14. The battle of Noryang (November 19, 1598)
| |
Joseon fleet |
Japanese fleet |
| Commander |
Commander-in-chief : Jin lin
Admiral Yi |
Gonishi Yukinaga, Shimazu Yoshihiro, So yoshitoshi, Dachibana Muneshige, Derajawa masanari, Takahashi munemashu |
| Strength |
About 400 Ming’s warships, 80 Joseon’s warships |
500 warships |
| Casualties and losses |
Admiral Yi dead, 10 Joseon officers dead, navy casualties Unknown |
|
After the Battle of Myeongryang Japanese fleet evacuated to Ungcheon, far away from Admiral Yi’s naval base. He collected foods, ships, soldiers and ammunition and moved his base to east and east. He settled in Goguemdo on February 17, 1598 to reinforce his army and secure seas from Gonishi Yukinaga’s army. He could attain other benefits that he saved foods for the next battle, because there were many farms. His glorious victory was spread throughout southern provinces of Korean peninsula and, many civilians gathered to this island. Admiral Yi could reinforce his fleet with them. According to Jingbirok, records of Yu seong-yong, Admiral Yi trained about 8,000 and then he worried about shortage of provisions when his fleet was stationed in this island.
In early 1598, Ming began to send their army to prevent invasion of Japanese through sea. Ming fleet joined Admiral Yi’s fleet on July 16. Combined Joseon-Ming army had small and big battles in land and sea. On August 18, Toyotomi Hideyoshi died and his councilors ordered Japanese army in Joseon to retreat until November. Gonishi Yukinaga sent his fleet’s squadrons and tried to retreat, but combined Joseon-Ming fleet blockaded his fleet. Gonishi bribed Jin lin and then sent his ships to other Japanese fleet bases. Admiral Yi’s officers realized and reported this to him. He had council of war with his officers and decided to sail to Noryang. His fleet stationed off Noryang and waited Shimazu’s fleet on November 18. Jin lin’s fleet joined Yi’s fleet because he couldn’t reach agreement with Gonishi yukinaga. His fleet would receive attack from Shimazu’s fleet.
The wind blew from northwest and combined fleet enjoyed benefit from it. They attacked Japanese fleet with fire. Soon, Japanese warships were in flame and retreated. They locked in port on their way to retreat. Japanese strongly confronted combined fleet to escape from the port. Middle of battle, Admiral Yi was dead by bullet wound around gwaneumpo port in presence of his son Yi hoe. Before he died, he said his famous will, “We are at the height of battle. Don’t let anybody know about my death!”.