Chapter 73.2: Discussing the Arrest Plan
Facing the scrutiny of so many senior officers, Jiang Xia remained completely calm. She didn’t feel the slightest bit guilty about adding to their workload.
They were already arresting so many people. Rounding up a few dozen pickpockets and fences along the way was hardly any extra trouble.
“It’s not a bad idea to clean up those elements at the same time.”
Director Lin had the same thought. Since they were already planning a major operation, they might as well take care of everything in one go.
She tapped her pen against the paper in front of her.
“Let’s hear your proposals for the arrests.”
“I think the best approach would be to make all the arrests simultaneously.”
Deputy Director Zhou picked up the discussion.
“We need to move quickly, preferably before they have any chance to react. Ideally, we should take them all down in one sweep.”
“I agree with Director Zhou’s suggestion.”
Captain Duan immediately chimed in.
“We should carry out the operation all in one day to avoid alerting them and giving anyone a chance to escape.”
“Besides, we have another advantage. These criminals enjoy gambling in large groups. If we catch them at the right time, we could take down at least a third of them in one go, which would save us a lot of manpower.”
“That won’t save us any manpower at all.”
Another detachment commander shook his head.
“According to the military principle of surrounding the enemy with five times their numbers before attacking, this gambling den alone can accommodate around 150 people at a time, most of them members of violent criminal gangs. Even if I cut that number in half, we’d still need around 400 officers to ensure we can take them down without a hitch. Add in the gang members scattered across the other locations, and I estimate we’d need at least a thousand officers to carry out all the arrests in a single day. Mobilizing that many people won’t be easy.”
“Mm.”
Director Lin nodded slightly.
With so many criminals involved, carrying out simultaneous arrests would indeed require that many officers.
After thinking it over, she asked, “How many personnel can each of you spare?”
“Our Armed Police Corps has 423 personnel in total. If the operation doesn’t take too long, we can spare 300 officers, but only for a maximum of two days. Any longer, and we’ll run into problems.”
“Our Criminal Investigation Division can spare thirty.”
“Narcotics can spare thirty as well.”
“Traffic Police can provide twenty.”
Jiang Xia silently added up the numbers, her brows drawing together slightly.
Good grief. They didn’t even have enough people to take down the gambling den itself!
“If we don’t draw personnel from the district bureaus and local police stations, we’ll definitely come up short.”
Captain Duan furrowed his brows as well.
“But the local police stations… I’m afraid that if we pull officers out of them, word will get around and these criminals will flee.”
He didn’t spell it out, but everyone understood what he meant.
Under the threats and inducements of these gangs, there was no guarantee that some local officers hadn’t switched sides and become their informants. If they summoned large numbers of local police officers at once, there was a very real possibility that undercover informants would slip into the operation. And if that happened…
After thinking for a moment, Feng Zhengming said, “We can still draw personnel from a small number of stations. The local officers I’ve been working with recently are trustworthy. We should be able to get around fifty people in total.”
Captain Gao began to worry. “That still leaves us more than five hundred officers short… Where are we supposed to find that many people?”
Large-scale personnel mobilizations relied primarily on officers from local police stations. If they couldn’t draw from those stations, there was practically nowhere else to turn!
Everyone was stumped.
Director Lin fell into thought.
She still felt that all the arrests had to happen simultaneously. After all, if they only raided the gambling den, it would take at least a full day just to arrest everyone and bring them back to the police station. The commotion would be so great that everyone nearby would hear about it. By then, the gang leaders who caught wind of the news would have long since disappeared.
Besides, police officers weren’t made of iron. From assembling and taking up positions to carrying out the arrests, the operation would take at least ten hours. There was no way they could finish one round of arrests and immediately move on to another without a break. That would exhaust everyone to the point of collapse.
They had to find more personnel.
But where else could they get them?
Her first thought was the military, but she quickly dismissed the idea.
The nearest garrison was away on military exercises. Its personnel weren’t around.
Where else could they get reinforcements?
Just as she was growing frustrated, Jiang Xia interlaced her fingers and cracked her knuckles before speaking up.
“What about the economic police? If I remember correctly, they have quite a few personnel. And since they’re stationed inside factories, they don’t have any dealings with these gangs.”
“Hm?”
Director Lin and Captain Duan immediately turned toward Jiang Xia.
That’s right! How had they forgotten about the economic police?!
It wasn’t that everyone present was forgetful. The main issue was that the economic police occupied a rather awkward position.
They were a product of a special period in history. Although they belonged to the Public Security Bureau and were indeed police officers, they worked inside state-owned factories and received their salaries and benefits from those factories. Even when the municipal bureau needed to manage them, it often didn’t contact the economic police directly. Instead, it went through the factory management.
