African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1724 The Last 300 Kilometers

A small town has sprung up where the highway meets the Khanate of Qarat in Afghanistan, and a customs checkpoint has even been built there.

Although it's called a small town, it's more like a bustling market. Apart from a few buildings that look decent, most of the buildings are temporary mud-brick houses and shacks.

These haphazard buildings stretch out along both sides of the Central Asian highway.

As the saying goes, "To get rich, build roads first." The construction of the Central Asian Highway opened up a trade route between Afghanistan and the Indian Ocean, attracting many locals to gather here. In addition to Afghan merchants, there are also many merchants from the Khanate of Qarat who travel to Afghanistan to do business.

The arrival of Prince Konica's convoy immediately attracted the attention of many locals.

At this moment, a middle-aged man carrying a gun, wearing a long robe, and with a full beard, led a group of men to intercept Prince Konica's convoy.

Major General Vilit said to Prince Konica, "Your Highness, we are about to enter Afghanistan. These should be Afghan border police. Please stay in the car. I will take some men to negotiate with them."

Prince Konica, being in an unfamiliar place, naturally chose to follow Major General Villett's advice.

And so, Major General Vilit, accompanied by an Afghan translator, walked to the front of the convoy.

Upon seeing the fully armed East African soldiers and the Afghan policeman in charge, Ahmed Gurbuz tensed instantly. Gurbuz recognized the East African flag on the car, but he hadn't expected an East African army to arrive.

In recent years, due to the construction and opening of the Central Asia Highway, East Africans are not uncommon in this border town, but in the past, it was mostly workers and merchants.

After calming himself down, Gulbuz suddenly remembered the instructions the director had given him the day before yesterday, saying that an official East African convoy would be arriving in Burdak.

Burdak is the name of this small border town in Afghanistan.

This East African convoy should be the one the director was referring to.

With this in mind, Gulbuz relaxed a bit and said to his subordinates, "These should be guests from above. You all need to be more respectful in the future, and restrain your temper that you usually have with ordinary people. Don't make any mistakes."

Border police work in Afghanistan is considered a promising career, with lucrative opportunities available due to the town's thriving commerce.

Normally, these police officers can obtain illicit gains through various means, especially from passing caravans and small business owners in Boldak town.

For these ordinary people, the police in Boldak were quite a handful, but what could they do? They were police officers, and they were armed with guns.

The police in Burdak are usually quite arrogant and have absolutely no sense of service.

After all, one cannot expect the government officials of a feudal and backward kingdom to have any great awareness.

However, these Afghan border police officers clearly knew who they could mess with and who they couldn't. They were well aware that these foreign "masters" in East Africa were not people that Afghans could easily provoke.

Moreover, these East African soldiers in front of them were clearly well-trained and heavily armed; even if Gulbuz hadn't reminded them, they wouldn't have dared to act recklessly.

Soon, amidst Gulbz's unease, Major General Vilit arrived before him with a translator.

“We are a convoy from the military base in Gwadar, East Africa. I am Rear Admiral Vilit of the East African Navy. I think you should know me, right? We have already notified your government by telegram.”

Gulbuz replied without hesitation, "Hello, Your Excellency General from East Africa. I am a captain in the police station of this small town, and my name is Gulbuz."

“We did receive advance notice of your arrival, Your Excellency General. Please wait here for a moment, and I will immediately report your arrival to our director.”

"Would you like your convoy to rest in Boldark Town? You can come with me to the police station first."

Major General Villett thought for a moment and agreed to his suggestion. The two days of bumpy travel had been very tiring, and there were no proper facilities along the way. His team was exhausted, so it would be good to rest in the town of Boldak.

“Then you shall lead the way!” Major General Vilit said to Gulbuz.

Afterwards, Gurbuz and others led the way, and Major General Vilit also got into the car to report the situation to Prince Konica. Under Vilit's arrangement, the convoy slowly drove into the town of Boldak.

"Your Highness, we can rest in Boldak Town for one night and continue our journey tomorrow."

Prince Konica, somewhat tired, readily accepted his suggestion, but asked curiously, "Is this town called Boldark?"

