Chapter 701: Moving Forward

After work.

Jiang Yuan invited Xu Taining to his home, along with Liu Jinghui, Huang Qiangmin, Pang Jidong, Mu Zhiyang, and others, for dinner.

The head chef was Comrade Jiang Fujian, and his assistant was a newly acquainted friend—the head chef of a famous restaurant in the capital. The two had been chatting quite well lately, researching and sharing the differences between net abalone, Australian dried abalone, and South African dried abalone. They had also test-cooked many pots of "Buddha Jumps Over the Wall" and later shifted their interest to brewing wine.

Today was still a practice session for Jiang Fujian. The entire banquet used beef and mutton from the Jiang family ranch. The sous-chef, based on everyone's feedback, was able to thoroughly study various meat products in hopes of creating dishes best suited for the Jiang family's beef and mutton.

Xu Taining and the others didn't need to worry about all that, but they still ate very happily.

In the end, Xu Taining even ate a bowl of hot noodles, patted his stomach, and sighed, "So delicious. The Jiang family's meat is truly fragrant."

"Meat from the Jiang family ranch," Jiang Yuan corrected him slightly.

Xu Taining just nodded twice with an "mm-hmm," continued patting his stomach, and said, "I was worried that coming to the capital would lead to homesickness. With all of us here and such good food, I have much more confidence."

"The people you'll be commanding this time are from the Capital Bureau," Huang Qiangmin said, slightly stirring the pot.

"As long as they listen to commands, the Capital Bureau's men will only be easier to use," Xu Taining said, looking very confident.

Although he only had experience in Shannan Province and its surrounding areas, commanding a dragnet, in the final analysis, was similar to the needs of large-scale operations. While the tasks of communicating up and down the chain were important, the true core remained command.

Arranging the work for a few dozen people was simple; a few hundred was not simple at all, and a few thousand was extremely complex.

Especially when one didn't want to set up too many layers of hierarchy, there weren't many people who could pull it off.

Even in the capital, there was no shortage of high-ranking police officers with such experience, but Xu Taining remained very confident. He was here to work, not to fight for power. And in any police bureau, when encountering a large-scale dragnet—especially one that required Xu Taining to take the lead—the internal thinking was basically already unified.

That mindset of being single-mindedly focused on solving the case was very helpful for Xu Taining in controlling the team.

As for the capital's own high-ranking officers, Xu Taining had always believed that the pressure borne by high-ranking officers in these big cities was different in direction from the pressure he and his peers bore. And no one was willing to bear the kind of pressure Xu Taining did.

In fact, Xu Taining had always believed that high-ranking officers in big cities were too comfortable. Although they were always burdened with various political requirements, who wasn't?

What truly limited a commander was resources!

Xu Taining had come from an era where even cars were scarce, and he had an extremely strong sense of initiative regarding the use of materials.

There was no infantry that couldn't be defeated by artillery fire; if there was, it meant the artillery fire wasn't enough. The same logic applied: there were no criminals who couldn't be found by a dragnet; if there were, it meant the intensity of the dragnet wasn't enough.

"Starting tomorrow, let's discuss the specific plan, and we can begin preparations. Jingcheng Bureau should be doing dragnets often; it's not a difficult task," Xu Taining said, picking up a piece of meat and savoring it with relish.

"And there's Qi Changye's side; you also need to coordinate well with him," Huang Qiangmin said, introducing Qi Changye's work position.

Xu Taining nodded. "If he has requirements, we'll cooperate, but they cannot disrupt our overall arrangement. Otherwise, if the criminal runs away, they'll be the ones taking the blame."

"That's for sure."

"When is he coming? This Qi Changye."

"It was agreed he'd come tonight. If he hasn't arrived, it should be tomorrow morning," Wang Chuanxing, who was sitting nearby, replied. He was responsible for the handover.

Xu Taining didn't mind. "Tomorrow morning is fine. Maybe he was delayed by something on the road."

The next day.

Qi Changye indeed arrived at the police bureau very early.

He had changed out of his pitch-black clothes, brushed his teeth and rinsed his mouth three or four times, and then used iodine and gauze to cover all the places where he had abrasions and broken skin, only then seeing other police officers arriving one after another for work.

In the office, there was a faint scent of sandalwood.

Qi Changye knew this was the incense sent by Wu Jun, Jiang Yuan's master.

Qi Changye suddenly felt the scent of the incense exceptionally relaxing, so he simply sat nearby, sniffing it while closing his eyes to rest, until the surrounding noise woke him up.

By this time, not only was the room full of people, but the scent of sandalwood had also been covered up by the stench of secondhand smoke.

