Chapter 923: Tire Tracks

Under the dim streetlights, people in uniform darted back and forth; their numbers were many times greater than the tourists watching the excitement.

In buildings of varying heights, window after window was opened, and some people stretched their heads out to look, ignoring the light rain.

The villagers of Jia Li Zhai had never experienced this before. One by one, they looked outside with somber expressions and dull eyes, while the expressions in their WeChat groups were lively:

【So many police have come, I wonder who died.】

【Back when we were being relocated, if this many police had come, we would all have been left starving.】

【Does your family have money now? Lend me some.】

【The police wouldn't come for no reason. What are they here to do? Everyone be careful.】

Village Director Chen Jifeng led Jiang Yuan and the others, walking along the base of the walls, and said: "Our village only has 3 Prados in total. The family I'm taking you to see first also runs a guesthouse. Actually, our village is all guesthouses now, haha. Even my family has cleared out a few rooms to run a guesthouse; at least during the May Day and National Day holidays, there are people."

The leading officer nodded, gave a few whispered instructions, and then directed the team with hand signals.

He arranged multiple snipers, observers, and sentries in the distance. The main roads in the village were under control, and the team also carried thermal imagers—pure military-grade models—that could easily see the distribution of personnel inside the courtyards.

Under his orders, the accompanying Long Spear Troop also launched a drone, flying directly over the courtyard walls to scout the situation inside.

At this moment, he wasn't thinking about surprise at all; he was single-mindedly seeking stability.

Watching the officer operate this way, Mu Zhiyang felt much more at ease. Between ordinary people in society and the police, there is a generational gap in terms of combat power. Even if the police used cold weapons, they would still be equipped with stun batons and overwhelm with numbers. Once thermal weapons are used, the gap is even greater. With the weapons ordinary people can get their hands on, facing fully armed police with helmets, bulletproof vests, ceramic plates, and shields is about the same as a soldier in the cold weapon era holding a firewood knife against a fully armored soldier.

It can be said that if everyone were to fight openly and honestly, even if there were some armed hunter or the like, having one chance to fire a shot would be lucky. To accurately hit the low-protection area of a fully armed soldier, and to penetrate it just right, would require a certain probability.

Mu Zhiyang glanced at Jiang Yuan with his peripheral vision and whispered: "Team Leader Jiang, you're too tall, lower your head a little."

"Oh." Jiang Yuan pressed his helmet with his hand and crouched down a bit. He was the person being protected, so naturally, he had to be obedient and cooperative.

Mu Zhiyang held the shield with one hand but didn't raise it. Their current position was actually relatively safe; at least there was no need to raise the shield.

But speaking of being at ease... Mu Zhiyang looked around and said: "People keep popping up all around, is the road hard to control?"

"In this village of theirs, there are many small paths, and many people will cut through other people's houses; it's impossible to control completely." The officer's deputy answered this question in a low voice.

Mu Zhiyang frowned: "Cut directly through someone else's back door, through the living room, and out the front door? Their doors aren't locked?"

When he asked this, he looked at the Village Director.

Village Director Chen Jifeng spread his hands and said: "The first floor here is a main hall, used for ancestral tablets and such; everyone can come and go. The second floor is where people live, and that's locked."

"Then this family didn't lock the door either?" The officer reacted immediately.

Chen Jifeng gave an "en" sound and added: "The rooms upstairs might be locked."

"Then we'll go straight in and knock on the door." The officer didn't dwell on it too much. From his perspective, doing things while facing danger was not unacceptable.

The leading police officer carefully pushed open the gate.

The courtyard might be harmless, but the Long Spear Troop had been deployed, and not being careful would just be looking for trouble for themselves.

"No one in the courtyard." The police officer who entered gave the same conclusion as the thermal imager and the drone.

The officer waved his hand again, and a team entered.

"Prepare to go to the second floor... knock on the door." The officer definitely had to see the people to be at ease.

Several fully armed Long Spear Troop members began to step forward and take their positions.

Jiang Yuan was in the courtyard at this time, holding the ceramic plate with one hand and supporting the holster with the other. He walked up to the Toyota Prado parked in the courtyard and crouched down to look at the tires.

On the way over, he had already collected traces of the vehicle tailing them—rain is a big trouble for trace collection, but the narrow cliff road had preserved some necessary physical evidence.

Jiang Yuan had LV3 Vehicle Trace Identification; dealing with tire tracks was considered the most basic application.

Village Director Chen Jifeng knocked on the door with a "dong dong dong."

Several sniper rifles were aiming from afar.

The officer also leaned against the wall, quietly waiting for the reaction inside.

Deep down, he was somewhat looking forward to the other party's bravery. In this day and age, serving as a soldier, being able to engage in actual combat once wouldn't be a wasted three years of training.

Creak.

The door on the second floor opened. The resident was just about to speak when they were pushed back in, along with the shield.

"Police!"

"How many people in the house?"

"Are there guns?"

Several questions, clear and urgent.

Jiang Yuan slowly walked behind the Long Spear Troop officer and said: "The tire tracks don't match; at least it's not the vehicle that was tailing us."

"Are you sure?" The officer was a bit surprised. Giving such a conclusion at this time meant taking responsibility.

Jiang Yuan nodded: "Sure, the tires of the vehicle tailing us were balder, and the front right tire had more severe wear."

"Understood." The officer nodded. Before he could deal with it, he heard the resident arguing with the police.

Soon, a soldier ran over to report: "The suspect can't produce the vehicle registration or the vehicle title, and they're making a scene."

The Village Director also followed over, gave a dry laugh, and said: "This... we don't really pay much attention to the vehicle's green title here..."

The criminal police on the scene knew what was going on as soon as they heard it. Wang Chuanxing frowned and said: "Stolen vehicle?"

"A Prado costs four or five hundred thousand; without a green title, it's not even worth 100,000. We just use it ourselves; we don't sell it, and when it's worn out, that's it." The Village Director explained with a fawning smile: "The roads here, you've all driven up them; the roads inside are even harder to walk, you can only drive off-road vehicles; SUVs aren't good. Actually, we can't bear to buy Toyota Prados; we usually buy pickups or something."

"What you're doing is illegal!" Meng Chengbiao was steady and mature; he said this first, then added: "That... let's focus on the main contradiction first; the green title and such have nothing to do with our case."

Meng Chengbiao's thinking was very simple. These stolen cars were right here; wanting to arrest them was something two police station officers could handle well; it wasn't worth having such a group of elite troops messing around here.

Jiang Yuan quickly understood Meng Chengbiao's thinking. This was pure rational thinking; it could be understood without even needing emotional intelligence.

Jiang Yuan said without hesitation: "The suspect isn't here, let's go to the next house."

The police upstairs gave two warnings, left two people behind to take statements and handle other matters, and the main force withdrew, quickly rushing to the third house—the second guesthouse had already been raided and checked by another team.

The third house followed a similar process.

A team rushed straight to the second floor, and Jiang Yuan went to look at the vehicle himself.

And this time, the time Jiang Yuan spent researching was significantly longer.

Just as the officer was about to ask, Jiang Yuan had already turned back and whispered: "It's the same vehicle."

The officer's eyes clearly brightened; the desire for battle couldn't be suppressed.

"Understood." The officer pressed down on Jiang Yuan's hand, which was resting on the holster, and said in a low voice: "I'll handle it."

Saying this, the officer drew his own pistol on the spot, went up to the second floor, and knocked on the door himself. ===== CHAPTER 924 =====