DISINTEGRATION OF THE EARLY CHOSON 85
copied only about 170 of them. The first time the Koreans used them in battle
was at Chinju in November 1592, and Yi Sunsin used some he had captured for
the first time in a naval battle at Pusan.?3
The key figure in their adoption was Yu Songnyong, who argued for their supe-
riority to arrows, mentioned Ch'i Chi-kuang's use of them in fighting Japanese
pirates in the late sixteenth century, and cited several instances of the borrow-
ing of superior technology by Chinese states of the past, but nothing was done
to follow his advice before the outbreak of the war. Only after the invasion began
did King Sonjo authorize the adoption of the musket.^74 One artisan who spe-
cialized in cannon at the Annory (Kun 'gisi), Yi Changson, made a new type that
shot a cannonball about 600 paces. It was used with great effect by Korean troops
twice at Chinju and at the third battle of Kyongju. The Koreans also developed
an explosive shell fit with iron shrapnel and a fuse.?5
An army recruiter (Somosa), Pyon Ijung, was able to manufacture over 300
new "fire wagons" (hwach a), each one of which had forty gun portholes that
could fire at once. The Koreans also invented a catapult called a water-wheel
rock cannon (such a sokp '0) that spun around like a watcr wheel while shoot-
ing out stones, and the Military Training Agency began training troops in the
use of "poisoned gunpowder" that the Ming commandcr-in-chief, Liu Ting, had
sent in the last phase of the war. K wak Sunsong and others studied many meth-
ods of manufacturing it.7^6
In addition to the effectively armored turtle boats that Yi Sunsin used in many
of his naval battles, the Koreans did have a limited, but undeveloped, technical
capacity. The search for better military techniques continued after the war. In
I 60 I, the Ming gunpowder expert, Sun Lung, was granted a reward and kept in
Korea to teach four Korean artisans the manufacture of "sea saltpetre or nitre,"
poisoned powder, and training in their use.?7
Institutional Changes in Defense
The Military Training Agency, 1593. When the Ming forces arrived in Korea
they immediately recognized that the Korean army was tragically behind the
most advanced technological levels of the day. The Chinese general, Lo Shang-
chih, recommended to Yu Songnyong that a new unit was needed to train Korean
troops in the use of muskets and other techniques of combat. As a result King
Sonjo authorized the establishment of the Military Training Agency (Hull yon-
dogam) on September 4 (8. IO lunar), I593, but he only assigned seventy-two
men to it. At the urging ofYu he later increased its contingent to IO,OOO men.
On the recommendation of Li Ju-sung, the king also authorized the distribu-
tion of Ch'i Chi-kuang's Chi-hsiao hsin-shu as a manual for the organization
and training of troops in "the three skills" (samsll) of musketry, swordsman-
ship, and archery.7R
The financing of the Military Training Agency was rather haphazard. At the
outset, the soldiers were given a rice ration or salary of six mal per day, more