Reaffirming the Garrison-Command System in the Provinces申明外方鎭管之制。啓
外方鎭管之法乃是軍政之大者近日此制久廢渙散無統終止於土崩瓦解不可收拾已可痛恨前者因本司。啓請特爲下書知委于各官而積年弊習猶痼於人之心目不能改舊圖新爲鎭管守令者亦憚於作爲安於姑息凡檢勅屬邑修擧軍政等事尙皆置之尋常監司又不聞董責之事悠悠度日事無可爲者姑以忠淸一道言之則忠州鎭管之法修擧則鳥嶺竹嶺之門戶固矣淸州鎭管之法修擧則黃澗永同秋風等處把截之勢可以成形公州鎭管之法修擧則錦江一帶可以無虞洪州鎭管之法修擧則內浦沿海等地皆爲可守此其事簡而功多不言而可知矣奈何人之所見滯於近規終不能恢拓建置以振頹靡之勢此臣等之所以深憂永歎而不能自己者也今公州牧使鄭文孚已下去文孚才器可以任此請以此意別爲。下諭于本道監司使以前啓下辭緣申勅諸鎭而且令鄭文字專治所屬軍政整頓頹圯使有成緒令列邑取效行之何如
The law of the garrison commands (鎭管) in the provinces is the great matter of military administration. Of late this system has long been abandoned, so that the troops are scattered with none to lead them, and in the end it has come to crumbling earth and broken tiles, beyond gathering up, which is already cause for bitter grief. Earlier, on the request of this office (本司), a letter was specially sent down and made known to each district; yet the bad habits piled up over many years have become a chronic sickness in men's hearts and eyes, and they cannot reform the old and plan the new. Those who are magistrates of garrison commands also shrink from the work and take their ease in a makeshift idleness, so that all the business of inspecting their subordinate districts and of mending and raising up military administration is still left as a matter of course; nor is there any word of the Provincial Governor pressing them, and so the days pass idly away and nothing in the work can be done.
Let me speak of Chungcheong Province alone for the present. If the law of the Chungju garrison command is mended and raised up, the gateways of the Jo Pass and the Juk Pass will be made firm; if the law of the Cheongju garrison command is mended and raised up, the array for blocking and holding Hwanggan, Yeongdong, Chupung and such places can take shape; if the law of the Gongju garrison command is mended and raised up, there can be no worry along the whole Geum River; if the law of the Hongju garrison command is mended and raised up, Naepo and the coastal places can all be held. That the work in this is simple and the merit great can be known without saying. Why then are men's views blocked by near precedent, so that in the end they cannot broaden and establish it and shake off this crumbled array? This is why we your servants worry deeply and sigh long, and cannot of ourselves leave off.
Now Jeong Mun-bu (鄭文孚), Magistrate of Gongju, has already gone down, and Jeong Mun-bu's talent and capacity are fit for this charge. I beg that the Provincial Governor of that province be instructed separately in this sense, charging the several garrisons again with what was already approved; and further that Jeong Mun-bu be made to govern wholly the military administration under him, putting what has crumbled in order so that a beginning is made, and that the several districts take it as their model. Would that not be well?
Interlinear notes 1
The base text has 鄭文字, taken as an error for 鄭文孚.