Admiral Yi Sun-sin: His Early Career and the Making of a Legend

Before he was the 'God of the Sea' who never lost a battle, Yi Sun-sin was a man of unwavering principle facing a corrupt bureaucracy.

In this first part of a two episode tale, we go beyond the famous ironclad Turtle Ships and the Battle of Myeongnyang to explore the formative years of Korea’s greatest hero.

​We'll take you through his repeated failures in the military examinations and his late start in the army.
​His early service defending the Northern border against Jurchen tribesmen.
​How his refusal to engage in political corruption led to demotions and professional sabotage.
​And the specific leadership traits and tactical brilliance he developed long before the Japanese invasion.

​Join us for part one of the unbelievable life of a man whose character was forged in adversity, and who laid the groundwork for a legacy that would change the course of East Asian history forever. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Imagine standing on the deck of a wooden ship, looking out at the expanse of the horizon. Behind you are just 13 vessels of your navy. Creeping over that horizon through the mist towards you. 333 eager deadly enemy warships. You have been stripped of your right, tortured by your own government, and left to dead. Yet you are the only thing left to save your nation from total annihilation. This isn't a Hollywood epic. This is the recorded history of a naval genius, who, without any formal training, stood tall with his country leader in the most. Not only did he never lose a battle, never even lost a single chip. I'm Steve.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

He's Neil, and this is Honourable Mentions.

SPEAKER_03 1:02

Honourable Mentions. Hello, listener. How are you? Welcome to yet another episode of Honourable Mentions. Hope you enjoyed last week's episode with our friends the Bufoons, and I hope that you've gone and listened to some Bufoons episodes in their podcast.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

Ours first, though, obviously.

SPEAKER_03 1:23

Who said that? There's a little voice there, listeners. You hear it? Perhaps it could be. Shall we find out? Hello, Neil.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Twas I, 'twas I.

SPEAKER_03 1:33

It was him. It was Neil. Hello, Neil. Hello. Hello, Neil! How are you? How are you today?

SPEAKER_00 1:41

I'm alright, thank you. How are you?

SPEAKER_03 1:42

Well, do you know what, Neil? Hello, Neil.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

Hello.

SPEAKER_03 1:45

I'm alright, thank you for asking very much.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

Good. Good to hear.

SPEAKER_03 1:50

Neil.

SPEAKER_02 1:51

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:51

We're gonna start today with a bit of a quiz question.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:56

Have you ever heard of Lord Admiral Sir Dame Horatio Nelson's column?

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 2:04

And in what way have you heard of him, please?

SPEAKER_00 2:08

He had one arm and he had a ship called the Hedgemath's Victory.

SPEAKER_03 2:13

Ah, that's it, is it?

SPEAKER_00 2:14

And he's got a statue in the middle of London. In Trafalgar Square.

SPEAKER_03 2:19

Oh, I've had to squeeze it out of him, listener. But he knows it all. He's got it all.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

Was he involved in the Battle of Trafalgar against he very much was, yes, he very much was involved. Neapolitan, what his name was.

SPEAKER_03 2:32

He was. Um do you know who the opposing admiral was? I don't know how I know this. I think he was a Formula One driver, that's why. But the opposing admiral was called Villemerve. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:45

I thought it was what's his name? Um Napoleon.

SPEAKER_03 2:50

Napoleon didn't do ships as well. He did all of it.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 2:55

But he was yeah, he was the the big bad.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Napoleon Bonia part.

SPEAKER_03 3:00

Yes, him.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:02

Anyway, Neil. Hello, Neil!

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Hello.

SPEAKER_03 3:06

Lord Admiral Sir Dane Horatio Nelson's column was a true British national hero if ever there was one.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Do you agree? Yeah, I would say that, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:14

May God bless him and all that you're sailing in. Nelson's column was and is the best and most famous naval admiral in the world.

SPEAKER_00 3:25

Yes, I agree with that. You agree with that, do you? Yeah, I do agree with that, yeah. It's also the biggest pigeon collector.

SPEAKER_03 3:33

His his statue?

SPEAKER_00 3:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:35

Yes. It's Falgar Square there, on up on top of his column. Falga Square? Or was he the most famous and best naval admiral in the world?

SPEAKER_00 3:46

Exciting.

SPEAKER_03 3:47

Just because someone is a national hero in one country, doesn't mean everyone everywhere will know who they are.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

That is true.

SPEAKER_03 3:54

That is true. So for example, Neil, hello, Neil.

SPEAKER_02 3:57

Hello.

SPEAKER_03 3:58

Hello, Neil. If you were to go to, for example, Nepal, you'd be able to walk around quite freely, I should imagine.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

Nepal. Whereas famously Nepal.

SPEAKER_03 4:11

Oh, the um okay, let's pick another.

SPEAKER_00 4:13

Worldwide, mate, worldwide.

SPEAKER_03 4:14

Let's pick another country. If you were to go to Côte d'Avois, or the Ivory Coast, I should imagine you could walk around quite freely.

SPEAKER_00 4:23

I can walk around freely there, yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 4:25

Whereas if you were to go to Nottingham, to pick a city in this country, you'd be you'd be mobbed.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

I'm mobbed every time, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:33

You'll show me his stature.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 4:37

Please allow me, if you would, Neil, if you'd be so kind, please allow me to introduce you to an arguably even better admiral.

SPEAKER_00 4:45

Better? Yeah?

SPEAKER_03 4:47

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

Who's this, please?

SPEAKER_03 4:48

Nelson's colour.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

Right.

