Report That the Enemy from the Capital Has Reinforced Pyongyang京城之賊添到平壤狀

In the urgent report of Yi Il (李鎰), Defense Commander of the Left, the men Eonyang (彥陽) and others, who had been taken captive in a former engagement and escaped back, said: "Of the enemy staying within the walls there are seven camps that have raised a great banner and nineteen camps without a banner; and on the evening of the recent downpour one more camp came from the capital, so that with the former ones the camps of the great banner are now eight. A camp without a banner has at most no more than fifty men, and some barely twenty-odd; a camp of the great banner is at the least not below three or four hundred, and the large ones are beyond all counting, and each camp has forty banners."

Last night a man of Suan (遂安) in Hwanghae Province, carrying a report, passed this place and said: "At Anseong (安城), Yongcheon (龍泉) and those parts along the one route of Hwanghae, the enemy come down from the capital have of late filled the place in great number, and there are signs of their turning westward."

Your servant earlier reported the enemy's strength in outline from Sunan (順安), and asked that it be found out in haste whether the Ming army's coming be slow or swift, and told secretly to the host. At the first the general Shen set the term at fifty days, and reckoning from the first day of the ninth month only one now remains. Even supposing the Ming army does arrive within the term, if the enemy host be already many it seems it will cost labour to strike them 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 then should there be none even among the Chinese who, over agreement and disagreement in counsel, drag at this and hold it back? Indeed it is not to be known whether even the intent of Shen Weijing (沈惟敬) will surely be carried out. If after the fifty days the enemy say that faith has been broken and raise their host and come westward, who then will hold them off? And though the Ming army come, your servant fears it will already be too late.

Again, since the enemy entered our borders they have leaned wholly on our country's army grain. Now, because of the provisioning for the Ming army, the people's grain has been gathered beforehand and all stored along one route; so should there be some unlooked-for trouble, with what shall it then be set right? Your servant, worrying alone and reckoning overmuch, is pressed and urgent beyond measure and does not know what to do.

As for bows and arrows, your servant has reported several times and has even asked that arrow shafts be shipped from the three lower provinces. Now the several camps in the several places are all but spent, and barely a few hundred bundles remain, not enough even for a single day's use. Though there were a million troops, they would stand with their hands thrust in and nothing to do. The matter grows more perilous and pressing; let the court take measures in haste in every matter, that there be no regret that cannot be overtaken.