Empire of the Ring

With the Kurds migration issue, Youngho had not paid attention to domestic affairs for a while. Now things were cleared up and he was being briefed by Suh Min-seok.

“What? We’ve got additional 24 tons of gold bars in the palace vault?”

Youngho had to ask because about 10 tons were reported to be received two months ago.

“We expect the amount to increase exponentially. The new gold mine along the Uzbek border is also producing a ton a month. It’s far below the Almaty gold mine, but it’s still a massive reserve.”

This referred to the border area where Uzbek and Kyrgyzstan used to fight for. The Uzbek enclave on the border was a private gold placer, and due to the placer, villagers could maintain their middle-class life. So, just in case, Youngho ordered to explore the upper mountains, and it turned out that there were more than a mine that had gold deposits more than a thousand tons.

“I guess there’s no mine bigger than Almaty’s gold mine.”

There were nine royal gold mines, including the Almaty gold mine, which boasted world-class reserves.

“Dr. Park Young-sun boasted that the royal mines produced more than 60 tons of gold a year.”

60 tons of gold was a whopping 3.3 billion dollars in terms of current market value.

If banks in advanced countries that were buying gold, then they would readily take it even if Youngho called a price of four billion dollars.

“And we’ve been informed that the Royal Guards who work in the Kyrgyz and Uzbek border gold mine area will rotate every two months.”

“Why?”

“I think they found it inefficient to replace them on a one-month basis.”

“I’m sure they have a good reason for that.”

Zeynep Security Service was in charge of guarding royal mines, but for the Kyrgyz gold mine, which was in the border area, was guarded by a platoon of Royal Guards.

There were many gold mines scattered along the Kyrgyz border with Uzbekistan, so the Royal Guards were dispatched in the area. The reason why Youngho sent the Royal Guards was because the Uzbek government did not pay much attention to them. The Guards were considered only symbolic of the authority of the Kazakh royal family.

Of course, border guards also existed near the border, but they were only acting as inspectors to check smuggled goods and to find owners of lost animals on the streets.

This was because the existing Kyrgyz border defense forces had been deployed to the Chinese border area. After Kyrgyzstan became a federal state of Kazakhstan, and the border was clearly redrawn, no tension could be found between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. The people of both sides of the border also traveled freely without the same complicated procedures as before.

“And why don’t we have the arms industry fair, which is scheduled to be held in October this year, about a month early? In October, the weather will get so cold, so I was worried that the visitors might not come.”

“Tell the government to decide the matter on its own. I turned it over to the government. Give them the list of defense companies from all over the world who were in contact with the royal family.”

“Do you also want to give information about the ones that are in the royal territory now?”

“Of course they will attend too. It’s no longer a secret, so it doesn’t matter.”

“I see. And finally, about the Volga-Don Canal and the Volga-Baltic Waterway, their groundbreaking ceremony will be held next month. We should let the Russian government know if you’re attending.”

“Prime Minister can attend the ceremony for the canal, and I can attend one for the waterway. I’ll call him directly on that. Is there anymore to discuss?”

“The rest is not very important. You can check it sufficiently by just looking at the report.”

As the canal project had already begun, the ground-breaking ceremony was only an event to inform both inside and outside of the country. The shares of the Volga-Don Canal had been settled, but the shares of the Volga-Baltic Waterway had yet to be settled with Russia, so Youngho decided to attend the Baltic ceremony.

“And congratulations on your wife’s pregnancy. Kim In-hwa is slowly getting full.”

“It’s a little late, but fortunately we succeeded.”

“That’s good news. Having a child is the road to patriotism in Kazakhstan. Tell her to take a while for maternity leave and take good care of herself at home.”

“In-hwa wants to work next to you until she is eight months pregnant.”

“Oh, I don’t want people to blame me for exploiting a pregnant woman.”

“Okay, I’ll convince her.”

“You should take paternity leave, too.”

“Both In-hwa and my parents are all living in the royal territory, so I don’t have to worry about that.”

“Don’t leave it all to your parents. You should also take some time to raise your child. That way, you’ll know your parents’ heart.”

“Alright.”

Youngho called Suh Min-seok who was just about to leave the office.

“I forgot. I ordered to start the construction of the Kurdish refugee camp in the royal territory, so please check the progress.”

“Sure, but there’s still a lot of undeveloped land on the west side of the river. I don’t understand why we’re building the residential place for the Kurds at the east of the Ural River. It would be very inconvenient to cross the river.”

The Kurdish refugee camps would be established on the west side of the river which was an uninhabited area, but their residential villages would be built on the other side of the river.

