Chapter 806: The Opening of the War in the Eastern World

Kim Gwang-hyo, Naval Commander of Gyeongsang Left Province, was now the most senior veteran commander in the Kingdom of Joseon. He was the nephew of Kim Sang-heon, the leader of the anti-peace faction during the Byeongja Horan and former Minister of Rites. Back then he had led troops in fierce fighting against the Qing army around Namhansanseong, and though he was defeated time and again, he had given his all. After Joseon submitted to the Qing, Kim Sang-heon and the other anti-peace ministers fell sharply from favor and were later pursued by the Qing authorities; Kim Gwang-hyo was also seized by Ing'oldai, who had come to Joseon to demand accountability, and was taken back to Qing territory and imprisoned for a time.

After returning home, Kim Gwang-hyo, now deeply aware that the Qing state was too powerful to oppose, set aside his anti-peace stance and likewise disapproved of King Yi Ho's reckless policy of expanding the military and preparing for war against the Great Qing. Thus, at a time when the former anti-peace faction members were one after another being restored to important posts, Kim Gwang-hyo was instead shelved and sent off to the idle post of Naval Commander of Gyeongsang Left Province to grow old.

This post of Naval Commander of Gyeongsang Left Province had once been an important position during the Imjin War and for some years afterward, but ever since the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan closed the country, the wokou had gradually become a legend. At least here in Gyeongsang Left Province, no wokou had appeared for more than fifty years.

There had been one wokou disturbance at Jeju Island earlier, but those wokou did not seem to be targeting the Kingdom of Joseon; they did not raid the Joseon mainland coast, nor did they even run wild on Jeju Island. Later it was the Japanese Tokugawa shogunate and the Great Ming that sent troops together to drive them off, and after the wokou on Jeju Island were expelled, the Tokugawa shogunate showed no intention of occupying Jeju Island either, but returned the island to the Kingdom of Joseon.

After that false alarm, the king and ministers of the Kingdom of Joseon unanimously concluded that the wokou no longer posed a threat, and so they paid even less attention to the coastal defenses of southern Joseon.

The post of Naval Commander of Gyeongsang Left Province naturally became a retirement sinecure for unpopular ministers like Kim Gwang-hyo.

But just when Kim Gwang-hyo thought he would stay safely in this post until he retired from office, news that utterly astonished him arrived from Busanpo Fortress, which fell under the jurisdiction of the Naval Commander of Gyeongsang Left Province — Jeolyeongdo, an island separated from Busanpo by less than a hundred zhang of water, had actually been occupied by wokou!

"Wokou? How many?" Kim Gwang-hyo, stationed in Ulsan Fortress, could scarcely believe his ears and immediately pressed the military messenger who had come from Busanpo.

"Reporting to the Commander, the wokou occupying Jeolyeongdo number twenty ships in all, all of them Ming-style sea-going sand ships, but they fly the banner of the Japanese Combined Fleet, and their leader bears the surname Ukita."

"What? The Japanese Combined Fleet? What a strange name. Ukita — is there a daimyo in Japan with the surname Ukita?"

"Not at present," replied an aide beside Kim Gwang-hyo who was knowledgeable about Japan. "Among the so-called Five Great Elders of Japan in earlier years, there was one who used Ukita as his clan name, called Ukita Hideie. But that man lost power long ago; after the Battle of Sekigahara he became a prisoner of the Tokugawa shogunate and was exiled to Hachijo Island. By now he is surely long dead, and even if not, he would be eighty years old."

"Then what is going on over at Jeolyeongdo?" Kim Gwang-hyo asked. "The Tokugawa shogunate could not possibly send an eighty-year-old man to invade Joseon, could it? And with only twenty ships, what could they do?"

He then asked the military messenger from Busanpo, "Why has the garrison commander of Busanpo not sent troops to retake Jeolyeongdo? A mere twenty ships — how many wokou could be aboard them?"

"Commander, the garrison commander has already sent troops to counterattack, but the wokou's muskets are extremely deadly, numbering at least three thousand, and they also have quite a few cannon. Our troops suffered heavy losses!"

"What? Three thousand muskets! And cannon too? Are these even wokou anymore?" Kim Gwang-hyo was stunned. Though he knew the wokou's muskets were formidable, for a mere twenty ships to carry three thousand muskets — the number was simply staggering! And cannon besides!

"How many cannon?" The aide beside Kim Gwang-hyo also found it unbelievable. "Just how large are these cannon?"

"There are — each ship carries two cannon, and they are very powerful!" the messenger said. "In addition, they have several cannon mounted on wheeled carriages, also of no small power, far more formidable than our crouching-tiger mortars."

