Empire of the Ring

After meeting Michael, Youngho’s mind was lightened.

The situation had come to the point where the United States had to be involved.

Youngho used the autonomous state as bait, but from the standpoint of the U.S., it was only a tiny state. However, losing the entire Central Asia would be a crisis for the U.S. too. The U.S. would have to use the Arirang Autonomous State in order to stop the crisis from happening.

He would be only playing the role of a puppet of the U.S., but it did not matter. Pride was the least thing he needed. He could recover his pride after he put out the immediate fire.

What he had to do right now was to do buy some time by talking to President Nazarbayev.

He intended to tell the president that it was practically difficult to build the armored vehicle assembly plant in the autonomous state and to be the successor of the presidency. He was very curious about Nazarbayev’s reaction when he said he was stepping back.

After preparing for his trip, he soon flew to Astana.

“What brings you here in the midst of business?”

“Mr. President, there’s nothing to be busy now. The autonomous state is so small that there’s not much to look at.”

“What are you talking about? Why are you diminishing the autonomous state? Did someone say that to you?”

The president did not look sincere anymore, even though he had a worrisome look on his face.

“The biggest weakness of the state is that it’s so remote. There’s no heavy industries complex near the state, so it won’t be possible to build an armored truck assembly plant in the state even if I want to.”

“Where’s your confidence? You are stepping down already?”

“Even if there are related businesses nearby, there are not enough people to work for the assembly plant.”

“O…kay? So, is there another great site for it?”

“The city of Atyrau would be appropriate.”

“You must be bitter to let it go.”

“I guess it was my bad that I dared to say that I’ll build the plant in the autonomous state when we can’t even afford it. Still, it’s great that the city of Atyrau has a refinery plant, parts, and machinery companies nearby.”

“The problem of Kazakhstan is that the industrial complexes are concentrated near the Russian border.”

Most of the industrial cities that were established in the Soviet Union era were built near the Trans-Siberian train tracks and mines. Since this was the region that was majorly populated by Russians, it was a place where it was repeatedly mentioned to become an autonomous state. Youngho did not want to build the assembly plant in such an unstable place, so he picked Atyrau.

“That’s a shame. Isn’t it the same with the aviation industry? You don’t have any relatable business around the autonomous state.”

“Yes, that’s true. But, there are no aviation companies in Kazakhstan. I’m planning to import semi-finished products to make aircrafts and focus on training engineers.”

As Youngho said it by pretending to be discouraged, the president seemed to be convinced. He looked slightly disappointed that military supplies could not be produced in the state.

Whether or not he was planning to cut off Youngho, the autonomous state was the best place to build such factories since it would not be interrupted by Russia.

“I see. It wouldn’t be easy to get technical partnership for the aviation industry, either.”

“Since there’s no infrastructure, only partnership for the production of aircraft bodies will be possible. Kazakhstan’s base for material and component industry, fabrication, and assembly industry are too weak.”

“The field of the aviation industry is vital to Kazakhstan. Our country is too wide to rely only on land transport. I’ll give you more time. Please find a way to do it in the autonomous state.”

“I’ll do my best. I’m sure I can build a propeller plane in several years.”

“Alright. I’ll look forward to the good news.”

As talking to the president, Youngho was slightly relieved from tension. The president seemed to be his normal self, so Youngho asked about the issue of a successor.

“Your Excellency, I’ve been thinking about Kazakhstan’s future, but I don’t think I can be your successor. I wasn’t even born here and I don’t have any political base. I don’t want to be a scratch to your reputation.”

“What are you talking about? There’s no one good as you. Don’t worry about it and just be prepared.”

“There are so many people who could be your successor. Someone who’s venerable should lead the future Kazakhstan. I don’t have competence for the position. I’m just a mere merchant.”

The president looked at Youngho’s face closely to read Youngho’s intention. Pretending that he did not notice him, Youngho went on.

“It’s not like you. What do you fear?”

“I’m just a foreigner and a stranger to people. I’m not even a Koryoin. I only run a small state. How will I run the vast land of Kazakhstan? Who’s going to support me?”

“They say position trains people. You’ll grow as you make your way up.”

“I accepted your proposal previously, but I think I’ve misjudged. I’ll be satisfied with supporting the next leader as long as the autonomous state is safe.”

“You said that Russia and China are not going to leave us alone, didn’t you?”

“There’s no argument that we should still build our military strength, but there’s no point of worrying about the future that has not happened yet and that might never happen as well.”

“I can’t leave Kazakhstan to anyone.”

