Report on the Ills of Carrying the Army Grain陳運糧之獘狀

Looking at it quietly, I find that there are three ills by which the army grain is scattered and lost, and three difficulties in disposing of it, and that the plan for keeping up the supply of grain is the first and most urgent among them.

At the outset, while the enemy's strength in Yeongnam had not withdrawn, the Honam army grain was hauled as far as the pass road and there we waited for the enemy to flee. But lawless men of Seongju (星州) got themselves up falsely in the guise of Japanese and leapt out unexpectedly shouting that the enemy were coming, so that the people carrying loads on their backs and heads all took fright and scattered. The lawless men stole as they pleased, and what was lost came to nearly three hundred seok. This happened before I arrived, and the several districts are now recovering the amount stolen.

In the past days, when Jinju had already fallen and the enemy turned toward Sonam (溯南) and the news was most urgent, the Honam army grain hauled into the parts about Unbong, Namwon, and Imsil was likewise great in amount. Yet some of that grain was thrown away on the road and some carried off home before its time. What had already come within the bounds of Yeongnam but had not reached a relay post (站所) was held wherever it came and used to feed the Ming troops; but as this was done in haste and confusion, the records are disordered and cannot be relied on. We are now sending official queries to the governors of the two provinces to establish how much was scattered and lost and how much was issued out.

In general, when the several districts of Honam haul the army grain, they reckon it out by their taxable land (田結) and the number of men and horses, hand the grain over, and commit it to the hands of a supervising officer (監官) and the clerk in charge (色吏); so it dawdles on the road and is lost in every sort of way, and at any false alarm the party breaks up and scatters and the grain is lost as I reported above. This is one ill by which the army grain is scattered and lost upon the road.

In my view, when the army grain is hauled hereafter, either firm and clear-sighted magistrates or officers of high rank should be appointed special commissioners (差使員) over divided stretches of the road; the grain should be counted out piece by piece as it is taken from each district; and a day should be set for reaching the provincial bound, where it is to be mustered and checked and then brought into the relay post. Then there would be no ill of its being scattered and lost on the road.

Once the Honam army grain reaches a relay post we would gather it all and store it in one place, but in Yeongnam there are no storehouses fit to keep it safe, and no manpower either. Moreover the business of requisitioning horses (刷馬) takes the army grain for its capital, and the horses that have hauled a load, once they have delivered it, are sure to run off home every one. So of necessity the grain is parceled out to those who delivered it, each to guard his own share; their daily rations are issued to them in the order in which they reached the post; and only when it has all been distributed are they let go home — and this has already become the rule at every post. Yet as the days grow long the provision gives out of itself, the stealing does not stop, and there is no way to shut out cheating. Where a man buys and sells it as he pleases, he is punished severely as soon as he is found out; where one or two seok are short, his cattle and horses are sold and the amount made good at once; and where more than ten seok are short, his home district is made to recover it from his kinsmen in shares — but there is no telling when it will all be recovered.

Where the generals Liu (劉) and Wu (吳) are quartered, the soldiers have a fixed number of their own, so there is no ill of overissue when the rations are handed out. But at every post there are soldiers quartered without a general over them, and picket troops coming and going on the road, and these write out their own draw-tickets and add to the figures as they please, so that a man with a single horse will sometimes make it ten. They bring an oversized measure (말) besides and do the measuring themselves; and if the officer issuing the rations tries to correct an inflated ticket or a measuring done at will, they lay on the whip as they please and no one dares say a word, but lets them take whatever they will. How is a limited store of army grain to meet such boundless greed? This is one ill by which the army grain is scattered and lost after it has reached the relay posts.

In my view, grain stolen by those set to guard it will be recovered, soon or late, by our own local officials, who take charge of the shortfall; but the ill of the Ming soldiers using it as they please is not a thing we can set right. Further, the banner troops (標下軍) of the three generals under the Superintendent (經理) and the Commander-in-Chief cannot be held back and forbidden even by the orders of Liu and Wu. If the court would send a writing to the Liaison Commissioner (接伴使) to obtain a prohibitory placard from the Commander-in-Chief and have it hung up along the pass road, there would be good hope of their taking fright and leaving off.

Where the great army lies strung out like a single belt, relay posts have been set up at intervals and provisions (糧料) stored at them. But in the past days, the enemy's strength in the Right Province being urgent, four or five Liaodong generals moved from Sangju to quarter at Geochang and Hamyang, and the two generals Liu and Wu moved from Haepyeong and Daegu to quarter at Hapcheon and Chogye. The provision sent on from each post was not less than a thousand seok, and part of it reached the troops while part was still on the road, all jumbled together over a hundred li. And now of a sudden they return to their original posts, and we would haul the provision that was spread about back again in a single morning — but there is no way it can be done. There is no knowing how much was lost and scattered on the days when a scant store of grain was moved one way and then the other, and it is for this alone that the provisions run out so readily. This is one ill by which the army grain is scattered and lost in the moving to and fro.

