Empire of the Ring

Chapter 251: The Autonomous State of Arirang (2)

“Where are they stuck at now?”

“They’re about 50 kilometers north of Uzbekistan. The place is west of the Aral Sea.”

The road survey team was facing a problem near the Aral Sea.

In other countries, many local village people did not prefer to have a road passing through their villages, but the team was facing the opposite case. A local town was troubling the survey team since the town people wanted a road to go through their town. Although the foundation work was not even started yet, local people seemed to have great expectations about the new roads already, since they would bring more opportunities for businesses and the development of the town.

What was problematic to the survey team was that a bridge needed to be built, if a road had to go through the town. Still, the town was the best location because it was located in the shortest way from Turkmenistan to reach Atyrau, Kazakhstan by going through Uzbekistan in the middle. The road was necessary to develop the underdeveloped western part of Kazakhstan.

“You’re saying the survey team can’t investigate?”

“They’re asking for a written confirmation. The survey team doesn’t have the authority to change the route. Even vice president Mr. Kim can’t decide that without the headquarters of H Corporation’s approval.”

The best way to resolve a situation like this was to directly talk to the town people in person. The decision should be made after thoroughly investigating the economic ripple effects that the road through the town would bring, compared to the money spent on building bridges.

It was obvious that the survey team was struggling since the mindset of a corporation was to make the best profit with a minimum investment. So, Youngho decided to deal with the situation himself.

Hearing that there was no place for an airplane to land in the town where the survey team was, Youngho drove there with a light-armored vehicle.

It was only about 800 kilometers away from Arirang Farm, but the rough roads took him sixteen hours to get there. Youngho spent a night in an empty plain and drove six more hours before he could finally reach the town. His behind was hurt badly for sitting too long.

The town was a typical Kazakh farm village, but the farming had been difficult due to salty sea dust from the Aral Sea, caused by drying of the sea. The only way to support their living was to trade with Kazaks living in Uzbekistan. Therefore, the town had to have an open road to get to Uzbekistan.

The southern part of the Aral Sea belonged to Uzbekistan, but most people who lived there were Kazak, so the border between the two countries used to be only nominal.

The balance of power between the two countries used to be even, but Kazakhstan began to take a significant lead in economic power as it became rich after their discovery of oil crude, and that made Kazakh people hold a higher position than Uzbeks.

Moreover, if Kazakhstan interfered, Uzbekistan would be in a geopolitically disadvantaged position, since because it was a landlocked country, so Uzbeks often overlooked Kazakh people crossing the border illegally. It would cause them more troubles if they tried to interfere with Kazakhs. Not to mention, they were making profits because of Kazakh traders, so keeping a smooth relationship with them was more profitable for the country.

Among Central Asian countries, Kazakhstan was one of the leading powers, and if a neighboring country was powerful, a country next to it could share its fate.

“Vice president Kim, the stream is dried up. I might not have to build a bridge if you could make an irrigation canal for them and cover it with earth.”

“I’m not a civil engineering expert but when building a road, it should be designed to endure the most precipitation amount in the past hundred years. I’m afraid that there might be flooding if we stopped the waterway.”

Youngho was not aware of such standard in designing a road, but it still sounded too much to build a grandiose bridge in fear of hard rain that came for one or two times in a hundred years. The rain would be absorbed to the dried up ground immediately anyway.

“Think about the deserted land that we’ve passed to get here. Can you even distinguish streams from plains? Actually, this might be better. You can build a bridge and make this a toll-collecting place.”

“Well, this stream is considered wide compared to other streams, so I guess that could be a great excuse. We can raise the surface of the road so that it could stay flat.”

Since he was building a highway, it would be more plausible to have a flat road rather than a road that went up and down along the lay of the land, or else, it would be the same as a regular road. In order to prevent road damage from the rare rain, the road would better be lifted from the ground level.

Naturally, the road would be a motorway.

Once people got used to the convenience of the highway, they would not be able to help, but pay the high toll fee to use the road.

It would be inconvenient if any motorway or highway that crossed vast wilderness had no towns along the way. Without bathrooms or places to get refreshments, people would complain about the road all the time.

Unlike in Korea, Kazakhstan’s service area business was not big. Youngho thought that service areas could be a great business, and Kim Joo-hyuk loved it as he shared his idea. If there were service areas, gas stations, auto repair shops, and lodging facilities for long-distance travelers, it would also be needed alongside them.

Youngho, who mentioned about the service area business, was interested in a different thing. When the service areas were set up, little towns would be made around the areas, and he was more intrigued by that. If he could make those towns as the farm’s little bases, it would be easy for him and the farm people to dominate those areas.

The highway that was going to be built was the section that opened the way to Volgograd by taking-in the traffic from Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Since there was an industrial road already that connected Atyrau to Volgograd, the highway would be built up to that point.

The route was important since it could be used as a kind of information belt.

