Korea: Admiral Yi - The Bright Moonlight of Hansando - Extra History - Part 3 

Everybody say it with me: "and not a single Korean ship was lost"

How the hell does Yi win all these decisive victories without any losses? ANY LOSSES!? Why isn't this man being discussed in more military history circles?

I fear no man! ......but that "turtle" thing (*leans forward*) it scares me.....

"treachery!" As Admiral Yi removes his helmet. Takes off his wig Removes his mask. ... "OH GOD DAMMIT WALPOLE!!"

Fighting a turtleship seems like fighting a wolf that's on fire, completely coated in graphene mesh, throwing up homing missiles and has teeth made of lasers.

This explains why Koreans are so good at Starcraft and Go. They are good strategists.

The Fates: "Japan is trying to conquer Korea before their appointed time again. What do we do?" "Let's make one Korean super-obsessed with the military despite it being not the norm!" "BRILLIANT!"

Imagine you're an admiral in the fledgling Japanese navy at this time. Hearing that a single man had devastated entire fleets without a single loss, in spite of your fellow admirals having a numeric advantage. To us, Yi was a military genius. To the Japanese, it must have been like facing a god of war that sought their destruction.

Holy shit, Admiral Yi is an absolute bad ass.

Man, how incredible is that? Not a single sunken ship? Not one? He was the perfect strategist: exceedingly careful, yet devastating in his accuracy.

I am very much a fan of history, and I consider myself as a fairly well-read person. Yet I never even heard of Admiral Yi and all those naval battles. Shows how much of the history we learn in school is very european and american oriented. Thank you so much for this awesome series.

the officers: "lord Yi, we won!! we need to immediately hold a war council to decide our next move!" yi: "yeah, give me just a sec to catch my breath" *pulls out knife and proceeds to extract bullet* "ok I'm good. pull out the maps, chin sun, will you?"

I love how this series sort of interlocks with the Sengoku Judai series. Like we're putting together a puzzle, and the completed picture is all of history.

Okay, why isn't this guy one of the best known military commanders in history yet?

Hediyoshi: I have thousands of trained Samurai, heavy guns, and a fleet of heavy warships. King of Korea: We have Admiral Yi Hediyoshi: On second thought how about that Peace Treaty

Because this video explains these battles superficially, thus giving the false idea that maybe Japanese commanders were just idiots, there are actually a lot more to the battles. While video states Admiral Yi had 56 ships, this number includes all the small vessels and actually, there were only 20ish main battle ships, therefore was the reason Wakazaki rushed in. Not because he was stupid, but Crane Wing formation was a stupid strategy if used with less force and he obviously had superior force and would easily overrun the ships after taking its initial barrage. However, what Korean navy did was that after it fired its first cannon barrage, it simply rotated on the spot (pivot turn) as it had flat hulls and began firing on the other side while other side began reloading. Plus with Turtle ship breaking Japanese formation and halting its advance, Japanese ships ended up getting trapped in crossfire and got destroyed. So yeah, I just wanted to say that these there were a lot more to these battles than on the videos, also it may seem like lucky coincidence that the farmers informing Yi about Japanese fleet, but this was work of Admiral Yi's superior espionage and communication network, covering every inch of his sea. Just shows that great commander is not only good at fighting the battle, but preparation to the battle as well.

If that bullet that hit Admiral Yi had been slightly closer to centre; He could've died right there and Korea may well no longer exist. Japan would've won the Korean War, and not turned to Isolation. Japan would've tried to dominate East Asia before European & American powers had enough influence in the Pacific to stop them like they did in WW2. That is some "for want of a nail"-level insanity right there. A single bullet that could've resulted in completely different Asia, a completely different world.

