This city also has an impressive construction engineering expert—Ye Liqing.
Zhaoyi Valley gradually became acquainted with Ye Liqing through his father's connections and gained his trust to serve as the head of the National Civil Defense, Emergency Situations and Disaster Consequences Elimination Committee.
After the disintegration of the former Soviet Union, Russia split into multiple political factions. These factions were dissatisfied with Ye Liqing and formed a strong opposition force within the legislative body and the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation.
The highest power institution of the Russian Federation, dubbed "White House," was named for its office location in the "White House," also known as the "White House faction."
Ye Liqing's office was located in the Kremlin, referred to as the "Kremlin faction."
The two factions clashed fiercely over policy formulation and personnel appointments.
In September 1993, Ye Liqing announced the dismissal of Vice-President Lutskoy's position, but this command was vetoed by the legislative body.
Frustrated, Ye Liqing signed an order to form the Russian Federation Council to replace the Supreme Soviet.
However, the Supreme Soviet declared Ye Liqing's decision a coup, while the Federal Constitutional Court declared Ye Liqing unconstitutional and dismissed him from his presidential position.
The situation became chaotic as a large number of people flooded to the "White House" to defend the Supreme Soviet, including some members of the Guard, who carried numerous firearms.
Therefore, Ye Liqing took this as an excuse to order military police to surround the "White House."
Before long, clashes broke out between the "White House" supporters and riot police. Tens of thousands held a rally, breaking through the riot police barriers and marching to the White House.
Although the Ministry of Internal Affairs dispatched special police forces, the Russian military seemed to have a tradition of not using force against civilians.
Instead of attacking the demonstrators, they were disarmed.
The protesters used the seized weapons to attack the TV station, which infuriated Ye Liqing, who demanded the Ministry of Defense chief Grachov to send out troops to attack the "White House" multiple times by phone.
Unexpectedly, the attitude was vague, and they were unwilling to act.
At this critical moment, Zhaoyi Valley steadfastly supported Ye Liqing, loading two trucks with firearms and ammunition from his own arsenal to the city hall.
Finally, the military deployed over 20 tanks to shell the "White House," and the opposition quickly surrendered, avoiding a larger bloody conflict.
After this event, Zhaoyi Valley was awarded the rank of General, indicating how crucial his support was to Ye Liqing.
In 1999, Ye Liqing suddenly decided to hand over power, and the chosen successor was Emperor Pu.
Emperor Pu gained high approval ratings for handling the Chechen issue, but the succession process was not smooth.
Because the forces opposing Ye Liqing were exceedingly strong.
Before the presidential election was the national Duma election, which is similar to the parliament of Western countries.
The Duma election is seen as a rehearsal for the presidential election, and failure in the Duma election makes winning the presidential election difficult. Even if successful, future governance would face significant restrictions.
Unfortunately, the three largest factions in the national Duma were mainly opposed to Ye Liqing, which negatively impacted Emperor Pu's succession.
Ye Liqing was down to his last lifeline according to Russian law, whereby half the Duma representation was elected by local constituencies, where many local leaders were cultivated by Ye Liqing and supported him.
The Kremlin thus planned to organize local forces and form a new political alliance.
Soon, the Kremlin contacted 39 governors, established the United Russia Party, and announced its collaboration with "Our Home—Russia" to jointly participate in the Duma election.
The leader the alliance put forward was none other than Zhaoyi Valley.
In other words, while the cook joined the "St. Petersburg Gang" after Emperor Pu ascended the throne through friends' introduction and became Emperor Pu's close friend, Zhaoyi Valley could be said to be among the original shareholders at the core of Emperor Pu's power.
It shows how risky it is for the cook to oppose someone like Zhaoyi Valley.
Earlier, when Song Heping met the cook in Moscow, he knew he was doing quite well and had reached a high level.
Yet, he did not anticipate such extent, such height, reaching power struggles at the heart of Russian interests.
No matter how smart, despite having participated in numerous life-and-death battles, Song Heping still revered the power struggle game.
Nothing beats those professional politicians in being more cunning, sinister, and ruthless.
Clearly, the cook has fallen into Zhaoyi Valley's trap this time, and getting involved in this matter also poses immense risk.
Zhaoyi Valley constantly monitors Utekin's every move, and there might already be GRU's secret operative in Cairo waiting for his appearance.
Scrolling further down were the conflicts and disagreements between the cook and Zhaoyi Valley gathered by Henry.
Reading through, Song Heping saw only two words—interest.
The catalyst was the cook's smelly-as-a-latrine-stone personality.
Under previous minister Anatoly, the cook secured contracts for Russian Army food supply, earning a fortune.
This makes it understandable why the cook could mobilize GRU assistance for Ferrari's rescue and live such a lavish lifestyle in Moscow, even disdaining dividends from "musician" defense shares.
However, Shoygu's sudden emergence signaled the end of the cook's good days.
He took over the minister's position at the end of last year, initiating the purge of former Anatoly's forces from within, including classifying the cook as one of Anatoly's people.
Zhaoyi Valley first annulled the cook's food supply contract.
Since "cutting one's financial path is like killing one's parents," the cook held a grudge against Shoygu.
Earlier this year, Russia intervened in the Siria war. Due to various sensitive reasons, the Russian Army did not heavily enter Siria; most tough battles were executed by Wagner mercenaries, led by the cook.
The cook led Wagner into Siria, essentially wanting to prove his prowess in front of Emperor Pu and snag more contracts.
But his flamboyant personality meant that he would boast about his Wagner mercenaries' victories publicly, invariably claiming they achieved victory independently without significant Russian Army support, displaying irresponsible mockery towards regular troops, and embarrassing the newly appointed Zhaoyi Valley.
That's how the conflict was fostered.
No wonder Zhaoyi Valley wanted to eliminate the cook.
Their relationship seems at daggers drawn now.
This operation appears incredibly tricky.
But thinking further is pointless now.
Siria's war status isn't precisely available. He must meet Utekin to obtain accurate information.
Everything must wait until he meets the former GRU Major and Wagner co-founder Utekin to make the most accurate judgment and devise the most efficient rescue plan.
"Jiang Feng, keep an eye on things; I'll catch a nap,"
Song Heping closed the laptop, returned it to Jiang Feng, and leaned back in the seat to nap.
He was truly exhausted.
Sen Republic's affairs have been tumultuous, and this month has been filled with incident after incident, without a good night's rest.
Soon, he fell asleep.
In his dreams, Song Heping returned home, reliving the third year of service where he had his first home visit...
By the small river at the village entrance, his parents and younger siblings waited, he wore a military uniform and carried a large rucksack, waving excitedly from a distance…
The waving hand heard someone call from behind.
He suddenly woke up.
"Old squad leader! Wake up! We've arrived!"
Jiang Feng was shaking his arm continuously.
"Huh…"
He opened his eyes drowsily and asked, "Where are we?"
"Cairo!"
Jiang Feng raised his hand to check the time and said, "You've been sleeping for four hours!"