Letter to the Inspectors of Gyeonggi and Hwanghae移京畿黃海道巡察使文
近日鍊兵之規旣以鄕里村落團聚爲兵此實管子內政篇之遺法欲其平居則患難相救守望相助疾病相扶持有事則同伍共隊死生不離其與聚合遠處之軍面目不相知姓名不得聞情意不相通而强之爲隊伍者甚爲懸絕但有兵則必有食目今公私積蓄掃如脫有調發之事無食之軍必至顚仆亦不可用今欲依隣里修稧之例各於其村其里計其軍之多少而於麥熟及秋糓成熟民間糓賤之際從其所願升升斗斗收合藏置其里漸次添加以爲里中軍人所食則足食之道似在於此假使無兵興之事而蓄積先具則水旱飢饉之災亦當不至於損瘠此古人所謂蓄積生人之大命三年餘一年之蓄之遺意也小民不識遠慮糓賤則濫費無節不念前頭狼狽之憂若非在上之人先爲曉告開以利害則愚民必不能自知然又必於一營一司之中擇其鄕士人之有誠心識慮爲人所信服者以主其事然後乃可有成此乃最急至緊之務本道更爲參商便否報禀施行
The rule for training soldiers of late is already to knit together the villages and hamlets and make soldiers of them, and this is in truth the method handed down in the "Inner Administration" chapter of Guanzi (管子). In ordinary times the intent is that they should rescue one another in distress, help one another in guarding and keeping watch, and hold one another up in sickness; and when something is afoot, that men of the same squad and the same company should not be parted from one another in death or in life. It is altogether different from gathering together soldiers from distant places, who do not know one another's faces, have not heard one another's names, and whose minds are not in communication, and forcing them into ranks.
Only, where there are soldiers there must be something to eat. Now the stores of the state and of private men are as though swept clean, so that if there is a calling out of men, soldiers with nothing to eat will surely come to collapse, and they cannot be used either.
Now, following the practice of forming mutual-aid associations among neighboring villages, I would have each village and each hamlet count how many soldiers it has, and when the barley ripens and the autumn grain is full and grain is plentiful among the people, gather in according to what each is willing to give, a measure here and a measure there, a bushel here and a bushel there, store it in that hamlet, add to it by degrees, and make it the food of the soldiers within the hamlet. The way to feed them amply would seem to lie here. Suppose no raising of soldiers occurs at all: if the stores are provided beforehand, then even in the calamity of flood, drought, and a bad year the people will not come to be parched and wasted. This is what the men of old meant by the saying, "Stores are the great life of men; in three years of farming one year's food is laid by in store."
The small people do not know far-sighted thought, and when grain is plentiful they spend it carelessly without restraint and do not reckon the trouble of ruin to come. Unless those above make it known beforehand and open their eyes to gain and loss, the foolish people will surely not know of themselves. Yet there must also be chosen, within each camp and each company, a man of learning from that district who has sincerity and discernment and whom others trust and follow, and only when he is set over the business will there be any accomplishment. This is the most urgent and most vital of matters; let this province reckon once more whether it is suitable or not, report, memorialize, and carry it out.