Fall of Hanyang

Twenty days after landing at Busan, the Japanese entered the capital: Konishi Yukinaga through the East Gate on the 2nd of the fifth month, Kato Kiyomasa through the South Gate on the 3rd.

Korean records say Konishi’s first division entered by Heunginmun (the East Gate) on the 2nd and Kato’s second division by Sungnyemun (the South Gate) on the 3rd, which is why the fall is dated to either day. The commander Kim Myeong-won abandoned the Han River line, and the Japanese entered without a fight.

Gyeongbokgung, Changdeokgung and Changgyeonggung had already burned. Records say angry townspeople set fire to the palaces and the office holding the slave registers after the king left; others hold that the Japanese burned them. From Hanyang the Japanese split up to push north: Konishi into Pyeongan, Kato into Hamgyeong, Kuroda Nagamasa into Hwanghae.