Jurchen soldiers fought bloody battles with Japanese samurai, and 1592 invaded Katou Kiyomasa in northeast China.

For China, Japan is definitely a very important neighbor. To some extent, Japan belongs to China's number one geographical competitor. In ancient times, due to the strength of the Chinese empire, Japan's efforts to expand to the mainland were frustrated many times; In modern times, due to the sinking of China and the nirvana of Japan, Japan once expanded to the mainland, which was also the most painful period in the history of China.

As many people may know, the first large-scale contest between China and Japan was in the Tang Dynasty. At that time, the Tang Dynasty defeated the Japanese army that interfered in Korean Peninsula affairs and attacked Japanese ally Baekje, burning 400 ships and killing tens of thousands of enemies in one day. This strength greatly shocked Japan.

Yes, the Korean Peninsula belongs to the position between China and Japan, and geopolitical conflicts between China and Japan usually start from the Korean Peninsula. When Japan sends troops to the mainland, it usually strikes Korea first (for example, Japan's rebellion in Ren Chen and the September 18th Incident). When the mainland regime wants to attack Japan, it usually takes Korea as its stronghold (the Yuan-Japanese War).

Here is a cold question: When did the Japanese regular army invade China for the first time, excluding pirates and other forces?

Some people may think that this should be after the Meiji Restoration. Actually, it is not. The Japanese regular army invaded China for the first time and went to war with China's army. It was in the 20th year of Wanli of Ming Dynasty (AD 1592), located in what the Japanese call Wuliangha, which is now Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture of Jilin Province.

In fact, the so-called Wuliangha was originally called Duoyanwei by Mongolians, and the Mongolian Tainingwei, Fuyuwei and Duoyanwei (the famous "Duoyanwei") were also called Wuliangha Sanwei. After the collapse of the Yuan Dynasty, Wuliangha, Tatar and Wala formed three tribes in Mongolia. After the "Rocky Sanwei" belonged to the Ming Dynasty, the residences of these Sanwei were also collectively referred to as the "Boundless Ha Area". /kloc-after the middle of the 0/5th century, the sphere of influence of Wuwei of Wuliangha extended beyond the Great Wall of Ming Dynasty and even to the northeast. However, the Japanese may have misunderstood, so they also called these jurchens "boundless ha". In fact, this should be the Jurchen tribe in Haixi.

The map of Northeast Asia drawn by westerners at that time.

The situation at that time was like this. Toyotomi Hideyoshi invaded Korea on a large scale and coveted the Ming Dynasty. Because the Korean dynasty at that time was lax in armaments, it was almost completely in a dilemma. However, the second army of Katou Kiyomasa, the vanguard of the Japanese army, defeated the North Korean soldiers of Jingxian Road in Tianjin Haitingcang, making Han Kecheng and the most elite northern cavalry of the Korean dynasty led by him win a point in China.

Japan has historical data about Wuliangye's invasion, and North Korea has similar historical data.

Didn't the Ming dynasty react strongly to such a big thing? Not at the beginning, because the northeast area north of Liaodong was jurchen's territory at that time, which did not belong to the mainland of the Ming Dynasty, but was theoretically held by the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, this conflict basically does not involve the Ming army, but the Jurchen army.

In the 20th year of Wanli (1592), around July 27th and August 22nd, Katou Kiyomasa invaded and attacked the Nuzhen tribe in Jianzhou and the Nuzhen tribe in Haixi, nominally belonging to the Ming Dynasty, with 8,000 Japanese troops and 3,000 surrendered Korean troops. At that time, these Nuzhen were not strong here-they were busy resisting Nuerhachi, who was preparing to unify Nuzhen.

Therefore, the Japanese army won a great victory in this battle, and the Japanese "iron cannon troops" (firefighters) defeated Jurchen, more than 900 people were killed (Katou Kiyomasa boasted that he had killed more than 8,000 people), and the central city was broken. When Katou Kiyomasa's troops attacked the Nuzhen 13 fortress in Juzi Street (now Yanji City, Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, Jilin Province, China), the military camp was suddenly surrounded by the Hercynian Nuzhen Coalition forces and attacked again and again. Katou Kiyomasa's army suffered heavy casualties, unable to resist the attack and had to break through. Finally, Katou Kiyomasa led the expeditionary force out of the breakthrough, crossed the Doumanjiang River and returned to North Korea.

On the March route of the Japanese army, Katou Kiyomasa briefly crossed the Korean border.

After infiltrating into North Korea, Katou Kiyomasa was overjoyed. Tiger Toyotomi Hideyoshi even sent a petition to Katou Kiyomasa asking for instructions: "Today is a little clearer", but in fact this direction is wrong. Playing in this direction will only hit Mongolia, farther and farther away from the Ming Dynasty. Toyotomi Hideyoshi wanted to invade China by establishing a country nominally attached to the Ming Dynasty.

The Battle of Wuliangha was the first time that Japan attacked China, and it was also the farthest place that the ancient Japanese army went. According to the analysis of later generations, Katou Kiyomasa should have met Jurchen Ulabu.

In this battle, the powerful fighting capacity of the Japanese army gave Jurchen a great shock, and this mentality was later perceived by the Korean dynasty. Therefore, the Korean dynasty later generally incorporated "Japanese soldiers who surrendered to North Korea" into the northern border guards and let them attack Jurchen, with good results. Moreover, when negotiating with Jurchen on the border, they often exaggerate and say that they have deployed "thousands of Japanese pirates" on the border to shock Jurchen.

However, the Jurchen cavalry defeated the powerful Japanese army, and its combat power should not be underestimated. Ironically, in A.D. 120 and 1709 after this war, the North Korean side actually erected the "Great Victory Monument of Beiguan" in Hamgyong Road, believing that the rebels in Hamgyong Road repelled the invading South Korean army and Jurchen army at the same time. This should be bragging.

Author: Yun Fan