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The Invasion of Korea

As 1864 began in Korea, the situation looked grim. Korea's two neighbours, the Empire of Japan and the Kingdom of Manchuria, had both openly declared their intent to partition Korea between them, and it surprised noone when the declarations of war came on the 4th of April.

The Koreans rallied an army of 100,000 men in Seoul, and there waited to see from which direction the initial attack would come. The Korean army was poorly led, had little to no training, and lacked basic equipment and munitions. The nations infrastructure was poor, and communication was still carried out by mounted messengers. Against them, 400,000 Manchurian troops were poised to attack from the North, and from the South, 150,000 Japanese soldiers and the full might of the Imperial Navy was mustering for war.

The blow when it came, was from the direction the Koreans most feared. Storming ashore at Busan, 150,000 Japanese soldiers quickly secured a beachhead and leaving behind 10,000 men to guard their foothold, set off North to Deaegu, their advance was slowed by the poor infrastructure and the exceptional cruelty of the Japanese troops, who burned, looted, raped and pillaged at the command of their officers. The Korean Navy put up token resistance to the Japanese, mounting a surprise attack on the morning of the second day of the invasion, they sank a Junk carrying some ammunition and damaged another before the Imperial Navy counterattacked and destroyed 95% of the Korean ships, leaving the others badly damaged and scattered. [Korean Navy destroyed, no losses to Japan]

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1. The Imperial Japanese Navy moored off Busan.

Two days after the Japanese landed in the South, Manchurian troops stormed across the Northern border in a huge tidal wave, expecting to destroy the enemy in a series of pitched battles using their overwhelming numbers. What they found however, pleasantly surprised them. The Koreans had moved their army South, to combat the Japanese, leaving the road open to Pyongyang. Manchurian forces seized the city, and the entire North of the country by the start of May.

The first real engagement of the war however, was to come on April the 10th. The Japanese forces, having landed 5 days previously and moved inland met the Korean army at Deaegu. The Korean army, 100,000 strong, was drawn up defending the path to Seoul, using several rivers as a defensive line in an effort to offset the superior quality of Japanese troops.

The battle began at 8am, with a 1 hour artillery exchange between the armies, which went considerably in favour of the Japanese. With the enemy artillery destroyed, the Japanese General ordered his men to attempt to ford the river in several places, one of them the area which would later become known as the Ford of Skulls, a loop in the river from which Korean forces would be able to attack the Japanese from 3 sides as they crossed.

The Japanese infantry advanced in good order to the river, under little fire from the now badly bloodied Korean artillery. Once they were within rifle range, heavy but inaccurate fire began to cause losses amongst their ranks and officers hurried their men towards the river in an attempt to minimise casualties. With bayonets fixed and rifles above their heads, the Japanese infantry waded into the river at 5 different fords. At 4 of the fords, the situation was much the same. The Japanese infantry began their crossing strongly, but quickly found themselves under a hail of bullets and struggling to navigate obstacles such as stakes dug into the riverbed by the Koreans and natural pits in the river. By the time they were half across, many Japanese soldiers were exhausted, and some could no longer withstand the pull of the current. At times, those swept away would cause further casualties, knocking others off their feet and into the deadly grip of the current. Upon reaching the far bank, heavy Korean counterattacks began, which the Japanese soldiers held off with firepower, their bayonets and a fanatical faith in their Emperor. After a time, these counterattacks came less frequently, and the Japanese soldiers, unable to push on without rest, reinforcement or resupply dug in to the river banks, holding their fragile bridgeheads.

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2. A painting of one of the assaults across the river, made for the Emperor to mark the great victory.

This scene, miserable as it was, was far merrier than that at the Ford of Skulls. Here, the Japanese forces first realised their danger on approach to the ford, when Korean artillery, unsilenced by the Japanese guns, opened up at close range. Ragged holes appeared in the Japanese ranks where grape shot tore into the men, and solid rounds punched gaps in the ranks. Soon, the Japanese attack began to stall, but the worst was yet to come. On beginning their crossing, the Japanese soldiers experienced all the hazards their comrades had dealt with elsewhere on the river. Here however, not only was enemy artillery present, but the fire from the Koreans was far heavier than elsewhere and it took an enormous toll upon the Japanese. Entire battalions ceased to exist as units, in some cases junior NCOs being left in charge of whole companies. Unit cohesion vanished from the picture, and those few who reached the far bank found themselves without any leadership, and under heavy counterattack. Some men became so disoriented in the smoke and noise of battle, that they confused the banks of the river, and began wading the wrong way. Just when the carnage reached its bloodiest, with several thousand Japanese already dead on the banks or in the river, the Koreans unleashed their secret weapon. Whilst rallying in Seoul, the Koreans had tried to find any advantage possible that they could use, and it came in the form of a popular attraction, loved by many in Asia. Taking whatever fireworks they could find in the whole country, the Koreans quickly changed their loads of celebration to that of war, exchanging colourful glitters and smokes for razor sharp pieces of metal and vicious wooden stakes. Rockets fell everywhere at the Ford of Skulls, exploding above, in or in some cases below the water. Further rockets exploded on the far bank, and some, covered with barbs and with blades fixed to them, were fired directly into the Japanese ranks. The chaos caused by this barrage was terrible, and those Japanese officers that had command of their men quickly fell back, leaving many dead, wounded and simply lost men behind them.