Over time, although the municipal bureau verbally acknowledged them as police officers, people had subconsciously come to regard them as employees of state-owned factories. Naturally, no one had thought of mobilizing them for an arrest operation.
Jiang Xia, on the other hand, came from the post-millennium era and had never actually encountered economic police before. The impression they had left on her was simply too strong, so she had thought of them immediately.
“That might actually work.”
At a time like this, it didn’t matter what kind of police they were, as long as they could help make arrests. Captain Duan thought back to their numbers.
“They have quite a few people. If we mobilize them from the state-owned factories across the city, we could easily get five or six hundred officers!”
“The only concern is that they may lack experience with arrests.”
Captain Gao quickly added a qualification.
“We’d be better off pairing experienced officers with newcomers, assigning them to separate teams, and having our regular officers lead them during the arrests.”
“I think that’s a good idea.”
The head of the Traffic Police Detachment agreed.
“That would solve our manpower shortage in one stroke!”
“It could work.”
Deputy Director Zhou considered the logistics and pointed out another potential problem.
“Most of these economic police officers have hardly ever participated in arrests. Their sense of confidentiality probably isn’t very strong. We can’t simply notify them directly. It would be better to come up with a reason to bring them here first, then assign them to teams and send them out to make arrests as soon as they arrive.”
This would make the operation easier to execute while concealing its true purpose. It was a pretty good solution.
However, Director Lin still shook her head.
They were talking about five or six hundred people. What excuse could possibly justify suddenly summoning that many economic police officers? And the scale of the mobilization would be far too conspicuous. There was no way they could keep it under wraps.
“We can’t have everyone assemble at the municipal bureau. That would be far too conspicuous.”
Director Lin shook her head slightly.
“We’ll have to dispatch them separately.”
Deputy Director Zhou pondered for a moment. “In that case, we’ll need to assign each team its arrest targets in advance, then have them carry their orders and recruit personnel from the nearest locations.”
“Assigning the tasks won’t be difficult, but we’ll still need officers running around delivering the orders. What excuse should we give them?”
“How about… fire prevention awareness campaigns? It’s summer, after all.”
“That works. We organize fire prevention campaigns every year anyway.”
“Then let’s start assigning tasks. First, the most important target: the gambling den. We must seal off every intersection and establish surveillance around the neighboring buildings as well. We can divide the assault teams into several groups. Once they receive the signal, they’ll break through the doors from both sides and climb over the walls to enter and make the arrests.”
“We need to bring enough protective equipment. These people may be carrying weapons, including knives and clubs.”
“We’ll also need plenty of personnel to seal off the perimeter. They’ll definitely try to break through the cordon, especially at these locations. We need to pay extra attention there…”
“Let’s work out the number of officers for each team…”
Once everyone had reached an agreement, they quickly began discussing the deployment arrangements.
For Jiang Xia, however, this was a little beyond her expertise. She had trained in making arrests—in other words, the work of an assault team. She had never been involved in command or deployment. How was she supposed to know how to organize several hundred officers to surround and arrest the more than one hundred people at a gambling den?
At this point, she couldn’t even think of anything to contribute. Just following the discussion was already a struggle.
Why had a technical officer like her even been brought here to listen to all this?
“Pay attention.”
Noticing that Jiang Xia was writing more and more slowly, Captain Duan tapped her arm with his pen. Turning slightly toward her, he lowered his voice and offered a few words of advice.
“Large-scale arrest operations like this don’t come around often. There’s a lot of experience to be gained here. Write everything down. If there’s anything you don’t understand, ask your section chief when you get back. You might find yourself needing this knowledge someday.”
But I’m not going to be commanding anyone—wait!
Jiang Xia suddenly understood.
No wonder they’d brought an ordinary technical officer like her here to sit in on the meeting, even though they didn’t need her to explain anything.
They were grooming her as a future leader!
In that case, she’d better take good notes.
Although she wasn’t particularly interested in command and preferred solving cases through technical expertise, there was no harm in having more skills. Who knew? She might need this knowledge someday.
Jiang Xia immediately perked up and began taking notes, recording everything they discussed from beginning to end.
Unfortunately, once the meeting was over, they hadn’t assigned her any arrest duties at all. She wasn’t even given any interrogation work. Instead, they simply told her to rest at the bureau for two days and, once the arrests were completed, help receive members of the public who came to report crimes.
She liked that arrangement.
After spending so many consecutive days conducting surveillance, she could finally get some rest.
