Why Grain Cannot Be Had beyond Gyeonggi, and the Commander-in-Chief's Wish to Relieve the Starving馳。啓京畿以後糧料難辦緣由及提督自欲賑救飢民狀
天將聞京城倭賊多聚且軍器未及齊到今曉出令先送精兵三千名馳據龍山吾將起程親到京城觀其形勢云而深以糧草未備爲憂臣欲先往前路親爲檢擧則提督許之有張總兵在傍云大軍方在此處議政先去則凡事恐益難辦不如姑使留此提督曰然臣以此姑爲仍留而京畿之事板蕩尤甚船到後西江者亦難趁時輸入故昨日提督命軍兵往受于其處而馬豆草料尤爲乏絕雖將官之馬不給芻草已累日提督爲人嚴而不苛且於我國之事多所寬護而事勢悶迫日甚一日當初賊兵雖未退而江華等處軍人及避亂之人其數過萬若能先爲知委分部整頓賊退之後卽以其衆一齊收入則事之難處不至於如此之甚而此道號令多門人心渙散平日官家使喚之民盡入於義兵不事官役其餘則巡察使以下各有所率名爲牙兵不卽調發奔走船泊之糓近在三十里之地而無計輸入雖焦心竭力而事未易集臣實罔措南陽水原等處倉糓輸入京城事亦累爲移文項背相望而全羅監司權慄京畿左監司成泳尙不使一介之人來到軍前禀定約束探候師期亦未知何故如使大軍入城而糧草不繼則如臣者雖萬死不足以贖誤事之罪日夜痛憫提督於黃海一路見百姓供頓困苦深加憐愍昨日與鄭同知趙知縣等私語云此邦之民赤立待死其無賑濟之事否譯官對以常時則春初必擧賑恤捄民之政而今則官家無糓兵亂未定故計無所出耳提督憮然曰吾行有三升布千餘疋欲以此貿糓賑恤飢民其可爲乎譯官對曰民間豈有可貿之糓乎提督深加歎愍且曰吾者在寧夏間民有賣妻者召而責問其民云貧不能畜妻故也吾以私銀贖還其妻且給粟二十石使之完保大抵民惟邦本本固邦寧陪臣等其知此意乎凡人要須濟活人命得天陰隲然後福作長遠趙知縣因謂此國刑杖太重路見栲掠人者必於膝腳此人身要緊之處少杖必死與中國之法異矣提督因謂通事曰中國被㺚子搶掠處則人民久不還集今汝國賊退之後民皆來供官役至於兒女皆負戴且無官員一人從賊去者云汝國人心忠厚可嘉且縷縷言民生可憐之意云臣觀黃海一路之民久爲賊所侵害聞。天兵之至率多盡力供頓或有以壺漿斗餅迎候者提督以下將官深加憐愍而其言愛民保國之道綽有古名將之風非但爲摧堅䧟陣之類故敢此陳達而方春賑貸等事雖未暇擧行而慰撫遺民勞來還集之術。朝廷預爲講求十分措置爲當守令多取不經事武臣雖因一時應敵之計而民生以此益困賊退地方必先考其能否有所澄汰然後民政庶幾可擧
The Ming commander, hearing it said that many Japanese had gathered at the capital, and as the military gear had not yet all come up, gave order at dawn today and first sent three thousand swift troops to gallop to Yongsan and hold it, saying: "I shall set out on the road and come to the capital in person and see how the matter stands." Yet even so he was deeply anxious that the provisions and fodder were not provided.
When your servant said he would go ahead along the road and keep a close hand upon it himself, the Commander-in-Chief allowed it; but Regional Commander Zhang (張總兵), who was at his side, said: "The grand army being at present in this place, if the State Councillor goes ahead it is to be feared that everything will be the harder to provide; nothing would be better than to have him stay here for the present." And the Commander-in-Chief said that this was so. For this reason your servant has stayed on for the present.
In the business of Gyeonggi the collapse of men's livelihood is the worse, so that even the ships that have come to Huseogang (後西江) are hard to unload in time. And so yesterday the Commander-in-Chief ordered his soldiers to go to that place and receive it and bring it in. Horse beans and fodder are the more wanting, and it is already many days since even the commanders' horses could be given fodder. The Commander-in-Chief is by nature strict but not harsh, and there is besides much in which he indulgently shields our country's affairs; but the straits grow worse by the day.