SPEAKER_03 4:50

This is Yi Sun Sin.

SPEAKER_00 4:53

Yei Sun Sin.

SPEAKER_03 4:55

Ye Sun Sin, that's correct, isn't it, guy? On the line. Can you hear that?

SPEAKER_00 4:58

Yeah, Yi Sun Sin.

SPEAKER_03 4:59

Oh, there it goes again. Yi Sun Sin was born.

SPEAKER_00 5:02

Yi Sun Sin.

SPEAKER_03 5:03

Yi Sun Sin was born into a respected and prestigious family close to Seoul, modern date South Korea. South Korea on the twenty-eighth of April fifteen forty-five. Wow. So what's that? That's about quarter to that is quarter to four.

SPEAKER_00 5:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:25

Very precise. As a child, Yi enjoyed playing war games.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

Yeah, we all did.

SPEAKER_03 5:31

Charging about with his little mate, Ryu Sun New Yong.

SPEAKER_00 5:35

Oh, yes, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:38

They used to carry bows and arrows and shoot at anyone, even adults. Why not? Bless them.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

Why not?

SPEAKER_03 5:49

Casually, you'll take take the eye out. Even though a life in the military was not a respected career choice for someone of noble birth like ye.

SPEAKER_00 5:59

Yeah. It had been his ambition since those very early days when he was charging around on his little hobby horse and shooting people's eyes out in the local as the I had a phone call the other day when I was driving, and it was my my boss, and he said, We've had a discussion, you've been promoted, and it made me swerve. And then literally two seconds later, he phoned me back and said, We've done it again, you've been promoted again. I was like, wow, uh swerved a second time, and then literally five seconds later he phoned me up and said, We've decided to make you managing director, and I just come off hit a tree. I careered off the road.

SPEAKER_03 6:43

Yi Sun Sen, after your terrible joke, he passed the government examinations to become a military uh officer in 1576 at the age of thirty-one. After failing a few years before, when he fell off his horse and broke his leg during an observed test.

SPEAKER_02 7:03

Ooh.

SPEAKER_03 7:04

He bound his shattered leg with branches of a willow tree and carried on an immense pain. But a great big fat F still one on his record. For fail.

SPEAKER_00 7:16

Oh right.

SPEAKER_03 7:17

Although I don't know whether strictly it would have been a big fat F because they'd have written in your Korean script.

SPEAKER_00 7:23

Yes, so probably like a few lines and I could put across the top and a squiggly bit.

SPEAKER_03 7:28

Perhaps our Korean listener, if our listener does speak Korean or knows how to write in Korean, can tell us what an F looks like in Korea, or whether indeed there is a direct translation to an F in Korean. We don't know.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

Yeah, just tell us about your F in Korea.

SPEAKER_03 7:43

Well F in Korea, yes. Could be. Both did that joke simultaneously, more or less at the same time. When he did eventually graduate, Yi was posted to the far northern border of the country.

SPEAKER_02 7:57

Oh. This is Korea. Yeah. So South Korea.

SPEAKER_03 8:02

Yeah, well, it was all Korea then.

SPEAKER_00 8:04

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 8:05

Korea had been virtually conflict free for 200 years. Wow. And a lot of the border forts had fallen into disrepair, and the soldiers were lazy and scruffy.

SPEAKER_00 8:16

Hmm. Okay, fair enough.

SPEAKER_03 8:19

But ye drilled and drilled his men and drilled his men again.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

I bet he did, dirty man.

SPEAKER_03 8:26

He instilled discipline and pride.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

Oh right, okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:30

In fact, when they were inspected by the most feared commander in the Korean military earth, a man renowned for his harsh punishments, all he could find was to say, Well done.

SPEAKER_00 8:46

Wow. That's some accolade, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 8:49

Do you know? When I was doing basic training back in the day in the military, we had to clean the bathrooms, the toilets, if you will. And the corporal came in, he had white dress gloves on, and he kept looking round at things and rubbing his white dress gloves over stuff. And then terracottaish coloured tiles went about two-thirds of the way at the wall. And he ran his white dress glove along the top of the tiles. And then he looked at his gloves and said, Dirt. And he went absolutely mental. And then he stuck his little finger into the plug. So then he went wet. He went nuts at us. Absolutely nuts at us and said, Well, I want this sorted out, I want you to do it tonight, and all this sort of stuff. And then he went next door to the other barracks that side. And there, his he went ballistic hat, and he was throwing stuff about and going really, really mad. And he said, If you want to see how this should be done properly, go next door and see what those boys have done. He said, That's how it should be done properly. So yeah, they're never going to tell you, are they? They never tell you.

SPEAKER_00 9:58

No, no, no. No, of course they don't.

SPEAKER_03 10:00

For old Yi Sun Sin to get a well done from the most hard degrees person, most affiliate person there, well done, you were listening.

SPEAKER_02 10:08

Hmm.

SPEAKER_03 10:10

Yeah. So the most command voice in the Korean military. Militaria. Well, I don't know. You've got those headphones on, you could be listening to all sorts.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

I am also listening to all sorts.

SPEAKER_03 10:22

You could be listening to K-pop?

SPEAKER_00 10:24

No, I'm not listening to K-pop.

SPEAKER_03 10:26

BTS and all that sort of stuff. Blackpink. Check me out.

SPEAKER_00 10:31

No.

SPEAKER_03 10:32

Soon after this incident, ye receive a new posting, this time back to Seoul, to train new recruits.

SPEAKER_00 10:41

Did he meet Erasure? Why? So I hear you call it one.

