Empire of the Ring

The cultivation season had finally come.

This year was twice as busy as the last year since the 600 acres of southern part of the farm was additionally cultivated for the first time.

Insoo was busy with the security company but Park Jongil had not shown his face without any specific reason. When Youngho tried to talk to him in the evening, Jongil would be already in bed exhausted so he did not have any chance to talk to him.

Youngho could guess what Jongil was up to these days.

At the ranch, the excavation for the mansion’s basement was being done by now and Jongil must be overseeing the construction site. Youngho just let Jongil be since he could not keep Jongil away when he was determined to make the mansion as an indestructible fortress.

Youngho was the one who provided the information about the possible war and Jongil’s actions were actually not so weird. He would only feel secure when the construction of the ranch’s mansion would be satisfactory.

Jongil not only meddled with the construction process, but he also frequently visited the Main Police Department to collect more information about terrorism.

Even though Youngho told him that the Jewish capitalist was only speculation from Eriksson, Jongil did not mind. He grilled the employees of the security company to report any useful information.

Some of Baku’s influential figures liked the system of Zeynep Security Service. They referred the company to people around them, so security service requests were now overflowing.

Because the risk of terrorism still existed and there were not enough skillful security guards, the cost of security service naturally rose. The insecurity of the public kept growing and people did not complain even if the company called the service fee twice more than original.

Then, many well-off people began to remodel their houses or mansions to make them as impregnable fortifications. Since Baku’s situation was like this now, there was no reason for Youngho to stop Jongil’s strange behaviors.

Youngho rather liked Jongil when he made a fuss and kept trying to get money from him in an effort to build a tighter security system, because people would not care if Jongil hustled around instead of him.

In the end, Park Jongil reached the peak of security measures by installing a metal detector. As a result, everyone who entered the farm had to go through the detector like the one at airport security checks. Youngho smirked while looking at that scene, but there was no harm in being extra cautious. Since Zeynep Farm owned a security service company, it would look rather good when the rumor spread out that the farm had tight security.

“Jongil, you’ll become paranoid. You can stop now. What kind of terrorist would come to attack the farm?”

“Stop being so mindless. Then why do you think wealthy people keep requesting for security service?”

Come to think of it, the owners of big corporations were hiring security guards, paying high costs to prevent abduction.

Jongil continued, “I’m going to assign a personal guard for Zeynep when she goes to school. Don’t try to stop me. She’s the most influential person in Baku.”

“Szechenyi is with her. He can take down several lousy ones. If you make it too obvious, she’s going to stand out more.”

“You think that baby boy without any field experience can be a match to malicious terrorists?”

“You’re right.”

Since there was no one who did not know the name of Zeynep, it was necessary to be careful. Youngho regretted exposing her by using her name for his farm, oil business, and security company. Since he could not change the name of his company now, he would also be using her name for his ranch. He thought that he should pay her back well in the future for her name.

***

When the grape crusher’s engine stopped, the workers around the machine all yelled with joy. The biggest work of this year had just ended.

Although it would be more accurate when the grape extracts had gone through the fermentation process and the aging process, but the estimated amount of the product was more than 700,000 gallons.

Out of that, 300,000 gallons would be aged in oak casks for the next few years and 400,000 gallons were going to be distributed after being aged in stainless tanks for a short while.

Every year, when the extracts went into the fermenting room, Youngho felt like the year had already finished.

Like last year, many people visited the farm and participated in the cultivation like a festival. As the cultivation of grapes was completed, Youngho treated his guests with a big party to show his appreciation.

On barbecue grills, dozens of lambs were being roasted on charcoal fires and 50-gallon oak barrels with tabs on were placed all over the farm for people to taste.

Jongil, who had been up to preposterous work during the whole cultivation season, also was drinking wine in a relaxed manner.

“This year’s wine is especially good, or maybe it’s just because I’m feeling good.”

“Jongil, you’ve done a lot to ensure the security of the farm and the ranch. Since you hustled around like that, people did not make a problem out of that.”

“Do you understand my intention now? You looked at me like I’m a fanatic.”

“Alright, alright. I’ll fill your glass since you’ve worked hard.”

As they were laughing together, Cho Sangchun and Cha Insoo joined them.

“Hey, it’s been so long since we drank together. Let’s drink up tonight!”

As if determined, Sangchun held out his glass toward the gang.

After coming to Baku, his face had brightened since he no longer had to listen to Yunsuh’s complaints.

Yunsuh gave birth to her second son on the farm and she now felt more peaceful in her mind so she did not give him an earful anymore like she used to. Her life was good on the farm because she did not have to work hard and live on a tight budget anymore. Living on the farm for several months, she was more relaxed now and her personality seemed to change positively. She laughed more and hummed frequently.

Youngho was glad to see his sister’s change.

He felt lucky that he could provide a shelter for his family.

