Dispatch Asking That Yi Hyeon Be Made a Recruiting Officer and Sent to Hwanghae Province請以李賢爲召募官送于黃海道狀
賊勢益熾傳聞黃海沿路處處皆作土城木栅屯兵以守招集人民以爲久留之計而守令則逃竄山谷將帥則玩寇不戰望其自退臣誠痛心猶有一分可望者民心頗奮往往各自團聚爲勦捕之計云苟能激勵興發幷起齊擧如報私讎則滅賊庶幾有期臣觀近日之事民兵愛護鄕里隨處勦賊者稍有所獲名爲將帥而屯兵結陣則賊至皆成奔潰如廣州之民初相結約設伏射賊賊不近境及邊彥琇爲將屯兵少遇零賊一時皆散而廣州因以不守加平之人亦頗團結捍賊而趙儆邊應星申彭壽等合軍二千餘人不發一矢又皆潰散加平亦不守蓋將不得人而兵皆烏合賊至無意鏖戰引軍逃走其問雖有勇悍之士不能獨戰相率俱去如此而望其平賊不亦難乎臣又伏念古人云羗易以計破難用兵碎今此賊亦然當因勢乘便設奇取之菱鐵最關於戰用其於夜擊尤便患無用之者耳臣於安州打造二千餘箇又令近邑方造萬餘箇欲分送於各道只慮無可使者適白川人宣傳官李賢來此自言已與傍邑武士結約勦賊已合數百餘人且哨探開城興義平山江陰等地賊之動靜頗詳知而以復。命事將向。行在云臣親與言說其志可取敢望朝廷借此人以召募之號急速還送于本處使成其計甚爲便當幷下論于觀察使如此人等別加獎勸俾令同心戮力各自奮起勦滅醜賊其有捕斬而得其財物者勿論多少輒與其人又卽論賞使有興起之心
The enemy's strength has grown fiercer still. It is reported at second hand that at every pass along the coast road of Hwanghae Province they have thrown up earthen walls and palisades, garrisoned troops to hold them, and are calling the people together, making it their design to stay long. Yet the magistrates flee and hide in the mountain valleys, and the commanders, despising the enemy, do not fight but only hope that they will withdraw of themselves; your servant is truly sick at heart.
Even so there is one strand worth hoping for. The hearts of the people are quite roused, and it is said that here and there they band together each with his own fellows and devise plans to take the enemy. If they were truly encouraged and raised up so that they rose together all at once, as men avenging their own, the day for destroying the enemy might be appointed.
From what your servant has seen of affairs of late, the people's troops cherish their own districts, so that when they strike the enemy here and there they gain at least a little; but when those who bear the name of commander garrison troops and make camp, they all collapse and flee the moment the enemy arrives. The people of Gwangju (廣州) at first agreed among themselves to set an ambush and shoot the enemy, so that the enemy could not come near their borders; but once Byeon Eonsu (邊彥琇) became commander and garrisoned troops, they all scattered at once upon meeting a few stray enemy, and Gwangju was thereby not held. The men of Gapyeong (加平) too had quite banded together and held off the enemy; but Jo Gyeong (趙儆), Byeon Eungseong (邊應星), and Sin Paengsu (申彭壽) gathered something over two thousand troops and yet, without loosing a single arrow, these too all collapsed and scattered, and Gapyeong was not held either.
In the main, the commanders are not got from among fit men and the troops are all a rabble, so that when the enemy arrives they have no mind to fight hard but lead the troops away in flight. Though there be swift and fierce soldiers among them, they cannot fight alone and are drawn along with the rest and go off together. To hope that the enemy will be pacified in this way — is that not hard indeed?
Your servant further considers, prostrate, that a man of old said, "The Qiang (羌) are easy to break by stratagem but hard to crush by arms." These enemy too are so, and they ought to be taken by riding the shape of things, seizing a convenient opening, and putting forward an extraordinary stratagem. Caltrops are the most essential thing to use in battle and are the handier still for striking by night; the only worry is that there is no one to use them. Your servant has had something over two thousand made at Anju (安州) and has also had the nearby districts make some ten thousand, meaning to divide and send them to each province; but he fears only that there may be no one fit to put them to work.
As it happens, Yi Hyeon (李賢), the Herald from Baecheon (白川), has come here, and says of himself, "I have already agreed with the military men of the neighboring districts to strike the enemy, and several hundred have already gathered." He also says that he has looked into the enemy's movements about Gaeseong (開城), Heungui (興義), Pyeongsan (平山), Gangeum (江陰), and the like and knows them quite closely, and that he means to go presently to the royal travelling court on the business of reporting back. Your servant has spoken with him in person, and his intent is worth taking up.
Your servant dares to hope that the court will lend this man the name of recruiting officer and send him back with urgency to his own home district, so that he may accomplish his plan, which would be most fitting. Let a directive be issued to the Governor as well, to commend and urge on such men separately, so that with one heart they may join their strength and each rouse himself to crush the vicious enemy. If there are those who take and behead the enemy and win their goods, let these be given to that man at once, whether much or little, and let rewards be weighed on the spot, so that a heart to rouse themselves may be born in them.
Interlinear notes 1
八月九日
The ninth day of the eighth month