SPEAKER_03 10:54

Okay. I could have gone with Soul Man, San and Dave. Soul man Soul Man Again, he, this is ye, he ye, drilled his men to perfection. However, he was also incorruptible. Which when you're running an academy where wealthy families, influential administrators, and political rivals expect their chosen candidates to be given the juiciest ranks, regardless of ability, can be a smidge of a problem. Do you see what that problem could be, Neil?

SPEAKER_00 11:34

I could see that being a bit of a smidge of a problem, yes.

SPEAKER_03 11:37

He was soon on his way out, this time to run a naval garrison. It was all going well, and his reputation continued to rise until one day a superior officer arrived to carry out an inspection. Not the very fearsome officer that was someone else. This was someone else.

SPEAKER_02 11:56

Uh oh.

SPEAKER_03 11:56

This fella, Neil.

unknown 11:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:59

You can get your head around this. This fella was only one of the blokes who yeared, slapped back for attempted bribery and corruption at the Academy.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:09

This nasty little piece of filth.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:12

That's what I'm going to call him. I think I'm quite right in saying that.

SPEAKER_00 12:15

I can say that. I think you can say that. He's not there to defend himself, but do it.

SPEAKER_03 12:19

Shall I say that?

SPEAKER_00 12:20

Yeah, do it.

SPEAKER_03 12:21

Okay. This nasty little piece of filth. Only went and wrote a report so bad that Yi was booted out of the Korean military entirely.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

No. He was. Well. Idiots.

SPEAKER_03 12:39

Four months later he was vindicated and returned to duty.

SPEAKER_00 12:43

Well, vindicated.

SPEAKER_03 12:45

But as the lowest possible rank of officer they could award.

SPEAKER_00 12:51

Well, at least it's in there.

SPEAKER_03 12:53

But then he was rescued. Yay! By one of his old adversaries, who ye had served under at the naval garrison. He'd been transferred to the north and knew that he'd need good, capable soldiers, and was prepared to swallow his pride to appoint Ye.

SPEAKER_00 13:17

John Snow. They need people at the wall.

SPEAKER_03 13:20

In relation to your earlier question, Neil, why was he reinstated?

SPEAKER_00 13:25

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 13:26

We'll be coming to that later.

SPEAKER_00 13:28

Okay, thank you. Thanks for uh actually not enduring me.

SPEAKER_03 13:32

Yes, thank you. I gave the impression, didn't I?

SPEAKER_00 13:34

No, it's crap, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:36

What?

SPEAKER_00 13:37

Your impression's not very good.

SPEAKER_03 13:39

I say my John Snorr.

SPEAKER_00 13:41

Yeah. So much better.

SPEAKER_03 13:43

John Snorr.

SPEAKER_00 13:44

See?

SPEAKER_03 13:45

Okay. Okay, yeah, sorry, good. It's like he's in the room.

SPEAKER_00 13:47

Exactly, yeah. Of course it is.

SPEAKER_03 13:50

However, he says, returning to what we're supposed to be talking about, it wasn't long before Ye was on his way again.

SPEAKER_00 13:57

God, bloody hell boy's got around to us, isn't he?

SPEAKER_03 14:00

I was gonna say isn't like ping pong, but I don't know what it was saying that.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

No, so very much.

SPEAKER_03 14:04

Seemed a bit racist. However, it wasn't long before Ye was on his way again, Neil. This time to his own command on the Tumen River. Tango Uniform Mother Echo November.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

Yeah. River. Tumen, so you like, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 14:20

Moving on very quickly, right in the heart of the most unsettled region which had been subject to bloodthirsty raids from the Jurchen territory to the north of Korea.

SPEAKER_00 14:31

Mm.

SPEAKER_03 14:32

Again, I don't know whether that's Jurchen or Yurchin.

SPEAKER_00 14:35

Which is easy to say.

SPEAKER_03 14:36

Well let the listener decide.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

Yeah. They can decide their own bit, can't they?

SPEAKER_03 14:41

Once again, Yi drilled his men and turned them into lean, mean fighting machines.

SPEAKER_00 14:46

He likes drilling men, doesn't he?

SPEAKER_03 14:47

He does like drilling men into lean, mean fighting machines.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

Hmm.

SPEAKER_03 14:51

I mean you know about that, though, because you are a lean mean fighting machine, aren't you?

SPEAKER_00 14:55

Of course I am.

SPEAKER_03 14:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

I'm a coiled spring.

SPEAKER_03 14:58

Coiled spring, ready to go any second.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

Yeah. I'm always on alert. People don't realise it.

SPEAKER_03 15:04

What would happen if the jerchins yurchins ventured south into your garden?

SPEAKER_00 15:10

Into my garden, I'd kick the ball back. Actually, I'd pop it and not let them have it.

SPEAKER_03 15:14

Oh sorry, they'd kick their ball over first with your little uh imaginary invasion.

SPEAKER_02 15:18

Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:19

Alright, okay. The next time the yurchins jurchins ventured south with the E, he kicked their ass so badly they didn't come back. So it's almost the same as you kicking their ball.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

Yeah. Well I wouldn't kick the ball back, I'd just pop it in front of them. And then just stood like a mic drop into the bin and slowed in the lid down.

SPEAKER_03 15:39

The whole army popped their football. His next post was an undermanned crumbling and small iron fortress. And guess what he did there now?

SPEAKER_00 15:49

I would say he drilled some men and turned it around, and then after an inspection he turned it into a tip top place.

SPEAKER_03 15:56

He got the old drill out again, restored the fortress and trained his men while constantly writing to his commander to request reinforcements that never came. So you're almost right. Otherwise you were pretty much there, I think.

