Battle of Noryang - Prelude

Prelude

Due to a number of setbacks in both land and sea battles, the Japanese armies had been driven back to their network of fortresses, or wajō (和城), on the southeastern Korean coast. However, the wajō could not hold the entire Japanese army so in June 1598, Hideyoshi ordered 70,000 troops of mostly the Japanese Army of the Right to withdraw back to the archipelago. On 18 September 1598, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the Taikō who instigated the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–1598), died at Fushimi castle. Hideyoshi's last orders were for the remaining units of the Japanese army, which garrisoned the network of wajō, to begin their withdrawal as well. However, due to the presence of Joseon and Ming ships, the Japanese garrisons in the wajō could not retreat and stayed in the relative safety of their forts.

The Sunch'on wajō was the westernmost Japanese fortress and contained 14,000 troops commanded by Konishi Yukinaga, who was the leader of Japan's vanguard contingent during the first invasion in 1592. Admiral Yi and Chen Lin blocked Konishi from retreat, but Konishi sent many gifts to Chen in an attempt to bribe the Ming commander into lifting the blockade. At first, Chen agreed to withdraw the allied fleet, but Admiral Yi steadfastly refused to comply. Then Chen Lin suggested that the allied fleet attack smaller, more vulnerable wajō, such as the fort at Namhae. Admiral Yi refused that strategy as well. Yi countered that Konishi, who commanded one of the largest wajō, would be allowed to escape if the allies were to leave and fight elsewhere.

On 15 December, about 20,000 Japanese troops from the wajō of Sach'on, Goseong and Namhae boarded 500 ships and began to mass east of the Noryang Strait in an attempt to break the allied blockade of Sunch'on. The overall commander of this relief force was Shimazu Yoshihiro, the leader of the Sach'on wajō.

The objective of the allied fleet was to prevent the link-up of Shimazu's fleet with the fleet of Konishi, then attack and defeat Shimazu's fleet in pitched combat. The objective of Shimazu's fleet was to cross Noryang Strait, link up with Konishi and retreat to Pusan. Shimazu knew that Konishi was making efforts to cause disunity within the allies and hoped that they would be busy elsewhere or still blockading the Sunch'on wajō and thus vulnerable to an attack from their rear.