Empire of the Ring

The Communist Party of China’s National People’s Congress announced its results both at home and abroad.

More than half of the Central Military Commission members had been replaced.

On the surface, it looked like a big change, but that was not true on the inside.

The foreign policy that came out of the meeting was to continue its stance so far, and the somewhat unfamiliar announcement that it would become a responsible member of the international community only drew attention.

It was an indication that foreign policy would be somewhat more flexible from now on, but Western media were interpreting it as a remark with the trade war with the U.S. in mind.

On the other hand, the Chinese government expressed its willingness to speed up the One Belt One Road business.

But there was no mention of Kazakhstan, which was currently in dispute with the country.

The Intelligence Department led by Park Jong-il interpreted the move as an attempt to maintain a hostile relationship with Kazakhstan, which was a stumbling block to the business.

Many interpretations were divided over this result, but the only conclusion that could come out was that China would never change as long as the current regime was in power, which Youngho thought was a shame.

Youngho had some hopes in the National People’s Congress, but it seemed the Chinese government would remain arrogant. Moreover, it deliberately ignored the dispute with Kazakhstan and failed to make a single word about Xinjiang Uyghur and Tibet.

If so, Youngho did not want to end it nicely either.

“Should we provide more firepower to Xinjiang Uyghur and Tibet?”

Perhaps after reading Youngho’s thoughts, Park Jong-il brought Xinjiang Uyghur and Tibet out of nowhere.

“Yes, and I intend to start hunting the Chinese fleet again in the Indian Ocean.”

“When are you going to deploy the Royal Bodyguards and mercenaries?”

“The Royal Bodyguards will be sent at the last minute when either side’s independence looks certain. Michael agreed that it’s effective to send mercenaries in at the moment. The cost will be borne by the United States.”

The subsidiary of Zeynep Security Service, the PMC, was a company that acted on behalf of war-related affairs such as direct combat, intelligence activities, logistical support, and military exercises. In one word, it was a modern version of a mercenary.

Former Korean special forces were the main employees, and recently, Russian mafias joined.

So far, it had been active in Syria and Afghanistan, starting with the U.S. military radar base in Greenland.

Rather than direct combat, it had served as military support and protection for U.S. troops.

It was funny, but the U.S. hired private companies to protect its soldiers. The reason was that it would cost too much if regular soldiers get hurt or killed, so it was using civilian-military companies to prevent them from getting hurt in non-combat tasks.

It was a case in which a civilian-military company guarded regular soldiers, in a way, a very reasonable way of thinking. Nothing could be better than this as a way to maximize combat power in case of troop deployment to dangerous areas.

In addition, the U.S. was actively utilizing the private military company to target certain regions as it could reduce the political burden.

Likewise, from Kazakhstan’s point of view, it was desirable to send a civilian-military company rather than to have a political burden by sending the Royal Bodyguards to Xinjiang Uyghur and Tibet.

That was why the Kazakh leadership wanted to send a civilian-military company to those places.

Kazakhstan seemed to be at war by making money because the U.S. CIA said it would pay for the cost.

***

When Youngho called in Cha In-soo, who was in charge of Zeynep Security Service and its subsidiary company, he hurriedly appeared in his office.

The look on his face seemed to want to play on the battlefield at any moment, but Youngho drew the line quickly.

“Throw away the idea of crossing the Tian Shan Mountains in the first place.”

Cha In-soo flinched at Youngho’s words.

Then Park Jong-il, who was also expecting some fun, showed a long face.

“Are you saying we shouldn’t even go watch how the military company soldiers fight in the field?”

“Are you in your 20s? How many kids do you have? And you still want to go to a place like that? Besides, you’re already busy ordering operations here.”

“I’m afraid the mafia members would cause trouble.”

Cha In-soo made a lame excuse.

Would not mafia soldiers know that they might die if they did not follow orders on the battlefield?

They only became mercenaries to make money, but their own lives were precious to them as they were to other soldiers.

“Well, then we should take them out of this operation. If you think the soldiers who had been training so far are out of control, they’re not qualified.”

At Youngho’s words, Cha In-soo groaned and buried his hips on the sofa.

His desire to travel through the battlefield seemed to be strong.

“Though the mafia is rough…”

In-soo admitted that the mafia soldiers were controllable as opposed to what he just insisted.

