The Japanese leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi launched an invasion of Korea that lasted from 1592 to 1598 with the ostensible intent of conquering China. Did the Japanese have real reason to believe they could have conquered the Ming Empire, or was this too far-fetched from the start?
Even just a conquest of Korea was a large task (one that the Japanese did not manage to accomplish). Did Hideyoshi really believe that he would have been able to conquer the whole Ming Empire?