My Peninsula 2007

Chapter 429 Another Case

In the fourth floor of the main building of the Military Manpower Administration, on the far left side of the corridor in Singil-dong, Yeouido-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Ahn Yeo-song sat behind the only desk in the entire office, operating the computer on the desk with a blank expression.

At this moment, he was logging into an email account, his own NGN email account, and among the new emails, there was one that he had just received five minutes ago. The sender's email address was very familiar; it belonged to Jiang Xiuyuan's personal email account.

Beside An Rusong, Lin Ya'en stood quietly to the side, her hands resting on the armrests of An Rusong's chair, her upper body leaning forward, her eyes fixed on the computer screen, waiting for An Rusong to download the attachment of the new email in his inbox.

The new email attachment was huge, and the computer's internet speed was as slow as a snail. The progress of the file download icon was maddeningly slow. There was no way around it. These days, the South Korean government's attitude towards the internet is very similar to that of the Japanese government. Those rigid and conservative leaders have virtually no understanding of information technology. They cannot accept this new thing, and naturally, they cannot keep up with the forefront.

In an organization like the Military Affairs Agency, the internal network speed is incredibly slow. Not only that, but even the computers used for office work have shockingly low specifications.

Of course, with Lee Min-bo coming to power, and especially with the promulgation of policies to promote the development of internet technology, this situation will fundamentally change in the next few years. In this respect, South Korea is far superior to Japan.

In An Rusong's previous life, in the 20th year of the 21st century, the Japanese were still using old-fashioned things like floppy disks and fax machines.

"bell"

Just as the document was less than halfway through, the telephone on the table suddenly rang. Lin Ya'en, with her eyes on the computer monitor, reached out and grabbed the receiver from the direction of the sound.

"Hello, this is Lin Ya'en," she said casually as she held the phone to her ear.

The voice on the phone was a man's. An Rusong could hear the other person speaking, but he couldn't make out what they were saying.

“Mmm. I know, this was arranged by General Jin,” Lin Ya’en said as she listened to the phone call and slowly straightened up. After a moment, she leaned to the side and sat on the armrest of An Rusong’s chair.

The uniform skirt was a fitted design, with the hem quite tight. As she stood on tiptoe to sit on the armrest of the chair, the hem was pulled upwards and tightened around her upper mid-thigh.

"You don't need to know that much, just follow the procedures to complete the formalities for them." It was unclear who was on the phone, but it was clear that what they were talking about was related to Ruze and the others' military service procedures. Lin Ya'en's tone when she spoke to the other party didn't sound very polite either.

"Their English proficiency and ability to communicate smoothly with Americans are none of your business," Lin Ya'en said, switching the phone receiver to her other hand. "The mobilization order comes from Longshan Base. If you have any concerns, you can call the Joint Forces Command or the Joint Chiefs of Staff. You can even call the Deputy Commander of the Joint Forces Command or the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to report it. However, whatever you choose to do, their paperwork must be completed by noon today, OK?"

Hearing her say this, An Rusong shifted his gaze from her snow-white thighs to her face.

He was certain that the call was related to Ruze and his men's military service, because the Joint Forces Command and the Joint Chiefs of Staff were joint agencies of the ROK and US militaries, and the so-called attached ROK troops were directly commanded by these agencies. The reason Lin Ya'en mentioned the deputy commander of the Joint Forces Command was because South Koreans could only hold the position of deputy commander, while the commander was a pure American, and more specifically, the current candidate for commander was Thurman.

The call ended there, and just as An Rusong looked up, Lin Ya'en also moved the phone receiver away from her ear.

"The conscription of South Korean soldiers is the easiest in the entire military service system, but the treatment is the best," Lin Ya'en said with a smile as she put the phone back in its place and glanced at An Rusong. "So, everyone who is due for military service wants to take this route. As a result, over time, a business has emerged in this area, and it is quite lucrative."

Okay, she doesn't need to explain in detail anymore; An Rusong can figure out what's going on just by using his imagination.

Just as Lin Ya'en said, since there's a lucrative business involved, there must be a vested interest group. Now that Ru Ze and his two companions have suddenly jumped in, those who have made their fortunes from it naturally want to know what's going on.