SPEAKER_00 16:15

Writing letters.

SPEAKER_03 16:16

Yes. He wrote letters to request reinforcements that never came.

SPEAKER_00 16:21

Ah. Then one day So his Johnson members and never came.

SPEAKER_03 16:26

Was that smut?

SPEAKER_00 16:27

No.

SPEAKER_03 16:28

No. One day, Dale, one bright sunny day, one happy day, oh happy day.

SPEAKER_02 16:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:36

While most of his troops were out harvesting rice, because the army couldn't be asked to supply food, so had to go and get it themselves.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:45

The fortress was attacked. No. With just twelve men, Yi fought like a demon, hacking his way through the attackers and reaching fifty of their captives, whom he freed and then escaped with. Then what happened?

SPEAKER_00 17:05

I imagine he went to join the Ji Ju Chanjam thingies, people.

SPEAKER_03 17:09

The commander, a man called Ye, the very man Yi Sun-Sin had been writing to request more troops from.

SPEAKER_00 17:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:19

Only went and blamed the whole thing on Yi Sun Sin and accused him of desertion in battle. Also he could avoid the blame. Swein.

SPEAKER_00 17:31

Yes, another dirty pig. Swein. That's German.

SPEAKER_02 17:36

Sweinhunt. Pardon? Sweinhunt. Isn't that what I want to say? Don't know. Not in Korea, they do. Didn't they not? Was that not Korean? No.

SPEAKER_03 17:46

How would I say that in Korean?

SPEAKER_02 17:48

Yeah. He says carefully.

SPEAKER_03 17:51

How do you say that in Korean, Neil?

SPEAKER_00 17:54

I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 17:57

Oh, I thought you were multilingual and all that.

SPEAKER_00 17:59

I am multilingual. Doesn't mean to say I know every language. I know the majority of them, but I don't know Korean.

SPEAKER_03 18:04

Is that because we don't want to tread onto what may be called a racist territory?

SPEAKER_00 18:09

That's correct, yes.

SPEAKER_03 18:10

Right. Well, that's a very wise decision, Neil.

SPEAKER_00 18:13

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 18:14

I'll done.

SPEAKER_00 18:15

You're very welcome.

SPEAKER_03 18:17

Let's go back to our uh not uh not our friend, we don't like him.

unknown 18:21

No.

SPEAKER_03 18:22

Yeel.

SPEAKER_00 18:24

Don't like him.

SPEAKER_03 18:26

Yeah had Yi Sun Singh dragged back to Seoul. Where he was tortured for a confession that never came and then put on trial. But during the trial, ye turned the tables and said that the commander knew of the shortage of men because he was constantly requesting them.

SPEAKER_00 18:49

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_03 18:51

Yeah had ignored every request, and so the blame lies with him.

SPEAKER_00 18:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:57

The court believed Ye Sun Sin and he was allowed to live. Which was nice, wasn't it? Yeah. You can carry on living, mate.

SPEAKER_00 19:07

Yeah, I'll gonna allow you to live. Well that's very kind of you, thank you.

SPEAKER_03 19:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:11

What's what was the other alternative on that then?

SPEAKER_03 19:14

Uh not living.

SPEAKER_00 19:15

Oh, okay. Fair enough.

SPEAKER_03 19:17

Uh he was allowed to live.

SPEAKER_00 19:18

That's good.

SPEAKER_03 19:20

However. He lost his rank again. No. And this time was demoted right down to the lowest of the lowest ranks among the common soldiers.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

Oh.

SPEAKER_03 19:32

He was packed up to the north yet again.

SPEAKER_00 19:35

Oh the north.

SPEAKER_03 19:37

Found himself in battle yet again.

SPEAKER_00 19:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:41

And was recognized for fighting with distinction yet again.

SPEAKER_00 19:46

Nice.

SPEAKER_03 19:48

In fifteen eighty-eight, Yi, now age forty-three, asked to retire from the military.

SPEAKER_00 19:56

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 19:57

But his request was denied. As it happens, little Ry Yu Sun Yu Yong, who is his mate, that used to ride around on his hobby horse with, shoot people in the eye as the with their bows and arrows.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

Oh right, yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:12

Remember him?

SPEAKER_00 20:13

Yeah, I do remember him, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:14

He'd also grown up. He'd grown up to be the Prime Minister of Korea.

SPEAKER_00 20:25

Ooh.

SPEAKER_03 20:26

Ooh.

SPEAKER_00 20:27

Amazing how you can always grow up at the same time, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 20:30

Weird, isn't it? Get him. So he was now the Prime Minister of Korea and he had Yi's back for quite a while.

SPEAKER_00 20:37

Why?

SPEAKER_03 20:37

Clearing his name, saving him from execution. So when you said earlier in our conversation, how come he got reinstated?

SPEAKER_00 20:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 20:46

That was why. His friend, Ry Yu-Sun Nuev, the archer. Prime Minister was pulling strings behind the scenes. Oh, save his ass. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:59

Oh. So what if our one of our childhood friends would be a um the Prime Minister at some point?

SPEAKER_03 21:09

No.

SPEAKER_00 21:10

Yeah, I wouldn't think so either.

SPEAKER_03 21:12

Because we grew up in the Fens with a bunch of thickoes. So I don't think any of them will grow up to be Prime Minister, would they?

SPEAKER_00 21:18

No, I doubt it.

SPEAKER_03 21:19

They've probably done it by now if they're gonna do it.

