Gyeonggi's Sogo Troops and Its Stockades, and Requesting a Reward and a Seal for Jo Bal of Suwon陳京畿編伍軍及城栅措置形止且請水原判官趙撥論賞仍給印信狀

As for the troops of the Left Rear Camp of Gyeonggi: coming to Pasa Fortress on my circuit, I had them drill in battle formation on the ninth, then gave them orders and agreements concerning the guarding of the river fords and such matters, and dismissed and sent them off. On the sixteenth I came on circuit to Dokseong (禿城), gathered the three thousand and more troops of the Right Camp, drilled them in battle formation, and dismissed them.

The soldiers of the Left and Right Provinces have divided into their ranks somewhat and have not failed to come to the appointed muster, so the beginnings of order are roughly made. Only, they are not fitted out with clothing, their weapons are not in good order, and they are unpracticed in the formations, so there is still much amiss in their advancing and withdrawing and sitting and standing. These are people bound up from the furrows of the fields and drilled now and then, not soldiers quartered and reared in camp, and there is nothing strange in the case being truly so. Only let the drilling not be abandoned; as the days grow long and they are gradually ground and polished into shape, they may serve at a time of urgency.

Among them there are a good many soldiers who shoot the bow well, and there are also men who went through the fighting of earlier days and can be used. I therefore gave orders two and three times that Byeon Yanggeol (邊良傑), the Defense Commander, should sift the company troops closely once again and pick out one in a hundred as picked soldiers (選兵) — without limiting their number — to wait upon the time of their use; and that stout fighters such as Kim Yeong (金瑩) should take them in charge by divisions and train them further apart from the rest.

Dokseong has been long in the ordering, so that compared with Pasa its weapons and gear, its gun batteries, stockades, and arms are already well supplied, and of army grain too there are more than five thousand seok of rice, beans, and unhulled grain (皮穀) stored within the fortress. The soldiers drilled in this district number two thousand four hundred besides, and I have had them counted off against the parapets and distributed over the four faces to be ready to meet emergencies; so that should anything urgent arise, the place can hold firm of itself without waiting to call up the troops of other districts far off.

Some tens of the soldiers recruited into the fortress, Kim Yeong and the rest, submitted a petition to me saying: Jo Bal (趙撥), the Fortress Defense Commander, has rebuilt the wall and raised the three gates and the hall and the quarters, and has repaired and put in order all the arms and the rooms; and he has urged and admonished the company troops into making military farmland (屯田), from which more than six hundred seok of rice were gathered last year. His labor is such as this, and yet there has been no reward for it, so that every man's heart is left wanting.

Looking into the ordering of Dokseong, I found that much of it was by this man's strength, so it seems right to weigh it out and praise and commend him and comfort the soldiers' hearts. Though Jo Bal holds the charge of Deputy Magistrate (判官) of this prefecture, he is always at Dokseong, and in the sending of documents and the drilling of troops he has no official seal (印信), so that he carries everything out with unsealed papers. I beg that, after the example of the Deputy Magistrates of Bukcheong and Seongheung (成興), a seal be granted him so that he may answer to public business. This too comes of what the soldiers and the people wish; let the court weigh what is fitting and dispose of it.