Chungju Campaign

The Chungju Campaign was a series of attacks by Japanese forces in 1592 during the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592-1598).

History

After the southern defense perimeter was breached in matter of days, the Korean Royal Court was quick to send a response force from the northern military sector, commanded by General Shin Lip. His battle-hardened cavalry units were, however, wiped out by Japanese musketeers who were trained to provide a continuous rain of fire when faced with cavalry.

This tactic was created and used by Daimyo Oda Nobunaga and his successor Hideyoshi to help establish his hegemony in Japan. It unwittingly gave superior advantage to the Japanese since Korean troops had not yet adopted the idea of fire concentration. Japanese generals believed that, if employed massively, muskets were a far better and cheaper weapon system as compared to bows.

Korean generals, on the flip side, believed the muskets were hard to mass-produce and had horrible accuracy and effective firing range compared to well-made bows. Therefore, only the small experimental detachment were armed with muskets - while at least half of the Japanese invasion forces were armed with small firearms. Korea had the advantage when it came to cannon technology, but cannons of that time were not as mobile as nowadays - so on the field, Japanese armies were easily able to crush the Korean opposition.

The Battles

#The Battle of Sangju (April 24, 1592)
#The Battle of the Choryong Pass (April 26, 1592)
#The Battles of Tangeumdae and Chungju Castle (April 2 - April 28, 1592)

Aftermath

References & External Links

Notes

All dates are according to the Chinese Lunar Calendar.