Joseon 5 — From Noryang to Prince Gwanghae朝鮮 五

In the ninth month the officers and men advanced by separate roads. Liu Ting pressed hard on the camp of Yukinaga and agreed with Yukinaga to meet on friendly terms. The next day he attacked the fort, cut off ninety-two heads, and Chen Lin's fleet joined in to block and strike, destroying more than a hundred Wa ships. Yukinaga secretly sent out more than a thousand horsemen to hold them off. Ting had the worse of it and drew back, and Lin too abandoned his ships and fled. Ma Gui reached Ulsan and took a fair number of heads and captives, but the Wa lured him with a feigned retreat, and when Gui entered the empty rampart an ambush rose up and he was beaten. Dong Yiyuan advanced and took Jinju, crossed the river on the strength of his victory, and burned two stockades one after the other. The Wa fell back to hold the old camp at Saju. He fought it out fiercely and brought it down, then pressed forward against the new stockade. The stockade faced the river on three sides and opened on land on the fourth, and the sea had been drawn in for a moat. Sea craft counted by the thousand lay under the stockade, and Gimhae and Goseong were built up as its left and right wings. In the tenth month Dong Yiyuan sent his commanders to attack the fort on all four sides. They shattered the stockade gate with fire weapons, and the troops raced forward and tore out the palisade. Then all at once the powder inside the camp blew up, and smoke and flame filled the sky. The Wa charged in on the turn of fortune, the Wa of Goseong came up as well, and the troops broke in a great rout and ran back to Jinju. When the emperor heard of it he ordered two mobile corps commanders beheaded and paraded, and Yiyuan and the rest were each left to hold their offices under charges and earn merit. In that month Jin Xuezeng, censor-in-chief of Fujian, reported that Hideyoshi had died on the ninth day of the seventh month and that all the Wa had a mind to go home. In the eleventh month Kiyomasa put out his ships and fled first, so Ma Gui entered Dosan and Yupo, and Liu Ting attacked and seized Yegyo. Shimazu led his fleet to rescue Yukinaga, and Chen Lin intercepted him and beat him. The Wa spread their sails and all went home.

In the seven years the Wa threw Joseon into disorder, the troops lost numbered several hundred thousand and the provisions spent several million, and neither the central court nor its vassal state ever had a winning reckoning. Only when the kanpaku died did the calamity at last come to rest.

In the intercalary fourth month of the twenty-seventh year the edict on the pacification of the Wa was proclaimed to the empire, and a rescript of instruction was also sent to Yeon. "The Wa slave Hideyoshi acted without restraint and without principle, and trampled your country. I considered that the king had been deep in loyalty and constancy for generations, and I pitied him from my heart. For seven years I made this brigand my daily business. At first I struck lightly, then I showed forbearance, and at last I added a stern punishment. Not to kill is the mind of Heaven, and taking up arms was what I could not avoid. To settle the borders and quiet the disorder, a clean sweep had to be taken. The spirits hate a full measure of evil, and they secretly cut down the chief of the brigands. The great host rode on this, pursued the runaways and chased the fugitives, slaughtered the whale-like horde to the last, and the corner of the sea was made clean. When the dispatch of victory came, my care and toil were at last laid down. Though the king has recovered what was his of old, in truth it is like making it anew. To raise what has withered and set up what is worn takes twice the effort. The Wa have fled home, but their kind is still there. Now I order Xing Jie to set his army in order and return to the capital, and to leave Wan Shide and others in measured numbers, spread out to garrison and hold. The king should lie on brushwood and taste gall and not forget the shame that has gone before. Be loyal, be filial, and carry on the fair name of those before you."

In the fifth month Jie set out ten items on the measures to be taken after the eastern campaign. One, that garrison troops be left, horse and foot, water and land together, thirty-four thousand and more, with three thousand horses. One, that their monthly pay be fixed, at nine hundred and eighteen thousand taels of silver and more each year. One, that payment in kind be fixed, the rice and beans to be used to be apportioned among Liaodong, Tianjin, Shandong and other places, at a hundred and thirty thousand piculs each year. One, that the coastal defense circuit of the central route be kept. One, that the commissariat office be cut back. One, that the weight of the commanders be raised. One, that patrol posts be added. One, that the garrison zones be divided. One, that drill be deliberated on. One, that responsibility be laid on that country. The court ministers deliberated. "After several years of exhaustion and waste we have only now rested our shoulders. It is right to make the root firm within, and not to spend heavily again. Still more, that country is coming out of war and famine, and suffers not only from the harrying of the Wa but from our own troops as well. So the measures for after the war should be talked over with that country. First weigh how much or how little their provisions run to, and only then can the going or staying of our troops be judged. As for buying more horses, adding more standard troops, setting up new patrol posts, and appointing commissariat officers, all of it should be stopped." The emperor ordered the supreme commander and the governor to meet with the king and report a considered judgment. In the eighth month Yeon presented local products and gave help toward the great works, and he was commended and rewarded as precedent required. In the tenth month he asked that eight thousand marines be left to support the garrisons, and that the officers and men being withdrawn be stationed at Liaoyang on guard. In the fourth month of the twenty-eighth year he asked that the rice and beans left in the granaries at Uiju and elsewhere be carried back to Liaoyang. The Ministry of Revenue deliberated: "Carrying them is hard. It would be better to give them straight to that country, to raise them from their wasted state and make plain the emperor's benevolence." The edict said, "It may be done."

