Since Emperor Shenzong ascended the throne, he has lived in harmony with his neighbors for twenty years, and there has not been much war.
In the twentieth year of the Wanli Calendar (1592), an urgent report came from the Military Department that the Japanese regent, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, brazenly launched an invasion of the Korean War.
The king of the Lee Dynasty of Joseon accepted the royal title since he was his ancestor, and every year he sent people to pay tribute and trade with the Ming Dynasty, and the relationship was very harmonious.
At this time, Toyotomi Hideyoshi issued an order to invade Korea, dispatched a total of 180,000 Japanese soldiers and horses, more than 500 boats, divided into nine armies, with Governor Konishi and Kato Kiyomasa as the vanguard, crossed the Tsushima Strait, landed at Busan, Korea, and continued to divide the troops to the north.
The korean lord Li Fu ignored political affairs for a long time, his armaments were in ruins for a long time, and as soon as the soldiers exchanged fire with the Japanese army, they were defeated. As a result, the Japanese army quickly occupied Wangjing, then captured Pyongyang, captured the Korean prince, and occupied all of Korea in only three months, and Li Fucang fled to Uiju, sending emissaries to the Ming Dynasty to plead for help.
The Ming Dynasty did not know the reality of Korea, and hurriedly sent three thousand soldiers led by Zu Chengxun, deputy commander-in-chief and Shi Ru of the Liaodong guerrilla army, to fight in Korea, but the whole army was destroyed, Shi Ru was killed in battle, and Zu Chengxun fled back alone.
Emperor Shenzong had not been in power for a long time, and Wen Bao had to summon his ministers to agree on a strategy, dispatching Song Yingchang, the right attendant of the military department, as the economic commander and Li Rusong as the chief soldier, and led 40,000 soldiers to cross the Yalu River on January 6 of the following year and arrive at the city of Pyongyang.
The Ming army besieged Pyongyang, the Japanese army stubbornly resisted with cannons and bows and arrows at the head of the city, for a time the artillery was like rain, the Ming soldiers did not dare to look up, and there was a slight retreat in front, Li Rusong immediately took a blade in his hand, and the horse led the troops to rush forward, but unexpectedly sat down on the horse and suddenly hit the shell and fell to the ground, Li Rusong climbed up and changed horses to continue the charge, and his brother Li Rubai and his general Wu Weizhong were hit by bullets, and the blood was direct, and he still fought unceasingly.
After a vicious battle, the ming army's front death squad posing as the Korean army first broke into the small west gate and the big west gate in Pyongyang, and the Japanese army finally could not resist, so it had to retreat to the Fengyue Tower, and the morale of the Ming army was high, and they fought bravely one by one, forcing the Japanese army to cross the Taedong River in the middle of the night and flee south.
Li Rusong fought side by side with the Korean army and won the great victory in Pyongyang, and when he was in high spirits, he took advantage of the victory to pursue, and on January 19, he recaptured Kaesong, then recaptured the four provinces of Pyongan and the Yellow Sea, and the Japanese finally retreated to Wangjing.
Successively breaking the enemy to win, Li Rusong could not help but be bold and light enemies, on the twenty-seventh day, he personally led the light cavalry to kill Ben Bi HoGuan, which was only thirty miles away from Wang Jing, but unexpectedly was ambushed by a large number of Japanese soldiers and horses, the Ming army struggled to break through, fortunately the general Yang Yuan led the troops to arrive, after losing hundreds of soldiers, Li Rusong finally led his troops back to Kaesong.
After this battle, the Morale of the Ming Army decreased slightly, but the Japanese army lost Pyongyang and Kaesong in succession, and its morale was also low, and it had no intention of fighting.
At this time, li Rusong sent a scout horse to return, hundreds of thousands of grain and grass of the Japanese army are stored in the Longshan area, please decide!
Li Rusong was overjoyed to hear the news, and overnight sent his troops to send hundreds of warriors selected by Cha Da to go deep behind the enemy's back and set fire to the Japanese army's grain and grass.
The Japanese army was defeated one after another, at this time the grain and grass were burned again, and seeing that it was impossible to win, the old and cunning Toyotomi Hideyoshi asked the Ming court to strike the army and negotiate peace. After Song Yingchang sent emissaries to negotiate, asking the Japanese side to "sacrifice Wang Jing, return to the Korean prince, and return to the mainland as promised", Fang Xu agreed to peace.
The Japanese then withdrew from Wangjing on April 18 and gradually retreated to the Busan area. The main force of the Ming army also gradually returned to China, leaving only part of the Sichuan army to defend.
Who knows, this is toyotomi Hideyoshi's delaying tactic! In the twenty-fifth year of the Wanli Calendar (1597), the Japanese army once again mobilized 140,000 soldiers and horses to invade Korea.
The news reached the Ming court, Emperor Shenzong appointed Bingbu Shangshu Jianjiu as the governor, the General Ma Gui and Yushi Yang Ho as jingluo to lead the army on the eastern expedition, the Ming army initially made rapid progress, the general Xie Sheng defeated the Japanese army at Jishan, the staff general Peng Youde also won at Qingshan, and the Korean general Li Yuanyi attacked the Japanese army in ChungcheongDo, causing the Japanese army to retreat to Daoshan and set up three company battalions outside the city to defend.
The Ming army surrounded The island mountain city layer by layer, and the general Chen Yin, as a pioneer soldier, braved the guns and bullets to split the two-story camp fence, who knew that Yang Hao, who was jealous of his subordinates' meritorious service, actually ordered Mingjin to collect troops, and lost a great fighter. Then, the Ming army surrounded the city for ten days and nights, and the Japanese army just closed the door and could not conquer it for a while.
In the first month of the 26th year of the Wanli Calendar, the Japanese army's Governor Konishi personally led reinforcements to kill, Yang Ho was caught off guard, because of fear of war and led the army to flee, often said: The army is defeated like a mountain! All the armies fled with him, and were pursued by the Japanese army, resulting in the Ming army losing more than 20,000 people and the rest returning to Wang Jing. Emperor Shenzong was furious and removed Yang Ho from his official post and replaced him with Wan Shide, the governor of Tianjin.
After that, the two sides came and went, and many times they exchanged troops and won and lost each other, until july of the 26th year of the Wanli Calendar, the news came from Fujian, Toyotomi Hideyoshi fell ill and died, Kato Kiyomasa secretly retreated from the sea, and the Japanese army returned home with no fighting spirit.
Upon hearing the news, the Ming army took the opportunity to launch a large-scale attack, and the fierce general Liu Ling besieged the city of Suncheon with a machete in his hand, the general Chen Xuan led a marine division of 13,000 people, and a hundred warships attacked the Japanese ships returning home, all of which won a great victory.
The seventy-year-old deputy commander-in-chief Deng Zilong and the famous Korean general Li Shunchen cooperated with each other, braved artillery fire to charge forward, struck the main force of the Japanese army fiercely, burned many enemy ships, and finally both died in a fierce battle.
The remnants of the Japanese fled in a hurry, and only fifty of the more than five hundred warships fled back, and by December of that year, all the Japanese troops were driven out of Korea.