Chapter 212: Risking Everything

"Damn it, take the muzzles off the police dogs! Release the dogs and bite that bastard to death for me!"

Even with Li Xuewu's stamina, he was beginning to feel exhausted. He could hold on, but the stamina of his team members was limited.

Looking at his panting team members now, he realized they were pushing their limits. In such an intense chase, the surge and depletion of adrenaline had a time limit, which was different from their usual training.

Li Xuewu couldn't possibly take eight team members from the Red Star Commune to chase Hu Zhengquan; even if he could, the dogs couldn't keep up.

After this long sprint, jumping over walls and cutting through courtyards, the police dogs were already panting with their tongues out. In this freezing winter, if police dogs exercised too much without replenishing water, they were prone to lung failure.

Another severe problem arose: while passing through a desolate courtyard, dead branches and broken glass had cut the dogs' paws. Blood was already staining the white snow, and the dogs were limping as they ran.

Seeing that some dogs were unwilling to run, Li Xuewu instructed Liu Zhaolun, who had been following closely: "You stay behind to take care of the dogs. Stay alert and head back slowly. If you're afraid of losing your way, follow the original path back. If you run into Xu Ning, tell him the target is heading toward the train station."

The other team members, seeing Liu Zhaolun's dog injured and fearing their own might be hurt, heard the Li Kezhang's order and hurriedly unclipped the muzzles and leashes. After patting their dogs' faces, they continued the chase.

Freed from the leashes and muzzles, the police dogs felt much lighter. No longer needing to drag the guards along, they bolted down the alleyway. Li Xuewu found a clean spot, grabbed a handful of snow to stuff into his mouth, and took the lead, running with all his might to catch up.

Seeing Li Xuewu going all out, the team members from the mountains followed suit, grabbing snow to eat and swinging their arms as they ran. With the footwork and snow-handling skills they had honed in the mountains, they kept pace with Li Xuewu.

The original "358 Regiment" members, seeing the opportunity for merit right before their eyes—and the promotion quota the Li Kezhang had mentioned for early next year—knew that anyone who fell behind now would be a fool. They ate some snow and used every ounce of their strength to keep up with Zhao Yajun and the others.

The target was traveling light and running at full speed, which was why he was fast. The team members had been unable to catch up partly because they were carrying long and short firearms, and they couldn't discard their weapons, which limited their speed.

Hu Zhengquan couldn't figure it out no matter how hard he thought: he had clearly sent the documents away first, so why were those bastards from the Security Section still chasing him so relentlessly? Why weren't they going after the bigger fish?

Now, a pack of dogs was chasing him from behind, and they were getting closer. No matter how sturdy his nearly fifty-year-old body was, he couldn't outrun that group of young men. He had to find a way to shake them off.

Why was Li Xuewu biting onto Hu Zhengquan so tightly? It wasn't that Li Xuewu didn't like big fish; it was that sometimes a fish was too big, and it was easy to choke if you tried to swallow it whole. So why didn't he arrest Hu Zhengquan when he first suspected him?

This was a matter of maximizing benefits. Firstly, Dong Wenxue wanted to use this case to test the waters at the Rolling Mill, which would facilitate his next phase of operations.

Secondly, it was Li Xuewu's own reason. Li Xuewu thought that he didn't have the authority of the Investigation Department, and it wouldn't be appropriate to arrest someone while risking criticism from the factory.

Then, what about reporting the suspicion to the Investigation Department and letting them track it? That wasn't realistic either. If the Investigation Department had to track everyone who seemed suspicious, their scale would have to be expanded tens of thousands of times.

Another reason was that Li Xuewu didn't want to give up this "big cake." Unless absolutely necessary, he wouldn't share it with others.

Even if Li Xuewu really cooperated with the Investigation Department, arresting Hu Zhengquan wouldn't be of much use if the interrogation only yielded a few people, especially since Hu Zhengquan was a figure with few connections and an unclear hierarchy.

This was why Li Xuewu had tolerated Hu Zhengquan for so long. Even if he were suspended because of this case, and even if his family were affected, he had to pursue this case to the end before making arrests.

But things were different now. Hu Zhengquan had been chased by Li Xuewu for so long that he had already implicated too many people. He was a key—the key to unlocking these people.

Now, he had no choice but to run. The people tied to him were also on the move. Even if Hu Zhengquan stopped running, it wouldn't matter; those people would bring others out. Li Xuewu just wanted to wait for Hu Zhengquan to implicate everyone on the line before arresting him.