Almost all of Korea has fallen to the Japanese army, but Admiral Yi has a secret weapon: turtle ships. #ExtraHistory

2:15 "OUR GENERAL IS UNDER THREAT MY LORD! HE'S TOO IMPORTANT TO LOSE!" Yi: "Shut up, im fine..." Wow, Yi, what a boss

"Turtle Ship was OP"

For those who are wondering WHY the Turtle Ship was considered a "secret weapon", here's why: If you play games like DoTA or LoL, the Turtle Ship is essentially both a Tanker and a Dealer. The Turtle ship was designed with a thicker, more durable hull than other ships of the Korean Navy, and its armor plating on top served to not only prevent enemy boarding, but also to prevent enemy fire (both gunpowder and incendiary) One of the easiest ways to bring an enemy ship down was to light it on fire using flame arrows. Problem is, it's hard to light a ship on fire when it's covered in METAL. You could try aiming for the sides of the ship, but because the sides touch water (and you can also treat the hulls to be fire-resistant), it's difficult to do so. Also, most ships TRY to use flame arrows from a distance away from the enemy, since you know, having an enemy ship near you that's on fire could mean that the enemy might "accidentally" move towards YOUR ship in hopes of lighting in on fire by contact. If you tried shooting arquebuses and/or bows, you'd know that shooting from a distance is hard, and in naval battle, the roof is the easiest spot to aim for - except the Turtle Ships have a goddamn metal roof. The Turtle Ship's "head" ornament also spat gases and medieval flamethrowers, so it was also effective for the "shock and awe" effect. Considering the superstitious nature of medieval times (even in the 1500s), facing a Turtle Ship with the head spitting fire and smoke at you could be interpreted as a wrathful, mythical creature bent on destroying you. Also can be used to light enemy ships on fire up close, but I don't know if this tactic was used often given the close-quarters that it would require. As for armament, the Turtle Ship was armed to shoot in nearly every single direction. In other words, it could effectively stand in the middle of an enemy fleet and fire effectively; most ships at the time in Asia did NOT have a broadside cannonade like Europe (which is basically having rowers of cannons on the sides). Instead, they often only had a few cannons overall, often at the front and back. There were ships that lined the sides with artillery, but this was generally the exception, not the norm. Also, The Korean military has a tradition of favoring ranged artillery; while they did not adopt the gunpowder extensively until centuries later, they had cannon and bows that were much better than most of Asia. It's funny how Korea adoptedthe cannon so well but not the arquebus, but then again, in terms of rate of fire, maintenance, and weapon production costs, the bow was more effective at the time, so perhaps that's why. At any rate, their cannon technology was crucial to the war; the Koreans could reload faster and shoot farther than the Japanese at the time. In naval combat, the performances of your weapons is crucial, and this advantage meant that the Korean ships could utterly DEMOLISH Japanese ships in concentrated fire (think of DPS if you like playing games) Basically, the Turtle Ship could be sent to the frontlines to attract enemy attention and soak up the brunt of the damage, while other ships could get in formation and outflank enemy fleet. And while the ships outside are pounding the enemies with cannonades, you have the jolly Turtle Ship tearing about the enemy from the inside, all the while merrily enduring the enemy fire with gusto.

Yi is OP, does he get nerfed next episode?

I guess you could say they were... _Seoul-less._

I had never heard of Admrial Yi until this video series. Now he is one of my favorite historical figures. Not just for his impressive military career, but for his monumental character.

Hearing the story of admiral Yi gives me goosebumps. My favorite Extra History series so far.

SOMEONE MAKE A GAME WHERE I CAN PLAY AS THIS GUY

The cranes wing sounds similar to the bull horns and loins. It interesting how similar tactics develop with no input from each other.

As a Korean- American, I love this shiiiit, My mom says it's Yi Sun Sin and she's a fan, we used to have a small metal model turtle ship growing up and now I'm like 🤯

I'll bet even Belisarius' ghost was tipping his hat to Yi at this point.

Yi vs Hanibal vs Belisarius vs Nobunaga

While most people are in awe of battles, the truly amazing thing about Admiral Yi was that he had to supply his own forces with food and supplies which was never enough. Also, he had to also feed the peasants he saved with the limited resources he had. His soldiers were more likely to die from starvation than battle.

I recently backpacked around Korea, and visited Tongyeong (the city of which Hansan-do is now a part) while I was there. I was surprised at the time to see plaques there touting the Battle of Hansan-do as one of the world's greatest four naval battles, as I'd never heard of it in school. Just goes to show how Euro-centric my education was! :( Thanks for this and other videos.

