Matchlocks and Northern Expedition (2)

In the Joseon era, the distinction between military and civil officials was not absolute.

General Gwon Yul, commander-in-chief of the Joseon army and Admiral Yi Sun-sin’s superior, was a purely civil official.

There were also many cases of civil officials becoming military or naval provincial commanders, two of the highest-ranking military positions.

I knew that, but I never imagined that His Majesty King Sejong would entrust me with something like this.

“I am Kim Dae-bung, a Sain of the State Council. Starting today, I will teach you military drill over the course of forty days.”

The trainees—or rather, the successful military examination candidates—stared at me in bewilderment.

It must have seemed absurd that a civil official, rather than a military official, had volunteered to teach these human weapons how to train their bodies.

In truth, anyone who heard about it would have found it absurd.

I did not want to do this either, but after reading the report I had submitted, His Majesty King Sejong said that the person who had devised it would know it best, so I should teach it myself.

No wonder people say that if King Sejong had been born in the twenty-first century, he would have become a professor who drank the tears of graduate students...