In my view, as for this, I shall together with the local officials trace out where it went and in the end recover and restore the amount. My setting out in full the ill of its being scattered and lost in the moving to and fro is to make it plain to the court that provisions dwindle and shrink of themselves by the mere act of being moved about.

Of the army grain, the white rice will before long give out, while of beans there remain at the posts some ten thousand seok in all, heaped in the open on bare ground; for four months now nothing has kept the rain off them, and more than half have rotted, which is a true waste. If we would have the magistrates of Yeongnam look after them, those who delivered them from Honam will surely not submit to their control; and of magistrates in Sonam there are only one or two for four or five posts, so the guarding cannot be divided among them. This is one difficulty in disposing of the army grain.

In my view, we should watch the enemy's advance and withdrawal in these days and the going and staying of the Ming army, bring the grain into one place and have the magistrate of that district look after it, and send home all those who delivered it from Honam. What among it has rotted too far to serve as army grain should, as in the report I submitted earlier, be measured out at each post to the starving people in relief.

In the moving of army grain and the feeding of troops the accounting is a weighty thing, and the ministry concerned has its own charge of it; from the first I have only superintended the transport (督運) and kept the men fed according as provisions were there or not. Since the Minister of Taxation died of illness, the accountants (算員) he had under him have scattered and gone back to the capital, and the ministry's records too are unclear. I can only reckon roughly by what was spent at each post and what is left, so that the figures do not agree and the true state is hard to grasp. This is one difficulty in disposing of the army grain.

In my view, a senior (堂上) or junior (郎廳) official of the Ministry of Taxation should be sent down in haste with accountants under him, to account item by item in the two provinces for the amount the ministry originally fixed, what was spent, and what remains, so that there may be no ill of the state's grain dwindling and scattering.

Haul a thousand li and shortfalls come of themselves, and once there is a shortfall there is no help but to levy it anew (生徵). At a time when both public and private stores are dry, to fix a day and levy it is more than men's lives can bear; yet if it is eased at all there is no telling when the shortfall will be recovered. The people's living and dying hangs upon the easing or the tightening of such a levy, and if the easing and the tightening are rightly measured, both public and private are at ease. This is the hardest place of all, and one difficulty in disposing of the army grain.

In my view, the court should have the governors of the two provinces give this their particular care and levy anew according to circumstances while keeping the people at ease, so that the people's livelihood does not come to be lost and the state's grain does not come to fall short.

I go on to report upon the plan for keeping up the supply of grain. Today's state of the enemy cannot be reckoned by days or by months. While the enemy's strength does not withdraw the Ming army will not go home, yet the two months' provision laid in at the outset is already spent. The plan for keeping up the grain is urgent by the hour, but the court has given no direction and the provincial governors (方伯) have made no disposition, so that one small servant superintending the transport can only eat his heart out alone; with his hands bound, what is he to do?

As a plan for now: the autumn days are not yet late and the early grain is already ripe, so in the sown parts of the Left and Right Provinces of Yeongnam we might commute the tribute goods to rice, or draw in the land tax (田稅) and collect it, and go on besides to gather grain in various ways by blank appointment certificates (空名帖); then, according as more or less is got, it could be added to the army grain. This business can only be got hold of by going about in person and staying to see it done; but the moving of provisions for Liu and Wu is so pressing that I cannot leave the high road for a moment, and the governors of the Left and Right Provinces have no leisure, with the enemy as they are, to take thought even for that. I am truly pained and at a loss.

Last spring two Royal Messengers for transport came into the Left and Right Provinces, but there are limits to the commission they received, so their orders do not reach everywhere; and being military officers they cannot press and hold men, so that for the procuring of supplies (調度) they might as well not be there. If the court would dispose of this quickly, so that the procuring and the superintending of transport are carried on together at one time and the work is done with joined strength, both sides would be at ease and the great business could be saved.

Since the Transport Commissioner (轉運使) was replaced and went back, and the Minister of Taxation died of illness, I have had it in mind to report this, but in my awe I did not dare say anything. Now that the enemy's strength is as it is, and the provisions are cut off as they are, and the roads to left and right and above and below are so long that I cannot see to everything, I humbly and at the risk of death make this report.