Major General Vilit said, "Yes, Your Highness, Burdak is the first border town that the Qarat Khanate enters into Afghanistan."

“This used to be a rather desolate place, but after the Central Asia Highway was built, it became a popular town. The Afghan government set up some government units here, including the police station, customs, and so on.”

Prince Konica said, "The Afghan road is well-maintained, significantly better than that of the Qaraq Khanate, and they even used concrete."

Major General Vilit said, "This is why the Afghan government attaches great importance to it. For them, the Central Asian Highway is almost related to the future of Afghanistan. They themselves have no access to the sea, and the Central Asian Highway connects to our Gwadar Port, which is crucial to the future of Afghanistan's economy."

"That's why the Afghans put a lot of effort into cooperating with us in building the Central Asia Highway, and even borrowed a lot of money from the Imperial Bank."

"In retrospect, this was a very wise choice. The Central Asian Highway has had a significant impact on the Afghan economy. Take Burdak, for example, which is a new town that emerged entirely because of the Central Asian Highway."

Major General Villett continued, "I think as we continue our journey through Afghanistan, we should see quite a few new settlements similar to Burdak..."

Prince Konica listened with great interest to Villette's explanation while admiring the local customs and culture of this exotic town.

The streets of Burdak, along both sides of the Central Asian Highway, are lined with shops and various stalls.

The goods here are mostly agricultural products, including various vegetables, grains, nuts, and flocks of sheep.

On the streets, you can see civilians riding donkeys and camel caravans. Unlike East Africa, cars are extremely rare in Afghanistan, but they are not unheard of. After all, many East African merchants have come here to do business, and they are unlikely to follow the locals' example and use camels or donkeys to transport goods.

Afghans may also import cars from East Africa, but in much smaller quantities.

Occasionally, Konica would see businessmen dressed completely differently from the locals. He asked, "Those wearing suits must be businessmen from our country, right?" Villett shook his head and said, "Not necessarily. Since the Central Asian Highway was built, it has indeed attracted many foreign businessmen. We in East Africa are quite common, but there are also quite a few British and Indians doing business here."

“Some wealthy people in Afghanistan may not be able to distinguish clearly between different styles of dress.”

The situation in Afghanistan is complex. Overall, Afghanistan is a predominantly white country, but it also has a significant number of people of Asian and mixed races, as Central Asia is a crossroads of civilizations.

If that's the case, then if Afghans dress in a way that resembles Westerners, they would be very difficult to distinguish from East Africans; at first glance, it would be almost impossible to tell them apart.

Of course, only a very small minority of Afghans adopt Western clothing and style. Overall, Afghanistan still maintains a strong traditional culture, especially among the lower classes.

Everything here was new and exciting for Prince Konica, who was new to the place.

However, Major General Vilit still cautioned, "Your Highness, although this place has a unique culture and customs, we must still be careful on our journey ahead. The social order in Afghanistan is clearly not comparable to that of the Empire."

"Especially once we enter the mountainous regions of Afghanistan, it's best to minimize our contact with the locals."

Prince Konica wholeheartedly agreed, noting that the Kingdom of Afghanistan retains a strong tribal character, and in some remote areas, there is a deep sense of wariness and rejection towards strangers.

Therefore, he wouldn't go looking for trouble, nor would he let his guard down because of his curiosity about the place.

Prince Konica said, "I am more concerned about the situation in the Soviet Union than in Afghanistan, and that is the main task of this mission."

Hearing him say that, Major General Villett felt much more at ease.

After a night's rest, the convoy set off again. Konica and her party first arrived in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, and then continued north. On the fourth day, they finally reached the border between Afghanistan and the Soviet Union, entering the territory of Tajikistan, a Soviet ally.

The Soviets had been waiting for a long time. After verifying their identities, they sent someone to personally lead Konica's convoy to visit the construction site of the Central Asian Highway within the Soviet Union.

The road conditions in Tajikistan are noticeably worse than those in Afghanistan.

