<h4>Chapter 426: Soar (2)</h4>
As the new year came, the busiest person in the state was Kim Chun.
He was busy with paperwork and adjustment of arablend and pasturnds for new residents of the autonomous state. Farmers who lived near the Ural River owned about 10-30 acres of farnd and per household. Most of thend was used for a mixture of wheat farming and fruit farming.
Since thend policy of the autonomous state was not a concept of ownership but a concept of use, the administration decided to buy farnd or pasturend that originally belonged to the residents of the newly added territory.
If those farnds were added to the state, it would be developed soon. And, inevitably thend prices would rise. If that happened, the original residents who did not ownnd would feel rtively deprived.
The new residents who were transferred sold theirnd withoutint. For them, it was interesting to sell farnd. In Kazakhstan, where there were plenty of emptynds, ranchers and farmers would just leave theirnd and find a new site when they failed farming. It did not make sense to buy other people’snd for farming since they did not have to.
Even though they sold farnd to the autonomous state for money, they could farm on their farming site. So, for them, there was no reason not to give up their ownership.
In addition, the autonomous state promised machine farming to the farmers. If it was adopted, one person from each family could take care of farming while others went to work in factories run by the state because farming would be easier and faster with machines. This would lead to a sharp increase in ie per household.
Kim Chun smiled emptily as the problem of buying ownerships from the new residents was resolved so easily.
“I think we might’ve been too naive. We could have just told them to exchange their ownership for farming machines and equipment.”
“It’s even more troublesome if they bring awsuit against the state in the future. The price of thend was not expensive anyway. It’s better to pay the full price and not getintster on.”
“The new residents said that they’ll build their own house with the money they earned by selling thend. We need to wrap up the city n in a hurry and start building a new city in the spring.”
“Please support the building materials for their house generously. We have to make sure that they don’t feel discriminated.”
“Sure. Since they’ve seen the lives of our original residents nearby, I will make sure that they’ll be treated the same.”
“Did you get poption statistics?”
“There are 6,250 people in 1,040 households.”
The greatest gain from the increase of thend was by far the increase in poption.
Since more than a third of the county’s poption was added, Youngho wanted to dance in joy. He searched the Balkans to increase the number of people, but now, a huge number of people were added at once.
If Kim Chun was busy dealing with the incorporatednd and people, Cho Chul-hwan was agonizing over establishing a regional boundary and building guard posts for ensured security. The number of the Countryside Force was not enough to guard the wide area. So, he came to persuade Youngho to recruit more guards from the newly incorporated residents.
“There are young people, but they were just farmers and cattle ranchers. They’re too na?ve to fit in as Countryside Force.”
“It’s true that there are more innocent young people. All the original guards would stay only as a sergeant, so we need to recruit more people. It’s a good chance to secure at least 300 guards.”
“Isn’t there too many soldiers in the Countryside Force?”
“That can be dealt withter when there’s a problem. But, if you don’t increase the force now, we might not have a chanceter since they’re all going to be recruited in other ces.”
“Let’s put out a recruitment notice. Let’s take all the young people who want toe in, but we should limit their age, and say that only one person per household can apply.”
“If the brothers want toe in, we can assign one into the Vignte Army. What’s the matter?”
***
When the announcement was made to recruit Countryside Force for the new residents, everyone wrote applications, and all the young people who were tired of their family business, farming and ranching desired to join the force. Rather than learning new skills and getting a job at a factory, they wanted to be in the military since they could use the experience of using a shotgun.
“How many people have applied?”
“There are a little over 600 people. I think all of the young people applied, except the students who are attending school. There are more than 100 girls among them.”
“That’s crazy. I thought the managers of each factory were expecting new workers. They must be disappointed to hear this.”
“Everyone passed the physical fitness test safely.”
“They’ve been running around in the field since young, so they must have a basic physical strength.”
“Well, how about we take them all? They’re a clean resource with a nk te. I’d love to train them. I think they’ll be a strong guard if they receive the mind education right.”
“You sound like you’re going to brainwash them.”
“Oh, you make me sound bad. I’ll take out some of the smart ones and make them intelligence agents. How is that?”
“Did you find bright ones that could be agents?”
“Hey, I haven’t even trained them yet. They’ll stand out during the training period. ”
“Jong-il would love to hear that.”
“Keep quiet for him. Otherwise, he will show up at the training camp every day and make a fuss.”
The road along the Ural River, which had be the territory of the autonomous state, was about 40 kilometers long. The Ural River originated in Russia’s Ural Mountains and flew across western Kazakhstan into the Caspian Sea. It was a 2,534 kilometer-long river.
The Arirang Autonomous State was located in the lower reaches of the river, so there was arge volume of water, and a river width was more than one kilometer.
“How did you decide to operate the river’s guard post?”
“How can we cover the whole 40 kilometers of length? I left the riverside to the drone squadron. I’m not worried about the daytime but I’m worried about the night time.”
“Man, it’s great that we’ve got the Ural River now, but there’s another problem.”
“It’s hard to get close because it’s mostly high hills, but there’s a t section that stretches about ten kilometers. This section must be tightly guarded. It will cost some money, but we have no choice but to intensively install security lights and CC-TVs in that section.”
