Empire of the Ring

Kashgar was an oasis city just below the Pamir Plateau west of the Tarim Basin, with an average altitude of 1,100 meters, an average temperature of 11 degrees in Celsius, and an annual rainfall of 120 millimeters. Such figures indicated that it was a truly barren desert.

It was possible for people to live in such places because the ice caps of the Tianshan Mountains melted and wet the land.

The eternal snow in the Tianshan Mountains became the mainstream of the Kashgar and Tarim rivers, and they flowed through the Tarim Basin enabling nomadic and cotton farming.

The Tarim Basin was about 700,000 square kilometers, about three times the size of the Korean Peninsula, with a distance of 600 kilometers north and west, 1,500 kilometers east and west, and an average altitude of 800 to 1,200 meters.

It was surrounded by the Pamir Plateau on the west, the Tian Shan Mountains on the north, and the Kunlun Mountains on the south, and slopes from west to east.

The Taklamakan Desert in the center of the basin was the drying up of prehistoric inland lakes.

Kashgar was a city that had been spotlighted as a mid-stop on the Silk Road as a city below the Pamir Plateau in the westernmost part of the Tarim Basin. It was developed into a center of commerce and culture as it was where Eastern and Western cultures met.

Countless ethnic groups were gathered and had a lot of dissonance.

With such a background, people’s temperament was very rough and pride was strong.

To tame such a place, China had also experienced great suffering. Most of the terrorist attacks in China were committed by Uyghur independence groups.

Although designating Kashgar as a special autonomous republic would have hurt the Chinese government’s pride, on the other hand, it could have been relieving as if a sick tooth was taken out.

Nevertheless, the Communist Party of China, which was forced to give up the land, stifled Kashgar with economic blockade.

In Kashgar, where Chinese goods disappeared, people were suffering from a shortage of daily necessities.

Kazakhstan’s daily necessities supplies were not enough for millions to use abundantly.

This was because there was a limit to logistics supplied through Pamir Highway.

The lack of daily necessities could be fundamentally resolved only when a daily necessities plant was built in Kashgar, which has been hampered by the lack of infrastructure.

This was due to the fact that the Chinese government intentionally had not provided infrastructure.

It did not allow Uyghurs to set up factories to prevent them from accumulating wealth and allowed only Chinese people to qualify for wholesale business.

It was part of a policy to dismiss Uyghurs with a strong temperament.

Kashgar was generally known as the contact area of East-West culture and the center of East-West trade.

As a trade relay between India and Central Asia, cotton, raw silk, fruit, livestock and leather goods were actively traded.

It was one of the most important routes to Central Asia and a shelter for travelers.

Since China’s effective control, railways and roads to northern and southern Tian Shan had been opened, making it a transportation hub in southwestern China.

Although it was a transportation hub, it was 1,473 kilometers from Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang Uyghur, it still took a whole day to get to Kashgar.

Cities on the Silk Road with a colorful past had disappeared into the back of history, but Kashgar remained a crowded city to this day.

The reason was that it was located in the Tarim Basin, where large quantities of crude oil were known to be buried.

The Tarim Basin and Kashgar, the only metropolis on the remote west, were still in their limelight as a forward base in the oilfield.

The amount of crude oil buried in the Tarim Basin was enormous, equal to one-third of China’s total.

The area where the final battle was fought until the last minute by the Uyghurs was also the area where crude oil was believed to be buried.

If the Chinese government had known, it would not have backed up so easily, but thankfully, it was only passed down to the Uyghurs by word of mouth and kept hidden.

Anyway, the Chinese government had unknowingly given away a great place to the independence militias.

In areas where crude oil was believed to be buried, drilling was in full swing in the harsh winds of the desert.

Engineers under Kazakhstan’s oil agency had targeted not only the area designated but also other areas captured this time.

The reason for the rush of drilling was that even if China found out that oil was buried there, it would not be able to interfere too much because it was in the early stages of the ceasefire.

Since the ink on the agreement had not even dried up yet, China would not be able to provoke first, even because of the political burden, or it would not be able to avoid international criticism.