Soldier: “Yi, sir. You’ve been hit.” Admiral Yi: “Oh no….so anyway…”

He never lost a single battle in his entire career. Truly a hero of Korea.

~7:25 Yi studied Sun-Tsu's 'Art of War' well. If the enemy can't escape and is totally encircled, he'll fight fearless to the death...! A clever commander let a small loophole for the enemy to escape - sounds strange, but it works...!

What i like most about admiral yi is his strength of charecter. No matter how many times his fellow officers wronged him, belittled his achievements and toetured him. He came back for his country when he was needed. A true gem of a warrior

Admiral Yi has entered the game - HACKER DETECTED!!!

You labled this as "Extra Credits" instead of "Extra History." I just thought I'd point it out. Turtle ships sound like bunnies, look like Bowsers, and fight like Mega Rayquazas.

Under the bright moonlight of Hansando Alone in the watchtower over the water Troubled with thoughts I stand with sword by my side I hear lonely flute from a far away in the night My heart fills with sadness A poem Yi Soon Shin wrote in his diary the night before the battle at Hansando

This man did all this with less than a fraction of the Korean navy, imagine what he could do with a full fleet.

Turtle ship OP plz nerf!

This video doesn't really offer much detail into the specifics of what kinds of advantages Korean warships had over Japanese ones, and the differences that those made for battle. Japanese naval tactics generally revolved around getting in close and boarding the enemy's ship, killing the people on board. So Japanese ships weren't really designed trading cannon fire with other fleets, but to close the distance as fast as possible. Korean ships were generally flat-bottomed and made with heavier woods than Japanese ones, which had V-shaped hulls and were made of lighter woods. This meant that Japanese ships were able to sail faster, but couldn't turn nearly as well as Korean ships. The lighter construction also meant they couldn't bear as many cannons per ship as Korean ones, which were basically decked out with as many guns as they could fit on-board. Combined with the Japanese navy's strategy requiring them to get up close, this meant that they were sitting ducks when faced off against the Korean navy's long range firepower. Not to mention that the closer they got, the more effective these broadsides would get. However, the sailors and soldiers which were aboard the Japanese ships were generally better fighters, so if they did manage to board a Korean ship it'd be over. So that's why the Koreans made a ship designed to resist boarding. They'd send in the Turtle Ship to break apart Japanese formations and cause general havoc, freeing up the rest of the fleet to outflank their already outgunned opponents. In reality, there were very, very few turtle ships ever built, but Admiral Yi knew how to make use of what he had, and maximize his chances of winning. Aside from all that, I wonder if this video will ever go into detail about the various reforms that the admiral had instituted under his command (which were summarily repealed after his death).

turtle ship op, plz nerf

GOD DAMMIT STOP CHASING YOU NEWBS

The "again!?" soldier cracked me up!

And remember, Yi wanted many turtle ships, and this was all done with either one or three of the things to his squadron. Turtle ship's OPness is unmatched.

maybe its because im a korean, i can't help bringing tears on my eye. Haven't seen this kind of storytelling of gereral Yi even I got education in Korea. Thanks a lot for this terrific video!

I served in the US Army. In 1976 I was sent to Korea, and while there visited Seoul. I still have a photo I took of the big statue of Admiral Yi. The uniform looks pretty much like what I see in this video. His image was seen in a lot of places. I don't know if their currency has changed, but one bill(I forget which) had Yi and a turtle ship on it.

Crane's Wing, the Bull, the Pincer formation, same formation used by so many different people just shows how damn effective it is.

Korea is actually a very nice place, lots of delicious food, rich culture, and amazing history. I've actually been in a turtle ship and I can say they are really cool to be in. They're also really tall

YES! The Battle of Myeongnyang is to me one of the most heroics and awesome naval last stands, it's up there with the Battle of Samar and curiously both ended with an immense Japanese force routed by a much smaller force.

