Chapter 343

Guqi City Bureau.

The evening sun cast a red glow over the clouds, illuminating the thick layers with translucence.

With a single command from Gao Changjiang, the previously quiet bureau courtyard instantly erupted into chaos.

Hundreds of police officers seemed to materialize from everywhere—emerging from upstairs, downstairs, the basement, and hidden corners—each fully equipped and lined up in formation in the courtyard.

Gao Changjiang had donned his training uniform, strapped on a bulletproof vest, and slung his holster at his waist; he loomed over the courtyard like a man wreathed in black flame.

"Four children under five years old—this case is under central ministry supervision. Leaders at every level are closely watching and pressing for results. I don't need to remind you how critical this is. Now, I'm assigning tasks: units and individuals who receive assignments must not compete for credit or retreat. Do not fear hardship or sacrifice. You must give everything you have to complete your mission—even if knives fall from the sky, even if you must stand atop your comrades' corpses, you will complete it!"

Gao Changjiang held a loudspeaker in hand, his voice booming and clear, each order laced with raw ferocity.

Jiang Yuan glanced sideways, then asked Dong Bing beside him: "Is your director always like this?"

"Not for small cases. But for big ones, Director Gao is exactly like this," Dong Bing replied in a whisper.

Jiang Yuan let out an "oh." These days, police forces rarely shouted slogans like "not fearing sacrifice."

Director Gao Changjiang, when analyzing cases, seemed like an ordinary police leader—even slightly weak. Yet now, as he prepared to strike, he radiated vigor and doubled his courage.

Wu Xia, drawing on thirty-five years of experience living as a guest in relatives' homes, read Jiang Yuan's thoughts and chuckled: "Director Gao used to be in border defense. He only transferred to local police later."

"No wonder," Jiang Yuan nodded in understanding, then watched the bureau's criminal investigation officers depart in squads, as if marching into battle.

The latest updates flowed in like a continuous stream.

"We've confirmed the suspect's phone number. It's been sent over."

"We've identified the WeChat accounts of several individuals."

"Their next stop is likely to be exiting the province via the Xinming Township exit on the highway. Xinming Township has one of their hideouts."

"The gang's total size may be over thirty people. The exact number and leader are still uncertain…"

A criminal gang is like an island—searching for it without coordinates or location is a long, luck-dependent quest. But once you find the island, even step onto it, information suddenly becomes cheap and abundant.

The next question became how to seize the island smoothly and harvest as many rewards as possible—or bury these filthy fruits.

Jiang Yuan and several experts listened to the incoming reports, then shifted into a relaxed phase of cross-checking data.

Only when the figure of thirty gang members was reported did it draw slight attention.

"This qualifies as a medium-sized gang—likely nationwide in scope. We should resume reviewing old cases," Zhang Xian remarked with experience.

Jiang Yuan nodded. Without needing further instruction, Mu Zhiyang and the others immediately got to work.

The Guqi City Bureau's own criminal investigators also began searching and working in tandem.

Jiang Yuan himself stared at the case file, unable to calm his thoughts.

In the 1990s, trafficking women and children peaked. The ministry organized four nationwide crackdowns, achieving significant results. By 2000, such cases had plummeted to around 2, 00 per year. But since 2007, these crimes have surged again.

Moreover, modern kidnapping gangs are growing larger, forming longer chains. Multiple resales are now common, and members increasingly use single-line communication, showing clear professionalization.

In Jiang Yuan's view, greed and insufficient punishment reinforce each other.

Gang members are typically low-education, low-income, and mostly female.

After serving criminal sentences, reemployment is nearly impossible. Today, even cleaning or nanny jobs require clean criminal records. These individuals clearly lack the technical skills for employers to reluctantly hire them.

What remains? Farming or running small businesses. The latter is like entrepreneurship—how easy is that?

Eventually, these gang members, having undergone reeducation in prison, realize that trafficking women and children is faster and more comfortable. Trafficking children, especially, requires almost no capital—just a few train tickets and a few days' lodging to complete a transaction and earn tens of thousands.

Moreover, these ex-convicts, having endured the iron fist of state repression, if they choose to continue their criminal lives, become the backbone of gangs. Just a few such members can sustain a gang of ten or even dozens.

From the end of the 2000 crackdown to the resurgence of trafficking gangs in 2007, how many of these backbone members have been hiding in plain sight?

"I suggest we identify the suspects' appearances in advance. Can we find their photos?" Jiang Yuan asked Director Wang, who handled image tracking.

