Empire of the Ring

Chapter 153: Crisis and Opportunity (4)

Park Jongil had suggested sending newcomers of Serbian Village to Zeynep Farm and the Charles farm instead of expanding the village. Jongil worried that if the village becomes too big, the Azerbaijani people would be jealous of the minority group getting stronger.

Both Jongil and Youngho learned from the Nagorno-Karabakh experience that when minority groups go through rapid progress, the majority group would feel insecure that one day their power would be overthrown. There was no reason for Serbian Village to stand out in public’s eyes.

If the village gets bigger to the extent where Azerbaijani people would get jealous, there would be legal limitations exerted to the villagers from the government. Youngho was insecure since Azerbaijan was a developing country which was being ruled by an ambitious president who had been in the power position for a prolonged period. He could do anything to keep his power and get support from his people.

In case there might be a situation where he has to relocate his family and the whole village, Youngho thought that he needed to invest in different places to distribute his properties and wealth all over the world. So when one of his bases falls, he could still move to another place to live on to prevent too much damage being done to himself and his people.

Watching the tragedy of Nagorno-Karabakh, he realized that a minority group before guns and knives were helpless no matter how their spirit was strong. It would be better for him to cast anchor in some place new, instead of insisting to live in a dangerous place with risks.

The reason that Shamakhi the grain importer was obsessed with collecting gold bars was the same reason as Youngho’s insecurity. As the president, who was close to a dictator, and the surrounding situations of the country were not stable, he got more obsessive for gold bars. He felt lucky since he could attain gold bars from Youngho. The price of gold did not matter to the wealthy businessman with an abundant amount of cash and estate.

Many Azerbaijani business people did not trust the banks of the nation. They tended to store their funds in their private safes. As for Shamakhi, he usually deposited his funds in banks in Western Europe.

The tax law in Azerbaijan was pretty loose that the government conventionally did not inspect businessmen’s tax report thoroughly even though they could. It was because the government was still rich with oil funds. Only when a company got on the wrong side of the government, it would get inspected by the government and lose most of its funds for their fake account books.

***

When Youngho stepped in his office, Shamakhi welcomed him gladly. His business was exempted from tax inspection list because he took Youngho’s advice to comply with the government’s suggestion to provide grains to the public at low prices. He would have been regretting by now if he had not taken his advice, for his greed to make money in the war.

“Mr. Lee, thank you for stopping my greed. The businessmen around me are going through hardship because of the tax authorities.”

“It’s a natural outcome since they didn’t help people in wartime like this. The government won’t make it pretty this time.”

“Since the government’s going to be isolated in the international society, it needs someone to take their rage out on.”

Because of the video clip that Youngho and his friends took, the country’s reputation had fallen that the country’s violation of human rights was no better than underdeveloped countries. Although the government punished a person in charge to blame and officially promised that they would do their best to stop such incidents to happen in the future, the international opinion did not stop criticizing. Thus, the government had a war without any results but only the image of the nation hit the rock bottom.

“Mr. Lee, I still think it’s not enough. Do you think you can get more gold bars for me?”

When finishing the last deal, Youngho slipped words that he could get some more gold bars for Shamakhi and he was so eager to get more.

“Mr. Yaniv is not interested in Baku’s estates anymore. I think he’s short on some funds for his recent investment in the railroad construction.”

“I have plenty of dollars or euros in my foreign account. I can pay whatever he wants for the gold.”

“I’m not so sure about that. Mr. Yaniv is capable of making funds from any connection.”

Knowing that wealthy people valued gold bars more than cash, Youngho was playing a mind-game to any possible amount of cash from Shamakhi.

“Mr. Lee, how about suggesting 70,000 dollars for each gold bar? It’s 30% more than the current market price. Wouldn’t he be interested?”

Shamakhi was so eager that he was suggesting a ridiculously high price.

“From what I know, he has about four tons of gold bars. He contacts West European banks often. I don’t know what those banks are suggesting the price of gold.”

Shamakhi’s eyes were widened at the mention of the amount of gold. His lips were getting dry after hearing that West European banks are interested in gold bars too. After calculating in his brain for a while, he suggested an astounding amount of money.

“I will give you 300 million dollars. Please close the deal for me. I don’t care how much I should pay Mr. Yaniv. I’ll just consider that I’m investing in for my family and future descendants.”

Although Youngho knew that Shamakhi was a rich person, he did not expect him to have this much money. It was unimaginable how much he had saved in his foreign accounts. Since he suggested paying 50 million dollars more than the market value, he had got to have overflowing money in his accounts.

***

Youngho gained 4.2 tons of gold bars after smelting the gold ores found from the rock piles of the deadmines. It was the amount of 4,200 gold bars each weight a kilogram. Since it was a pain to store such numbers of gold bars, Youngho felt lucky that Shamakhi was interested in buying those paying a high cost.

