Urgent Report on Measures for the Army Grain馳。啓糧餉措置狀

The date on which the Ming army will come out is still not certainly known. The rice and beans carried to Jeongju (定州) and Anju (安州) and provided as army grain to supply this one route, taken together with what the remaining districts have, make up barely a day or two's provision for some ten thousand troops and horses. Should the Ming troops come out in great number, tens of thousands, there is bound to be the worry of falling short. Only, the autumn grain is now just ripening, and if it be gathered little by little it seems matters will not come to the point where supply cannot be kept up.

Only when the enemy at Pyongyang have been swiftly swept away and put down can we beat the drum and advance to drive them out south of Hwanghae Province. By report, more than half the enemy troops have gone back, and there are no troops staying at Hwangju (黃州) and those parts either. Yet only of late the Japanese enemy burn and sweep out the villages day by day near Sunan (順安) and about Yeongyu (永柔). The enemy's designs are hard to fathom, and it is cause for no little concern.

Yet this enemy, an isolated force come deep in, have already passed many months and scatter abroad to plunder, so that their spirit too has grown old. Truly, if troops were led out, ambushes set in place after place, and the openings taken for surprise attacks, their strength would decline of itself. Yet the generals and magistrates everywhere alike shrink in fear and dare not advance, so that the brigands still left work their harsh harm (害毒) as they please and the people are sunk in misery; which is truly grievous.

Now the autumn wind rises higher and higher, the strength of the bow is at its height, and the horses' legs are sturdy as well. Day by day we look for the Ming army to come, hoping to see the promised day of sweeping them away and putting them down.