SPEAKER_00 21:22

Yeah, it's true. Anyway, I died crest.

SPEAKER_02 21:26

Oh, have you?

SPEAKER_00 21:27

Hmm. What colour? Uh bright yellow this morning.

SPEAKER_03 21:30

Bright yellow crest?

SPEAKER_00 21:31

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:32

Alright, are you proud of it?

SPEAKER_00 21:33

Yeah, I'm very proud of it, thank you.

SPEAKER_03 21:35

You haven't eaten a sandwich?

SPEAKER_00 21:36

No, I'm just gonna look at it.

SPEAKER_03 21:38

It's best why, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 21:39

Hmm. Run my fingers through it.

SPEAKER_03 21:42

Run my fingers through my crest.

SPEAKER_00 21:44

Yeah. Picture myself in a big field full of it and I run slowly through it with a slight pair of tight underpants on. That's the vision I have in my head anyway.

SPEAKER_03 21:53

Can you run and run your fingers through your crest?

SPEAKER_00 21:57

No, you don't run, you don't sprint. You're not a full out sprint. He just a little dainty jog.

SPEAKER_03 22:02

Well, Cress is quite low to the floor, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 22:05

No, I've got them in in uh grow boxes.

SPEAKER_03 22:08

In troughs?

SPEAKER_00 22:09

Yes, that's it.

SPEAKER_03 22:10

Crest troughs.

SPEAKER_00 22:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:12

Oh and do you dye every trough the same colour?

SPEAKER_00 22:15

No, different colours for different moods.

SPEAKER_03 22:18

Hope you're still with us, listener, on today's gardening question time.

SPEAKER_00 22:22

I should have said it as mood crest.

SPEAKER_03 22:23

But now, anyway, returning to today's story. Ry Yu needed help and he knew that Yi was the only man who could supply it.

SPEAKER_02 22:36

He trusted Yi.

SPEAKER_03 22:38

Well we'll recap.

SPEAKER_00 22:39

Previously, on Honorable Major.

SPEAKER_03 22:43

Little Ry Yu Sun New Yong had grown up to be the Prime Minister of Korea and had Yi's back for quite a while, clearing his name, saving him from execution. But now Ry Yu needed help and he knew that Yi was the only man who could supply it. Japan had just come out of a hundred year civil war and emerged from it as a hardened, unified, formidable fighting force.

SPEAKER_00 23:10

Ow. How long did that go on for?

SPEAKER_03 23:12

The hundred years' civil war.

SPEAKER_00 23:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:15

Um I think it was like five, six years, something like that.

SPEAKER_00 23:18

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_03 23:18

They don't really say, do they?

SPEAKER_00 23:20

No, they should do.

SPEAKER_03 23:21

No, that should be a bit more clear. Korea, on the other hand, had experienced two hundred years of relative peace.

SPEAKER_00 23:28

Yeah, maybe you're saying that.

SPEAKER_03 23:30

So I think that means there's there's something like 30 years there, difference. Isn't it right?

SPEAKER_00 23:35

Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah, right about that, I would have thought so. Japan, have you heard of Japan? No, I've heard of Japan, yeah, Yapah.

SPEAKER_03 23:42

Japan had handheld weapons that we'd recognise today as being guns.

SPEAKER_00 23:49

Right.

SPEAKER_03 23:50

I don't mean your guns, like you take out when the sun's out. Yeah, I mean military weapons.

SPEAKER_00 23:57

Military uh weapons. Yes, guns. AK-47s.

SPEAKER_03 24:02

No, I'm thinking that'd be more like your Flintlock pistols.

SPEAKER_00 24:04

Smith and Westerns.

SPEAKER_03 24:05

And your muskets.

SPEAKER_00 24:07

Not your magnum 44 magnum.

SPEAKER_03 24:09

No.

SPEAKER_00 24:10

Those purple handguns.

SPEAKER_03 24:12

They also had a set of tried and tested military tactics that had developed over the past hundred years. Korea.

SPEAKER_00 24:19

I like them, I like the mint ones.

SPEAKER_03 24:20

You're thinking of tic-tacks?

SPEAKER_00 24:22

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:24

Or lemon chair, but dip dub.

SPEAKER_00 24:26

No, it's tic-tac, I got it wrong. Tic-tacks. Hmm.

SPEAKER_03 24:29

Koreanil, by contrast, had some ramshackle thoughts, a few bows and arrows, and an amateurish attitude.

SPEAKER_00 24:37

Hmm. Well, there's not been a war for a while, have they? You know what they need? Yeah, they need some spunk from Kim Jong what's his face.

SPEAKER_03 24:46

I'm glad you're listening. Japan saw Korea as a soft touch and wanted to invade to give them better access through to China. Their big prize.

SPEAKER_00 24:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:58

If they had been some sort of quiz or game show where they could have won China, they wouldn't have us go to all this hassle, wouldn't they?

SPEAKER_00 25:04

No doubt it, unless it was sale of the century or something. 321.

SPEAKER_03 25:07

The strawberries were three two one. They could have tried to win China, but only come away with a bin, couldn't they? It would have looked a bit embarrassing coming back home with just a bin. But although the Japanese may be an intimidating military mite on land, their navy was lacking.

SPEAKER_00 25:25

What they'd done to his ships.

SPEAKER_03 25:27

Whereas Korea had cannon, and in Ryu's opinion, the man to whip their naval defences into shape pretty damn sharpish.

SPEAKER_00 25:36

Yeah, it's he'll go and drill them men. Who was this? Um your mate there. What's his face? Young Sing, that's him. Oh I'm getting confused all the names, so I'm getting there.

