Empire of the Ring

Klimov, who just received combat rations as a gift from Youngho, was very impressed by him.

"Mr. Lee, how did you think of giving me combat ration?"

"I've heard that the Taiga region is isolated during eight months of winter. I asked myself what you might need and thought of combat rations. This is nothing, but I wanted to show my appreciation for your help."

"How thoughtful of you, Mr. Lee. We're always in need of convenient food because we are out patrolling in the forest quite often. Could you possibly supply these in bulk?"

"…"

"Oh, don't get me wrong. I'm only saying this because I have a market for this kind of food. Since winter is so long around here, people usually live on frozen food. If this kind of convenient food in this quality is available, anyone would want to buy this."

"Are you saying you want to do business in your unit?"

"Hahaha… I should toss it to a retailer, I don't think I can do that myself."

Now that he had tasted money, Klimov was ready to start an intermediary wholesale business with the combat ration.

It was a great chance for Youngho since he would not have to give Klimov free combat rations anymore.

"It's not only because I want to make money but also because I want to serve my soldiers better."

"You're indeed a great commander, Lt. Col."

Although Youngho complimented him, he did not really believe what Klimov said.

"Alright, my ships will always be empty when they get here after transporting the lumbers to Kazakhstan, I'll probably be able to provide you combat rations. I'll only take the minimum shipping cost."

"No, I'd feel better if you make more money than that."

"Those combat rations are quite expensive. I don't think people here would be willing to pay such a high cost for the food if you pay me a commission in the middle."

"Oh, you have no idea what Krasnoyarsk is like. People here make at least twice more than average Russians."

'Whoa! I had no idea.'

Youngho was surprised to hear that. He thought that the region was too cold to be living in, but it turned out that many rich people gathered here. There was a reason the population of one million people was residing here. Since illegal businesses were conventionally allowed here, people who acquired wealth through such means had lived in the region.

"I also have a favor to ask, Lt. Col."

"What is it?"

"It's a little further away from my developmental region, but would it be possible to make a small dock at the Yenisei River and build a temporary lodging around it?"

"That area is an ownerless place since it is not given to any developer yet. There would be no problem for you to do that. Some of the loggers here bring their lumbers near the river so that they can transport them to a train station."

"Should I get permission from the harbor management of Krasnoyarsk?"

"The Taiga region is under my management. That won't be necessary."

"I'm saying that I'd be building a small dock to transfer some of the lumbers."

"Mr. Lee, the area you are developing is a tiny part of the whole Taiga region. You're not carrying out the whole Taiga, and if I can't accommodate such little thing for you, I shouldn't be called your partner."

The conversation with Klimov reminded Youngho again that this was Russia—where you could do anything with connections. More specifically, Siberia. It had its own rules.

***

"Hong Sung-ki, I talked with the battalion commander here. You can finish building the temporary lodging and load all of the lumbers on our ships without any debris left."

"What? You want little branches too?"

"Commissioner Kim wants to sell those as firewood."

"Well, if Commissioner Kim asked, we must do what he said."

"Wait, you are not complaining as always?"

"I need to impress Commissioner Kim so that he will arrange a house in the city with a good location and a farmland for my parents."

"Hey! I'm the owner of the state. I'm the one you need to impress here."

"Oh, people say that Chief Niksic and Commissioner Kim are the heavyweights of the autonomous state."

"Jeez, that makes me a puppet boss."

"Well, that's your words, not mine."

"Okay, okay. Bring all of the little branches so that you can look good in front of the heavyweight."

"Mehehe…"

"Oh, don't laugh like that. You disgust me."

There were many little branches and debris that were rotting in the forest, which was a sight that people in Kazakhstan would be sorry to see since any wood was valuable in Kazakhstan.

Despite the extreme cold, the land was filled with overflowing natural resources, which made Youngho jealous.

"Boss. Are you only going to let intelligence agents live at the business office in Krasnoyarsk downtown?"

"I'll be sending some office employees too, why?"

"Choi Sang-ho wanted to stay here."

"Well, since you're the team leader here, you do whatever that suits you."

"Thank you."

Youngho was glad to hear that someone was willing to stay in Krasnoyarsk. He wondered why.

"Wait a minute, why does he want to reside here? There's nothing to do."

"He said that he has a big crush on the local lady who works at the office."

"Man, all of you always want to get married here instead of focusing on working."

