456 MILITARY REFORMCommissioner (Tojejo) of the Crack Select Soldiers and shifting responsibility
for it to the Ministry of War. Chief State Councilor H6 Ch6k affirmed what Song
Siy6l had criticizcd in his unsubmitted memorial of 1670. that despite the promise
to replace the old soldiers of the Military Training Agency as new soldiers were
added to the special unit of that agency, there had been no reduction in their
numbers. He insisted that it be reduced in size.
Hy6njong cxplaincd that he was only waiting until the duty soldiers of the
new special unit arrived in the capital before he would allow reductions in the
Military Training Agency, after which he would permanently cut one of the
agency's four regiments (pu). Given the current fiscal crisis, however, he ordered
the one-regiment reduction to take place immediately, allowing those soldiers
to be dismissed to fill vacancies in the other three regiments.
Yu Hyogyon then proposed that the Front Regiment be eliminated, and that
592 of its 1,08 I men be transferred to fill up the other current vacancies and
replace elderly soldiers about to retire in the other three regiments. After sug-
gesting a number of other arrangements, he estimated the net saving at 13 offi-
cers and 877 men, but no instructions were ever issued to allow further reduction
by attrition, as Song Siy6l had proposed two years before. The net savings would
have been TO,OOO sam of rice and 200 tong of cloth annually. The cut in rice
expenditures alone would havc been equivalent to one-eighth or I3 percent of
the annual military grain budget of 80,000 sam, a significant amount but still
not enough to solve the country's financial problems.3D
Hyonjong also suspended all army and marine bivouac training in every
province, tours of inspection and testing by provincial army commanders and
major garrison commanders, the collection of monthly levies of weapons and
grain for troop rations. and school examinations of students until after the fall
harvest, and forbade the annual recruitment drive (sech '0) to fill vacancies in
the troop ranks.
Third Minister of Rites Kim Man'gi then rose to express his displeasure at
the failure of the court to achieve any meaningful cuts in military expenditures.
Since cutting one regiment of the Military Training Agency was hardly mean-
ingful, the king ought simply to eliminate both the Crack Select Soldiers and
the special unit of the Military Training Agency. Kim's idea was welcomed by
State Councilors Chong Ch'ihwa, Ho Chok, and Kim Suhang, and Ho remarked
that everyone knew that these two units were causing the destruction of the coun-
try. Hyonjong, however, failed to respond, indicating his reluctance to part with
his newly created guard units and the Military Training AgencyY
168 I: TH E FORBIDDEN GUARD DIVISION
AND FACTION AL POLITICS
Reemergence ot'Factional Strife: Rites Debate of 1659
The denouement of the debate over the merits of permanent, salaried soldiers