Empire of the Ring

The territory of Kazakhstan was twenty-seven times bigger than South Korea and the population was less than twenty million, but there were about 120 ethnicities.

Atyrau Region itself was three times bigger than South Korea with only 800,000 people living. People were seldom seen outside of downtown.

Since the gang was sick of crowded city areas, they decided to rent a camping car and look around the region. From the travel agency, they heard useful information about agriculture in the region.

The region’s agriculture development lagged behind compared to other regions because of the dry climate. The government supported farmers by giving loans but the amount of grain production had no improvements. Also, most of the people were petty-farmers that mass-production was a rare thing.

Out of the total amount of grain export, thirty percent went to Turkey and Azerbaijan. Youngho thought that he could even export grains to Azerbaijan in the future. He did not understand why empty lands were neglected even though there was a river which could be a water source.

Park Taeyoung and Lee Chulho had to leave for Baku because the security company got busy. The rest of the gang stayed in there to search for a great site for farming with a Koryoin guide. Because they had been driving on an unpaved road, it was a painful long hour of drive.

“Ilkwon, don’t just drive but search for creeks.”

Jongil, who had just woken up from his sleep, complained that his body was aching.

It was still at the beginning of April and it’s chilly outside but Jongil was insisting to get in the water anyway because of all the dirt from the road.

“If we drive thirty more minutes, there will be a creek. Let’s rest there for today. If there are animals around, we should go hunting for exercise.”

“Mr. Lee, there are only rabbits and wolves here.”

It was the Koryoin guide, Kim Chun.

“Mr. Kim, have you come this far before?”

“In the summer, I used to go hunting with some Koryoin friends.”

Kim Chun was in his forties. He had been to South Korea several times and he married a Korean woman who came here to travel. He had pride in his ethnicity, a Korean descent.

He was a Koryoin who grew up here. After he graduated from college, he became a teacher until a few years ago when Korean corporations showed up in the city. Then he worked as a guide for Korean businessmen and now he owned a small travel agency.

As Korean culture became popular in Kazakhstan, his wife opened a Korean language school and was working as a Korean teacher. He said that his family was deported at his grandfather’s generation from Vladivostok but he was now proud to be Koryoin since he could help the economic development of Korea.

He seemed to be the general father figure of Korea in the 1960s.

When Youngho asked him to become the agency in charge of his business in Kazakhstan, he closed his agency office and followed them on their trip.

***

“Ilkwon, you can sleep with Mr. Kim in the camping car. We can sleep in the tent outside.”

Ilkwon and Mr. Kim both were terrible snorers, so Youngho and Jongil could not stay with them at night. They had rented a tent and sleeping bags, so they decided to stay outside for the night.

“Oh, I’m so sorry for the inconvenience again, Mr. Lee and Mr. Park.”

“Well, since you had some drinks tonight, you can snore together peacefully with him. Haha…”

“There might be wolves outside. Why don’t you just inside tonight?”

Feeling bad for the two, Kim Chun kept asking them to come inside.

“Mr. Kim. Boss will be fine even if a tiger comes, you don’t have to worry about them.”

“Don’t say that Ilkwon. Your words might come true. Well, if a wolf comes, I’m willing to take its skin though.”

Jongil was still feeling bad about catching two rabbits only. He still did not know predators on top of the food chain were more cautious than other animals. They had made such noises for hunting rabbits and gave out the smell of gunpowder. Wolves would never come near them even if they were dead hungry.

The highest predators would not lower their guards even when they ate.

Running the business was the same. As a businessman reached to the top, he has to be considerate and careful when making decisions. There was no guarantee that his business would do well.

Youngho had thought that he was doing well but because of the incident at his security company, he was now in Kazakhstan. Although he now had a new goal because of that, he felt insecure in his heart. He kept getting bad feelings.

Lying inside the tent, Youngho and Jongil talked about recent incidents.

“So what? You’re saying we should not loosen the tension in times like this?”

“I was ready to settle down in peace but I keep thinking that we’ve been too relaxed.”

“That’s nonsense. You and I, we’ll always have to live in tension as long as we work as agents. Well, we’ve got to watch out for the mines though. I hope there won’t be any negligent accidents.”

At Jongil’s remark, Youngho was alarmed.

