Letter to the Hwanghae Governor移黃海道巡察使文

The single district of Gangeum, being a worn-out district with few people, has already been merged, and this too arose from the intent of relieving an abuse as the times required. Only, the laying out of districts was in every case done by our ancestral court after weighing the lay of the land and the distances.

Moreover, to speak of the lay of this province, there are two roads leading west from the capital. One road comes out from Gaeseong Prefecture to Heungui, passes Jeotan, and reaches Pyeongsan; one road passes Tosan, Singye, and Goksan and reaches Seongcheon. Between them there are indeed lesser side roads, but in general the strength of the terrain lies in these two.

As for Gangeum, it lies below Jeotan; by water it communicates with Gyodong and Ganghwa, and by land with Baecheon, Yeonan, and Haeju; it is truly ground whose position can be held. Therefore, when the Japanese came down by the direct road, they had already placed a camp at Heungui to bar the two strategic branches of Talmigok and Ojocheon, and placed a camp at Gangeum as well, so that the soldiers of Baecheon and Yeonan could not come out and strike the enemy passing along the direct road. So well did the enemy read the terrain and know where to hold.

If Gangeum is now done away with, the direct road between Pyeongsan and Baecheon will be far in distance and the positions will not be linked; I fear this is no plan for the long run. Therefore the intent of this office has always been to make the position of Gangeum weightier still, and besides to set up a strong point at the sheer place overlooking the river and to farm it and hold it, joining it to the line of the Jeotan road. Only then will the enemy's troops not dare to head straight for Pyeongsan at will. The merger has now been made and a magistrate cannot be placed there again, but this intent at least must not be forgotten.

Further, in a merged district the clerks and the government servants must take their households and leave their own fields and go to serve in the district they have been attached to, and so they are the first to scatter. And since the host district becomes the master and the attached side the servant, whenever there is a levy of service it is invariably shifted onto the attached district, so that the villagers too suffer from it. In the end both districts come to ruin together, and this is why merging is hard.

Now Gangeum ought to be dealt with separately: let the clerks and government servants within the county remain there as they are, and let them not go to serve at Baecheon. Then appoint a man of discernment and diligence from that place to the charge of colony commander, provide him with farm oxen and seed, and have him call back the scattered people and set them to plowing and breaking ground. After some years, when the people have gathered a little and the vigor of the place has revived a little, the district can be set up again, and the plan of setting up a strong point and barring the way can take shape as well. Only, if the colony commander is not the right man there will be no order in affairs, and the people will suffer as before.

Weigh these particulars with all speed; inquire also into the feeling of the people of that place and report urgently, and carry it out. An abolished county must have its Confucian shrine and its altars of the tutelary spirit and of the soil and grain, so that in a single morning men and spirits alike lose what they relied on. The arrangements for this may not be put off and neglected; look into what is to be done here as well and report.