Chapter 64: Caught Red-Handed

At the stern of the fishing boat, more than a dozen maritime police officers entered the deck via cables, wearing bulletproof vests and carrying firearms, quickly advancing in two columns to surround the cockpit.

On the stairs outside the cockpit, glass shards were scattered everywhere, broken by the maritime police's earlier gunfire. On the deck directly in front of the bottom of the stairs, boxes of gold bricks were still stacked.

The maritime police officers rushed up the stairs and saw that the cockpit was already on fire, with flames rising over a meter high. The flammable seats inside, the living supplies used by the pilot and co-pilot, and the folding bed for rest had all been set ablaze.

"Put out the fire, put out the fire!"

After the leading maritime police officer shouted, everyone immediately broke open the fire box near the cockpit and began to rescue the cockpit with fire extinguishers and water hoses.

Downstairs, two maritime police officers opened the narrow rest cabin and found Feng Hai and more than a dozen dock gang brothers inside. They were tied together, their mouths and noses sealed, completely unable to call out.

Seeing these people, the lead maritime police officer immediately called into his walkie-talkie: "Captain Tang, we've found the dock gang people in the cabin."

Hearing this as he was rushing over, Tang Baiqing's head buzzed.

Well, with both people and goods on the ship, they didn't even need to investigate anymore - they were caught red-handed and could go straight to court.

"Release Feng Hai, let him handle the most troublesome thing on the ship," Tang Baiqing reacted quite quickly, meaning for the maritime police to temporarily release Feng Hai to see if they could get rid of the gold bricks in the shortest time possible.

The maritime police officers followed the order and untied the ropes binding Feng Hai and four others.

......

On Dragon River's surface, several speedboats rushed past East Dragon Bridge, searching along the water surface. They wanted to catch Kong Zhenghui and Su Tianyu, but once past East Dragon Bridge, the terrain became very complex, surrounded by diversion channels and drainage ditches built by the water conservancy department to control water levels.

Dragon River's surface was not narrow either, becoming wider as it went inland, and this was a tropical climate, with both banks full of lush trees and forests.

With drainage ditches, diversion channels, and countless forests and green spaces on both banks, in this pitch darkness, once someone got ashore or into a drainage ditch, how could these few maritime police officers find them?

The hijacking case was sudden, and those who rushed out from the lock gates to the scene were all maritime police officers on duty at the port. They were completely unprepared, and when they rushed out, they might have still been in a half-asleep daze.

After searching aimlessly along the river channel for a long time, the maritime police finally found nothing.

In a dense forest on the bank, Su Tianyu ran in front like a big wolf dog, showing excellent physical fitness.

"How did you get out?" Kong Zhenghui asked from behind.

"With maritime police behind me, how else could I get out? Through the bottom cabin, of course!" Su Tianyu swung his legs at a speed comparable to a track champion. "Hurry up, we need to get to another district."

"Alright." Kong Zhenghui's physical condition was average, but he still gritted his teeth and ran hard to keep up with Su Tianyu.

......

At East Dragon Bridge.

Tang Baiqing hurriedly arrived at the scene and got onto a speedboat: "Where are the goods? Where are the goods?!"

"We can't move them, Captain Tang. There's too much, and look at the shore," the lead maritime police officer replied in a low voice.

Tang Baiqing looked toward both banks and saw at least thirty onlookers standing on East Dragon Bridge. These were all street vendors doing business at night in the surrounding area. They had rushed over to watch when they heard the gunfire on the water surface sounding like firecrackers. Of course, this was after the maritime police had controlled the area; otherwise, they wouldn't have gotten so close, certainly afraid of getting blood on themselves.

Besides the spectators on East Dragon Bridge, there were also many residents in the apartment buildings on both banks, leaning out their windows to look down while taking random photos with their phones.

Past the Dragon River estuary, both banks were residential areas. With such a commotion on the water, how could people not pay attention?