For rich people, the high cost did not mean much since they would be investing in long-term assets but it was an unattainable amount for someone like Youngho. With the funds he made from this deal, he would be investing ten million dollars for the railroad consortium and buying some prominent hotels in Europe with the rest of the money.

Although he bought Baku’s Arirang Hotel at a cheap price exchanged with gold bars, leading European hotels with extremely increasing traveler guests every year, should be bought at the full prices.

The good news was that the prices of those hotels fell because of the decreased guests due to terrorism. He would only find out about the prices of European hotels but he expected to buy two to three middle-class hotels with the money.

Youngho was interested in hotel business because he could make them local bases in the future. In case he had to move, he would not have to worry about a place to sleep or to eat and he would have influence and power in the local society as the owner of a hotel.

Many people think that they have to hold important events at a leading hotel in order to save their faces. Since they are considered a member of high society when they have a hotel membership, many local businessmen and leaders try to be hotel members. Moreover, rich people would live in a hotel room and brag about their long-term stay and being a VIP member of a hotel. If Youngho could become an owner of these hotels, no one would dare to walk all over him and his family. That was the reason Youngho was interested in buying hotels in European historic cities where there were many travelers.

Although he wanted to invest more in the railroad construction, it did not seem secure because of the unstable political situations of Azerbaijan and the surrounding countries. He decided to just invest some to save his face as a local businessman only and not to overdo it.

Compared to the money he makes from his wine factory, ten million dollars was not a little amount at all. Considering the relationship with President Aliyev, Youngho thought this much amount was enough investment. If he invested less than this, he would lose favor in the president’s eyes because the recent increase in his wine factory sales was obvious to anyone. As for other profits he made from his foreign businesses, the president would have no idea about.

Among all of Youngho’s businesses, his security company was making the lowest profit since it had just reached the break-even point. Yet, the company was necessary for Zeynep business. Having a security company worked as a medium to increase international credibility which was invaluable.

The recent employees of the security company were all young men from Serbian Village. For young male villagers, the company was like a necessary step to take like coming-of-age rites as the descendants of knights. Through working for the security company as guards, the young Serbian villagers got accustomed to the outside world and grew their lacking sociality.

They were loyal to any business that had the name of Zeynep or Arirang since they belonged to Youngho, Fatima, and Serbian Village. Of course, they had great teamwork and rarely made problems with each other since they were all from the same root.

***

With the operation of the village’s own home watch, the ranch’s village was now almost like a natural fortress. Once the weather gets warm, more of Serbian descendants would be moving in, and Youngho would distribute them in his two farms. The ranch would be the last bastion for his people in danger.

Youngho bought the steep land beyond the gold mines from the government and was developing it to make it a part of his ranch. He would make it seem as a ranch to the government but if necessary, he was going to try excavating there for gold too.

Now that he found out that Shamakhi the grain importer has an overflowing amount of money, he would be selling gold bars to him as much as possible. Shamakhi would never doubt the source of gold bars since Youngho told him that it was coming from a mafia boss, Yaniv, and it would not be exposed to anyone since it was such a secret deal.

Edward in Panama called Youngho to express his appreciation. It was a natural reaction for him since Nagorno-Karabakh could survive and more sacrifice of the residents were stopped all because of Youngho and Jongil’s effort.

“Mr. Lee, I don’t know what to say for saving people of Nagorno-Karabakh despite the risk. Michael the chief praised you nonstop.”

Michael never complimented Youngho verbally but it seemed that he does in his back.

“It was a natural thing to do as an agent. It’s not something to be praised of. I could’ve saved more lives if I went in there earlier.”

“Who would attempt to infiltrate such dangerous place? I thank you for other Armenians. It’s because of you that many people were saved.”

Rather than being flattered, Youngho felt bad. He had not tried to help Armenians earlier, thinking that his relationship with them had already ended. If he had tried earlier, he could have saved more lives.

“Mr. Edward, I regret my laziness that I could not save more people early.”

“Lee, If things are settled, can you visit Yerevan some time? There is someone you should meet. I’m just going to say that he is the one who can help out your business.”

Youngho promised he would since Edward was introducing him to another businessman as an appreciation for saving his people’s lives. He needed to go to Georgia anyway, so he thought that he could stop by at Yerevan to see his friends and meet the businessman on the way.

The reason for his trip to Georgia was to buy a hotel there. If Armenia and Azerbaijan begin a war on a large scale, the air route would be blocked. In that case, he would have to use the land route to cross the Georgian border to reach Turkey. It would be useful to have a little hotel near Georgia’s Batumi Port or Poti Sea Port. Especially, Batumi Port was a transportation hub since it was adjacent to Turkey and it also had an international airport.

Youngho had no reason to let the money he received from Shamakhi rot in the bank. When the world was plagued by terrorism like now, it was the perfect timing for making an investment in the hotel business.