Urgent Report That This Province Is in Peril since Jinju Fell馳。啓晉州陷沒後本道事勢危迫狀

That Jinju fell was indeed because the enemy soldiers were so many; yet the errors in meeting them are also to be lamented.

When your servant was in the capital he heard that the magistrate Seo Cheweon (徐體元) had come to Seongchang as officer on special duty for the supplying of the Ming troops, and he at once sent an official paper to have him sent back quickly, saying that Jinju would meet the enemy at any hour and how should the officer who is to hold the walls be far away outside them? Yet he dawdled and did not go back, and only when he heard that the enemy soldiers had already drawn near did he barely get into the walls; and that the business of the defence was not provided for beforehand is the first thing. Further, the several commanders gathered within the walls in numbers, leading troops from elsewhere, but there was none to command them all, and each held fast to his own view so that confusion was not escaped; that is the second. The several commanders at the outset did not weigh the state of things and lightly went forward and camped at Haman, and when the enemy soldiers came in force were routed and fled back, and so let the enemy ride the force of victory; that is the third. Had they drawn up troops at Jeongjin and held it fast, the enemy could not have come forward together on all four sides; but they abandoned it all and went, and the enemy soldiers came forward by water and by land together, and before Jinju fell the enemy had all gathered like clouds in the lands of Uiryeong, Samga, Danseong, Jinhae, Goseong, and Sacheon, so that the road of relief was cut off; that is the fourth.

The troops led by the several commanders, Choe Won (崔遠), Seon Geoi (宣居怡), and those below them, were very many; and though they could not come right below the walls and relieve them, they ought to have set out feint troops (疑兵) here and struck in by night there, and left off only after doing all in their strength; yet they all fled and hid in the mountain valleys and never once put out their heads. The people of Jinju hoped day by day that relief would come, and with hands joined cried out to heaven; but in the end not one man came to relieve them, and so it came at last to the walls falling and the cruelty of the slaughter, which cannot be borne to hear.

The several commanders, hearing that Jinju was lost, all withdrew, and where they are now is unknown. The granary grain of the districts they passed through has been left to the soldiers and broken open and scattered, and nothing is left. Among them the troops led by Choe Won are the worse in their rioting, which pains the heart greatly.

Bak Jin (朴晉), commissioner for catching the robbers, and Bak Myeonghyeon (朴名賢), the auxiliary commander, and Bak Jongnam (朴宗男), a detached commander, and the rest have at last come from the left circuit, and they too were about to turn toward Honam at the field marshal's order. Your servant, holding that this province has no army commander already and that of the several commanders not one is left in it, so that this would be to hand one whole province into the enemy's hands, passed the order for Bak Jin and the other two to stay for the present at Goryeong and block the road and await what comes, and to take the Ming commanders' direction.

Your servant has just seen the dispatch of Seo Seong (徐渻), the liaison officer, saying that Regional Commander Liu has already led his troops and come and is staying at Goryeong, and that the vanguard that was at Hapcheon has set out for Hamyang, and that the regional commander's intent besides is to go forward in haste and strike. But what will come of it in the end he does not know. Commander-in-Chief Li too has led his troops and come to Goryeong.

The army grain at each stage along the straight road within the province cannot be provided by the province itself, and is barely made up with Honam's grain carried from far off; and the amount is not ample and is now about to run out as well. The main army is just now coming again and is divided and scattered among the several districts, and their coming and going is not fixed, so that men run east and west and their strength is spent. In a few days there will be nowhere for the army grain to come from, and the grain road of Honam is barely the one road of Geochang; and if this province too is burst in upon, when shall we have leisure to think again of another province's business? Reckon a hundred ways and think a thousand, your servant does not know what to do.

Yi Seongjung (李誠中), Minister of Taxation, is gravely ill and does not know men, and lies by the roadside at Hamchang, and for the business of supply there is no officer to dispose of it. Only the royal inspector Yun Gyeongnip (尹敬立) and Yi Jahae (李自海), Yi Seongjung's staff officer, have gone out severally to the various places and press men to carry it; but the material strength is spent, which is a great care.

Your servant has just seen besides an urgent report of the governor of the left circuit saying that the enemy ships that have shown themselves along the Eastern Sea are very many; and how should these all be ships adrift? There is no want of care that this side and that will rise together. The field marshal Kim Myeongwon (金命元) has been replaced and gone, and Gwon Yul (權慄) has become field marshal in his stead, but he is now in Jeolla Province and the road is far distant, so that there is no way of meeting what comes.

In general the places in the right circuit that were then kept whole were only the four districts of Jinju, Geochang, Saneum, and Aneum; and now Jinju and Saneum have fallen as well, and only Geochang and Aneum have as yet no news of the enemy. But the people and the granaries are all empty already, and there is nowhere from which men may be summoned and drawn. Your servant is worthless and feeble and of no account, and it is after a grave illness besides, so that his strength is far less than it was. He only sighs with his hands bound, and no plan comes forth. Let the court set out a long plan in haste and save a condition that is overturned and in peril.