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Nice eye for detail! To clarify, in the Goryeo dynasty, Naeshi weren't hired from Eunuchs.

But I heard a misconception that eunuchs were forcibly castrated. This is NOT true. They were hired from men who were already eunuchs through unfortunate accidents, who probably couldn't get a job otherwise. This was the same in China, it was voluntary. But unlike Chinese eunuchs, Joseon ones were not allowed to hold power (Think of the 10 Attendants, the powerful corrupt eunuchs who ruined the Han dynasty and caused the 3 Kingdoms era to happen) (Or sometimes it was like the eunuch-general Zheng He who sailed past Indochina, powerful but not corrupt). Like in China though, they still lived in luxury as the monarchy's very own serfs (Serfs are allowed to take, or sometimes purchase with their own money, government positions).

Unlike in Korean but sometimes in Chinese history, the eunuchs while being possessions of the Emperor, had powerful stranglehold on politics, like the slave janissaries who controlled the Ottoman Empire or the slave mamluks of the Islamic Empire. So you see, contrary to popular belief, slave does not automatically mean a terrible life, it all depended on the process of enslavement, the "HOW," and different places had different rights, some countries' slave/serfs were just 2nd class citizens rather than total chattel.

Power can come with being a personal possession of the almighty throne itself, especially when the Emperor trusts his attendants on a personal level due to having been raised by them and had been his only real friends growing up, knowing his likes and dislikes, his favorite snacks, and has a control over who gets to have an audience with the Emperor, and so everyone accepts this and starts groveling to the eunuchs to get that special audience with the emperor past the tedious proper channels. The 5000-strong Dongchang Eunuch secret police were infamous in the Ming dynasty, for example, and were feared and they had their spy networks everywhere.

When eunuchs were super-powerful, some men thought it was worth voluntarily castrating themselves (instead of being eunuch'd by accidents like most sources of eunuch officials) to access that sweet power, like Italian Castratis. It was risky because the process had a high mortality rate, and failing to get in meant your career was pretty much over: you were not even considered a man if u did not have your manhood in those days. So usually it was more for desperate people, but in hard times or times when eunuchs had much power, the competition got fierce.

Nice summary. I would like to add that at the time, Goryeo was a feudal country, it had individualistic landed lords and the central power was weak. Outside the capital, everyone is a rival to the throne. Unlike the later Joseon dynasty which was no longer feudal: it had no landed nobility at all, and was centralized. Outside Joseon's capital, everyone was a loyal subject. (This is a key reason why Japan failed to invade Korea in 1592, they didn't expect the people would be loyal to a single power, to form militias and hit their supply lines in the rear or slay them while they let their guard down and broke formation and was busy pillaging individually. This never happened back in Japan where things were feudal and nobody stayed loyal to one power for long due to extremely high taxes for samurais to spend in war, selling much Japanese overseas as slaves to import muskets from Chinese or Portuguese, but not cannon. Well, maybe Ochimusha-kari or Japanese peasant mobs' hunt for defeated samurai, was similar but that was post-battle looting + killing the much hated samurai oppressors while they were isolated and weak and selling their heads as bounties to the other feudal lord.)

Goryeo's officials were split into "Literary Officials" and "Military Officials" and "Internal Officials (Palace)." The Military Officials were actually not very high up the rank. A lot of them were more like junior level officers by today's standards and given temporary promotions for war time. There wasn't even a fixed system for hiring them on. Their education in ethics, loyalty, and knowledge were quite lacking for most. They had a limit to how high their rank can go, and they saw this as some sort of glass ceiling, not being grateful for what positions they got from the throne at all, but kept jealously comparing with the Literary Officials who studied to pass the national exams while they the Military Officials did not.

Despite their misgivings of some "glass ceiling," in reality they really were not capable of seeing the big picture or running the country when they finally had the chance to, as was shown when they illegally usurped power in the 100 years of the Mushin Era (150 years in the future compared to this GKW series), running Goryeo into the ground and fracturing the regional noble lords who did not want to cooperate with usurpers. But even in this weakened state then Goryeo was able to fight off Mongol invasions all 9 times for 30 years (without the help from the Mushin military dictatorship, even. They didn't even fight the Mongols and did not care). The monarchy used this military fame as a bargaining chip to sue for peace and give much diplomatic support for Kublai Khan, because just in time, Mongol was split infighting: Kublai was an upstart rebel fighting against the legitimate and more widely supported Ariq Khan (his younger brother), so Korea's choice of Kublai over Ariq suddenly led to many minor Mongol and Jurchen tribes flocking to him as a sign. Thus Kublai was overjoyed and so gave a lot of freebies to Goryeo like: retaining the monarchy, no changing of customs, be exempt from taxes, immunity from capture, only communicates with the Yuan central throne, no Darughachi, no conscription into the Yuan army like the Tanguts/Khitans/Jurchens/Chinese, and became the first and only foreign family allowed to marry into and become Genghis's bloodline ("The Golden Clan." With Kublai's youngest most adored daughter), and get a voting seat in the Kurultai, so kings like Chungseon as the only grandson of Kublai Khan alive and already in charge of a country (nobody else in the Yuan dynasty had this power save for the Khan himself) were kept back by the 6th Khan for competing with the Yuan throne, and later was key to voting in the 7th and 8th Khan, as he was their current Khan's uncle/2nd cousin once removed and their key supporter. Even was offered Prime Ministerial seat in Yuan but declined. This is kind of the reason when after 100 years, the Chinese were in the process of pushing the Mongols out, the new emperor was suspicious of Korea, and made hostile political gestures from time to time.

Anyway, by the end of the 3rd Khitan War by the way, it was recorded that the losses were so great that the Khitan court was so understaffed that anyone literate was promoted to generalship. Emperor Yelu Wenshunu (Longxu) actually got so mad he said he will flay the skin off the grand general Xiao Pei Ya's face for this loss. (But he did not, as he was still a key family in Khitan aristocracy)

For most of Goryeo, the ones who lead wars as top brass were appointed from the Literary Officials, such as the protagonist of this series, Gang Gam Chan. The uneducated military officers were sometimes put to Rank 3 generals in times of need, but still the war was overseen by temporarily appointed Literary officials of Rank 2 or above. The next dynasty, Joseon, reflected on Goryeo's problems and so made it so that even Military Officials had to pass a Military Official National Exam, where it was part physical exams + applicants had to read some books too.

WAIT. Liao is NOT Chinese, the Khitans who founded Liao were a Mongolic people. Neither Goryeo, Jurchens, nor the Chinese Song Dynasty themselves at the time EVER thought Liao as Chinese. Just like the Jurchens' Jin, Tanguts' West Xia, or Mongols' Yuan around this time were not thought to be Chinese. In fact the Khitan called their empire Mos Diau-d Khitai Huldʒi Gur. It's called Liao today because the Khitan people don't exist anymore (they barely survive through their distant descendant the Daur people) and are merely being called through the name used by the civilization (China) that now reclaimed the land those Khitans unjustly robbed.