Servant of the People in Kyiv

After a while, the hostess named Sasha brought over a plate of roast suckling pig and a pot of borscht, and placed pickled cucumbers and cheese, cream, pies, lard fried chicken, milk soup, kvass, etc., and a table full of authentic Soviet cuisine was ready.

Kartov asked Sasha to sit between him and Simonenko, and then they talked and joked with each other. After Kartov picked up the first glass of wine, everyone began to eat and drink formally.

Halfway through the meal, Kartov and Simonenko burped and put down their knives and forks. Instead, they talked intimately with Sasha and laughed from time to time.

Grigory looked at them with a smile and said nothing, because the two secretaries didn't even look at him. They were very cold even to Secretary Haniyev and hardly said a few words to him.

Haniyev did not feel that he was being treated coldly. He knew that he could participate in this circle because the two leaders trusted him. Facing a delicate beauty, it was better to be intimate with her than to have an awkward chat with a subordinate of the same sex.

Haniyev understood this very well, so he just provided good service, poured wine and tea for the two, and added a few jokes from time to time to keep the atmosphere warm and interesting.

After a long time, about an hour later, the two secretaries were drunk and started to hit Sasha from time to time. Simonenko just held her hand, but Kartov hugged her and bit her hard twice.

It was the first time Haniyev had witnessed such a straightforward scene. He hurriedly said with a smile while the two men were still conscious, "Secretaries, can you please have Grigori put the local specialties I brought you in your car first?"

Kartov threw the car keys to Haniyev, who handed them to Grigory. Then Grigory went out and came back after about ten minutes.

After eating and drinking, it was already past nine o'clock in the evening, and both Haniyev and Grigory were a little tired.

Sasha finally broke free from the two drunks and led Haniyev and Grigory to a room. He said, "You rest here tonight. The toilet is outside."

Haniyev said thank you, and Sasha approached him, and with a drunken smell, he whispered in Haniyev's ear: "Don't go out casually at night. You won't be able to sleep if you hear any noise..."

After saying that, Sasha walked out with a giggle. Grigori raised his eyebrows and said, "This woman is really good. It would be very comfortable to be her lover."

Haniyev chuckled and said, "She's after money. I bet Kartov can't take the fox fur away."

Grigory also chuckled, then took off his coat and lay down on the bed to rest.

There were three beds in the room, and Haniyev chose the cleanest one among the remaining two and slept on it.

Grigory drank a lot of wine, and Haniyev also drank kvass and black tea. In the second half of the night, Haniyev felt that his bladder was about to explode, so he hurriedly got up and went to the toilet in his slippers.

After walking into the living room, he vaguely heard applause and panting. He was already stiff from holding his urine, and when he heard the sound, he swallowed hard. He hurried across the corridor in front of the bedroom door, satisfied his bladder needs, and then returned to his room to continue sleeping.

What disappointed Haniyev was that even though his eyes were dry and heavy, he would start to daydream as soon as he closed them, and he could not calm down no matter what.

It was not until the next morning that Haniyev fell into a drowsy sleep, and when he woke up it was already past ten in the morning.

He walked out of the room but saw Sasha sitting in the living room reading a book. She smiled and said, "You're awake."

"Where are Secretary Simonenko and Secretary Kartov?"

"They left an hour ago. Let me thank you for your specialties and hospitality on their behalf."

Haniyev nodded and looked around, as if looking for something.

Sasha said sympathetically, "Your subordinate went to the bank in Chernobyl to withdraw money. You spent 200 rubles on dinner and drinks last night. Your subordinate said you didn't bring any money, and he only had a little over 80 rubles, so he had to go and withdraw money to pay me."

"200 rubles? My monthly salary is only 95 rubles. Last night's meal cost me more than two months' salary?"

Haniyev couldn't help but click his tongue at the sky-high price of yesterday's meal, but then he remembered that the price of alcohol was already inflated, and besides, for a meal in a place like this, a lot of the 200 rubles would probably be kickbacks from Kartov.

"You're the secretary of the forest farm. Can you still spend your own salary on a meal? Your forest farm has entertainment expenses. Even if not, you can use other expenses. Isn't the person you brought with you the office director? I think he understands it very well."

Sasha was used to big scenes, and he said it jokingly, seeming a little surprised that Haniyev was making a fuss.

Haniyev also came from an agency, so of course he understood these routines, which was why he brought Grigory along to handle these things. So he nodded and stopped talking.

Sasha seemed very interested in Haniyev. He pointed to the teapot on the table and said, "It would be nice to drink some black tea."

