Grain at Guseong, and Commending Those Who Volunteered龜城粮穀形止及請褒獎自願從軍人。啓

Looking of late at the report of the aide (從事官) Hong Jongnok (洪宗祿), your servant finds that the grain in the Changseong storehouse — white rice, field rice, and roughly hulled rice together — comes to more than ten thousand seok in all, and can be eaten without further pounding, so that its amount is the most ample. The grain in the Sakju storehouse is more than four thousand nine hundred seok of field rice, more than seven hundred and fifty seok each of white rice and roughly hulled rice, and more than one hundred and twenty seok of steamed rice, seven thousand seok and more in all; and the fodder beans of the two districts together come to more than seven thousand seok. The grain of these two districts is ample to supply ten thousand soldiers for some months. Only, the road is long and men and horses are not to be had, so that it is hard to carry.

Yet the grain of Changseong, if sent down the water by boat, reaches Uiju in a few days, while Sakju's must needs be moved to Guseong and from Guseong again to Jeongju, and that course seems the easier. Only, the grain of Guseong is plentiful to begin with; so if the Sakju grain be left for a while and the grain of the Guseong storehouse first moved to Jeongju and Bakcheon, the Ming troops can be supplied. Would it not be well to have the Border Defense Council (備邊司) inform the supply commissioner (調度使) and the rest of this intent in haste, so that they may deal with it in season as the situation allows?

Further, those whom Hong Jongnok called together — men who of themselves wished to go and spy out the enemy or to follow the army — and sent to the commander-in-chief number seventeen, first and last. Among them two, Han Geukdu (韓克斗) and Kim Gisu (金起壽), special guardsmen (別侍衛) of Sakju, came straight here. Han Geukdu says of himself that in the fighting at Pyeongyang he shot and hit a good many of the enemy, and now he wishes again to go to the army of his own will. Kim Gisu cut off an enemy's head and presented it to the camp, but no reward reached him and he is rather aggrieved; moreover three brothers of his house are said to have all died fighting hard, which is much to be pitied. These two, your servant thinks, should have their rewards determined at once after precedent, so that the time be not let pass; and the households of those who died fighting should be amply cared for in their own place, that those who come after may be encouraged.

The one district of Sakju was lately shaken by rumor, and its clerks fled so that the storehouse was nearly left unguarded; but Yi Cheonsi (李天始), head of the local council (座首) of that district, guarded it with all his heart and kept it whole, and his merit is said to be no small one. Such a man too must be specially commended by the office concerned before the hearts of men will be stirred. Therefore your servant ventures to report this together with the rest.