<h4>Chapter 434: Looking One Way and Rowing Another (2)</h4>


    “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 ce one more time.”


    “We’re done here. Let’s raid somepany 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-linemanders. 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 apany-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 amotion 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 rtionship. They were just ced there to monitor those trying to smuggle themselves into each country without going through border checkpoints. The two sides werepletely 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 be what were now southern Russian cities.


    “This suits us. We try hard to be 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 regr 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 ce in Almaty that’s tailored to your request.”


    “What’s that?”


    “The presidential vi is in Almaty.”


    “What does the president’s vi have to do with the bank?”


    “That’s where his secret money is hidden.”


    ***


    The border area between Kazakhstan and China had been a ce 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 whenrge-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 rtionship with Kazakhstan. However, the ce where Youngho and Jong-il stirred up was, unfortunately, a ce that had often been damaged by the border zoning issue before then. It was now impossible to cover it up as another idental 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 be a bigger issue.”


    After the night the two left the border area, Kazakhstan’s newspapers and broadcastingpanies 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 idental, but the Kazakhs were not going to believe it. The world press also spected that China must have started it first.


    Whether it was idental 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 ces to stir up more things. This time, they attacked regardless of circumstances. It was intended to stimte the pride of soldiers on both sides.


    On the first day, military leaders came forward on TV to confirm it was an idental 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 me. 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. Frence journalists’ favorite storyline is war.”


    “Now let’s visit one more ce and withdraw.”


    “Where?”


    “You said we can rob the president’s vi.”


    “Are you insane? How dare you think about robbing his vi 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 n.”


    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 vi in a situation like this.


    ***


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


    It was indeed a jaw-dropping sight.


    “This is a vi? It’s rather a castle.”


    “This is smaller than the President’s Pce in Astana.”


    “Yeah, that ce is just beyond this world.”


    The President’s Pce in Astana was 80 meters tall and was decorated with marbles all over the building. It was said that a Turkish architecturalpany was in charge of building the ce. Since it was built for the president for life, it was indeed quite spectacr.


    “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 ce. 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 vi or the Presidential Pce, 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 vi. 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 ck leopards, and not regr 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 vi. After disabling all of the security equipment, they began navigating through the vi.


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


    “There weremps 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 ce 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 dors.


    “They must be fake. Who disys 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 dors.”


    “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.