After Haniyev sat down, Sasha poured him a cup of hot tea. After drinking two sips, he felt much better in his stomach, and then Haniyev started chatting with Sasha.

Chapter 014 The Struggle Intensifies

Sasha answered all of Haniyev's questions without hiding anything, including her romantic relationship with Kartov and her relationships with other individuals.

Haniyev was not interested in Sasha's love history. He wanted to know where the wine, cigarettes and meat dishes that Sasha had served last night came from. After all, in a society that maintained a supply system, it would be difficult for a peasant woman in an ordinary forest farm without a male head to purchase such a complete range of supplies even if she had money.

Sasha told Haniyev somewhat boastfully that her warehouse contained more than a dozen boxes of military canned food, bacon, alcohol, cigarettes and other supplies, which were given to her by Kartov and Simonenko, or obtained through their connections.

These valuable supplies are of course not free. Whoever provides the supplies will be given a corresponding share after consumption. That is why leaders are willing to continuously provide Sasha with supplies that are in short supply even in state-owned supermarkets.

Haniyev was a little surprised after hearing this. He thought that if Sasha's supplies contained things that were in short supply in state-owned stores, then that meant that the scarce supplies that should have been in state-owned stores were not delivered to the stores at all, but instead went into Sasha's room.

Haniyev jokingly raised the question. Sasha chuckled, fiddling with his teacup, and said, "You're quite smart. Most of the scarce supplies have been sent to private restaurants, and mine is one of them."

"Aren't all the military canned goods from the meat processing plant supposed to be sent to the Afghan front? How did you get some? They say Afghanistan has nothing, and our Soviet soldiers rely entirely on domestic supplies. Aren't you reselling military supplies?"

"Isn't Chernobyl also a front line against NATO?"

Sasha drummed her fingers on the table, her face livid. "My damn ex-husband lost his life in Afghanistan. Who in Moscow cares about the soldiers on the front lines? They only care about their money and women."

When Haniyev heard about Sasha's sad story, he picked up the teacup and took a big sip, then praised her cooking skills.

About an hour later, the sound of a car approaching was heard outside the door. A moment later, there was a knock on the back door. Sasha went out to open the door, and then took Grigory into the room.

Grigory took out his wallet, found two hundred rubles and gave them to Sasha.

Sasha smiled as he ordered, then sniffed and said, "The smell of money is always so tempting. You can leave now. Of course, if you want to have lunch here, you can, I can give you a discount."

Haniyev hurriedly stood up and said goodbye to Grigory and left.

After getting in the car, Grigory took out a document and handed it to Haniyev, saying with admiration: "This was given to me by Secretary Kartov when I returned to the city just now. Secretary, you are really amazing. You were able to use your connections to get the State Forestry Committee to directly order the forest farms in our area to conduct spring hunting exercises.

In order to implement the state's opinions and arrangements, Secretary Kartov asked me to go to the Forestry Commission's warehouse after withdrawing the money to get three boxes of bullets and ten RPG rockets, which are now in the back of our car.

Secretary, after this spring hunting exercise is over, I think the entire forest ranger militia company will obey your orders, and Korchagin will no longer dare to act arrogantly."

Haniyev flipped through the documents in his hand and smiled, saying, "After all, I have worked in the State Forestry Committee for nearly seven years and have good relationships with many leaders. Moreover, our forest farm is a large forest farm registered in the state, so it is not difficult to ask them to approve a document separately.

Now that we have the action plan, we can go back and get to work!

As for Korchagin, hmm, the region's First Secretary, Chekhov, will also send an inspection team to our forest farm to thoroughly investigate Korchagin's problems. We can go back and close the net now."

As the first member of the team to turn to Haniyev, Grigory has not only begun to participate in many of Haniyev's deployments, but has also been relied upon by Haniyev as his right-hand man in recent days because of his good ability to do things.

After hearing Haniyev's words about closing the net, Grigory was delighted. He felt that if Korchagin fell, Secretary Haniyev might try his best to ensure that he replaced him. Even if he couldn't take his place, he should be able to improve his ranking and division of labor. He suddenly felt very eager.

"Don't worry, Secretary Haniyev. If Korchagin doesn't behave, I will arrange a good show during the spring hunting exercises according to your instructions."

As the car slowly left the village and drove onto the wide cement road, Haniyev whispered, "Did you remind Kartov and Secretary Simonenko this morning about the specialties we gave her? Are they satisfied?"

Grigory smirked and said, "You guessed right. Kartov gave Sasha his hide, and Simonenko's hide was also left at Sasha's house. So when I asked the two secretaries about it, they were a little embarrassed, and then I gave them the two extra hides I had in the car."

