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

The business of providing army grain within the province rests wholly with this province. In general, to make the soldiers sufficient lies in making their food sufficient; it has been said that if it cannot be helped, one may sooner give up the soldiers than give up the food. Far-reaching was the sage's forethought.

Now military affairs have not ceased, and provisions are exhausted everywhere. Should some demand for supply arise, or should there be the calamity of long rains and drought, by what device shall we then supply and save? This is the most urgent and the greatest of matters. How much more now that Assault Commander Ye (葉遊擊) has come out bearing the order of the military office and presses our country to have at every post station along the road one or two days' provisions for thirty thousand men ready — a demand hard to refuse as things stand. The court is just now troubled at having no plan. If troops come out and the provisions do not keep pace, those in charge will bear the blame; this is no small anxiety. At the three post stations of Hwangju, Yongcheon, and Pyeongsan within the province, what plan is to be made for storing provisions and supplying them when military affairs arise? You ought to reckon it beforehand, report it point by point, and deliberate and arrange it.

In old times, when troops were raised, the essentials of managing resources always put salt and iron first. This province is land that touches the sea, and the profit of fish and salt is beyond full recording; yet from of old it has not been taken in charge, and has scattered away into private houses. Therefore even in a time so straitened and exhausted as this we sit with folded hands and can lay no plan, and this office constantly laments it.

If the magistrates of one or two districts along the coast would give their whole mind to the state and receive and carry out orders, the thing could easily be accomplished. If not, then a man of learning must be found who has a plan and is able to make arrangements without causing abuses, and he should be set to marking out and managing it, so that public and private alike are served. If it is shipped to the Capital River and other places and grain bought with it, then even if what is gained in a year reaches tens of thousands of seok, so much the better. Compared with the petty collecting in the business of gathering grain by blank-name patents, its effect is far greater.

Weigh it with all speed. How many are the places within the province where fish and salt are produced; in which direction lies the plan for gathering the salt households together entire; how are the comings and goings of boats to be managed without abuse; and who is the fit man to take charge of the business — reckon each one, set it out article by article, and make it known with all speed, to serve as evidence for judging and arranging it.