It took several hours to finish assigning all the tasks. At the end, Director Lin once again emphasized the importance of confidentiality before dismissing everyone to carry out their respective assignments.
＊
Zhouying Police Station
After putting down the telephone, Station Chief Wu looked completely different from his previous dejected self. His face was alight with excitement.
“Excellent! Headquarters is finally taking action!”
Deputy Chief Xu shot to his feet in surprise.
“Really?!”
“Really! We’ve even received our assignment. We’re going after those bastards! We can make our move tomorrow afternoon!”
“They specifically designated that time… Sounds like a coordinated crackdown?”
Deputy Chief Xu was quick-witted. He immediately understood what was happening.
“This means we finally won’t have to put up with those people’s b*llying anymore!”
“That’s right.”
Wang Xuguang was equally excited, but his happiness didn’t last long. His brows soon knitted together.
“But there are only three of us, and there are four of them. It’s not going to be easy to arrest them.”
“We’ll need to call in more people.”
Chief Wu paused, then picked up the telephone in his hand.
“I’ll ask Old Shen and the others whether they’ve recovered yet.”
…
The Gatehouse
Shen Huoda exchanged a few words on the phone before hanging up.
Chief Wu hadn’t said anything outright, but Shen had understood the hint. The municipal bureau was going to crack down on these people. Their station had already received its assignment, and they were waiting for him to join the arrests.
But Shen Huoda felt rather hesitant.
Who knew how thoroughly the municipal bureau would deal with these people? How long would they actually be locked up after being arrested? And what if they failed to catch everyone, or the sentences turned out to be too short? What would happen when those people got out?
He returned home with a heavy heart.
His daughter, who hadn’t been able to attend primary school these past few days, came rushing over and threw her arms around his leg, shaking it insistently.
“Daddy, I don’t want to stay cooped up at home anymore! I want to go outside and play!”
Shen Huoda crouched down and gently stroked his daughter’s little face.
“Be a good girl, Lele. We’ll go out again in a few days.”
“We won’t be able to go out even then.”
Lele pouted.
“There are so many bad people outside. Daddy, aren’t you a police officer? Why don’t you arrest them?”
Shen Huoda opened his mouth, but couldn’t find an answer.
“Go look at your textbooks. Stop bothering your father.”
His wife came over and shooed their daughter away. Then she looked up at Shen Huoda.
“I told you that job of yours was no good. The pay is lousy, and it’s so dangerous. You nearly… Why don’t you find a way to switch to another job?”
“That’s easy for you to say. Jobs are so hard to come by these days. How am I supposed to just change careers?”
Shen Huoda shook his head. He stared out the window, hesitated for a long while, and finally made up his mind.
He could avoid them for a while, but not forever. If these people were allowed to carry on, even if he quit being a police officer, he’d still have to endure their b*llying. He might as well face them now.
“I have something to take care of. I’m going out for a bit. You two stay home and don’t go outside.”
“Going out?” His wife immediately sensed something was wrong and demanded, “What are you going to do?”
Shen Huoda paused, but in the end decided to be honest.
“I… I’m going to the station.”
He stood there, waiting for his wife to scold him or burst into tears.
But she did neither.
After a moment of silence, she let out a long sigh and said only:
“Be careful.”
Shen Huoda stared at her in surprise.
“You’re not going to stop me?”
“Would I be able to stop you anyway?”
His wife finally lost her temper. She snatched up a ball of fabric and threw it at him.
“Just get out of here!”
Right, then.
Shen Huoda opened the door and was about to leave. He had barely pushed it halfway open when he heard his wife call out from behind him again.
“Whatever you do, be careful! Don’t get hurt!”
Shen Huoda paused for just a moment, then continued firmly out the door.
＊
Large numbers of police officers, dressed in plain clothes, began surrounding the area around the gambling den in separate groups.
The assault teams were concealed at various designated positions.
In the light, Lu Yixing glanced at the watch on his wrist.
The second hand ticked forward, one step at a time, gradually approaching twelve.
Ten o’clock sharp.
He raised a hand and signaled to the team members behind him.
“Move in!”
At the sound of his command, several arresting officers sprang out simultaneously from both sides of the road. They immediately pinned down the two men standing guard outside the gambling den. Before either could make a sound, the officers swiftly kicked open the main gate and charged inside, joining the arresting officers who had leapt over the courtyard walls on both sides. Together, they began rounding up everyone inside the gambling den.
“Police!”
“Nobody move!”
“Get on your knees!”
“Hands on your heads! Kneel down!”
“Face the ground!”
…
The barrage of shouts sent everyone’s nerves into overdrive, and the entire gambling den instantly descended into chaos.
<< _ >>