twenty years, so that he was taken advantage of by the Jurchen Nurhaci. Therefore, it can be said that the "Nongchen War" was one of the indirect reasons for the later decline of the Ming Dynasty.
(Buddhist Master Xiu Jing, who led the monks in the Battle of Pyongyang (Collection of the Korean War Memorial))
For the efforts of the Ming Dynasty, in the hearts of the Koreans who know how to be grateful, Endi will always exist. In 1865, a Korean scholar wrote:
"In order to drive out the evil invaders, our Emperor Shenzong gathered the imperial army, exhausted the resources of the empire, and recovered three thousand miles of our country. His Majesty the Emperor does not skimp on grass and hair... Since then, people have never forgotten to repay this debt... Even if the vicissitudes of the sea change into a mulberry field, this obligation will never be forgotten. ”
The Nongchen War, which began in 1592 and lasted for more than seven years, shows that Japan sent troops overseas to occupy the territory of other countries, not only from the Sino-Japanese War. We must always be vigilant against this wolf's ambitious neighbor.