Admiral Yi Sun-sin

Thinking back at some of my favourite games throughout the years I thought it would be nice to look at a famous historical figure behind one of my favourite factions of a RTS war game that I used to spend many hours playing.
That game is Empires: Dawn of the Modern world.

This game was made by the now defunct Stainless Steel Studios inc. This game was released during the era of Age of Empires which was taking the RTS world by storm.

Playing the game I found that my favourite factions to play were the Koreans for the insane amount of gold through research then evolving into the Russians for the World War era. This was to provide me with T-34 tanks which were very powerful and conscripted infantry to back them up.

When using the Koreans you find that they have some really powerful ship in the later stages with the Turtle ships.

These ships you find are very interesting in design and were some of the most powerful ships at that stage of the game before the World War era.

When you look into the Turtle ship you tend to find out about the famous Admiral that was famous for using them. The more you look into him the more you admire the feats at which he achieved.

This is a man who decided to live a life in the armed forces at a time when it was not fashionable to do so. He was shunned and demoted several times due to politics and from several high ranking officials purely because his success was making them look bad.

Although he was hindered continuously he was eventually promoted to the rank of Admiral several times due to invasion. The Japanese forces were massive in scale and were hardened from a large period of war called the Sengoku Jidai which lasted over a century.
When Admiral Yi engaged the forces he was able to inflict maximum damage while losing the least amount possible. Even now he is regarded as THE greatest Admiral that has ever lived, participating in 23 confirmed battles and winning every single one without losing a ship. This is unheard of.

The battle I wanted to use as an example to illustrate how great he was are the battles at Hansan Island and Myeongnyang.

At the battle at Hansan Island, Admiral Yi and his fleet of around 55 warships caught sight of a Japanese scout vessel to which he gave chase. Upon seeing a Japanese fleet he broke of the pursuit in order to set a trap. He sent fourth a small unit of ships to lure the enemy fleet into open waters. In their arrogance they followed without hesitation.
When the enemy fleet was far enough in the open Admiral Yi's forces fell upon them like a lightning bolt and flanked their forces with a U formation which he dubbed the "Crane formation".
While he encircled the larger force he sent into their midst his Turtle ships. These armoured ships had cannons on all sides and wreaked havoc amidst the enemy.

The battle raged for the best part of the day until the Japanese fled the battle and Admiral Yi called off the pursuit.
After hearing of this a nearby Japanese fleet heard of the battle and amassed near the shore in the hopes of drawing the Admirals forces into shallow waters.

Admiral Yi found the fleet and did not play to their advantages, he used some of his smaller ships with a very long range of weapon and had them cycle shots at the enemy and rotated to allow others to loose salvos onto the enemy. This assault lasted hours and Japanese knowing that the battle would be lost abandoned their ships and escaped later in the day at Admiral Yi's discretion.

The good Admiral lost a reported 19 men and over 100 wounded. However he had sunk over 100 ships and stopped the naval attacks on the south.

The Battle of Myeongnyang was one of the last stands of Korea, should this fail then the whole of Korea would fall. After Admiral Yi was demoted into the abyss he was brought back to lead them at the brink.

The Korean fleet was all but destroyed leaving little to nothing, yet Admiral Yi put all his trust in the Turtle ship and the small fleet that he had.

With this small fleet Admiral Yi had to make the best use of the terrain in order to assist in the coming battle. He chose to make his stand in the Myeongnyang strait, this was a strait which had a temperamental current which was familiar to Yi, however not to the Japanese.
Admiral Yi waited for the Japanese fleet of over 300 warships to enter the strait and then for the current to give his forces the advantage. He then engaged, his fleet was afraid to join in the fight based on the overwhelming size of the enemy, however after witnessing the admiral they eventually followed suit.

Admiral Yi's forces scattered the Japanese fleet back into the sea, sinking over 30 ships and another 30 crashed and useless. Admiral Yi, once again did not lose a single ship.

This changed the face of history and would later lead to the Japanese defeat and liberation of Korea.

There was a movie made based on the events of this battle called, The Admiral: Roaring Currents.

This is a man well worth looking into and merits great respect among any who learn about him.