Empire of the Ring

Not many things changed after the autonomous state was appointed as a special administrative region except for the fact that the process of visitor’s entry had become much more complicated than before.

The Kazakh public did not care for it too much as well since it was not a big deal if a tiny semi-deserted area had become a special region. It was better this way for Youngho and the autonomous state.

On the other hand, Park Jong-il was overly excited about the changes.

He was now grilling Youngho about setting up the state’s boundary line.

“This is like a border. We might not need a barbed-wire fence, but you need to have guard posts if you want to prevent outsiders trespassing our land.”

“Come on. Who’d come to this deserted land?”

“We are open in every direction. Anyone can illegally enter here if they wanted to. How do you call that a special administrative region? What if criminals sneak in and hide from the authorities? The Kazakh police won’t be happy about that.”

Jong-il had a point. Youngho did not want to disgrace the autonomous state by allowing criminals to slip into the region.

“Okay, okay. Go ahead and do whatever you want to do then but do it with Cha Insoo’s consent. You know he’s been stressed out about the shortage of people.”

“He’s too busy with the Vladivostok warehouse business. He should be thankful that I’m doing something that he should be dealing with. Man, I wish I can take some of the security service company’s employees to be in charge of the guard posts.”

“A passing dog will laugh if you place people who were trained in Special Forces as border guards of a remote region.”

“What about it? We should have that much strength at the borderline.”

Since many guard posts would be far away from the city, guard posts would need to have lodging facility, cafeteria, and resting area for guards to work around the clock in rotation. In addition, it would need defense facilities for an effective defense system and an office as well. Each guard post would need at least two armored vehicles, so each squad of Countryside Force should also be assigned there too.

The northern boundary was marked by a river and the western boundary was marked by a valley. So, anyone was less likely to enter the state from those directions. Only one post for each boundary at the weakest spot would be fine for those areas, but at least three posts for southern and eastern boundaries would be necessary. It was a lot more complicated than Youngho expected.

“You know I can’t assign more than a squad for each post guard, right?”

Dividing the Countryside Force, which was not so big in the first place, had made it look even smaller. Youngho was not sure if he had enough soldiers for the city.

“That’s got to be enough. I bet the soldiers will love it if I rotate each squad and send them to work at the post on a weekly basis.”

The soldiers were sick of working inside the city since all they did was to train. All of them would want to get assigned at the guard posts. It would be their getaway from hard training.

“Are you going to assign heavy firearms too?”

“We definitely should. We will assign a Russian armored vehicle and light-armored vehicle each. That’ll make it look like a decent border post.”

Jong-il seemed to go overboard about this subject, but Youngho decided not to intervene with his plan. After all, he was simply doing his job.

The strength of each squad of the Countryside Force was greater than the strength of a company of a regular army by far.

First of all, it had outstanding mobility and defensive power because each squad had two light-armored vehicles. Light-armored vehicles were not only fast but also used as powerful offensive weapons. Each vehicle was originally made to seat ten soldiers inside, but since soldiers were frequently assigned for remote missions at the autonomous state, only a group of five to six people used each vehicle.

The state had been buying the light-armored vehicles over time, and it had a total of 55 vehicles now. The amphibian Otokar Cobra vehicles were equipped with a 12.5-millimeter machine gun and a smoke bomb discharger. Since it also carried a portable rocket launcher and a stationary mortar, it was reasonable to say that each squad of the Countryside Force had a greater force than a company of a regular army.

The state had two Russian multiple rocket launchers and seven heavy armored vehicles that were stolen a while ago when they were being transported to Armenia. That was why Youngho was going to utilize the heavy armored vehicles this time for the guard posts.

The five guard posts would be enforced with a heavy armored vehicle and a light armored vehicle each.

This would not be considered too much by the public since there had been frequent terrorist attacks in major cities of Kazakhstan. It would seem reasonable to have such force at the boundaries of the autonomous state.

***

Surprisingly, the Kazakh military rather welcomed that the Arirang Autonomous State had become a special administrative region. It was because the reinforcement of the defense power of the autonomous state was the same as the reinforcement of the defense of the whole Kazakhstan. Also, the tiny Countryside Force was not a big threat to the Kazakh military.

The Navy also had high hopes for the autonomous state.

Victor Jun the lieutenant commander of the Kazakh Navy was also excited for the new changes in the state. Since his family lived in the state, Youngho saw him frequently.

Today, Youngho ran into him at the state’s shipyard.

He brightly greeted Youngho.

“Mr. Lee. You finally did it.”

“Nothing is different. I just received a command from the president to strengthen Kazakhstan’s national defense.”

