Battle of Byeokjegwan The Battle of Byeokjegwan ( or Pyŏkje ) ( Chinese : 碧蹄館大戰 ; " Bì tí guǎn dàzhàn " ) was a battle fought on January 27 , 1593 ( January 26 according to the Japanese calendar of the time ) , between the armies of the Ming Dynasty led by Li Rusong , and the Japanese forces under Tachibana Muneshige , Ukita Hideie , and Kobayakawa Takakage . As part of the Japanese Invasion of Korea ( Imjin War ) , it was the first field battle fought during the war between the two sides . Background . Li Rusong and the Ming army of 36 , 000 set out from Liaodong on December 25 , 1592 , in an effort of the Ming army to aid the Joseon Dynasty , which had already largely been overrun by Japanese forces . Li was initially successful , and he retook Pyongyang in a one - day direct assault on January 8 . He recaptured the major city of Kaesong not long after . The capital city of Seoul was the Ming force ' s next target . Li began to send early scouting parties towards Seoul in late January . A few skirmishes occurred between the two sides . Li left behind a few thousand men to defend Pyeongyang and Kaesong and set out for Seoul with his main force . Battle . On the 26th of January , Li was notified by allied Korean scouts that the Japanese forces had withdrawn from Seoul and it was now an undefended city . Encouraged by this ( false ) report , Li left behind all of his infantry and artillery , and set out with a large number of his generals and their immediate retinues . Figures vary , but most cite between 1 , 000 to 3 , 000 men . This force , made up entirely of cavalry , set out to join their advance scouts and hoped to reach and secure Seoul immediately . The two forces combined for some 5 , 000 to 7 , 000 cavalry . On the same morning , Li ' s advance party , under General Zha Dashou ( 查大受 ) along with the Korean general Go Eon - baek ( 고언백 ( 高彦伯 ) ) approached the Byeokjewan area north of Seoul . The Japanese force became aware of the advance and Tachibana Muneshige sent out a small party of 500 to 600 men to lure the Ming army forward . The Ming party took the bait and attacked the Japanese party . The Ming advance party was soon met by Muneshige ' s main force ( 3000 strong ) coming in from the flanks and was forced to pull back , becoming trapped in the nearby hills . Li Rusong , upon hearing of the plight of his advance party , moved forward and tried to relieve his besieged scouts . He managed to meet up with his scouts around noon , only to be met with an even larger relief army from the Japanese side as other daimyo ' s forces from the area also converged on Byeokjegwan . Li Rusong was now trapped with his forces facing a Japanese army of between 30 , 000 to 40 , 000 men . They were again forced to try to defend themselves on a hill . The muddy field conditions and narrow nature of the area made it difficult for them to utilize their horses , so the force mostly dismounted and fought on foot . The Japanese forces advanced on the Ming position around 10 am . The initial attack by Ukita Hideie ' s forces was pushed back by the Ming , and then came an all out advance with Muneshige ' s force coming in from the right , Ukita Hideie ' s force coming in from the front , and Kobayakawa Takakage ' s force coming in from the left . Muneshige ' s forces fired off a volley of " teppō " before charging head on into the Ming forces . The Ming forces were without their heavy equipment or infantry support , but were made up almost entirely of their most elite retinue warriors . The two sides clashed and the Ming generals themselves were forced to fight in hand - to - hand combat for most of the battle . Li Rusong ' s brother , Li Rumei , shot a samurai warrior ( Ono Nariyuki ) at point blank range as he was about to duel with his brother . One of the Ming officers , Li Yousheng ( 李有聲 ) , was killed while trying to defend Li Rusong . Several samurai of note also perished in the battle . The all - out brawl continued from 10 am to midday , while Japanese forces sent several waves up against the Ming position and both sides took significant casualties . Around noon it started to rain , and the broken ground began to resemble a swamp , making the melee fighting difficult . Changing tactics , Kobayakawa drew back his samurai to allow a field of fire for his arquebus squads , which shot bullets into the mass of Chinese and Koreans . The Japanese then pursued the defeated Ming army back up the pass to its highest point , and after a few more hours of fighting , Kobayakawa ordered the advance to cease as darkness fell . The Japanese forces , not ready to commit to an all - out field battle with the Ming ' s main force , pulled back towards Seoul , and the Ming army , having taken heavy losses among their elite warriors , also pulled back towards Kaesong . Casualties . As with many battles in the Imjin war , the casualty figure is wildly different depending on the source . Li Rusong first reported a casualty figure of 264 against a kill of 167 enemies to the chief overseer Song Yingchang , though it was later blasted by other Ming officials back home of being faulty . An investigation concluded that the actual casualty figure was closer to the 2 , 000 range ( as many of the retinue soldiers killed were off - the - record soldiers , the on - record soldiers casualty was indeed in the 200s ) . The first Korean report on the battle relayed a story from a different Ming general that was not directly involved in the battle that the Ming lost 1 , 500 men while only killing a little more than a hundred foe , while the Japanese records seem to suggest that they lost 2 , 000 - 3 , 000 men while killing 6 , 000 men of the Ming force . One source in particular suggests that the Ming lost 20 , 000 men , ( which would have been around 60 % of the entire Ming army in Korea at that time ) . Given the nature of the battle and the maneuvers of both sides in the days and months after the battle , it could be estimated both sides lost between 2 , 000 to 5 , 000 men , though the Ming casualties were almost entirely among their elite retinues , which made the number more significant than it would appear . Other controversies . Although the official version of the story was that Li Rusong and the Ming forces were misled by faulty Korean intelligence , some of the other Ming generals ( especially those that originated from the South ) claimed that in fact it was Zha Dashou who misled Li and the other Ming forces . Zha thought that the Japanese forces were on the verge of collapse , and thus a fast and sudden advance on their position would cause them to pull out of Seoul , and as the vanguard of the group , he would gain the largest share of the glory . The generals cited that almost all of them were caught by surprise by Li ' s sudden departure the day before the battle , and scrambled to catch him . The battle and other disputes at Pyongyang and elsewhere led to an ever increasing friction between the Ming officers of different origins .