Chapter 354: A Number Beyond Imagination

"Can a 4.2-meter box truck fit that many people?" Yu Dazhang asked.

"Transport them in batches," Wang Hao replied:

"Later Zhang Chao set a rule: each pickup and drop-off was only allowed to carry one group. If a factory needed more people, he'd just make more trips."

After a year of development, their way of doing things gradually became more formalized.

Yu Dazhang mentally counted the days.

At the end of 2003, Wang Hao was brought by Zhang Chao to Jianning and officially entered the trade.

A little over a year later, at the beginning of 2005, trained mentally disabled workers began entering factories.

Looking at it this way, that underground prison started operating in 2004.

Missed a detail... Thinking of this, Yu Dazhang looked at Wang Hao and asked:

"When you first went to Jianning, how many factories were using cheap labor?"

"Seven," Wang Hao answered with certainty:

"I remember that number very clearly, because I had just entered the trade. I even counted them on purpose and wrote down the names and addresses of those factories in a notebook."

Then it's correct... His answer matched what Yu Dazhang had guessed.

Before Wang Hao went to Jianning, Zhang Chao had already been supplying cheap labor there.

The reason he called Wang Hao over was to take his place, so he could free up his hands to expand the scale.

Blind expansion definitely wouldn't work. To grow bigger, you first had to get a grip on management.

So...

They came up with building an underground prison.

Adding a training step would make the mentally disabled workers more disciplined, and effectively prevent them from escaping.

Expanding the scale under these circumstances was undoubtedly the lowest-risk option.

How do you make mentally disabled workers obey?

There are way too many ways.

Nothing too complicated—just confinement and corporal punishment. Those two tricks are enough.

Take the simplest method.

Occasionally open the door of the underground prison leading outside, and let one group of mentally disabled workers walk out on their own.

Yes, you read that right—just let them go out on their own.

Then give them a vicious beating, and lock them back up.

Repeat it every few days.

After several repetitions, even if you let them out, they wouldn't dare go.

They'd even cry and beg not to be let out.

You think training mentally disabled workers is like attending classes at school?

Naive.

Rote memorization can't compare to the effectiveness of conditioned reflexes.

After one vicious beating, even a mentally disabled person will learn the lesson.

If once isn't enough, do it a few more times. There's no fear they won't remember.

Throughout history, the hardest thing to train is a monkey.

But look at those trained monkeys—aren't they all perfectly obedient the moment the gong sounds?

It's all about conditioned reflexes.

But applying this kind of thing to people is definitely not allowed by law.

"Don't you normally come into contact with those factory managers?" Yu Dazhang asked again.

"Deals like that aren't my business," Wang Hao shook his head:

"I'm only in charge of transport. And this kind of bargain? There's no need to advertise it at all. A lot of them came begging to cooperate."

That's true... Yu Dazhang could now understand what he meant.

For factories wanting to expand, labor is a very important piece.

So why don't those factory owners recruit mentally disabled workers themselves?

First, the workers are hard to manage.

Training a mentally disabled worker through normal procedures is far too difficult.

Second, their wages aren't that much lower than ordinary workers'. Once you factor in all the benefits, it actually isn't a good deal.

Most importantly, the rate of workplace injuries among mentally disabled workers is far higher than among ordinary employees.

Once all these problems were solved by someone else, those trained-up mentally disabled workers naturally became a premium labor force.

Not only premium, but cheap, with after-sales service to boot.

Fortune favors the bold.

To gain an edge in competition, many people are willing to take some risks.

"As of now, how many cheap laborers are on the job in Jianning?" Yu Dazhang asked, seizing the moment.

"Well..." Upon hearing this question, Wang Hao hesitated.

He seemed to be thinking about how to answer.

After a moment, he said evasively:

"I don't have an exact number either. I can only estimate..."

He hemmed and hawed, seeming very reluctant.

"Enough to fill twenty Yancheng industrial zones."

After saying that, he lowered his head.

Even though Yu Dazhang was mentally prepared, he was still shocked by this number.

Looking at Wang Hao's guilty expression, he had definitely understated it.

The real number...

Yu Dazhang's palms were sweating; he didn't dare think further.

Earlier, Captain Hua had inferred that the criminal organization kidnapped people from other provinces and then transported them en masse to Province N.

Now Yu Dazhang felt his inference was completely correct.

With a number this large, plucking from just one province would have long since been exposed.

They began laying out their plans in Jianning in 2003, meaning they had developed there for a full eleven years.

"If someone got sick or died, how did you handle it?"

This was also one of the issues Yu Dazhang was most concerned about.

But so far, there had been no answer.

"Send them back."

Wang Hao answered crisply — clearly someone who did this often:

"Zhang Chao would notify me, and then I would go to the factory and send those who had lost the ability to work back to the handover point in the suburbs."

"After that, where they took the people, I wouldn't know."

While he was answering, Yu Dazhang kept observing his facial expressions.

No lies.

Yu Dazhang didn't catch a single trace of lying on Wang Hao's face.

Judging by this, Wang Hao really did seem to be just a core member responsible for managing the 'feet.'

As for the deeper business, Zhang Chao clearly had no intention of letting him touch it.

"Tell me about that underground prison." Yu Dazhang stared at him as he spoke.

"Underground prison?" Wang Hao paused in surprise at the words, then asked:

"What underground prison? I've never heard of it."

His expression was natural and fluid, without the slightest hesitation or tension.

Even his eyes were clear and candid, not avoiding Yu Dazhang's gaze.

All of this made Yu Dazhang believe that what Wang Hao said was probably true.

The division of labor was clear enough... Yu Dazhang was somewhat surprised by the other side's rigor.

A hardcore member like Wang Hao, who had been working with them for eleven years, didn't even know about the underground prison's existence.

"Tell me about Zhang Chao." Yu Dazhang said in a commanding tone:

"The more detailed, the better."

As if he had long anticipated Yu Dazhang would ask about Zhang Chao, Wang Hao didn't hesitate at all and said directly:

"Zhang Chao, the Chao in Chaoyue, same age as me, 32 years old, currently lives in Star City, specific address is..."

The information he provided was very comprehensive — personal information, phone number, address, family situation — and finally he described Zhang Chao's appearance and physical features in detail.

"Do you have a photo of him?" Yu Dazhang asked.

This was asking with a bit of wishful thinking.

If there was one, it would greatly improve the efficiency of the arrest.

"No." Wang Hao slowly shook his head:

"We never took a photo together, and I never secretly photographed him. The graduation photo from school was lost long ago."

Hearing this answer, Yu Dazhang felt a bit of disappointment in his heart, but he didn't lose heart — after all, this was within his expectations.

Someone like Zhang Chao wouldn't easily leave behind images of himself.

He then stood up and looked at the camera in the interrogation room:

"Get ready, we're heading to Jianning."

(End of this chapter)