SPEAKER_03 25:47

Yi Sun-Sin was rapidly progressed through the ranks, becoming naval commander for Southwestern Korea in 1591.

SPEAKER_00 25:57

1591.

SPEAKER_03 25:58

Guess what he started doing, Neil?

SPEAKER_00 26:00

I smuddenly started drilling some men.

SPEAKER_03 26:04

Brother had more drill than Chief Keefe, feel me?

SPEAKER_00 26:08

I feel you. Well, don't feel ya, it's disgusting, but yeah, I get what you're saying.

SPEAKER_03 26:13

He also helped create infamous turtle ships.

SPEAKER_00 26:17

Oh, the turtle ships.

SPEAKER_03 26:19

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 26:19

Leonardo and all them ones.

SPEAKER_03 26:21

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 26:22

Yeah, cool.

SPEAKER_03 26:23

Yeah, the ninja turtle ships.

SPEAKER_00 26:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:27

The world's first ironclad ships.

SPEAKER_00 26:29

Ironclad.

SPEAKER_03 26:30

The world's first ironclad ships. With their vicious spiked roofs over the decks to keep out enemy boarding parties and dragon heads at their prow. Which could be used as cannons, flamethrowers, or to emit plumes of noxious gas.

SPEAKER_01 26:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:50

A bit like your ass.

SPEAKER_00 26:52

Hmm, thank you.

SPEAKER_03 26:54

But before the turtle ships could be built and tested, the Japanese only went and arrived.

SPEAKER_00 27:00

Oh, did they? They came too early.

SPEAKER_03 27:02

A few of their ships were spotted on the horizon.

SPEAKER_00 27:06

The horizon?

SPEAKER_03 27:07

But never mind, because a Korean commander called Won Kion.

SPEAKER_00 27:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:12

Won Kion Kion had seen them early and refused to believe it was anything but a trade mission. Then the few he saw became hundreds. But Won Kion was still chill.

SPEAKER_00 27:28

Was he?

SPEAKER_03 27:29

And told everyone it was just a diplomatic mission from Alderan.

SPEAKER_00 27:33

Diplomatic Mundi.

SPEAKER_03 27:36

Eventually, over three hundred Japanese warships packed full of bloodthirsty and eager warriors landed unchallenged in Busan.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

They must have counted them then, mustn't they? So some force I'll just sit there and count them.

SPEAKER_03 28:01

So they knew they had so many. And then they'd do that again with the next one. Within a month, they'd smash 200 miles in land to Seoul. But we got Seoul.

SPEAKER_00 28:13

Yeah. That's what I saw they said when they got it. We got Seul.

SPEAKER_03 28:17

A message went out to Yi Sun Sin.

SPEAKER_00 28:20

Oh, but he wasn't happy about it, was he? When he said it was no good for me, I can't bring my ships in land, can I?

SPEAKER_03 28:25

Oh, well, herein lies the story, Neil. The message went out to Yi Sun-sin, who rallied every one of the twenty-four Korean ships under his command. Bear in mind that the Japanese went over three hundred ships.

SPEAKER_00 28:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:41

He had twenty-four of them.

SPEAKER_00 28:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:43

Good on ye.

SPEAKER_00 28:45

Yes, of it.

SPEAKER_03 28:46

He wrote to other fleets with instructions to rendezvous with him at sea.

SPEAKER_00 28:50

Just to lunch.

SPEAKER_03 28:51

If he borrowed a mobile phone off somebody.

SPEAKER_00 28:54

Yeah, yeah, could it save him a long time, wouldn't it?

SPEAKER_03 28:56

A cell phone, as I say in America. Yeah, so yeah, it'd been much better than writing all these letters, wouldn't he?

SPEAKER_00 29:00

I suppose, yeah. But I suppose if they got a fast pigeon now, he could have been alright. Someone could have stopped that pigeon. Ow.

SPEAKER_03 29:06

Not if it's armored. How would armoured pigeons take off? Ninja Pigeons. Take a note and we'll write to the Home Secretary after this. Yeah. Dear Home Secretary, idea for the War Department.

SPEAKER_01 29:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:20

Ninja Pigeons. Yours, honourable mentions. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:24

Despite never having commanded a naval battle before, Ye told them he had a plan.

SPEAKER_00 29:33

Yeah, but he must have played battleships. I think that's what his he was doing. That's what his plan was, yeah. He was playing battleships. He's going B4 and they were gonna hit. Right. We'll put that down, put that down, the plant.

SPEAKER_03 29:44

When the Japanese were away chopping, stabbing, and pillaging their way through the local area, Yi and his now massive fleet of forty-five ships.

SPEAKER_00 29:53

That bloke in the darts could have done that.

SPEAKER_03 29:55

Forty-five attacked their poorly defended ships in the harbour, scuttling twenty-six Japanese boats to the bottom of the sea.

SPEAKER_00 30:05

How do you scuttle a ship, please?

SPEAKER_03 30:07

You sink it.

SPEAKER_00 30:08

Well, okay, sinked twenty-some odd ships, isn't you really?

SPEAKER_03 30:13

Well, it's not sinked, is it? It'll be sunk is the first dance.

SPEAKER_00 30:17

Alright, sunk then. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 30:19

Sunk.

SPEAKER_00 30:20

King's English.

SPEAKER_03 30:23

In a few short days, ye had gone I thought you said you couldn't speak Korean.

SPEAKER_00 30:28

I can't speak Korean.

SPEAKER_03 30:30

What was that word you just used?

