Empire of the Ring

Youngho arranged the meeting of President Nazarbayev and Kaya, the president of the Koç Holding Group, which was held in Kazakhstan.

When Youngho met Kaya at a hotel after the meeting, he could tell that the meeting went smoothly since he could clearly see it all on Kaya’s bright facial expression. As soon as Kaya saw Youngho, he grabbed Youngho’s hands.

“Duke, you are indeed a man of capabilities.”

“Did you receive the private consent from President Nazarbayev?”

“Tomorrow, we are exchanging a memorandum of understanding.”

“Congratulations.”

“Thanks to you. Mr. President told me a lot about you. He even said that you’d be a leading person to the future of Kazakhstan.”

“Oh, he says that in public but in fact, he scolds me a lot when I see him in private.”

“He seemed to expect a lot from you. I lived for more than 60 years, and from my experience, I know whether or not people mean what they say. The president has something for you. I look forward to working with you in the future.”

Youngho wondered why Chairman Kaya was making a huge fuss about it.

“He told me to help you since you’re interested in the aviation industry. I’m willing to aid you in the process.”

“I’ve wanted to assemble a training fighter. I told this to Mr. President as a passing word. He probably remembered that, but our technology prevents us from trying it. So, I was thinking that it’ll be more economical to purchase a finished product.”

Youngho wanted to see if Kaya would really help him, so he spoke as if he was about to quit trying to build an aircraft.

“Oh, that’s too bad. The president looked like he was expecting an assembly plant right away and a finished product soon after that.”

“Well, what can I say? Some things just don’t work.”

“I already told him that I’ll help you to the best of my ability. If you don’t make your foray into the aviation industry, he’ll blame me for it.”

“You shouldn’t be worried. I’ll tell him that sometimes things don’t work even if you have enough money.”

“He’ll think that you gave up because I didn’t help you.”

“Oh, I’m sure he’ll be fine. It was just my ridiculous idea.”

“Why!? This is a fiasco. The president even wanted a helicopter.”

“How will I make a helicopter when I can’t even make a light airplane?”

As Youngho announced the abandonment of the aviation industry plan, Kaya’s face turned yellow. He was shocked that everything was starting on the wrong foot. If he did not help Youngho, what he had negotiated with the Kazakh government would start from ground zero again. He had confidently promised the president that he would work with Youngho, but now, Youngho was canceling the whole project.

“Duke. As you already know, our technology in the aviation industry is still in the early stages. However, I can introduce you to a Swedish aviation company if necessary. If you have sufficient money, it won’t be difficult to achieve what you dream of.”

“I’m concerned that the technology of the autonomous state is not up to a desirable level.”

“Once you make up your mind, you’ll have our full technical support. I promise.”

“Well, if you say so, I’ll have to reconsider my decision. Thank you, chairman.”

***

Hong Sung-ki, who had just been to St. Petersburg of Russia, made a report with his eloquent tongue. St. Petersburg was famous for being the hometown of Putin and the Klimov company well known as the manufacturer of fighter engines. Hong Sung-ki had gone to recruit aircraft technicians and returned to the state yesterday.

“So the people who want to come to the state are retired engineers?”

“Well, they’re rather laid off because of their excessive drinking problem.”

“How bad are they that they got fired?”

“They are drunk almost 24 hours a day. I told them that they can only come to the state when they quit drinking, and they were quite disappointed.”

“Oh, they’re useless then. They need precision touch for the engine, but they can’t do that if their hands are shaking most of the time. Can we really trust them?”

Park Jong-il interrupted and criticized Sung-ki’s idea.

“Once they’re treated for alcoholism, they’d be as good as normal people. They’re only in their 40s. Their skillfulness is too good to be wasted.”

“Do you think it’s easy to treat alcoholic people? I don’t know where you even got this idea to bring alcoholics to our state.”

“Oh, Senior Park, would Russia just hand over perfectly good engineers or researchers? Our best bet is to bring people that their own country has abandoned.”

Indeed, it was Hong Sung-ki-like thinking. It was an unlikely plan, but there was no other way for now.

“Did their families also agree to move here?”

“Well, these alcoholics are mostly abandoned by their families too except for two of them.”

“I wonder how you met such people.”

“The pub near the Klimov company is always full of aviation workers. I found all of them there. People around confirmed that they were the best engineers in making engines and airframes.”

“How will they hold up here when they were fired in their own country for drinking too much?”

“We’ll have to force their alcoholism treatment. I’ll be in charge of this and make sure that they’ll get back to normal.”

“You are insane.”

“I talked to some of them when they were sober, and it looked like that they really wanted to be treated for their alcoholism.”