Hu Zhengquan was a man from the Rolling Mill. As a security cadre of the Red Star Rolling Mill, it was only natural for Li Xuewu to arrest him. However, arresting people outside the Rolling Mill would be overstepping his authority. This was why, even though he suspected the professors at the school, he hadn't put much effort into tracking them.

This was also why the people who had threatened Li Xuewu's family hadn't been locked up in the Rolling Mill.

Li Xuewu had sent Ji Wang Weidong to arrest those who had been implicated and to find the documents, all to ensure that the right people did the right things.

No matter how important the figures Ji Wang Weidong caught were, as long as Li Xuewu held Hu Zhengquan, Ji Wang Weidong couldn't bypass Li Xuewu when reporting to his superiors, because the origin of the incident was in Li Xuewu's hands.

Li Xuewu discovered it, Li Xuewu planned the tracking, and Li Xuewu participated in the arrest. This was a complete line.

Throughout the entire context of this case, Li Xuewu had always played the role of a security cadre discovering and investigating latent personnel within the factory. Even if there were external arrests, they were passive. In the final case summary, no one would be able to find any fault with Li Xuewu.

Now, the final step of the chess game Li Xuewu had laid out remained: capturing Hu Zhengquan alive.

Li Xuewu could clearly feel that Hu Zhengquan was running toward the train station, but he was certain that Hu Zhengquan's target wasn't the station itself, as the security there was much stronger.

"Rebirth: Riding the Waves of the Great Era"

"Woof, woof, woof!"

Barking had already come from ahead of Li Xuewu. Li Xuewu knew this meant the police dogs had found the target. It seemed Hu Zhengquan couldn't run anymore either.

He kicked off a collapsed dirt wall, leaped into the fifth desolate courtyard, and continued the chase, treading through snow that reached his knees.

It wasn't that Hu Zhengquan could predict the future and find so many desolate courtyards in these winding alleys; it was that this bastard didn't know how many times he had practiced this escape, and he had turned through these alleys countless times. Besides, such courtyards were easy to find—if the courtyard wall had collapsed and no one had repaired it, it was definitely a desolate courtyard.

When Li Xuewu stepped onto the courtyard wall again, he could already see the train tracks in the distance. Over a kilometer away, looking from the foot of the wall toward the tracks, a black line stretched across the silver-white curtain from east to west, finally hiding between the dark buildings and residential areas.

In front of Li Xuewu was a large ditch. Once past the deep ditch, it was flat ground all the way to the tracks. This was clearly land belonging to the railway.

In the distance, he could already hear the train whistle. Clearly, the night freight train was operating and preparing to depart.

In this era, there were quite a few train stations in Beijing. The ones at Dongzhimen and Deshengmen were still operating, and stations at major factory areas like the Rolling Mill also operated at night.

Most of the trains at these stations needed to be managed and operated through the Beijing Station, so trains entering and leaving the Beijing Station ran day and night. The number of night freight trains was even higher, and one every twenty minutes was normal.

Hu Zhengquan was clearly waiting for this opportunity, wanting to board a slower-moving freight train he could climb onto, thereby shaking off the pursuit of Li Xuewu and the others.

Standing on the wall, Li Xuewu could already see Hu Zhengquan clumsily treading through the snow, with a string of police dogs chasing behind him.

He looked at the deep ditch at his feet. It was still covered in thick snow and was lower than the ground level. If there hadn't been snow, how deep would it have been? How did that old bastard Hu Zhengquan get across?

Just as Li Xuewu jumped onto the wall to watch, Gao Fengkun, who had been following Li Xuewu, leaped over the courtyard wall in one stride and ran down the slope toward the bottom of the ditch without stopping. At this moment, the snow in the ditch was much thicker than on the ground.

Gao Fengkun had just jumped down when Zhao Yajun followed, and then a string of guards jumped down after them, without needing any mobilization from Li Xuewu, who was standing on the wall.

What was running in front?

Running in front was Hu Zhengquan!

What was Hu Zhengquan?

That was clumsy, mobile merit! That was the notification for becoming a regular employee next year!

What was following in front?

Following in front were comrades from the section!

They were people competing for credit, people competing for the opportunity to become regular employees!

There was no need for Li Xuewu to mobilize them. The "358 Regiment" members, like Golden Retrievers mixed into a pack of Huskies, jumped headlong into the snowy ditch under the wall like madmen.

The deepest part in the middle of the ditch had already buried a person's head. Gao Fengkun, running in the front, kept rolling and struggling in the snow like he was swimming.

You have to say, the speed of advancement was surprisingly fast, clearing a path for the team members chasing behind.

