At this, everyone laughed. Heehaw. Eager to take his life, all of them jubilantly nodded heads and said, ‘That’s also an excellent explanation for the scheme.’ And then all of them said with one voice sinisterly:
‘I’ll buy it, too. Really, both of you have a striking and feasible idea. Let’s start with the scheme and spread it out immediately. Then, let’s watch our time.’
In this way, all the conspirators were now to accuse him of his sin in a dastardly way and then wanted to kill him by guile. Finally, they all agreed to do what, how and when they would do for the plot unanimously. Then, they were dawdling around him and watching over his every step as if they had been the Grim Reaper.
They embarked the mean plot and made a groundless rumor as below:
‘Chang Bo-ko is originally of the poor and wretched family tree. By all accounts, he was a descendant of the lost country Baekjae(百濟). So he is a sort of our slave for the blue-blooded Shilla(新羅). If so, he must have acted a humble servant as the people of the lost nation of Baekjae. Unlike his original status, he has become arrogant with some money, striving to earn the recognition and respect from the people. These days he is pretending to pose a lord with his great wealth and military strength. Seeing his recent overbearing attitude, it cannot be overlooked as a trivial thing. Presumably, he must have missed his old lost kingdom Baekjae. If so, he may be treacherous to rivet on the kingship in the future. Now he has a great army under him as well as a whack of wealth. By exploiting them, he may try to incite a rebellion in the name of rebuilding of Baekjae. It is very easy for him to do it because he has already possessed military power and great wealth. If he tries to do this revolt with his soldiers and people around him they will support him and join his rebellion. Either way, they were and are the colonial people destroyed by Shilla. If he explains them about his plausible cause why he makes a revolt, the people and soldiers will be willing to join his mutiny. Then the united nation, Shilla, will be harassed and threatened by his revolt. Then our country, Shilla, will be in a panic and great confusion owing to his overwhelming military power. Also the capital will be captured into his hands. Then and then he will declare himself king of the nation. Then the current kingdom, Shilla will be destroyed. From this long-term point of view, we had better execute him beforehand than to see his rebellion in the future.’
All of this was a despicable crime.
Nonetheless, it was seemingly a plausible and justifiable cause to defame and slander him. Truly they intended to slay him easily without arousing any doubts from the peoples by using the string-pulling. And they could have killed him on the charge of his revolt even if he did not try to do it. Absolutely, all of it was certainly a tale of a tub, a groundless, tall tale. Nonetheless, they could smother up their despicable machination forever. And such a dastardly arrow from the plotters was now shooting on Chang, Bo-ko’s life as its target.
To the plotters, political and personal interests were primary. Their deepest concern was only to get rid of him at their presence. Right, it was the most important thing for the plotters. National prosperity and security were secondary to them. Whether the conspiracy would influence their nation or not was not important. It was not directly influential in plotters’ interests. Yes, ‘private’ was a main cause for them to eliminate him because the ‘public’ matter did not directly influence their personal interests. As a result, the ‘private and personal interest’ prevailed over the ‘public’ matter. Vice won virtue.
Thanks to their conspiracy the rumor of his rebellion ran apace and spread over the country by word of mouth. At a proper time they had had a plan to kill him in secret by using the assassin. Allegedly, there had been some talks between incognitos in a hushed voice:
‘I hear that your skills are for hire.’
‘Yes, they are, sir. Indeed, what you have heard is true.’
‘Hmm. . . You must kill him as an act of justice.
Can you manage it’
‘For that matter, without doubt.’
‘OK. I’ll expect good news from you.
Here is the payment for you.
Half now and half later, understand’
‘Understood.’
The assassin replied gravely.
The conversation was over. The deal was settled. The assassin nodded slightly. Then he stood up from the wooden chair. He filed towards the exit. In this way, they hired a henchman with huge money and let him slay him. The time ripened good for assassination.
Meanwhile Chang Bo-ko never imagined what kind of a plot against him undercover. Never did he know that he was to be killed. He never sniffed out their snide plot. By all accounts, such a plot was an incognizable thing to him. Nonetheless, the assassin had been already near, very close to him in disguise of his neighbor. Later, he killed him in his office with his snickersnee. At his sudden death, lots of soldiers were staggering. But the assassin justified his action leisurely by saying to his staggering men snip-snap as below:
‘From long ago he has been deeply involved in the affairs of the state. Nobody can deny it. It is a veiled fact. And then he had an outrageous dream. Allegedly you might have heard of the rumor. It was true. In actual fact, he has sought to make an ambition to be king with his considerable wealth and soldiers. Many people, at the court as well as over the countryside alike, have been concerned about his possible rebellion. For such a reason, before his rebellious action I had to remove him for the country’s bright future reluctantly. I do know of him that he has made a great contribution for the national prosperity so that I have admired him very much so far privately. But also I have loved my daring country, Shilla, much more. So I had to kill him for national security. So, my action was a patriotic act out of justice in order to save the country from the rebellion. That is my candid act why I had to kill him. Reality is simply deplorable.’
All of his speech sounded plausible as if he had been a Brutus who killed Julius Caesar under his backstairs and justifying himself before the senate of Rome.