“Okay. It’s a pity, but we need anyone even if they are alcoholics. Bring them to the state first.”

“Should I also bring general technicians? I’ve met some at the pub too.”

“Are they addicts, too?”

“Well, you know, any Russian drinks a lot.”

“The Koç Holding Group promised us technical support. So, we’ll be able to train aviation engineers soon. Why do we need to rely on alcoholics?”

“What we need is any good veteran engineer. I’ll be hard on them and make sure they quit drinking.”

“Let’s trust Hong Sung-ki. He said he’ll be responsible for this.”

“I hope people don’t laugh at us for bringing alcoholics.”

“I said I can make them good as new. Just don’t forget to give me credit when things work out.”

“If I see any drunkard on the streets, I’ll throw them outside the stone walls. Dancing with wolves will sober them up.”

“I’ll go to St. Petersburg tomorrow. I should bring them here to get treatment before the weather gets too cold.”

***

The weather began to turn horribly cold.

At this rate, the Ural River would freeze soon as well as the northern Caspian Sea which had low salinity.

Despite such cold weather, terrorism was still the same.

There was a car bomb in downtown Almaty yesterday, and it left dozens of casualties.

As the IS stronghold near the Kyrgyzstan border was destroyed, the remnants of the IS were terrorizing all over the country, the autonomous state, which was about 1,200 kilometers away from the border area, was not a safe place.

Thus, the security of the state was tightened.

Youngho and Cho Chul-hwan decided to patrol around the border of the state on a light-armored vehicle. After about half a day had passed, they had just finished looking around the bunkers and checkpoints of the state.

The boundaries of land were securely guarded, but it was a problem that boats could not patrol around the river when it was frozen.

“The river’s edge has already frozen. We’ll have to patrol around the edges too.”

“I’ll make additional posts in the upper and bottom part of the river.”

“That’ll take too long. How about placing tactical armored vehicles around here?”

“It’s not a problem. We can stack two container boxes and make a watchtower.”

When the river froze up, enemies could come across the river, so it would be useless to watch the upper and bottom side of the river, but fortunately, the icebreaker had broken the ice in the central part of the river. Come to think of it, icebreakers were being used for various purposes.

“Did you say the Crown Prince of Denmark is visiting us at this crazy time?”

“Well, if we make gunfire noise for hunting wolves, the enemies won’t come across the boundary so easily.”

“How long will he stay?”

“Not for too long. He should be back to Denmark for the festive season event by the end of the year.”

“I hope the IS will keep quiet while the prince is here.”

“Yep, hope so.”

Youngho sent a 12-seater jet to Denmark for Crown Prince Frederick since he was coming to the state. Szechenyi and Isabella were coming to stay with him too.

As the Crown Prince would be staying in the state, the Danish royal guard security team had come to check before he came. Seeing how good the security guards of Zeynep Security Service were, they returned without saying a word. It seemed that they entrusted the Crown Prince’s security to the guards at the autonomous state.

They also liked the fact that the autonomous state was like an island on land.

The state was not receiving any outside visitors or tourists due to terrorism risk. After the coronation, backpackers and journalists continuously requested to visit, but the state sternly refused to issue them a visa. Thus, the state had successfully reduced risk factors. Many people criticized the state for it, as many of them were stranded at the airport of Atyrau after coming to the airport to visit the autonomous state, but the security of the residents was more important.

In particular, many Korean people also applied for a visitor’s visa. Some of them were documentary producers of Korea. They were quite stubborn.

“You know some of the South Korean reporters were forced out of the state yesterday, right?”

“Yes. They came to the state by land even though the Atyrau Airport already let them know that this is a non-accessible area.”

“Are you going to continue to refuse them?”

“I just don’t want them to make a fuss about the autonomous state. If Korean people find out that Kazakhstan is the land of opportunity, all kinds of ignorant people would flock to the country, and I’m afraid that they’re going to dishonor the reputation of Koryoin people. They’ve built their reputations for generations.”

“Hearing you makes me think that some Koreans are scarier than the IS. Man, they’re something.”

“I hope they don’t come to Kazakhstan but somewhere else.”

The Arirang Autonomous State was rumored to accept Koryoins in difficult situations now. So, there had been many individual requests to migrate from Koryoins scattered around Central Asia. Many Koryoins were feeling a sense of pride after the autonomous state was formed. It was because for Koryoins in Central Asia, who had been living without a country to call their own, the autonomous state was their home.

With the existence of the Arirang Autonomous State, the Koryoins were not minorities anymore. Youngho only hoped that Korea would not hurt Koryoins anymore since the country had abandoned its people who only left to fight for Korea’s independence.