“You won’t have to worry about anything since we’re getting two vessels from Korea next year.”

“Well, Mr. President wanted us to produce weapons for the Kazakh military.”

“Have you told him about the small battleships that are being made at this shipyard?”

“No, I didn’t but he seems to have high hopes for us. Anything made in Kazakhstan would be better. By the way, did you check out the high-speed yacht in the 100-ton class that we just made out of a used vessel?”

“When did you make that? The Navy could really use such fast vessels.”

Lieutenant Jun was surprised to see the yacht. The yacht looked different than he expected since it was remodeled to look like a private vessel.

“We couldn’t travel to Volgograd on our light airplanes, so we replaced our transportation method to a yacht, and my dear friend Jong-il armed it to the teeth.”

“Oh, I see. You could’ve installed a missile too, then.”

“Oh, I don’t think it’s a good idea to have a missile on a 100-ton vessel. It’s not going to hold up the weight. Besides, it’s still invincible with a portable rocket launcher and machine gun.”

“How fast is this?”

“I changed its engine and reinforced its body, and now its highest speed is about 45 knots. On average, it could sail at 40 knots. I heard that it could be faster if it had a sturdier body.”

45 knots was about 83 kilometers an hour.

If a boat could sail that fast on the sea or the river, there were no other vessels in the Caspian Sea that could match with its speed.

Lieutenant commander Jun opened his eyes wide.

After a while, he spoke in a very excited voice.

“Mr. Lee. Are you saying a battleship in the 200 to 300-ton class could have such speed?”

“That’s probably possible. I was going to make a test battleship in the 100-ton class, but the shipyard has been busy.”

The shipyard was not yet equipped with a dock facility, but there were too many vessels that needed to be repaired now. The shipyard had begun a vessel repair business first since the technicians needed to get paid somehow, but the workload was getting out of control now. Making new vessels was now out of its priority.

“But, you’d be starting its production soon, right?”

“A 100-ton vessel can be made without a dock facility but bigger vessels would need to wait until we have the facility.”

“I should go ahead and inform the naval headquarters at once. Everybody will love it if the autonomous state is going to produce high-speed vessels.”

There was a reason why Lieutenant commander Jun was so excited about the news.

The shipyard in Atyrau had produced a vessel, but its speed was lower than expected to pass as a naval vessel. So, the Navy decided to buy its vessels from foreign makers.

Youngho would have stopped him a while ago, but now he wanted him to spread the word. It was because the president had asked Youngho to strengthen the military power of Kazakhstan so he needed to prove that the president’s decision was right.

This would not be a huge issue in western countries, but in Kazakhstan, it was an achievement that it could make a high-performance vessel.

“Well, we only made one test vessel by remodeling a used boat. Wouldn’t it be too premature to spread the word?”

Youngho asked.

“You know, the Navy could support you for this project, but it has to know that you’re doing this. I will tell the higher-ups that we can’t ask too much from the small autonomous state without giving any support. The Navy might also have special offers for ships. Just pretend that you don’t know about a thing and wait. I’ll get you good news soon, Mr. Lee.”

That was true.

Youngho did not want to make a free vessel for the Navy. If the Navy wanted anything, they would have to pay for its price.

Currently, the autonomous state’s maritime police force consisted of 60 Countryside Force soldiers and 20 former naval soldiers and two 15-year-old former US military vessels.

The state had received more soldiers than necessary for the current two vessels now because more soldiers would be needed by next year when two patrol vessels in the 500-ton class would be sent from Korea.

As for the home port, vessels of the maritime police and the Navy could use the Port of Atyrau, but they preferred to stay at the Arirang Wharf. Its new facilities for soldiers’ convenience, such as lodging, cafeteria, and resting areas made them feel at home, and especially the food menu selection was beloved by them.

Youngho had tried his best to build great facilities for the Kazakh naval soldiers because he wanted to impress them as they could be future Countryside soldiers.

In fact, navies appreciated that the autonomous state took discharged naval soldiers as members of the Countryside Force to do the maritime police job. It was because once they were retired from the Navy, they would still have a place to work.

Although Kazakhstan was a well-off country in Central Asia, there were not many job opportunities for discharged navy soldiers. For this, the Arirang Autonomous State was supported by them. Even current naval soldiers often joked that they were the soldiers of the autonomous state.

It would seem that having soldiers reside in the city would cause many problems but nothing of the sort ever happened at the state since the soldiers did not want to cause trouble for the state where they would be hired after their discharge from the Navy.

However, the naval soldiers were said to feel discouraged recently. As the autonomous state became a special administrative region, they assumed that it would not be easy for them to move to the state anymore because the immigration policy would be different for the state from now on.