1953 Bare-handed Tycoon - Chapter 385



Only Krnovel

385 – Tiu’s Proposal

Kijo naturally intervened in the conversation between Lee Dae-yong and Tiu.

“What do you teach at university, brother?”

“I am teaching French.”

The keynote speaker said with a satisfied expression.

“Can I meet you, brother? I will send you the training materials for our employees before we go to Vietnam.

I wanted to create and teach the history and culture of Vietnam. My brother helped me create the materials.

If you do so, I will pay you a small fee.”

“Is that so? I think you’ll like it too. I’ll contact you first.

“Go and find out.”

Tiu told Gijo about the university where his brother worked.

Kijo thought that with this, his relationship with Tiu was halfway established.

His older brother, Kiwoo, was interested in money and was well-versed in economics.

He was appointed as an ambassador to Korea in 1966 and learned about the economic situation in Korea.

I think there is a chance of success if we build a rolling mill.

In fact, he wanted to invest 5 million dollars to build a factory in Korea.

At this time, Lee Dae-yong, who had just returned to Korea after completing his three-year military mission,

Helped with investment.

Lee Dae-yong, who had searched for a useful rolling mill, helped take over the rolling mill in Yeongdeungpo.

come.

However, Lee Dae-yong, who was supposed to work as the Korean branch manager, was suddenly promoted to brigadier general.

As he stepped away from work, Kiwoo’s investment fell through.

Because the right person to trust and entrust the factory in Korea disappeared, the desire to invest was lost.

It was.

Kijo thought that Tiu’s older brother, Kiu, was no ordinary person either.

At a time when there was no integrated steel mill, it was thought that building a rolling mill in Korea would make money.

It is also a joint venture business with Vietnamese funds and Korean technology.

The push for it was also great.

When he meets Tiu’s older brother, Kijo tells him about KISA, which he is involved in.

I was thinking of arranging national investment.

Tiu’s brothers had a lot of money.

Born into a wealthy Vietnamese landowning family, he was educated in the French style from a young age.

They were elites who received the flesh.

The conversation between the three men led to an investment in the Binh Hoa area of ​​Tsing San.

I’m thinking of building a logistics base and I need his help, he’s the commander of Binh Hoa region.

Honey Tiu readily agreed.

“Of course I will help you. It is not difficult at all.”

His assurance that he would protect the company was not an empty boast.

The 5th Division of the South Vietnamese Army under the command of Thieu at Binh Hoa was the last unit responsible for the defense of Saigon.

It was an elite division in Boru.

But Kijo felt irony in his cooperation.

The current President Ngo Dinh Diem trusted him and entrusted him with the 5th Division, but next year Thieu himself

He led his troops to surround and occupy the presidential palace.

It plays the most decisive role in the success of the coup.

“Well, now that we’re out of the business talk, shall we enjoy some cognac?”

Thieu, a cognac lover, ordered the most expensive cognac at the Continental Hotel.

That drink was the most expensive one he had ever tasted since his return.

While drinking such expensive alcohol, Tiu started talking about money.

“Dae-yong, how much do you get paid as a military officer in Vietnam?”

“They charge about $1,000 in US dollars.”

“okay?”

Tiu looked surprised.

It’s not that I’m surprised that I’m getting paid too much, but that I’m surprised that I’m getting paid too little.

It was seen.

Lee Dae-yong’s face also turned red.

Kijo knew why Lee Dae-yong was embarrassed.

The actual monthly salary that Lee Dae-yong received was $720.

I had slightly inflated my salary in front of my friends.

Lee Dae-yong, who was embarrassed, added.

“Still, it’s better than the salary I received in Korea.”

“How much did you get paid in Korea?”

Daeyong was perplexed by Tiu’s question.

“I got paid about 60 dollars….”

Tiu, who was raising the cognac glass to his lips, looked at Daeyong with astonished eyes.

I saw it.

He wiped the surprised look from his eyes, put down his glass calmly, and spoke.

“Hey, Daeyong. How about you come out of the military and work with me? I’ll hire you.

I can give you a place in the form of a thought essay. You have a lot of war experience and are a real fighter.

Didn’t you do a lot of work in training soldiers in our division? At least every month

“I can guarantee you $2,000.”

It was an attractive offer.

The salary offered by Tiu was 33 times the salary a colonel would receive in Korea.

This meant that I could receive roughly three years’ salary in one month.

