Joseon 4 — The second Wa invasion朝鮮 四

In the first month of the twenty-second year Yeon sent Kim Su and others to present local products and give thanks. He Qiaoyuan, a director in the Ministry of Rites, memorialized: "Su said with tears that the Wa raiders are rampant, and that in Joseon more than sixty thousand have folded their hands and taken the blade. The words of the Wa are perverse and without courtesy, yet Shen Weijing deals with them, and instead of speaking of peace says outright that they beg to surrender. Your servant has here the letter sent inland by Xu Yi, a man of China carried off in the nineteenth year of Wanli, the Wa reply to Liu Ting, and an account of the right handling of their invasions over the years. I beg that a rescript be issued to stop the investiture and the tribute at once." By edict the Ministry of War was to deliberate. At that time the ministers of the court sent up memorial after memorial, all urging that the investiture and tribute be dropped and that fighting and defense be taken up. In the eighth month Yangqian reported the plan for a tribute settlement (講貢): the tribute road (貢路) should run by Ningbo, the kanpaku should be invested as king of Japan, and Yukinaga should be told to send home all the Wa under him and to keep to the investiture and tribute as agreed. In the ninth month Yeon asked that his kingdom be preserved. The emperor then sharply rebuked his ministers for obstruction and stripped the censor Guo Shi and others of their offices. By edict Konishi Hi (小西飛) was brought to court, and many officers were gathered to debate the matter face to face. It came to three things. First, that the Wa were to go back wholly to their lairs. Second, that they would be invested, but that tribute would not be allowed. Third, that they must swear not to invade Joseon. The Wa agreed to all of it, and this was reported; and the emperor instructed them again at the left gate, and his words were the more courteous. In the twelfth month the terms of investiture were settled. Li Zongcheng, marquis of Linhuai, was made chief envoy, with the regional military commissioner Yang Fangheng as his deputy, and they were to go to Japan together with Shen Weijing. A gold seal was given to the king, and Yukinaga was made assistant commissioner in chief.

In the ninth month of the twenty-third year Yeon memorialized to set up his second son Hon, Prince Gwanghae, as his heir. Before this, Jin, Prince Imhae, Yeon's eldest son by a concubine, had been taken among the enemy and had fallen ill from fright and grief, while the second son, Hon, Prince Gwanghae, had gathered up the scattered people and won no small merit; and so he asked that Hon be set up. Fan Qian, the minister of Rites, said that in the great duty of carrying on the succession the places of elder and younger are fixed and must not be overstepped, and so it was not allowed. Now Yeon memorialized again, citing the precedent of King Gongjeong (Taejong) in the Yongle years, but the ministers of rites held to their memorial, and it was not followed. In the fifth month of the twenty-fourth year Yeon again sent up a memorial asking that Hon be set up; the Ministry of Rites still held that it could not be, and by edict it was done as they had advised. At that time the heir apparent of Ming had not yet been named and men within and without were fearful and doubtful, and that is why the minister Fan Qian sent up three memorials and held out with all his strength over the changing of the heir in Joseon.

In the ninth month the envoys of investiture reached Japan. Before this, Shen Weijing had come to Busan and privately offered Hideyoshi a python robe and jade, a winged cap, maps, a book of war and fine horses; and Li Zongcheng, for greed and lechery, was driven out by the Wa officer in charge (守臣), abandoned the sealed letter and fled by night. When this was reported he was arrested and questioned. So Fangheng was made chief envoy, and Weijing, given the title of the Firearms Brigade, was made his deputy. When they came bearing the patent, the kanpaku was angry that no prince of Joseon had come to give thanks; only two envoys came bearing white pongee (白土綢) in congratulation, and he refused to see them, and said to Weijing: "You do not think how the two princes, the three great ministers, the three capitals and the eight provinces were all handed back according to the promise of the Heavenly Court, and now you come to congratulate me with a petty officer and a paltry thing. Is this an insult to the small country, or an insult to the Heavenly Court? I shall leave the troops of Shimazu there and wait for the Heavenly Court to settle the matter, and only then withdraw them." The next day he offered tribute, and sent an envoy carrying two memorials, who crossed the sea with the envoys of investiture and came to Joseon. The court decided to send an officer to Joseon to fetch the memorials and examine them. One of them gave thanks; the other begged the Son of Heaven to settle the matter of Joseon.

