Mining And Construction Tycoon [EN]: Chapter 121

121. Newspaper Ad War (1)

Han Il-kwon got out of the car and approached.

He took off his sunglasses, looking around.

“Someone’s apartment foundation is almost done, while someone else can’t even get their apartment project approved because of dirty tricks.”

“That’s because they’re incompetent. Step it up.”

Han Il-kwon smirked at Tae-soo.

“It’s so hard to meet with the landowners, isn’t it?”

“The land deed and house deed should have my name firmly stamped on them.”

Tae-soo grinned.

“The only thing reaching out to me now means is that you’re incompetent, right?”

Secretary Park had come to ask him to sell the land several times.

“Did you enjoy looking at my house?”

“It was a dilapidated house. You’re making such a fuss over a tiny place.”

“You’re the one who came all the way here to buy that tiny place.”

Tae-soo shrugged.

“And my answer is still the same. I’m not selling!”

Han Il-kwon laughed loudly.

“Oh, my, just 1,800 *pyeong* [approximately 1.4 acres] of wasteland.”

“So, what’s your business? Did you come to pick a fight, or to ask me to sell the land?”

Han Il-kwon bit his lip.

It was the bullseye of an archery target.

The prime of the prime location.

How could he give up that land and build the apartment?

He didn’t want to beg, no matter what.

“There are many ways. I could just build the apartment around it, leaving that land out.”

Like punching a hole in the middle of a donut.

“I could also apply for eminent domain.”

It doesn’t meet the requirements.

But Han Il-kwon was saying it would.

“What’s impossible in this world? Right? That’s what kickbacks are for.”

Tae-soo chuckled.

“Oops, you’re a step late.”

Tae-soo took out a piece of paper from his pocket and waved it.

“I already got the project approval.”

He held the project approval in front of Han Il-kwon’s eyes.

“I’m thinking of starting a business there to turn manure into agricultural fertilizer.”

A facility that apartment residents would hate.

Currently, Jamsil is not designated for apartment use.

The surrounding area is all agricultural land.

It meets the requirements for an agricultural fertilizer business.

Han Il-kwon’s eyes trembled.

“What to do? The apartment residents will have to live with the smell of manure and fertilizer every day. I’m worried if the apartment will even be sold.”

It was a very annoying smile.

“I heard you haven’t been able to resolve the deficit you’ve been piling up at Cheongil Oil? Should I help the bank presidents send you dunning letters [formal demands for payment]?”

Tae-soo took out a silver lighter with the Blue House [South Korean presidential residence] emblem from his pocket.

He tossed it up and down in front of Han Il-kwon’s eyes.

“That trick your father used to influence the President, I can do the same thing to you. Wouldn’t that be fun?”

Park Jung-hwan promised when he gave him the lighter.

-Use that to light your next cigarette.

-If you have something to trade for a cigarette, tell me then.

“I won’t be satisfied unless I return what I’ve suffered exactly as it was.”

What would happen if Cheongil faced the same situation Tae-soo did?

Tae-soo drove the wedge in.

“Get lost.”

From here, and from Jamsil.

He planned to build Taeyang Land there.

He planned to take everything that supported Han Cheong-ho, bit by bit.

* * *

The car carrying Han Il-kwon sped away, kicking up dust.

Song Chang-joon, Tae-soo’s new secretary, came running in a hurry.

“Chairman, reporters from *Dongbang Ilbo* [a fictional newspaper] are here. They want to interview you about Taeyang Apartments. What should we do?”

“From *Dongbang Ilbo*?”

Tae-soo knew *Dongbang Ilbo* well.

‘They’re said to be on Park Jung-hwan’s bad side these days for championing labor movements and freedom.’

He could see two reporters peeking around and flashing their cameras.

One of them seemed to be interviewing a worker.

The reporter was diligently writing in his notebook.

‘It’s time to stir up Han Cheong-ho’s insides.’

He should provoke them openly with the newspaper.

‘Also, he needs to promote Taeyang Apartments to the public to gain an advantage in the sales war.’

There’s nothing like a newspaper for large-scale advertising.

It’s a bit early for broadcasting since it’s only the foundation work.

‘I was planning to call the reporters soon, but this works out perfectly.’

Perfect.

“Okay. Let’s do the interview.”

“Should we arrange a separate place?”

Tae-soo was already striding towards the reporters.

Song Chang-joon quickly followed Tae-soo.

