Empire of the Ring

With the royal family's visit to Tajikistan, the people's minds were completely tilted to Kazakhstan. It was because the Queen and her family visited even small towns.

Some even said the Queen looked like an angel from heaven.

When Youngho delivered the news of Tajikistan's atmosphere, Fatima smiled.

"The residents of Tajikistan have a great eye for people. You should be careful, too. If you don't like the angel from heaven, they won't be easy on you."

"If only they knew how I tried to find you in the slums of Istanbul, they won't treat me badly."

"It's already been widely rumored. It's been adapted to a different story in which you followed me around to buy my affection. Hohoho…"

"One day I'll have to get the facts right. If they know what the truth is, they'll be praising me for finding you."

"Don't worry about such a small matter and retrieve the Pamir Plateau to its original status. Then the Tajik people will even build your statue."

"You are upset because you couldn't visit there."

"I thought the Chinese had buried the landmines, instead of our side, but it was a lie! Please get rid of all the mines. I hear you know where they're buried."

Fatima was preoccupied with the landmine problem all the way through, as nomads were likely to get hurt.

She eventually found out the truth about the landmines after inquiring to many related people upon arriving at the royal territory. She gave Youngho an earful for a long time.

"It was the only way to hold China back. Sooner or later, we'll be back to normal as soon as we finalize border issues with China."

"Will China move according to our demands?"

"In fact, I can make any concessions if it was a territorial dispute with the Uyghurs, but I held back because China had stepped up. Even now, in the summer, the Uyghur nomads come to the Pamir, and once the border is finalized, they can't cross over. Would that be okay with you?"

"Well, that's a concern, but if it's a time bomb that might explode at any moment, it's better to settle with China quickly. The buffer zone could get noisy again someday."

Now that Tajikistan had become a federal country, Kazakhstan could take the lead in negotiations and negotiate with China.

Since the plateau was not an important piece of land both in terms of resources and strategy, giving up was not a matter if China could offer a good benefit in return.

***

"Why did you think of making concessions?"

"It's not a concession, it's Uyghurs' land, so I'm returning it. If it wasn't, I would never give in."

Youngho was head-to-head with Park Jong-il to clear up the border dispute issue of the Pamir Plateau.

"If we ask to negotiate first, wouldn't the Chinese people think we're giving in?"

"If the Chinese government makes a preposterous demand, we will say that we'd stick to the Soviet-era border and that there will be no more negotiations in the future. We've done enough to make concessions, so have justification."

What China had been claiming to be its territory was only a small area of the Pamir Plateau.

However, the dispute had been expanded to the entire Pamir Plateau.

"If it's half of the buffer zone, I think China will agree to the negotiations, what do you think?"

"You want to make that much concession?"

"It's about 1,100 square kilometers. Compared to the Pamir as a whole, it's only a small portion."

If he gave up that much, China would secure a flat area.

The reason for doing so was that he knew what China was after. The purpose of China was to secure a flat area of the Pamir Plateau to station their troops, but it would still be helpless before the Kazakh troops.

"Okay. Try to set a border at that line."

"It would be better to approach it at the intelligence level than at the government level, right?"

"That's right. I don't want to make an international issue. Please finalize it quietly."

The Chinese leadership believed that a flat area was strategically more important than slopes, but that was not true.

A flat area was rather a weak point and it would be easily seen and quickly destroyed by the opposing forces.

In a world where horses or tanks were on the front burner, the place would be perfect to camp, but in a world where missiles, fighter jets, and attack helicopters were dominant, it was rather disadvantageous. It was a testament to the fact that the Chinese military was still unable to get out of its volume-oriented conventional war mentality.

"Tell them to give up all of their holdings of Tajikistan in exchange for the buffer zone."

"You paid back all the bonds that Tajikistan borrowed from China."

"We paid back the principal, but the business interest remains intact."

"Wow, they were smart to do that. In that case, I'm glad we have something to get out of this deal."

