Chapter 73.1: Discussing the Arrest Plan
Jiang Xia didn’t care that the wall behind her was covered in dirt. She leaned back against it and lowered her voice.
“I finally made it out of there!”
“You really did go behind enemy lines all by yourself.”
Chen Dong patted her shoulder reassuringly. He could well imagine how difficult it must have been.
“Couldn’t have been easy in there, huh?”
“A bunch of violent criminals running an illegal gambling operation. What wouldn’t they do?”
Remembering the screams she’d heard just before leaving, Jiang Xia shook her head.
“They caught someone cheating just now and chopped off one of his fingers right there. I saw things were getting bad, so I took advantage of the chaos and slipped out.”
“Damn!”
Hearing this, Chen Dong immediately held up a small mirror attached to a wooden stick, using it to check the entrance from a distance. Seeing that no one had come out yet, he shook his head.
“Those people are vicious. They chopped off his finger and still didn’t let him go. I doubt that finger can be reattached now.”
“Personally, I think chopping off a finger is too lenient.”
Jiang Xia had absolutely no sympathy for gambling addicts.
“People like that deserve to have both their legs broken.”
In many cases, gambling addicts could cause far more harm than serious criminals. They dragged their own blood relatives into hell with them, one after another. Ren Xuefang, whose identity Jiang Xia was currently using, was a living example. Her bastard of a father had borrowed money to gamble when his wife was eight months pregnant, racking up yet another mountain of debt. As a result, her mother had been forced to return to work on the fifth day after giving birth. All the illnesses she suffered from now were the result of years of exhausting labor.
Fortunately, her children had grown up. They could now join forces to give the scumbag father a well-deserved beating whenever he came crawling back for money. At least they wouldn’t have to keep letting him bleed them dry, and they finally had something to look forward to.
“Can’t say I disagree.”
Chen Dong nodded in agreement, then asked, “By the way, Jiang Xia, are you completely out of there now? Can you head straight back to the bureau?”
“No. I can’t go back just yet.”
Jiang Xia shook her head.
“It wasn’t easy for them to find someone like me. They’re not going to let me go that easily. They’ll definitely come looking for me again.”
Most people would have found this situation troublesome, but Jiang Xia actually thought it was a good thing.
“With them vouching for me, I can wander around other vegetable markets without anyone suspecting me.”
“Let’s not waste any more time chatting.”
Having caught her breath, Jiang Xia stood up and lightly brushed the dirt off her clothes.
“Where are Captain Feng and the others? I need to sketch these people as soon as possible.”
“Go straight ahead, turn left, and it’s the third house. Captain Liang and the others are inside.”
Chen Dong reminded her, “Be careful.”
“Mm. You be careful too, Brother Chen.”
Jiang Xia hurried to the house Chen Dong had mentioned and successfully met up with Captain Liang.
Captain Liang was drawing a map of the area surrounding the gambling den.
Ever since they had located the den yesterday, he hadn’t been idle. He had immediately begun setting up surveillance around it.
Since there were people keeping watch outside the gambling den, Captain Liang didn’t want to station too many plainclothes officers nearby and risk alerting the gamblers. Instead, he had found a house in a suitable location. Its roof was flat, and the family living there could be trusted not to tip anyone off. He and the other officers took turns watching the area through binoculars from the rooftop.
It was now the height of midsummer, and the sun was more scorching than the needles in Granny Rong’s hands. Even with something draped over themselves to conceal their silhouettes, their skin still got so badly sunburned that it turned dark red and began peeling. Their clothes were soaked with sweat, clinging to their chests and backs.
Looking at Captain Liang’s reddened arms and hands, Jiang Xia couldn’t help feeling a deep sense of respect.
Their work was every bit as grueling as hers!
After sketching Brother Hu, his associates, and the unfamiliar new faces, and explaining their identities to Captain Liang, Jiang Xia’s assignment was complete.
Her responsibility was only to identify their appearances and general backgrounds. Their real names, daily movements, home addresses, and other details that would make arrests easier were not her concern. Other fellow officers would take over that part of the investigation.
After eating, Jiang Xia rested for a while, avoiding the blazing midday sun. Then she went back out to play the part of a street loafer—or rather, to continue her undercover work.
Over the next few days, Jiang Xia ran all over the city.
She visited every vegetable-market street corner she could find—at intersections, in front of hospitals, and around schools.
