After Toyotomi Hideyoshi was promoted to Taikaku, he did not want to hide his greed for the land on the other side of the sea. After the provocative false attack on the Korean envoys was rejected, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who had been planning for a long time, began to order the Japanese troops who had been guarding Nagoya for a long time to invade Korea by land and water, thus beginning the conquest of Korea.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi stills from Sanada Maru
In Toyotomi Hideyoshi's conception of operations, his ultimate goal was the vast and fertile territory of The Great Ming, and Korea was only a springboard, and there were two advantages to occupying Korea first: on the one hand, in order to appease the daimyōs in Japan (including the daimyo who had good relations with themselves) in peacetime because of their own policies such as "separation of peasants and soldiers" and "Taikaku land inspection", by dividing up the weak Korea, to achieve the purpose of winning over the meritorious daimyo and dividing the kanto daimyo; on the other hand, through combat, training the army that had been peaceful for a long time. Ensure the combat effectiveness of the army through war, use Korea as a training ground, and warm up in advance for the subsequent invasion of Daming. Because of these two goals, Toyotomi Hideyoshi basically followed two principles in the selection of troops who invaded Korea for the first time: the first was to be able to fight, and the second was to be able to trust.
Therefore, the Japanese army that attacked Korea for the first time was either elite or its own concubine.
Gather the daimyo at nagoya to prepare for departure
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="37" > nine legions are elite</h1>
Let's start by saying that you can fight.
After the Japanese Sengoku entered the second half, the first-class warlords of the Mesozoic Era, such as the Kanto "Dragon Tiger Lion" - Uesugi Kenshin, Takeda Shingen and Hojo Clan Masa, basically fell almost, but it did not mean that these generals under Toyotomi Hideyoshi were very weak, on the contrary, these generals and troops who could come out of the chaotic world of the Warring States, not to mention the generals of the Hundred Battles, but at least the combat experience was not weaker than the Ming Dynasty border army at that time.
The elite japanese and Ming armies fought a bloody battle at the Biheguan
In order to conquer the dynasty, Toyotomi Hideyoshi used all the elite of his concubines, including allies and subordinates in, China, Shikoku, and Kyushu, divided into nine legions. The total strength of the army is nearly 150,000 people.
First Army (18,000 men): The commander of the regiment was Governor Konishi, whose English name was John, and was a Catholic. Although he was a merchant by birth, he fought fiercely and often dealt with Korea, and as the daimyō of Kyushu Higo, he also commanded the commanders including Munayoshi, Matsuura Jinnobu, and Arima Harunobu, who were also basically powerful daimyōs who survived the Battle of Kitakyushu.
Commander Konishi, Commander of the First Army
Second Legion (22,000 men): The commander of the regiment, Kiyomasa Kato, known as Oni Kato, was one of toyotomi Hideyoshi's adopted sons and the best of the Seven Guns of Mt. Takashi. Brutal and fierce in battle, as the daimyō of Higo, he led the second army composed of Nabeshima Naoshige, a courtier from the Ryūzōji temple family, and the first army of Konishi formed the vanguard of the Japanese army that entered the Ming Dynasty, and fought all the way to the Tumen River area of the Ming Dynasty, fighting with the Jurchen tribes at that time, and the two sides won and lost each other, and their iron artillery team also had the upper hand in the battle with the Ming army.
Commander of the Second Army, Kiyomasa Kato
Third Army (12,000 men): The commander of the regiment, Kuroda Nagamasa, although he was famous as a "pit daddy", but kuroda's third army had many famous generals who were good at war, such as Ōtomo Yoshinori and Yoshinari Mori, the former of which was the Ōtomo family governor who was a member of the Kitakyushu elite army, the latter was Toyotomi Hideyoshi's family, and his son Maori Katsunaga was one of the seven generals (wild) star (father) of Osaka. In general, although the Commander of the Third Army was not good, the combat effectiveness of the army was not weak.
Kuroda Nagamasa stills from "Officers and Soldiers of the Military Division"
Fourth Legion (14,500 men): Shimazu Yoshihiro, as the daimyō who fought until the end of the middle of the Sengoku period, Shimazu Yoshihiro should be the most experienced of several legionnaires, born in Satsuma, known as "Onishi Manko", and his Satsuma soldiers were quickly known for their good fighting and fearlessness.
Yoshihiro Shimazu
Fifth Army (25,000 men): Commander Masanori Fukushima, Fukushima was the head of the Seven Guns of Mt. Takashi, located in front of Kiyomasa Kato, and was one of toyotomi Hideyoshi's adopted sons (his aunt was Toyotomi Hideyoshi Masamune Ningning). Because of Masanori Fukushima's ability to lead, Toyotomi Hideyoshi served as a reserve for the largest Fifth Army, and strengthened the Fifth Army with the elite troops of Beesuka Ieasa and Nagamasa Iemoto.