The reporters turned around as Tae-soo approached.

“You’re from *Dongbang Ilbo*?”

They were the reporters who had come to cover the story in Saudi Arabia.

They were noticeably delighted.

They were the ones who had seen Tae-soo at the inauguration ceremony and wrote rave articles about him.

“You’re Chairman Kang Tae-soo. Nice to meet you, I’m Lee Seong-joon from *Dongbang Ilbo*.”

“I’m Oh Jung-tae from *Dongbang Ilbo*.”

“I’m Kang Tae-soo.”

Tae-soo readily shook hands with the reporters.

“It’s noisy here, shall we talk somewhere quiet for a moment?”

“Sure.”

* * *

Inside the container.

It was a temporary office with tables and chairs for the workers to rest.

It was also a break room with a stove and water connected for meals.

The two reporters bombarded him with questions.

“It seems to be the largest single apartment complex in Korea right now. I heard you got the apartment project rights in exchange for donating a highway and a school?”

“I heard the units are quite large. The smallest is 32 *pyeong* [approximately 1,138 square feet], and the largest is 64 *pyeong* [approximately 2,276 square feet], right?”

“Isn’t that too big? It’s hard to call it an apartment for the common people…”

Tae-soo raised his hand.

“Let’s take it one step at a time.”

Only then did the reporters look Tae-soo in the eye.

“Taeyang Apartments aims to be the highest-class apartment. We are building apartments for the middle class.”

Lee Seong-joon tilted his head, writing down ‘apartments for the middle class’.

“Aren’t apartments multi-dwelling houses created to improve the housing environment for the common people? But the middle class?”

“There’s no law that says the middle class can’t live in apartments.”

“If you’re middle class, you’d build a two-story house with a yard. You wouldn’t necessarily go into an apartment, would you?”

That was the perception in the 70s.

“Apartments are for those who can’t afford a detached house with a yard.”

It was devised as a way to reduce land loss by accommodating a large number of people in a small area.

“Apartments weren’t originally for the middle class, but for the common people, even the poor. That’s why the Korea National Housing Corporation builds public apartments, right?”

To accommodate workers at a low cost.

But Tae-soo smiled leisurely.

“There are quite a few reasons why the middle class would move into apartments.”

Tae-soo said.

“First, it’s convenient to own a car because there’s a parking lot.”

“But right now, all the people who own cars are the richest of the rich.”

“The middle class will soon have cars too.”

It wouldn’t be long.

The Korean economy is developing at a frightening pace, and national income is rising every day.

The middle class is becoming more and more prominent.

“Second, it’s easy to access educational facilities.”

“Educational facilities?”

“We are building four elementary schools, two middle schools, and two high schools for the children of the apartment complex. We also plan to build a library for the apartment residents. That area will become an academy district [an area with a high concentration of private educational institutions].”

Tae-soo explained, pointing to the architectural drawings.

“Here, you can easily walk to schools and academies, and even study in the library. The best school district will be created. Parents who are interested in education are middle class.”

We call the intermediate management class the middle class.

Higher education is essential for the work that the intermediate management class does.

The middle class hopes that their children will also become middle class and put a lot of effort into education.

“Third, there is good access to convenience facilities here. Because of the apartment complex shopping center.”

A total of 4,824 households will move in.

That means a population of nearly 20,000 people will be concentrated.

Therefore, he plans to surround the apartment complex shopping center along the road.

“Hospitals, banks, supermarkets, beauty salons, and laundromats are all available right in front of your house. That means you don’t have to go far into the city.”

The middle class is a class with economic power.

They want to enjoy a wealthy life and don’t want to spend a lot of time and effort on errands.

“Fourth, you don’t have to worry too much about home maintenance. You don’t have to suffer to tend the weeds in the yard, paint, or carry *briquettes* [compacted blocks of coal used for heating and cooking].”

He plans to have the apartment management office take care of all of that.

“Convenience, simplicity, abundance. We plan to satisfy everything the middle class wants.”

He plans to ride the wave of the middle class and spread the name of Taeyang across the country.

“This place will have large units and top-notch facilities to match the wealth and dignity of the middle class. To that end, we have equipped elevators, oil boilers, electricity, water, and sewage pipes.”

He could say with confidence.

“Our Taeyang Construction will build the highest-class apartments.”

It will be an apartment for the upper class that will change the perception of apartments.