This time, Jiang Xia wasn’t quite as lucky. She didn’t manage to find any other gathering places, so she could only ask around on the outskirts. Fortunately, pickpockets were fairly familiar with these gangs. As long as she managed to strike up a conversation with one pickpocket, she could usually find out the gang’s size and name. If she was lucky enough to encounter the whole group out and about, she could memorize every single member.
During those few days when Jiang Xia continued gathering information under Ren Xuefang’s identity, Sister Lan really did send people to look for her again. Fortunately, Jiang Xia was quick to slip away and wasn’t caught.
There was another minor problem: news traveled quickly among pickpockets, too. As Jiang Xia went around asking questions under the pretense of looking for ways to make money, quite a few people came to know about her.
After all, someone whose family was so poor they could barely afford to eat, yet who still wanted to become a pickpocket despite being unable to steal anything, would eventually start to seem suspicious.
To maintain her cover, Jiang Xia came up with a rather creative—or rather, shameless—solution in the later stages of her undercover work. She made a sign claiming that her father was seriously ill and began begging for money.
It worked. The big shots who came to check on her didn’t suspect a thing.
The only downside was that, apparently, even begging for alms required paying protection money to the local gangsters these days. If you didn’t pay, they’d simply rob you!
Well, that was perfect. Thanks to that little robbery, she now had a perfectly good excuse to move somewhere else. Hehe.
After spending six or seven days visiting all the remaining vegetable markets, Jiang Xia finally brought her undercover stint to an end.
＊
Municipal Public Security Bureau
Inside the large conference room.
The wall that had previously been bare on the opposite side of the conference table was now completely covered with portraits. There were nearly four hundred of them, packed so tightly together that they couldn’t all fit on even half the wall. Two large blackboards had to be brought in and placed on either side to accommodate the rest.
The people seated around the conference table were even more impressive: Director Lin, Deputy Director Zhou, and the heads of the Criminal Investigation, Traffic Police, Narcotics, and Armed Police divisions, followed by the various squad leaders.
At this meeting, where even the lowest-ranking attendees were squad leaders, Jiang Xia—a mere ordinary police officer—not only had a seat but was sitting directly beside Captain Duan, even farther forward than her own section chief.
Yet no one raised any objections.
There was no mystery as to why. Every single person on that wall had been sketched by her. Three-quarters of the gang leaders had been identified and confirmed by her undercover work at the gambling den and her investigations at various other locations. She had even thrown in information on several additional criminal gangs for good measure.
In other words, she had single-handedly completed work that would have taken more than a hundred officers at the bureau at least a month. Who would dare overlook her?
No one would dare, indeed. Everyone was looking at the portraits covering the wall, occasionally stealing glances at Jiang Xia.
One person had identified so many criminals in just a week. What an outstanding officer! She was incredibly capable!
Even Jiang Xia felt a strong sense of accomplishment as she looked at the wall.
These were all the fruits of her labor!
Director Lin arrived right on time and took her seat. She set down her teacup and opened her notebook.
Hearing the movement, Jiang Xia turned her head slightly to look at the director.
This was a rare sight: a woman serving as the bureau’s director.
From the rank of detachment commander upward, deputy directors and directors generally no longer handled frontline matters. Besides, they worked on different floors, so Jiang Xia had previously done little more than catch glimpses of her. This was the first time she’d been this close to her.
The director was no longer young. Silver strands were scattered through her short hair, but age had done nothing to diminish her formidable presence. Every gesture and movement carried the calm composure of someone who had weathered countless storms.
Recalling the stories she’d heard about the woman, Jiang Xia silently gave her a thumbs-up.
This woman was a real powerhouse, too.
She was practically an old-school veteran who’d been there since the beginning. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, she’d joined the Young Pioneers. Later, she’d served as a militia captain. After the founding of the People’s Republic, she’d taken part in the campaign to suppress bandits in Shandong. According to the stories, she’d even ventured alone into a bandit stronghold to gather intelligence. The largest gang she’d investigated had more than a thousand members. During the operation to wipe them out, she’d been shot twice, and one bullet had nearly hit her heart.
Compared with that, Jiang Xia’s four hundred or so criminals probably wouldn’t even rank among the director’s most impressive achievements.
But the harm these criminals caused was in no way inferior to that of bandits.
Director Lin took the seat of honor on the right side of the conference table. Sensing someone’s gaze, she looked up and met Jiang Xia’s eyes. Recognizing the young officer who had uncovered so many leads, she gave a faint smile and an almost imperceptible nod before turning her attention back to the meeting.
