446 MILITARY REFORM
He meant for its troops to be special or auxiliary posts (pyOlkunjik) and pro-
vided them with salaries, but he did not intend that each soldier who died be
replaced, because maintaining troops on permanent salary would only have been
a waste of funds.9 But since at this time the agency's troops were financed in
part by support taxpayers, Song's point seems to have been that the agency itself
was a superfluous addition to the capital garrison.
The Crack Select Soldiers were first established around 1638 as a force of
1,100 men of whom only 148 served on duty at any time. Both the Military Train-
ing Agency and the Ministry of War appear to have exercised jurisdiction over
the new unit at the outset. The duty force was increased to 200 in 1663, but in
1668 it was converted into a major guard unit, called the Crack Select Agency
(Chongch'och'ong) under the Ministry of War, and expanded to 19,391 men in
forty companies of 1 1 1 men each. Of this number, 4,440 were regular soldiers
who were divided into eight groups of five companies (11 I men per company
or 555 men) that rotated on and off duty. The remaining 14,91 I were support
taxpayers; 4,400 were equipment support persons (chabo) who provided the costs
of equipment for the duty soldier, and the other 10,5 I I paid rice or cloth taxes
for the rations and clothing of the troops. The Minister of War not being in total
command of the unit meant that it could not yet be an independent source of
power for that official, but it established a precedent for providing a supposed
civil official with logistical responsibility for troops that he could command. ]()
Ch'a Munsop has remarked in a recent study that the Crack Select Soldiers
were established as a means of reducing the cost of troops by using rotating
duty soldiers and support taxpayers. Since both the Royal Division and the Crack
Select Soldiers were financed by support taxpayers, Song SiyOl was really propos-
ing a return to the Five Guards system of the early Choson period as the best
means of getting away from permanent, salaried soldiers. Not only was Yu
Hyongwon also in agreement with the restoration of the Five Guards system,
but his plan for the conversion of all divisions into a combination of rotating
duty soldiers and support taxpayers was almost identical to Song's plan, except
that he would have retained the Military Training Agency as a separate unit, while
Song would have fused it with the Crack Select Soldiers.
THE SPECIAL CAVALRY UNIT OF THE MTA
On March 5, 1669, a very illuminating discussion of Song's recommendations
was held at court by Hyonjong and his leading officials. At this conference, the
most fundamental assumptions of both Song and Yu Hyongwon about the supe-
riority of rotating duty soldiers and support taxpayers over long-term profes-
sional, salaried soldiers were attacked by the current commander of the Military
Training Agency, Yi Wan. This discussion began when King Hyonjong men-
tioned that he did not want to eliminate the Military Training Agency altogether
as Song had proposed. He preferred to eliminate the elderly soldiers and retain
functions that could not be performed elsewhere, but otherwise convert its orga-