Empire of the Ring

Youngho gathered his friends, some mid-aged leaders of Serbian Village, the team leaders of the security crews, and Kim Ilkwon as well.

After hearing Youngho’s concern, some nodded and some showed serious faces.

“So, you’re saying we should send the people to Kazakhstan or Germany for a while?”

“Okay. The war has already begun. We can’t leave our families in a dangerous place where we don’t know what’ll happen. Also, we won’t be able to do anything properly if there are people to take care of.”

Everyone agreed to Youngho’s opinion.

There would be nothing to worry about if the war went on only at the battlefront, but hearing that Armenia would be sending their special forces to the city, they had to come up with a special measure.

Thankfully, the residential town at Arirang Farm in Kazakhstan was almost at completion and it could take in all of the Serbian descendants from Azerbaijan. Even without houses, they would be able to hold in yurts since they had lived rough lives.

The leaders of Serbian Village also welcomed the idea, saying that the Serbian descendants and the new immigrants would be able to have time to get closer. Since they were separated to different farms from the beginning, they were not able to learn about each other.

Kim Ilkwon’s family at Charles farm agreed on going to Arirang Hotel in South Ossetia for now. Ilkwon had been visiting South Ossetia because of the hotel work and since South Ossetia was a small, quiet country.

It seemed that his family would feel comfortable there since they were still not fully accustomed to the liberal system and had been stressed living with others in Azerbaijan. Living in South Ossetia would be like having a break from newness for them since the country was poor and had similar lifestyles as in North Korea.

Fatima and Sangchun’s parents would be going to Yunsuh’s place in Frankfurt and Insoo’s family and some other security crews would be staying at Arirang Hotel in Frankfurt. It was lucky that Youngho had bought the hotel and wine distribution store building in Frankfurt ahead of time. It was as if he had expected these things would happen in the future.

Because Yunsuh’s place had six rooms and it was sized about 3560 sq. ft., it had plenty of room for a few families to live in.

As for Karajan, she insisted to live in Baku no matter what. Therefore, she was now going to stay in Arirang Hotel in the city.

Youngho rented several cruise ships and used The Arirang to transport all of the Serbian descendants and their belongings to Arirang Farm.

Kim Chun would be taking care of them well from now on.

For the week after the big decision was made, Zeynep Farm and the ranch were hectic with people moving out. After sending Fatima’s group to Frankfurt last, Youngho was fagged out and tired as if he had had war already.

Youngho was outrageous that he had to separate families that were supposed to be together. Although the old people, women, and children left the farm and ranch, many young and middle-aged men who could work and fight were left and operating the wine factory, ranch, and the mines along with other hired workers at the farm. Because they were relieved now that they had sent their families to a safer place, their production rate increased.

It would be difficult for the enemy’s special forces to intrude Zeynep Farm and the Charles farm since they were close to the urban area. However, the ranch, where Serbian Village was, would be more easy to seize since it was adjacent to the main line of the Caucasus Mountain Range.

Any gunshots fired or battles they had at the ranch would not be heard and known from the outside world since it was located in a remote place. So, people were guarding the ranch as if they were at a battlefront.

Armed with rifles, groups of three guards patrolled around the ranch or were on ambush duty hiding in burrows.

Any shepherds or miners also carried rifles too.

At the gate of Zeynep Farm and the ranch, each were placed an armored vehicle and a machine gun. Other five armored vehicles and two multiple rocket launchers were secretly sent to the farm in Kazakhstan on a freighter.

Because Arirang Farm in Atyrau had a gigantic surface area, it needed mobile armored vehicles in order to patrol around the farm.

If the situation occurs where Youngho would have to use multiple rocket launchers at Zeynep Farm and the ranch, that meant grand-scale troops had approached. Then, Youngho would have to abandon the farm and the ranch since they would be helpless before the regular army of Armenia. Since he already had another base at Kazakhstan, there was no need to risk many people’s lives to defend the farm and the ranch unless he had a high chance of winning.