Tang Baiqing's face turned pale with anxiety as he growled: "Get Old He and the others over here. Even if we have to force it, we need to move the goods. I'll write tomorrow's report."

The maritime police officer thought for a moment and immediately took out his walkie-talkie to organize people to move the goods and notify the street police to send cars to assist.

"Woo-woo-woo!"

Just as Tang Baiqing was preparing to forcibly remove the gold bricks, police sirens suddenly sounded from the shore. Six police cars drove up from the east side and stopped directly at East Dragon Bridge.

Seeing this scene, Tang Baiqing was completely stunned. He didn't know what to do and was exhausted.

More than twenty police officers got out of the six police cars. Their uniforms were completely different from the maritime police uniforms, clearly from the Police Bureau system.

The lead officer stepped onto East Dragon Bridge and shouted to the maritime police on the speedboat: "I'm from the Zha'nan District Police Department. What's the situation here?"

"...Smuggling," the maritime police officer replied reluctantly.

"Have you secured the people on the ship?" a police captain from the Zha'nan District Police Department shouted again.

The maritime police officer gritted his teeth: "Yes, more than ten people."

"Damn! They're so brazen, driving a smuggling ship into the inland river? What, was the pilot high on drugs?" The Zha'nan District Police Department people were quite sarcastic.

The maritime police team didn't respond.

"Brother, once the ship passes East Dragon Bridge, we have to work," the Zha'nan District Police Department person shouted down again. "Don't touch anything on the ship, we need to examine the scene!"

Tang Baiqing's forehead veins bulged as he took out his phone to call his connections at the Police Bureau, wanting to ask the Zha'nan District Police Department to go easy and temporarily not get involved in this case.

"Vroom vroom!"

Just as he took out his phone and before he could dial, two media interview vans from Zha'nan District stopped directly behind the police cars.

The media staff got out of the cars and immediately set up their equipment.

"This is Waka Network News. Tonight, a fishing boat broke through and rushed into our city's Dragon River estuary, engaging in a gunfight with our city's maritime police officers, and the vessel shows signs of fire. Now, let's interview the maritime police officers to inquire about the situation..." The host spoke to the camera for a bit and then walked directly down the steps.

Tang Baiqing looked at them: "Fuck your mother, this must be a trap!"

Fifteen minutes later, Xu Hu's car rushed to the shore, but before he could get out, he saw that the media and inland police personnel had already blocked off East Dragon Bridge.

Xu Hu picked up his phone and dialed Tang Baiqing's mobile: "Hello? Baiqing!"

"I'm not Captain Tang. He's being interviewed, his phone is with me."

"What fucking time is it, and he's giving interviews? Is he treating this as a political achievement to promote?!" Xu Hu's composure instantly exploded. "What about the goods? Did they get moved by water?"

"No, they're trapped on the ship."

......

In a high-end apartment in the city, a man nearly sixty years old sat on his bed in his pajamas: "How did this happen?! The maritime police take so much money every year, and they can't even protect such important goods?"

Early the next morning, around six o'clock, on Guangji Island.

An Qiqi, wearing very form-fitting sportswear, stood in front of the tent doing stretching exercises.

Su Tianyu, Bai Hongbo, Su Tianbei, and Kong Zhenghui walked back from the distance.

"Where did you go?" An Qiqi asked Su Tianyu.

"Morning exercise!"

"I don't believe you one bit. You all left in the middle of the night," An Qiqi looked at him suspiciously.

"Couldn't sleep at night, so we took a walk," Su Tianyu replied perfunctorily and walked toward Yu Mingyuan's side.

Bai Hongbo followed behind, looking at An Qiqi's suspicious eyes, and said in a low voice: "She seems to have discovered something. Should we silence her!"

Not far away, Yu Mingyuan sat under a sun umbrella, hadn't slept all night, just holding three phones, stabbing at his port opponents one knife at a time.