"If there's video, finding people is easy," Director Wang smiled. His specialty was tracking suspects—or anyone—through video footage, like an electronic hound.

In films, this seems routine: a screen displays the suspect, and cameras follow them everywhere. In reality, it's impossible. Cameras always have blind spots, broken units, or areas without any installed cameras.

Most importantly, linking cameras together is a massive undertaking. Cameras under different jurisdictions rarely merge into one system—not due to authorization, but technical limitations.

In short, even tracking vehicles requires dedicated personnel. Tracking individuals is far more difficult.

"I'll help you later," Jiang Yuan told Director Wang, then turned to examine the social media data others had compiled.

Director Wang grunted, not taking it seriously.

Jiang Yuan might be exceptional at trace evidence, astonishingly so—but what could trace evidence do in image analysis? If he needed a keen-eyed "observer," he'd rather have Dong Bing.

Jiang Yuan set Director Wang aside for now and began searching the suspects' chat logs.

Once phone numbers or accounts were confirmed, related data could be directly retrieved from backup servers. For police, quickly extracting useful information was the main task—like identifying criminal groups' chat rooms; if they ordered takeout via group chat, the delivery address could reveal their residence, or…

Vast amounts of data were extracted. Useful items were sent to the front lines; cases needing further investigation were assigned to other frontline personnel.

The advantage of a ministry-designated case was that resources and manpower never ran short. Theoretically, with these two, 99% of cases could be solved—only the difficulty, time, and scale varied.

Soon, Director Wang pulled the first batch of suspect images.

Jiang Yuan heard the commotion and walked over. Sure enough, Director Wang's two assistants were straining over image enhancement.

Surveillance footage is heavily affected by its environment. First, it's exposed to wind, rain, snow, smog—all degrade clarity.

Second, the footage's inherent resolution is limited. No metaphor needed: the difference between 4K, 1080p, and 240p resolution is obvious to all. Surveillance cameras were installed piecemeal; some areas still use ten-year-old analog systems. Investment varies by region—no uniform standard.

Distance is also decisive. The same resolution captures a person one meter away versus one hundred meters away with vastly different clarity.

All these issues can be partially or fully resolved with image enhancement technology.

Director Wang, as an image tracking expert, clearly prioritized these problems. His assistants worked tirelessly, pulling up countless boxes and command lines. The lead technician clearly had level 2 or higher skills.

In image enhancement, a technician reaching level 2 was exceptionally rare.

The two technicians Director Wang brought were clearly hired from society—both with image enhancement skills above level 2. The other, though seemingly from police academy, also possessed at least level 1. image processing ability.

Maintaining these two would cost more than an entire police dog squad.

Jiang Yuan patted the shoulder of the weaker technician: "Move over."

Having worked outside his unit for years, he was used to dealing with outsiders. Sometimes, describing one's own skills or technical superiority verbally made others feel insulted.

But when you actually operated, and the contrast became undeniable, most people remained calm.

The technician, equivalent to one-third the cost of a police dog squad, stood up confused, unsure what Jiang Yuan intended.

Jiang Yuan sat down without hesitation and began operating with rapid, decisive keystrokes. The technician blinked, glancing helplessly at Director Wang.

Director Wang had noticed and slowly approached.

By then, Jiang Yuan had already begun the image enhancement process. He'd observed the software the other technician used, noted the version, and slipped into the workflow effortlessly.

When Director Wang arrived, Jiang Yuan had already cleaned up a single frame.

The image came from a car rental company's parking lot surveillance—low quality, enough to distinguish a face, but too blurry for reliable identification.

Jiang Yuan used noise-filling techniques and even magnified the face.

"Good enough?" Jiang Yuan asked politely as Director Wang approached.

Director Wang, an expert in imaging, recognized quality. He leaned close, studied the screen, then looked at Jiang Yuan: "You can do image enhancement too?"

"A bit," Jiang Yuan replied, then suddenly opened the command line and typed a row of functions—unnecessary, but to prove his level 5 image enhancement skill.

Director Wang and his two assistants' expressions and attitudes softened instantly, like giant dogs who'd just eaten level 5 dog food.

"Let's push hard and lock down images of every gang member," Jiang Yuan said, as if he'd landed on a pirate island and was now counting heads like a naval captain.

The only two female officers present, Dong Bing, suddenly whispered in a voice only Tang Jia could hear: "Jiang Yuan from Ningtai. No wonder."

Tang Jia rolled her eyes, thinking: Who ever heard of a female officer speaking in such a saccharine tone?

Tang Jia rolled her eyes, thinking: Where's a female police officer ever used such a sugary voice?