Urgent Report on the Exchange with the Ming, and Paying Respects馳。啓見唐人問答緣由因奔問。起居狀

On the night of the twelfth of this month eight Ming men who had followed after came hastening from Pyeongyang to Sukcheon, and on the thirteenth set out for Uiju. Your servant called one Ming military officer (摠騎) and asked him the state of the enemy's soldiers, and he answered thus: 「The number of the enemy's soldiers is not great to begin with, and among them there are many soldiers set up as a feint to breed doubt, dazzling men's eyes. Those who do nothing but carry banners are all useless soldiers. If our soldiers come and gather and fall upon them under cover of night, they may be swept away at one stroke.」

Your servant answered: 「What you say is right, and right again. The Japanese at the outset never dared stand against our soldiers; only, the people have not known the business of arms for two hundred years now, so that meeting them suddenly they could not withstand them, and broke at the mere sight of the enemy's bearing, and so it has come to this pass. Now it is many days since the enemy's soldiers drew near below the walls, and within the walls the looking for rescue is urgent by the hour. I do not know on what day the Ming troops will reach this place.」

That officer answered: 「They will already have crossed the river between the tenth and the eleventh」; and he went on: 「There is no reason in itself for the relieving troops to be slow, yet the garrison commander at Uiju in various ways blocked and put off the men who came to scout, and our local officials think it very wrong」; and rolling up his sleeves and gripping his wrist he would not stop speaking. Your servant said: 「That district's officer did not know the dignity of the matter, and so this going-awry happened. The state meant to seize and examine him and weigh his guilt, but the business of arms being at its height a frontier commander cannot easily be changed, and so it means to weigh his guilt only after affairs are settled.」 At this he said, 「Why should it go so far as seizing and beating him?」 and straightway took his leave and went. Your servant heard besides that the Ming men had drawn on a sheet of paper the lie of the land at Pyeongyang and the state of the enemy's camp, and taken it with them.

Yesterday evening Im Serok (林世祿) came hastening to Anju again, leading fifteen Ming men, meaning to scout Pyeongyang once more. Only this morning did your servant see the official letter he had brought, and in it there are words about submitting the matter above for deliberation, so that it seems hard to reckon whether the troops' coming will be slow or swift. Your servant, unable to master his distress and urgency, asked Im Serok: 「It is long now since Pyeongyang met the enemy, and the commanders and officers (將官) who remain at the camp are blocking and cutting them off with all their strength. Only, the shallow fords above and below on the water are very many and the enemy's cunning devices come out in a hundred forms, so that if they should cross in secret and come round to the north of the walls, the posture would be in great peril. I do not know in how many days the Ming troops will reach this place.」 He answered: 「The scouts who went ahead have already looked over the enemy's state and gone, so the horse and foot will soon cross the river. I shall meet them at Jeongju and those parts on my way back.」 Your servant thereupon gave him comfort for the toil of his going and coming, expressed his thanks, and withdrew.

In general, watching quietly the words and the countenances of the Ming men, it is thus. At first, though they heard that our country had suffered the Japanese inroad, they did not know whether it was false or true; and afterwards, since from the southern districts to the capital the places fell one after another within ten days, they thought it very strange. Besides, while the state of things was most urgent, the making known of the calamity and the asking for troops were on the whole slow; and at Uiju, moreover, much was spent in mere words while the men who came to scout were blocked and put off, so that there was nothing of the flurried and desperate look of men running with tears of blood. Therefore, while saying they would send out troops and rescue us, they came in the end to doubt the circumstances and so to put it off in this way; and seen in the reason of things this is a thing that might well be.

The Ming men asked besides, several times over, why the king had again moved away and taken refuge. Your servant had the interpreter answer: 「The enemy's soldiers drew near the walls and the several officials asked that he go out and take refuge for a time; the commanders and officers lead the troops and urge them on in holding it, so that there is no fear of its being left slack.」 At this they said, 「We understand.」 Only, the clerks of the districts along this one road are exceedingly stubborn and have besides fled away until they are nearly all gone, so that often the food for the Ming men and the fodder for their horses cannot be furnished. The Ming men now and then let an angry colour show in their speech, and this, whether seen as the pivot of the business or as a matter of dignity, is of great gravity. Your servant has warned and held the magistrates to it and made them give their whole mind to it, but it does not yet go as he would. When hereafter the great host comes, the provisioning will take shape still harder, and your servant is the more distressed.

Again, your servant being foolish and dull, how should he know the business of arms? Only, having been some days within the walls and looked closely at the posture of the enemy's soldiers, there is much opportunity to be seized. If the relieving troops come and we join our strength and rise together, there will be no posture in which we cannot win. Even after the royal carriage (大駕) moved away, the hearts of the people were not greatly shaken and the soldiers each gave his whole strength; and this too, your servant thinks, may be Heaven's will. The soldiers who broke and scattered at the riverside and have come back, and the soldiers who have not yet come out, ought to be added in by turns, without regard to whether they be many or few.

Report has it that the people along the sea coast of Hwanghae Province too are gathering in numbers and plundering, having nowhere to be led from, and that their number is very great. Here too a separate man should be sent to call them together in haste and add them to the count of the army. Perhaps let Yi Taehyeong (李泰亨), magistrate of Haeju, be made the army commander of that province, to gather in the scattered and hold the several districts. To the several coastal districts such as Baecheon, Yeonan, Anak, Munhwa and Haeju the enemy's soldiers have not all of them come. That the court should hold the magistrates strictly to it so that they cannot flee and take refuge as before, and should lay a plan for joining forces and pursuing and cutting the enemy off when they withdraw, is likewise an urgent matter of this hour. Your servant respectfully sends the aide-de-camp Sin Gyeongjin (辛慶晉) to bear this urgent report and hasten to submit it, and herewith pays his respects.