Urgent Report on Providing the Army Grain after Receiving Orders有。旨祇受後馳報糧料措置緣由狀
二月初九日右副承旨成貼有。旨書狀臣在東坡酒祗受凡糧料草若非本處積在則必須用力運轉及其期限然後可以接濟大軍如使轉輸不時則雖萬石之糓在於相望之地而軍行未免飢餓當初自開城以上非徒賊兵未退而一年焚蕩之餘公私殫竭更無辦出之路故自前年船運南方之糓置諸江華以待軍興其數至於數萬餘石若能先期整齊船隻收拾人夫聞大軍臨到以船輸泊于後西江而又以所收人夫登時運入至於芻草則一路亦無可辦之勢若預爲收取於延安江華通津豐德等處多聚公私船隻趁時輸到則似不至於狼狽而事未預措但於賊退一日之內招呼開城一府渙散之民奔走轉輸彼此不及一日二日之間軍已告飢馬已疲頓臨時雖竭心焦唇亦無奈何自平安道以來各官之中不能理事之狀開城府爲最其致。天將之責怒無足怪也今則戶曹判書李誠中與運糧使權徵兼留守李延馨留在開城府分戶曹判書朴忠侃留東坡檢察糧草而東坡則時方遺在米六千九百餘石豆二千一百六十餘石其自忠淸全羅道載船而來到者亦且數千餘石而平賊之期未知何日坐食之軍處處屯聚事勢悶迫罔知所措唐糧八萬石其數甚多卽今水路氷解船行無礙而大同江下流多有船隻急時收合別遣勤幹之人領來朝廷別爲善處
On the ninth day of the second month your servant received at Dongpa the letter of orders written out and sent down by the Right Deputy Royal Secretary.
Now army grain and fodder, unless they lie stored in the place itself, must be shifted and carried with labor spent upon them and brought up by the appointed day, and only so can a great army be kept supplied. If the carrying lose its time, then though a myriad sacks of grain lie in a land within sight, the troops on the march do not escape hunger.
At the first, above Gaeseong not only had the enemy troops not withdrawn, but after a year of burning and sweeping the public offices and the households were all dried up and there was no way to provide anything afresh. Therefore from last year the grain of the south was carried by boat and laid up at Ganghwa to await the hour when the army should rise, and its quantity comes to several myriad sacks. Had boats been made ready beforehand and laborers gathered, and had it been carried by boat to Huseogang (後西江) and landed upon word that the great army had come, and carried in at once by the laborers so gathered, it would have served. Fodder there is no means of providing along this road either; and had it been gathered beforehand in Yeonan, Ganghwa, Tongjin, Pungdeok, and those parts, and many boats of the public offices and of private men assembled and it carried in in time, it seems matters would not have come to ruin.
Yet the business was not provided for beforehand, and within the single day after the enemy withdrew the scattered people of the one district of Gaeseong were called up and the carrying hurried, but it fell short on this side and on that, so that within a day or two the troops already reported hunger and the horses were already spent. Then indeed we burned with anxiety until our lips were dry, but nothing could be done. Of all the districts from Pyeongan Province onward, the one whose business was worst managed is Gaeseong; so it is no wonder either that it has drawn the Ming general's rebuke and anger.
Now the Minister of Taxation Yi Seongjung (李誠中), the Grain Transport Commissioner (運糧使) Gwon Jing (權徵), and the concurrent prefect Yi Yeonhyeong (李延馨) stay at Gaeseong, and the Deputy Minister of Taxation (分戶曹判書) Bak Chunggan (朴忠侃) stays at Dongpa, and they look to the army grain and fodder. At Dongpa there now remain six thousand nine hundred odd sacks of rice and two thousand one hundred sixty odd of beans, and what has been carried by boat from Chungcheong and Jeolla Provinces is several thousand sacks besides. Yet the day for pacifying the enemy, none knows when it will be, while troops that sit and eat are gathered in every place; the state of things is pitiable and your servant knows not what to provide.
The eighty thousand sacks of Ming army grain are very great in quantity, and now that the ice of the waterways is loosed there is no bar to the passage of boats, and there are many boats below the Daedong River. Let them be gathered up with haste and a diligent and able man sent apart to lead them up; let the court handle this with particular care.
Interlinear notes 2
二月二十一日
The twenty-first day of the second month
The source text has 李延馨. He may be one and the same as Yi Jeonghyeong (李廷馨), the Governor who had charge of affairs about Gaeseong at the same period. This will be settled after collating the source text. — Translator