“Everyone’s here. Let’s begin. Feng Zhengming, give us an update on the situation.”
“Understood, Director Lin.”
Feng Zhengming immediately acknowledged her.
As the officer who had first investigated the case, he carried a thick notebook and quickly walked to the front of the room.
“Leaders, this case is very different from the kinds of criminal cases we commonly encounter. It isn’t traditional robbery. Rather, these are special criminal gangs that prey on vegetable vendors. They use violence and intimidation as their foundation, disguising their extortion with seemingly legitimate fees such as sanitation charges and stall rental fees. In reality, they forcibly take most of the vendors’ lawful business earnings and manipulate vegetable prices, driving them upward. Their methods bear a striking resemblance to those of the criminal gangs that operated before the founding of the People’s Republic.
“At present, there are forty-one locations throughout the city where vegetable vendors gather. Every single one is subject to extortion by these criminal gangs. Thanks to Comrade Jiang’s extensive undercover work and the efforts of our other officers, we’ve identified a total of eighteen gangs, with a combined membership of 261 people.
“Each gang’s organizational structure consists of one leader, a group of core members responsible for dealing with anyone who refuses to comply and fighting over territory, and five to ten or even more peripheral members who collect fees at the vegetable markets every day.
“Their methods are exceptionally vicious. If a vendor doesn’t pay enough or dares to offer even the slightest resistance, they’ll be beaten severely at best. At worst, they’ll face private acts of retaliation. Even local police officers who attempt to regulate these markets are subjected to threats and retaliation.
“Take Brother Hu, the most powerful of these eighteen gangs, as an example. His real name is Duan Qinhu. Since the second half of 1981, he has been forcibly charging farmers exorbitant fees. One farmer, Wei Yanshun, refused to pay. He was immediately beaten so badly that his left eyeball ruptured, leaving him permanently blind.
“There’s also a farmer named Sun Jiatai. He and his two brothers joined forces to resist. In response, Duan Qinhu brought his men and broke Sun’s right leg. Sun Jiatai refused to accept this and reported the incident to the police. But Duan Qinhu then brought his men back and broke his brothers’ legs as well. Terrified, Sun had no choice but to go to the police station and withdraw his complaint.”
“Besides exploiting and b*llying farmers, Duan Qinhu has also been expanding his territory by swallowing up neighboring vegetable markets. He’s been involved in several private brawls, stabbing Li Yongzhang, the former leader of the Dengfeng Road gang, and leaving him seriously injured. Zeng Jianjun, meanwhile, suffered permanent disability in his left hand, among other incidents.”
At this point, Feng Zhengming paused briefly before adding, “These are just a few of the cases we’ve managed to gather evidence for so far, and in which the victims’ families have been willing to speak up. We still can’t determine the full extent of their crimes.”
“So the old b*llies have returned.”
Director Lin’s expression grew stern. Her voice was sharp as she struck the table hard with her pen.
“We’ve allowed this sort of thing to grow right under our noses, and it’s resulted in so many cases of serious injury and permanent disability. Every one of you here, myself included, needs to reflect seriously on this!”
The heavy tapping seemed to strike everyone’s heart. No one said a word.
The gangs had already grown to this scale before they were discovered. There was no denying that the bureau had noticed them far too late.
But this was, after all, a meeting to discuss arrests, not a meeting to assign blame. Having made her point, Director Lin didn’t dwell on it. Instead, she turned to Feng Zhengming and asked the most pressing question:
“Have we confirmed the identities and home addresses of all these people?”
“We’re still short on manpower,” Feng Zhengming replied.
“So far, we’ve confirmed the identities and addresses of the gang leaders, core members, and most of the peripheral members. However, there are still several dozen whose addresses we haven’t been able to establish, since they’re essentially drifters with no fixed residence.”
Director Lin fell silent, considering the situation.
After a moment, she spoke.
“That should be enough.”
“Once the main offenders have been brought to justice, these peripheral members will just be a scattered bunch. They won’t be able to cause much trouble. We can arrest them later.”
As she spoke, she looked up at the portraits on the other two blackboards.
“I see there are far more than two hundred people on these walls. Who are all the others?”
Feng Zhengming glanced at Jiang Xia.
“Those are pickpockets and people who handle stolen goods whom Comrade Jiang happened to discover during her investigation. She sketched them all as well.”
The squad leaders and division commanders present already knew about this, but hearing Feng Zhengming say it aloud still made them turn toward Jiang Xia in unison.
She really could draw, couldn’t she?!
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