94 EARLY CHOSON DYNASTYgranaries (instead of support taxpayers or poin), and use them for capital guard
duty. That was the first of a series of moves to create a new military establish-
ment, but the new system was more a product of the competing demands of pol it -
ical generals than a master plan for national defense. That same year the king
authorized a new Royal Retinue Office (Howich'ong) with four of the coup lead-
ers and two of their assistants in charge: Yi So, Kim Yu, Sin Kyongsin, and Yi
Kwi, and their assistants, Kim Chajom, and Sim Kiwon. Since each of the four
generals recruited troops on their own and treated them like their own guards,
the troops of the new Howich'ong were referred to frequently as "the soldiers
of the four generals [taejang 1."
Yi Kwi then organized the Royal Division (Oyonggun, or Oyongch'ong) and
Yi So the Anti-Manchu Division (Ch'ongyungch'ong), which was in fact the
K yonggi Province division.^6 The coup leaders overshadowed the minister of war,
who was reduced in authority to the equivalent of a prominent regimental com-
mander, and the commanders of specific regiments in the capital region main-
tained a semiautonomous position in the competition for resources.?
Even though the Westerner faction and King Injo were fully aware that the
shift to a pro-Ming foreign policy increased the chances for a Manchu invasion,
defense policy was stymied by the king's decision to allocate more troops to
the capital region to protect the new regime against its domestic political ene-
mies than to the northwestern frontier for defense against an invasion. In 1623,
T 5,000 men from the southern three provinces were sent north to join the 13,000
men already stationed along the frontier as part of a policy to build up the total
northern frontier force to 50,000 men, but the force never exceeded 28,000 men
because too many troops were needed in the capital. This was a minuscule force
considering the 150,000 men used by Hideyoshi to invade Korea in 1592. Fur-
thermore, the troops of the capital were even exempted from duty on the north-
ern frontier, and the men of the whole province of Kyonggi (the province
surrounding the capital) were reserved for duty in the capital guard units. In
1623 the king adopted Yi Kwi's suggestion to form an additional emergency
royal guard unit, the Forbidden Guard Soldiers (Kumwigun), invested in the
repair of the strategic Namhan Mountain fortress (Namhan sansong) just south
of Seoul as the the mustering point for the troops of Kyonggi Province, and iden-
tified Kanghwa Island as his ultimate refuge if Manchu forces broke through
the northern defense lines.
As part of the defensive strategy against the Manchus, the king planned to
lead the Royal Division personally to Kaesong, north of Seoul, to raise the morale
of the people, but he abandoned this plan when the expected Manchu invasion
did not occur in 1623. Yi Kwi retained control of the Royal Division until his
death in 1633, nine years after his retirement as nominal commander in 1624.^8
The Yi Kwal Rebellion of 1624The king's fear of a challenge to his regime was realized in 1624 when Yi Kwal,