Requesting Repairs to the Mountain Fortresses, and Careful Choice of Magistrates to Win the People請修葺山城以爲戰守之計且愼擇守令以收人心狀

Of late your servant has received in succession urgent word from Han Hyosun (韓孝純), left governor of Gyeongsang, from the army commander Gwon Eungsu (權應洙), and from the naval commander Yi Yuui (李由義) and the rest. The vicious enemy hold Yangsan, Gijang, Ulsan, Dongnae, Busan, Gimhae, Changwon and such places, and their power stretches far; they build houses, raise walls and redoubts widely, gather and store army grain, and cry out that they will presently fall upon Jinju, so that the state of things is a care in the extreme. In general, if the enemy at Ulsan fall upon Gyeongju and reach to the inner land, the left circuit cannot be held; and if the enemy at Yangsan come up again by the straight road and the enemy at Changwon fall westward upon Jinju and reach Honam, then this side and that cannot relieve each other and all three provinces are in peril.

In general the state of things today requires that we fight while holding. This is just what the ancients called "first making it so that the enemy cannot beat you, and then waiting for a time when you may beat the enemy." Now the enemy soldiers are indeed on the seacoast, but of the middle road, from Miryang upward it is already our own land. We ought, place by place as we get them, to set out defences at the steep points and hold them fast. We must surely pick out the places where the lie of the land is easy and commanding, and raise earthen ramparts or wooden stockades and provide many weapons, so that the enemy dare not come and fall upon us; and after that, storing up strength and seizing the opening, we should pick out swift troops with care and have fierce commanders lead them, and feed the soldiers full and feed the horses, and watching the enemy's movements crush and strike them to left and right, so that the enemy are harried and never at ease. Then the enemy will gain nothing by advancing and lose their holding by withdrawing, and in no long while their condition will be such that they flee; and at the time of that withdrawal and flight, taking the moment when they are half across, if we unite the troops of water and land and drive upon them from all four sides, we may win outright. In your servant's trifling and foolish view there seems to be nothing better than this for the plan of today.

That your servant the other day rashly laid before you one view of his, asking that gun towers (砲樓) be raised in haste at the district walls, and asking besides that the mountain fortresses be repaired and the people sent in to hold them, and that when the enemy come the fields be emptied and they be awaited — this was precisely in order to set up first a plan for holding fast. Our country has from of old been long in the holding of walls and short in battle in the open. Gwon Yul's (權慄) fight at Haengju the other day too was because he first got the advantage of the ground, so that though the enemy soldiers were several times more than our troops and they fought bitterly the whole day, in the end they could not take the fortress and went back heavily beaten. That the enemy abandoned the capital and fled cannot be said to have owed nothing to that one battle. By this your servant knows that of the urgent matters of today there is none greater than setting out defences at the steep points and holding fast. Among the Ming commanders, those of discernment, such as Vice Commander Luo (駱參將), all say the same. We ask that the office concerned be made to deliberate upon it in haste, and if it be held practicable, that it be sent down to the several provinces to be raised little by little; and that where a place is fit to be held as a mountain fortress the people be instructed to put out their strength, each in turn, and repair it, and the grain of public and private be gathered within it as well. Yet the people's strength must not be injured by setting a term of days; it rests only upon those in charge disposing of it well.

If the system of gun towers be brought about, it will truly be a benefit for ten thousand generations. Only, it is after there is powder and cannon that the enemy may be driven off. If the powder is not ample and the cannon are not many, there is no benefit in merely setting them out. Let the court dispose of this too in haste: let an office be set up in the capital and many artisans gathered to make ten million and more of them night and day and send them out in shares to the several places; and let the powder be burnt and made in the outer provinces themselves, so that it may be used like water and fire. For pressing down the enemy and holding the country these are the useful implements, and there is nothing else to seek.

The temper of our country is that it cannot plan before a matter and repents as soon as the matter is past. Some years ago there were twenty-seven thousand geun of powder stored in the Armory (軍器寺); and your servant, being then in the ranks of the Border Defense Council (備邊司), wished to keep twenty thousand geun in the capital and send seven thousand geun to Yeongnam and Honam against the Wa raiders. But those who deliberated said that the capital's powder could not be spent at will, and only a few tens of geun were sent out in shares to make up the number. In the end it was all taken by the enemy, and there are places along the seacoast where the defence is held that have not a geun or two in store; though one would use it, could it be had? Now we ought to take deep warning from what is past, and loosen the ban upon making powder privately, and spread abroad the method of handling cannon and have it practised; and every man who cannot hold a bow should be made a soldier of the fire-weapons, divided into bands and formed into companies. If there is a method in the drilling and discipline is kept in ordinary times, by what means will the enemy come and fall upon us? And the shame of the country may be nearly washed away in some part. The ancients said, "If the weapons are not sharp, it is to give your soldiers to the enemy; and if you drive the people of the market place to battle, then even a famed commander will find it hard to accomplish anything."

Now it is already some months since the enemy withdrew, and the peril and urgency of our condition grow worse by the day. Yet the temper of men within and without does not escape growing used to a little ease, and with nothing yet disposed of they pass the days almost to no purpose. If the enemy soldiers should drive far up again, the affairs of the state would have not even ground to unhitch the cart upon; and your servant, unworthy as he is, in secret and alone goes cold at heart.

