Empire of the Ring

"Once the ice starts melting, it won't be too difficult to travel the North Sea route with 3,000-ton car ferry. The waves are strong, but even the fishing ships on the rough Bering Sea are only about 2,000 tons."

"Isn't the sea still frozen even in the summer?"

"The area near the North Pole might be, but our icebreakers will be okay on the North Sea."

Choi Sun-kil, the manager of the Arirang Shipping explained to Youngho. He was a professional captain who technically had sailed to everywhere around Central Asia and the Caucasus, even the North Sea route. His advice gave Youngho confidence that his team would be able to use the Yenisei River this summer.

"We can pair up a cargo ship with a car ferry. If a cargo ship carries some extra gasoline, they could travel a long distance."

"Great idea!"

"You don't have to over compliment me, Mr. Choi."

"You deserve the compliment. I've only considered oil tankers but have not thought about using freighters to carry oil. We can turn some of the cargo sections into oil tanks."

Jong-il interfered in the conversation.

"Why don't we install some weapons on the ships?"

"Oh, please. We don't need them on the North Sea. We are only going to need some individual weapons because we are going to follow the Russian coastlines."

"What if the Russian Navy is no different from pirates?"

"Mr. Park, Russian naval vessels won't travel around the arctic ocean. Their military ships are not icebreakers."

Sun-kil quickly deterred Jong-il since all the people of the Arirang Shipping including him were tired of Jong-il trying to arm all of its vessels every time.

"We will be okay. The commercial ship from Russia that we'll be receiving soon is already close to the level of an average military ship."

If what Sun-kil said was true and Youngho's team could go through the North Sea with a 3,000-ton car ferry, the travel distance, time, and cost would be greatly decreased because the ship could travel through the Volga-Baltic Waterway. Sun-kil's advice confirmed the high possibility of the development of the Siberian area.

Youngho was going to wait until the new, heavy icebreaker was built. But, if he could travel this summer, there was no reason to wait. It meant that Youngho had to sign an official contract with the Russian government before the summer to start his business there. The Russian government would not decline Youngho's request to travel alongside the Russian coastline.

"Jong-il. Can you pick a few Koryoin intelligence agents for me? I'm going to have to open a Siberian branch in the city of Krasnoyarsk."

"Whoa, are you going to launch our intelligence department there too?"

"It's a city with a population of a million people. There should be something for us to collect. Don't you think?"

"Sweet! We have a few Kazakhstan agents who studied in Russia. I will arrange them for you."

Volgograd had been a place for an official corporation in Russia. The actual intelligence work in the country would mostly happen in the Krasnoyarsk region. Youngho planned to open an office for his logging business in Krasnoyarsk and make the state's intelligence agents run the office so they could legally stay there to collect information.

"Wow, I'm going to have to visit Krasnoyarsk with the agents."

"When you go to Krasnoyarsk, there's a mafia named Sergeenko. He's Yaniv's man. He will take care of most of the business. Make sure to take some envelopes for him."

"Are you bribing a mafia?"

"It's more of a service fee because he is helping us. He looks like a scary thug, but he actually is a very trustworthy person. He will be a big help for us in the future if we get him on our side."

"Phew, Russia is a country run by mafias."

"It's better than dealing with government officials. They're worse than mafias."

"Haha, I've got to agree."

***

Soon, Jong-il and two other agents took off to Krasnoyarsk, and Youngho started working on reinforcing two icebreakers that the state originally owned. Though they would be traveling in the summer, anything could happen in the Arctic Ocean. The state was going to use the ferries for tourism around the Caspian Sea. But, after hearing Kim Sun-kil's advice, Youngho could not lose the chance to get rough diamonds. Thus, he had to modify the original plan for the ferries and run them for tourists during the winter only.

The Sudden change of plan made Kim Chun upset.

"Boss. We've done all the advertisement already. We can't break our promise. Our reputation is on the line."

"Please don't tell me you already took reservations."

"You are lucky I didn't. I've thought something might come up, so I was going to get confirmation from you before I took reservations."

Youngho felt guilty because it sounded like there was no consistency running the state.

"Don't you think it would be more exciting to cruise while breaking the ice? If people still complain, we will have to buy some small car ferries from Istanbul."

"It sounds good, but people wouldn't want to travel in the winter. The Caspian Sea is quite rough during the winter."

