Urgent Report on Ordering the Generals to Cut the Enemy Off, Word of the Ming Army, and Requesting That Arms Be Shipped馳。啓分付諸將乘機邀截事及往探唐兵消息請輸送軍器狀

Your servant earlier truly suspected that when the appointed day drew near the enemy would surely gather their cruel host in numbers and work some design of harshness. Presently Kim Gyeongno (金敬老), Defense Commander of Hwanghae, reported in haste: "On the fifteenth day the Japanese enemy entered Bongsan (鳳山) in great number, and there are signs of their turning westward."

At the first Brigade Commander Shen (沈遊擊) set the term at fifty days, and reckoning from the first day of the ninth month only eleven now remain. Even supposing the Ming army does arrive within the term, if the enemy host be already many it seems they will be hard to strike down. Still more when all is yet in the dark, and the Ming men who come and go differ in their word from man to man so that they cannot be trusted. From of old those who reckon far ahead are few and those who would be at ease for a while are many; how should there be none even among the Chinese who, over agreement and disagreement in counsel, drag at this and hold it back? The case today is cause for the utmost concern.

It happened that Yi Wonik (李元翼), the Patrol Commissioner, had come to Anju (安州) to consult on affairs, so your servant consulted with him, and at once gave notice to Yi Il (李鎰), the Defense Commander, to the magistrates of Sangwon (祥原) and Junghwa (中和), and to the Defense Commanders of the left and right of Hwanghae, to meet and cut the road by which the enemy come, or, when they are crossing the Daedong River, to take them half across, bite at and strike their rear and drive them into the midst of the river. He also had Kim Eokchu (金億秋), the naval commander, watch outside the Daedong Gate along the waterway and, taking an opening, join strength and strike. Only, he fears that if the enemy's force be near at hand, the several generals who lie scattered will find it hard to meet and strike them in time. And he fears that if, after the fifty days, the enemy troops being already many, they cry out that faith has been broken and raise their host and come down westward, it will be hard to foretell whether our edge be keen or blunt.

What your servant further fears is this: since the enemy entered our borders they have leaned wholly on our country's army grain. Now, because of the provisioning (調度) for the Ming army, the grain of the several districts has been gathered and stored along one route, while the grain in the fields has not all been brought in. Should there be some unlooked-for trouble, with what shall it then be set right? In general, if this enemy be not swept away this winter, your servant fears that by next spring our means will be the more exhausted and the soldiers worn out, so that there will be no promised day of recovery. Your servant has never been without a broken heart and a beaten breast, and tears of blood following after.

Your servant has humbly sent one of his officers to ride and look into news of the Ming army. Let the court in haste find out whether their coming be slow or swift, and tell it secretly to the host, that the chance of meeting them may not be lost.

Again, the one matter of the arrows being spent is the more pressing trouble of today. Your servant earlier sent a man apart and reported, asking that arrow shafts be brought from the three lower provinces, but he does not know whether they have arrived. Let the office concerned be made to take measures in haste and send them out. The jincheollae (震天雷), the heaven-shaking bomb, is of the first importance for use in battle, yet those stored in the several districts have all lost their proper form, and there are no wangu (碗口) mortars besides, so that they cannot be used. Let the ten and more kept at Uiju (義州), Insan (麟山) and those parts be sent out together with the mortars, by night as by day, and let gunpowder too be shipped according to the count.