"He was by all accounts rigorous, diligent and incorruptible and this was exactly the problem."

Man, the more things change.

Loyalty personified, duty given form, determination unmatched.

Admiral Yi is the Goat

Yi faced great injustice in his time on earth. But he earned eternal glory as one of the greatest heroes in history.

35:12 Admiral Yi continually cheffing up novel ways to defeat the enemy like “they’re gonna love this one”. Then, taking every moment to point out the scoreboard 🗿

51:00
"But Admiral Yi, you only have 12 ships!"
"Finally, an even fight!"

This guy got betrayed so severely by his government, I’m surprised he remained at their disposal whenever they were desperate for his expertise…despite having been unjustly imprisoned and disgraced in multiple instances.

The reason Yi did so well was because he was very good at tactics and had superior war ships.

While the Japanese boats were designed around boarding and thus were tall with lots of places to fire muskets from they had few cannons and those that were there were inferior. To be most effective they had to close the range and either shoot the crew of the enemy ship or send troops over to fight them in mele. Usually both.

The Korean ships were built to engage in long range cannon duels. They had lots of cannons, better cannons and better gunners for said cannons. They could generally stay out of range of Japanese musket fire and shell the Japanese ships until they were sunk.
On top of that the Turtle ships were almost immune to Japanese fire and couldn't be boarded so they could get in the middle of the Japanese fleet, do a lot of damage at point blank range and cause chaos and confusion.

Of course if the admiral in charge of the Korean ships misjudged the wind and the distance or got his fleet surrounded his ships would be swarmed by the Japanese ships full of muskets and angry samurai.
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As for the Buddhist Warrior Monks... they were insane at this time, especially a bit earlier in Japan where the greatest of these, the Ikko-Ikki, together with regular peasants basically deposed their samurai overlords and became independent states and a regional power once they adopted massed musket use them selves. That's right: Warrior Monks with Guns. And yes they stopped the progress of the future Great Unifier of Japan on several occasions.

The reason why people hold these historical records to be mostly factual is because the Japanese Admiral Togo acknowledged him as the greatest Admiral ever. When your opponents talk about you having success against them hundreds of years later, then you know there has to be some truth to it. Also, record keeping during the Joseon Dynasty was extremely meticulous and taken very seriously. To the point that if anyone tried tampering with the records they'd punished and likely killed, and kings weren't even allowed to look at the records to ensure objectivity.

I don't know if it's true, but supposedly Admiral Togo, a greatly accomplished Japanese Admiral (late 1800s to early 1900s) once said "I may perhaps be compared to Nelson, but for Admiral Yi, there is no equal."

Referring to arguably the greatest British Admiral.

So a couple of cool facts, Modern Day Seoul has a statue of Yi Sun-Shin to commemorate him and also, after the Japanese Navy absolutely HUMILIATED the Russian Navy in the Russo-Japan war in 1904, the Russian admiral during peace talks, compared the Japanese Admiral to Nelson and called him a god of war. The Japanese Admiral thanked the Russian Admiral for his praise but declared that he was unworthy of such a title and stated that the true god of war was Yi Sun-Shin and that next to him, he was but a petty officer.

Over 300 years after Yi’s death, and the Japanese still respect the guy.

BASED.

Still cant belive stim thought the Korean PENINSULA was an island lol

51:30
Simple, actually. Yi was Korean. As much as the bureaucracy and backstabbing probably made his blood boil, he loved his homeland and would happily die defending it.

Admiral Yi's career sounds like an actual RTS campaign, from learning the ropes against a bunch of essentially bandits to consistently saving the day against incredible odds to literally building his own base and upgrading his own tech.

Sun Tzu advocates the use of spies in war. If you do not have information on your army from sources that are close up, you do not have what the capability to wage war.

Stim: "Don't know who 'Oda Nobunaga' is"

Me: There's an Extra History for that!

Yi did the suicide charge because he caught wind of the king's jealousy fueled plan to try him for treason on trumped up charges after the ear was over.

The king was worried Yi would overthrow him backed by basically everyone in his court .

Even after Yi died a hero, he tried not awarding him the medal of honor, but he had to back down to popular pressure.

Instead he also promptly gave the medal to Won Kyon so Yi would have to share the title. Then he tried to downplay Yi's accomplishments.

You mentioned that victors write history. Yi is this beloved despite the victors trying to write him out of it .

Because in this war, Korea, Japan and China were involved and we can cross reference his records from Korea, Japan, China and even his own journals, most of historian considered that the records are true. (His journals have the most crucial evealuation of himself and unbiased)

The Extra History team has produced several videos covering Japanese history and is well-acquainted with Japanese historical records. Therefore, I don't think their “Admiral Yi” series is particularly biased in favor of Korea or relies solely on Korean records. I believe the Extra History team likely reviewed Japanese records from that period as well before producing the video.

Furthermore, one of the defining characteristics of the Korean dynasty at that time was a culture absolutely “obsessed with recording.” The official historical records of the dynasty consist of 1,893 volumes. Due to their incredible fairness, objectivity, and highly detailed, massive amount of data, they are registered as a UNESCO Memory of the World. To prevent powerful figures, such as the king, from altering the records, the king was strictly forbidden from reading them.

Once, when a king accidentally fell off his horse, he was embarrassed and ordered the historians, “Do not record this.” In reality, however, that entire incident — including his command to hide it — was recorded. It is also recorded that a king once secretly went hunting with only a single falcon after slipping away from his royal guards. Some royal historians reportedly followed the king so closely that they even attempted to record events occurring in highly private settings, sometimes angering the king.

There is also a more detailed set of records, essentially a “director’s cut,” written by the historians. That collection consists of 3,243 volumes and is likewise registered as a UNESCO Memory of the World. The recording culture in Korea back then was truly astonishing.

Militarily, most of Korea’s elite army units were deployed to the northern border regions at the time. The troops stationed in the southern rear were relatively weak, and their commanders often lacked combat experience or were simply corrupt nobles trying to build their resumes for promotion. The northern part of Korea features rugged mountainous terrain and complex roads, so it took anywhere from a few weeks to over a month for troops stationed at the northern border to march south.

At that time, Korea also developed and mass-produced rocket launchers capable of firing 100 to 200 exploding arrows at once, along with various advanced gunpowder weapons such as explosive shells, grapeshot, grenade-like weapons, and powerful long-range cannons.
Some Korean rocket weapons have been reconstructed and tested in modern times, with their maximum range estimated at around 1.5 to 2 kilometers. Gunpowder technology was highly advanced for the period, and Korea was considered one of the leading powers in rocket and cannon technology at the time.

However, because ingredients like sulfur and saltpeter used to make gunpowder were difficult to obtain in Korea, a significant amount had to be imported from overseas, leaving supplies relatively limited. As a result, many of the latest gunpowder weapons were concentrated along the northern border, while some were supplied to the navy. The army stationed in southern Korea received the fewest gunpowder weapons.

Stim thinking Korea is an island is wild 😂

The main reason why the King (Seonjo of Joseon) and the court was backstabbing Admiral Yi Sun-shin was that they were literally jealous and threatened by Admiral Yi's capabilities and popularity among the common people. The King thought Admiral Yi would eventually overthrow him and rule his kingdom. Of course Admiral Yi, being the Martial Lord of Loyalty, never thought of overthrowing the kingdom for personal glory.