“Wow, that’s amazing.”

The *Dongbang Ilbo* reporters diligently wrote down Tae-soo’s words.

Oh Jung-tae took pictures of the expected completion drawings that Tae-soo was talking about.

“If it’s really a house like this, I’d want to move in myself.”

“I don’t know how you came up with such a groundbreaking paradigm shift.”

Lee Seong-joon and Oh Jung-tae admired quietly.

“To be honest, I was surprised. I didn’t have high expectations even though the development of Gangnam has started, and large apartment complexes are planned to be built in succession.”

There’s been a lot of talk about the Gangnam Big 4 apartment developments these days.

Under the leadership of Park Jung-hwan, ambitious apartment development is being promoted.

They focused on the Gangnam rice paddies, which are a bit outside the city, rather than the places where people in Seoul have already settled.

“The reporters are counting Geumsan in Apgujeong-dong, Korea National Housing Corporation in Gaepo-dong, Cheongil in Jamsil, and Taeyang in Daechi-dong as the Gangnam Big 4.”

Lee Seong-joon said.

“Taeyang is by far the largest in scale among them. But it’s also true that Taeyang is considered to be a step behind other construction companies.”

Taeyang doesn’t have a long history.

Other construction companies have been leading government-funded projects for a long time and are huge in size.

But Taeyang has only been established for two years, and all it has done in terms of government-funded projects is finish what Samwon Construction left behind.

“Winning two highway construction projects in Saudi Arabia, completing school construction as an outsourcing project for Pohang Steel, and a few projects that Samwon Construction dropped. That was all the performance, so there were great concerns.”

Taeyang Group has just risen to the ranks of conglomerates.

But people still don’t know much about Taeyang Group.

“So, to be honest, I thought it would be a rental house that was a step below the public apartments promoted by the Korea National Housing Corporation. Because that’s where the money is.”

The workers’ monthly rent is a decent source of cash income.

That was the perception of apartments at the time, so it’s only natural.

“Even Geumsan is building apartments as employee housing, but President Park ordered them to increase the scale a little more, so they reluctantly built a large complex.”

That’s why Lee Seong-joon was surprised by Tae-soo.

“But the plan to change the paradigm and sell apartments to the middle class was very fresh and innovative. At first, I thought it wouldn’t work, but after listening to the chairman, I changed my mind.”

Listening to Tae-soo’s apartment construction plan made him think it was an otherworldly plan.

“What apartment is this luxurious?”

“Because it’s an apartment for the middle class.”

“Elevators and 220V electricity, oil boilers and Western-style toilets, bathrooms with bathtubs, six children’s playgrounds, and an apartment management office. Wow, it’s amazing even when I look at it again.”

The newspaper reporters were also excited.

“Taeyang seems to be the best apartment brand in Korea. Not just one of the Gangnam Big 4 apartments, but the unrivaled best in Korea.”

It had to be.

“I’ll be watching with anticipation. I’ll be cheering from behind.”

“Please write a good article.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll do it right this time.”

Tae-soo signaled to Song Chang-joon.

Then Song Chang-joon handed over two white envelopes of money.

The two reporters were angry when they received the money envelopes presented to them.

“Are you bribing me right now?”

“I didn’t think you were like this, Chairman Kang. You’re the same as everyone else.”

“Trying to buy off journalists. This is disappointing.”

“I’m leaving. I’ll think about the article again.”

Tae-soo smiled brightly.

“It’s not a bribe, it’s what I prepared to place a newspaper ad.”

“An ad?”

“Don’t you also get newspaper ads?”

That’s a different story.

The reporters’ eyes changed from contemptuous to sparkling.

“Customer, what kind of ad would you like to place?”

“I’ll place an ad for Taeyang Apartments.”

Tae-soo grinned.

“I’ll use the entire second page of the newspaper to advertise Taeyang Apartments.”

It costs quite a bit of money just to put a small ad in the corner of the newspaper.

But a full-page ad on two pages.

There has never been an ad of this scale before.

“Two pages?”

“Good heavens!”

Tae-soo smiled, looking at the money envelopes.

“That’s why I prepared two.”

That’s what it meant?

The reporters’ eyes were full of goodwill towards Tae-soo.

This young conglomerate chairman is different in many ways.

* * *

Han Il-kwon rushed into the chairman’s office at Cheongil Group headquarters.

“Father!”

His face was frantic.