“Sangchun, we need to call your father. He won’t be happy if he finds out that we left him out for drinking.”

“He’s already been drinking over there in the log cabin. He took Insoo’s father, Gerhardt’s father, the wine factory director, and even the oak factory director. Since he took a big piece of lamb meat, he will drink until he passes out tonight.”

It was sure enough. However, Youngho was glad that Sangchun’s father acted as if he was the owner of the farm rather than being self-conscious.

Sangchun’s father was having a blessed old stage since he had his children and grandchildren around him and serving him. As the highest elder of the farm, Sangchun’s father had established his position well. As a former teacher, he tried to be a role model for the younger ones on the farm and volunteered to teach humanities to the security crew from Korea to support them as their teacher and counselor. His only flaw was speaking too long once he was before a mic.

Youngho had worked hard dreaming of such a paradise, and since it was coming true before his eyes little by little, his heart was warmed. Here, he and his friends had dreamed, and this would be the place for the children to dream as well.

Everything could be done easier because of the power of the ring.

That was why Youngho was going to name his farm and the ranch together ‘Empire of the Ring’ in the future, although the name seemed too grand for the little places.

***

The number of gold ores grew even more and the storage now was about to overflow. Since the ore’s size could be cut down to a tenth of the size once the gangue was separated from the ore, Youngho ordered an aggregate crusher.

He had thought the machine was going to be huge, but the movable aggregate crusher that was delivered was the size of a little truck. It crushed lumps of sandstone to the size of a baby’s fist, efficiently separating gold ore from gangue although some thought-to-be lumps of gold would still have different minerals in them.

Now that the volume of gold had decreased dramatically, there was more room in the storage.

A lone wall was installed near the dead mine to stop people. The shepherds did not come close there since they thought the mines were used as a long-term wine aging storage.

Youngho could not wait to dig up all of the mines, but there was only so much manpower from four people including him, his friends, and Ilkwon, who could be trusted with gold, so they still were working on the first cave whenever they had free time.

Youngho could understand why people from the past used slaves. Since they wanted to store gold without getting the word out, the slaves could not come out from the cave until they were dead once they went in there.

Gold mines were exclusive property of feudal lords with armed forces or merchants with wealth. If they were found by weak individuals, they would only be the seed of misery because when they had been caught secretly excavating and distributing small quantities of gold, they would be threatened by being falsely charged with various crimes—and sometimes, their lives would even be taken away. In many cases, people died keeping their secret, unable to inform their descendants.

This might be a different case, but the slaves who were digging the dead mines found by Youngho somehow stopped digging in the midway. When the slaves were freed, they might have dreamed of returning to the mines and finding veins of gold, although their dreams were now foundered.

Youngho did not think that all of the slaves who worked in the mines were killed. If their descendants were still around, he might be able to reach them. He began to search for them in secret. Since the country was Islamic, the slaves would have been Christians who were caught as prisoners of war in the 1700s.

Jongil, who was determined to enroll at Baku University this year, was finally admitted to the college, but he was barely making it as a student. Around the time he was admitted, he was focused on establishing security of the farm and the ranch and he could not focus on his classes. He chose Physical Education as his major which was a rather easy degree.

When Youngho said that he was going to visit the Department of Archeology at the university, Jongil volunteered to escort him around the campus as a student.

As many publics were freed after the Soviet Union fell, the countries around the Caucasus were focusing on finding and recording their own history. Among them was Azerbaijan and the Baku University, collecting necessary data with the support of the government.

Youngho wanted to check the historical records in order to find the profiles of past prisoners of war who became slaves. Although racial conflicts were resolved a little due to the effort to straighten the past history, the root cause had still not been resolved.

The Azerbaijani people who used to be slaves could not make their foray into the mainstream society and still lived like foreigners in the country, although they now had Azerbaijani citizenship as well.

Youngho thought that if he could get them on his side, they would be the most trustworthy people. Because they were not treated equally in society, he was confident that he could gain their trust with a little act of kindness. It would be great if he could gain their loyalty as well.

“Youngho, isn’t that a little cruel to take advantage of them?”

“I’m not. Actually, I’d be helping them. They were not discriminated in the time of Soviet Union, but when the Azerbaijani government appeared, they were alienated because they were immigrants. How would you feel if you were them?”

They were the descendants of a little kingdom that had disappeared in history. Youngho explained that to Jongil.

“Although Korea was divided, we still have our nations, but these people don’t even have their country anymore.”

“If we can gain their loyalty like Koryoins with a little favor, I think it’ll be worth a try. These people could be the only ones who would keep the secret of the gold mines.”

The drawings on the walls and altar left in the dead mines might mean something to the descendants of the slaves. If the minority group of Azerbaijan could open their hearts to Youngho since he was also a minority, the ranch could be their safe place too.