***

The ranch was now like a main room for the Serbian descendants, meaning that they knew any hiding spots and details of the map of the ranch. The descendants and security crews who knew about all the blind spaces of the ranch became a team and found effective security points to hide around.

The ranch was built as a fortress which is hard to invade if several spots were defended well, but the enemies were specially trained forces. To defend the ranch, the security crews who had served in Korean Navy special forces, U.D.T. Unit, which was also recognized by the US Navy, were all getting ready. Their tactic was to be seen as defenseless. Once Armenia’s special forces arrived and came to the ranch off guard where no one was protecting it, they would be trapped by the Serbian descendants and the security crews.

Hong Sungki, who was thirty years old, was a recruit of the security company.

He used to work at a top-ten Korean security company that belonged to a large corporation and entered Zeynep Security Service through his friend who had been bragging about a global security company. He wanted to live overseas and applied to the company and he was accepted immediately.

He thought that speaking English would be enough, but since he needed to learn Azerbaijani, he was staying at Zeynep Farm learning the language. However, he was suddenly placed as a team leader because of the war situation. He was bitter that he had become like a mercenary but he had to endure it due to the company’s high yearly salary that was not even dreamable in Korea.

It had been three days since he had been watching in a burrow at the Western side of the ranch with two other Serbian descendants. The burrow was almost like a bunker and three people could sit down with ease. Since there was no news that the enemies had invaded the place, he was only waiting for his shift to be over. His heart was already in the lodging. After the watching duty was over, he would be patrolling around the ranch and would be able to rest in his bed.

In his watery eyes due to yawning, some figures were spotted. There was an hour left until the next team comes for rotation, so he rubbed his eyes. The figures’ movements were obvious. It was people dressed in unknown camouflage attires. They were slowly approaching the ranch, keeping a certain distance from each other. He spotted about twenty people roughly. They must be Armenian special forces since the Azerbaijani army could not be training in here. His hair stood on end.

In fear of his voice being heard by them, he tapped his headset to give a Morse signal. He remembered the battle rules when he was given the assignment.

When enemies were approaching in quiet, he was supposed to shoot without hesitating. It was because the enemies would be shooting anyone who spotted them in order to prevent their exposure.

He signaled to the two Serbian lads to slip the safety catch and assigned each other’s targets. When the enemies had approached them within fifty meters of distance, shots were fired from the three watchers’ muzzles.

Hong Sungki fired three aimed shots and then began to shoot them randomly on automatic mode. Since three were shooting at different directions, they had enough angles.

From unexpected fires, five or six enemies fell on the ground and others hid behind trees and rocks. Not knowing where the bullets were coming from, they shot at everywhere. Hong Sungki shot them one by one with aimed shots.

If it was in the night time, the enemies might have been able to guess where the bullets came from by the sparks from the muzzles, but it was not dark yet.

Hong Sungki felt bad that he did not have a sniper rifle with him. As he changed the magazine of his gun for the fifth time, he stopped his motion. It was because he heard a moving armored vehicle.

With a thunderous roar, a voice said that it was the blue force on his headset.

Soon after, a heavy machine gun noise echoed in the whole mountain.

***

“How many people are captured?”

“Twenty-six, so far. There are four with serious injuries. They’re bleeding heavily. I think we should transfer them to the hospital right away.”

“Are there any casualties from our side?”

“Some are saying their fingers hurt because it’s been so long since they had actually pulled the trigger.”

Since he was joking, it seemed that the security team was in high spirits.

“Make sure to hide the armored vehicle at the gate unseen. I’ll be bringing some Azerbaijani military officials soon. Also, give first aid to the wounded ones. we’re going to have to interrogate them.”

“Got that. I’m also going to hide all of the rifles in the basement storage.”

“Wait. Also, tell people to stop patrolling around but hide in the burrows. The enemy force might have snipers out. Make sure everyone put on the helmets and bulletproof vests.”

