임진왜란 초 호남지방의 실정과 관군의 동원실태

Abstract

During the early Imjinwaeran the Jeolla province like other provinces was not also prepared for the war and experienced the big agitation of civilians. Fortunately Japanese troops did not directly attack the Jeolla-do and the officials and ruling class(Yangban) of the area could keep the orders of administrative and military control system with the help of civilians. This was the main reason that the province could mobilize a great scale of government forces to stop the advance of Japanese troops. In the end of April, 1592, the governor of Jeolla, Lee Kwang advanced about eight thousand royal forces that he mustered up to north bound but withdrew. And in early June he again went to the north with forty thousand royal troops to participate in Yongin Battle but was defeated brutally by Japanese forces. After the defeat, a general Choi Won, with twenty thousand soldiers, again moved to the Gyeongki province and took an active part in several battles, and after stopped the Japanese troops in Jeolla he took a major part in Haengju Victory with the general Kweon Yul who led a great number of government forces. Meanwhile the War extended a long period time the Japanese forces began to attack the Jeolla province. The governor of Jeolla, Lee Kwang, however, stopped the Japanese advances to Jeolla by appointing the general Kweon Yul as chef-of-staffs and mobilizing government troops in every villages and towns in the province with the help of leadership of the areas. They drove the enemy back in Ungchi, Echi, Joenju, Kumsan, and Muju. Thus, in the early Imjinwaeran, the grand-scale of government forces mustered from every villages and towns in the Jeolla province kept the Honam from the hands of Japanese invaders and made the province a major bastion of the country. The negative evaluation in the role of the government forces in the early Imjinwaeran, therefore,should be reviewed and made just reappraisals.