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KOREA

visited its shores, had grown to such dimensions that when the force was descried off the harbour upon the morning of May 25th, 1592, Fusan was already in their possession. This circumstance gave the troops immediate facilities for disembarkation, and, in the subsequent vicissitudes of the next six years' campaign, expedited the progress of the war. The position of Fusan speedily made the place a base of supplies to the army of operation and a repairing yard for the Japanese fleet after their disastrous engagement with the Korean ships, in an attempt to co-operate with the victorious forces, which Konishi and Kuroda had assembled before Pyöng-yang. After the conclusion of the first invasion and the Japanese retreat from the north, before the combined strength of the Chinese and Koreans on May 22nd, 1593, Fusan became one of the fortified camps upon the coast, where the Japanese armies passed the winter in sight of the shores of their own land. The negotiations, which were opened in the following year, and shifted alternately between the camp of the Commander-in-Chief at Fusan and the Courts in China and Japan, failed.

Even at this date Japan was anxious to establish her power in Korea by obtaining possession of the southern provinces. Foiled in this attempt, she renewed her attack. Fusan again became the seat of the councils of war, and the base for the second invasion. The operations began with the siege of the Castle of Nan-on, in Chyöl-la province, upon the morning of September 21st, 1597. Twelve months later, the Japanese were withdrawn from Korea, and the war came to its close. Two hundred years passed before Korea recovered from the desolation of this conflict, which was one in which the loss of three hundred thousand men