Enemy Strength at the Capital, Each General Given a Command to Strike, and Asking Superintendent Song for Southern Troops to Cut the Enemy's Retreat論京城賊勢且節制諸將各有統屬處處截邀仍乞請宋經略送南方精卒于忠淸等道使先勦滅漢江以南屯守之賊以斷賊歸路狀

As to the shape of the enemy within the walls, the scouts from several places come and tell us day by day, but their words are not alike. Only the troops of Go Eonbaek (高彥伯) are all men of the capital and of Yangju and those parts, so that what they have scouted and brought back comes fairly near the truth; and there are besides the statements of those who have fled back, and in the main it is thus.

The enemy at the capital have gathered in numbers of late. On the day when the Ming troops first arrived the enemy troops were very few, and at Sukcheongmun, Janguimun, and Dongsomun there were no enemy holding the walls at all and the northern edge lay quite empty, and only along the one belt to the south and on the hilltops were there enemy, and these very thin. Moreover more than half were killed in the defeat at Haengju. But now the northern enemy have all gone into the capital and the enemy of Wonju have come and gathered too.

Within the walls, in such places as Heungdeokdong and Baekjajeongdong, the enemy troops are all encamped and holding, and from Namdaemun to near Mohwagwan the enemy's lines run on without a break. At the Yongsan granary they built walls and encamped and held it after coming back beaten from Pyongyang, and there are enemy lines at the Han River too, where they have strung a boat bridge across and come and go to one another. Along the one road of Sapyeongwon (沙平院) and Cheonhyeon (穿峴) also enemy troops appear in numbers and burn and plunder. Your servant for this reason has never ceased to grieve bitterly that the Ming general, having once lost his opening, has brought it to this pass where it is hard to contrive anything.

Your servant has always thought that to use arms and win lies only in first getting the shape of things. Get the shape of things, and even the weak may press down the strong. Now the enemy are already encamped and holding at the capital and trust in their steep places, and in the granaries of Yongsan and the rest there is grain still left, so that the shape of things for the holder and for the striker, for the one at ease and the one that labors, is altogether different. Unless the Ming troops advance in great force and crush them, our troops alone can hardly go forward lightly.

Only, the enemy troops are encamped one after another over a thousand li, reaching from south of the Han River straight to Gyeongsang Province, so that they are a lone force gone deep in, and on their left and right are our troops everywhere. If the government troops and the righteous troops in every place were mustered and the enemy going to and fro upon the road were struck first and their head and tail cut off, then the enemy at the capital, though they made their walls of iron, could not but stir. And if we watched for the time of their fleeing back and pursued and struck them from behind, the victory could be entire.

Yet among the commanders and troops of our country there is not one man who spends his strength. As for the righteous troops, from Gyeonggi to Chungcheong Province there are, at a rough reckoning, fifty-odd commanders; but as they are not under the command of the government troops they are split and set at odds and scatter and vanish by the day, so that in this shape of things it is hard to accomplish anything. The government troops, few in number as they are, for the most part fold their arms and look on from the side and do not set a hand to it once; and if anyone asks them, they are sure to say, "We are waiting upon the Ming troops for now." This is most painful to the heart.

Your servant has now set up some command and has divided the troops of each nearby place and attached them to military officers, so that they have someone to lead them. The troops of Yangju, Gapyeong, Paju, Jangdan, Pungdeok, Goyang, Gyoha, Pocheon, Jeokseong, Sangnyeong, Yeoncheon, and Yeongpyeong he has attached to Go Eonbaek, to crush and cut off the enemy northeast of the capital and at Byeokje, Yeonseo, and those parts. The troops of Icheon, Yeoju, Yanggeun, Jipyeong, Eumjuk, Yangji, and the other districts, and the troops of Yu Daejin (俞大進), the recruiting commissioner (召募使), and of Yi Il (李軼), a commander of the righteous troops, and the rest, he has attached to the auxiliary commander Byeon Eungseong (邊應星), to crush and take the enemy at Juksan, Yangji, Geumnyang, and those parts. The troops of Gwangju, Yongin, and Gwacheon, and the troops of Kim Tak (金琢), a commander of the righteous troops, and the rest, he has attached to Yi Gibin (李箕賓), magistrate of Gwangju, to crush and take the enemy at Sapyeongwon, Cheonhyeon, Yongin, and those parts. As Seon Geoi (宣居怡), the Jeolla army commander, is at Dokseong, he has had him command the troops of Tongjin, Gimpo, Yangcheon, Geumcheon, Ansan, Suwon, Namyang, Jinwi, Yangseong, and Anseong, and has given orders to the separate commanders that, facing Yi Gibin and Byeon Eungseong and the rest, they take between them and strike the enemy of the one road below Sapyeongwon. Heo Uk (許頊), the Chungcheong Patrol Commissioner, and Yi Ok (李沃), the army commander, are to halt their troops between Jiksan and Anseong and bar the eastern road and guard the grain road, and to crush and cut off the enemy below Juksan besides.