It would be an equal exchange if China gave up its interests in Tajikistan.

All China had invested in Tajikistan was railways and roads, but if not clarified now, there was a possibility of conflict in the future, so Youngho was trying to package it into border-area negotiations.

In fact, Tajiks were not very interested in the Pamir Plateau.

It was just a place where diligent nomads stayed for a short time in summer to feed their animals some quality grass, nothing more or less.

***

Tajikistan was a place with abundant gold reserves.

With the increasing demand for gold, a safe asset, amid growing global economic uncertainty, China, whose gold reserves accounted for only five percent of the world, had also begun to turn to gold mines abroad.

China's largest gold producer, Golden Group and Zijin Mining Group, had previously entered Tajikistan and investigated for feasibility, but were forced into exile due to the Pamir Plateau crisis.

The gold mines in Tajikistan, which the Chinese companies had investigated over the years, was estimated to have about 2,000 tons of gold reserves.

In addition, silver and aluminum reserves were considerable.

Anatole, the Kazakh Minister of Industry and Technology, showed Yongho a report on the Tajikistan gold mine investigation.

"Your Highness. The largest gold mine is in the northern city near the border between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. It is also the closest mine to the royal gold mine in Kyrgyzstan, so this would be a good place to manage."

"You said there was a gold mine in the Pamir. Isn't that a border area?"

"It has nothing to do with the Chinese border. It is around the northern part of the Kyrgyz border and the southern part of the Afghan border. In particular, the South is famous for its alluvial gold mines, and it is shared with Afghanistan across the river, so if you want to develop it, an agreement of the two countries is necessary."

"If we have an agreement, can we collect the gold?"

"Not a chance. The rivers around the Tian Shan Mountains and the Pamir Plateau are all deep valleys and rapids, so it is inaccessible. It's mostly for tourists who want to enjoy extreme sports."

Tajikistan had 947 rivers.

The river had a total length of 28,500 kilometers and was very rich in water resources.

Having 1,300 lakes and 8,476 square kilometers of glaciers, the nation was as beautiful as Kyrgyzstan.

If Kyrgyzstan was called Switzerland in Central Asia, Tajikistan could be called the Alps in Central Asia. It was enough to steal Fatima and Zeynep's hearts at a glance.

If there was alluvial gold in such a rapid stream, how could it be retrieved?

Although it was nothing but a pie in the sky, the existence of gold itself was important to Youngho. Because of these scattered gold, China was covetous of Tajikistan. There was a reason why the Chinese companies invested the whole Tajikistan.

"How about gold mines in northern Pamir?"

"There is no exact data because the Chinese companies pulled during the probe. There are several mines that produced gold in the Soviet era, so I think we should examine them closely. They're a place where gold has been found since ancient times although production has been on and off over time. Some of them are dead mines."

Youngho was intrigued by the mention of dead mines.

The mines at the Serbian Ranch in Baku, Azerbaijan, was also a waste mine, but he had found a new vein of gold eventually, so there was a chance that he could find another one in Tajikistan.

"Did they get abandoned because the vein of gold was broken?"

"With the technology at the time, it was dangerous to mine anymore, and I think they stopped because there were plenty of other gold mines that were more productive."

"Is the Tajik government interested in those gold mines?"

"The government only cares about a mine located on the border of the three countries, but it doesn't care about the rest of the mines because of poor transportation and mining environment."

Youngho could choose Tajik gold mines in exchange for his payment of the Tajik government's debt to the Chinese government. Though Youngho coveted the mine that the government was managing, which was estimated to have more than 200 tons of gold reserves, it seemed better to take the mines in the Pamir Plateau which were out of people's interest. It was because he did not want the royal family to be seen as greedy.

"Tell the Tajik government that we will take Pamir's gold mines in exchange for paying the government's debt."

"Your Highness, you could ask for the government's gold mine, but why do you ask for these abandoned mines?"

"Should we be told that the Kazakh royal family is the same as China?"