Empire of the Ring

Chapter 456: The Eve of the Revolution (1)

If the revolution was successful, Youngho would review all of the Kazakh government had done from scratch. The first priority was to re-adjust various unreasonable contracts with China and Russia.

If so, China and Russia might reinforce their forces along the border to maintain what they enjoyed before. With economic losses on the horizon, would the two countries with powerful armed forces standstill?

If a war broke out, all of Kazakhstan’s production infrastructure would disappear, making Kazakhstan a dark country, but Youngho never intended to bow because of the fear of it. The reason was that the moment he did, he would not escape from the humiliating diplomatic relationship forever.

There was a need to sever the unreasonable relationships with other countries, which had to be practiced under the name of the revolution.

In the worst-case scenario, there would be a local war.

There were people who argued that war should be prevented no matter what, but Youngho disagreed. Should we avoid war even at the risk of such losses?

The best value was not to prevent war, but to protect the lives of Kazakhstan and its descendants. If one wanted to protect what he had, the answer was to build a force to repel threats from outside. To maintain an equal relationship with a socialist country was a way to peaceful coexistence. That was why Youngho was obsessed with weapons and building up forces.

The rest of the retired fighter jets from the Swedish Air Force had all come in.

Now, if ten more new models of fighter jets were brought in, the state would have 30 fighter jets in total. In other words, the state would have a power equivalent to a quarter of Kazakhstan’s Air Force.

“We need to bring in more fighters.”

“Why are you in such a hurry?”

“China is getting on my nerves. The Chinese government is offering free rail and highway construction in exchange for taking the land resources. I think it’ll only be settled when we fight it once and for all.”

“Are you confident you’ll win against China?”

“We have to win at all costs.”

“What about Russia, let alone China?”

“Russia can’t attack Kazakhstan so easily since there are four million Russians living in Kazakhstan.”

“Are you thinking of holding the Russians hostage?”

“What are you talking about? They’re from Russian, but they’re still citizens of Kazakhstan.”

The remaining Russians in Kazakhstan were the people of Kazakhstan who refused to live in a socialistic country.

“Make the Russians feel that they’re going to live here forever. You said you’re going to buy vodka or something, right?”

“Don’t worry, we’ve already started our operation. What I’m worried about is getting the media to our side. It won’t be so easy. Whenever anything new happens, they start criticizing first.”

“If they oppose our activities blindly, that should be cut off, but if it’s a healthy criticism, we should accept it. In fact, revolution is not a solution to all things. We are trying to change everything all at once, while social reform should be carried out gradually.”

“That will take hundreds of years. We’re in an urgent situation since our two enemies are trying to swallow us any time.”

“That’s why we’re taking a risk to cry for revolution. From the point of view of scholars and journalists, we’ll look like people who aspire to power. There will be a day when they understand our sincerity.”

“Revolution is the only way to break the rampant chain of corruption. We won’t get anywhere if we consider too many things. Since we’re all determined, let’s change the country for good once and for all.”

Some people or some organizations may be inadvertently disadvantaged in the course of the revolution. It was certain that the social turmoil would continue for the time being due to such a sudden transformation. Immature civic awareness was also a stumbling block. No matter how good a car was made, it could be used as a lethargic weapon depending on the driver’s skills. Likewise, a good system was useless if those who operate and participate in it were poor. In particular, it was too much to expect that Kazakhstan would change easily since it had been tamed into the evils of socialism and the long-term dictatorship for too long. A mature civil society could be expected only when people’s mindset was reformed from head to toe.

***

The preparation process of the revolution had accelerated.

With the generous release of the funds, the pace certainly quickened.

Youngho used his funds to reach out to the Kazakh people in different economic classes. He even started to operate a kitchen soup in the Arirang Autonomous State as the kitchen soups in urban areas were not operating well now due to the crisis of the central government.

He would have done it anonymously before, but now he was openly spreading the rumors on purpose. In order to appeal to the Kazakh people, the state must dig into the business under the guise of social work. However, the media reported that Arirang’s move was a political gambit rather than a good one. In fact, it was aimed at improving the image of Arirang, but since it was also determined to help the city’s poor, Youngho was upset to hear the news. Without compassion, he would not have started the kitchen soup.