The righteous troops in every place are more numerous still, and these too must have someone to lead them. The righteous troops of Juksan he has attached to Hong Gyenam (洪季男); and of the righteous troops of Jincheon, the righteous troops of Eumseong, the righteous troops of Sachang in Chungju, and the righteous troops of Goesan, Boeun, and those parts, he has had men chosen from among them who may be entrusted with the charge and set to lead them by divisions, and has laid upon them the duty of striking the enemy in those places. If there be any who are slothful and take their own ease and hang back and do not advance and throw the openings of war into confusion and ruin them, they shall one and all be dealt with by military law. Then within ten days the hearts of men will rise up together in order and the spirit of the troops will be greatly stirred, and there will be hope of pacifying the enemy.

Your servant hears that the righteous troops of Chungcheong Province are bound to Sim Sugyeong (沈守慶), the commander-in-chief of the volunteer rising (建義大將), and that therefore the Patrol Commissioner of that province and those below him dare not carry out any command. But Sim Sugyeong is far off at Asan, while the openings of war shift in a moment and the urgency of answering them goes wrong in the blink of an eye; and if word must go to and fro to a far place to ask for orders, what warrant is there that the opening will not be lost? Let the court with haste make this intent known to the commander-in-chief of the volunteer rising, that his command may be rightly carried out.

The one design of striking the Yongsan granary with fire your servant too has long weighed. Accordingly Jeong Geol (丁傑), naval commander of Chungcheong, has of late led the naval forces to and fro below Yongsan for several days, and your servant has had Yi Bin (李蘋), the Gyeonggi naval commander, and Kim Cheonil (金千鎰), commissioner for raising righteous troops, lead their naval forces each and help with sound and show of force. He has besides borrowed several score fire-arrows from the Ming generals and sent them to Jeong Geol, that he might watch for an opening and handle it well. Only, the lie of the land at Yongsan has a cut-off bluff on the river side with the granary within it, so that if our troops land easily and are then fallen upon by the enemy they must surely crumble and flee. Therefore your servant told Jeong Geol and the rest to pick out and drill picked men one by one, and to choose men who dare to go forward and who know the lie of the land well, and only then to act; and so it has not yet been attempted, and he means to look into it a hundred times over before disposing of it.

Your servant once read in a book of war, "If you strike where he is firm, what was flawed becomes firm; if you strike where he is flawed, what was firm becomes a flaw." Therefore the way of using arms is to strike the enemy's flaw first, and then what was firm loosens of itself. Now the enemy's swift troops are all gathered within the walls and by the rule of war cannot be struck quickly; but the enemy who go to and fro south of the Han River are all weak and weary troops and bearers of baggage, and are easily beaten if struck. Moreover the water road goes from Gaeseong to Ganghwa and crosses from Ganghwa to Tongjin with no bar upon the way, and the grain of the south is plentiful besides, so that the feeding of them is very easy.

If several thousand gunners of the south were put under a swift commander and sent round by the water road to come out behind the enemy and make a shape of things together with our troops, and if, taking a time they did not look for, they went straight forward and struck, how should the enemy, encamped like swarming bees and mingled like ants, hold out? Sweep away the enemy south of the Han River at one stroke, and the enemy's road above Chungju is cut and the enemy at the capital will crumble of themselves without being struck. Then let the great army beat the drum and advance from behind and join its force with the troops in front, and let their road of return be left them a while and then pursue and strike them, and not one horseman of the enemy will get home; this is truly the first and most extraordinary design of today. The other day your servant said as much to the Ming generals who are here, but as they are for the most part military men and rough and loose they would not take it to heart and heed it. Superintendent Song (宋經略) has already reached that place, so let this intent be passed on to him with haste; and if he be so good as to heed it, it will be the good fortune not of our country only but of all under heaven.

It is said that the troops of Jeong Hihyeon (鄭希玄), Bak Myeonghyeon (朴名賢), and the rest have reached Yangju too, so your servant has had them pitch camp after camp with Go Eonbaek, Yi Sieon (李時言), and the rest and cut the eastern road. Yet the army grain is not kept up, and the little grain of the several districts of Gyeonggi and of Icheon, Pyeonggang, Anhyeop, and the other districts of Gangwon Province has all been scraped up and made the rations of the Ming troops, and there is no means of providing more. In this one matter alone no design comes forth. Among the households there is not a peck of grain in store, and the terms for gathering grain set out the other day were too heavy, so that to this day, half a year after, there is no one who has answered to them. It is said that when a man loses his boat in mid-water one jar of water is worth a thousand gold; how then should we now reckon much or little? Your servant begs besides that the court seek out with haste a design for getting grain. If there be nothing to eat, then though there were ten thousand swift troops and designs in plenty, all would be of no use. This is what your servant burns his heart over night and day, and yet finds no way.