If China designated the region as a special autonomous republic and violated it first, which country would believe in China and maintain friendly relations?

Another reason for the survey was that Kashgar needed an economic base to be stabilized, so it was rushed to create conditions for self-sufficiency.

Kazakhstan could not keep helping it forever, so it was pushing ahead even though this could provoke China.

It was difficult for Kashgar to be self-sufficient because its main industries were agricultural and livestock industries such as cotton, wheat, livestock, and leather.

In order to lay the foundation for self-reliance, underground resources had to be developed quickly.

If oil was found, millions of Kashgar residents would be rich.

The Royal Bodyguard forces were on high alert around the area where drilling was underway.

It was only 30 kilometers away from the border of the special autonomous republic, so the guards did not let their guards down to counter any possible provocations.

The Chinese military and militias built a defense zone close to the border, and clashes between large and small had frequently erupted, forcing them to be nervous.

The Kashgar border was a place that would not be strange if a local war broke out at any time.

The Chinese military also wanted to fight because of revenge, as the troops had suffered a painful defeat before.

It was a place where people could come and go at will until just a few days ago, but now it was blocked by barbed wire and drilling was underway, which was definitely upsetting for the Chinese side.

Kazakhstan engineers, however, were working hard even when Chinese troops were just around the corner.

Even if China kept provoking, they believed that the royal guards could sufficiently prevent them.

The militias were stationed all at the frontline with a symbolic purpose of protecting the border rather than for defense.

If Chinese troops provoked first, the militias would not respond directly but would pull back, and the shells from the rear side would be launched and the attack helicopter unit would suppress them. Since they could target from a long distance, it was the best way to reduce the damage to the militias.

The border area was busy with the drilling process, and the thermoelectric power plant in Kashgar was crowded with people to restore the facilities. Most of the facilities needed replacement.

Public offices, broadcasting stations, local newspaper offices, and any Chinese government’s properties were burned or destroyed.

Thankfully, some administrative data remained intact and administrative work was in progress with inconvenience.

Uyghurs, who worked in Kashgar public offices, were helping it, but the people did not like them as they had worked for the Chinese government.

It was a problem to clear once as it could be a potential problem of the unity of the Uyghurs.

***

“How many people worked as the Chinese government’s officials?”

Youngho frowned reading through a report handed over by Suh Min-seok.

“There are 170 people. They only worked as assistant tasks at public offices. It’s not that they sold their country to China.”

“How are the people seeing them?”

“Allegedly, the Uyghurs think that those who cooperated with the Chinese government don’t deserve to be called a Uyghur. Some want to deport them out of Kashgar.”

It was unlikely that the Chinese government gave high positions to the Uyghurs, they would have been given only simple tasks and translation work for Chinese workers who could not speak the Uyghur language.

Since the Uyghurs could not accept them, they needed to leave Kashgar.

“I guess we can accept them from Kazakhstan if they didn’t commit a heavy crime.”

“I think we should. There is no law in Uyghur now, and they’re likely to be beaten up to death by the Kashgar residents.”

“We need to judge the weight of their crimes well if there are any. Find out what they are doing now. And call Director Park to my office.”

Since innocent people could get hurt, Youngho wanted to give this assignment to the intelligence department.

Park Jong-il, who received a call from Suh Min-seok, rushed to Youngho’s office.

As if he had already heard about the case from Min-seok, he refused the job, saying that it was not the job the Intelligence Department should handle.

“It’s to prevent deporting innocent people. Investigate them subtly at the intelligence service in detail.”

“Leave the Uyghur problem to the Uyghurs. There’s a limit to what we can do. The locals must’ve determined that they were betrayers for a reason.”

Knowing that interfering with these kinds of social issues could be a risky business, Jong-il tried to avoid it if possible.

“Some people might have served in Chinese government offices for the independence of the Uyghurs. If we leave this to the Uyghurs, this will be a public sentiment problem, and they will irrationally deploy all. I want to check if they deserve such treatment. They don’t even have a constitution yet. How are they going to judge the victims?”

“You know there’s something called common law.”

“Talking about common law? You’ve become a real Kazakh. Remember that we are civilized men.”