Empire of the Ring

The news of the railroad construction connecting Russia, Azerbaijan, and Iran was enough to surprise Western countries as well.

Now the cargo volume that has been transported only through the Suez Canal was about to change. The construction of land transportation meant that the international trade among Indian and Southeastern Asian countries would not be influenced by what happened in Middle Eastern countries.

Most countries seemed to welcome the news because countries near the Black Sea and Caspian coastal lines could transport their product faster at cheaper costs. Egypt that made about six billion dollars of profit every year from the Suez Canal would be the only country that would have a huge damage on their profit now. Because of the railroad construction, Egypt would not be able to play with the toll gate fee for the Suez Canal anymore.

Russia did not have to worry about Turkey blocking Bosporus Strait at all because they could still conduct international trades with India and Southeast Asian countries by land transportation. Russia had nothing to fear now when it came to international trade since they did not need to use the Bosporus coast nor the Suez Canal.

The Azerbaijani government had been slowly but surely working on the elimination of Nagorno-Karabakh. The incident caused by the guerrillas gave good reasons for the government to get all the support from nearby countries. The Azerbaijani government was quietly gathering its military force near Nagorno-Karabakh while blocking all the possible noises from nearby countries.

In one morning, the news was announced that the Azerbaijani army took over Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh.

According to the news anchor of the national broadcasting system, the Azerbaijani army disarmed the police and took over the city hall and major broadcasting companies over the night. There was no mention about how it happened but the anchor only emphasized that there was no causality. The news continued that the civilians of Nagorno-Karabakh would be free to reside where they dwelled whereas officials and far-right nationalists would be deported. Of course, it was a political gesture to prevent unfavorable international publicity.

Since the government did not specify which standards they would be using to define far-right nationalists, it looked like most of Armenia would have to leave Nagorno-Karabakh, because when Armenia proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh as an autonomous state, they deported most of Azerbaijanis.

The war seemed to be almost over when Nagorno-Karabakh was taken over. However, the Armenian army and the militia started to strike back from the outer boundary of Nagorno-Karabakh. Nagorno-Karabakh was being stained with soldier’s blood.

Soon after the war was triggered, the economy of Azerbaijan was shaking. Civilians were panic buying supplies more than they needed, and prices of products rose as a result. Even though extra supplies were released by the government, the prices still stayed high.

The Azerbaijani government requested help from private distributors but they would not cooperate. President Aliyev also officially requested cooperation to businessmen of Baku who attended the land transportation information session at the president palace.

The merchants of Baku were the descendants of the people who used to take advantage of Silk Road merchants. They would not lose this opportunity to make money. Even Shamakhi would have made a profit out of this if Youngho did not persuade him to cooperate. The greedy merchants who decided not to cooperate with the government would definitely be disadvantaged later on since the president with dictator-like authority would not leave those greedy people taking advantages of the time of war.

***

Youngho was about to have his breakfast but Jongil pulled him out of the dining room, saying that they needed to go to the ranch. Cho Sangchun who was also at the table came along with him.

Since Sangchun had been drinking wines all the time to check the taste of the wine, Yunsuh made a special soup for him to comfort his stomach but before he even started to have a sip, they had to leave the table. Following Jongil, Youngho was already worried about what kind of bizarre stuff Jongil had done this time. He kept asking what was going on but Jongil only smiled.

“You know what, if this isn’t something important, you are dead. Alright? I was in the middle of having my breakfast.”

“Okay. Just shut up and follow me.”

Still, Jongil did not give out anything but smiled.

“Jongil. Slow down a little. I am going to throw up if you don’t.”

“Why did you even come along? Who asked you?”

“Dude, everyone was leaving during the breakfast. You think Yunsuh would let me relax if I stayed there? I came along to survive.”

Poor Sangchun knew exactly how Yunsuh would react now. Youngho tried to stop him from marrying Yunsuh, yet Sangchun only cared about the pretty face of his fiancé.

Jongil said shaking his head,

“What a pitiful, pathetic guy…”

“Dude… I am going to puke…”

They arrived at the construction site where the brick fence was being built in front of Serbian Village.

In spite of the cold weather, the villagers came out to work on the fence altogether. When they saw Youngho, they ran to him and welcomed him. They used to have a tough life, even tougher during winter without food, but now, they were having a warm and rich winter since they found the Archduchess. How could they not welcome the person who provided warm shelters, and all the supplies that brought back the people’s smiles and laughter?

