Thread: Ancient Chinese battle case studies

AFAIK , the expedition of Han Wudi was still largely based off their cavalry, their infantry was mostly for logistic support purpose. I.E the cavalries were like the fighter planes and the infantries were like the carrier support group.

I'll jump to a battle in a much different time period for some fun, the siege of PyongYang on



Date: January 8th 1593 (lunar calender, so it was more likely Late Feburary / Early March)

Site: PyongYang , Korea.

Combatant : Li Ru Song (Commander of the Liao Dong garrison - Ming dynasty China) vs Konishi Yukinaga ( Daiymo of Settsu , commander of the first army of the Japanese force.)

Strength : Ming : 36,000 Japanese: 18,000 (A small number of Korean forces also supported the Ming, some of the civilians captured by the Japanese were also conscripted on their side.)

Result : decisive Ming Victory.


Background : The Imjin wars, as Japan's Segoku Jida (warring states period) was drawing to a close, Toyotomi Hideyoshi managed to subdue most of the Daiymos of the realm under his banner. It is not completely clear of Hideyoshi's motive to go into Korea, though we might interperate that it is to let off the steam of the now restless samurais who no longer have enemies to fight. hopefully conquering new lands and securing his legacy.

When the Japanese landed in 1592, they met virtually no opposition and within 2 months of landing in Bushan they had taken every major cities of the Josen kingdom. (2 months, thats about how long you would take just to march an army)

The Josen court have long been at peace and basically forgotten how to figth wars, as evident by the Japanese' incrediable pace in taking the country, they immediately turned to the Ming dynasty of China, who at first hesitated as the slew of confusing report sounded quiet unbelievable at first, when they finally realize that Josen had indeed been overran, they decided to go in around late August in 1592 (the Japanese landed on April 14th) . and took most of the later 3 months gathering their forces.

The Japanese forces however, were not really as well off as it would appear, as their rapid pace vastly overstretched their supply line, which was made more complicated by the large number of insurgent locals that constantly harrase them. What was more serious was that their navy was getting hammered by the Korean navy under Yi Sun Shen. which seriously damaged their ability to further reinforce and resupply from Japan itself.

So in this background, the Ming army crossed the Yalu river on the last week of 1592 (in the lunar calender) and reached Pyong Yang just around new years' time, after some intial attempts to barter (or capture the Japanese commander Konishi while bartering) the two armies clashed on 1/08.

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Battle: The Ming plan of attack was well documented. they essentially came in from the West, and intentionally left the East side relatively untouched, and planned for a 3 side assualt. (with a part of their force ambushing on the routs out of the east gates.)

On the south side, the Ming send general Zhu Da Xiun who would lead the first wave of attack, his troops would swap clothes with the Korean forces who are supporting the operation to confuse the Japanese .

On the north side, general Cha Da So would lead the attack on the high grounds directly north of Pyong Yang. (they would also try to go around and ambush the east rout)

The bulk of the army would attack from the west gate, with Li Ru Song himself and the rest of his generals leading.



There are detailed letters written by Song Yin Chang, the chief administrator of the operation , back to Beijing that described their plan :

"The night before the operation, we will fire off poison gas rocket arrows into all the corners of Pyong Yang and smoke the enemies thoroughly, just before dawn, we will fire off incendiery rocket arrows into the west / north / south areas of PyongYang. after the city begin to burn we will open fire with our cannons and then do a full out assault. we will leave the east side open and ambush on the outside"

This appear to be basically how they conducted the operation, as the attack commenced the southern Japanese troops was surprised when the attackers were revealed to be Ming troops, and the troops on the western end had to pull off some of their force in haste to try to aid the southern portion.

The figthing was fierce on the walls to the west and south, Li Ru Song's horse was shot from under him by Japanese arbeques, but the overwhelming fire power and confusing tactics of the Ming were soon too much for the Japanese force and they retreated to a north eastern corner of the city. at that point the Ming slowed to regroup, Li Ru Song judge it too dangerous to storm the remaining japanese head on and had begun to plan to burn that section of the city.

By night, the Japanese forces predictablly took the east gates and sally out, they were hit by the ambushes of Ming forces while crossing the river to the east and took some more casualties. but they managed an pretty impressive retreating march back to Seoul.

Casaulty figure varies, but it was clear that it wasn't very heavy on the Ming side, the official documents of the Ming cited that 796 were killed and 1492 were wounded) the Japanese lost a significant part of their army but still pulled back into Seoul largely intacted (probably lost 1/3-1/2 of their total force ).

Tactically, this was pretty impressive on teh Ming part, anytime you manage to take a city in a head on assault without overwhelming odds in one day, and did it while losing a lot less men than your enemy, you did well.

Strategically though, this was pretty much inevitable, Pyong Yang was the the tip of a vastly overstretched logistic line, the Japanese forces almost had to contract back to the south, the Ming forces would run into more trouble while going down into Seoul (partly due to the faulty intelligence on the Josen part) and managed to retake the city in March without a direct assault (they manage to find one of the secert grain stash of the Japanese force in the area , and the Japanese pulled out after losing it.). after that the battle stalled and the two sides entered into negotiation (but they would fight against in 1597-98)