Letter to the Gyeonggi Inspector移京畿巡察使文
道內山城隨便修築以爲保民禦暴之計其中竹山山城正當淸州忠州兩路之會直走京師形勢之重甚於他處若於此地設築城壘爲前營以爲操鍊之所且於山下平野廣開屯田則又爲萬世之利前朝之末亦以此城禦蒙古此乃已試制勝之地自前欲爲修築而但恐功役浩大勢至動民其處之民流亡纔集土石之役不忍遽爾出令遷延到今今者年糓頗稔民間無艱食之憂且無唐兵往來之擾若失此時則後無可就之日若以前營所屬軍人及遺漏未抄於軍丁者調發築之被抄軍丁者稍减其役未抄者稍加其役乘農事稍歇之際數日爲役則似可成就惟役民事重功役多少亦難預期本道十分預爲計度且觀民情便否急速回報
Repair the mountain fortresses within the province as is convenient, and make them a plan for keeping the people safe and barring the violent.
Among them, the mountain fortress of Juksan stands just where the two roads from Cheongju and Chungju meet and run straight for the capital, so that the weight of its position is greater than that of other places. If a rampart were built on this ground and made the Front Camp and a place of drill, and if colony fields were opened wide on the plain below the mountain besides, it would be a benefit for ten thousand generations. In the last years of the former dynasty the Mongols were held off with this fortress too, so it is ground already tried and found to win.
From of old there has been a wish to repair it, but the labor was great and it was feared that the course of it would set the people in motion. The people of that place had scattered and had only just gathered again, and we could not bear to order the labor of earth and stone upon them all at once, and so it was put off until today. Now the grain is well ripened, so that among the people there is no anxiety over hard eating, and there is no disturbance of Ming troops coming and going either. If this moment is missed there will be no day afterward for completing it.
It would seem it can be done if the soldiers attached to the Front Camp and those left out of the military rolls and not levied are called up to build it — lightening the service a little for the levied men on the rolls and adding a little to the service of those not levied — and the labor laid on for a few days in the idle season of farming. Only, the employing of the people is a weighty matter, and how much labor it will take is hard to fix beforehand; let this province reckon it fully in advance, see also whether the feeling of the people finds it suitable or not, and report back with all speed.