Siege of Ulsan

Also called: Siege of Dosan

Over 50,000 Joseon and Ming troops besieged the castle Kato Kiyomasa was building at Ulsan. The garrison ran out of food and water, but the allies withdrew when a Japanese relief force arrived.

In the twelfth month of 1597 the allied army under Yang Hao, Ma Gui and Gwon Yul attacked the Japanese-style castle being built on Dosan hill at Ulsan. It was still unfinished, and Kato Kiyomasa rushed in to hold it. Through more than ten days of siege from the 22nd, the defenders ran out of water and are said to have drunk the blood of their horses and chewed paper.

But the allies suffered from the winter cold and rain and could not take the walls. When a Japanese relief force under Mori Hidemoto and others approached early in the first month of 1598, they withdrew with heavy losses. A second allied attack on Ulsan in the ninth month also failed.