Roy A L DIVISION MODEL 403As corrupted as the system of military finance by support taxpayers had
become, the troops of new units formed during and after the Imjin War, like the
slave sog'ogun and the Special Cavalry of the Military Training Agency (Pyaltae),
had no support personnel at all and insufficient resources to buy equipment or
horses.^22 Even the regular duty soldiers were hard pressed to pay for their own
equipment because cloth support tax payments were not supposed to cover equip-
ment needs.
Yu cited the testimony of Cho Han after his return from China in 1574 in which
he commented that the Ming dynasty government provided to regular duty sol-
diers five extra personnel (yojong, or extra adult males), silver for buying a horse,
food (or cash), cloth rations, and all equipment including armor, bows, arrows,
spears, and swords.
In our dynasty [by contrast], the soldiers only have one or two support taxpayers
[poin], and they are unable to provide for their horses, equipment, and weapons.
for everyone has to provide his own items. At times when inspections are con-
ducted, everyone commonly borrows equipment from someone else, and if they
cannot do so, they pay a few mal of rice to the clerks. By this means, what does
not exist is treated as if it did .... It is thc custom of our country that we make
[the soldiers] responsible for providing their own food and drink. There is not a
place where this evil does not prevail, but it is even worse for soldiers .... With-
out even waiting for the commanding offlcers to make extortionate demands,
[the soldiers] are forced to make payments to subordinate officers .... The [sol-
diers] have to sell otf their land and bankrupt their families, and still it is not
enough. Only after we have first abolished this evil will the problems of the sol-
diers be somewhat relieved.'3Assignment of soldiers to duty stations at some distance from their home vil-
lages made life difficult for them because of transportation costs and separation
from their families. Yu Hyangwan recommended abolishing the use of cavalry
from Hwanghae Province (along the western coast, southwest of Pyongyang)
for duty on the northern frontier. He pointed out that although in T'ang China
the amount of service owed varied with the distance of the soldier's home from
his military duty station, Korea was relatively small in area, so that "each man
can be assigned for duty near his home."24
Furthermore, the common practice of using soldiers to perform the duties of
clerks, runners, and slaves only interfered with the military training and capa-
bilities of the troops. Yu remarked that this was a "an extremely bad practice
that had originated in recent times." It had a systemic cause, however. Duty as
servants and runners (pogye, literally servants and servile persons) was forced
on people as part of their personal labor service requirement (sinyok). Because
they received no salaries or rations for this duty, they ran away, leaving officials
with no choice but to use soldiers in their place. The solution was twofold: pro-