Empire of the Ring

As people get used to the same work, they naturally get lazy.

It was the same with Youngho’s team. Whenever he was going on a mission, he had never had any failures but only some struggles and dangerous moments. Because of that, Youngho was not nervous at all with whatever mission he was on and did not have a thorough plan. It was also because he did not receive basic training as elite agents who went through the elite training course. Noticing the two’s loose plan, Smith was screening it to them.

“Mr. Lee, I think you should leave China Town alone. We only need to plot little conflicts but your plan is going to make it too big.”

“I understand that my plan is rough but could you point out what’s concerning you?”

As Youngho admitted that his plan was not perfect, Smith began to describe what he thought.

Smith had been working in Kazakhstan for three years and he knew exactly how things worked here.

Although the Kazakh government claimed to stand for parliamentary democracy, the first president of Kazakhstan, Nazarbayev, had been in power for a prolonged period and he was practically a life president.

His prioritized economic development policy gained overwhelming support from the public and there was no one in the opposition party who could be a match to the current president.

There were some group of people who opposed the president’s prolonged one-man rule and those groups had been causing riots in the Western Kazakhstan and terrorism in the city of Almaty to pressure the president.

Smith wanted to take advantage of the political situation.

Easily said, he was talking about the CIA’s operation to shake the dictatorial government. According to Smith, the headquarters had ordered to cause conflicts at the border area and to incite political chaos within the country in order to give power to the government’s opposition party.

He said that the CIA had been maintaining a cozy relationship with the Kazakh government’s opposition party since they had worked together a few years ago to stop the president trying to passing the president-for-life law.

The current president had turned into a dictator in order to achieve the country’s rapid economic growth. He was supported by the public since he achieved eight percent of the yearly average rate of economic growth, which was an outrageous rate. He had opened a new world for Kazakh people who had only been farming and milking sheep for their entire lives.

Although the rapid economic growth was bearing some problems such as the gap between rich and poor, it was what any developing country had to face.

Since he had achieved so much for the country’s economy, he was worshipped like a king by Kazakh people. That was why the Oval Office of the country was still called a presidential palace just like in Azerbaijan.

It might be a dangerous idea but in Youngho’s eyes, the current president looked like a reputable politician.

Youngho did not like to be involved in the political maneuvering. Also, his job was only to provide a reason for the U.S. to intervene in political relations. He did not want to cause turmoil for the whole country.

Although the president had been in power for a long period of time, there had been almost no incident where he had violated human rights. It did not seem plausible to shake that president who was doing well for the country in order to democratize the country.

“Jongil, let’s not get involved in the politics. We should make Smith to only focus on making confusion around the border.”

“…”

“He’s on the path of becoming a dictator but it’s hard to find a great political leader like him. If we stir up the opposition party and the political situation gets deteriorated, Arirang Farm is also going to suffer.”

“I don’t know if we can convince Smith. It looks like he has prepared a lot for this and has gotten involved in this deeply already.”

“That’s why we should make huge trouble in the border area, so he won’t have time to focus on that anymore.”

“I see you have another plan.”

***

The border market was now full of suspicious guys. They must have belonged to the Black Society or the Chinese police. Since the jogs of the Black Society had been attacked by Youngho and Jongil, it seemed that they were seeking for the two with avidity.

However, Youngho and Jongil would not be cheated by that lame scheme.

When Youngho and Jongil first contacted the jogs, they were dressed as country boys who came to shop for clothes, but now they were disguised as fur merchants and even had sunglasses on.

The two decided to make a natural conflict between Kazakh merchants and Han merchants by acting like a Kazakh merchant and causing a scene. In that way, other Kazakh merchants would side on them and an outbreak of a conflict could happen.

The Han merchant snapped at the interpreter’s words. He said that he could not buy the fur at such a high price. Jongil talked back at him as soon as he heard back from the interpreter.

“No way. You’re like a thief who’s trying to get the products for free. Please deliver every word I said to him.”

After hearing the interpreter, the Han merchant furiously stamped his foot saying why he was a thief. Now Youngho added,

“Let’s find a happy medium. The price is just too low compared to the usual price of fur that we know of. Please do us a favor.”

The Han merchant who listened to the interpreter had waved Youngho off to cancel the bargain. The chance that Youngho had been waiting for had finally arrived.

“What is your manner? Where did you learn to chase away your customers like you’re chasing away flies?”

Youngho asked the interpreter to tell exactly what he said. It was to arouse the Han merchant’s anger.

He directly reacted to Youngho’s insult. His face was reddened as he yelled at Youngho.

Because Youngho and Jongil were causing a scene, the Han merchant’s guards surrounded the two and pushed them away telling them to leave.

However, Kazakh merchants at the market did not sit and wait for it to pass. As people gathered around Youngho and Jongil one by one, Youngho acted as if he was complaining of injustice in Russian. Since Han people did not understand Russian, he incited the Kazakh merchants, saying that the Han people were thieves.

There were merchants who would buy things with cash at hand but there were many herdsmen nearby who were forced to sell their dairy products and byproducts of animal skins at dirt cheap prices at the market. They had not been able to voice themselves but now it was their chance.