Depending on the point of view, it could cover Western Kazakhstan and it could even cover Central Asia. So, through this route, Youngho believed that there would be ways to be indirectly involved in Kazakhstan’s politics. Although it was a dream, he wanted the country that he took part of to be politically and economically stable and well. The problem was that the long-term dictator-like presidency would have a lot of repercussions.

Many countries that were freed from the Soviet Union tended to have prolonged presidency. The heads of the countries did not let go of their power under the pursuit of stability of their nations. In that process, the authorities of the countries were inevitably corrupted, since they needed to stay in power along with their presidents.

As the wave of democratization rose among young people and new authorities took over the old, there would naturally be civil war. It would bring a bloodbath, and in order to prepare for that time, Youngho needed to make forces that favored Arirang Farm.

Any governors and influential people respected by the public should be on the farm’s side, and this was the job of the Intelligence Department. To collect information about people and movements in government and the country, to make more reasonable decisions for the farm’s future, Youngho was willing to invest in an astronomical amount of money for the department. As the director of the team, Jong-il was the most important person for this.

“So?”

Jong-il who had been listening attentively asked again.

“What do you mean ‘so’? I’m saying if you don’t get yourself together, Arirang Farm will fall and become a boring, regular town.”

“You mean I hold the responsibility?”

“Am I the director of Intelligence Department? It’s you.”

“You know my department requires lots of funds.”

“Oh, don’t you worry about that. Just pick some decent people as recruits. Pick some from Koryoins, Serbians, and Kazakhs, and you can do whatever it takes to train them.”

Jong-il, who thought for a while, suggested an innovative idea.

“How many empty houses are left there?”

“There are about a hundred of them, but I need to share some to the staffs of H Corporation. What about the houses?”

“I need some hostages.”

“…”

“I should make them vow loyalty somehow. I’m going to primarily pick fellas who are in difficult situations. I should make their families move into the houses here, so they can have better lives.”

Jong-il was indeed a fast thinker. If the families of recruited agents were taken care of by the farm, they would automatically be loyal to the department and would not dare to betray the farm. What Jong-il wanted was a minimal safety measure for his future recruits.

“Well, if not necessarily for that purpose, it could still give peace in their minds, and they’ll be able to focus on work better. It’s a great idea.”

“Should I be the one to come up with great ideas all the time? A boss has to know about such things automatically.”

Seeing Jong-il being proud of himself, Youngho had to flatter him more now.

“Well, what can I say. You should’ve been the merchant in the first place. Our company would’ve grown at least three times more if you were it.”

“I know, right? Well, I got hungry for thinking too much. You got anything?”

It was late evening and what Jong-il wanted was to drink.

Although there had been a celebration festival at the farm, the leading members of the farm could not drink, since there were too many eyes on them. Now that things were taken care of, and there was no one to bother them, it was time for them to have their own party.

“Call Insoo and Il-kwon now. Also, don’t forget about Kim Chun the commissioner.”

At Arirang Hotel’s bar at the autonomous state of Arirang Farm, there was a drinking party.

Both Park Youngsun and Kim Joo-hyuk, who did not like to drink, joined the gang anyway, and they loudly chatted with each other.

The loudest person among them was Kim Chun.

“Boss. How about this? This ship is only ten years old.”

He had returned from visiting a shipyard in Atyrau. When Youngho was busy taking care of other stuff, he had been to many places using his connections to look for ships that could be used by Countryside Force.

He was pathetically trying to get cheap freighters so that they could be remodeled into patrol boats, but Youngho frowned at what he had been doing. In Atyrau society, the rumor would spread before they would know, and Youngho did not want to be recognized as a cheap person to the government and Kazakh Navy.

“Apart from money, we need to think about Arirang Autonomous State’s face. Other countries will mock us if we remodeled freighters.”

“Won’t they be covered when they’re fully armed?”

“Patrol boats should be faster than other boats. The inside walls should be strengthened and there should be a different cargo space for arms. It just can’t happen with regular freighters.”

“Oh, I see. I thought any vessel could be used if it was armed.”

Youngho wanted to make patrol boats that were like naval battleships, but they should not be seen that way. So, they should look like regular patrol boats on the outside, but Youngho was going to equip them with missiles on the inside.

Victor Jun said that he would request the Kazakh government to get vessels from Korea, but it might take a while. If they could not be arranged in time, Youngho was going to buy used patrol boats first and buy new ones later.

“Boss. Why don’t you get bigger boats? You’re going to buy them anyway.”

“Wouldn’t it be suspicious if patrol boats that were meant to patrol around a river were too big?”

“Those boats will go to the northern part of the Caspian Sea as well, though rarely. Victor Jun will thank you for saving his face if you come up with bigger boats.”

Kim Chun had a point.

Bigger boats would save not only the farm’s face but also Victor Jun’s. Moreover, there was no doubt it would save the face of Kazakhstan before the eyes of foreign navy ships in the Caspian Sea.