460 MILITARY REFORMconvinced Sukchong not to do so. H6 Ch6k's very success in monopolizing the
restored supreme commander's headquarters and other capital divisions had
alerted King Sukchong to the political threat H6 posed to the throne itself.^40
Then in 1677, Kim S6kchu, the minister of war, influenced the king to agree
to the abolition of the supreme commander's headquarters on the grounds it was
too costly. The only way he could achieve agreement to this in the face of South-
erner opposition was to accept reductions of the Crack Select Soldiers under his
own command from 5,000 to 3,000 men and the Special Cavalry Unit of the
Military Training Agency from 13,700 to 10,000 men. The compromise agree-
ment evidently did not last because at the request of the Southerners Sukchong
reestablished the supreme command headquarters under H6 Ch6k's command
late in 1678. Just when the Southerners had apparently secured their dominant
position for good, in 1679 Sukchong sent them into shock when he also
appointed Kim S6kchu - not the Southerner, Yun Hyu - to the post of vice-
supreme commander to keep H6 in cheekY
The previous year Kim had been appointed commander of the Royal Divi-
sion concurrently with his post as inspector-general (Taesah6n). Now his
appointment as vice-supreme commander was the harbinger of disaster for the
Southerners. for early in J680 Sukchong purged Southerners from command of
most key military units. Yu Hy6gy6n, who had been commander of the Military
Training Agency for years, was dismissed from his current post as minister of
public works, simply on the grounds that "your old muscles must be worn out
after twenty long years of service as a guards commander through three reigns."
Sukchong appointed his own father-in-law, Kim Man'gi, commander of the Mil-
itary Training Agency, and Kim's son, Kim Ikhun, to the post of magistrate of
Kwangju with control over the Namhan fort. The latter was a Westerner who
had been shuffled out to the northern frontier when the Southerners gained power.
Since the post of commander of the Defense Command (i.e., Ky6nggi Division)
was also transferred to another official and Kim S6kchu was already comman-
der of the Royal Division. the Westerners were now in command of the key mil-
itary posts around the capital.^42
The Westerners under Kim S6kchu were now in a position to take more seri-
ous action against their Southerner rivals. Kim set the wheels of a purge in motion
by calling to the king's attention suspicious training exercises of six companies
of the Ich'6n Military Colony troops attached to the Taehiing mountain fort.
Then, in the sixth lunar month, the so-called Samhok plot was reported to the
throne. The illegitimate son of H6 ChOk, H6 Kyun, was accused of conspiring
with the three grandsons of King Injo to put one of them, Prince Pokson (the
Poks6n'gun), on the throne by mobilizing the troops of the Taehi:ing fort near
Kaes6ng, the headquarters of the supreme commander. The conspirators had
supposedly even brought their troops to the capital for action in the third month
when the king suddenly ordered the transfer or dismissal of the top Southerner
military commanders, and in the wake of this action they had no choice but to
disband their forces.