Letter in Reply to the Mongols, Sent in the Name of the State國銜行。答蒙古書。
云云。伏蒙手敎。備認鈞候起居萬順。副吾常所禱祝。誠抃誠抃。加之俯問。耗息滋悉。不勝感荷。所諭淮安公趙大將軍褒賞之事。此人等善與大國講和結好。功勤不小。故朝廷方議行賞。況今所諭如此。敢不祇稟。其邊封每城。留置達花赤接遇之事。亦一一承命。但前來契丹漢兒等廻送事。本不多人耳。其罪早合誅夷。以子不忍之心。留置京師。因年年飢饉疾疫。物故者過半。或其中屢有逋逸者。捕送海島。亦皆飢死。唯有些小餘類。今聞大國之入境。妄意其本國兵馬。謀欲逃去依附。其辜負我豢養之恩。在所不忍。已皆誅戮。唯此不如所敎。惶恐萬萬。惟閣下恕之。言如飾也。天其鑑之。
And so forth. Respectfully receiving the instruction written in your own hand, I have learned in full that your esteemed person is altogether well. This accords with what I always pray for, and I am truly glad. Moreover, you have stooped to inquire of us, so that I now know the news in still fuller detail, and I cannot contain my gratitude.
As to the matter you mention, of granting rewards to the Duke of Hwanan (淮安公) and Grand General Jo (趙): these men did well in concluding the peace with the great state, and their merit is not small, so the court is just now deliberating upon rewards for them. How much more, now that your word comes to us thus, should we dare not to comply? As for keeping a darughachi (達花赤) stationed in each of the border fortresses and providing for them, in this too we obey your command in every particular.
Only the matter of sending back the Kitan and Han (漢) people who came to us earlier: of these there were never many to begin with. Their guilt was such that they ought long ago to have been put to the sword, but we could not bring our hearts to it, and kept them in the capital. Year after year, through failed harvests and epidemics, more than half of them died. Among them were several who ran off; these we caught and sent to an island, and they all starved to death. Only a remnant of their company was left, and now, hearing that the great state had entered our borders, they mistook it for the army of their own country and plotted to flee and attach themselves to it. This was to spurn the kindness by which we had fed and kept them, and we could not bear to let it stand, so they have already all been put to the sword.
In this one thing alone we have not done as you instructed, and our dread is beyond measure. Let Your Excellency alone forgive us. Were there any dressing up in these words, Heaven would be looking down upon it.
Interlinear notes 1
壬辰二月
It is the second month of the year imjin.