Requesting That the Crisis in Gyeongsang Be Reported at Once to the Ming Court慶尙道賊勢危急請速具由。奏聞。天朝狀

When the enemy troops first withdrew and fled from the capital, even my foolish judgment feared that they would coil and entrench themselves in Gyeongsang Province and work their cruel poison again; and now the situation grows more perilous and pressing by the day. With talk of a false peace they have bound the hands of the Ming generals, while they raid eastward and plunder westward just as they please. Jinju has already fallen, and in the whole province there is no place left that can be held. Should Gyeongju suffer the same calamity, there will be nowhere left to lay a hand on the affairs of Yeongnam; and if Yeongnam cannot be preserved, Gangwon, Chungcheong, and Jeolla will collapse one after another and the great cause will be lost.

Ever since Shen Weijing (沈惟敬) went off in the company of the Japanese commanders, the rumors on the roads have been beyond all bounds. Some say a request was made to divide north from south along the Han River, and the words are so startling that they cannot even be spoken aloud. While I was at Hapcheon, Jeong Inhong (鄭仁弘), leader of a righteous army, feasted and comforted the Ming troops with beef and wine, and Regional Commander Liu said to Jeong Inhong, "The Japanese are traveling with Shen Weijing and mean to make the land north of the Han River Chinese and the land south of it Japanese. How could the Ming court ever consent? And if it did consent, what would your country do then?" Jeong Inhong heard these words himself and reported them to me. Only then did I know that the rumors on the roads had some ground, and I could not master my shock and the pain in my heart.

I privately fear this: the cruel enemy has already lured and toyed with the Ming generals by artful scheming, while the Ming army, camped on guard for a year now, has grown weary and its provisions are spent, so that before long its ranks must break and scatter. Our own country has wrung the fat and blood of the people and exhausted the resources of the Eight Provinces to support the great army, and our condition too grows more straitened by the day. This is the enemy sitting still and wearing us down with a long design, meaning to seize the opening when we are worn through; truly it is a thing to wail and shed tears over.

With Military Commissioner Song (經略) and the Commander-in-Chief there is no longer any discussing the matter. I beg only that the court weigh it again, set out these circumstances in full, and report them to the Ming court with all haste, so that no unlooked-for trouble befalls us. Still more: should the Japanese take the southern provinces, come out into the West Sea by ship, and drive far inland again by road, it must become an endless calamity for China, and not our country's misfortune alone. These circumstances too should be set out plainly and reported, and the whole matter handled with a far look ahead.