This man was brilliant! Most of the time, he didn't even lose a single ship! I wish people didn't keep underestimating him though.

Ok...I knew about this guy before this series. I knew he was amazing but holy shit I didn't realize he was literally the Chuck Norris of Korea. Forget Ares, Kratos and Uesgi Kenshin: Admiral Yi is the one true God of War. For Christ's sake he never lost a single ship.

5:33 lol the soldier saying 'again!?' got me good.

The reason you don't hear about this legendary admiral in classes is simply because you can't teach bravery. You can teach tactics, strategies and you can even teach people to be leaders, but you can't teach bravery. Many of Yi Sun-Sin's feats were feats of sheer bravery and daring that is hard to successfully replicate in actual battles. Some of the stuff he did, even the best admirals wouldn't dare to replicate, the risks are simply too great. I mean you could only wish to engage an enemy fleet with 1/3rd their force and get away with half your fleet in victory, that would be successful, but no sane admiral would knowingly take on such odds. The risk of loss is too great and the sure loss of life can be too high a price for a smaller fleet to handle. But to take on such odds and loose no ships? Not even a single one? That's stuff they do in movies.

OK, been thinking this for awhile...thank the maker for Creative Assembly, for having enough foresight to initially fund this show, because I have adored every single episode I've seen of Extra History. You guys are really setting the curve for this kind of web series, BRAVO!!!

This has now become the one show I look forward to seeing on a weekly basis. Please do not stop EH

For those asking why has China not send aid yet to Korea at this point, there are two points to be raised. First you have to realize so far it has only been about two months, and messages are only delivered as fast as a horse can travel. Remember that Korean lost nearly half of its land + capital in a single month, and within nearly two months nearly lost the entire kingdom I would not be surprised if all of these messages arrived within 1 week of each other. Each painting a more dire, more helpless reality (Not to mention that no one knows about an Admiral winning even by the vast majority of Koreans) So for the Chinese, and for the world back then it's like they received the bad, the worse, and the catastrophic news altogether. China was fighting a war in the south with the Burmese to relieve their Thai allied at this time and was also worried about Mongol incursions, so to have one of your relatively secure allies suddenly drop out of a fight and nearly loosing its entire domain kind of came out of nowhere. Also considering how many months it takes to plan an invasion, muster the men for the rolecall, equip them with provisions of months of food, and then send them out it's a logistical nightmare that will at least take months of preparation. Preparation WHICH Hideyoshi had for at least two years to finalize. Second, Ming actually did send a relief force to stymie Korean losses. The Northern Army was stationed along the Ming/ Jurchen/ Korean border and it was instructed to relieve the Koreans (More on the Northern Army here) dragonsarmory.blogspot.com/ But they were mostly cavalry troops primarily designed to counter fast Mongol/ Jurchen troops and was annihilated. Realizing the degree of the Japanese threat. The Ming court concluded peace with the Burmese, and pulled the Southern Army (primarily of mixed elite infantry and musketeers, one that actually resembled the Japanese army in terms of composition and fighting doctrine) into the conflict. They faired much better against the Japanese for the rest of the conflict and are constituted as the primary Ming army in Korea. For the rest of the War, most of the land battles devolved into a series of sieges. The Ming relief force would become the bulwark against the Japanese on land while the mixed Korean + Ming Navy commanded by Yi became the winning army of the war.

You guys are killing it, I'm literally on the edge of my seat for these!

I love that he didn't recklessly destroy the remaining ships of the Japanese so they wound not kill his helpless fellowmen and also these Japanese would have means to travel with away from the land. He is smart with a heart. He gets glory from killing his enemies but grabs the chance to prevent bloodshed from happening. I wish our government officials and politicians are like him.

As always, your episodes are a real treat. Keep up the excellent work.

Wow.. Admiral Yi digging a bullet out of his shoulder and continuing the battle debrief like a boss! Great episode , the narration pace was perfect,,

Man dude, just imAGINE if this dude found his way into a Sengoku Basara/Dynasty Warriors-style game. Some naval-themed badass whose armor was designed like a giant ship with a big turtleshell in the bag and massive cannons.