Some of the team members behind followed Gao Fengkun's path, or Zhao Yajun's path, or Hu Zhengquan's path. If they couldn't grab a path, they learned from Gao Fengkun and cleared one themselves.

These guards were truly fighting with blood and guts. They didn't care what was under their feet, nor were they afraid of falling into a snow pit and being buried. They were all chasing forward with all their might.

Li Xuewu stood on the wall, raised his long gun, and fired a shot at Hu Zhengquan's back.

"Bang!"

Hu Zhengquan, running in front, didn't slow down. He didn't even care about the gunshot, because he knew that in such a dark environment, at a distance of nearly 250 meters, hitting a person after a long-distance sprint wasn't an easy thing.

Sure enough, Li Xuewu's shot didn't hit Hu Zhengquan. He wanted to aim again, but in the dark environment, he couldn't aim at a moving target with the naked eye alone.

Standing on the wall, Li Xuewu saw a train coming in the distance. It seemed Hu Zhengquan had calculated it well and was determined to board this train to "fly far away." Even if he didn't go far, he would temporarily escape the pursuit of Li Xuewu and the others.

Hu Zhengquan muttered to himself while running, "This group of people is too damn difficult to deal with. Not only are they well-trained, but they also have trained police dogs. This is a branch of service rarely seen even in the Republic of China. Now, twenty-something people are dealing with me alone, and they all have guns. It's truly terrifying."

Now the problem arose: assume the train tracks are perpendicular to Li Xuewu's position and 500 meters long. A 250-meter-long train is moving forward at a constant speed of 25.2 km/h. Hu Zhengquan is located in the middle of the vertical line, which is 250 meters from the tracks, and is running toward the vertical point at a constant speed of 2.47 km/h.

Can Hu Zhengquan board the train?

Now, the police dogs chasing behind Hu Zhengquan are 125 meters behind him, chasing him at a constant speed of 3.5 km/h.

Can the police dogs catch up to Hu Zhengquan and bite his butt?

Gao Fengkun, Zhao Yajun, and the others, who were chasing in the front, reached a position 400 meters from the tracks and saw Hu Zhengquan running toward the tracks, clearly preparing to board the train to escape.

After discovering this intention, Gao Fengkun and Zhao Yajun changed direction, chasing at a 30-degree angle to the vertical line, preparing to intercept Hu Zhengquan at a position ahead.

At what speed should Gao Fengkun, Zhao Yajun, and the others run to intercept Hu Zhengquan before the train passes?

These three questions were left for the guards to practice one by one.

Li Xuewu jumped off the wall and ran forward with all his might along the path cleared by the team members in front. He didn't know until he got down that this snow ditch was truly deep. In most places, it reached Li Xuewu's waist, and in deep places, it reached his neck. He really didn't know how Hu Zhengquan, who wasn't tall, had gotten through.

When Li Xuewu climbed out of the ditch, he saw the train getting closer and closer. He couldn't care about the snow getting into his clothes and could only try his best to move his legs and chase.

He helped up the team members who fell in the snow along the way. It was now impossible for him to catch up to the team members in front, so he could only rely on the police dogs and Gao Fengkun and the others.

Although it was already impossible to catch up to the people in front, he was still trying his best to chase. With many people, there is strength—wasn't this exactly why Li Xuewu wanted to bring more people to chase?

Although Li Xuewu had been delayed for a while, he had great strength and a height advantage, so his running speed was still very fast. Gradually, he was approaching the middle position, but the train Hu Zhengquan was waiting for had already arrived.

Now, answer one of the previous questions.

To avoid the pursuit of Li Xuewu and the others, Hu Zhengquan really risked his old life. Seeing the train coming, he ran desperately onto the roadbed, ignoring the impact of the train. Against the direction of the train's movement, he grabbed the train's boarding ladder and boarded the freight train, kicking his dangling legs as he tried to climb up.

There was a classic war movie called "Railway Guerrillas." The guerrillas in the movie were experts at boarding trains. Some jumped down from tunnels, some reached for the carriages from horses, and some used rope hooks. Their tricks were strange and varied. They could use these tricks because the trains at that time weren't fast.

If it were the speed of a train in later generations, a person would be sucked under the train before they even touched it.

No matter how strange the tricks were now, there was definitely no such thing as riding a bicycle onto a train as seen in later god-tier dramas.

If Hu Zhengquan knew about that now, he would definitely spit in the face of that screenwriter and director, because it was too damn ridiculous. Just grabbing the train's ladder had already cut his hands, not to mention the pain of his chest being hit by the impact of the train. ===== CHAPTER 213 =====