Report That Brigade Commander Shen Came Out of the Enemy Camp沈遊擊自賊中出來狀

Yesterday Kim Jigwi (金至貴) and our country's interpreter Kim Seongyeong (金善慶) and the rest came here from the naval camp at Yongsan. Brigade Commander Shen (沈遊擊) took the road by Ganghwa and made straight for Gaeseong, and one called O Jongdo (吳宗道) too rode past from Yongsan, all of them saying that they were going to where the Military Commissioner Song (宋經略) is. Regional Commander Zha (査總兵) did not cease to reproach and rage that Brigade Commander Shen had gone straight on without even coming to see him, and said to the interpreter Jang Han (張翰) and the rest: 「What Brigade Commander Shen is doing I do not know at all. Be sure to tell this to the Supreme Commander.」

When your servant asked Kim Seongyeong what the Brigade Commander had done, he said this. Coming to the ship, he called Hira Yukinaga (平行長) and spoke with him; Kiyomasa (淸正) too wished to meet him and speak of peace, but the Brigade Commander would not hear of it, and so they went back and forth in writing, asking and answering, which was kept hidden so that it could not be seen. He heard only that the Brigade Commander means to settle it by asking of His Excellency Song (宋爺); and when Yukinaga asked for a term for his return, the Brigade Commander set the eighth day of next month as the limit and went back.

Again, in accordance with what Yi Bin (李蘋), naval commander of Gyeonggi, sent word of by rider, one sheet of the letter which Zhou Hongmo (周弘謨) submitted to the Commander-in-Chief is copied out and sent up. It seems that the wish to bring about peace is no empty word.

The proclamation sent down earlier the Field Marshal Kim Myeongwon (金命元) would have sent into the walls at once; but in your servant's thought, Brigade Commander Shen being just now in that place, he fears that if this writing be passed into the enemy camp and such a one as Kiyomasa show it to the Brigade Commander and reproach him for having made private terms with Yukinaga and the rest, the Ming generals will be greatly angered and the matter will become hard to handle. Further, this proclamation is written in large characters and sealed, so that he fears that if the enemy suspect it to be an attempt at sowing division and do not deeply believe it, the business will be spoiled instead. Therefore it has not yet been sent, and he means to watch the posture of things and deal with it.

Since the Ming troops withdrew, your servant has consulted with the Field Marshal Kim Myeongwon and settled terms with the several commanders. He had Jeong Geol (丁傑), Yi Bin and Kim Cheonil (金千鎰) and the rest block the river mouth with the naval forces and, in the middle of the night, taking the tide, load cannon into the turtle ships built at each camp and break up the boat bridge on the Han River, so that the enemy might not come and go as they please. He also had the righteous troop commanders Yi Sanhwi (李山輝) and Bak Yuin (朴惟仁) and U Seongjeon (禹性傳), commissioner of the Chuui force, pick out choice troops, and had men who know in detail the lie of the land at Samgang (三江), Goyang (高陽) and such places examine the enemy's posture minutely, after which he meant to make for Yongsan and first break the enemy who are set to guard the granary grain. Then the rest of the enemy will wither of themselves.

Whether the business can in fact be brought off is not known; but the several camps had all received direction and were just planning to go forward and take it, when it happened again that Brigade Commander Shen came and went, so that the soldiers' hearts grow slacker by the day, and your servant frets greatly. Further, from today to the eighth of next month there are twenty days more between, and in that time the cost of the horses and men of every place sitting and eating is without limit; and when spring is spent and summer comes, how can the changes that follow be reckoned beforehand? Your servant is anxious day and night and cannot master his vexation and urgency.

Some days ago your servant heard it told on the road that Yi Sunsin (李舜臣), naval commander of Jeolla, met and struck the Japanese ships that had come out near Busan (釜山) and won again, and seized many of the enemy's ships and their military grain. As no dispatch has come, it is not yet known whether this be true or false; but if these words be indeed true, then the enemy are just now moving their military grain to that place, and where their cruel design lies truly cannot be reckoned. That our country's naval forces happened at the same time to fall upon them and break them and so blunt their force is indeed a great piece of good fortune. Since the matter touches on military secrets, your servant reports along with the rest what he has heard beforehand.