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The Japanese invasion force arrives, but can Yi do enough to stop it?

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Korea: Admiral Yi - II: Be Like a Mountain - Extra History

Support us on Patreon! http://bit.ly/EHPatreon Watch the Admiral Yi series! http://bit.ly/1FkP5ZO Subscribe for new episodes every Saturday! http://bit.ly/SubToEC Follow us on Facebook! http://bit.ly/ECFBPage Follow us on Twitter! http://bit.ly/ECTweet Follow us on Twitch! http://bit.y/ECTwitch ____________ Japan invaded Korea after a series of long civil wars that had finally culminated in Toyotomi Hideyoshi leading a unified Japanese army. Their martial society had trained extensively with weapons like the arquebus, early guns, and the civil war had given them tremendous experience with siegecraft. By contrast, Korea had not been at war for hundreds of years: they were mostly troubled by raiders from without and corrupt government officials from within. However, their unique situation meant that they had great cannons for fighting off pirates and secure if minimal hill-top forts. As a tributary ally of the Chinese, the Koreans were startled and confused when Japan asked permission to march through their territory and make war on China. Many officials thought the Japanese were only bluffing, but Ryu Seong-ryong recognized the threat and made sure his friend Yi was moved to naval service to help defend the country. Yi trained his men and commissioned a new ironside ship design called the Turtle Ship. Unfortunately, other commanders did not take the threat seriously: even when Japanese ships appeared on the horizon, the southern commander convinced himself it was a trade fleet and took no action while the ships docked, then unloaded their soldiers onto Korean soil. The well-trained Japanese army crushed the Korean army and quickly advanced to Seoul. Meanwhile, Yi organized his small fleet of warships and launched quick strikes against the Japanese navy, catching them off-guard and on-patrol. He destroyed 43 enemy ships without losing a single one of his own, and was promoted accordingly to become the new Southern Commander of the Korean navy. ____________ Get the intro music here! http://bit.ly/1EQA5N7 *Music by Demetori: http://bit.ly/1AaJG4H Get the outro music here! http://bit.ly/1NbpIcd *Music by Sean and Dean Kiner: http://bit.ly/1LBy9zh __________ Extra History - Warring States Japan: Sengoku Jidai The Battle of Okehazama: http://bit.ly/1xgZxfi Extra Credits - What It Teaches Us About Games? Power Creep in Hearthstone: http://bit.ly/1QLcmVk

Comments

Anonymous

I wonder how it'd have turned out if Yi would've commanded armies on land instead

Anonymous

My favorite thing to do every Friday morning is open up my email and find the link for these episodes.

Anonymous

Amazing

Anonymous

I have to wonder if the corruption in Korea is going to effect Yi again

Anonymous

I keep thinking, at almost every episode of EH "Wow, this is so amazing." or "I can't believe that happened." It shows that real world tales make for awesome stories without the need for fiction!

Anonymous

Kudos to your brief analysis of the state of the two nations, kinda like outlining the faction bonuses in a strategy game. But I feel you fell short on explaining China's role and makes me detached from Japan's motive to invade China in the first place. Also the Jurchens were still a threat, to Koreans and Japanese alike.

Anonymous

This land power - sea power dynamic is very interesting, like the conflict between Great Britain and France.

Anonymous

Funny how the only reason the Koreans prevailed was because one commander got greedy. Had he waited like he was told, the entire fleet would've descended on the Korean fleet and turned it into flotsam and jetsam.

Anonymous

This is the best type of education ever made. I love you more than ... something else!

Anonymous

Or Rome and Carthage (If my memory about that time period holds true... its been a while)

ExtraCredits

I feel like Yi wouldn't have let himself be trapped in an engagement against the full Japanese fleet, but the carelessness of some of the Japanese commanders certainly let him gain an early edge back!

ExtraCredits

I hear ya, but we can only do so much to keep the story moving along within an eight minute episode!

ExtraCredits

This is why history is my favorite subject. It's story time for grown-ups!

ExtraCredits

Yayyy! I often post them super early - technically, they're not *supposed* to go out till 10am PDT Friday morning, but I just can't wait to share them with you all.

ExtraCredits

I actually think it would have gone much worse. I mean, he's a clever fellow, so I think he'd have managed the land forces better than some of his contemporaries who DID command the land forces. But the advantage Yi had in technology (turtle ships + cannons) gave the Korean forces their strongest advantage at sea, so having their best commander serve there worked out best in the end. Even though he'd never commanded a naval force before...

Blake

EH is always good, but this one's extra good :D

Anonymous

I did a little research on the difference between the warships of the Japanese Navy and the Korean Navy. The Turtle ships are epic. They're basically floating fortresses with cannons. In one source I heard they have more than 100 cannons of various sizes on them against the Japanese who had two on their heavier warships. The best way I can think to describe it is the Japanese were using Roman tactics (slam ship into other ship, get on ship, kill everyone, take ship) against what amounted to a small fleet with the firepower to sink them before they got even close to them.

Anonymous

Cannot wait for the coverage over Yi's most epic battles. Namely, the 2nd battle of Busanpo, the battle of Hansando, the battle of Myeongnyang, and the battle of Noryang.

Anonymous

i like it

Anonymous

Armored ships with fire breathing dragon heads? I believe the scientific term is Epicly Awesome!

Anonymous

Outstanding!

SovietWomble

Marvellous! Though I certainly enjoy the episodes of various gaming tropes, I think THIS is where you truly shine. Absolutely keep making these! And I will continue to throw money at you.

ExtraCredits

It's very true, if a bit odd to think about since these days we tend to associate Japan with a very strong navy. Perhaps they learned a lesson from this encounter.

ExtraCredits

Technically they breathed smoke, but still, mad props to whomever decided to style that feature like a dragon just to INTIMIDATE THEIR FOES.

ExtraCredits

Thank you! It's fun to have this nice mix of analysis and storytelling. Really stretches those creative muscles!