Entry

The Guang-xi Grand Coordinator He Shi-jin advised: "The Annam Commander is Li Wei-qi, but political power was [formerly] in the hands of the chieftain Zheng Song. Song died and his son Du vied for power in the spring and engaged in killing. The Annam people thus rebelled. Thereupon, Mo Jing-kuan at Gao-ping took advantage of the situation to attack. Wei-qi fled to sea, while Du attacked and defeated Jing-kuan. Wei-qi then returned to the country. However, power rested with the Zheng's. Du greatly hated those at Gao-ping and he appointed He Dun as Liang-shan Deputy Regional Commander, with orders to attack the Mos. He also planned to attack Xuan-hua. Guang-xi is greatly lacking in terms of military rations. In the past, the number of troops was increased by 5,000. We thus requested that we be allowed to retain 60,000-plus [liang of silver?] of the amount which the province had allocated for Liao-dong rations, in order to be able to provide rations for the new troops. We requested that this be allowed to continue until the second year of the Tian-qi reign (1622/23). Now, it is requested that this arrangement be extended until the fourth year." The memorial was sent to the Ministry of Revenue. * A number of possibly omitted and duplicated characters and the lack of sources against which to compare this reference make the translation of the above item tentative at best.