Chapter 969: Root Out

Jiang Yuan called Song Tiancheng directly.

If the police system were simply divided by rank, Wu Junhao and others at the deputy section level were LV1, Huang Qiangmin had been LV2… Song Tiancheng was at least LV5 full, or halfway to LV6.

As for special task forces, Song Tiancheng’s leadership of such a unit was… unlikely—it had surpassed the ceiling. So after receiving the call, Song Tiancheng came over with personnel to supervise and learn the progress of Jiang Yuan’s case.

This was also due to their shared location in Jingcheng, making things more convenient.

The sub-bureaus under the Jingcheng Bureau often handled major cases, precisely because of this advantage: proximity made reporting and communication easier.

If Jiang Yuan had pursued a case of similar scale in Changyang City, it would’ve been harder for him to request assistance from someone like Song Tiancheng. Of course, it wouldn’t have helped much anyway.

In Jingcheng, Jiang Yuan, through Huang Qiangmin, reported to the leadership of the Zhengguang Bureau and quickly received their support.

Tao Lu, who had been lurking in the background, appeared in the conference room wearing a brand-new, rarely-worn uniform, specifically to welcome Song Tiancheng.

“The Danda Group!”

Song Tiancheng couldn’t help but sigh after hearing the brief.

The case itself was solid. Pu Li, who had been Lü Qiang’s hired killer since the early days of Danda Group, not only helped him assassinate that small businessman but also eliminated a debtor and a gold-digger trying to climb the ladder.

Of these three cases, Pu Li left no evidence in the first assassination, but in the other two, he deliberately preserved evidence—especially in the third murder, when he disposed of the gold-digger for Lü Qiang, he collected her Nokia phone and buried it nearby with the body.

This level of evidence, without Pu Li’s testimony, might have made a death sentence difficult, but with Pu Li’s confession, both physical and testimonial evidence were complete.

In addition, Pu Li revealed a large number of Danda Group members.

Pu Li was one of those who had successfully laundered his image; if not for this case implicating him—and if Jiang Yuan hadn’t led the cold-case task force specifically targeting Danda Group, starting from low-level thugs—he might have fled before even entering police radar, or before any connection to him could be established.

At his level, backed by the Danda Group, ordinary restrictions were useless. He could avoid public transport entirely, secretly board a speedboat out of port, and have local bigwigs waiting for him abroad.

So Pu Li was truly the only person with the power to bring Lü Qiang down—that’s why he was so terrified and came to Jiang Yuan.

As for why Lü Qiang hadn’t anticipated this, it’s simple: even the most powerful boss relies on many mid- and high-level figures. Pu Li held the secret of his murder orders, the CFO held the secret of his asset transfers, the secretary held the secret of his stock manipulation, the driver held the secret of his illegitimate son, his wife and his fifth wife held the secrets of his shell companies and tax evasion…

Everyone is a bacterium inside you; no one can live in a sterile environment.

From Song Tiancheng’s perspective, arresting the chairman of Danda Group and this entire cohort of mid- and high-level figures would leave Danda Group either dead or in intensive care.

“You don’t leave anything behind, do you?” Song Tiancheng looked at Jiang Yuan, then glanced at his phone again. “Do it however you want.”

“According to my plan, we arrest everyone, restrict all of them from leaving the city, and take in whoever we can interrogate.” Jiang Yuan paused. “Danda Group must be crippled.”

“Even if crippled, someone will still revive it,” Song Tiancheng said, speaking from a higher perspective. “First dig out the abscess. Whether it lives or heals—that comes later.”

“As long as it’s dead or alive, it’s manageable!” Jiang Yuan received the order and immediately turned to Tao Lu. “Tao Zhi, let’s start arresting people and sealing the company.”

Tao Lu rubbed his forehead, looking overwhelmed. “This case is huge—arrest them all like this? It’ll turn into half-cooked rice.”

Song Tiancheng chuckled. “You decide. I back you.”

Jiang Yuan looked at Tao Lu. “We’re criminal investigators, not economic crime detectives.”

“If I told the director this, he’d scold me to death,” Tao Lu said, but still nodded. “Alright, arrest them first—don’t let them escape.”

“I’ll lend you all the other case teams,” Jiang Yuan said politely.

Tao Lu sighed. “I suspect we’ll really need them.”

Saying that, Tao Lu began deploying forces right before Song Tiancheng and Jiang Yuan.

Arrest procedures are complex, especially here—mass arrests can’t be explained in a few sentences.

But Tao Lu had immense experience; while making calls and shouting orders, he quickly got everything on track.

For them, the hardest part was decision-making before action; once the decision was made and execution began, even if they didn’t know how to do it themselves, they could just find someone who did.

In Jingcheng, strategists and enforcers were never in short supply.

Song Tiancheng watched for a while, then began using his phone frequently—whether for chatting or coordinating, it was unclear.

Jiang Yuan sent off all members of the cold-case task force, paused his work, reopened his computer, and began reviewing evidence.

Pu Li had provided a great deal of information, and he was still revealing more; the cases, people, and physical evidence tied to him were even more numerous.

Many cases had been shelved years ago—perhaps because the right direction wasn’t found, they weren’t given enough attention, or simply due to insufficient technical capacity.

Now with new information, Jiang Yuan extracted them; for simpler, more direct cases, he could begin acting immediately.

Everyone was busy with their own tasks; the conference room grew quiet and harmonious.

Until, at some moment, Jiang Yuan’s system interface began flashing numbers:

Task Progress: 137 arrests made.

Task Progress: 144 arrests made.

Task Progress: 177 arrests made.

It was obvious this wave of arrests was radically different from before—the number jumped in double digits each time.

At the same time, Tao Lu’s phone calls began increasing.

“Captain Jiang, some images have come in—take a look?” Wang Chuan’s team had gathered more operational data, and many potential evidence items began appearing frequently.

Jiang Yuan’s WeChat work group also began growing at a rate of dozens per minute.

Task Progress: 205 arrests made.

When Jiang Yuan saw this arrest number, he didn’t need to think—Danda Group was certainly in complete chaos.

The police might even have encountered some form of resistance during the arrests.

Otherwise, they couldn’t have arrested so many people!