Three thousand muskets, twenty gun-ships, and several great general cannon (in fact three-pounder guns) as well! Kim Gwang-hyo's heart was in his throat. The entire Kingdom of Joseon did not have three thousand musketeers! And twenty gun-ships besides. If the Busanpo garrison commander had not fabricated the report, then these attacking wokou were no ordinary sea bandits, but the elite of the Tokugawa shogunate.

In the Japan of today, the only power that could produce three thousand muskets and twenty gun-ships at once to invade Joseon was the Tokugawa shogunate!

And to bring out so many muskets and gun-ships at once clearly meant they were playing for high stakes. The wokou now landing on Jeolyeongdo must be their vanguard; the real army was still behind them! The Tokugawa shogun must intend to conquer Joseon!

"Attend me!" Kim Gwang-hyo shouted. "At once pick fifty stout men, armed with muskets and swords, dressed as farmers, and accompany me to Busanpo to investigate! If I do not return within three days, report to the capital that the wokou are invading in force!"

The middle of the eleventh month of the fifth year of Hongxing of the Great Ming.

The distant Western Regions, the Chu River.

"Ilalata! Ilalata!" (Meaning victory!)

Cheers in Mongolian, like the roar of mountains and the surge of the sea, rose from both banks of the Chu River — the river lying between the Kyrgyz Mountains and the Ili Mountains, named after the Chinese land of Chu.

By the eleventh month of the lunar calendar, the surface of the Chu River had long since frozen as hard as stone slabs, solid enough for countless Junggar warriors on warhorses to cross it, surging like a flood toward the Kazakh allied army on the southern bank.

The Kazakh allied army led by Jangir Khan, the renowned ruler of the Kazakh Khanate who nine years earlier had defeated the 25,000-strong army personally commanded by Batur Khong Tayiji with a mere 600 musketeers holding a strong defensive position, was now utterly routed, beaten to a pulp by the very foe it had defeated back then.

For Jangir Khan's allied army had encountered a new-model Mongol army equipped, like themselves, with large numbers of muskets and cannon!

And this Mongol army possessed even more muskets, and its artillery was even more deadly!

The defeat nine years earlier had made Batur Khong Tayiji deeply aware that the era of conquering the world with bow, horse, and mounted archery was utterly over. If the Junggar tribe wished to restore the glory of the Great Mongol Empire — no, even if it merely wished to survive, to graze cattle and sheep on rich pastures and multiply its descendants — then it must possess muskets and cannon in numbers equal to its enemies!

Therefore, after that defeat at the hands of the Kazakhs, Batur Khong Tayiji began doing everything in his power to purchase guns, cannon, and gunpowder. At first he bought small quantities of matchlocks at high prices from the Russian pioneers to the north, and in the past three or four years, merchants from the Mongol Ordos tribe had brought the Junggar tribe "Prince of Dai muskets" of somewhat inferior quality but large quantity and low price, in exchange for warhorses.

Once he had figured out that these "Prince of Dai muskets" came from the now-revived Great Ming Celestial Dynasty, Batur Khong Tayiji immediately thought of obtaining more guns and cannon by offering tribute to the Ming court.

So he sent his envoys to Yulin with a request to submit to the Great Ming — at first this was nothing but a trick to fool people. Batur Khong Tayiji would never oppose the Great Qing state merely to obtain some guns and cannon. He was simply keeping a foot in both camps.

And his scheme seemed to have succeeded. The Ming Emperor agreed to his request, promised to grant large amounts of aid, and even enfeoffed him as Military Governor of Beiting, but at the same time set two conditions: that his sixth son Galdan be sent as a hostage, and that the Junggar tribe send troops to help the Great Ming recover Anxi Garrison.

After careful consideration, Batur Khong Tayiji accepted the Ming conditions and sent off Galdan.

And the Ming side did not disappoint him. After Galdan arrived at Yulin, they sent him six three-pounder bronze cannon and one thousand muskets of excellent quality.

Once his warriors had more or less learned to use the three-pounder guns, Batur Khong Tayiji immediately ordered a western campaign against the Kazakhs, to avenge the humiliation of his defeat nine years earlier.

Jangir Khan of the Kazakhs was not one to show weakness either. He likewise summoned the allied forces of the various tribes, deployed his troops and formed battle lines on the southern bank of the Chu River, and faced off against the Junggar host that had reached the northern bank for an entire autumn. Only when the Chu River had frozen solid did the two sides agree on a time and join in decisive battle.

The result of the decisive battle was a complete victory for Batur Khong Tayiji, who possessed six bronze cannon and at least three thousand muskets!

(End of Chapter)