The reason for that was the east side of the river, which faced the royal territory was an uninhabited area, so Youngho wanted to develop the place.

That way, even if the Royal Guards did not guard that area, the Kurds would be on guard at the east side of the river, and the palace would be protected from any side.

A bridge would be built in the river so that people could easily go back and forth without inconvenience.

“You are the Chief Secretary, but you still can’t read my mind.”

“What?”

“The Kurds were born to be warriors. If they live across the river, the royal territory becomes a full-fledged fortress. What do you think?”

“Oh! I see it now.”

***

“Your Highness, if the Kurds move in, why don’t we create a special unit?”

It was Eriksson.

“A special unit?”

“Why don’t you build a special unit of Kurds and use it like the Royal Guards?”

“I was just thinking of combining them with the Royal Guards, but your idea sounds good too. We can turn them into a mobile force or a mountaineer. The question is, will they enter into a war of other people’s country?”

“It’s ironic that we’re receiving them to give them peace away from armed conflicts, but we should ask for understanding as we also have our own battles.”

Russia was a self-proclaimed ally for now, but China had been always considered a potential adversary of Kazakhstan. If a mountain unit consisting of Kurds was built and deployed along the Chinese border, it would be a great deterrence force.

“I think it would be a good cause for them to fight for Princess Jelyan, but it’s not going to be easy because the militia officers with a lot of experience are sticking with their self-government and won’t migrate to Kazakhstan.”

“That’s why I’m telling you this. Wouldn’t they leave Syria if you promised that you would let them maintain their forces even after moving to Kazakhstan? Let’s give them some sort of hope.”

“Don’t you think they’ll be a threat to Kazakhstan?”

“As long as the royal family exists, there’s absolutely no danger of that, I think. For them, Princess Jelyan is the center point and the government. Also, it is inevitable for them to be assimilated into Kazakhstan after a while.”

Eriksson suggested this because Kazakhstan’s military capabilities were weak.

Absorbing the Kurdish forces would increase the number of combatants in the military by a quarter. In terms of individual combat capabilities, the Kurdish forces were equivalent to that of the whole Kazakh army.

“If the public learns that the Kurds have been absorbed into the Kazakh military, it will be a deterrent to war.”

Just because the Kurdish forces joined the Kazakh forces, it would not be China’s counterpart. However, if there were tens of thousands of people who were strong in mountaineering and guerrilla warfare, the story was different.

Youngho was intrigued by Eriksson’s suggestion because the Kurdish forces’ fighting power was very strong and the number of Kurdish militia members in Syria was close to 30,000.

That was why the U.S. Intelligence Service chose Kurdish forces to stabilize northern Syria.

They were good at guerrilla warfare and mountain warfare. They were only lightly armed, but they repelled the IS forces that were heavily armed.

If only Kazakhstan could have a loyalty pledge of the hard-line militia members, Kazakhstan’s fighting power would be almost doubled. And as long as the royal family existed, it was not an organization that would harm Kazakhstan.

“I also contemplated accepting the hard-liners. I’m afraid that if radicals come to Kazakhstan, they’ll make a lot of conflicts, but it’s true that I want their fighting power.”

“You can trust the hard-liners if they swear to be loyal to the royal family. It’s also shown in the Kyrgyz precedent, right?”

The hard-line Islamic leaders of Kyrgyzstan, despite their strong opposition, voted to fully support the royal family as the public of Kyrgyzstan took in the Kazakh royal family as its own.

Fortunately, the Kyrgyz Muslims were accepted as Kazakh members without any dispute because they were almost secular Muslims. If they were extremists, Youngho would have never taken them in. Likewise, the Kurds pursued secular Islam just like the Muslims in Kazakhstan. Compared to other Muslims, religion did not account for much of life, and women’s status was relatively high and their social participation was quite high too.

That was why there were a lot of women in the Kurdish militia, and they were known to be as brave as men. Even the IS forces gritted their teeth by the mention of the Kurdish women warriors.

“All right, let’s try to convince them. Kurds are said to be the people who know how to repay a kindness, so we’ll have to trust them.”

“I’m afraid they’ll be too loyal to the royal family. I think they might all choose to be career soldiers for Princess Jelyan.”

“Oh, that will be perfect if they do. How many Kurds do you expect to migrate?”

“I think it’s going to be over one million.”

“What? One million?”

“Yep, that’s at least. If the hard-liners join us, then we must assume that all the residents who follow them will also come.”

At the most, Youngho expected between 600,000 and 700,000 people, but Eriksson expected more than a million people. The plan to establish a settlement only on the east side of the Ural River might have to be re-done.