Lee Dae-yong chuckled at his surprising suggestion and gulped down his cognac.

It felt like I was swallowing a very bitter glass of cognac.

Lee Dae-yong said, emptying his glass of cognac.

“Thank you, my friend, but how could I do that? I have been a soldier protecting my country all my life.

“He is the one who has sworn to become a human being… .”

The keynote speech looks with sadness at Lee Dae-yong, who turned down a position that could have earned him a lot of money.

There was.

He maintained his integrity despite suffering from low wages, and then, unable to bear the poverty, he went abroad.

He was a person who applied for military service.

In the original history, he even briefly considered leaving the military.

When I returned to Korea after finishing my military service in Vietnam in 1966, I was appointed as the Minister of Vietnam in Korea.

Tiu’s older brother, Kiu, offered him a business partnership.

He said he would pay me $3,000 a month if I worked under him, but he never did.

Didn’t leave the military.

Lee Dae-yong was a man with a sense of mission.

It was the same when South Vietnam fell in 1975.

While working as a Vietnamese ambassador, he withdrew the 1,000 Korean residents and workers who remained in Vietnam.

Take on the task at hand.

However, in the midst of extreme confusion, the withdrawal operation was slow and one could not withdraw.

A situation occurs where 600 Koreans remain.

The South Korean government said the former army brigadier general and current diplomat was taken prisoner in Vietnam.

He was worried that he might be taken to North Korea, so he was told to escape first.

Highly instructed.

But he doesn’t follow that order.

He couldn’t leave Vietnam first while leaving 200 of his men to carry out the evacuation operation.

It was because of that.

Lee Dae-yong sent his men to the US military helicopter that came to rescue him and stayed at the embassy.

It is.

He was determined to die in the end and carried out the final operation to evacuate the Korean residents.

He was captured by the communists and held prisoner for five years before being released.

That was Lee Dae-yong.

But even Lee Dae-yong, thinking of his family struggling in poverty,

It must not have been easy to refuse.

Didn’t he come to Vietnam because he was hungry?

The keynote brought to mind the people who lived through the desperately poor 1960s.

There were people who worked whatever they could because they wanted to live well, but like Lee Dae-yong,

There were also people who were motivated by patriotism.

“If you change your mind, just contact me. Aren’t you and I classmates and friends?”

“Thank you.”

Lee Dae-yong’s eyes turned red.

Kijo and Daeyong left the hotel after being treated warmly by Tiu.

Everything went well, but Kijo’s heart was empty, and Daeyong felt bitter.

It seemed like there was something.

On the way back to the hotel in the car, Kijo broke the silence and said.

“I tried cognac for the first time today, and I like makgeolli or soju better than that expensive liquor.

“It seems to be well received.”

“I did the same. Haha. I wish I had just had some makgeolli with the bindaetteok.

“It was different.”

The keynote was to appease him for turning down the life-changing offer.

“Well then. Let’s go to Mr. Kim Tae-seong’s house and have a glass of ginseng wine.

How about it? If you ask me to make bindaetteok, I will make it for you.”

Lee Dae-yong laughed.

It seemed that he also desperately wanted to soothe his empty and bitter heart with alcohol.

Kijo looked at his watch. It was still far from the time he left work. Kijo was driving.

He spoke to Commissioner Kwak Min-gyu, who was doing it.

“Don’t go to my accommodation, go to the Korean embassy first.”

“All right.”

Kwak Min-gyu turned the steering wheel toward the embassy.

Upon entering the embassy, ​​the keynote speaker met Ambassador Seo Sang-cheol and said that things went well thanks to Military Attaché Lee Dae-yong.

He told me that it had happened.

I would like to buy a drink for Lee Dae-yong, who helped me today.

He asked if it would be okay.

“Of course. I congratulate you on successfully completing your first mission, Mr. Lee Dae-yong.”

“It’s night.”

The keynote speaker was also permitted to accompany Commissioner Kwak Min-gyu, who drove the car.

Kijo took two people to Kim Tae-seong’s house by taxi and called Lee Dae-yong and Kwak Min-gyu.

I asked him to set up a table with dogs and drinks.

It was a shameless request, but Kim Tae-seong’s wife readily agreed.

Let’s express our gratitude, said Kim Tae-seong.

“When my compatriots miss Korean food, they often come to my house to play. My wife makes it for me.

“I make a lot of kimchi because I’m this big. I also have a lot of ginseng wine at home. Hahaha.”

