Chapter 922: Checking for Guns

The team marched through the rain for over an hour before entering Changle City. Following Huang Qiangmin's suggestion, they headed straight for the Long Spear Troop camp.

At the same time, the Long Spear Troop camp was in the middle of assembling and boarding vehicles; the sound of roll calls echoed throughout the camp.

"Which one is Jiang Yuan?" A Long Spear Troop officer came over to find him.

"I am." Jiang Yuan stepped out of the vehicle.

The officer compared him against a photograph and said, "Take a few people and get off the vehicle. The rest will return to Jia Li Zhai with us."

"Am I not going?" Jiang Yuan hesitated, then added, "Since I'm following you all, I might as well go along."

"My orders are as they are. If you have other thoughts, communicate them with your superiors." The officer was blunt and turned away to attend to his duties.

Seeing this, Jiang Yuan didn't waste any more words. He found a rain-sheltered eave, dialed Huang Qiangmin, and said, "Political Commissar, I request to accompany the team to Jia Li Zhai. I can recognize the vehicle that was tailing us, and if necessary, I can even track them in reverse."

Huang Qiangmin gave a dry laugh and said, "I only pulled you back because I was worried about your safety. If you go back now, why would I have pulled you out in the first place? With your five vehicles and twenty-some people, you could have just charged into Jia Li Zhai and caught them yourselves."

"The enemy situation is unclear, we have no equipment on hand, and we aren't even wearing uniforms; going to Jia Li Zhai at that time was indeed risky. Jia Li Zhai has only been developed for a few years, and there are definitely guns in the village. If we follow the Armed Police now, we'll have full equipment, the risks will be controllable, and it will be more conducive to making arrests." Jiang Yuan's reasoning was also quite sound.

Huang Qiangmin gave an "en" sound: "Your consideration is also reasonable. However, Jia Li Zhai doesn't just have guns. They have a hunting team—the Jia Li Agriculture Protection Hunting Team—with 15 guns and over 20 people. The hunting team's shotguns have scopes, night vision goggles, and thermal imagers. Right now, there are 4 guns and over 50 rounds of ammunition out in the field. There is one slug round."

Agriculture protection hunting teams are set up in many places. The original intention was to hunt wild boars, and management is very strict. The issued firearms must be managed uniformly and kept in gun cabinets at designated locations. The ammunition provided is also very limited, consisting mainly of birdshot and buckshot; slug rounds are rarely given. Among these, birdshot fires dozens of small pellets at once, while buckshot contains 8 pellets.

As the name suggests, a slug round is a single projectile. Shotguns are issued these mainly to deal with animals on the level of bears or tigers.

In Changle City, the ammunition allocation is about 10 rounds per gun. Slug rounds are generally not issued, and one must exchange the spent casings to get new ones.

Theoretically, this is a very complete system. However, in practical operation, hunting is not a task that can be completed in a few hours, especially when hunting deep in the mountains. It is normal to spend a day and a night or two days and two nights, and getting lost happens from time to time. As a result, the daily return of firearms to the cabinets cannot be guaranteed, and occasionally, firearms remain out in the field.

The same logic applies to ammunition; once it's issued, it's hard to check. There are indeed people who take the ammunition home.

Of course, this doesn't mean the hunting team is problematic. Normally, members joining the hunting team must undergo political vetting, checking three generations for criminal records, similar to police vetting.

That is the theory, but it is a reality that there are 4 guns out in Jia Li Zhai. Moreover, the current hunting team is combat-oriented; they spend their days taking dogs and carrying thermal imagers to find prey. Their shooting range varies from dozens of meters to three or four hundred meters. If there really is a problem, the lethality is extremely alarming.

Taking a step back, the possibility of problematic individuals in Jia Li Zhai stealing firearms also exists. People who are not good citizens naturally won't hold themselves to the standards of good citizens.

Jiang Yuan also understood these risks, but he stuck to his own idea: "I am a technician by trade and don't go to the front line anyway. I'm worried about the suspects running away. If they enter the mountains and flee ahead of time, I should be able to help."

"The other party might have guns," Huang Qiangmin emphasized.

"With 4 guns, we should be able to find the individuals to confirm, right?" Jiang Yuan also knew a thing or two about firearm management. If nothing else, taking and returning guns from fixed gun cabinets is recorded and subject to police management. Even if we had to call them one by one, we should be able to find them.

Of course, at this point, calling is definitely not foolproof.

