Japan and the Japanese

CHAPTER XV.
PROGRESS OF THE COREAN WAR. SUCCESS OF THE. JAPANESE. TSUKAMDONO
VICEROY OF COREA. EDICT OF THE EMPEROR FOR DISARMING THE CON-
VERTS IN XIMO. DISGRACE AND DOWNFALL OF THE ROYAL FAMILY OF
BONGO. TERAZABA GOVERNOR OF NAGASAKI. HIS CONVERSION AND
FRIENDLY ACTS. A. D. 1592 1593.
THOUGH the emperor did not himself pass into Corea, he sent
thither such reinforcements as to raise his army there to the num-
ber of two hundred thousand men. But the Coreans having aban-
doned their cities and fled to inaccessible places, burning everything,
even to provisions, which they could not carry away (thus setting
an example long afterwards followed by the Russians on a similar
occasion), this great force was soon reduced to extremities, by which
its numbers were rapidly diminished. The Chinese also came to
the assistance of the'Coreans ; and the grand admiral, with forces
so reduced as to be greatly inferior in numbers, was obliged to
encounter these new enemies in several desperate engagements.
Compelled at last to retreat, he fell back upon a garrison which he
had left to keep up his communications with the coast, the command
of which he had entrusted to Joscimon, king of Bungo. But
that feeble prince, in a moment of terror, had abandoned his post ;
and, the grand admiral's communications thus cut off, nothing but
his distinguished firmness and courage saved his army from total
destruction. After a drawn battle under the walls of the Corean
capital, terms of peace were agreed upon, according to which five
of the
eight provinces of Corea were assigned to the Japanese; and
the commerce between China and Japan, which by the act of the
former had for some time been broken off, was again renewed.
The admiral was named viceroy of Corea, and the converted
princes were still detained there at the head of their troops. The