SPEAKER_00 30:31

I said crevice.

SPEAKER_02 30:33

Yeah, which means you. Oh. So alright, okay. So yeah what would that mean then?

SPEAKER_00 30:42

Ye means um hello.

SPEAKER_02 30:44

Yu means crevice. Ye means sluice. Sleuse. Yeah. Sleuce crevice.

SPEAKER_03 30:52

Yeah. Okay. Ye had gone on to sink a total of forty-three Japanese ships and lost go on. None.

SPEAKER_00 31:03

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 31:04

Said this at the outset, it shouldn't be a surprise.

SPEAKER_00 31:06

Well, it wasn't a surprise, but I was trying to add a bit of um Oh, okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:11

A bit of Shakespearean heft.

SPEAKER_00 31:13

That's it.

SPEAKER_03 31:14

His reputation exploded, so Japanese sailors would abandon ship and flee on land rather than fighting. And he was swiftly promoted to general command of the Southern Navy.

SPEAKER_00 31:28

Not the whole Navy, just the Southern Navy. Just the Southern Navy.

SPEAKER_03 31:32

But while this was happening, Ye Il Do you remember him? Yeah was the man who accused Ye Sun Sin of desertion.

SPEAKER_00 31:43

Alright, thank you.

SPEAKER_03 31:43

When he battled his way to that clarity. Yes. So this is him. We don't like him.

SPEAKER_00 31:49

No, I don't like him. I think you called him something, didn't you?

SPEAKER_03 31:52

Yes, but Ye il say.

SPEAKER_02 31:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:58

He was commander of the Korean army.

SPEAKER_00 32:02

Oh.

SPEAKER_03 32:03

And having his jolly pants pulled down wherever he ran into the Japanese, so much so that the king fled Seoul for his own safety.

SPEAKER_02 32:13

Ooh.

SPEAKER_03 32:14

So not only do we not like Yi Il, he was a bit crap as well.

SPEAKER_00 32:18

He was a bit shy at his job, wasn't he?

SPEAKER_03 32:20

Yes. Yi Sun Sin received information that Japanese ships had gathered in the port of Sachun.

SPEAKER_00 32:27

Sachun?

SPEAKER_03 32:28

Sachun. And so Yi, now armed with his ironclad turtle ship.

SPEAKER_00 32:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:36

Swore to drive them off. But when he arrived, they were ready for him.

SPEAKER_00 32:41

Were they? Well I think they were, because they were in battle mode, weren't they? They're in battle mode, yes. They wouldn't be sat on the deck having a cup of tea.

SPEAKER_03 32:47

The Japanese had taken positions along the cliff edge. What sort of positions? Some of them were doing the downward dog.

SPEAKER_02 32:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:54

Some of them were just laying there with their legs in the air.

SPEAKER_00 32:56

Yeah. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 32:58

Those sort of positions.

SPEAKER_00 32:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:00

Yeah?

SPEAKER_00 33:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:01

The Japanese are taking positions along the cliff edge.

SPEAKER_00 33:04

Yeah. Oh front. Very good. That was a good impression.

SPEAKER_03 33:08

The Frichard. The Japanese are taking positions along the cliff edge. We've done this.

SPEAKER_02 33:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:14

And if ye sail close enough to raid the anchored vessels that open fire and devastate his flint.

SPEAKER_00 33:23

Which is good planning.

SPEAKER_03 33:26

From the Japanese side of things.

SPEAKER_00 33:28

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:28

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:32

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

unknown 33:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:34

What would you do now, please?

SPEAKER_00 33:35

I would s so I would go to within range of my um cannons and sit back and then just blow them up. Or I'd electrocute the water.

SPEAKER_03 33:48

Electrocute the water that you're in in an armclad ship.

SPEAKER_00 33:52

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 33:54

Interesting. Okay. This is what I've got to do. On your armclad ship in electrified water.

SPEAKER_02 34:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:02

Okay. This is what actually happened in in your histories. He sent a couple of small ships sailing towards the Japanese fleet. As soon as the Koreans could be certain the Japanese had spotted these two small ships, they turned and hurried back out to open water, chased all the way by the Japanese warships from Sachin Harbour.

SPEAKER_00 34:27

By all of them.

SPEAKER_03 34:29

By the majority of them, yes. Out in open water, Yi unleashed the full might of his fleet and sailed his turtleship close enough to tempt the Japanese crews to try and board. All thirteen Japanese warships were sunk. And once again, not one Korean vessel was lost. Well, these were part of that thirteen Japanese warships that were sunk.

SPEAKER_00 34:59

Alright.

SPEAKER_03 35:02

It's a good question though.

SPEAKER_00 35:04

Thank you. I like the way I put it as well.

SPEAKER_03 35:06

Yeah, I did. I thought it was rather good. After the battle near, so this is not during or before, but afterwards. Ye pulled out a knife.

SPEAKER_00 35:16

Mm, okay.

SPEAKER_03 35:17

To the astonishment of his men, he plunged it deep into his own shoulder. What? Where he dislodged a bullet taken early in the fight, but didn't want anyone to know in case it affected morale.

SPEAKER_00 35:34

I think it'll scare me a bit more just in some blood gun, well, I've got it, boss, shot in the knife in the shoulder.

SPEAKER_03 35:41

Boss mode.

SPEAKER_00 35:42

That's what they call that, don't they? Well they do it in films, don't they? They do it in films. I mean Patrick Swayze got stitched up a few times in Roadhouse.