In the second month of the twenty-ninth year the Ministry of War reported back on seven items set out by the grand coordinator and the supreme commander. "One, train the soldiers. The men of Goryeo are fierce and hardy and bear cold and hardship, but with their long coats and wide sleeves they have no method in their drill. They should be taught by the drill of squads of five (束伍). One, hold the key points. Joseon meets the sea on three sides. Busan faces Tsushima across the water, and Geoje comes next. Each should be held with heavy troops, and Ulsan, Gaesan and other places should all be garrisoned as well. One, repair the narrow passes. The royal capital leans on a mass of mountains to the north and is ringed by the blue sea to the south. To the left and right of Chungju the two passes of O and Juk wind like a sheep's gut, and have the strength of a place one man can hold against an army. The old sites of the camps and ramparts are still there, and they should be mended without delay. One, build walls and moats. Of the eight provinces of Joseon, nine in ten have no walls. Northwest of Pyongyang the two rivers Amnok and Paesu both run south to the sea. If the Wa were to send a separate force to seize Pyongyang, the support of the royal capital would be cut off. All of these should be built up and held with gathered troops. One, make weapons. The Wa are at ease fighting on land and not at sea, for their ships are heavy and large and ill suited to attack. Now let a hundred and ten light Fujian war junks (福唬) be built as a surprise force, and let repeating fire arrows (神機百子) be made in addition. One, seek out uncommon talent. Joseon honors those whose families hold office and despises those whose families do the labor, and shuts them all out. So they often go over to the Wa or to the enemy and become a trouble to their own country. It is right to break the usual forms and gather them in. One, put the government in order at home. The state faces the sea on the southeast, with Dengzhou and Lüshun for its gate and Zhenjiang for its throat, and the troops that stand in support should not all be withdrawn. Our being firm in ourselves is also the way to make Joseon firm." An edict told Joseon to carry this out with diligence. In the ninth month Joseon reported that the patent of investiture and the ceremonial robes that had been granted were lost in the upheaval, and prayed that they be supplied again. This was allowed.

At that time the country of the Wa was in disorder within, and So Yoshitoshi, lord of Tsushima, sent back to Joseon all the men who had surrendered, sent a letter begging for peace, and at the same time gave it out loudly that Ieyasu, Hideyoshi's commander, would ship in several hundred thousand piculs of grain as the means for raising an army, so as to threaten Joseon. Joseon and Tsushima look at each other across a single strip of water, and the soil of the island grows no grain, so it drew its rice from Joseon. After the troops were raised the open market was cut off, and this is why it pressed for a settlement by a hundred devices. When Hideyoshi died and the Ming army was all withdrawn, Joseon feared the Wa all the more. It wished to come to terms with the Wa, yet feared to give offense to China. In the twelfth month Yeon, saying that the Wa of the island were seeking a settlement, came to ask for orders. The Ministry of War held that the matter was hard to judge from afar and had the supreme commander Shide weigh it and deliberate, and the edict allowed it. In the eleventh month of the thirtieth year Yeon said that Wa envoys came often to press for terms of peace, that the seeds of war were showing little by little, and prayed that commanders and troops be chosen to take his country in hand, train it and set its defenses in order. The emperor said, "Officers and men were left before to teach and drill them, and the method they built is still there. There is no call to send more." So he ordered their envoy to carry back a rescript of warning and encouragement. In the ninth month of the thirty-third year Yeon again asked that Hon be invested as crown prince, but the Ministry of Rites still held to the view that the eldest should be set up. In the fourth month of the thirty-fifth year Yeon reported that Ieyasu was seeking peace, and the Ministry of War only deliberated that the king should judge for himself. From this time terms of peace were never broken off, and three years later the matter of opening the market was at last settled.