He was not the only one who was exasperated by the media reports. Lieutenant Colonel Kabak was more outraged. He insisted on taking over the press and broadcasting stations.

Even if the media were friendly to the revolutionary force, it would have to control them, but as now the media was accusing the autonomous state, it was better to take them down now.

The media, which had been under the control of the central government, should be reformed since it was now acting uncontrollably wild, carried away by the pro-democracy movement. They were reporting false provocative stories to increase the number of copies, but the real problem was that citizens were enjoying newspapers with such provocative stories.

“Duke, we can’t let the media distort public opinion like this. Reporters are all rotten, just like bureaucrats.”

“I don’t know about that. We should be able to take sound criticism from the media.”

“The media is just like a newly emerging power institution now. It’s been poking around everywhere. Rumors say that media companies are now receiving bribes from corrupt politicians to not to write about them.”

For politicians and officials who had committed offenses, the existence of the media would be quite threatening. How many innocent people would there be in a society where corruption was rampant? No matter who the media picked on, any government official would have something that he wanted to conceal.

“I guess we can’t help it. Can you create a list of media companies? Let’s take control of the ones on the list all at once when the operation begins. Even if we get criticized by the public, we’ll risk it.”

“I’m afraid there’s not a single innocent company. We’ll have to take control of everything.”

This was because the long-standing dictatorship had not created an environment for producing proper talent. That was the case in every field. For example, doctors who studied more than people in many other fields were not paid better than others. Thus, many talented people all left Kazakhstan to work in Russia and other advanced countries. Many doctors in Kazakhstan could not even properly perform an appendectomy. It was similar in other countries in Central Asia. As a result, in Central Asia, people would have to risk their lives to undergo an appendectomy. Since all fields were busy filling the vacant seats rather than encouraging professionalism, there were only a bunch of people who were incompetent and unprofessional people in each category of work.

“We can’t fix everything overnight, but we need to actualize the paychecks of government employees and professionals, otherwise the revolution won’t change a thing in this country.”

“It’s a matter of funding right now.”

“If we manage our national businesses properly, we won`t have any difficulties in saving funds to pay people properly. Right now, national budgets are mostly focused on resources.”

“So you’re saying that the money we made from exporting resources has been diverted to the wrong place.”

“Yes, the state-run companies would have been like a personal safe for President Nazarbayev. There must have been a huge amount of national wealth flowing into his secret overseas accounts.”

Most of the President’s gold bars were retrieved by Youngho, but he still would have managed to save quite a lot of wealth in his foreign accounts. The problem of his secret money was that he might try to deal with Russia with it.

“We must track down the money of the president’s family and retrieve it.”

“What would you do if Russia is hiding the president and his family?”

“We have to make a deal with Russia too. If Russia could return illegally accumulated wealth from dealing with President Nazarbayev to Kazakhstan, I’ll offer that Russia and I can maintain the same friendly relationship as before. If not, we should say that we will sever diplomatic relations.”

“Will Russia ever agree to such a deal?”

“If it doesn’t want to miss Kazakhstan, it’ll accept it. Embracing President Nazarbayev is too much of a political burden. If Russia helps the dictator of Kazakhstan who had been stealing the national budget, it’s a gesture of ignoring the people of Kazakhstan.”

“I don’t know if Russia, which considers Kazakhstan as its subject state, will even blink to our request.”

Russia would definitely laugh at the request. However, it would not be able to ignore international opinion.

“You don’t look like you’re afraid of Russia at all, duke. May I ask what your reason is?”

“Hahaha… I’m not promising anything, but all the liberal democracies will be on our side, so just wait and see.”

“By the way, did the Danish royal family decide to help?”

“Not only the Danish royal family, but also the U.S., the U.K., and Sweden will help us.”

“Is that so? Is there any particular reason that they’ll help us?”

“Well, let’s say that they owe me something. I’ve helped a few government figures personally before.”

“Is that enough reason for them to get involved in cross-border affairs?”

“I think so. As far as I know, they are gentlemen, but they also have great ambitions.”