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The Battle of Noryang, the last major battle of the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–1598), was fought between the Japanese navy and the combined fleets of the Joseon Kingdom and the Ming Dynasty. It took place in the early morning of 16 December (19 November in the Lunar calendar) 1598 and ended past dawn. In spite of the negotiation of the Japanese armies retreating, the allied force make a surprise attack to the Japanese armies from the back. The allied force of about 150 Joseon and Ming Chinese ships, led by Admirals Yi Sun-sin and Chen Lin, attacked and either destroyed or captured more than half of the 500 Japanese ships commanded by Shimazu Yoshihiro, preventing his link-up with Konishi Yukinaga. The battered survivors of Shimazu's fleet limped back to Pusan and a few days later, left for Japan. At the height of the battle, Admiral Yi was hit by a bullet from an arquebus and died shortly thereafter. ==Prelude== Due to setbacks in land and sea battles, the Japanese armies had been driven back to their network of fortresses, or ''wajō'' (和城), on the southeastern Korean coast. However, the wajō could not hold the entire Japanese army so in June 1598, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the Taikō who instigated the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–1598), and also the acting Japanese Lord of War, ordered 70,000 troops of mostly the Japanese Army of the Right to withdraw to the archipelago.〔Turnbull (2002), p. 217〕 On 18 September 1598, Hideyoshi unexpectedly died at Fushimi castle.〔Turnbull (2002), p. 218〕 The Japanese forces in Korea were ordered to withdraw back to Japan by the new governing Council of Five Elders.〔 Due to the presence of Joseon and Ming ships, the Japanese garrisons in the ''wajō'' could not retreat and stayed in the relative safety of their forts. The Sunch'on ''wajō'' was the westernmost Japanese fortress and contained 14,000 troops commanded by Konishi Yukinaga, who was the leader of Japan's vanguard contingent during the first invasion in 1592.〔Turnbull (2002), p. 42, 217〕 Admiral Yi and Chen Lin blocked Konishi from retreat, but Konishi sent many gifts to Chen in an attempt to bribe the Ming commander into lifting the blockade. At first, Chen agreed to withdraw the allied fleet, but Admiral Yi steadfastly refused to comply.〔Hawley (2005), pp. 549–550〕 Then Chen Lin suggested that the allied fleet attack smaller, more vulnerable ''wajō'', such as the fort at Namhae. Admiral Yi refused that strategy as well. Yi countered that Konishi, who commanded one of the largest ''wajō'', would be allowed to escape if the allies were to leave and fight elsewhere.〔Hawley (2005), pp. 551–552〕 On 15 December, about 20,000 Japanese troops from the ''wajō'' of Sach'on, Goseong and Namhae boarded 500 ships and began to mass east of the Noryang Strait in an attempt to break the allied blockade of Sunch'on. The overall commander of this relief force was Shimazu Yoshihiro, the leader of the Sach'on ''wajō''.〔Turnbull (2002), p. 226〕 The objective of the allied fleet was to prevent the link-up of Shimazu's fleet with the fleet of Konishi, then attack and defeat Shimazu's fleet.〔Hawley (2005), p. 552, 554〕 The objective of Shimazu's fleet was to cross Noryang Strait, link up with Konishi and retreat to Pusan. Shimazu knew that Konishi was trying to cause disunity within the Joseon/Ming alliance and hoped that they would be busy elsewhere or still blockading the Sunch'on ''wajō'' and thus vulnerable to an attack from their rear.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Noryang」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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