"This time, I quietly stuffed the fox fur into their car on the way back to the city. Secretary Simonenko and Secretary Kartov kept praising you. I think by now you've become a very important person in the eyes of those two secretaries."

Haniyev nodded and whispered, "You should always leave room for yourself when doing anything. It never hurts to prepare more when giving gifts."

Grigory smiled admiringly and said, "You're right. I've learned a lot from you."

The two set out at around 10:30 in the morning, and by the time the car returned to the Gaopodi State Forest Farm, it was already 1:00 p.m.

We drove the car directly to the Gaopo Village Forest Farm office building. It was called a building, but it was actually just a two-and-a-half-story house made of concrete and wood.

After getting off the car, Grigory and Haniyev went to the kitchen to eat something, and then Haniyev returned to the room to rest for a while. Other matters such as distributing bullets and rockets, conveying documents, etc. were left to Grigory to arrange time and meetings.

After Haniyev had slept for twenty minutes, he had just gotten up and sat down in the outer office to prepare some tea on the heating stove when Grigory suddenly came in with a serious expression.

Today is Saturday, and there is no work to do. But looking at Grigory's expression, Haniyev thought that perhaps Korchagin had done something during the more than one day when he was away from home.

"what happened?"

"Comrade Belanov, the acting company commander, was dismissed yesterday afternoon by Comrade Korchagin at a meeting of the leadership."

"what!"

Haniyev glared and said, "How dare he dismiss Belanov without asking for my permission when I'm not home? Go and get him here."

Grigory said in a deep voice, "Belanov is only the acting company commander. He doesn't have the official document of the committee to appoint him. He can relieve Belanov of his temporary position as the first deputy director while you are away if he has a good reason."

Haniyev took a few deep breaths, suppressed his anger, sat down, and asked, "Does he have any legitimate reasons?"

"It was said that just after we left yesterday morning, a fight broke out among the militia during training. Actually, it wasn't a fight at all. It was just that Korchagin had his men provoke the fight, and five people were seriously injured.

The incident has become a big deal and has even been known to the neighboring private forest farm and fire brigade, which has had a bad impact on our forest farm. Korchagin's dismissal of Belanov did not violate political rules, and he may have deliberately spread the news to Chernobyl. Belanov was promoted by you, and this will make the regional leaders question your ability.

What's even more suspicious is that he just dismissed Belanov yesterday afternoon. This afternoon, an hour before we returned to the forest farm, Ivanov returned and took the forest ranger militia company directly to training. I think they must have colluded..."

Chapter 015 Spring Hunting

Haniyev was silent for a moment, watching the red flames of the coal in the stove tremble constantly, and many thoughts in his mind also rose and fell.

After a long moment, Haniyev snorted coldly, "I was wondering why Korchagin was so obedient. It turns out he's been waiting for me to go to the regional meeting on Friday, so he can take control of the militia company again while I'm away."

Grigory frowned and asked, "What should we do? The spring felling is about to begin. If you don't keep the militia company under your control, Korchagin might do something wrong during the felling, and that would delay the important work and affect your future."

Haniyev smiled slightly and asked, "Where is Korchagin now?"

"He and Ivanov took people to training together. I guess they were also discussing how to not cooperate with you."

"Go call Belanov. Although he's no longer the acting company commander, he's still the deputy company commander. He has to participate in the spring hunting exercises, right? I'll talk to him. If he can command the strength of a platoon, we can put on a show with Korchagin."

Grigory left, and more than half an hour later Belanov came into the office.

Haniyev didn't greet him and asked directly: "Do you want to be a real company commander?"

"Of course."

Belanov stood up and saluted, saying, "If you, Mr. Secretary, can help me become the company commander, I will be willing to give you everything I have!"

Seeing Belanov's serious expression, Haniyev knew that he had been dismissed from the position of acting company commander by Korchagin, and he must have been holding back his anger for a long time, and he was even more eager for the position of company commander.

Motioning Belanov to sit down, Haniyev smiled and said, "The regional party committee will soon send an investigation team to our forest farm to thoroughly investigate Korchagin's case. However, in order to completely bring down Korchagin and his followers, I think we need to use the spring hunting exercises to smear Korchagin."

Belanov was very happy and asked, "Secretary, what do you want me to do?"

"If you go to the militia company to perform the duties of deputy company commander, tell me the truth, how many people can you arrange to mobilize?"

"At least fifteen... thirteen people will obey my orders."