“I know your concerns, but it’ll be best if you can find someone suitable in the officialdom and politic world. Only then, they’ll be able to get the support of the Kazakh people.”

“I think you’re qualified.”

“Mr. President, thank you for your support, but someone that would be supported by the public should take the role. I don’t have the qualifications for it since I’m not from here.”

“Take your time to think about it. You’re not under a rush. My health is great right now.”

The president had a look of relief on his face after talking to Youngho.

***

After Youngho visited the Presidential Palace, Jong-il was curious about their conversation.

“Talk to me in detail. What did he say?”

“I told him that the armored vehicle assembly plant will be built in Atyrau and I’m not interested in succeeding his position. I think I earned some time but I still couldn’t figure out his intention.”

“The man has been in power for decades. It won’t be easy to find out what’s in his heart.”

“Then I just complained for the rest of our conversation.”

“Phew, okay. Looks like you didn’t find out much from this trip. We’ll only have a shot when the monitoring equipment from the UK arrived.”

“There are some things to do before that. I think we need to turn the president’s attention to somewhere else.”

“How?”

“There’s a way.”

Youngho had a plan to make the president a little busy.

This should be done in order to drive his attention away from the autonomous state. Kazakhstan bordered six countries, so it was always sensitive to trends of the neighboring countries. Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan often had territorial disputes but since they were all Muslim countries, they did not have huge problems. However, the border area with China was always problematic.

Since Kazakhstan supplied raw materials, such as oil and gas, and bought industrial products from China, there were active economic exchanges between the two countries. But, the border area always had trouble with the Chinese people who lived on the Kazakh side.

Chinese people were found to have lived in a mountainous border area for a while after breaking into the region and illegally seizing the area. Because of this, the two countries were on a rough term.

The Chinese government argued that it could not control the traveling people, and the Kazakh government insisted that it was the fault of China for giving little attention to the border.

Youngho was going to use China to disperse the president’s attention.

“Let’s stir up China’s border area.”

“You want to disperse the president’s attention?”

“Yes, I should. I should remind him that a weak successor can’t handle the uncertain future of Kazakhstan. The Kazakh people also think that there is no problem because the border area has been quiet. People will be alarmed when there’s a dispute.”

“Alright! How are we going to do this?”

“We’ll make it seem accidental and it should lead to an emotional, hostile shoot-out.”

The border dispute rarely developed into a local battle. Since the two countries were economically benefited from trades, they would try to wrap it up hurriedly, but a border dispute often was developed to a pride fight, which was hard to be calmed down.

When the tension continued, President Nazarbayev would have to focus on easing the tension and increasing the national defense.

“You don’t need to wait and see what Michael brings, before moving?”

“If he finds out about the border dispute, he will move more quickly. Let’s do this first and think of our next move slowly.”

Youngho and Jong-il went to Almaty under the pretext of going on a business trip.

Spending a night in Arirang Hotel in Almaty, they went to Zharkent—a border town, by train the next day.

After waiting near the train station until the evening, they ran to the Chinese border.

After panting for a while for running furiously, Jong-il pointed to a guard post on the Chinese side of the border. It was facing the Kazakh guard post on the Kazakh side of the border.

On the second floor where there was a watchtower, there were two guards. There was a machine gun.

The two guard posts had bright lights on which were quite unique. They seemed to display their friendly relationship with China. There was no tension in the atmosphere.

“If this is the atmosphere here, they’ll treat our shooting as an accident. If they don’t start a shoot-out, there’s no point for this.”

“We’re not going to stop after today. When we do this for several more times, there will be a movement here.”

“I’ll cross to the opposite side. You stay here. Let’s begin shooting exactly after 30 minutes from now.”

After assembling sniper rifles, the two each stood about 50 meters away from the guard post of each side.

The two agreed to fire ten shots to each guard’s posts.

Youngho could see the sight of the guard post via his telephoto lens. There was a soldier who was smoking outside of the post. Since he was close, Youngho could target his arm and leg. It was because there is no intention to kill.

He did not install a silencer, so the sound of gunfire was spread in the night sky. The soldiers in the guard post flipped out as soon as they heard the noise.

Since he prepared tracer bullets, they could see where the bullets were coming from. It was from the opposite side of the border.

It was the same for the Chinese side, as Jong-il had done the same from the opposite side.

After a while, they heard loud, consecutive exchanges of gunfire between both sides.

Because there were casualties, soldiers were madly shooting at each other.

The two hurried out of the site because they did not wish to get hurt by the blind bullets.