Empire of the Ring

"We got them started firing at each other. Look, now they're firing machine guns."

"Three of them are wounded. They must be going crazy now."

"Only three? I've shot six on the Chinese side. One or two of them must be in critical condition."

"That's why they're so stirred."

"Hey, the Kazakh soldiers are getting into their armored vehicles. I think they're trying to shoot even the 20-millimeter machine guns."

"This is a great development. Let's stir the other place one more time."

"We're done here. Let's raid some company or battalion headquarters."

"We should wait until tomorrow and see how it will turn out before we move further."

"No, it has to be tonight. Any judgment made in the border area is left to the front-line commanders. If we keep making a mess, they might even mobilize artillery. If the heads of the two countries talk on the phone tomorrow, it will be the end of the situation. Then the whole point of this will be wasted."

"Okay, let's hit one more post and attack the support unit."

"It's been a long time since we've done something like this."

The light at the guard post, about four kilometers away, was already turned off, and the sentries were all fully alerted. Youngho and Jong-il split to each side and fired at each sides. The two sides were, even more, shook and alerted. After watching the soldiers go nuts, they went over to the Chinese side to find a support unit.

"It's only a company-size unit. I don't see many soldiers. Looks like they all went to the border to back up their side."

"I'll have to go through the armory first. My weapon is too weak."

"Let's just attack here with a rifle and take off. It's only fair when we attack the Kazakh side too."

"You take the guard at the entrance. I'm going to shoot the guy on the lookout."

As soon as he finished talking, bullets went off to designated soldiers.

As the loud gunfire was heard, there was a commotion inside the unit.

Any soldiers that came out of their barracks became Youngho and Jong-il's target.

If one approached the garrison and indiscriminately killed the soldiers, he must be an enemy, but not the soldiers at the Chinese and Kazakh borders were not in a hostile relationship. They were just placed there to monitor those trying to smuggle themselves into each country without going through border checkpoints. The two sides were completely shaken by the sudden attack of gunfire.

That night, Youngho and Jong-il went through all of the border guard posts without sleeping.

They came back to Zargent only after they used up their tracer bullets.

"Man! I feel alive again. My stress is all gone."

"We should have gone easy on the Kazakh side. I hope we were not too hard on them."

"They have been living under pressure by the Chinese border forces all along. This is the only way that they'll fight like a madman."

It was said that the most belligerent people in the world were the Cossacks, the Tatars, and the Kazakhs. The Russians of the 17th century did not even look at the Central Asian side based on the Ural Mountains because of the hostile Kazakhs. The defense bases built to the east of the Ural Mountains to stop the invasion of the Kazakh people had become what were now southern Russian cities.

"This suits us. We try hard to become the duke and baron, but I feel suffocated. It's great to be able to relieve stress. This is also beneficial for the border guards. We just trained them to be stronger."

"Jeez, Karajan would love to hear that. You know how much she's proud to be a nobleman."

"Let's do this on a regular basis to warm ourselves up from now on, or we can take advantage of the ring's ability to rob a bank or something."

"What? Rob a bank?"

"That's what I'm saying, man."

"Just hold on. There's just one place in Almaty that's tailored to your request."

"What's that?"

"The presidential villa is in Almaty."

"What does the president's villa have to do with the bank?"

"That's where his secret money is hidden."

***

The border area between Kazakhstan and China had been a place of dispute since the Soviet era. At that time there were pretty fierce battles, and after independence, it remained in tension for a while.

However, China's unrequited love began when large-scale oilfields were discovered in Kazakhstan. China, which needed oil, put down the border issue, which had been going on for decades. With the Xinjiang Uyghur people at the forefront, China had been putting much effort to keep economic exchanges in the border areas and build a relationship with Kazakhstan. However, the place where Youngho and Jong-il stirred up was, unfortunately, a place that had often been damaged by the border zoning issue before then. It was now impossible to cover it up as another accidental incident because it had provoked old hostile feelings.

"Jeez, I guess we opened a can of worms."

"I guess so. The fire's not ceasing even now. Sine we attacked the support unit as well, it's become a bigger issue."

After the night the two left the border area, Kazakhstan's newspapers and broadcasting companies made a huge fuss about the border dispute. They were furious about China's action that provoked their old feelings. Media outlets urged to cut off exchanges with China and strengthen the military force at the border area. It was because the attack caused dozens of casualties and dead people.

The Chinese side also strongly protested that it was only accidental, but the Kazakhs were not going to believe it. The world press also speculated that China must have started it first.