Many people made comments and began to condemn the Han merchants. The people who were guarding the Han people were also startled by their pressure. As they were startled, their actions came out roughly. They pushed away Kazakh people and during this process, people’s clothes were torn and blood came out from some people’s noses.

Anyone would freak out when they see blood.

Now the market had turned into a madhouse.

Meanwhile, Youngho and Jongil stealthily butted in and knocked down a few guards. Seeing their comrades being knocked down, other guards finally took out weapons. There were knives and pistols.

Because of their reaction, the crowd finally began to take out their weapons from here and there.

Since many people worked in farming and ranching, even young kids carried a knife used for cutting meats. Not only the hunting rifles to chase away wolves but also Russian pistols were openly sold here, so even civilians were not to be underestimated in the area.

With a single person making a move in this tension, it would not be weird if there was a shootout at any moment.

Suddenly, there was a sound of gunfire. Something big was finally happening.

***

At the marker in the border area, a huge incident occurred, where more than twenty people were either killed or injured.

The market was immediately terminated and tension was flowing around the border.

Because of Youngho and Jongil, the U.S. and the Kazakh which were strategically teamed up had to part ways for now. It was because Kazakh people were now stirred up by the incident and protesting against Chinese influence. Now people were boycotting Chinese products from the country.

People were upset that their own people were killed by some Han merchants in Kazakh territory. Even some people took it too far that terrorism against Chinese residing in Almaty had occurred. The situations were not good.

However, the participants of the incident were drinking at a hotel.

Agent Smith, who was not with the two on the day, still had no idea that Youngho and Jongil were behind all this.

“Mr. Park, it looks like we didn’t have to get involved. The conflict naturally occurred but it’s getting too big now. I don’t know how the government would calm down the angry public.”

“I don’t get it. What kind of crazy people shoot guns and swing knives at civilians? Do the police in this area just watch them getting killed?”

“I heard that when the police arrived, the situation had already ended and Chinese jogs had already run away. If they’d arrived a moment faster, they’d have caught Chinese police who carried arms. That’s a bummer.”

Smith was also being startled by an unexpected turn at the border area. He was fully prepared to incite the leaders of the Kazakh current government’s opposition party but now because the border area incident was expanded into something serious, he was busy investigating the situation.

“Well, there was nothing we could do now but we should go to the border area to see how things are going. Don’t you think?”

“I was going to ask about that. The headquarters is asking to report the situations. Why don’t we go to the border area and collect information together?”

***

Youngho and Jongil were their way back to the hotel in Almaty.

“If the president knew our hard work, he would’ve given us an award certificate or something. What a waste.”

“I know. I don’t understand why the U.S. wants to involve in another country’s politics. The Kazakh people like the dictator, why bother?”

The two’s perspective was that if Kazakh people were satisfied with the dictator-like president, they should be left alone.

It was only because they had caused a scene at the border area that the dictator president was not cornered.

Youngho actually liked the presidential system of Kazakhstan at the moment, although the president was no different from a dictator.

There were problems such as the gap between the rich and poor but the president’s strong economic development policy seemed like it would develop Kazakhstan’s stance fast and Arirang Farm would also be positively affected by it. That was why Youngho had made a huge issue at the border market.

Although it was an accident, it was a major incident that the country’s own people were killed. It was something that proved Chinese people had looked down upon Kazakhstan. The incident became a turning point for Kazakhstan to have a new perspective on China.

Youngho was going to slip the information that the Chinese police was also involved in this to the Kazakh government.

To Youngho, China was more dangerous than Russia since they were expanding their dominance fiercely all over the world. He did not care for politics or relations between countries but he wanted to keep the Chinese dominance away from Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan since they were where the Serbian descendants settled down.

China would definitely be an obstacle to the establishment of the Serbian Kingdom in the future. Youngho was willing to fight with any means.

***

While Youngho was dealing with the Han people in Almaty, Arirang Farm busy getting through the cold winter.

Kim Chun, the branch head was returning from ordering products in downtown Atyrau. These days, driving to the inner city was convenient since his boss had assigned him a personal Serbian driver.

They took turns to drive and it was when he was falling asleep after he gave the wheel to the Serbian lad. He woke up when he felt pressure from his safety belt as the car made a sudden stop.

“What? Why are you stopping the car?”

“Mr. Kim, take out the gun from the dashboard and duck down. I’m going to dash.”

Kim Chun peeked outside for the moment. It was dark out but he could see blurry figures of several people standing up around a bonfire at a distance.

‘Highwaymen?’

All he could think was that since there would not be an inspection on the road at this hour. It had never occurred to him but he had heard that trucks were frequently robbed. Also, now that he was a famous buyer and he was rumored to carry a lot of cash with him, they might be targeting him.

However, if they were those robbers, they would not stop after only taking his money. They would definitely kill him since there was no reason to leave witnesses. Also, if two bodies were thrown at the vast field, there are more than enough animals that would get rid of the bodies including their bones.

No one would be able to find a single piece of evidence in the field.

Kim Chun felt his hair standing on end.

“Just drive no matter what! It’s okay if you run them over.”