Huang Qiangmin thought for a moment and said, "Fine. But you must confirm the guns first before you can follow them into the mountains. If it's confirmed that guns are missing, you are not allowed to follow them in."

Jiang Yuan agreed decisively.

Not long after ending the call, the officer from before came over again and said to Jiang Yuan, "You're coming with us. There are two civilians in your vehicle, right? Drop the civilians off with us first; we have separate rooms for them to stay in. You can pick them up when we return."

"We'll drive our own vehicle and follow you." Having obtained Huang Qiangmin's permission, Jiang Yuan was unwilling to listen to the officer's orders. When criminal police request support from the Long Spear Troop, the Long Spear Troop is indeed the main force, but the mission objectives and such are determined by the criminal police. Jiang Yuan naturally didn't want to become a mere object to be protected.

The convoy was organized and set off again, retracing the route they had come from.

Jiang Yuan wore a bulletproof vest with a ceramic plate inserted, sitting in the back row of a Mengshi vehicle. He felt he didn't need to be protected to this extent, but on this point, no one else agreed, so Jiang Yuan could only hug the ceramic plate and pretend to doze off.

By the time they returned to Jia Li Zhai, it was already very late.

There were some streetlights on in the village, and a few guesthouses and bars were lit up. After all, it was a tourist business; even on a rainy day, those who wanted to make money were pretending to work, and the tourists who had "already come all this way" didn't have much choice but to pretend to have fun while spending money.

The sound of the convoy's engines broke the tranquility of the village, attracting the attention of some tourists.

Some people were truly bored to death and came out with umbrellas to watch the excitement, as if they weren't the least bit worried about the purpose of so many police cars arriving.

Jiang Yuan sat in the vehicle without getting out, listening to the orders over the walkie-talkie: "Wang Chuan, your team seal off the village. If anyone or any vehicle tries to force their way through, you are authorized to open fire. Groups one, two, three, and four, report when in position. Report when in position!"

These four groups had been arranged in advance to head to the homes of the six armed hunters.

Some shotguns were held by two or three people. Although it was said that whoever took it out signed for it, they still had to prevent situations where someone helped another person take the gun.

At the same time, the Long Spear Troop's snipers also set up their rifles, aiming at the homes of the six armed hunters with the help of observers and thermal imagers.

At this point, the hunting team's person-in-charge began calling them one by one, asking: "Do you have the gun? Where are you?"

Soon, the locations of two guns were confirmed; they were at the homes of the respective gun holders.

But the phones of the owners of the other two guns could not be reached no matter how many times they called.

The hunting team's person-in-charge helplessly put down the phone and said, "Sometimes it's like this. The signal in the mountains is poor. Once they go deep enough, there are no signal towers, and the calls won't go through. However, both of these men are locals and are very law-abiding; otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to apply for the guns."

"Go to their homes first." The officer made a quick decision. Both teams were well-prepared. Under the watch of the snipers, after a few words, they entered the houses of the two families.

The search yielded nothing.

No guns and no people—this was slightly better than the worst news. If there were people but no guns, that would truly be worrying.

At this time, the officer handed the command back, walked to the Mengshi vehicle, and asked Jiang Yuan, "Team Leader Jiang, what shall we do next?"

"Next, find the vehicle. The one tailing us was a Toyota Prado. Let's first see how many Prados there are in the village." Jiang Yuan's purpose in coming up the mountain wasn't to find guns. Finding guns was to guard against danger, but the main target was still the vehicle and the people tailing them.

The officer responded, "Then we'll search from west to east. The terrain is higher in the west, and the commanding heights are also in the west."

"Fine. Also, seal off the roads to prevent the armed hunters from returning from the outside; we'll assume they went out hunting. As for the inside, prevent anyone from driving out and forcing their way through." Jiang Yuan gave a reminder.

"Yes." The officer responded and added, "Team Leader Jiang, you should still stay in the command vehicle. I'll lead the team."

"I'll follow you. If I stay here, you'll still have to leave people behind. Furthermore, the commanding heights are all in our hands, and the other party's goal isn't to assassinate me. I'm actually safer following you." Jiang Yuan wasn't just being reckless.

The officer hesitated for a moment and said, "Then you must put on your bulletproof vest and helmet, and carry the ceramic plates."

"Fine." Jiang Yuan said, putting on his helmet and getting out of the vehicle, and re-checked the safety on his side-carried Type 92 pistol. ===== CHAPTER 923 =====