Report on Dividing the Routes for the Ming Advance on Pyongyang天兵進取平壤分道便宜狀

In the report of Yun Seunghun (尹承勳), Provisions Administrator, it was said thus and so. Of the dispatch (關字) in which the Border Defense Council divided the routes, your servant too has heard nothing.

Reckoning closely on this basis: if the Ming army does mean to divide its routes and strike Pyongyang, it should go from Anju (安州) and Sukcheon (肅川) by way of Jasan (慈山) and Gangdong (江東) and come out east of the Daedong River, while the main force rides straight for Sunan (順安); only so can the posture of gigak (掎角), of gripping horn and heel at once, be formed. Such places as Gaecheon (价川), Yeongbyeon (寧邊), Suncheon (順川), Eunsan (殷山), Seongcheon (成川) and Samdeung (三登) are indeed a roundabout road and no way for troops to pass.

The storehouse grain of each district in the province is now being carried with difficulty along the direct road, and little is left. East of Gaecheon, from the first, it has been carried on and on solely to feed the troops of Yi Il (李鎰), the Defense Commander, and the troops of Sunan, so that it has fallen into ruin the more severely and takes no proper shape. Now, on a sudden and in haste, it is sought to provide more, but the case can hardly reach so far. Let the court look into it closely again and give direction.

In general, winter has already come upon us; let the date of the Ming army's coming out be quickly heard and seen, and told secretly in haste, so that every matter may be ordered. Again, the number of doe of beans for the horses to be issued each day, reported in a former dispatch, should at once be made known to the Ming generals and to the one route besides, that it may be followed. The road by which the troops are to advance your servant will draw in a single map and send to the Border Defense Council, to be held ready for reference.