At first Fangheng falsely reported that the year before he had crossed the sea from Busan, that the Wa had received the investiture at Ōsaka and had at once gone back to Izumi province. But the Wa were just then reproaching Joseon, and still kept their troops at Busan as before, and the memorial of thanks was not sent even long past its time, so that Fangheng came back empty-handed. Now Weijing at last handed over the memorial. On examination it was slovenly; the fold in front bore the Toyotomi (豐臣) seal, it did not follow the imperial calendar, and it had none of the courtesy of a subject. Meanwhile Ma Dong, assistant regional commander at Kuandian, reported that Kiyomasa was holding two hundred ships and encamped at Gijang. Then Fangheng at last spoke out the whole matter from beginning to end, laid the blame on Weijing, and handed over as well the letters of Shi Xing in his own hand, first and last. The emperor was greatly angered and ordered Shi Xing and Shen Weijing seized and put to the question. Xing Jie, minister of War, was made supreme commander over Ji and Liao; Ma Gui was made instead grand general for subduing the Wa, to administer Joseon; Yang Hao, assistant censor in chief, was posted at Tianjin to tighten the defenses again; and Yang Runan and Ding Yingtai were made planning officers at the front.

In the fifth month Jie came to Liaodong. Yukinaga was raising towers, Kiyomasa was sowing seed, the island Wa were drawing water into cellars and asking for maps of Joseon; and so Jie made up his mind to use arms. Ma Gui set out for the country east of the Amnok, but the troops under him were only seventeen thousand, and he asked that more be sent. Jie, holding that the troops of Joseon were skilled only at war on the water, memorialized to raise troops in Sichuan and Zhejiang, and to call up as well the troops of Ji, Liao, Xuanfu, Datong, Shanxi and Shaanxi and the fleets of Fujian and Wusong, with Liu Ting leading the troops of Sichuan and Hanzhong to direct the attack. Gui reported in secret that they should wait for the troops of Xuanfu and Datong to come up and then fall upon Busan while the Wa were unprepared, and that then Yukinaga would be taken and Kiyomasa would flee. Jie thought this a fine stratagem, and by dispatch posted Yang Yuan at Namwon and Wu Weizhong at Chungju.

In the sixth month several thousand Wa ships anchored at Busan. They killed An Hong-guk, a magistrate of Joseon, and pressed little by little upon Yangsan and Ungcheon. Weijing was going in and out of Busan with two hundred camp troops, so Jie, feigning comfort and kindness, sent a dispatch ordering Yang Yuan to fall upon him and seize him, and he was bound and brought to Gui's camp; and with Weijing taken, the guiding of the enemy was cut off at last. In the seventh month the Wa took Yangsan and Samnang, then entered Gyeongju and raided Hansan. The troops of Won Gyun, the naval commander, broke, and so Hansan was lost. The island of Hansan lies at the western sea gate of Joseon and shields Namwon on its right; it is the outer hedge of Jeolla, and once it is lost there is no defense along the coast, and Tianjin, Dengzhou and Laizhou can all be reached under sail. The three thousand men of the Ming fleet had only just come to Lüshun when Hansan was broken, and the supreme commander sent dispatches to hold the Han River and the Daedong River west of the royal capital, to bar the Wa from moving west and to guard the supply road as well.

In the eighth month Kiyomasa surrounded Namwon and attacked suddenly under cover of night, and Yang Yuan, the general in charge, fled. At that time Chen Yuzhong was at Jeonju, only a hundred li from Namwon; but when Namwon reported its peril Yuzhong dared not go to its aid, and when he heard that it had already fallen he abandoned his own city and ran. Ma Gui sent the mobile corps commander Niu Boying to the rescue, and he joined forces with Yuzhong and camped at Gongju. The Wa then raided Jeolla and Gyeongsang and pressed upon the royal capital. The royal capital lies at the center of the eight provinces of Joseon; to the east it is barred by Oryeong and Chungju, and to the west lie Namwon and Jeonju, with the roads running through. Once the two cities were lost, east and west were both in Wa hands and the Ming troops were few and weak; so they fell back to hold the royal capital, leaning on the steepness of the Han River. Ma Gui asked Jie for leave to abandon the royal capital and fall back to hold the Amnok, but Xiao Yinggong, commissioner of coastal defense, held that this must not be, and hurried from Pyeongyang to the royal capital by double marches to stop him. Ma Gui sent out troops to hold Jiksan, and Joseon too called up Yi Won-ik, the supreme field commissioner, to go out from Oryeong into Chungcheong province and block the edge of the enemy. When Jie came in person to the royal capital, the hearts of men were settled at last. Jie called in his staff officer Li Yingshi and asked him for a plan, and Yingshi asked what the court itself had designed. Jie said: "War in the open and peace in secret, attack in the open and appeasement in secret. These are the eight characters of the government's secret plan; do not let them out." Yingshi said: "Then it is easy. The Wa turned against us because they despaired of a settlement, and they did not dare kill Yang Yuan because they still hope for one. Only send a man to tell them that Shen Weijing is not dead, and they will withdraw."

