DEBATE OVER MILITARY TRAINING AGENCY 447
nization to the one used in the Royal Division. Although it is unlikely that
Hyonjong had even heard of Yu Hyongwon or his views on this question, his
position was identical to Yu's.
Financial Weaknesses in the Royal Division Model
King Hy6njong first asked Yi Wan his views, expecting his support since he
had been responsible for creating the Royal Division in the first place. Yi Wan,
however, responded negatively. He said that when he had taken over the Mili-
tary Training Agency, Song Siy6l had told him that he should replace deceascd
soldiers and runaways (in the agency ranks) not with capital soldiers (kyanggun)
but rather with provincial soldiers (hyanggun). The vast majority of the 6,000
musketeers of the agency were provincial soldiers who had to sell off their land
and homes before moving to the capital to serve on duty. When discharged from
service, they had no place to return to. In other words, the permanent troops
could not be abolished because it would cause them too much hardship.
Furthermore, he had had plenty of trouble even filling the ranks of the agency.
Seven years before the late W6n Tup'yo had told him that you could only be sure
of getting one of every two men you signed to show up for service. It had taken
him five years to fill the ranks, and aftcr seven years of arduous recruiting. he
still had only 8,000 men. Since it was so difficult to find men in the provinces
willing to serve in the capital, the only way to solve the problem was by "open-
ing the path" to obtaining soldiers, no doubt a euphemistic expression for elim-
inating the exemptions allowed certain kinds of men. II
Set back by Yi Wan's objections, Hyonjong then asked how much grain was
available for the Royal Division, an important question if the troops of the Mil-
itary Training Agency were to be converted completely to a rotating duty and
support taxpayer system, but Yu Hy6gy6n, the current commander of the Royal
Division, gave him the startling news that the support taxpaycr method was by
no means a secure method of finance!
He replied that when Yi Wan had been in charge of the division, he had been
able to accumulate a two-or three-year reserve, but it had all been depleted more
recently by its expenditure for famine relief. Yi himself remarked that under his
own command, he was able to provide rations for the thousand men that served
on duty at anyone time and accumulate a reserve of 2,000 sam of grain, but
now the regiment "had nothing in hand" even though it had 60,000 support tax-
payers backing up the full complement of 20,000 rotating duty soldiers.
Hyonjong and others insisted that something had to he done to maintain a force
of capital soldicrs. Second State Councilor H6 Ch6k then suggested that since
it was so diflicult to replace vacancies in the Military Training Agency, an entirely
new unit of rotating duty soldiers ought to be created to maintain an adequate
number or troops in the capital with additional financing by grain rations from
the Ministry of Taxation. Yu Hyogyon objected to allowing any reduction in a
unit like thc Military Training Agency because it would leave gaps in its ranks,