When Youngho was giving directions to the security crew team leader, Jongil was making a call to the capital security division.

After ending the call, he also called Sevan to inform him about the situation.

Soon after, the ranch would be surrounded by military and police.

On the way to the ranch, soldiers were getting off sandbags from military trucks. It seemed that they would be making a temporary defensive position.

“Look at them. They have to make those in advance. What good is it if they make that after the damage was done?”

“They had no idea that the special forces were invading the city.”

“Still. They should’ve prepared the basics when they’re at war.”

Youngho did not inform the government that special forces were being sent. He did not have any excuse if people asked where he got the information and he also wanted to see how the Azerbaijani military would react but it was below his expectations.

“Now that I think of it, our country is so well-prepared for war.”

“It’s because North Korea keeps saying that it’s going to make South Korea a sea of fire.”

“What about this place? They frequently have battles at the border and have casualties. I don’t know why people are so peaceful.”

Because there were frequent battles, people here might have been numbed by the danger. That might be why they were not making a fuss even if they were at war now.

“You are Hong Sungki?”

“Yes, boss.”

“You’ve done a great job. There could’ve been many casualties but you prevented that. You can speak English and you’re not married yet…”

While reading his profile, Youngho looked at Hong Sungki carefully. He used to work in a huge corporation and had many experiences working in a team.

“I am learning Azerbaijani now.”

“You’re older and you have experiences. You’d be promoted to a team leader when this is all over. You’ll be in charge of The Arirang’s security. Is this clear?”

“Thank you, Boss. I’ll do my best.”

A security crew beside Youngho who was listening to their conversation made a comment.

“Hey! Red Pepper. You need to treat us drinks this weekend.”

“What? Red Pepper?”

“Boss. His name is Hong Sungki*, everyone calls him that.”

***

The news of Armenian special forces invading the city was enough to shock the international society since it meant that Armenia had declared total war.

It was different from bombing other’s military camp on fighters. Unconventional warfare was considered the same as terrorism because it accompanied destroying facilities and civilians that were irrelevant from war.

The Armenian special forces did not appear only at Serbian Village, they also invaded in three other places at Baku’s countryside and fierce battles were going on.

Many casualties occurred from both sides. About forty soldiers were caught near Serbian Village, which meant that there were more people still hiding or who had escaped through the mountain range.

The watchers of Serbian Village inspected any nearby places that could be a hideout. During the investigation, they found remnants of the special forces and had a shootout, which ended up killing seven people from the enemy’s side.

However, it was not just the opponent’s side that was damaged. From the battle, two of the security crews and five of Serbian descendants were wounded. They were all wearing bulletproof vests, so their lives were not at risk but Youngho felt guilty for their wounds.

“Jongil. We can’t leave it like this. What if anyone dies from bullets? I can’t handle that.”

“Why do those scoundrels all gather around the ranch? Okay, let’s take care of them on our own. Are we taking Insoo too?”

“We need to leave one here.”

“Should we cross the Armenian border?”

“No, let’s first take care of the remnants. We need to interrogate them first and decide for the future.”

At least one person who could use the ring’s power and freely go in and out of the mountains had to be at the ranch in order to act fast in emergencies.

“Don’t we need Dragunov sniper rifle?”

“Sure. We’ll be showing a grim reaper to anyone we spot.”

Youngho could not allow any more casualties from his people, especially when it was not their fight. They were either Koreans or Serbian descendants but were being attacked by Armenia only because they lived in Azerbaijan. Also, for now, he did not wish to abandon Azerbaijan where he has been considering as his second home. It was now home for many more people too. He was ready to strike his enemies to protect his people.

*Hong Sungki- ‘Hong’ has a meaning of red and ‘Sungki’ has a meaning of genitals. Since ‘pepper’ in Korean also can mean ‘male genitals’, Hong Sungki’s nickname had become red pepper (red male genitals)