Urgent Report on the Commander-in-Chief's Doings馳。啓提督所爲狀

Of the matter of your servants' not having done reverence to the banner-tally (旗牌) while they were earlier at Paju, report has already been made in outline.

That day Assistant Commander Zhou (周參將) submitted a written report (稟帖) to the Commander-in-Chief saying, "The ministers of Joseon are sunk in obstinacy and do not perceive, and knowing nothing of the cares that lie far ahead they do not do reverence to the banner-tally; I fear there may be matters that block the road ahead. I would have Your Honour (老爺) call them and admonish them." The Commander-in-Chief, seeing this, was greatly angered, and went so far as to mean to punish them by military law, and had the envoy-attendant Han Eungin (韓應寅) and the rest called and the circumstances asked of them. Your servants, unable to master their discomfort, meant to set out at once and beg pardon.

Just then one of the Commander-in-Chief's household guard (家丁) came riding up and called your servants, and meeting them said, "The Commander-in-Chief says that the State Councillor is to stay here and the Field Marshal (元帥) is to go with me to Yongsan." Kim Myeongwon (金命元) answered, "My being here too is a charge laid upon me; how should I lightly go out upon a word passed by mouth alone? If there is an order from the Commander-in-Chief there must surely be a paper; I would have it brought out and shown." The man said, "There is no separate paper; the Commander-in-Chief's charge is thus," and would have had him go along by force; but Kim Myeongwon in the end did not dare to go, and the man, having no choice, went to Yongsan alone.

As the day drew in, your servants went together outside the gate of the Commander-in-Chief at Gaeseong and asked to be punished and begged pardon; but the Commander-in-Chief at first was angry and would not see them. Your servants stood half a day in the rain, and only then did the Commander-in-Chief come out and see them, and he had them come up onto the hall and do reverence, and asked the reason of it.

Your servant answered, "Our country has in the Wa an enemy under whom it cannot live beneath one heaven, and a grudge that must be repaid through ten thousand generations. We were just now leaning upon the Ming troops and meaning to go forward and kill the enemy, when beyond all expectation there were words within the paiwen (牌文) saying, 'For the present wait upon the reply of this headquarters. Whoever first opens a breach shall be beheaded,' and we could not master our alarm and pain. Were we to bow our heads and receive it, we should at once be passing word to the commanders of the several places to follow and act upon that undertaking, and could never again hold a mind to strike the enemy. And so, the state of things being oppressive and urgent, we wished to inquire again of Your Honour and hear your further disposition; and in the suddenness of it we failed to take part in the ceremony, and there is nowhere we may be cleared of the fault."

The Commander-in-Chief answered in a low voice, "This is the paiwen of Vice Minister Song (宋侍郞), and it has nothing to do with my business. As for a paiwen, why should one bow and receive it? But to the banner-tally alone one cannot but bow." Your servant said, "That we failed in the ceremony is a thing we hold in awe. Only, the matter of speaking of peace with the Wa pains the heart and pierces to the bone, and so it is hard to receive," and laid it before him thus and thus; whereupon the Commander-in-Chief brought out the military commissioner's (經略) letter and showed it, pointing to several phrases within it, and there was much displeasure in his face. He said, "The peace is not my doing; let the ministers of your country know this intent."

He went on to discuss the plan for striking the enemy, and again called the envoy-attendant Han Eungin and Yi Deokhyeong (李德馨) and spoke standing together with them. As they were about to come out the Commander-in-Chief said, "There is no reason Vice Minister Song should not hear of this; tomorrow set down the twists of it in outline, write it in a written report, and come."

The next day your servants submitted a paper again and said with all their strength, "If we make peace with the Wa we shall surely fall into their stratagem. Brigade Commander Shen (沈遊擊) has long not come back, and in secret we hold it most perilous. The troops ought to be made to advance, racing the time." But the Commander-in-Chief answered only, "I have understood."

Your servants then took their leave and withdrew, and were sitting a while in the outer place, when the Commander-in-Chief brought out Vice Minister Song's paiwen and showed it. Within it were words of this sort: "When an envoy was sent to the Wa commander the other day, Minister Yi of Joseon secretly put forth a crafty design and did not have boats laid to and waiting, so that the term of the eighth day could not be met; let him be questioned upon it." He went on to say, "The military commissioner's words are thus; if the ministers of your country see this, they will be able to know that the business did not come about through me."

Your servants were going back to Dongpa, when on the road a man bearing the banner-tally came riding and called your servant, and the force of his driving and pressing was swifter than a shooting star. On reaching the front of the Cheonggyo post station another man came riding and told your servant to go back, and your servant did not know what the matter was.

Presently Hwang Gi (黃沂), staff officer to the envoy-attendant, came, and the reason heard of him was this. A certain Battalion Commander (千總) had said to the Commander-in-Chief, "When Zhou Hongmo went to Yongsan the boats along the road were on purpose not laid to in order, and so the business of making peace was blocked." The Commander-in-Chief was greatly angered and said that the thing had come from your servant, and hastily sent the banner-tally to have your servant seized and brought, saying, "He ought to be beaten severely with forty strokes of the rod, and I shall gather my troops and go back." But presently, hearing that those words were not right, he had the Battalion Commander heavily flogged and let your servant go back.

In general the Commander-in-Chief and those below him already hold for peace and nothing else; yet knowing that the hearts of our country's people take the peace talk in pain and anger, they dare not speak it straight and put it off upon one another. And at the same time, fearing that your servants may block it midway so that the business does not come about, they show their anger wherever they go; their bearing and their doings are not at all what they were in days past, and the difficulty of matters is worse than before. One as foolish and unworthy as your servant only grieves and is oppressed and knows no road out; and the months have been dragged on until the season of fair winds has already come, so that there is no knowing where the cart will be unhitched in the days ahead.

Just now Jeong Geol (丁傑), naval commander of Chungcheong, and the rest have sent urgent word saying: "His Excellency Xie (謝相公), Brigade Commander Zhou (周遊擊), and His Excellency Xu (徐相公) and the rest led twenty of their guard and reached the Heukseok River at the hour of the dragon on the fifteenth day, and first sent a small boat to pass word among the enemy. Until the hour of the monkey the Wa did not come out to meet them at all, and only several mounted enemy were seen coming out and going along the inner road. The Ming envoys passed word to the several boats, writing it on a small paper and sending it: 'The Wa fellows do not come out to meet the Ming envoys; their want of manners is grave. Charge the boats great and small to hide away all their implements great and small and keep them set ready. If the Wa fellows are unmannerly we shall strike them with fire-weapons. This matter is urgent, urgent.' We report the word that was passed."

That the Wa's vicious defiance has come to this leaves us only grinding our teeth in pain and anger. Your servant does not know how the Ming commanders will dispose of it now.