Urgent Report on Gathering Brave Men to Move the Royal Remains at Jeongneung馳。啓募得忠勇人移安。靖陵襚扆狀

On the tenth day of this month your servant had his military officer Yi Hongguk (李弘國), a commander of the gate guard, lead ten personal troops (牙兵) of his own gathering and go to look over Seonneung and Jeongneung and Heolleung. On the fifteenth day Yi Hongguk came back, and the paper he wrote out with his own hand and submitted ran thus:

"Following the order, I led ten troops — Bak Rin (朴麟), a slave of the Office of Guest Ceremonial; Yi Daeseong (李大成), a slave of the Guard Commanders' Office; Yun Hyomin (尹孝閔), a slave of the Office of Herds; Kim Geomheung (金檢興), a slave of the Office of Royal Sacrifices; Jang Heorong (張許弄), a slave of a private house; Yi Cheonbok (李千福), a slave of the State Council; Yi Heorong (李許弄), a slave of the Masan post station; Cheon Su (千守), a commoner; Kim Eopryong (金業龍), a slave of the Western School; and Yi Geum (李金), a slave of a private house — and went by way of Haeyu Pass in Paju and through the town of Yangju, and on the twelfth day at evening reached Dokim (秃任). We took a small boat and went down along the river, and at the third watch came below the Mudeung Rock at Jeojado; and putting in to shore we went into Jeongneung and looked, and the place where the tomb passage had been dug out was some fifteen feet deep and some seven feet wide.

I went down into the pit together with Yi Daeseong and Yun Hyomin, but the night was dark and we could not see clearly, and so we felt about with our hands and examined it. What had been laid within seemed to have been moved out beyond the inner chamber (玄宮) into the earthen pit that had been dug, and there were no other things; and within the tomb passage broken tiles were piled up. After looking it over we came back out.

Near the tomb clothing lay cast away, rotted to pieces, and it crumbled where a hand touched it. We gathered it up piece by piece and buried it at Dokim village, to serve for examination hereafter.

Again from Jeongneung we went on to Seonneung and looked it over. At the great king's tomb the place dug out before the tomb passage was some seven feet deep and some five feet wide, and there was nothing else in the pit; and within the passage the thin boards that had been set outside the tamped lime were almost all burnt, and only a few pieces were left. At the queen's tomb the place dug out before the tomb passage was some six feet deep and some four feet wide, and the boards too were burnt, but the lime that closed it stood as before. Neither of the two tombs had been violated as far as the inner chamber.

As for Heolleung, the night was already near dawn and the enemy camp was very close, and so we came away without having been able to look it over."

That the calamity has come to this is not a thing one who is a subject can bear to speak of. Your servant's five organs crumble and tear, and he does not know what to do.

Your servant took counsel with the commander-in-chief Kim Myeongwon (金命元) and the inspector Gwon Yul (權慄); and some said, "It is easier to enshrine it as it is in the outer coffin chamber and close the hole with earth, and wait quietly for matters to settle"; and some said, "It is fitting to bear it out in secret and move it by the water road to Yanggeun and such places upriver, and so put it a little farther from the enemy's harm."

Your servants have weighed these two courses over and over in detail. The enemy soldiers are at present staying at Sapyeong and Bongeunsa and such places, and day after day they appear and vanish between Samjeondo and Jeongot. Should it happen that, in the course of the removal, the night being short and dawning easily, we met the enemy on the road, the disaster would be beyond all speech.

Therefore your servant has had clean new bedding and oiled thick paper and the like roughly provided in Gwon Yul's camp, meaning to send them in under cover of night. Only, the enemy camp is very near the place of the tombs, and it is only after getting swift and steadfast gentlemen and loyal and bold men that one can go in braving death.

Your servants again, weeping, asked about widely, and Bak Yuin (朴惟仁), middle guard commander under the commissioner for raising righteous troops, and Kim Geukchung (金克忠), a former garrison commander and your servant's military officer, and the rest answered the call and asked to go. Yi Hongguk, who went before, and the ten troops are being sent along with them, and your servant means to get and send yet more men who answer the call of themselves.

Only, this matter is of the utmost weight, and it ought properly to be laid first before the court and its disposition received; but the inner chamber lies exposed, and there is no knowing what may happen again within a day or two. Having no choice, your servant has first sent in Bak Yuin and the rest to look it over again and to weigh the circumstances to the full and dispose of it.

Your servant, hearing of this disaster, had his spirit scattered, and beat the ground and cried out to heaven. Fearing that in the midst of this confusion something may be done amiss, he cannot master his oppression the more. Let the court deal with it well and in haste.