This is a gem of a channel! Glad to have stumbled upon it. Oh, and I adore the art style.

Admiral Yi is the best history series you guys have made so far but the others are still great!

Man, you do not FUCK with Yi. The dude was a fucking badass!

I love stories about great generals, I always feel like Reinhard Von Lohengramm being totally intrigued as to what they will do next when I hear about them. I barely eat out of sheer interest!

Churchill's "Never was so much owed by so many to so few" was never more true.

I: bored. Sad. Hard day. Start to cook my meal ... bit deppressed. While I start to eat I start to watch YT-videos. Then I scream: YEEES!!! THE NEW HISTORY-EPISODE IS THERE!!! YEES!!! :D Made my day =) thx!

I want to be drilled by Yi.... Wait that came out wrong: I MEAN I want to be trained by him!

What a great series. Thank you EC!

Man, Yi is like a gorram superhero. Let me guess, there are about a billion really awesome epic Korean movies about him and the only reason I've never heard of him until now is because of the smallness of my world.

Jeolla was a very important area to both sides. because jeolla was the only Large granary area in korea, Japanese can't conquest korea without jeolla.

I only heard of Yi Sun Shin on Mobile Legends but damn, I've never expected how badass he is in reality.

Yi: *has an untreated bullet wound Yi: So anyway...

Yi and Nelson, two men who turned the fate of the world in the straits.

Am absolutely loving this series :)

6:28 Correction: 14 ships successfully escaped. Only a "few" of those made it back to Busan harbor. The rest were damaged beyond repair and ditched in nearby shores.

You are a great story teller and get all the facts across so well. I want to binge on your vidoes :D. Keep it up

general Yi Sounds like an absolute badass, digging a bullet out of his shoulder while debriefing his commanders, I love this show, keep up the amazing work guys, its so fascinating ^_^

Holy hell... I love OP characters in my fiction - but Yi sounds like an OP character in real life! Destroying ship after ship without losing a single one himself... That's war with cheat codes.

"turtle ship was OP" lol

Thank you for making Korean history into videos this detailed and entertaining! 따봉드셈 ㅋㅋ

I've sat here for about an hour refreshing to get to see this.

Admiral Yi would suffer from back pains because of him carrying the weight of defending Korea on his back.

Love your approach to history. Love the history of Admiral Yi drilling and poured spirit 😎

4:58 "The three main Japanese admirals were to gather their fleets..." and their names were Akainu, Aokiji and Kizaru.

"And then Yi found a fleet and killed it, and then Yi found a fleet and killed it, and then Yi found a fleet and killed it, and then..." If this were a fictional story, people would be calling admiral Yi an overpowered Mary Sue. I mean geez, how original! A tremendously talented and incredibly intelligent man whose only problem was that everyone just hated him for being better than them! And when everyone finally realized how awesome he was and asked him to save the country, he was literally invincible and so good that he easily defeated even the glorious Japanese and their katanas of destruction despite being ridiculously outnumbered! And he also developed some ridiculously overpowered retarded-looking warship that literally couldn't be sunk! I mean geez guys, try to actually write something believable!

Achieving all these incredible victorys without losing a ship and by doing so rescuing the nation, amazing!!!

Thank U so much for making a video to promote Korean heroes 😊👍

"Iron clads in the 1500s? The AI is cheating." ->Japanese Civ player.

This Admiral Yi was basically the Hannibal of the Seas, he literally did the same thing Hannibal did at Cannae! But, just with ships... absolute genius...

As a korean, my parents told me so many stories about this guy and it’s pretty nice to see this video

Amazing! Great work, guys.

I fucking love this series! It's extremely entertaining, while also being enormously informative and educational! That's a rare thing, indeed.

4:18 Japan be all like: "Hax, I call Hax!"

Sailor: Sir we are surrounded! Yi: Excellent, now we can fire in any direction. What an irony that Korea has been "divided" many times.

Admiral Yi was basically that ally who has 43 kills with 0 deaths while his allies have 30 deaths lmao.

Love your stuff! Keep up the good work!