Urgent Report on Ordering Hwanghae's Grain as the Ming Army Passed Anju馳。啓天兵過安州分付黃海道糧餉狀
臣在安州親聞提督所言旣取平壤則大軍卽時渡江前進云黃海道軍糧極爲可慮數日前黃海觀察使柳永慶報糓數于臣其在道內郡縣及廣嵓許沙吾义浦龍媒梁者造米七千三百九十餘石田米一萬五千二百六十七石馬豆三萬六千八百六十四石糖米一千九百八十五石若使積在沿途各邑則稍可支待而一路方有賊兵恐爲所奪皆散置隱僻之處趁時輸運亦難臣卽移文本道令就其便近整齊民夫聚合牛馬聞大軍先聲卽時男負女戴輸到軍前俾無後時稽緩之弊但當此民心潰散之餘恐難及期以乏軍興。朝廷亦須預爲措置指揮使得遵行臣今日因人傳聞海州收使以泰川縣監韓述爲之未知虛實海州爲黃海一道根本時方新復百事蕩敗之餘任人得失成敗所關韓述爲泰川縣監猶不能治數月之間一境嗷嗷流散相繼况於海州乎。朝廷差除之事臣不當妄言但海州不能收拾則延安等地亦難得保利害非輕不勝區區之慮因論本道之事而幷及之極爲惶恐
Your servant heard with his own ears at Anju (安州) what the Commander-in-Chief said: that once Pyeongyang is taken the grand army will cross the river at once and press forward. The army grain of Hwanghae Province is cause for the utmost anxiety.
A few days ago Yu Yeonggyeong (柳永慶), Governor of Hwanghae, reported the quantities of grain to your servant: what is held in the districts and counties of the province and at Gwangam (廣嵓), Heosa (許沙), Ochapo (吾义浦) and Yongmaeryang (龍媒梁) is some seven thousand three hundred and ninety seok of hulled rice (造米), fifteen thousand two hundred and sixty-seven seok of field rice (田米), thirty-six thousand eight hundred and sixty-four seok of horse beans, and one thousand nine hundred and eighty-five seok of sugar rice (糖米). Had it been stored up in the several districts along the road it might have been made to go some way; but as there are enemy soldiers at present on one of the roads, and for fear of its being seized, it has all been scattered into out-of-the-way places, so that it is hard too to ship it in time.
Your servant has accordingly sent a written inquiry to that province, that following whatever is convenient and near they should muster the common labourers and gather oxen and horses, and as soon as they hear the first word of the grand army, at once have the men carry it on their backs and the women on their heads and ship it to the camp, so that there be no fault of losing the time and falling behind. Only, meeting as we do this remnant of broken and scattered hearts, it is to be feared they will not make the term and will fall short of the army's need. Let the court too make its dispositions and give its directions beforehand, and have them followed.
Your servant heard today at second hand that Han Sul (韓述), Magistrate of Taecheon, has been made Prefect of Haeju; whether it be true or false he does not know. Haeju is the root of the one province of Hwanghae, and it is at present newly recovered and in the remnant of a general collapse, so that upon the rightness or wrongness of the man entrusted hang its making and its ruin. Han Sul, even as Magistrate of Taecheon, could not govern, and within a few months the whole district was in an uproar and those who scattered and wandered came one after another; how much the more at Haeju. The court's conferring of offices is not a thing for your servant to speak of rashly, yet if Haeju is not set in order, Yeonan (延安) and such places too will be hard to preserve, and the gain and loss of it is not light; and so he cannot master his petty anxiety. Discussing the business of that province he has touched upon this besides, in utmost dread.