Kim Tae-seong’s house had a lot of ginseng wine in stock that was meant to be sold in Southeast Asia.

The smell of bindaetteok and kimchi-jeyuk wafted through the house, whetting my appetite.

As the lively drinking party continued, Lee Dae-yong’s face gradually brightened.

As the sun was setting and the drinking party was over, Lee Dae-yong and Kwak Min-gyu were about to leave, Kim Tae-seong

He packed a lot of dried fish.

“You can also make buk-eot-guk with the embassy family, and if you’re feeling bored, you can have squid and octopus.”

“Please have some grilled Lido.”

The dried fish that Kim Tae-seong provided were imported from Korea and sold in Southeast Asia.

Lee Dae-yong and Kwak Min-gyu returned to the embassy, ​​expressing their gratitude for the gift given by Kim Tae-seong.

After they left, Kijo had another drink with Kim Tae-seong.

Kim Tae-seong’s house, built in the French style, had a terrace and a large yard.

There were many flowers brought from Korea in bloom.

There were a lot of Rose of Sharon flowers in particular.

Kim Tae-seong asked while looking at the rose of Sharon blooming in the darkened yard.

“What was it like meeting the leaders of South Vietnam?”

Kijo thought for a while and then licked his lips and spoke.

“I thought that people in our country were better.”

“Right?”

Kim Tae-seong smiled.

“Korea and Vietnam have many similarities. Both countries were colonies and fought civil wars.

“Isn’t the country divided in two…?”

He let out a shallow sigh and spoke, holding his glass with both hands.

“You will soon meet President Ngo Dinh Diem. But he… is not that good.

“He is not a person.”

The keynote speaker nodded, knowing what kind of person President Diem was.

“It’s a bit odd to say this, but that guy… is worse than Dr. Syngman Rhee. No, he’s worse than Dr. Syngman Rhee.

“I guess I should say you’re capable.”

Kim Tae-seong continued speaking with a bitter expression.

“Syngman Rhee and Diem were the first presidents of a small country that had just gained independence from colonial rule.

There are some pain points. Of course, it wouldn’t have been easy to lead the country. The country was poor and chaotic.

It was tough, so sometimes I had to take risks.”

“I guess so.”

The keynote speaker also understood that point.

“Still, Dr. Syngman Rhee succeeded in land reform. Korea distributed land equally.

Didn’t you give it to me? Honestly, I don’t really like that person, Seungman Lee.

I would like to acknowledge that point.”

Kim Tae-seong, who worked with the Shanghai Provisional Government, had every reason to dislike Syngman Rhee.

Because the provisional government impeached Syngman Rhee, who was the provisional government’s president.

“Vietnam also implemented land reform like Syngman Rhee, but it was not done well. They took away the land.

The president gave all the yolk to his people. And the landowners

It also opened the way for landowners to purchase land in their family’s name. As a result, large landowners

It was not taken away. And then they said they would give land to farmers who did not have land.

“They forced them to move and reclaim the wasteland.”

“Was it like that…?”

The keynote speaker quietly listened to what he knew.

“That’s why there are many people in South Vietnam who side with the Viet Cong. The Viet Cong is like that.

“They evenly distributed the land to the poor farmers.”

Kim Tae-seong hurriedly continued speaking, perhaps feeling slightly uneasy about taking the communist side.

“You know I’m not saying that I like communism better.

“Right?”

“I know.”

The keynote gave a smile.

“Now Korea is worse off than Vietnam, but eventually Korea will become better off than Vietnam.

Look, I think the leaders of Korea are better than the leaders of South Vietnam.

“There is hope for all of us. Hahaha.”

The keynote speaker also smiled and agreed.

“If you meet President Ngo Dinh Diem, you will understand what I am saying.”

Kim Tae-seong ended his serious speech with those words.

Kijo and Taesung exchanged drinks and small talk.

Taesung was impressed by Youngsoo when he was treated to a meal at Gijo’s house.

We talked a lot.

“The child is smart and speaks English well. He will become a talented person in the future.”

“Don’t worry. I just want my son to grow up healthy.”

The keynote speaker never bragged about his children anywhere.

But every time I see a rose of Sharon blooming in the yard during the conversation, I think of my family in Korea.

It came to mind.

Since I have to finish my work in Vietnam before I can go back, I can only look at flowers to soothe my mind.

There wasn’t any.