"As an alternative, let's bring out the 100-ton yacht and small boats and cruise them around the Ural River and its coastlines for tourists. We might get a bunch of gold in Siberia. We have to use icebreakers for that."

"What did you say? Gold?"

"Calm down, Commissioner. Lumber is no less than gold for our state. I need to start transporting lumbers when summer comes. I am counting on you."

"Phew, alright. As long as you make us rich, I will take care of it."

Although his logging business had not even started yet, Youngho could buy lumbers from the Russian government for Kim Chun's sake. The two car ferries would have to go in and out of Krasnoyarsk for a few times anyway, so it would be better if he could bring some lumbers on the way back. Mafias would help out with the pricing of the lumbers. The Arirang Autonomous State definitely needed quite a huge amount of lumbers for building houses.

If the 3,000-ton car ferries would transport lumbers two to three times, the state would have enough amount of lumbers for the next few years. Leftover lumbers could be used as firewood. As soon as Youngho mentioned a fireplace, Kim Chun asked if Youngho could bring some burning wood too.

"Selling burning wood in Atyrau's downtown would make a nice profit. Do you know how much a bundle of burning wood costs?"

"Well, why don't we just use them in the state? We don't have to start another business here. I will bring extra if we have some room on the ferries."

Using burning wood in common households was considered quite the luxury in Kazakhstan. It was because wood was hard to find in the semi-deserted land. Chun was hopeful to see a lot of lumbers being transported to the state. He would be disappointed if Youngho came back with nothing. It seemed that Youngho would have to find a way to get lumbers in Russia no matter what.

***

Koryoins from Kyrgyzstan began moving into the state in the middle of March.

Youngho asked them to move to the state in May, but many families did not want to wait any longer. As they reached Kazakhstan, they realized that March in Kazakhstan was still winter, unlike Kyrgyzstan. The houses were not ready yet for the new immigrants, but they could not sleep on the street in the freezing winter days.

Immigrants who had a small family shared the houses of state's residents, and the state also offered yurts for bigger families. Youngho had to start building the farming villages right away since the number of residents was growing rapidly. When the houses in the city were emptied after farmers or ranchers moved out to new small villages, Koryoin immigrants would temporarily use the emptied houses. They would eventually move out after they were done building their own houses. This was what Youngho decided as a policy that all Koryoin immigrants should build their own houses. This would be helpful to prepare the state for its increasing population.

"What? Many of them want to live in the farming village?"

"I don't know if it's a good thing, but they preferred long term farmland lease rather than buying it."

"I guess the farming villages will look like a great plain for them since they've only seen mountains everywhere in Kyrgyzstan."

"A lot of them also want to go to a ranching village, and young families want to live in the city. I am planning on limiting the number of households in front of the palace to 300 families. By looking at the trend, most Koryoins from Kyrgyzstan will likely want to do farming or ranching as their occupation."

It was good news since not everyone was fighting over the limited city area. There would not be enough jobs or houses for them if they did.

"I'm glad the farming and ranching villages will be expanded. We will have balanced development in different areas of the state."

"This means that we need to build a school for the farming and ranching villages too."

"Let's say the younger ones would finish up to middle school in the school we will build in each farming and ranching village. Then, they will have to commute to the city once they're in high school. I am sure they will be fine with commuting."

"Speaking of building new schools and villages. Why don't we build a ramen noodles factory and a food production factory in the farming and ranching villages? They won't have enough income for a few years by doing only farming and ranching."

It sounded like a good plan. Housewives without work could apply for jobs in the factories. Since it would be a simple labor job, the work would not be too difficult to learn. Having such factories in the small villages, not in the city, would evenly distribute the state's population as well.

"It would only take them half an hour to travel to the city if we have a railroad. Even if the number of produced items increases, it won't be a problem because we have the railroad."

"This is a good thing, right? It almost feels unrealistic to see everything fitting together at the right time."

"Of course this is a good thing. We will have our struggles and troubles once we have more population. We will leave them in the future."

"I am willing to lose my hair from stress if we can have more people."

Youngho thought the same way as Kim Chun. Youngho did not feel comfortable giving military training for teenagers. But he had no choice because they were surrounded by strong countries.

The state would need to build an image of a weak country on the outside while ensuring internal stability. Another reason why Youngho wanted to develop the Siberian region and take the North Sea route was that his business move would make the Russian government think that the state's economy was dependent on Russia.

Youngho would have to make sure that the state was not threatening to other countries until the state was fully ready. The process would be subtle, slow, and quiet.