ABSTRACT
The effectiveness of the musket became even more pronounced during the battle fought in 1593 between a Japanese army, under Konishi, and a
Chinese force that had been sent to the aid of the Koreans. The size of the Chinese army is not definitely known, but estimates range from 51,000 to 200,000, whereas the Japanese numbered about 25,000. Since the Chinese seem to have had no hand guns,24 Konishi was able temporarily to hold his ground even against such a superior force.25 Again in 1597, during the latter phase of the war, the Japanese were outnumbered when Chinese and Korean forces attacked them at Yol-san Castle, near Fusan. Both the Koreans and the Chinese had by this time armed some of their soldiers with matchlocks,20 and they were more advanced than the Japanese in artillery warfare, but the defenders, equipped with a larger number of small arms, were able to retain possession of the castle. A few days after the battle the Japanese commander, Asano Yoshinaga, wrote to one of his gunsmiths: "I have killed a large number of enemy soldiers, because I used the guns I practised with, for so many years, at your place. I have also established the inferiority of even the Korean and Chinese guns."27 On the following day the same commander dispatched a message to his father: "When troops come [to Korea] from the province of Kai, have them bring as many guns as possible, for no other equipment is needed. Give strict orders that all men, even the samurai, carry guns."28
