임진왜란 시기 조선의 대일 육상 전력 강화-1596년 강화협상 결렬 전후를 중심으로

Abstract

For three months since the Imjin War began, the Chosŏn armies learned the harsh lesson that the Japanese armies were not a merely manageable enemy that could be knocked out through one or two big field battles. At the same time, the Chosŏn armies also witnessed the tactical mistake made by their enemy whose overly deep penetration into the inland areas of the Chosŏn territory inadvertently left themselves susceptible to isolation with an overextended (about 520 kilometers) front from Pusan to Seoul to Pyŏngyang · Hamhŭng. After the second half of 1592, the Chosŏn military pursued a comprehensive tactical measure against the Japanese armies that would engage themselves in attrition warfare able simultaneously to resolve their shortage of military supplies, including provisions, within the territory of Chosŏn proper and maintain their unexpectedly expanded battlefield. In this article, I explore how the Chosŏn court and military prepared the anti-Japanese countermeasures even before the large-scale overseas deployment of the Ming armies in the beginning of 1593 and sought for the strengthening of their own military power in the middle of the peace negotiations between the Ming and Japan after the first quarter of 1593. In specific, what emerged as the fundamental solution for how to strengthen the anti-Japanese combat power of ground force was a set of regional defense, or 1) mountain fortification (設險), such as mountain fortress or mountain barricade, in terms of maximizing the capacity of natural defense and 2) scorched earth policy (淸野) in terms of blocking completely any access to supply sources for local procurement of the Japanese armies. Moreover, not only joint operations (掎角) within the troops of a province and among the troops of multiple provinces, but also ambush (要害), geared towards surprise attack, encirclement or obstruction, were brought out as a set of mobile defense intended to complement the regional defense as above. This approach will enable us to chart further research that probes how the Chosŏn court and military made effort to increase the anti-Japanese defensive power, centered on combat strength of Chosŏn armies, examine what kinds of military tactics the Japanese armies employed for a new offensive as opposed to Chosŏn, and shed light on internal structures of the Imjin War as an international war in Northeast Asia at that time.