The 53rd story of a full-length business novel.
The biography continued to tell about the dramatic life on Chang Bo-ko as follows:
“While he was acting as a high-level naval commander of Tang China, he would see his countrymen raped and working as slaves. They were captured from the fishermen’s villages and carried off into slavery. Korean slaves thronged Chinese slave markets. They were chained to the oars of galleys in many harbors in the Yellow sea. The pitiful scenes gashed him. He felt sad and he was enraged towards pirates. As a Chinese admiral he suppressed them with his military power. Then he would save slaves and release them as freemen. Not long afterwards, however, he realized that:
‘So far, I have repelled down pirates and saved hundreds of my countrymen. I have built several Buddhist temples for them here and there. And I have looked after the Shilla villages (新羅坊) with my arms. To some extent, I could have protected them from pirates. But, what I have done so far this way has been still limited. Basically I cannot solve the built-in problems in this sort of makeshift way. The Chinese coastline is too long. The stage of pirates is too broad. But the boundary I have been assigned and controlled is so narrow and small. Also my naval power, as a Chinese general, is limited and scanty. It’s not possible to stop pirates’ blackbirding. Also it is not possible to extinguish their roots thoroughly.”
In a tight feeling he spent years. Then, some idea came to his mind all of a sudden. The idea was that:
“I have to come back to my country. There, I have to cultivate my military power with my country people and build it up. It is the best solution for me to root up weeds of piracy and protect the people from pirates.’
It was another ‘new thinking.’And it was another challenge to him. But he did not flinch at all. With this sort of new thinking he tried to seek for much greater dream. It was another ‘new possibility.’
Here, his new thinking was a new arrow for him. And new possibilities became his new mark. In this way, he found out a new mark with new thinking. However, this time, the new mark was not China but his home town. Then he unflinchingly resigned the generalship of Tang Dynasty and returned to Shilla. After coming back to the home country he scouted around several areas. He reviewed which site was adequate for the military garrison. Then he premeditated while sitting on the ground that:
“The island I was born is encircled by other big and small islands. Thus, it has a vantage point from the seasonal typhoon and rainstorms. And the geographical merit can give us strategically a bifunctional military advantage; either defensive or offensive.”
With such thinking he selected his home island as his main military fortress. It was Wando. (莞島) It is located in the South Sea off the Korean peninsula. And it is still one of the biggest islands in the South Sea in Korea. There he placed sentinels, artillery and several outposts around the high land of the island. From there, he and his men could communicate with other innumerous islands and watch what was going on around the islands. Based upon his long military experiences and practical knowledge in China he personally trained one ten thousands of seamen and sailors there. At the same time, he built up formidable warships, equipped with firearms. Then Wando became a military garrison with warships. In another sight, it looked like a vast impregnable castle at sea, circled by outposts and bulwarks. But his headquarters was not in Wando but in Jangdo. (將島) It is a tiny island, not distant from Wando. Ramparted with earthworks, Jangdo was connected with Wando by using wooden bridges. Inside Jangdo, there were four barbicans, four armored batteries, and several barracks. Hundreds of combat units housed at the barracks. There, they kept the main security of Jangdo and Wando all the time. Along the seashore of the island, lots of armored-warships were docked. Thus, Jangdo could play a main role as his headquarters. From there, his seamen and foot soldiers could watch and control any ships moving in and out in every direction.
With time, his military strength became powerful so as to control all the South Sea. Then his navy began to press down tigerish pirates and protect innocent farmers and fishermen from them. Further, the navy saved captives from pirates and released them as freemen. In this way, Chang, Bo-ko maintained public order and public security in the South Sea by the peninsula and the Yellow Sea. Thereafter, Jangdo and Wando became a threatening snubber to ferocious pirates like a mechanical device of restraint in a car. (Below are mechanical snubbers. Source: www.pipingtech.com)
This part was unfamiliar to the boy (Cheong, Ju-young) while reading it. But military establishment and operation by Chang Bo-ko fascinated him. Of course, his humane activities were also intriguing to him, too. Continuously, the juvenile book aroused him much amusement. It was on his religion and his activity related with the common people as below:
“As a devout Buddhist, he built several Buddhist temples here and there in China, Korea and Japan. There, a mass of funky and weak people would make praises for the fortune to Buddha. One of huge temples he built remains at the upland, Chi Shan (赤山), of an island in Shidao, off the Shandong peninsula, China. The temple is called Fa Hua Yaun (法華院). It has not been demolished but and existed there so far. Even now, lots of the Chinese think that he has lived inside the temple as God of the Yellow Sea (海神). So, they visit there to meet him and pray for the fortune to him. Like the folklore, he was loved as a generous Prince of the Sea. By all accounts, he was said to have been a modest man without vaporing and empty airs. Nobody can see ‘bastard charity’ from the temple. (Below is the picture of the Temple. Source: Korea Maritime Foundation.)
There is another account that is passed down to the present. The account was hand-written by a Japanese monk. Reportedly, the monk wrote a book, named ‘the Record of a Pilgrimage to China.’ In the book, he expressed his sincere services for him when he was to make a return back to Japan. The monk was Enrin(圓仁, 慈覺大師). The remaining temple and Enrin’s reminiscence are his act and deed.”
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