Urgent Report Why the Ming Army Withdrew天兵退來緣由馳。啓狀

Your servant and the others, by the Superintendent's order, were at Gyeongju pressing the grain of the country behind and sending it on without a break.

At the hour of the Sheep that day the Left Naval Commander Yi Unnyong (李雲龍) hurried to report, saying: "From the hour of the Tiger to the hour of the Monkey on the third, the Japanese ships came from Seosaengpo and Yeompo head to tail, following one another like scales without a break. The Naval Commander watched them himself, and the masts of the ships great and small were thick as a clump and came covering the sea."

Again, in the early evening of that day, Jeong Eungcheon (鄭應天), your servant's scouting officer, hurried to report, saying: "At midnight yesterday the Ming troops surrounded the wall and closed with them, but could not take the wall and drew back for a while. Other enemy have come and encamped at Jeontan, reaching up along the mountain, and of the enemy ships that have come in to shore the number again is not known. The army grain had already reached the camp, but the Superintendent has had it taken in at Gyeongju instead."

Again, at the first watch the Gyeonggi Defense Commander Byeon Eungseong (邊應星) hurried to report, saying: "The Ming troops have a mind to draw back to Gyeongju and rest. I have seen the Ming troops coming out along the road one after another, and since the grain too has been ordered taken in at Gyeongju, those turning back with their loads follow one another on the road."

The Ming troops have surrounded the enemy's lair and held it and have struck at it several times without winning, and their soldiers are much hurt; and the enemy by water and by land add to their troops daily, so that the posture is most worrying. Your servant means to look again at how the business stands and report in haste.