So he asked that Li Dajian be sent as envoy to Yukinaga and Feng Zhongying to Kiyomasa, and Jie followed this. In the ninth month, when the Wa came to the Han River, Yang Hao sent Zhang Zhenming with the letter in Weijing's own hand to reproach them, saying that to move troops went against the reality of waiting quietly for a settlement. Yukinaga and Masanari too blamed Kiyomasa for acting rashly, and so they drew back and camped at Jeongeup. Ma Gui thereupon reported great victories at Cheongsan and Jiksan. Xiao Yinggong sent up a notice saying: "The Wa withdrew because of the letter in Weijing's own hand, and at Cheongsan and Jiksan there was never any engagement at all. How can he speak of merit?" Jie and Hao were angry, and impeached Yinggong for cowardice and for not escorting Weijing in person, and he too was arrested.

In the eleventh month Jie called up troops and gathered a great force, and the emperor sent out money from the privy purse to feast the army, gave Jie the imperial sword, and set the censor Chen Xiao to oversee his army. Jie held a great muster of his generals and divided them into three wings. Hao with Gui led the left and right wings, moving from Chungju and Oryeong toward Dongan and on to Gyeongju, to attack Kiyomasa and him alone; and Li Dajian was sent to deal with Yukinaga and get his promise not to go to the rescue. The center wing was posted at Uiseong, to help Gyeongju on the east and hold down Jeolla on the west. The remaining troops joined camp with the Joseon forces and made a show of attacking Suncheon and the places round it, to keep Yukinaga from going east to the rescue. In the twelfth month they gathered at Gyeongju. Ma Gui sent Huang Yingsi to bribe Kiyomasa and promise peace, and himself led the main army and came suddenly upon his camp. At that time the Wa were encamped at Ulsan. The fortress leaned on the steepness of the hills, a single river in the middle ran through to the stockade at Busan, and the land road went by Eonyang to Busan. Gui meant to attack Ulsan and nothing else, but feared that the Wa at Busan would come to the rescue by way of Eonyang; so he made a great show of feint troops, and sent a general besides to block the water road, and then advanced and pressed upon the Wa ramparts. Bai Zhai, a mobile corps commander, drew the Wa into an ambush with light horse, took more than four hundred heads, captured one of their brave generals, and on the strength of the victory carried two stockades.

The Wa burned to death beyond counting, and they fled to Dosan (島山) and built three stockades one after another. The next day Mao Guoqi, a mobile corps commander, led the Zhejiang troops up first and broke them one after another, taking very many heads and captives, so that the Wa held their walls fast and would not come out. Dosan is higher than Ulsan and its stone wall is very strong, and the Ming troops, attacking from below, suffered heavy losses. So the generals said among themselves: "The Wa are hard pressed for a water road and can scarcely keep up their supplies. If we merely sit and wear them down, Kiyomasa may be bound without a battle." Hao and the rest thought this right, and divided the troops and besieged them ten days and nights. The Wa grew very hungry, and feigned an agreement to surrender in order to slow the attack. Presently Yukinaga's relieving force came up in strength and was about to swing round behind the army. Hao had no time to give an order; he whipped his horse and fled west, and all the armies broke. So the troops were withdrawn to the royal capital, and the men lost were twenty thousand. When the emperor heard of it he was greatly angered. Hao was dismissed and held for examination, and Wan Shide, grand coordinator of Tianjin, took his place. The matter is given in detail in the life of Hao.

In the first month of the twenty-sixth year Xing Jie, holding that the last campaign had come to nothing for want of a fleet, raised more sailors from Jiangnan, took up the matter of sea transport, and laid his plans for a long war. In the second month the commander in chief Chen Lin came with the troops of Guangdong, Liu Ting with those of Sichuan, and Deng Zilong with those of Zhejiang and Zhili, one after another. Jie divided his forces into three wings, making four routes by land and sea (四路), and set a great general over each: Li Rumei on the central route, Ma Gui on the eastern, Liu Ting on the western, and Chen Lin on the water; each was to hold his own ground and strike as opportunity offered. At that time the Wa too were divided among three lairs. On the eastern route Kiyomasa held Ulsan; on the western route Yukinaga held Yullim and Yegyo, where he had raised stockades several deep; on the central route Shimazu held Saju, that is Sacheon. And Yukinaga's fleet came and went as if flying, taking turns to rest and to carry supplies. The Ming armies had fixed a day to advance together when an alarm came from Liaoyang and Li Rusong was defeated and killed; and by edict Rumei was turned back to hurry there, and Dong Yiyuan took his place on the central route.

When Yingtai impeached Hao, Yeon asked that the throne turn back its judgment and honor and encourage the commanders so that the campaign might be finished, but the emperor would not allow it. Yingtai had also made the proposal to build walls into a charge against Hao, saying that if Joseon got its way with strong walls it would open the way to trouble from her in days to come; so Yeon memorialized in explanation. The emperor said: "That troops and supplies have been sent out year after year is because your country has always been loyal and obedient. Do not doubt yourself over what men say."