③ Admiral Yi's Mentor: Jeong Geol

In the last post, I told the story of General Yi Eok-gi, the fellow commander who was closest to Admiral Yi Sun-sin — the commander who saved Joseon at sea during the Imjin War. This time I introduce a figure of a somewhat different kind: General Jeong Geol (丁傑, 1514–1597), a veteran commander thirty-one years older than Admiral Yi, who had also passed the military examination thirty-two years before him. I would like to call General Jeong Geol Admiral Yi's mentor.

General Jeong Geol

A Seventy-Nine-Year-Old Veteran

General Jeong Geol was born in 1514.

In 1592, when the Imjin War broke out, Admiral Yi was forty-eight and General Jeong Geol was seventy-nine. In the military examination, too, General Jeong Geol (1544) was thirty-two years ahead of Admiral Yi (1576).

Long before he met Admiral Yi, General Jeong Geol was already a veteran who had fought Japanese pirates as naval garrison commander of Namdopo (Jindo, South Jeolla Province) during the Eulmyo Japanese Raid of 1555, the 10th year of King Myeongjong's reign. After that he served as Right Gyeongsang Naval Commander, Left Jeolla Naval Commander, and Right Jeolla Naval Commander — a career built entirely long before Admiral Yi made his name. In the Joseon navy, few men had commanded as many different naval commands as General Jeong Geol.

A Veteran Helps a Young Naval Commander

On the eve of the Imjin War, Admiral Yi, thirty-one years younger, invited this seasoned elder to serve as jobangjang (助防將, deputy defense commander) of the Left Jeolla Naval Command. A jobangjang was a commander who assisted the chief commander (主將) in defending the region and also took part in actual battles. The first day General Jeong Geol appears in the Nanjung Ilgi, Admiral Yi's war diary, is the 21st day of the 2nd month of 1592, before the war had even begun. In the diary entry from Admiral Yi's inspection tour of the garrisons under his command, it is briefly written: "Deputy Defense Commander Jeong Geol (丁傑) also came to see me... we got drunk together." Two months before the war broke out, the two were already close enough to get drunk together.

When the war began, General Jeong Geol helped Admiral Yi as deputy defense commander. On the 1st day of the 9th month of 1592, General Jeong Geol also fought at the Battle of Busanpo as deputy defense commander. The report on that day's battle contains the passage: "The commanders under the naval commanders of the three provinces, together with Deputy Defense Commander Jeong Geol (丁傑) and others, joined forces and smashed them all, leaving nothing." A seventy-nine-year-old veteran had gone out to fight in the waters off Busan.

As Chungcheong Naval Commander, He Saves Haengju Fortress

In the 2nd month of 1593, at the age of eighty, General Jeong Geol became Chungcheong Naval Commander and achieved great merit at Haengju Fortress.

The story of Haengju Fortress goes like this.

In the 2nd month of 1593, the Joseon army led by General Gwon Yul was surrounded by a huge Japanese force at Haengju Fortress, and was driven into a crisis as its arrows and supplies ran out. At that moment, General Jeong Geol loaded panokseon (the standard Joseon warships) with arrows and supplies, sailed up the Yellow Sea and the Han River, and delivered them to Haengju Fortress.

The Annals of the Joseon Dynasty record: "They fought from the hour of myo (5–7 a.m.) to the hour of sin (3–5 p.m.), and their arrows were almost exhausted, when just then Chungcheong Naval Commander Jeong Geol brought arrows and rescued them from their peril." This support played a decisive role in the victory at Haengju.

1593 (the Gyesa Year): The Two Meet Again

On the 1st day of the 6th month of 1593, General Jeong Geol, now Chungcheong Naval Commander, appears again in the Nanjung Ilgi. In that day's entry, the name of General Na Dae-yong (羅大用) is written alongside General Jeong Geol's. So General Na Dae-yong, whom I will cover separately later in this series, and General Jeong Geol came to see Admiral Yi on the same day.

From that day on, the two again saw each other almost every day. The Nanjung Ilgi repeatedly shows General Jeong Geol, together with General Yi Eok-gi, eating with Admiral Yi, shooting arrows, and discussing military affairs. There is also a record that on the 15th day of the 8th month of 1593, the Chuseok harvest festival, many commanders — Yi Eok-gi, Jeong Geol, Kwon Jun, Eo Yeong-dam, Sin Ho, Bae Heung-rip, and others — gathered in one place and spent the holiday together. It looks less like an old teacher and a young pupil than like fellow soldiers guarding the battlefield together.

What is interesting is that General Jeong Geol's name appears intensively in the Nanjung Ilgi for a little over three months, from the 1st day of the 6th month to the 11th day of the 9th month of 1593, and after that never appears again, right up to the end of the war. Taken together with the record that around this time General Jeong Geol moved from Chungcheong Naval Commander to Jeolla Defense Commander, it seems that he probably left the Hansan Island camp at this time.

General Jeong Geol retired in 1595, and in 1597, in the midst of the second Japanese invasion, he died in his hometown of Goheung at the age of eighty-four. His son Jeong Yeon (丁淵) and grandson Jeong Hong-rok (丁弘祿) were also killed fighting during the Imjin War and the second invasion, so three generations of one family gave their lives for their country.

Remembering General Jeong Geol Today

In Andong Village, Gildu-ri, Podu-myeon, Goheung County, where General Jeong Geol was born, there is a shrine dedicated to him, Andongsa (安洞祠). By coincidence, it is said to stand right in front of the Andong Tomb, a tomb from the Mahan period (where a gilt-bronze crown and gilt-bronze shoes were excavated). At Yi Sun-sin Square in front of Jinnamgwan Hall in Yeosu, fifteen people who helped Admiral Yi are carved in stone, and one of them is a marker stone for General Jeong Geol. It is said that his portrait, royal letters of appointment, and other items are also displayed at the Balpo History Exhibition and Experience Center at Balpojin in Goheung, where Admiral Yi once served as garrison commander.

In Goheung, South Jeolla Province, General Jeong Geol's hometown, there is even a military unit named after him. In 2015, a battalion of the 31st Division stationed in the area (2nd Battalion, Unit 7391) was renamed the "Jeong Geol Battalion" after a naming contest. The name of a veteran who went back to the battlefield at nearly eighty lives on as the unit name of the young soldiers who still guard that place today.

Closing

I cannot help but notice that Admiral Yi communicated closely with General Yi Eok-gi, who was sixteen years younger than him, and also communicated without formality with General Jeong Geol, who was thirty-one years older. You will all know the Confucian principle of jangyuyuseo (長幼有序) — that there is an order between elders and juniors. That age stressed jangyuyuseo even more than ours does, yet in dealing with people, Admiral Yi did not make age a major standard. Then what standard did Admiral Yi use in dealing with people? I think I will have the chance to share my thoughts on this again toward the end of the "People of Admiral Yi" series.

👉 Next post: ④ The Turtle Ship's Shipbuilding Supervisor: Na Dae-yong

— Momcheolhak