In the thirty-sixth year Yeon died. Prince Gwanghae, Hon, called himself acting head of the affairs of state, sent a vassal minister to announce the death and at the same time to ask for a posthumous title. The emperor hated his acting on his own and did not allow it, and ordered the ministers and people of that country to report a common decision. At that time the troops of the Great Qing were subduing the several tribes and drawing near to Joseon. The Ministry of War deliberated that the king should be ordered to put his arms in thorough order and set his frontier defenses right, and at the same time asked that a rescript go to the supreme commander, the governor and the regional commander of the left of Liao, to send officers to make plain that neither side should encroach on the other. This was followed. In the tenth month Hon was invested as king of the country, following the request of his ministers and people. In the second month of the thirty-seventh year Yeon was given the posthumous title Sogyeong, and officers were sent to grant patents of investiture to Hon and to his consort of the Yu house.

At first Joseon lost its hold on itself, then leaned on the strength of China and was restored, and the Wa abandoned Busan and fled. Yet they harbored a secret design to widen their territory, and the trouble did not end. So a rumor ran upon the sea that the Wa had designs on Busan and that Joseon was in league with them. In the ninth month of the forty-first year the regional commander Yang Zongye reported it. Hon sent up a memorial in his defense, and an edict was issued to console and clear him.

In the fourth month of the forty-second year he memorialized asking that his birth mother of the Kim house be honored posthumously. The Ministry of Rites looked into the Collected Statutes and found that where the principal mother has received investiture and the birth mother has died first, a posthumous grant may be made. So orders were given to invest her as secondary consort of the king of the country. In the eleventh month of the forty-third year, while presenting a memorial of congratulation at the winter solstice, he reported that the Wuxue bian, the Yanshantang bieji and other books he had bought and brought back carried the affairs of his country in a way at odds with the Collected Statutes, and prayed that they be corrected. The Ministry of Rites said, "Unofficial histories are not to be relied on. What is asked now comes of shame at being mocked in the same breath as traitors. It is right to pity his sincerity and send the matter down to the Bureau of History." This was reported as allowed. At first Hon had gained the investiture for his birth mother, and now he asked again for a cap and robes for her. The ministers of Rites held that the Kim lady was a concubine and that the rites have their higher and lower degrees, and insisted it could not be done. In the first month of the forty-fifth year Hon asked a second and a third time, and the emperor, seeing how earnestly he had set it out again and again, brought himself to grant it.

In the forty-seventh year Yang Hao urged on Ma Lin, Du Song, Liu Ting and the rest and sent out the army, and they were beaten by the troops of the Great Qing. Of the soldiers and commanders Joseon sent to help in the fighting, some surrendered and some died in battle. Hon reported the emergency, and an edict added generous relief. In the eleventh month the Ministry of War reported back that troops should be added to guard the road by which Joseon came to bring tribute. By edict soldiers and commanders were posted at Zhenjiang and other places, and the supreme commander Xiong Tingbi was to muster and assign them. In the first month of the forty-eighth year Hon memorialized. "In the eighth month the enemy troops broke Bukgwan. Jintaiji burned himself to death and Baiyanggu came out and surrendered. In the battle of Tieling the Mongol Zaisai was destroyed as well. I hear that the counsel in that country is this: Joseon, Bukgwan and Zaisai all gave troops to the southern court, and now that Bukgwan and Zaisai are both destroyed, Joseon cannot be left standing alone. I hear too that they are posting troops at the Niumao stockade and Wanzhe Pass, meaning to raid Kuandian, Zhenjiang and other places. Kuandian and Zhenjiang look across the water at Changseong, Uiju and the other forts, and are lonely and in danger past measure. If the enemy takes the road from Yahu Pass on the border of Aiyang and comes round inside Fenghuang city and drives hard for a single day, Kuandian, Zhenjiang and Changseong will none of them hold themselves, and within, the eight stations of the left of Liao, and without, the one city of Donggang, will be cut off from each other and their support blocked. It may well chill the heart. I pray that a great army be mustered at once to form a pincer with us and make the frontier defenses firm." At that time the post reports from the garrison of Liao said that Joseon had made peace with the Great Qing, and the court's opinion then held that Hon stood out against them in the open and went along with them in secret. Some said an officer should be sent to instruct him, some that a commander should be ordered to keep watch over him, and the talk was in a tangle. Hon sent up a memorial in his defense, saying that for two hundred years he had served the great with loyalty, and in death or in life the constancy was one, and his words were most earnest and heartfelt. The Ministries of Rites and of War asked that a rescript be issued to make matters plain to him and set his mind at rest. The emperor held their view to be right, but had a vassal minister carry the rescript and did not send an officer.

In the eighth month of the first year of Tianqi the tribute road of Joseon was changed, so that it came by sea to Dengzhou and went straight on to the capital. At that time Mao Wenlong held Pido as regional commander, gathering the people who had fled there and making them soldiers, while he looked to Joseon to feed them. In the eleventh month Hon memorialized that his strength was not equal to supplying the provisions, and begged that grain from Shandong be shipped over, following the precedent of the eastern campaign in the Wanli years. This was followed.