Fukushima Masanori stills from "Officers and Men of the Military Division"
Sixth Army (15,000 men): The commander of the regiment, Takaaki Kohayakawa, with Hidebata Kohakawa and Tachibana Muneshige of nishiki, was not a concubine of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, but an ally, and the Maori family of Takaaki Kohayakawa was a staunch ally of Toyotomi Hideyoshi in China, and as a branch they also joined in the invasion of Korea.
Stills of Takaaki Kohayakawa
Seventh Army: RegimentAlty Commander Maori Huiyuan (30,000 people): The corps is a pure Maori army, how fierce the Maori army in China is, you can ask the Ouchi and Nizi families at that time, the Chinese region has always been rich in strong troops, and the later Fifth Division of the Japanese Steel Army was from Hiroshima in the Chinese region, as an ally of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the Maori family was naturally willing to join the "pinch persimmon" operation to attack Korea.
Maori Huiyuan stills
Eighth Army (10,000 people): The commander of the regiment, Ukita Hideya, the regiment is composed of Ukita troops, at the age of 19, he became the commander of the regiment, and was also the highest head of the Japanese army on the front line, it can be seen that the Ukita Hideya family in addition to relying on his mother (the mother is said to have an affair with Toyotomi Hideyoshi), or have a certain ability, and the Ukita Naoya family left to themselves is also very strong, so the Eighth Army is also one of the elite japanese troops.
Ninth Army (11,000 men): The commander of the regiment, Hidekatsu Hashiba, the Ninth Army should still be toyotomi Hideyoshi's home front, and it is rarely used on the battlefield on weekdays, but as a guard army that follows Toyotomi Hideyoshi, it will not be far worse.
Stills of Hidekatsu Habuki
Of course, in addition to the above legions, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's vassal regiments also brought troops to the war, such as Ishida Sansei, Otani Yoshiji and others, or as overseers, logistics troops and so on to join the war.
It can be said that for this battle, Toyotomi Hideyoshi can be said to have sent all his main forces to Korea.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="52" > toyotomi generals as the protagonists</h1>
Of course, in addition to being able to fight, the team must also be toyotomi Hideyoshi's concubine.
Among the nine commanders of the expedition, the eldest was Yoshihiro Shimazu 57, the youngest commander-in-chief Ukita Hideya was 19 years old, and the average age of the commanders was 35 years old, but if you exclude Shimazu, Kohayakawa Takakei, and Maori Hidemoto, the actual age of these commanders, composed of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's adopted son and relatives of the second generation, was only 25 years old (Kato Kiyomasa 30, Fukushima Masanori 31, Kuroda Nagamasa 24), which formed a combination of old and young in the invasion of Korea. The legion is composed of experienced veterans, leading the slightly immature second generation.
At the same time, in order to avoid the second generation of the army, in the second generation of the army also arranged veteran generals to press the front, such as nabeshima Naoshige of the Second Army, the Fifth Army's Nagamasa Ibu Yuan relatives are all old fritters in the Warring States. This is also in line with Toyotomi Hideyoshi's original intention of invading Korea— to seize land and to replace military purposes with war.
The commander-in-chief of the Japanese army, 19-year-old Ukita Hideya
In terms of command, Toyotomi Hideyoshi also tried to let the second generation play as much as possible.
Except for the fact that the commander-in-chief was Ukita Hideyoshi (who fought with the Ming army at the Bihokan), he did not interfere too much with Kato Kiyomasa Toyotomi Hideyoshi, so Kato Kiyomasa led his army all the way to the territory of the Ming Dynasty. In contrast to these clansmen, the daimyōs of the Kanto region refused to participate in the war, Tokugawa Ieyasu entered the strategy of joining the waterway, Toyotomi Hideyoshi also pressed him to nagoya as a reserve, and Date Masamune also equipped iron cannons in order to fight and wanted to show his skills in Korea, but was also stopped by Toyotomi Hideyoshi (later, the concubines suffered heavy losses, so they took him with them on the second expedition). It can be said that the two heavens dealing with the concubines and the Kanto daimyōs also reflected Toyotomi Hideyoshi's optimism about the Korean war.
Japanese troops in Korea
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="58" > Yutianjun said</h1>
Although Toyotomi Hideyoshi's conquest of the dynasty was inevitable, he still looked down on the Ming Dynasty behind him, and after The Koreans asked for help from themselves, the Ming army also began to enter Korea to fight. In the face of the border troops in the Liaodong region, the warring generals who were fierce in Japan were also helpless, especially the cavalry and artillery units of the Ming Army, which caused heavy losses to the Japanese army.
The two empires continued to confront each other on the peninsula where Korea was ended, and eventually Japan's attempt to monopolize Korea was also frustrated, and the Toyotomi clique, which had suffered from the loss of money, also allowed the Tokugawa clique in the Kanto region to enjoy the benefits of the fishermen because of the attrition of the war.
—The end —