SPEAKER_03 35:50

Yeah, I mean Arnold Schwartz thinker does that all the time, doesn't he? In films as well, when a bomb goes off, if you dive away from it, you're Yeah yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:58

Well if you run, I think, if you run directly towards someone who's filming it. Yeah, seem to be safe. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:03

Yeah. Yeah, apparently you're absolutely fine. And you can be shot in the leg in a film as well, just limp a little bit. And the following following day, you'd be perfectly okay.

SPEAKER_00 36:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:15

In another battle, one of Yi's men fired an arrow, rather detailed, his accounts, aren't they, these battles?

SPEAKER_00 36:20

Yeah, very good. Yeah, he fired an arrow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:23

In another battle, one of Yi's men only went and fired an arrow, which killed the Japanese, his admiral.

SPEAKER_00 36:28

Good shot.

SPEAKER_03 36:28

In a flash, the Koreans were on board where they beheaded their enemy and held his head aloft.

SPEAKER_00 36:36

Right.

SPEAKER_03 36:37

He's already dead though, wouldn't he?

SPEAKER_00 36:38

So is that why it's called that in a house? What's that? A loft.

SPEAKER_03 36:42

Yes. Because yeah. If you we have ceilings then.

SPEAKER_00 36:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:46

So yeah, if you you you chop someone's head off, you held it up in the air.

SPEAKER_00 36:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:50

And you held it aloft. So it went up where the loft space would be now there.

SPEAKER_00 36:55

Okay. Yeah. Fair enough.

SPEAKER_03 36:56

Okay, is that is that okay?

SPEAKER_00 36:58

That's clarified everything, thank you.

SPEAKER_03 37:00

Okay. In the confusion and panic, Yi's turtleship was able to rain cannon fire from all sides, wiping out the Japanese, and again without a single Korean loss. The Japanese forces would have been led by a man called Toyotaumi Hideyoshi.

SPEAKER_02 37:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:19

Himself a military genius who had united Japan after two centuries of civil war. We discussed this.

SPEAKER_00 37:27

Yeah, well you said two centuries this time, before it was a hundred year war.

SPEAKER_03 37:30

Two? Oh yeah. Hundred year war, two centuries of civil war. Who knows what's going on? It's just confusion. It's a bloody mess, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 37:39

Who cares really? But it just goes, it was a war for a long time.

SPEAKER_03 37:42

Oh, hang on. It says he had united Japan after two centuries of civil war and feudalism.

SPEAKER_00 37:49

Uh perhaps there was a hundred year war. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:56

At least on land, he was sweeping aside all Korean resistance. The court and king had retreated to the very borders. The only province Hideyoshi had not conquered was Chola.

SPEAKER_00 38:11

Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_03 38:12

Where Yi Sun-sen was based. Not getting in there, is it? The same Yi Sun-Sing that was routing his ships in battle and without control of the sea, Japan had no way of resupplying their men.

SPEAKER_00 38:29

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 38:30

Hideoshi gave the order that Yi was to be destroyed at all costs. At all costs? At all costs. Destroy that Yi Sun Sin, he said.

SPEAKER_00 38:43

Yeah. In fact, shy's no money's no object. Yeah, do it, go on.

SPEAKER_03 38:50

How should it what would you expect this to be commandly or Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_00 38:55

So quite uh angrily commandy sort of person. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 39:01

Destroy him at all costs, men. Hmm.

SPEAKER_00 39:08

Bit more anger. Anger but slightly frustrated.

SPEAKER_03 39:13

I say, Ben, would you mind destroying him, Warfully?

SPEAKER_00 39:15

That's brilliant, that's better.

SPEAKER_03 39:17

Is that better?

SPEAKER_00 39:18

Yeah, yeah, that gets him right across, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_03 39:20

Thank you. Well, guess what, listener? For the first time in the history of Honourable Le Monschans, we're gonna leave it there. Because this is a two-parter.

SPEAKER_00 39:33

This is a double ender.

SPEAKER_03 39:35

A double ender. We'll be back again next week with the second half of the story of Ye Sun Sin, if you can wait that long. Please do join us because it gets better and better and better as it goes. So join us next week for our Honorable Mentions. And we'll see you soon. Bye. Aye.

SPEAKER_04 39:58

Lord Admiral Serdame Horatio Nelson's column reporting for duty. The greatest naval hero of all time, even if I say so myself. Now, it has been brought to my attention that a couple of weeks have been putting it about on something called a podcast that I was bested as a seafaring commander by a bally foreign chappy of all things. Honourable mentions they call themselves. Hilarious history, apparently. I don't know about you, but I expect they'll get round to the funny part one day. This fellow they're so keen on, ye sunsin, is his name. Never heard of the blighter. Does he have his own column in Trafalgar Square? No. Didn't think so. Please join me in writing in to complain at honorable mentionspod at gmail.com. Or by contacting Stephen Neil on Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, all that stuff. I mean they reckon that it's all been researched by Stephen Webb. I've only got one eye, and even I can see right through that one. Is though an Uncover Brothers production. And the theme music is both written and performed by Pepe and the bandits. I always refuse to be piped aboard by anybody else. But finally, as one last request from an old British war hero before I have to go back to being shat on by pigeons and staring down your top, please subscribe to Honourable Mentions to be notified when the chaps have a new episode for your do I have to say that bit? Because it's obviously not true. Okay. I'll read it for your enjoyment. It says here, and you won't miss the second exciting episode of the naval career of Yi Sun Sin, the greatest admiral in history. Like to see him do it with just one arm, thinking he's Billy Big Bollocks. You know, I get Vertigo up there as well, don't you? Let's see him try that.