Requesting That the Water Route Be Guarded and Deputy Commissioner No Jik Sent Out請兼防水路副使盧稷幷爲出送狀

Your servant has reverently received the royal directive saying that the enemy troops have already taken Jinju. Because your servant is now leading troops and guarding the borders of Gyeonggi and Chungcheong, I mean to set out from Yongjin toward the country between Suwon and Yangseong.

In the upheaval of the imjin year the enemy troops divided into three roads and drove upon the capital. Two roads passed Chungju and crossed at the river before Cheongsimnu in Yeoju, coming out on the left of Seoul; one road came out at the Han River by way of the Cheongju and Jincheon road. The enemy troops this time also are in a posture to divide their roads. Though they cry that they are heading for Honam alone, it cannot be known in what quarter their murderous blade is fixed to come out.

What was ordered to Gyeonggi at the outset was only this: that the troops of the Left Rear Encampment be attached to the Left Defense Commander to hold several hundred li of country along the river, and that the troops of the Jeonjae Encampment divide to hold the two places Dokseong and Yangseong. Of late, with the work of supporting the Ming army, corvée of every kind has crowded in, and the province has filled that service with all its sogo troops (속오군, 束伍軍) from every quarter, so that it is harried and has no leisure. Hence circumstances do not allow gathering them all in one place as a plan of defense; we have only picked out from among them those who can handle a bow somewhat and set a few to hold each place in division, and their numbers are trifling and not sufficient. Further, the troops above and below along the river cannot be taken up and moved for use in the Right Province, nor can the troops of the Right Province abandon the posts they rely on and be joined for use in the Left; so the posture of both places is solitary and thin. Such is the shape, in its ease and its difficulty, of barring and holding Gyeonggi.

If it cannot be helped, then let the soldiers of Pyeongan and Hwanghae be called up to their full number as your servant agreed the other day and be encamped to hold the front face; and if your servant meets events as his strength allows, there may yet be one hope in ten thousand. Let the court weigh this and dispose of it with urgency.

The circumstances of today differ from the imjin year. The water road and the land road are urgent both at one time, and places such as Jinju are all on the seacoast. Speaking from this: on the land road the Ming army does at least remain in Honam, but the way is rather far; the water road lies empty, with nothing to bar it. I have heard it told that when our troops were beaten at Yeongdeung the other day, a Chungcheong oarsman who fled back rode a broken boat and reached Asan in five days. By this the nearness of the water road may be known. If the enemy's ships take the gap and invade straight up, the water road of Gyeonggi is the more pitiable. Though your servant has but one body, the roads lie far apart; how shall he reach round and take thought for all?

In all matters of the outer districts the Provincial Governor is the master, and your servant's charge is to inspect and press. Hence from before, whenever there was a command, it was all sent by dispatch to the Governor, and the Governor again passed the order to the commanders, officers and magistrates of every quarter, so that the chain of authority was preserved. Of late, with the provisioning of the Ming army in Seoul and the receiving of commanders and officers coming by the western road, the Governor is harried and has no leisure and is always in Seoul, and the military affairs of the front face, the procuring of army grain, the furnishing of weapons and the like he cannot look back upon and oversee. Your servant has come out alone, and it is as though the work had no master: in the passing of documents days are lost at every turn, and all matters drag and slacken, so that there is nowhere to lay a hand. This too is a state of affairs utterly distressing and most difficult.

If the Inspector Hong Isang (洪履祥) were made to come out as well and go on circuit, dividing the roads and meeting events, the postures of water and land would seem to link to one another, and there might be some small gain to the work; and so in awe I venture to speak of it. Let the court also be made to weigh it and dispose of it with urgency. As for Deputy Commissioner No Jik (盧稷): at the first, because the Minister of War Yi Hangbok (李恒福) had submitted his resignation and only the Second Minister remained alone, he could not come out at the same time. Now the state of affairs is most urgent; let No Jik also come out, so that he may be in one place with your servant and weigh and manage the work.