Requesting That Jo Gwang-ik and Kim Si-yak Be Sent to Chungcheong請遣趙光翼金時若等于忠淸道招募把截。啓

Prostrate, I consider that the affairs of the state grow more urgent by the day, and that though I your servant am in illness I cannot slacken my mind for a moment. In general, the enemy pursue their designs on us through the night into the day, while of our readiness to block the enemy there is not one thing worth speaking of. Watching in silence the hearts of men within and without, there is only thought of collapsing and scattering; they do not know at all that the circumstances today are quite other than before, and that even if they scatter there is nowhere to go. Only if we gather and arrange matters, marking out the term and not growing slack, can we hope to find a way to live in the midst of death.

Looking with respect at Jo In-deuk's (趙仁得) memorial, he asked that Park Myeong-hyeon (朴名賢) and Yi Sa-myeong (李思命) and the others be sent to Chungcheong Province in readiness for urgent matters, and truly it is not without its point. The Border Defense Council replied that it is difficult in the circumstances, and this too seems reasonable. Only, Chungcheong Province is the gateway of the capital, so we cannot but work out a plan for holding and blocking it.

Now there are not a few military men of the outlying districts who have not gone to the army, and not a few who have been through the field of battle before, have fought hard, and are fit for use. The only trouble is that the selecting and sending from each district does not get the knack of it, and crafty clerks take it as a pretext for their tricks, so that the stout soldiers hide and slip out and the old and the weak stand in front. For this reason it is only a harm to the people and no help to the real use.

I your servant have quietly observed that Jo Gwang-ik (趙光翼), Assistant Magistrate of Gyeongwon (鏡源判官), is a man of Cheongju (淸州) who has had much brave merit in hard fighting from the beginning of the disorder. Because he has long been a clerk of the Border Defense Council of late I have met him several times, and his talent is quite fit for use. Gwang-ik said of himself that he had agreed with Gwon In-ryong (權仁龍) and Kim Si-yak (金時若) to call together, within the province, men who had been conspicuous for strength and valor on the field of battle in days past, and to lead some number of them in division down to the southern field of battle, taking charge of a corps of his own.

The one called Gwon In-ryong is of secondary birth and is now a gate guard, and is in mourning; those who speak of him all say that his strength and valor are beyond compare. Kim Si-yak is the younger brother of the former Army Commander Kim Si-min (金時敏); when the battle of Jinju (晉州) was won, Si-yak was there with Si-min and exerted himself most of all, and his talent, his spirit, and his wisdom are all said to be fit for use. These men are all men of Chungcheong, so there is nothing they do not know of the swiftness or the timidity, the strength or the weakness, of the soldiers of that province.

If an official title is bestowed on them and they are sent down together to Chungcheong Province to take their directions from the Circuit Commissioner, let them join strength with Jeon Yu-hyeong (全有亨), Assistant Defense General, and make it their plan to block the strategic points. Let them select and lead the soldiers they have called together themselves, and let no one shake them loose and take them away. Once they have been called together, if the circumstances of that province are not pressing, let them be sent straight down to the southern field of battle to go into battle, and when their avail is awaited let their offices be raised separately, so as to rouse men's hearts; this will surely be of benefit. Gwang-ik is now Assistant Magistrate of Gyeongwon, and though the business of the north is weighty too, it is less so than the greater urgency of the south, and the post of Assistant Magistrate of Gyeongwon someone else can readily fill.

In general, in today's business, if men are not picked out and used they are hard to come by, and if men are not come by the work is hard to accomplish. This is why from before I your servant have always asked that we not be bound by the ordinary rules and that talent be gathered widely; the intent of it is truly not casual. Now let Gwang-ik, In-ryong, and Si-yak be tried first; and besides these, it is also heard that one Han Hyeon (韓絢), formerly of the Feathered Forest Guard (羽林衛), is fit for use, so I your servant called him in the other day and heard him speak, and he was indeed no common man. If an office be given to this man too and he go with Gwang-ik and the others to call men together, he could likewise be held in readiness for the use of one corner.

Those who deliberate today always worry that talent is wanting. Yet if the seeking of it truly finds its way and does not cast aside the obscure, then the scholars of one age will of themselves be ample for the uses of one age; why worry that there is no talent? Now it is not so. Seek in the high and conspicuous places, and their will and their desires are already full and they have no mind to repay; seek by reputation, and slander and praise come out in contention and name and substance are at odds; seek by qualifications, and all is narrow and makeshift and follows mere habit, so that outstanding and remarkable talent has never once come forward. This is why talent is always feared to be wanting and the affairs of the age grow harder to do by the day.

Such is my wild thought, your servant's, but it is the confused talk of a sick man and has no order in it. I only beg that Your Sage Majesty (聖明) weigh the sincerity of my worry for the state and send this down to the Border Defense Council to be sifted and put into effect. Would that not be well?