Whether it was accidental or not, the situation was getting worse.

After waiting two more days, Youngho and Jong-il went to the border again. Since the Kazakh press broadcasted the disputed area on a map, they went to those places to stir up more things. This time, they attacked regardless of circumstances. It was intended to stimulate the pride of soldiers on both sides.

On the first day, military leaders came forward on TV to confirm it was an accidental shoot-out caused by soldiers, who were confused by the sudden situation, but after the second incident, it was clear that it was intentional.

"Now, they have nothing to blame. The world press will move too, right?"

"Well, China has touched Kazakhstan, which is like a Russian subjugation country. This is bound to be sensitive. Freelance journalists' favorite storyline is war."

"Now let's visit one more place and withdraw."

"Where?"

"You said we can rob the president's villa."

"Are you insane? How dare you think about robbing his villa in this situation?"

"What about it? Isn't this the perfect opportunity? Let's just check and see how much money he has. Let's just make sure if he's a tax thief who sucked people's blood or a real nationalist. I want to see how much he collected to give to his daughters."

"What's going to happen after we made that sure?"

"We shouldn't forgive him. We can't support such a person as our president."

"You know, the person who's in charge of his assets there is a Koryoin. He's the president's, right-hand man. I don't want to hurt him."

"Why do you care about such a rotten man? He is protecting the president's money that was robbed from the Kazakh people. He should be punished too. Are you going to forgive a murder just because he's a Koryoin?"

"Maybe he was doing it to protect the Koryoin people. It's something we'll never know."

"So, you don't want to do this?"

"Unless we have a decent plan."

Since there was an emergency at the border, the police must have been alerted too. It was a big adventure when they robbed the president's villa in a situation like this.

***

Jong-il whistled as he was staring up at the president's villa in Almaty.

It was indeed a jaw-dropping sight.

"This is a villa? It's rather a castle."

"This is smaller than the President's Palace in Astana."

"Yeah, that place is just beyond this world."

The President's Palace in Astana was 80 meters tall and was decorated with marbles all over the building. It was said that a Turkish architectural company was in charge of building the place. Since it was built for the president for life, it was indeed quite spectacular.

"Are you sure that the Koryoin property manager went to Astana?"

"Yep. Our agents made sure of it. Don't worry."

"That's a relief."

"He's not protecting this place. It's the security guards."

"Did you get the trucks ready?"

"Two are waiting for our call."

"Great."

The president had sent ten tons of gold bars to the autonomous state. This meant that he had much more than that hidden somewhere, which must be either his villa or the Presidential Palace, or it could be both.

So, 25 tons of two dump trucks were ready. Youngho was ready to fill them all up with the president's belongings before taking off.

After checking that no one was watching, the two instantly climbed over the wall around the villa. There were watchdogs in the blind spots of the security cameras, so they quickly struck them to take them down. It seemed the security was quite tight.

"These dogs look like black leopards, and not regular dogs."

"Hey, let's take care of the central control center, first."

"There are not many security guards. I guess they are being sloppy because their boss is not here."

"Well, with those high walls, I bet they never had invaders before."

"Takedown anyone you see, even sleeping guards."

It did not take them ten minutes to defeat all of the security guards of the villa. After disabling all of the security equipment, they began navigating through the villa.

"I bet he stored heavy gold bars in his basement since they would have to be moved with forklifts and trucks."

"There were lamps leading downstairs on the right side of the front door."

Traditionally, valuables were kept in a safe. However, as gold bars were heavy, a sturdy warehouse where forklifts could go in was the best place to store them.

"Since we have a lot of time now, let's look everywhere thoroughly. I wonder what he's hiding here that needs security this tight."

"This must not be clean wealth that the public shouldn't find out. Let's take all of them and use them for a greater purpose."

"Wait a minute. Those paintings on the wall look expensive."

There were antique-looking paintings hung all over the hallways and stairways. Youngho did not really know about arts, but if they were real, they could cost millions of dollars.

"They must be fake. Who displays expensive paintings outside?"

"Hey, we all know the president is rich. I'm going to take them all."

"Oh, just leave them alone. What are you going to do with old paintings anyway?"

"I'll maybe sell them to Eriksson. A genuine painting of a well-known artist can cost millions of dollars."

"Whatever. I'll go to the basement while you do your thing here."

Despite Jong-il's telling-off, Youngho carefully removed dozens of paintings on the wall.

Since the president was filthy rich, his paintings were likely to be genuine.

After Youngho finished taking off the paintings, he went up to the second floor expecting to find even more valuable things.