Requesting That Yi Gi-bin Be Punished by Law請李箕賓依律定罪狀

On the night of the ninth of this month your servant, from what Seong Yeong (成泳), Left Governor of Gyeonggi, sent word of, heard of the outrage of Seolleung (宣陵) and Jeongneung (靖陵) having been broken open by the enemy, and could not master his wailing. He rode at once to Paju and consulted with Kim Myeongwon (金命元) and the rest, and had his military officer Yi Hongguk (李弘國) lead ten soldiers whom he had gathered himself and go forward by way of Yangju to look into it. Heolleung (獻陵) too being very near the place where the enemy camp is, how it stands cannot be known, and so he had him look into that as well and come and report, and sent him off riding.

The single town of Gwangju (廣州), since Byeon Eonsu (邊彥琇) lost his troops last year, has had its people all scattered and its magistrate fled into hiding, so that it has already become an empty land. Therefore we do not so much as know at what time this breaking of the tombs took place.

Your servant had earlier bound the several commanders to hold each his own place, block the roads and strike the enemy. To Yi Gibin (李箕賓), Prefect of Gwangju, he gave charge to lead the troops of Gwangju and Yongin and the troops of the recruiting officers Kim Tak (金琢) and Yu Daejin (俞大進) and, relying upon Byeon Eungseong (邊應星), Prefect of Icheon, to be on the left of the enemy's road and strike the enemy at Sapyeongwon (沙坪院), Cheonhyeon (穿峴), Geumnyeong (金嶺) and such places. And he charged them two and three times over, firmly, that the troops of Gimpo, Tongjin, Gwacheon, Geumcheon and such places should have a separate commander appointed, to face Yi Gibin and join strength and strike the enemy from both sides.

Afterwards the Assistant Commander Byeon Eungseong sent word riding one after another that 「Yi Gibin is far off, within the borders of Namyang and Suwon」; and your servant was greatly startled and yet could not learn the reason of it.

Afterwards Yi Gibin sent word by document: 「Following the direction of the Left Governor Seong Yeong, I am at Namyang together with Yu Ok (俞沃).」 This is no more than that he fled the troubles and went to an easy place, hoping to be far from the enemy's road. He has abandoned his own post and attached himself elsewhere, with no mind to strike the enemy, and means, when matters grow urgent, to put out to sea and go into Ganghwa; and what he has done (情狀) is sorely painful.

Had Yi Gibin stayed in his place as he was, gathered troops, kept watch in every way, set ambushes and fought with all his strength day by day, as Go Eonbaek (高彥伯) did in former days in guarding Gangneung (康陵) and Taeneung (泰陵), the outrage that has reached the resting place of our sovereigns and forebears could almost have been prevented. But fearing death he cunningly avoided it and left all in the enemy's hands and let the outrage come to this pass; his guilt is truly hard to wash away though he die.

On the whole, of late the bonds of order are loosed and commands come out from many quarters, so that the evil has already become chronic and is very hard to set right. The Left Governor Seong Yeong has of late been greatly slack in handling affairs and cannot take one province in hand. Your servant has already reported this purport before, but the court has not yet dealt with it; and if Yi Gibin's doing was indeed in fact at Seong Yeong's direction, then the fault of it is the greater.

Yi Gibin your servant has already had seized and brought in, and means to question him and deal with him according to law. If the outrage of the tombs being broken took place after Yi Gibin came to his post, his guilt is heavier still; it would seem fitting that he be examined under the law, so as to warn subjects who do not hold urgent what touches their sovereign and their forebears.