"Geng Geng is worried and restless, and autumn wind is self-pitying. The clouds are tired and tired of the geese, and the dew is cold and the cicadas are chirping. Poor and still sick, estranged and remorseful. I have not heard of the holy place ordination, and I have been old. ”
Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Japanese army entered the Korean Peninsula, and with divine help, it can be said that the Joseon Dynasty cut off its arms, sank itself, fled and fled, was the Joseon Dynasty going to be defeated by the Japanese army without bloodshed? In fact, the Japanese did not expect that the very easy victories at the beginning were only the prologue to the entire war, and just when the Joseon Dynasty was gradually defeated, the hero of the Joseon Dynasty, Lee Sun-chen, stepped onto the main stage of history.
Why was Li Shunchen able to turn the tide, save the Joseon Dynasty, and stop the decline of defeat and retreat? Most of the current literature and film and television works, including the film and television works filmed by the Korean Peninsula region, attribute the reason for Li Shunchen's success to the turtle ship of the Joseon Dynasty, as if the turtle ship is like a divine weapon, as long as it appears on the battlefield, it can immediately defeat the Japanese army. Turning over the historical data and looking at the data on the battlefield, it is not difficult to find that there are not many turtle ships in the naval forces of the Joseon Dynasty that can be put into battle, and even if there are a large number of turtle ships put into battle, they cannot become the winning elements of the Korean army.
▲ Li Shunchen in the middle of the great war (stills)
On the battlefield at that time, the main warship of the Japanese naval army was called the Anzai Ship. This kind of warship belongs to a more traditional warship, the structure is very simple, this kind of warship has firing holes on both sides of the hull, archers and musketeers can attack the enemy through these firing holes, the top position of the hull is installed with a mechanism and protection plate, when approaching the enemy's battleship, the two sides can exchange fire, you can put the protective plate upright, play a protective role, the crew attack the enemy after the protective plate, once the local warship is in contact with the short soldiers, you can put down the protective plate, the protective plate becomes a boarding weapon The crew can directly use the protective plate to rush forward, board the local warship, and seize the initiative. Because of the structural characteristics of this kind of house ship, it also determines the main tactics of the Japanese naval army, the main tactic is to use speed, quickly approach the enemy's warship, try to fight with the enemy as close as possible, short contact, and transform the warship confrontation into a white-knife battle on board.
▲Nippon Ataka Ship (Painting)
And the tactics of the Japanese naval army is very different, because the Korean Dynasty warship structure is different, the main combat ship of the Korean Dynasty naval army is called the Itaya ship, the structure of this Itaya ship is more advanced than the Japanese Anzai ship, the main advantage of the Itaya ship is that this warship is installed on both sides of the hull with artillery devices, with the addition of artillery, the Itaya ship can attack the opponent's warship from a distance. The advantage of this long-range weapon was that the sailors of the Joseon Dynasty could sink the opposite warship without having to board the opposite warship and engage the opposing side, which was undoubtedly a huge advantage in the war at that time. The reason why Lee Soon-chan eventually became not only a hero of the Joseon Dynasty, but also a history of naval warfare in the whole world, was by no means a few turtle ships, but his long-range attack method of combat, which was the same as the way the British Empire and the Kingdom of Spain fought in the later Battle of Trafalgar.
Li Shunchen very clearly insight into the situation of the enemy and us on the entire battlefield, he clearly knew that the Korean Dynasty's army could not catch up with the number of Japanese troops in terms of the number of warships, so if the Korean Dynasty's sailors boarded the ship to fight, they would fall into a disadvantage, but the advantage of the Itaya ship was the suppression of the attack distance, if the advantage of the attack range could be exerted, the Korean Dynasty's water army could win with weakness and victory, and win more with less, and the Korean Dynasty's Banya ship kept killing and injuring japanese warships with long-range artillery, on the scene, The navy of the Joseon Dynasty gained a great advantage. This is only Li Shunchen's first hand, Li Shunchen in this initial round of attacks is still only a feint, and did not intend to start a decisive battle with the Japanese water army, li Shunchen, who did not have such a great pressure, naturally played a comfortable role.
▲Korean Banya ship in naval battle (stills)
Now when we look back at this war, if we look at it from the perspective of God, we will find that Li Shunchen did catch up with the golden opportunity, and all the officers and leaders with higher ranks and status than him escaped and fled, and the self-sinking of self-sinking suddenly pushed him to the forefront, and under the attack of the Japanese army in the first round, Li Shunchen's troops did not become the focus of the Japanese army's attack, greatly retained the strength of resistance, and reached the stage of water army and water fighting. Li Shunchen in the strategy and tactics and battleship technology content is far higher than the Japanese army, it can be said that Li Shunchen completely occupied the advantages of the time, place and three aspects, Li Shunchen after seeing the gap between the two sides, immediately launched the Battle of Yupu and was a great victory, the peak of his life made a good start.
The Joseon Dynasty Xuanzu, who fled north, finally had no way back, he chose to ask the Ming Empire for help, the Ming Empire as the center of the Asian region at that time of course extended a helping hand, the Ming Empire's army began to enter the Korean Peninsula step by step to help the Korean Dynasty fight. As soon as they arrived on the Korean Peninsula, the famous general Lee Rusong immediately defeated the Japanese army, and the defeated Japanese army quickly changed its tactical thinking and began to attack the originally neglected jeolla province with all its might, and the morale of the Korean Dynasty army, which had been helped by the Ming Empire, was greatly boosted and won the great victory of Xingju, but with the passage of war and time, the rhythm of the war began to become delicate.
▲General Li Rusong (statue)
Because at the beginning of the war, the army of the Joseon Dynasty was gradually routing, with the defeat and retreat of the army, the entire civilian force was also a rout, whether it was logistical supplies or uploading and dispatching were in a great dilemma, which led to the far-distance combat of the Ming Empire army logistics supply supply is not available, the information exchange of the various units is not smooth, this time from the surprise war into a war of attrition, the entire war has become a stalemate, this slow pace of war makes Li Shunchen very unfavorable, And the irony thing is that Yuan Jun, who made a big mistake in the early stage of the war, actually regained control of the water army of the Joseon Dynasty, and Li Shunchen, who had made great achievements, was thrown into prison because of the rumors of others, and this time fell from the peak to the trough, after seeing Li Shunchen fade out of the war, Japan obviously would not give up such an opportunity, the Japanese army continued to attack the Joseon Dynasty, and in this war of attrition that lasted for several years, Yuan Du, who re-took charge of the water army, was once defeated in the Battle of Qichuanliang. Once again, the Joseon Dynasty was in danger.
How did Lee Shun-chan once become a hero to save the Korean Peninsula? In the end, what kind of life end did Li Shunchen have?
Resources: Ming Dynasty Wanli Korean War Diary of Chaos