Frontier Matters for Hwang Yeo-il, the Supreme Commander's Aide邊方事宜分付都元帥從事官黃汝一。啓

Hwang Yeo-il (黃汝一), aide to the Supreme Commander, now goes down. The matters the court has charged them with, first and last, are not one or two, and we do not know whether they have been carried out; let Your Majesty have the Supreme Commander look into it at once and report, setting down separately what has been done and what has not.

Again, we hear that the choosing of soldiers in each district is still without order: those able to draw a bow often make excuses and escape garrison duty (防戍), while only the worn-out and feeble and useless are levied day after day, who cannot bear the hardship and flee and scatter one after another. Documents press them, and kinsmen and even the neighboring support households (保) take the poison of it too, so that the countryside is in turmoil, while in the camps there are in truth not even a few hundred crack soldiers. This is a cause of the gravest concern.

It was ordered before that each district should sift out its crack soldiers and send them to the field, that all the rest should furnish grain and fill up the military provisions (軍餉), and that when the provisions were somewhat ample the soldiers of the frontier districts practiced in fighting should be called together to fill the ranks; this being the most urgent matter, notice was given of it more than once. But now we do not know how it has been carried out; let Your Majesty have it firmly enjoined again and put into effect.

Again, Gyeongju and Uiryeong lie far apart, their positions do not join, and the several hundred li between them are empty. If the enemy should come and go at Gyeongju and Uiryeong with scattered parties and so hold our soldiers fast, and with other troops come out into the empty land and strike straight into the interior, there is no one to block them; it is pitiable to speak of.

We hear that Jeong Hui-hyeon (鄭希玄) is alone at Miryang; but Jeong Hui-hyeon is already not a general to be relied on, and the soldiers under him are very few, so what help can he be? Further, by what the Royal Messenger Gwak Gon (郭崑) has said, Hui-hyeon gathered and set up more than two hundred soldiers from Miryang and those parts, but midway their food gave out and they scattered away; and now, having obtained some tens of seom of grain, more than a hundred of the scattered soldiers have come back and gathered again. From this it may be seen that if provisions can truly be made ready and the scattered soldiers gathered in, soldiers have never yet been lacking.

In the one province of Gyeongsang the people have been scattered for three years and have not been gathered in again; they start like beasts and scatter like birds, and those who have starved and rolled in the dust and died are past counting, while now and again they drift in among the enemy and make a living of it. So between Dongnae and Gimhae our people fill the fields and the fishing grounds, and our generals and magistrates look on it as straw and chaff and leave them to come and go; this is truly to drive the people over for the enemy's benefit. With business handled so, how shall we turn back the hearts of the people already scattered and contrive a long plan for recovery?

Now those who are made generals fold their hands and pass their days at ease in places where nothing is happening; and when the court bids them fight and hold, they are sure to say, "We have no soldiers; what are we to do?" and when they meet the enemy they are sure to say, "Few cannot stand against many," and fall back as they fight. Out of these few phrases they make a formula for escaping blame and fending off responsibility, and they have not the least mind to labor and burn with care and seek life in the midst of death. Had discipline truly been clear in ordinary times, how could this company have escaped the axe?

The autumn harvest is now already past. Of the land that has fallen into a waste of weeds there is of course nothing to say; but even what the people who happily remain had tilled, clinging here and there to the seacoast, has all been plundered by the enemy, which is truly grievous.

For the places in Gyeongsang Province that are broadly still whole — Jinju, Gonyang, Hapcheon, Hamyang, Goryeong, Geochang, Aneum, Saneum, Samga, Chogye, Uiryeong, Danseong, Hadong, and the like — let it be looked into at once, by the actual figures, how much government grain (官穀) has been gathered in this year; and when next year's seed and farming provisions (農糧) have been set aside, let all the rest be made military grain, supplied in detail according to the number of soldiers in each camp, so that there may be no evil of over-spending or of running short.

If there is anyone among the people with even a little grain stored up, let him be urged with all sincerity, sparing neither rank nor office, freeing men from base status, and setting the number of seom lightly, so that even small amounts may be gathered in. Let the monk soldiers (僧軍) and others be set to gather acorns in quantity deep in the mountains, to provide against the time when grain runs out. Besides these, let the yield of the garrison farms, the endowment lands of the temples (位田), the rice paid in lieu of service by the soldiers on rotational duty (上番) of whom notice was sent before, what has been exchanged for the rice of the public slaves (公賤), and this year's land tax (田稅) each have their total reckoned and be gathered in at the proper season, so that there be an accounting of what goes out and what comes in, and that no greedy official or crafty general may cheat and hide and swallow it.

Let the people of Miryang, Dongnae, Gimhae, and the other places who have lost their homes be soothed and relieved in every way; let the able-bodied be put into the ranks and the rest be settled in peace. This too is a thing that must be done quickly.

The magistrate of Sangju, Jeong Gi-ryong (鄭起龍), is swift and brave and fights well, and he was raised to senior rank and given the title of Commander for Suppression and Capture (討捕將) not for the one business of the local bandits (土賊) alone. The straight road is empty, and Sangju is the district that holds the great camp beyond the pass at Joryeong; and so Gi-ryong was to take this as his occasion to call soldiers together and prepare against an urgent hour. It is fitting that the Supreme Commander be made to convey this intent fully once more and enjoin it firmly, and that an understanding be reached beforehand with the Military Commandant of Chungju, Kim Myeong-yun (金命胤), so that whenever anything unlooked-for occurs they may pass word of it on the spot, block and hold the straight road, and watch for whatever is out of the ordinary.

Of the other matters, clear notice has already been given before this. Would it not be well to speak to Hwang Yeo-il and send him off, that the several items above may be carried out in earnest once more?