Letter to the Gyeonggi Defense Commander and the Camp Commanders移京畿防禦使各營將文

The people of Gyeonggi have suffered the fire of war most cruelly, and their being scattered and gone from their dwellings is graver than in the other provinces. Happily, by the help of last year's grain ripening somewhat, the people who were scattered and wandering are gathering back little by little; but they have not yet settled their places to live, which is truly pitiable.

Now the setting up of a company officer in each hamlet so that the number of soldiers may be known has its intent not in the drilling of troops alone. In general it is meant that men of the same squad and the same village should succor one another in calamity and help one another with what they have and have not, so that when hearts that are friendly and loving to one another have been bound together in ordinary times, they become of themselves as hand and foot and breast when business comes, and do not crumble and scatter apart. Let the company officers and the banner chiefs and squad chiefs and those below them be particularly instructed, and give their whole hearts to the soldiers they lead and put it in practice.

Now the spring season has already come in and the farming is at hand; so if among the several companies there be people short of oxen for the farming and short of seed, let it be reported to the camp commander day by day, and passed on and laid before us, and sought out for them. Besides these, let any soldier of a company who is sick or has taken the plague and would get medicine and be treated but cannot, or who has been encroached upon by labor service and is about to be scattered away, likewise all be reported to the camp commander one by one. It is to be wished that the people's living be first at ease in their livelihood, and that the drilling be planned next; make this known particularly and put it in practice.