Haniyev nodded and said, "Thirteen will be enough. During the spring hunting exercises, I'll have your militia company go deep into the forest to eliminate the wild animals. But you must bring back those thirteen trusted men in advance. You must also arrange for a few of the forestry workers who have the strongest grievances against Korchagin to cause trouble. Then, when things get out of hand and you need to intervene, you can control those workers. I'm only confident in entrusting this task to you."

Belanov scratched his head in annoyance. "But they haven't dared to provoke Korchagin for so many years. Now he's taken me down. Even if I ask them to cause trouble, those employees won't listen to me."

Haniyev smiled and said, "You can tell them that the regional party committee has sent an investigation team. I think they will be very brave after hearing this news."

"Haha, if that's the case, they'll come after Korchagin for revenge. I'm afraid they'll beat him to death."

"I'm worried about the same thing, that's why I need you here so things don't get out of control."

……

The two men talked about many details, and then Belanov left with the red-headed document from the State Forestry Committee given to him by Haniyev. This red-headed document was a document approved by the State Forestry Committee to carry out spring hunting activities in the Chernobyl region. Although it did not specify that it was specifically approved for the Gaopodi State Forest Farm, the Gaopodi State Forest Farm was the only one in the region that had the conditions to carry out spring hunting operations.

Haniyev asked Belanov to take this document and do ideological work on the employees, which was to send them a signal that Secretary Haniyev had strong connections and could get the state to directly arrange work for the forest farm. Then it would be natural for Secretary Haniyev to ask the higher authorities to investigate Korchagin.

Haniyev has always known that Korchagin is a bully among the forestry workers and no one dares to offend him. If the investigation team really comes, the workers don't know whether they can really bring him to justice. They are worried that they will be retaliated against if they fail to bring Korchagin down, so they may not report him, and therefore they cannot really get rid of Korchagin.

Therefore, Haniyev wanted to arrange a conflict within a controllable range in advance, and then use this conflict to let all the employees of the forest farm see that he, the new secretary, is willing to uphold justice for everyone. At the same time, he also wanted to let them see that Korchagin is just a paper tiger, so that people will lose their fear of Korchagin's gang, so that they will rush to report and sue after the investigation team arrives.

After Haniyev arranged everything, a day and a half passed in a flash.

It was Monday morning, and Haniyev held a team meeting to inform them of the work arranged by the regional committee last Friday and the amount of spring logging. He also showed everyone the notice from the State Forestry Committee asking the forest farm to organize spring hunting to ensure a safe working environment, and decided that the forest ranger militia company would conduct a spring hunting exercise tomorrow morning, Tuesday, to go deep into the forest to clear and drive away foxes, badgers, wolves, bears and other wild animals.

Korchagin has regained his former glory in recent days and has spoken more firmly in meetings. Although Ivanov is grateful for Haniyev's help and care, when it comes to his own rights, he still stands with Korchagin and has been agreeing with and supporting Korchagin, resulting in Korchagin taking away half of Haniyev's voice in the team meeting.

Several deputy directors privately approached Haniyev to offer their opinions, but Haniyev did not express his opinion and silently waited for Tuesday to come.

Tuesday, February 4, 1986, was cloudy with light fog.

At around 8 o'clock in the morning, Haniyev, Korchagin and other leaders of the state-owned forest farm arrived at the northernmost outpost to hold a mobilization meeting for the forest protection militia company's spring hunting exercise. After the speech, 120 militia soldiers took their guns and went deep into the forest, using a dragnet search to kill and drive away the beasts that had been hungry for a whole winter.

Leaders such as Haniyev and Korchagin also rode their horses back to the office building in Gaopo Village.

In order to make today's show a success, Haniyev deliberately scheduled an activity at 10 o'clock this morning to lead the team members to study the Party Constitution and the important speech of the General Secretary.

So after returning to the administrative building, since Ivanov would personally lead the team into the forest, the party class study group would still consist of seven people.

Just when Haniyev was criticizing American capitalism, sexual liberation, racial oppression and other issues with great enthusiasm, the conference room was suddenly pushed open, and seven or eight strong men rushed in.

Grigory stood up and shouted angrily: "Who are you? What are you going to do?"

"Director Grigori, please be quiet. Secretary Haniyev, please excuse us. We are here to see Director Korchagin."

The men looked unhappy. The sturdy man in his thirties, who was in the lead, glanced around the room and spotted Korchagin. He walked over, grabbed him by the collar, and glared at him, cursing, "Damn you, Korchagin! Return the disability pension you embezzled from my brother to us!"

Chapter 016: Fighting with both words and fists

Korchagin never imagined that one day he would be caught and threatened by employees in the conference room.

Facing a group of strong men glaring at each other, Korchagin did not feel fear, but instead felt subconsciously angry.