"He's my junior, I should help him get married."

"It's not so bad to get married to a woman who you get arranged with by matchmaking. Didn't you say the girl you were set up with was like an angel?"

"Well, I'm a man of capabilities."

Choi Sang-ho only saw the office lady for a brief moment and he was already in love. It showed how much lonely the security guards from Korea in a foreign setting. They were badly looking for ladies. Youngho felt sorry.

"Does he have a lover he left in Korea by any chance?"

"No, he doesn't have any girl there. He would've stayed in Korea if he did. I mean, it's not so easy to leave your home country, unless your life was completely unhappy."

"Man, are you talking about me? Sounds like my life in Korea."

"Oh, you know we all respect you. You're an exception."

"Whatever. Anyway, tell him that I'll be supporting him a hundred percent. If he doesn't get that girl in a year, we should relocate him where he can find a girl."

"Alright, sir."

***

The first voyage was quite fruitful.

Any docks, train stations, and open-storage yards in the area were filled with lumbers and aluminum that were waiting to be transported. Since metals that were smaller in size than lumbers were carried out first, lumbers needed to wait to get arranged by a train car until it could be transported, but the process took at least six months of waiting period.

If Youngho could use the North Sea route, any pulp and processed timer businessmen would rush in to use his vessels to transport their materials. Since using Youngho's vessels would be faster and they could move quite a lot of amount at once, shippers would not mind paying the high shipping cost.

As Youngho was busy taking care of the business in the Taiga region, Park Jong-il was busy making connections with the local officials of Krasnoyarsk.

"You look like you're having quite some fun."

"Man, did you know that they have Korean-style karaoke here? They sell alcohols and ladies come to the singing room to entertain you. Jeez, if they wanted, they'd be able to take advantage of us in any way."

"Okay, just be careful. Siberia is a lot different from Moscow."

"I know, but the officials here are really freehanded. They drink cognac instead of vodka. Foreign businessmen had been spoiling them big time."

Although Youngho and Jong-il were used to bribing officials and business partners in Russia, it seemed that the officials of the city hall, whom Jong-il met, were a handful. Youngho was being helped by the battalion of the local military unit and the local mafias, he still needed officials' help to do business in the area.

"How are the officials here?"

"You know there's no reason for them to hate us. I treated them well with drinks and envelopes. What's not to like about me? I also slipped some words that I'm related to mafias, and they liked it. They think that we prevent mafias for them. I think they had been troubled by mafias for a long time"

"That's great. If we've got a problem, we can mobilize Sergeenko to scare them and pretend that we take care of the mafias for them. They'll have to rely on us."

In order to survive in Siberia, one had to use any resource that they could use.

Youngho was glad that he could be helped by Sergeenko—who was the local branch leader of South Russian mafias under Yaniv and Sergey.

There were other local mafias that did not belong to the South Russian mafia organization as well. If Sergeenko had not taken care of them in advance, all of the small mafia groups would have come to Youngho for disturbing his business to ask for a bribe.

"You know one of the vessels doesn't need to stay here. We can probably load it with lumbers and sent it back to the state now. Did you find out whom the lumbers at the dock belong to?"

"According to the agents, the lumbers belong to a China-Russia joint venture enterprise. I'm not sure how trustworthy it will be. I feel like we're going to get backstabbed if we dealt with it."

"Why do you think so?"

"You know, it's illegal to bring out the lumbers since we don't have a contract yet. What if the company take it all on us when we're found later?"

The joint-venture enterprise was a government-owned company that dealt with many illegal businesses behind. So, Youngho thought that it would not be a problem if he caused a little trouble for the company.

"Hmmm. You know what? We shouldn't deal with them. Why not just take the lumbers forcibly?"

"Are you kidding?"

"No, we can just load them from the dock. Who's going to watch that? People will think that there must be a deal since we're confidently carrying them out in the open."

"So, we just load them and go?"

"Yeah, why don't we just say that we had a deal with Sergeenko? We're just doing what he told us to do, taking what was on the dock."

"You're a simple robber now."

"What about me? A mafia that sold what was not his should be treated as a robber."

Even if Youngho was found out to have taken the lumbers at the dock, no one would be able to blame a local mafia boss who sold the lumbers that did not belong to him. There was no one who would report it to the police, just because lumbers that were two for a penny around the area were gone in the first place since it would not be easy to do business in Siberia if one became an enemy of local mafias.