‘A negligent accident? Is this why I have been feeling bad?’

He sprang up from the spot.

Jongil was startled by his friend’s sudden move.

“Man, you scared me. What’s up?”

“Is your satellite phone charged?”

Youngho immediately called Cha Insoo and Chief Niksic to do a safety check in the mines tomorrow. It did not look like they would believe Youngho’s bad feeling, so he lied that he dreamed about mine collapse.

He also asked Insoo to tighten the security at the offshore oilfield. There could be safety accidents in any place. Looking at Youngho who came back to the tent after making alarming calls several times, Jongil opened his mouth.

“Aren’t you being too groundless?”

“I know, but I don’t feel good.”

“Man, you’ve woken me up now. Why don’t we drink some more?”

***

“Mr. Lee, Mr. Park. How do you like this place? It’s 50,000 acres. In Korean measure, 60,000,000 pyeong.”

Youngho gasped at the vast empty plain. All he could see was the horizontal line. Who would plow this ground and plant seeds in here?

“Are you sure that the land is given free if I develop this?”p

“Wait, are you going to develop the whole area?”

It was not actually free but the government would be giving the ownership of the land once it was developed and grains were produced since the developing cost was too high. However, because it was dry land, no foreigners had come forth to take it.

In Youngho’s eyes, the plain looked like a golden field.

Youngho hired Kim Chun as the local president of the farm since he was a great resource. He would be in charge of making a farm development plan and establishing the farm, and the farm’s name would be Arirang Farm.

Although they did not get the government’s permission for land development, Kim Chun was certain that they would be getting it for sure.

Since there were many small rivers and streams around the land, they would have to install a pipeline about five kilometers long. If they could install huge reservoirs in several places of the plain, they would be able to water the plants with sprinklers.

Since it was dry land, Youngho also planned to find underground water by making a tube well. Since Ural River was nearby, underground water was likely to exist around the plain.

“Boss. It’ll take some time before the permission is issued. You can wait in Baku. I’ll get an office and prepare for the business establishment.”

Kim Chun was now calling Youngho ‘Boss’ too.

“Mr. Kim, please look for local heavy equipment operators. I’ll buy excavators and tractors from Russia.”

“Got that. For the next year or two, we’ll have to work on pipeline work and reservoir construction. So, you don’t have to buy tractors just yet.”

“Let’s have a little trial farm this year. It’ll give us some idea about which plants grow better in here.”

“I think we’ll also need temporary living quarters. We can’t sleep outside.”p

“Of course. You can find the right spot near the stream and build a sturdy one for you and workers. I’ll give you enough funds, you can work on that first.”

Kim Chun was glad to be part of Youngho’s business since he was a global entrepreneur with farms and hotels. He also liked how Youngho said he could hire Koryoins majorly. Hearing that his boss would treat Koryoin laborers well, he even gave him a hug.

To get to the farm site, one had to drive four hours from Northern Atyrau toward the city of Oral, a border city, and then drive thirty minutes more on an unpaved road.

Since the paved roads had four lanes without heavy traffic, it would be easy to deliver supplies. Although it was still a remote region, it had great accessibility.

He would have to wait three to five years before producing mass grains but Youngho could not stop the corners of his mouth rising when he imagined flying an airplane to plant seeds on the vast plain.

Seeing Youngho smiling to himself, Jongil made a comment.

“Man, I don’t feel good about traveling with a crazy dude. Stop smiling now. Your ugly face is getting uglier.”

“Dude! Fatima and Zeynep think that I’m the best-looking Asian in the whole world.”

“What on earth? What are their standards for a handsome man? Your mustache? Or your rounded head?”

Jongil was self-conscious about the fact that he did not have much hair on his face and the shape of his head, which was flat. He said that he only slept on the same side when he was young. It was something Youngho did not understand about his complex.

“Just imagine. You can plant seeds with a light plane.”

“What? Are you going to fly an airplane now?”

“Why not? It’s going to be similar to gliders. I don’t think it’d be hard.”

“Yeah?”

Jongil’s eyes were sparkling. It looked like he would be taking flying lessons at Baku’s aviation school. Youngho thought that he could do it too. It would be cool if a CIA agent can fly airplanes like in action movies.