Niksic also hastily approached to Youngho and welcomed him.

“You heard the news as well. Isn’t it amazing?”

“…”

“Let’s go and I’ll show you around.”

When Niksic guided Youngho, Jongil stopped him.

“Don’t worry Niksic. I will take him there.”

“Dude. What’s going on? What is it?”

“Just try not to have a heart attack.”

Jongil took Youngho to where the rocks taken out of the mines were piled up to form a small hill. Then he pointed to the place where they placed rock piles. Bright reflection of morning sunlight dazzled from there.

“Wow….”

Both Youngho and Cho Sangchun gasped.

“We found these last night while taking some rocks away from the pile. I think their ancestors hid these gold under the rock pile. They are not smelted, but they look like high purity gold ores.”

“Let’s call the miners to smelter them. It would be at least a few thousand pounds of gold.”

How lucky we were, Youngho thought.

There was no guarantee that they would have this much of gold even if they spend mining for the next few years. Youngho had to respect the knights from the old kingdom, who worked as slaves of the mines, for hiding this much amount of gold for the future generations. After a few hundred years, they found the gold while collecting rocks to build a wall for Serbians.

It felt like Youngho was destined to find this gold as a reward for the effort he had put up to help the villagers. It also seems to encourage him to become a better leader to guide the Serbian descendants. What if the knights foresaw this moment? Thinking that, Youngho had goosebumps all over his body.

***

Youngho could hear noises from outside when he was preparing a trends report. The kiddos from the international school were rejoicing the snow that just started to fall. These kids were playing around on the frozen reservoir and went to the farm’s cafeteria to have some snack and they spotted the snow falling from the sky. When the snow is accumulated enough, they would want to go sledding.

The farm was now famous to be the safest in Baku as well as the only place where kids from the international school could swim during the summer and go sledding during the winter.

Youngho needed to accept all the kids to promote the good image of the farm, but the kids were becoming a bit annoying. Their parents let the kids go to the farm without a concern, probably, because they had no other option in Baku. Therefore, Youngho could not kick them out for Zeynep and Szechenyi’s sake.

For Leon and the kids from Serbian Village, a proper playground seemed to be necessary. Youngho was thinking about building a playground with a small zoo attached to it. If he spared a little bit of the grape field, it would be more than enough. It would help kids’ mental and emotional development if they could have a place to play in nature away from Baku city air.

Parents and children from the international school would be Youngho’s future potential customer and this sounded like a great idea to promote the farm to the future customers. The memory they had in this place would last in their minds. There was no reason not to invest this money for the future of the farm.

As soon as Youngho decided to build a playground, he searched for amusement park companies.

He felt a bit of guilt to think about a playground for kids because Nagorno-Karabakh was facing a bloody war. Yet, he remembered some old words of a philosopher.

‘Even if I knew tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.’

Even the Serbian knights did not take the gold for themselves but hid their gold for future generations. Investment for future had to be continued even if Azerbaijan disappears in the war tomorrow. Children were the future.

Youngho was not going to save every kid in the world but what he could do for now was to provide a better environment for kids around him including his child and the children of Serbian Village.

***

A war itself was already cruel enough, but if the enemies had slaughtered each other due to different nationalities and religious beliefs, the war would be a hell.

Armenia and Azerbaijan were in that relationship now. That was probably why no one heard a word about injured people or prisoners.

All Youngho heard was numbers of the dead during battles. The numbers of dead people were unbelievable because if that many people had died during battles, the whole Armenia was supposed to be collapsed by now.

This might be a mind game strategy of Azerbaijan, or maybe they were including the numbers of civilian casualties as well. Also, freelancer journalists were continuously arrested and deported from Nagorno-Karabakh. The journalists had rarely been stopped or deported during wars in Kosovo, Syria, or Iraq because reported news would give those involved countries reasons to stay in wars. This meant that the war might be moving to unexpected direction, otherwise deporting journalists would be unnecessary.

Ethnic cleansing might be in the process the Armenian soldiers and the militants seemed to be fighting fiercely as if they knew that they were going to die. Armenian forces showed up on the news briefly, and Youngho realized that his assumption might turn out to be true. The looks of injured Armenian soldiers caught on a camera were closer to a resentment rather than pain. No fear was showing in their eyes. There was no way for them to have that kind of looks unless they saw something extremely awful.