At the first, even when the enemy soldiers had not withdrawn, the troops and the refugees at Ganghwa and such places were more than ten thousand. Had word been given beforehand and the departments divided and set in order, and had the whole body of them been gathered in at once as soon as the enemy withdrew, the difficulty of the business would not be as grave as this. But in this province the orders come out of several doors and the hearts of the people are scattered. The common people whom the government offices used in ordinary times have all gone into the righteous troops and do not do the country's work, and the rest are each under the command of someone, from the Inspector downward, and are called personal troops (牙兵) and cannot be levied directly. Though the grain that lies in the ships is at a place not thirty li off, there is no plan for bringing it in; and for all his burning anxiety and his utmost effort the business is not readily done, so that your servant truly does not know what to do.
As for bringing the granary grain of Namyang, Suwon and such places into the capital, dispatch has followed dispatch upon it; yet Gwon Yul (權慄), Governor of Jeolla, and Seong Yeong (成泳), Governor of Left Gyeonggi, have not yet sent so much as one man to the camp to ask and settle the engagement and to look to the season of the troops' march; and your servant does not know the reason for this either. If the grand army enters the city and the provisions do not keep up, ten thousand deaths would not suffice for one such as your servant to repay the offence of having spoiled the business; and so he is in pain and distress night and day.
The Commander-in-Chief, seeing on the one road of Hwanghae how the people suffer in entertaining the troops, pitied them deeply. Yesterday, speaking privately with Deputy Director Zheng (鄭同知), District Magistrate Zhao (趙知縣) and others, he said: "The people of this country stand with nothing on their backs and wait for death; is there no relief given?" And the interpreter answered: "In an ordinary time the government of relieving the people and saving them would surely be set forth at the beginning of spring; but now there is no grain in the government offices and the fighting has not subsided, so that there is nowhere for a plan to come from." The Commander-in-Chief was sorry at this and said: "I have in my train something over a thousand bolts of samseungpo cloth (三升布); I would buy grain with this and relieve the starving people. Can it be done?" And the interpreter said: "How should there be grain among the people that could be bought?" The Commander-in-Chief sighed deeply and pitied them.
He said further: "When I was lately at Ningxia (寧夏) there was one of the people selling his wife, and I called him in and rebuked him and questioned him, and the man said it was because he was poor and could not keep a wife. I redeemed his wife with my own private silver and gave her back to him, and gave him besides twenty seok of millet, so that they might be kept whole. In general the people are the root of the state, and only when the root is firm is the state at peace. Do the ministers know this meaning? Every man must save the lives of men, and only after he has won the hidden favour of Heaven is his good fortune long and far-reaching."
District Magistrate Zhao said next: "In this country the punishment of flogging is too heavy. Seeing men flogged on the road, it is always upon the knees and the legs, and these are vital places in a man's body, so that even a light beating must kill him; and this differs from the law of China."
The Commander-in-Chief next said to the interpreter: "In China, where places have been plundered by the Tartars (㺚子), the people long do not come back and gather; but now in your country, after the enemy withdrew, the people all come and do the country's work, and even the children and the women all carry loads on their backs and on their heads, and besides it is said that not one official went off after the enemy. The hearts of the people of your country are loyal and generous, and it is to be commended." And he spoke at length besides of his pity for the people's lives.
Your servant has seen that the people on the one road of Hwanghae, though they have long suffered the enemy's injuries, on hearing it said that the Ming troops were coming have for the most part entertained them with all their strength, and that some even came out to meet them with drink in bottles and cakes by the measure. The Commander-in-Chief and the commanders under him pitied them deeply. In their speaking of the way of loving the people and holding the state there is amply the air of the great commanders of old, and they are not merely men who break the strong and overthrow battle-lines; and so your servant dares to report it thus.
As for the business of relieving and lending in the spring (賑貸), though there be no leisure to carry it out, the way of soothing and comforting the people who remain so that they come back and gather should be considered beforehand by the court and fully disposed of. For district magistrates military men untried in affairs have been used in many places; and though it be said to be for the sake of a plan to hold off the enemy for a time, the people's livelihood is the more distressed by it. In the regions from which the enemy have withdrawn, only after their fitness and unfitness has first been looked into and sifted will the people's condition be nearly set right.
Interlinear notes 1
癸巳正月二十五日
The twenty-fifth day of the first month of the Gyesa year