For China, Japan is definitely a very important territorial state, and to some extent Japan is China's number one geopolitical competitor. In ancient times, due to the strong strength of the Chinese Empire, Japan's efforts to expand toward the mainland were defeated many times; in modern times, due to the sinking of China and the nirvana of Japan, Japan once expanded greatly towards the mainland, which is also the most painful period of China's history.
The first large-scale contest between China and Japan may be known to many people in the Tang Dynasty, when the Tang Dynasty defeated the Uighur army that interfered in the affairs of the Korean Peninsula at the mouth of the Baekje River, attacked baekje, burned 400 ships in one day, and killed tens of thousands of enemies, which greatly shocked Japan.
Yes, the Korean Peninsula is a position between China and Japan, and the geopolitical conflicts between China and Japan usually start from the Korean Peninsula. When Japan sent troops to the mainland, it usually had to fight Korea first (both the Nongchen Rebellion and the 918 Incident), and if the mainland regime wanted to attack Japan, it was usually based on Korea (the Yuan-Japanese War).
Here we have to ask a cold knowledge: excluding pirate forces such as the Wokou, when was the first time that the Japanese regular army invaded the Chinese mainland?
Some people may think that this should be after the Meiji Restoration, but it is not, the first time the Japanese regular army invaded China and fought a war with the Chinese army was in the 20th year of the Ming Dynasty (1592 AD), in what the Japanese called Wuliangha, which is today's Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in Jilin Province.
The so-called Wuliangha is actually the original Mongolian name for Duoyanwei, and the Mongolian Tainingwei, Fuyuwei, and Duoyanwei (that is, the famous "Duoyan Sanwei") are also known as the Wuliangha Sanwei. After the fall of the Yuan Dynasty, the Wuliangha Sanwei, along with the Tatars and the Wala, formed the three major tribes of Mongolia. The "Duoyan Sanwei" were later annexed to the Ming Dynasty, and the garrisons of these three guards were also collectively known as the "Wuliangha Region". After the mid-15th century, the sphere of influence of Wuliang Hasanwei extended beyond the Ming Dynasty Great Wall and even to the northeast. But the Japanese may have misunderstood, so they also called this group of Jurchens "Wuliangha", in fact, this should be the tribe of Haixi Jurchens.
A map of Northeast Asia drawn by Westerners at that time
The situation at that time was such that Toyotomi Hideyoshi invaded Korea on a large scale and coveted the Ming Dynasty, and because the Joseon Dynasty was in ruined armaments at that time, the Eight Provinces were almost completely destroyed, and the Japanese vanguard of the pig, the Second Army of Kato Kiyomasa, defeated the North Hamgyong Province soldiers in the city of Hamgyong Province, Tsuhae Tingcang, so that Han Kecheng and the most elite northern cavalry of the Joseon Dynasty led by him actually entered China.
The Japanese side has historical data on the invasion of Wuliangha, and the Korean side also has similar historical materials
Didn't the Ming Dynasty react strongly to such a big thing? At first, there was indeed none, because the northeast region north of Liaodong at that time was the territory of the Jurchens, not the interior of the Ming Dynasty, but theoretically belonged to the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, this conflict basically did not involve the Ming army, but the Jurchen troops.
From July 27 to August 22 of the 20th year of the Wanli Dynasty (1592), Kato Kiyomasa invaded the Jurchen and Haixi Jurchen tribes of Jianzhou and Haixi Jurchens, whose titular subjects belonged to the Ming Dynasty. At that time, these Jurchens were not strong here--they were busy fending off Nurhaci, who was preparing to unify the Jurchens.
Therefore, this battle was a great victory for the Japanese army, the Japanese "iron artillery unit" (fire wrench) beat the Jurchen ghost crying wolf, more than 900 people were killed (Kato Kiyomasa himself bragged that more than 8,000 people were killed), and the center city was destroyed. When Kato Kiyomasa's troops took advantage of the victory to pursue and prepare to attack the 13 castles of Jurchen at Juzi Street (in present-day Yanji, Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, Jilin Province, China), their camp was suddenly surrounded by the Combined Forces of The Jurchens of Haixi and repeatedly attacked. Kato Kiyomasa's army suffered many casualties and could not resist the attack and could only break through. Finally, Kato Kiyomasa led the expeditionary force to break out of the siege and cross the Douman River back to Korea.
The Japanese marched along the route, Kato Kiyomasa briefly crossed the Korean border
After penetrating Korea, Kato Kiyomasa was overjoyed, and Taikoku Toyotomi Hideyoshi even came to write to Kato Kiyomasa with instructions: "Now slightly clearly", but in fact this direction is wrong, fighting in this direction will only hit Mongolia, and it is getting farther and farther away from the Ming Dynasty, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi wants to invade China through the jianzhou that is nominally affiliated with the Ming Dynasty.
The Battle of Wuliangha was Japan's first attack on mainland China, and it was the farthest point where the ancient Japanese army reached. According to the analysis of later generations, Kato Kiyomasa should have encountered the Jurchen Ulabu.
During this battle, the japanese army's strong combat effectiveness gave the Jurchens a great deterrent, and this mentality was later perceived by the Joseon Dynasty. Therefore, the Joseon Dynasty later generally incorporated the "Descending Warriors" (Japanese soldiers who submitted to Korea) into the Northern Frontier Forces and let them attack the Jurchens, which had a good effect. Moreover, when negotiating borders with the Jurchens, they often even exaggerated their words, saying that they had deployed "thousands of descendants" on the border to deter the Jurchens.
However, the Jurchen cavalry defeated the powerful Japanese army, and its combat strength should not be underestimated. Interestingly, 120 years after this battle, in 1709 AD, the Korean side actually erected the "Baekseong Great Victory Monument" in Hamgyong Province, believing that the rebels of Hamgyong Province repelled the invading Kato Kiyomasa and Jurchen forces at the same time. This should be a kind of bragging.
Author: Yun Fan