Empire of the Ring

Chapter 185: A Foreseen War (1)

It was revealed to the world that the cargo in the sunken French freighter were missiles.

Some freelance journalists who had been waiting at Batumi Port secretly dived and managed to get in the freighter under water. They were indeed very determined journalists since they were bold enough to get near the freighter slipping through the tight security and to enter the freighter in the water.

All of the scene they recorded was money, journalists would go anywhere even at disputed areas risking their lives and dared to stalk influential people around. Because of their efforts, the identity of the sunken freighter could be revealed very soon.

On the TV news, wooden boxes, head parts of missiles, and launcher vehicles filled the screen. Youngho unknowingly clapped as he was watching the TV in his living room.

He wanted to reward those journalists since even Russia or the United States had not been able to investigate the freighter until now. After this, Azerbaijani government would have a reason to pressure Armenia and would give commission to the mercenary company.

Azerbaijan was in an utter shock after the news was broadcasted.

The journalists had exaggerated the facts and reported that weapons of mass destruction that were enough to devastate the whole country of Azerbaijan was planned to be delivered to Armenia.

Since journalists often exaggerated facts it was understandable, but broadcasting companies were also echoing those reports as if they were true. It was as if those companies were expecting something to happen in Azerbaijan.

As if it was stepping up with the news reports, the Azerbaijani government had run the emergency system at the border. The government announced that it would not allow Armenia’s deception and preemptive attack since it did not know how many missiles from France had been delivered to Armenia until now.

The government declared war against Armenia and sent its army to the border hastily. It was not a scale of a typical shootout at the border because the Azerbaijani army had carried out a large-scale bombing on fighters to where many Armenian troops were located.

The TV news reported that several mechanized units had been destroyed. The Armenian army also fired cannonballs on tanks and self-propelled guns, but it was no match to the Azerbaijani army.

Jongil who was watching the news opened his mouth.

“Did you hear anything from the chapter?”

“I was told to standby for a while and it seems that Michael had recalled all agents residing in France. He’s going to give them a hard time.”

“That’s so obvious. Tell Sangchun to give them some wine since they’re going through a hard time because of us.”

Jongil laughed triumphantly. He had been envious of those agents who were located in the paradise-like place.

“Why don’t you ask Michael to relocate you to Paris? Who knows, he might accept your request since he’s in a good mood.”

“Don’t even mention it. Karajan’s going to kill me.”

“Phew, by the way, the war’s intensifying. It’s getting me worried.”

“If those missiles had fallen into their hands, we’d be in trouble by now. They’ll come to their senses when they’re beaten harshly once.”

Jongil was now making war critique.

“We should start moving soon. A freighter is hard to move from December.”

The whole region of Azerbaijan had been declared as restricted airspace, and so the sky route was blocked except for regular civil aircraft services. That was why Youngho was going to move gold bars on his freighter.

This time, he would be visiting Istanbul in a long time. The prices of daily necessities in Baku had skyrocketed due to the war, he was going to import some from Istanbul. On the way back, he would be giving those to Arirang Farm and bring several French bantam missiles from the farm’s storage.

This war did not look like it was going to end easily.

***

The streets of Istanbul were as crowded as before.

Even though there were frequent terrorisms happening and there was a suicide bombing a few days ago, which left twenty casualties, the city was still full of travelers as the world-famous tourism spot.

It has been such a long time since Youngho and Jongil saw Mustafa.

After meeting him, they drank together and hung out with each other.

Jongil’s tongue was tripping already, and he began to complain about Armenia.

“Brother, Armenia will fail if it kept going on like this. Tell Armenians in Turkey to stop sending money to their country. I’m saying because I’m truly worried.”

“As you all know, our country has gone through such a sad history. There is no country like Armenia that has more of its people residing overseas than the people living in the territory.”

Youngho could see why it was not fair for Armenian people. Their territory had been decreased to half of what they used to have and since many Armenians were deported outside the country, there were only three million people left in the country where there were seven million people living overseas.

During WWI, a million people were sacrificed, and it must have been devastating for the people. The country was landlocked, so even small purchases had to be made through other countries. Luckily, its relationship with Georgia was good, if there was no Georgia, the country would have been isolated.

“Brother, let’s quit saying complicated things and drink more. Jongil is just saying since he’s also frustrated.”

“You know... this will be like hitting a rock with an egg, right?”

It was such random words but Youngho could understand what he was saying.

“With its abundant underground resources, Azerbaijan will be going through rapid growth in the next few decades. It’s better for Armenia to mimic a permanently neutral country like Switzerland. Any further steps would be like hitting a rock with an egg as you said.”

Although Switzerland is a landlocked country surrounded by powerful nations such as Germany, France, and Italy, it was doing pretty well. Youngho thought that Switzerland must also have deep resentment like Armenia.

Looking at Mustafa who sighed, he also thought about his own country, Korea. It seemed that Korea also had a long way to go in order to survive amongst big and powerful nations.

He only came to Istanbul to buy some daily necessities but his heart became heavy.

“Dude, you should’ve stopped me! Ouch, my head! I swear that I’m going to change my last name if I drink with Park Jongil again.”

“You know that you always blame me after drinking well on your own?”

At the dock, Youngho, who was looking at the crane loading daily necessity boxes on the freighter, rubbed his head. He had drunk too much last night.

His worry about the war between Azerbaijan and Armenia was even burdened with thoughts for Korea and he eventually drank too much to let out the stress.

“Youngho, do you remember the nonsense you said at the hotel?”

“What? Did I make a mistake?”

“Dude. You grabbed me and said that we should buy an Aegis ship.”