Fortunately, sleeping at work was extremely common, so Qi Changye didn't feel embarrassed.

*Snap. *

Qi Changye also lit a cigarette; he couldn't smell the sandalwood anyway.

"Team Leader Qi is awake. You've had a hard trip," Liu Cheng said upon hearing the sound, calling Qi Changye over.

"Yeah, the bridge over there was broken, it was raining, and the car got stuck. Even leaving early was a bit of a waste of time," Qi Changye said, not describing the hardships of the journey in detail, fearing his colleagues would call him pretentious.

Liu Cheng clicked his tongue twice and said nonchalantly, "That couldn't have been easy."

"Yeah... let me state the latest situation," Qi Changye coughed twice and said, "In Zhanggang Village, there is indeed a situation of secret proselytizing. The specific method is that after identifying a target for proselytizing, they will proselytize to that target individually and then take them away. During this process, the target's family will receive some money, but they cannot interfere with their proselytizing."

"They've really got something going on," Liu Jinghui said, a bit surprised. This was considered a relatively tight organizational form.

Qi Changye nodded. "Current non-mainstream religions are under great survival pressure and are quite willing to ponder these things. Cui Da and the others have had little contact, but those who remain in the village also can't reach these people. They aren't relying on one village to expand; it's possible they only visit once every two or three years."

"Has it been going on for a long time?" Jiang Yuan asked, surprised.

"Almost ten years, I'd say." Qi Changye paused and added, "However, these small ones are heavily focused on personal interests. Once the cult leader starts messing around, they begin creating a den of debauchery. But there are also those who are keen on making money; those are more troublesome and prone to deaths."

Having said this, Qi Changye looked at Xu Taining and said, "Our Domestic Security Detachment will cooperate fully. If needed, relevant units will also participate."

"That's great. You can be the general reserve force," Xu Taining arranged it on the spot, not showing any timidity at all.

He had participated in too many cases in Shannan; there was nothing he hadn't seen. Although involving certain units always made people feel worried, as long as one kept an open mind and brought out the spirit of not fearing hardship or death, there was no case that couldn't be pushed through.

Qi Changye had just spoken of cooperation, so naturally, he agreed without hesitation.

Xu Taining added, "You need to have cars ready. At least five people per car must be guaranteed. Can you do that?"

"This... I can." Qi Changye only hesitated for a split second.

"You are the general reserve force; you must be ready at all times. When it's time to go, you must be able to go," Xu Taining gave a few more instructions, then took out his small notebook and began making arrangements for those present.

He didn't have the habit of holding large meetings. Although doing so would be full of majesty, the efficiency was too low.

When everyone was united and single-mindedly wanting to solve the case, to the point of inviting him, Xu Taining felt he couldn't waste everyone's time, and even less could he do inefficient things; that would lower his majesty and credibility.

Xu Taining was more accustomed to arranging tasks in small groups.

In any case, most people didn't need to know what others' tasks were, nor did they need to do a global analysis. Following the steps to complete the search of their assigned plots was enough.

The criminal police from Ningtai County were quite used to this.

Liu Cheng and the other criminal police from the capital weren't too used to it, but they also had the heart to observe and wait.

However, Xu Taining didn't give them any opportunity in this regard.

Anyone with the title of Captain was assigned to a certain area early on and began searching.

Liu Cheng was the same; very soon, he received a printed map with a range drawn directly in red ink.

"Good fellow, quite professional," Liu Cheng smiled and showed the map to his subordinates.

"This area is not small," his subordinates said after seeing it and checking the mobile map. "It's all mountainous; climbing the mountains will climb us to death."

"There are drones to assist. Let's just do our own part," Liu Cheng said, feeling guilty himself. Drones scanning section by section—if they wanted to have no omissions, it wasn't easy. What he feared most was the drone falling; the process of retrieving it could very likely be extremely arduous.

Walking out the door, he saw that the garage was already more than half empty, with colleagues still going downstairs to get their cars.

Liu Cheng couldn't help but shake his head. A city-wide dragnet—even for him, he hadn't participated in many. An area of over ten thousand square kilometers—it was no exaggeration to say that even ten thousand police officers couldn't search it clearly. Adding drones would make it a bit easier, but given current conditions, drones were likely in short supply.

Jiang Yuan also took Mu Zhiyang and the others, drove a Coaster, and headed to the predetermined location.

He hoped to narrow the scope of the dragnet, but given the current environment, to achieve this, he would have to wait for the results of the initial phase of the dragnet. ===== CHAPTER 702 =====