“I’m afraid we’re way short of electricity for that. I should find a ce to build a sr power nt along the river.”
“Sr energy again? Shouldn’t we have a small thermal power nt? We need more electricity to build armored vehicle assembly nt and aircraft factories in the future. Sr power will be far short of electricity.”
As the size of the state had grown, electricity use would increase by a lot in the future, but sr power was not enough. Although it was possible to attract electricity, it was also difficult to pay for the construction of a power transmission tower. It was not difficult for the state administration to afford it, but building power towers for hundreds of kilometers was a pure waste.
“A small thermal power nt? If you use coal, it’s a mess around.”
“Hey, this is a ce full of natural gas. What are you worried about?”
“That’s brilliant! Recing fuel with natural gas will solve the environmental problem.”
“It’s safe to keep the sr energy nt and make the power nt an emergency generator. It’ll be also great to use the President’s money to produce industrial electricity.”
The power nt was a must-have facility in the long run.
Electricity produced by sr power was so sensitive to climate change that during the winter months, the produced energy was only sufficient for household use.
So the factories of the industrialplex near the Arirang Wharf each used arge generator in the winter. Although an electric charging station was being built with the technology that was given by Eriksson, the amount of electricity produced with sr power was still bound to be limited.
***
“Prince consort, it’s been such a long time. I thought you forgot about Koreanpanies.”
“Oh, that’s not going to happen. If there was a project for Koreanpanies to participate, I would have stepped forward and give an opportunity for them.”
“By the time our power nt project and the road construction are finished, we will need your help foremost.”
“I sure will help you. Do you think I’ll take the back seat in helping out my fellow countrymen?”
“I haven’t been able toe here often because of the work overload at the train factory, but I won’t be busy from now. The power nt will be in full operation from spring.”
“Congrattions. It’s finallying to fruition.”
“So, I assume there’s a business to do since you called me?”
Kim Joo-hyuk was eager to know why Youngho wanted to see him.
He had been working busily in Astana. When he called Youngho to say the new year’s greeting, Youngho asked him to visit sometime.
“I heard that you couldn’t go to visit your home country during the holiday season, so I thought I’d treat you to a meal. Of course, there’s a little business to do.”
“I don’t really care because I’ve been away from my family for so many times. I rather find joy in working.”
“You have every reason to call a Korean businessman a workaholic.”
“I bet you are the same. You’re always traveling from a country to another.”
Kim Joo-hyuk sat close when Youngho mentioned building a small power nt.
“I thought there should be a power nt in our state in the long run.”
“Of course. There must be a limit to the sr energy. Our group has a lot of know-how in building power nts, so we can build any size.”
“How big the nt should be in order to run factories with 20,000 workers?”
“I’m an outsider in the field of development, so I only have light knowledge of this. I think you’ll need at least one 50 MW powernt to cover your needs. I’ll talk to the construction department for more details.”
He also informed Youngho of the basic knowledge about the power generation facilities.
Power generation facilities that used natural liquefied natural gas as fuel were somewhat more expensive than a coal power nt but produced eco-friendly energy.
The strength of the small powernt was that auxiliary facilities could be minimized since the nt would be near to the power consumption centers.
In the case of the autonomous state, the Ural River was located on the side, so there were also conditions for unrestricted ess to industrial water required for power nts.
“We will build a power nt and it will be the factory cost in return for helping ourpany’s work in Kazakhstan.”
“Hahaha... It’s just a nning phase, and you’re getting ahead of yourself.”
“I think you’ve already made up your mind, so give us a chance. I already know that you don’t like Koreanpanies or the government very much, but please think of us as a globalpany.”
“I haven’t even met many Koreanpanies so far, and you’ve contributed to Kazakhstan’s development by a lot. I’m thankful for you and yourpany, Mr. Kim. Also, yourpany didn’t have any ties with the Korean government either.”
“While staying in Astana, I often visited the Korean Embassy. The officials there were a little disappointed that they weren’t even invited to big events held in the Arirang Autonomous State.”
“We couldn`t invite the Korean ambassador only. It would be misleading to invite the Korean ambassador to other countries since we didn’t invite any. The country is a member of Kazakhstan anyway, not a member of the Republic of Korea.”
“I see.”
“I would’ve invited the Korean ambassador if I had a personal affection for the Korean government, but to be honest, dealing with Korean officials is a hassle.”
“I agree with you on that. I think it’s better to delegate consr service to civilians.”
While dealing with bureaucrats was also a nuisance, the Korean embassies overseas tended to practice their authority over theirpatriots overseas. From the perspective of Korean overseas; who have built their foundation in foreign countries, the presence of the embassy from their home country was a nuisance, let alone being helped by the embassy.
It was often the case that Korean embassies brought in local ethnic Koreans and entrepreneurs to the embassy to impress politicians visiting from Korea. So, Youngho was distancing himself from the Korean Embassy. Some Koreanpanies were also avoiding contact as much as possible, as the Korean officials were only thinking of using ethnic Koreans or local businessmen. It was a shame that the embassy was no help for Korean overseas.