“Do you still want to shoot that much? You are in your 40s.”

“Just know that my mind is always in my 20s. When I roll with the young trainees every day, my blood springs up.”

Currently, there were more than 500 mercenaries belonging to the private military company run by Cha In-soo.

The number included only regular employees. The company often hired temporary workers as needed, so it was easy to collect 1,000 people in a single phone call.

In other words, there were many young people who wanted to work in private military companies. It was because if they suffered for a short while in a rough environment, they could easily make enough to last a year or two.

Of course, they were making money on their life’s security, but even temporary workers were treated properly by the company, not considering them as bullet baits.

“First of all, we should send 200 people each to Xinjiang Uyghur and Tibet.”

“Can’t I send temporary mercenaries?”

It meant subcontracting to other private military companies.

In-soo thought it was a waste to send his employees to a dangerous place because he had put a lot of effort into training them.

“It’s to help the independence movement. There is also a security reason. We might have spies or lose important information. We can outsource later if everything’s settled down.”

“What’s the main mission?”

“Our priorities are logistical and intelligence jobs. If necessary, we can also take on military drills for local militia there.”

He looked relieved to hear that his soldiers would not be participating in battles.

However, it would not be so easy to carry out intelligence operations against the tight boundaries of the Chinese military and police.

***

Although sending only 200 mercenaries in the wide Xinjiang Uyghur and Tibet seemed to be hopeless, it was wrong to think so as the force of civilian-military company was unimaginable.

It was because each mercenary was like a human that each mercenary unit could take down a squadron of the regular army. They were as strong as French Foreign Legion as most of whom were from special forces, and they had always remained at their best with constant training.

They, whose bodies were property, used only state-of-the-art personal equipment.

Their teamwork was also extraordinary because they were trained to trust their comrades to increase the survival rate.

If one mercenary was assigned to a group of 20 local militiamen each, armed independence groups would be as good as having wings.

Although the mission was limited to logistics and intelligence work, there were always variables in reality.

There would always be obstacles along the way.

Even if they wanted to supply weapons to the independence groups, they might have to fight against Chinese troops, which would greatly confuse the Chinese military.

If an organization was stronger than the armed independence groups, would the Chinese military be able to deal with it?

Armed fighting intensified in Xinjiang Uyghur and Tibet as In-soo’s civilian-military company intervened and the supply line was open.

Previously, supplies such as weapons were delivered to the armed forces in a pre-modern way, but now, groundbreaking transportation methods were mobilized when the civilian-military company joined.

It used drones, light aircrafts, and sometimes they just dropped weapons from the sky using parachutes.

In the process, some supplies were damaged or lost, but they did not even blink because of their abundant financial resources since the U.S. was paying for the whole cost.

As the supply went smoothly, the morale of the local militias skyrocketed.

The local fighters were inspired by the fact that Kazakhstan, which was the same ethnic group, and Western countries stepped up to help their independence.

It was not a lonely struggle for independence, but an independence struggle supported by powerful countries.

Hopes for independence were rising.

As a result, there was a flood of people trying to enter the militia.

Cha In-soo and Cho Chul-hwan asked to do military drills in Tibet and Xinjiang Uyghur.

It was difficult to digest the trainees in Afghanistan because there were more than thousands of applicants who wanted to join the militia.

“Then why don’t you just teach them how to handle guns locally and give them executive training in Afghanistan?”

“Would a few months of executive training be enough? If we send inadequately trained soldiers, they’ll have nothing but friction with local militias.”

“But wouldn’t it be better to have at least some executive training?”

“I’m thinking of training the local militia by the private military company. It’s a bit of a burden to send the Royal Bodyguards.”

“Is there a good place for training? They’d have to have a place to fire guns at least, but what if the Chinese military finds out?”

“They have to go into the depths of the Tian Shan Mountains. What other choice do they have? There should be a place to use as a training ground in the huge mountain range.”

“Okay, that’s up to you. What are you going to do with the issue of integrating armed independence and armed groups?”

“They’ve been following well so far without any friction, so I don’t want you to bother with it. Independence comes first.”

“It’s a very important matter. It can ruin everything at the very last minute.”

Uyghurs’ armed independence forces had been operating separately by several groups.

The problem was that extremely radical Islamic forces were the main force, so they could be a problem in the future. Otherwise, it would be as if having potential terrorists on your side.