“I guess I was out of my mind.”

“Phew, I almost stayed up all night thinking about where to hide that.”

“Hahaha...”

“Don’t laugh.”

“I thought about buying one and sending it to Korea if I made enough money, but now that I think of it after becoming sober, it’s not going to work. Where can we put it? At the Black Sea, or the Caspian Sea?”

At Youngho’s words, Jongil shut his mouth. He must have been beating his brain to find a way to hide the Aegis ship.

This was a true Jongil.

As Youngho was thinking that Jongil had gone smarter these days, he realized that he has been misguided.

***

As Youngho was looking at the pastoral scenery outside when passing the Volga-Don Canal, the captain looked for him.

“Boss, I’ve checked this already but they said you could sail during the winter too. As long as you have an icebreaker, you can pass the Volga-Baltic Waterway and reach the coastal waters of Finland.”

“Are you sure?”

Youngho pricked up his ears at the new information. He had not thought of this amazing route. If he used the Volga-Baltic Waterway, he could go to the Baltic Sea which was enclosed by Finland and from there he would be able to enter the Atlantic Ocean.

Of course, he could not use large vessels but what Youngho had ordered at Baku’s shipyard could pass the waterway as much as possible. If he did not have to pass the Mediterranean, he would be able to shorten the distance to get to Germany, the United Kingdom, and even to France.

“Jongil, we can go to the Baltic Sea with our ship! Then we’ll be right at the Atlantic!”

As Youngho got excited about the news, Jongil was apathetic. He shook his head.

“What’s wrong?”

“You haven’t heard that the Atlantic’s waves are stronger than the ones in the Pacific? Our ship is only a leaf in the Atlantic. We won’t stand a chance.”

Park Jongil, as usual, mentioned commonsensical problems to this kind of idea.

Youngho was excited to go to the Atlantic, but it would be a problem once his ship entered the ocean.

“Hmmm. We should go to Sweden or Norway for once.”

“What’s in there?”

“You said our ship is only a leaf. We need a bigger boat.”

“Okay, that’s an advisable thought. The ladies there must be beautiful, I’m going to read palms for them.”

Finally, Youngho had to hit his head to stop him from fooling around.

“Just think about which ship would be the most efficient for us. Stop thinking about girls with your smart brain but consider what we can buy from Germany, the United Kingdom, and even the United States for our people.”

Since Kazakhstan was landlocked, many materials were hard to find.

Youngho wanted to buy supplies, equipment, and materials from Western Europe and upgrade the Serbian immigrants’ lives in order to make the farm as a powerful country.

More immigrants would be coming to the farm in the coming Spring. If they were going to put down their roots and build lives for next generations, they would need good facilities and equipment along with a great education system.

The new immigrants would bring more teenagers and their education was a problem. Since it was impossible to make them commute three to four hours a day to schools in urban regions, an education system was needed at the farm.

If young generations could, with cutting-edge facilities, then one day the farm might be able to have Nobel prize winners.

This was what a small but powerful country, Youngho dreams of.

***

Jongil kept touching anti-tank missile launcher.

Although there were many Russian portable rocket launchers at Zeynep Farm, he wanted to take newer products.

“With two of Mistral ground-to-air missile launcher, we probably can destroy Armenia’s air power.”

“Do you think we’re at war with an elementary student? They must have their hidden cards too.”

“There’s no need for us to take the anti-tank missile launchers. Let’s leave them here for now and use them later for a more suitable occasion. The Azerbaijani army is not that weak, they’d brought all sorts of things from Israel.”

Azerbaijan and Israel had a special connection. Regardless of different religions, Israel and Azerbaijan were friendly to each other, that Israel had even considered using some of Azerbaijan’s territory when the nation was first established.

The Jewish family, Rothschild’s wealth had originated from Azerbaijan’s oil crude. That was why the Rothschild family helped the Azerbaijani government with supporting funds when the nation became independent.

Because of that history, Azerbaijan and Israel were as close as other brotherly nations, especially Azerbaijan’s air power was unbeatable with Israel’s support.

As The Arirang came to the Port of Baku, Cha Insoo rushed up on board.

“We’ve got a huge problem. Armenia is about to send their special forces to the city soon.”

“Who told you that?”

“Philip just called me. He said your satellite phone is not working.”

If special forces were going to invade in where the civilians resided, they must be determined to explode some important facilities or to abduct influential people. With the regular army at the battlefront and special forces that was specialized in unconventional warfare, the war would be a chaotic total war without front or behind. However, all of this could be just part of Armenia’s psychological warfare to get out of the corner.

Youngho’s head was filled with complicated thoughts and suddenly he felt like his head blacked out. Since it was his first time experiencing it, he could only support himself leaning on the railing on the ship. The ring’s signal had hit him most strongly than ever.

If the special forces unit was put in the middle of the city, Armenia would be determined to lose all of their soldiers since it was like going into the middle of the enemy camp. That was highly unlikely since special forces units are made with a lot of time and money. If the Armenian army wanted more soldiers to return alive, they would put them in safer places to increase the success rate.

The special forces would need a base in the outskirt of town or mountainous regions within the city to hide after launching an attack and to prepare for another. The weather was getting cold now and in order for them not to lose their soldiers’ strengths, they would definitely need to seize private houses.

The places that had the necessary and sufficient condition were Zeynep Farm and Serbian Village at the ranch. If they could seize those places, the soldiers would be able to eat and sleep and they would be free to move on with their operations.

These thoughts had hit Youngho’s head hard.

‘Could this be why the ring’s power had awakened me?’

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