Report on Holding Joryeong Pass鳥嶺把守事宜。啓
前日所遣鳥嶺把守官辛忠元使人來報云已於延豐水回村擇肥饒處落種十餘石又召集遺民百七十餘人擇其丁壯者敎以火炮自他方欲爲來集者亦相續不絕願得糓種鹽石載船上去以爲安集之資又言鳥嶺把截形止云嶺下十餘里兩峽斗斷中間僅容數疋長若聚石橫築作城十丈建樓其上而下爲虹門以通往來譏察非常賊來閉門守險則儼然成一關口而鳥嶺之守自固願於麥熟之時於淸風堤川永春丹陽及槐山陰竹等地隨便以鹽貿麥自以已聚之軍漸次築之云計之成否未可知鳥嶺設關之事從前講求而不得者今果能爲之則忠州之襟抱自堅矣待其措置成緒。朝廷別遣一使馳下觀之而且以此意先爲移文于本道監司尹承勳使之踏勤以定且延豐旣已殘破不能成縣邑模樣而居民盡散及聞忠元以糓種招集耕種且喜其不被侵於官役稍稍來集而延豐有縣監往往有徵發之事未免掣肘云還集之民悉皆復除十年延豐一縣置之於等棄之地而忘之凡百徭役皆勿侵只專委屯田把守等事待其民力稍完流亡還集然後復設邑居似合時宜此事幷問於監司處之鹽五十餘石令該司及時題給載船上送鹽鐵所管之鹽待其到泊連續付水站判官輪送分給靑藍布十疋亦幷下送軍士之學習火炮而成才者略爲分給以勸其心如何
Sin Chung-won (辛忠元), the guard officer sent earlier to Joryeong (鳥嶺), has sent a man with word. He has already chosen the rich ground at Suhoechon (水回村) in Yeonpung (延豐) and sown somewhat more than ten seom of seed; he has further called together more than a hundred and seventy of the people who remain and, choosing the sturdy among them, is teaching them the firearms; and those who would come and gather from other districts follow one after another without cease. He says that if he may be given grain seed and a few seom of salt, sent up by boat, he will make of it the stock for gathering the people in peace.
He spoke also of the position for blocking and holding Joryeong. Some ten li below the pass two valleys break off as though sheer cut, and the space between them is barely wide enough for a few horses to pass; so if stones were gathered and a wall ten gil high were raised across it, with a tower built above and an arched gate opened below for coming and going while watch is kept for anything out of the ordinary, then when the enemy came the gate would be shut and the rough ground held, and a barrier would stand there in full form, so that the holding of Joryeong would be firm of itself. He says that when the barley ripens he will exchange salt for barley as circumstances allow in Cheongpung, Jecheon, Yeongchun, Danyang, Goesan, Eumjuk, and those parts, and build it up little by little with the soldiers he has already gathered.
We cannot reckon whether it will come to pass or not. But the placing of a barrier at Joryeong is a thing contrived from of old and never achieved, and if it can indeed be done now, the position that shields Chungju will be firm of itself. Let the court wait until his measures have taken hold, and then send down one envoy of its own to go and look; and let this intent be sent first by document to the governor of that province, Yun Seung-hun (尹承勳), that he may go over the ground himself and settle it.
Again, Yeonpung is already so ruined that it does not hold the shape of a district, and the people who lived there have all scattered; but hearing that Sin Chung-won is calling them together with seed and ploughing and sowing, and glad besides that they are not harried by government corvée, they are said to be gathering a few at a time. Yet since Yeonpung has a magistrate who now and again levies men, he cannot escape having his elbow pulled. Let all the people who come back and gather be excused corvée for ten years; and let the one district of Yeonpung be reckoned abandoned land and forgotten, so that no manner of labor service encroaches upon it, and only the business of garrison farming and of the guard be given wholly into his charge. When the people's strength has somewhat ripened and the scattered have come back and gathered, it would seem the right time to set up the district again. Let this matter too be settled by inquiring of the governor.
Let the office concerned issue the more than fifty seom of salt in good time and have it sent up by boat; and let the salt in the charge of the Salt and Iron Commissioner, as it arrives, be handed on in turn to the Superintendent of the River Stations (水站判官) to be sent round and distributed. Would it not be well to send down ten bolts of blue-and-indigo cloth (靑藍布) as well, to be given out a little at a time to those soldiers who have practiced the firearms and mastered the skill, so as to hearten them?
Interlinear notes 2
同月
The same month.
The base text has 踏勤, but this is taken as an error for 踏勘 (to go over the ground in person).