Its nickname "Land of High Mountains" speaks volumes. Moreover, nearly half of Tajikistan's area is at an altitude of over 3,000 meters.

It is easy to imagine how difficult the construction of the Central Asian Highway was in such complex terrain.

However, the Soviet Union put a lot of effort into the construction of the Central Asian highway. They carved through mountains and built a passable road through towering peaks.

It was merely passable; in terms of comfort, the roads here were even less comfortable than those within the Karat Khanate. However, it was still a major undertaking for the Soviet Union.

Many sections of the road are even right next to cliffs, which looks very dangerous, and occasionally rocks roll down the hillside.

Prince Konica learned what "thrilling" meant for the first time; this trip to Tajikistan was the most dangerous experience of his life.

In this state of trepidation, the Soviet "guides" eventually led them to a place called Salitash.

The Soviet guide said to Prince Konica and his party, "Distinguished guests from East Africa, the place we have arrived at today is called Salitash. The Central Asian Highway is currently under construction about 30 kilometers east of this village."

Prince Konica asked, "Mr. Petrov, do you mean that about thirty kilometers east of Salitash, that's the current end of the Central Asian Highway?"

Petrov nodded and said, "That's right. Your Highness Prince Konica, I think you've seen how dangerous the roads in Tajikistan are."

"Our Soviet Union spent a tremendous amount of resources and manpower to build this highway, and we barely managed to build it to Salitash."

Prince Konica certainly understood how difficult it had been for the Soviet Union to build the Central Asian Highway, but he wasn't concerned with that. Instead, he asked, "How far is it from the current end of the highway to the border of the Far Eastern Empire?"

Petrov explained, “It’s not far now. It’s less than 300 kilometers from here to Shule in the Far Eastern Empire. And the further we go, the easier it is to build because of the lower altitude.”

"Based on our current construction progress, the southern route of the Central Asia Highway should be fully completed by June this year."

The Central Asian Highway is divided into two routes, north and south. Prince Konica's inspection tour this time took the southern route, with the destination being Shule in the western region of the Far Eastern Empire.

The northern route is much longer, passing through Kazakhstan and eventually entering the Far Eastern Empire from the north of the Tian Shan Mountains. Relatively speaking, the northern route is more comfortable to drive on than the southern route because it is longer, but the route selection and construction are also less difficult, avoiding many mountainous areas.

Of course, the northern route has another characteristic: it passes through many of the most important areas in Central Asia that the Soviet Union had in place, such as the Fergana Basin and the northern foothills of the Tian Shan Mountains.

This choice was also related to the Soviet Union's own desire to use the Central Asian Highway to develop its economy.

Prince Konica then asked, "Approximately when will you be able to complete the northern route?"

Petrov said, "The northern route is actually progressing faster than the southern route and should be able to open to traffic earlier than the southern route. In fact, its construction should already be in the final stages."

“That area was originally a traditional trade route. So we can use the existing route and make some minor modifications, and the construction quality will be even better than that of the southern route.”

Prince Konica nodded, but still asked Major General Villit to bring him a map. He had Petrov mark their current location on the map, and then had him mark the last section of the road that had been slightly repaired with a red line.

Finally, the results calculated using the scale were almost identical to Petrov's prediction: the distance to the Far Eastern Empire was indeed only 200 kilometers away. Moreover, considering the terrain diagram on the map, the construction difficulty of the following section was indeed greatly reduced.

Basically, it was built along a river valley, towards the Far Eastern Empire. In the Pamir Plateau, the valley's elevation and flatness are relatively low.

The ancient Silk Road primarily prioritized connecting the East and West along these river valleys.

After confirming that the information was basically correct, Prince Konica was quite satisfied with the result. He said to Petrov, "I hope that your country can complete the Central Asian Highway as soon as possible. With the completion of the Central Asian Highway, it will not only promote the relationship between our two countries, but also be an opportunity for the Soviet Union."

Regardless of the Soviet Union's concerns and considerations, the completion of the Central Asian Highway would objectively have a certain positive impact on the Soviet Union's own development, especially on the construction, trade, and development of the Central Asian region.

(End of this chapter)