Battle of Byeokjegwan

Timeline

1. 1593Kaesong to Iseongnyeong · Gyeonggi ProvinceIn the first month, Li Rusong led Ming and Korean forces to recapture Pyongyang, and the Japanese abandoned Kaesong to fall back on Seoul. Korean reports held that "only weak troops remained in the royal capital." Cha Dae-su led elite cavalry south to scout, first engaging Japanese scouting cavalry successfully. Li Rusong personally advanced with several thousand cavalry, intending to survey the terrain and support the vanguard rather than immediately storm the capital.
2. 1593Byeokjegwan · Gyeonggi ProvinceAfter Tachibana Muneshige and other vanguard troops became entangled with the Ming vanguard, Kobayakawa Takakage concealed his main force in the hills south of Byeokjegwan, with Ukita Hideie and others following up. Li Rusong's relief force entered narrow, muddy ground where cavalry could not deploy and was pressed on three sides. After reinforcements under Yang Yuan arrived, the Ming fought as they retreated. Both sides recorded captures, but the figures differ enormously; the course of the battle can largely be reconstructed, while assessments of victory and defeat remain sharply divided.
3. 1593Kaesong · KaesongLi Rusong retreated to Kaesong, abandoning the immediate recovery of Seoul. Although the Japanese had driven back the Ming cavalry on the battlefield, their own losses and shortage of grain stores led them to refrain from a major northward pursuit, and they soon abandoned the royal capital and withdrew south along the coast. Ming and Japan entered prolonged peace negotiations. Byeokjegwan thus became the turning point at which the Imjin War shifted from a string of Ming victories to stalemate, rather than a simple war of annihilation.