Treatise on Military Preparedness (Vol. 98)

...the Inspection Office has 60 archers and civilian laborers in total. There are also volunteer militia who assist the patrol inspector in keeping guard, and there are patrol boats that go out on watch. It is not necessary to add many more government soldiers, nor is it necessary to build additional boats. However, there is a fear that the volunteer militia and the patrol inspector might pass responsibility back and forth, perhaps leading to errors in duty. It is now proposed that in the first half of the month, the patrol inspector remains on guard while the volunteer militia official leads the civilian soldiers to patrol the river; in the second half of the month, the volunteer militia official remains on guard while the patrol inspector leads the archers to patrol the river. The patrol inspector and the volunteer militia will take turns entering and exiting to station troops, acting as horns for one another an idiom for mutual support and coordinated defense. If any failure occurs, the responsibility will be traced back to the person in charge, and thus no one will dare to shirk their duty. Upon investigating the Xie-gou area, it has 40 civilian laborers; it is also ordered that the volunteer militia official divide them into two shifts, one shift to be stationed and one shift to patrol. This should also be sufficient. However, for those on patrol duty, there are no boats, and hiring them on the spot seems...