Of course, these people wouldn't dare stop Ruze and his group from entering the Longshan base, unless they wanted to create a lot of trouble for themselves. Sure enough, Lin Ya'en immediately added, "You don't need to worry about them. Although those guys are greedy, they know what's important. Ruze and his group have a mobilization order from the Longshan base, so those guys don't dare to interfere. The reason they made this call is simply to test the waters."

She casually placed a hand on An Rusong's shoulder, leaned most of her body against him, and said, "You know, whether it's the military service office or anywhere else, it's not a monolithic entity. Everyone has their own little clique."

“Yes, I understand,” An Rusong nodded and said, “like groups like the One Heart Society, the Sharp Tongue Society, and the Acquaintance Society.”

Upon hearing this, Lin Ya'en quickly covered his mouth and scolded him, "Brother, this is the Military Affairs Office."

An Rusong smiled, pulled her hand off his mouth, and then looked back at the computer screen.

The file he was downloading was the one Jiang Xiuyuan had mentioned to him before. During their previous phone call, Jiang Xiuyuan hadn't explained things very clearly; An Rusong had only caught the gist of it.

According to Kang Soo-won, this morning, a close elder from her hometown came to Seoul, hoping that she could help file a lawsuit. The elder wanted to sue the 171st Infantry Brigade stationed in Yongin.

In the phone call, Jiang Xiuyuan mentioned that this elder relative of hers had a son of similar age who had joined the 171st Infantry Brigade last year. However, just a month and a half ago, Jiang Xiuyuan's elder relative received a death notice for her son, stating that the cause of death was sudden illness.

At the time, Jiang Xiuyuan's family rushed to Yongin City, hoping to see their son's body. However, when they arrived at the 171st Infantry Brigade's base, they found no body, only a jar of ashes. According to the brigade's personnel in charge of the matter, they cremated the body so quickly because the weather was getting warmer, and they were afraid the body would decompose.

At that time, Jiang Xiuyuan's elders did cause a scene at the 171st Infantry Brigade's base, but they had no evidence against the brigade and the cause of their son's sudden death from illness was fully documented in the autopsy report, so their actions were meaningless.

Most importantly, the tour group gave the family a generous sum of money and compensation, so the family stopped making trouble.

Logically, this matter should have ended here, but the problem is that just a week ago, the whole thing took a turn for the worse. Jiang Xiuyuan's elder received a package from an unknown address, and inside the package was a USB drive and a diary.

The diary belonged to the son of Jiang Xiuyuan's elders, and it recorded the fact that the deceased had suffered various forms of abuse during his less than one year of military service. In addition, the diary mentioned a girl named Pei Yina, who was the deceased's girlfriend and an active-duty nurse in his unit's medical corps.

Compared to the contents of the diary, what was stored on that USB drive was even more chilling.

The USB drive contained five videos. Four of them were recorded by someone while the deceased was being abused. The last video, however, showed four or five people beating the deceased and taking turns raping a woman. If there were no doubt, that woman was the deceased's girlfriend, Pei Yina.

Jiang Xiuyuan's elders and their family are honest and simple country folk with little worldly experience. They found a lawyer in their hometown, but after understanding what was going on, the lawyer refused to take their case, because everyone knows that this lawsuit would be very troublesome, but the final reward would not be very high.

Don't believe those stories on TV, like righteous lawyers risking their personal safety to fight against the powerful and wealthy, ultimately getting justice for their clients. Those stories are basically all lies.

The instinct to seek advantage and avoid harm is human nature, and no one in any profession is exempt. In a place like South Korea, where the military system is rife with incidents like soldier abuse and suicides, the consequences are far too numerous. Yet, looking back, has anyone truly received justice? Or rather, has any officer suspected of abusing soldiers been severely punished?
Most importantly, the injustice suffered by elders like Jiang Xiuyuan cannot be justified in local courts or procuratorates because this matter occurred within the military system. Even if an investigation is arranged, it should be conducted and tried by military courts and military procuratorates.

Unfortunately, whenever faced with similar scandals, the military system's first instinct is to "cover it up," reduce the impact of the scandal, and ideally, conceal the public's right to know, resolving it privately without anyone knowing.

(End of this chapter)