Further, in Yeongnam the people are nearly all dead of the bad harvest and the pestilence, and from below Mungyeong as far as Miryang, through several hundred li, the smoke of cooking is cut off and it has become an empty land already. Though one would do something, the state of things gives nothing to proceed from. Now we ought in Honam and Hoseo to make haste, to set out devices of many kinds and make the rewards generous, and while the barley and wheat are still among the people to gather them up with all speed; and much would come to ten thousand seok, and little would still be several thousand seok. With this for provisions the soldiers' food may be kept up, and the idle may be called together besides and set to the work of raising gun towers and building ramparts. Therefore your servant submits a separate report, and asks that the office concerned carry it out in haste and make up the warrants of appointment and send them. Then your servant will send the staff officers who go about with him to hurry there and buy them up, so that no burden falls upon the people and the business may still be done.

The careful choosing of magistrates is also an urgent matter of today. In general, since the troops rose, appointments have been made shiftily, only to fill the posts; and the people's living has never been so sorely stripped and pared as at this time. Their resentment and bitter cursing have come to a pass that cannot be borne to hear. Now the ground upon which a state rises or falls and order is brought out of confusion lies always in striving first to win the hearts of the people. Win the hearts of the people, and heaven's will too repents of itself of sending down calamity; this is a principle that surely comes about. Your servant hopes that the magistrates of the several provinces will today be chosen with more care than in ordinary times, matched to their talents and weighed for their ability, so that those of merit and capacity are picked out and charged with office and the greedy and worthless are gradually sifted out and dismissed. And let the governors and those who come and go bearing commands spread abroad and make known the sovereign's benevolent intent, and soothe the withered and sickened people as though their pain were in their own bodies. If the hearts of the people in the four quarters look up to and receive the intent of the state's benevolent care, as though they had come to life again, then though they are put to toil they will not resent it.

Of late not only do the magistrates fail to take to themselves the intent of looking upon the people as one looks upon the wounded; those too who come and go bearing commands are very many, and they press for their entertainment and flog clerks and people, so that wherever they come all men are in an uproar. This too, only after it is ordered again and strict pains are taken to do away with the abuse, will the post roads and the districts have some benefit of it, were it but a fraction.

Your servant has a further care. That the ancestral reigns set up great districts was in every case to interlace the lie and the size of a province, so as to block the outside and hold the inside; and the intent of it is deep and far-reaching in the extreme. To speak of Gyeonggi: Yangju, Suwon, Gwangju, Icheon, and Ganghwa are all the fence of the capital and lands that are as its arms and legs. For such districts one ought to give thought and choose the magistrates with particular care; do as with the Three Protectorates (三輔) of Chang'an or Fengyi (馮翊) of Luoyang, and the capital grows firm of itself. Your servant hears that Byeon Eungseong (邊應星), magistrate of Icheon, has now been made magistrate of Hoeryeong. Byeon Eungseong, being at Icheon, had his achievements plainly shown, rallying the people and the soldiers and blocking the robbers, so that the enemy soldiers in the end dared not come deep in and within the bounds of Icheon the ploughing and weeding did not lose their season. The northern provinces are weighty ground and truly need a man chosen for them; but as of today the enemy's road of passage along the southern edge is the heavier charge. In your servant's foolish view Byeon Eungseong should for now be kept where he is, to soothe and gather and bring the thread of things to order; and the magistracy of Gwangju too should be entrusted to one chosen with all care, so that the three districts of Gwangju, Icheon, and Yeoju stand side by side and unite their strength and are gradually gathered whole again; then the benefit hereafter will be no small one.

This is said only of the one province of Gyeonggi, but there is no province whose condition is not the same. Such a place as Chungju lies upstream of the country and is where the throat is drawn in and blocked; if Chungju cannot be held, then several hundred li along the river all become ground that receives the enemy, and its weight is a hundredfold against that of other districts. Your servant does not yet know what sort of showing Won Sin (元愼) makes in office. But at this day, at the outset of setting up anew a state that has been shaken to its roots, he fears it may not be a thing that this man can bear. Your servant has not yet reached that place, and he will duly look upon it himself and then report again for your reckoning. The reason he lays it before you beforehand as well is that the court, on the day it confers office upon such urgent and weighty magistracies, may choose each one with care and not come to the confused abuse of changing them about.

Your servant is unworthy from the first, and has until now failed the country and failed its grace, and being long in the army has had not an inch of result to show. Beyond all expectation a perilous illness of some months has bound itself upon his body and his life hangs by a thread. He begged to lay down his heavy charge and that another be put in his place to loosen the confusion of the state; but he has waited upon the command more than a month and there is still no direction. When his illness is a little mended he would drag his body and go south. To the eye the business grows harder, while with your servant's spirit and talent there is no way to repay and ward off even one part in ten thousand. In the midst of illness and dimness he has from time to time one or two rash views, and he could not but look up and lay them before you, who hear on every side. Not knowing his own measure, his fault touches upon presumption, and in awe he has nowhere to put himself.