It was now 3pm, and the Japanese had 4 footholds across the river, at the cost of a third of their strength. The Koreans had lost very little of their own strength, but had failed to hold the banks against the Japanese, and had used much of their ammunition and all their fireworks. The river itself was a vision of hell, running red with blood, it slowly bore the bodies of the wounded and the dead downstream. A sickly foam of blood, mud and gore coated the banks, and the air around the river was full of smoke, so much so that visibility was reduced to a matter of several metres. At the fords, Japanese engineers worked to remove stakes from the river bed and fill in holes so that supplies could be easier bought across. At the second ford upstream, they even began work on a bridge, across which men and supplies could cross. Japanese orderlies also hurried through the hell that the battlefield had become, simply unable to cope with the number of wounded, they resorted to only helping those who had a good chance of survival. No Japanese soldiers went near the Ford of Skulls. None wished to venture back to that horror, where it was said by survivors that one could not see the ground for the number of bodies.

By 5pm on the first day of the battle, the Japanese had managed to secure their footholds on the other side of the river, and by 7pm the bridge at the second ford had been completed. The Japanese General realised that the situation was not suited to further attacks, and postponed any continuing of the battle till the next day, using the time to reinforce and resupply his men. The Koreans constantly raided the bridgeheads during the night, and several times attempted to burn the bridge to the ground by floating barrels of pitch downstream, these attacks were all beaten off by the Japanese, now determined to not let such a large sacrifice be in vain.

At dawn the next day, the battlefield was silent. The smoke had cleared and the shattered and bloody landscape was revealed for all to see. The Japanese had now moved a large amount of their strength across the river, and their artillery had moved close to their bank during the night. At dawn, it put down a terrible 3 hour barrage against the Korean army, killing thousands with its modern weaponry and ammunition. At 9pm, the guns fell silent, and for 15 minutes, all that could be heard was the murmur of voices and the cries of the wounded of both sides. Then, at 9:15am, the final blow came.

Rising like Demons from the cover of the banks, the Japanese soldiers all along the front swept forward. Screaming 'BANZAI!' as they charged, not one fired a round from his weapon. Officers drew their ceremonial swords, and ensigns carried forward the banners of the rising sun. The massive wave of Japanese troops hit the Korean frontline, slowed briefly to break it, and then ran on into the rear lines and onwards into the Korean camp and baggage. Japanese soldiers butchered left and right, killing soldiers, officers and camp followers alike. Those who surrendered were shot or ceremonially beheaded by officers, and men looted souvenirs from the bodies of the fallen. The Korean General, caught in his morning bath, was brutally butchered by the Japanese, and his body dragged behind a horse down to the river, where his head was removed and stuck on a stake as a mark of his cowardice and trickery.

The Japanese army rested, looting local villages and towns and trying to come to terms both with the brutality of the battle and the number of their losses. Many Japanese were disfigured beyond recognition, and many floated away downstream, never to be found, despite Japanese attempts to retrieve bodies from the river and bury them properly. Because of this, it remains unknown just how many Japanese died in the battle, but the most likely figure is around 50%. The Korean army, allowed to escape by this Japanese, also sustained heavy casualties, mostly on the second day. They too, lost 50% of their force. [-70,000 Regulars from Japan, -50,000 Regulars from Korea]

The Korean army retreated to Seoul, with the Japanese following and encamping South of the city a few days later.
 
OOC: Nice update
 
OOC: I am saddened that Japan lost so much, when in comparison the Manchus could have easily crushed the Korean scum and saved the Japa the trouble. :p

Anyway, amazing update.
 
OOC: Meiji's restoration - from saber charges to bayonet charges.

OOC: Guanxu Restoration: from getting his ass kicked to getting his ass kicked :p
 
The Emperor has declared April 10th as a national holiday in order to honor the brave soldiers who died in the campaign in Korea. Those who have died will be forever remembered in our hearts and in the minds of the future generations. Let all know the bravery of the Japanese soldier!

OOC: Holy crap..that was a good update. I of course don't condone the brutality against civilians but oh well.
 
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His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Hong Xiuquan, condemns the crimes committed by the Japanese against Korean civilians. Your brutality against innocent men, women and children proves once again that you are still a nation of savages, unfit to rule over others. Stay on your islands, for the benefit of all involved.
 
ooc: -70.000 jap regulars. Korean soil doesn't exactly come cheap.
 
OOC: He still has 1,430,000 :p