Urgent Report on the Enemy Lair, and the Dead and Wounded馳。啓賊窟形止及軍兵死傷狀
臣歲前一日進往蔚山初一日平明與都元帥權慄巡察使李用淳等及諸將官行禮後謁見經理行新歲問慰之禮經理問糧餉輸運之事臣等又詣提督令進入幕內同坐行茶語之曰當初擊倭時俺軍五百名定爲先登此後楊登山擺賽二將軍繼之權慄答以此事小的親見之提督又曰俺平日每恨朝鮮軍不能擊賊今。天兵攻賊而猶不易朝鮮之軍不能擊賊無足恠也又云朝鮮之人能力戰都元帥亦能號令。天朝聞之豈不喜悅臣與儲人措辭叩謝而退少頃經理語臣曰此處大軍留駐多日糧餉之運萬分緊急議政不須留此須卽還後頭雖有一石之糓早早輸運爲可臣卽辭退還到慶州矣經理駐在處與賊窟僅一馬場餘賊窟據孤山之顚築三重石城甚爲堅固城上皆設廊屋見之寂若無人而軍到城下則炮丸亂發中者無不穿透前日連次進攻時。天兵與我軍多死傷故不復攻之聞城內飢乏無水欲以持久困之晦日夜令金應瑞率降倭伏兵於城外井泉之傍捉得倭人之出汲者十餘人經理甚喜問其賊中事狀則亦言糧絕無水勢甚窮縮其詳必在接伴使狀。啓臣查點我國各將軍兵死傷逃亡時存之數則戰死者二百九十八名逢丸重傷者八百七十六名逃亡者四千九百八十二名時存陣中者三千八百十三名京畿軍人則除出以爲運糧負草之軍而平安之軍今日始到陣所矣
Your servant went forward to Ulsan on the day before the last day of the twelfth month; and toward daybreak on the first, together with the Supreme Commander Gwon Yul (權慄), the Inspector Yi Yongsun (李用淳) and the rest and the several commanders and officers, he performed the rites and then saw the Superintendent and performed the rite of greeting for the new year. The Superintendent asked about the carrying of the army grain, and your servant and the others answered.
We went also to the Commander-in-Chief, who had us come into his tent and sit with him and brought out tea, and said: "When we first struck the Japanese, five hundred of my own troops were appointed to go up first, and after them the two generals Yang Dengshan (楊登山) and Bai Sai (擺賽) followed." Gwon Yul answered, "This your humble servant saw with his own eyes." The Commander-in-Chief said further: "In ordinary times I always regretted that the Joseon troops could not strike the enemy; but now, when even the Ming troops find striking the enemy no easy thing, it is no wonder that the Joseon troops cannot strike them." And he said besides, "The men of Joseon can fight hard, and the Supreme Commander can command them; how should the Ming court not be glad to hear it?" Your servant and the others gave full thanks in words and withdrew.
A little after, the Superintendent said to your servant: "The great army has halted here many days, and the carrying of the grain is urgent beyond measure. The Chief Minister need not stay here, but ought to go back at once and carry forward early even a single seok of grain, if there be such behind." So your servant took his leave at once and withdrew and returned to Gyeongju.
The place where the Superintendent is staying is little more than a majang (a short stretch of road) from the enemy's lair. The enemy's lair leans on a lone mountain top and is built with a threefold wall of stone and is most firm, and along the top of the wall galleries have been set throughout. To look at it, it is quiet as though no one were there; but when troops come below the wall, cannon and bullets come out in confusion, and of those struck there is none they do not pierce. In the repeated advances and attacks of the other days the Ming troops and our troops were killed and wounded in numbers, and so it is not attacked again. It is heard that inside the wall they are hungry and have no water, and so we mean to hold out long and wear them down.
On the night of the last day of the month Kim Eungseo (金應瑞) was set to lead the surrendered Japanese and lie in ambush by the well outside the wall, and some ten Japanese who came out to draw water were taken. The Superintendent was greatly pleased and asked them how matters stood among the enemy, and they too said that their grain was cut off and they had no water, and that their posture was most straitened and hard pressed. The particulars of this will surely be in the attending officer's report.
Your servant has examined and reckoned, among the troops of each of our country's commanders, the numbers of the dead, the wounded, those who fled and those now remaining: those who died fighting are 298; those gravely wounded by bullets, 876; those who fled, 4,982; and those now remaining in the camp, 3,813. The Gyeonggi soldiers were taken out and made into troops for carrying grain and bearing fodder, and the Pyeongan troops reached the camp only today.