Samurai Invasion by Japan's Korean War 1592 -1598

Author:Japan's Korean War 1592 -1598
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Published: 2006-06-09T14:44:19+00:00

136

S A M U R A I I N V A S I O N

Japanese arquebuses. A retreat was called, and the survivors were allowed to flood out of the opened gates to be cut d o w n in their dozens by mounted samurai.3

T h e defeat of the

Chinese expeditionary

force produced mixed

reactions a m o n g the

Japanese commanders.

There was certainly a

feeling of elation at

having beaten off the

first serious challenge to

be m o u n t e d against

them since the war had

begun, and as reinforcements were daily expected this dramatic

confirmation of Japan's

superiority only added

to their readiness to

press on tor the Yalu. b u t as the days grew into months the feeling also grew During the summer of 1592

that the Chinese would be back, and in far greater numbers. This was a concern the First Chinese attack on

Pyŏngyang is beaten off.

shared at the highest level of the Japanese command, and on 8m 7d Konishi (ETK detail)

Yukinaga journeyed to Seoul for a conference with Ukita Hideie and the three bugyŏ. Kuroda Nagamasa and Kobayakawa Takakage also attended. T h e conclusion was reached that if, or when, P'yŏngyang was attacked again, defence in depth would be needed along the line back to Seoul. Kaesŏng, the old Koryŏ capital just north of the Imjin, was weakly defended by Toda Katsutaka with only 3,000 men, so it was decided to bring Kobayakawa's Sixth Division north to Kaesŏng while T o d a would move south to Sangju. Neither move happened immediately, because Kobayakawa was in the middle of the Kŭmsan campaign, but by the end of October the line between P'yŏngyang and Seoul was strengthened by Kobayakawa's large contingent at Kaesŏng.

By this time Kuroda Nagamasa had also moved his base from Haeju to Paech'ŏn, the fort to which he had been driven by the guerrillas of Yŏnan.

T h e first Chinese attack on P'yŏngyang had taken place within a few days of Admiral Yi's victory at Hansando, so it cannot have been very long before news of that disaster was conveyed to Konishi Yukinaga. By this time too Katō Kiyomasa had only got as far as Sŏngjin on his long campaign into Hamgyŏng, but once the impact of the news from Hansando sank in, the dream of a march into China was over. T h e protection that Katō was giving

THE YEAR or THE SNAKE

137

to Konishi's right wing was already irrelevant. No troops, no supplies and no weapons were ever going to be ferried up the T a e d o n g from the Yellow Sea, so Konishi had to content himself with the fact that the province of Py'ŏngan, which he had been granted as his fief and into which he had advanced only a few miles, was to remain i m m u n e for some time from the customary round of cadastral surveys, sword hunts and oppressive taxation that fellow generals like Mōri and Nabeshima were carrying out elsewhere. For Konishi, as for the entire Japanese army, P'yŏngyang was to be the end of the line.

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