Receiving Orders, with Word on the Enemy and Our Defenses有。旨祇受後馳。啓賊勢及防禦形止狀
二月十七日同副承旨成貼有。旨書狀臣在東坡祇受自。天兵退駐開城京都咫尺尙未克復痛憤欲死臣實欲憑仗。天威督合諸陣以爲進取之計而適於幸州之戰我軍大捷賊氣愈衰此正可乘之機而不意權慄聞賊欲再犯之言遽爲移陣於坡州忠淸監司許頊建義副將曹大坤皆以本道空虛賊勢方急亦相繼駐兵於安城稷山之間其他義兵等皆因軍糧乏絕乍聚乍散諸處把截之事一樣虛疎事無可爲連日新懇於在此。天將而托言當出萬全不肯進兵尤爲痛悶賊氣大抵衰减我軍若能連營漸逼大作形勢分遣銳卒處處攻勦使賊騷然不安則必爲棄城逃走而非徒軍律久解人各異心猝難驅策而大患尤在於無食罔知所處
On the seventeenth day of the second month your servant received at Dongpa the letter of orders written out and sent down by the East Deputy Royal Secretary.
Since the Ming troops withdrew and halted at Gaeseong, the capital, though but a step away, has yet to be recovered; and your servant is so pained and indignant that he would only die. He truly meant to lean upon the majesty of Ming and urge on and gather the several camps and make of it a plan for advancing and striking. It happened that in the fighting at Haengju our troops won greatly and the enemy's spirit grew the weaker, and this was indeed an opening to be ridden; but unlooked for, Gwon Yul (權慄), hearing that the enemy meant to come against him again, shifted his camp all at once to Paju.
Heo Uk (許頊), the Chungcheong Governor, and Jo Daegon (曺大坤), deputy commander of the volunteer rising (建義副將), likewise, saying that their own province lay empty and the enemy's strength was now pressing, halted their troops one after another between Anseong and Jiksan. The righteous troops besides have all run out of army grain and gather for a moment and scatter for a moment, so that the barring and cutting in every place is alike loose and there is nothing that can be done. Day by day your servant begs earnestly and again of the Ming generals who are here, but they plead that they will make all sure and will not send out the troops; which is the more painful and pitiable.
The enemy's spirit has on the whole weakened and dwindled. If our troops should pitch camp after camp and draw nearer by degrees and spread out a great array, and send out swift troops by divisions to strike and crush them in every place so that the enemy are kept in clamor and unease, they will surely abandon the walls and flee. But military discipline has long been loosed and every man's mind is his own, so that they are hard to drive and use all at once; and the great care lies the more in there being nothing to eat, so that your servant knows not what to provide.
Interlinear notes 1
二月十日後
After the tenth day of the second month