Chapter 150: Dark to the End
After Wu Yongcheng received a call from Chen Yan, he immediately set off with Qiao Jiali and Jiang Biao.
In principle, the Municipal Bureau positions the Third Brigade as being responsible for homicides.
Any case that does not result in loss of life, no matter how serious it is, should be handled by the First Brigade.
The only exception is the Qian Lailai kidnapping case that just happened, due to some special reasons.
Since the city leaders of Hongcheng launched the "Searchlight Plan", all the branches and grassroots police stations in Hongcheng have been mobilized one after another to turn over a large number of old cases that occurred in the past.
These missing cases that have been reported to the police require a lot of manpower to find the families and relevant personnel to verify the matter, so almost all the police in Hongcheng have been working overtime for a while and complaining bitterly.
Wu Yongcheng, who was specifically assigned by Director Xie to tackle the toughest cases, was also busy. Together with the heads of several branches, he developed a screening standard to determine what kind of missing cases and to what extent they could be submitted to the Third Brigade of the Municipal Bureau.
As soon as Director Xie agreed to this standard, Wu Yongcheng received four backlog cases from various branches within three days. The shortest case had been missing for more than half a year, and the longest had been missing for seven years.
After the police reinvestigated, they could not find any clues at all. The missing person had completely disappeared since his disappearance.
There is basically a high probability that the missing person has been killed.
But even if it was handed over to the Third Brigade, it would still be difficult to deal with because the population is mobile.
For cases like Zhang Hui, whose disappearance and murder occurred in Hongcheng, the investigation process is much simpler.
If the missing person has been traced within the province, contacting the provincial department can also get cooperation from the local police.
However, if the missing person was killed outside the province, then handling the case across provinces would be very complicated. Not only would the Hongcheng police not have the final say, but there would also be many twists and turns.
Wu Yongcheng was just racking his brains over how to investigate and allocate the four reported backlog cases when he received a call from Chen Yan.
Originally, he wanted to hand the case over to the Liyang Branch for investigation, but after hearing Chen Yan say that the villagers were obstructing the investigation and Zhou Yi thought that the woman was abducted, he realized the seriousness of the problem and immediately led the team out.
As soon as their car arrived in Yong'an Township, Zhou Yi called again and said that they were already at the Yong'an Township Government Building. After the director and the township head arrived, they strongly demanded that the relevant personnel be taken away first and the onlookers be dispersed to avoid more serious problems.
Zhou Yi did not refuse. As long as it complied with relevant procedures and laws, he had no need to go against local leaders.
Compared to the case, interpersonal relationships are the most difficult thing to deal with. He has suffered losses in his previous life.
Because he refused to "say a few words in favor" of the captain, he was targeted by his backers, transferred from the criminal police team, and sent to the archives room.
As a criminal suspect, Jiang Aqing was taken directly back to the police station.
At Zhou Yi's strong request, Jiang Baogen was also taken back to the police station, because the old man knew about the incident but did not report it and even leaked it, which was suspected of violating the law.
The onlookers were educated and dispersed by the two police officers who arrived at the scene first.
But it is obvious that the villagers don’t care about education at all, so it doesn’t matter.
But after seeing the village head coming, they started to grumble that the village government didn't care about their lives, and that they had agreed to help with poverty alleviation, but they didn't come anymore.
The village chief, who was in his forties or fifties, was so angry that he jumped up and down.
When the ambulance arrived, the woman in the pigpen was first taken to the village hospital, and the director sent someone to get on the ambulance.
Zhou Yi originally wanted to go to the Yong'an Township Police Station first, but after learning that the leaders of the Municipal Bureau were coming, the township head insisted that they go to the township government for a meeting to discuss the matter.
So in the end they had to go to the township government, and Zhou Yi immediately called Wu Yongcheng to inform him.
The village chief pulled Zhou Yi and Chen Yan into his car and drove all the way to the village government.
On the way, Zhou Yi asked, "Village Chief Chen, what's going on in Sanpo Village? The people are so fierce, aren't they? They actually dared to openly attack the police. If I hadn't fired a warning shot, who knows what the consequences would have been."
Township Chief Chen was startled: "They...they all opened fire?"
"Don't worry, Township Head Chen, there were no casualties."
"That's good, that's good." Township Chief Chen wiped the sweat from his forehead and sighed. "Officer Zhou, to be honest, our Yong'an Township has twelve villages under its jurisdiction, and Sanpo Village is the most difficult to deal with."
"You just saw what they were like. They pissed me off. Take poverty alleviation, for example. The national poverty alleviation program is designed to help people in impoverished areas escape poverty quickly and support themselves. Sanpo Village, with its poor geographical location, has historically been a hard-hit area. That's why we've set up a special poverty alleviation team to help it move beyond poverty as soon as possible."
Township head Chen, as if seeing a family member, poured out his bitterness: "But this poverty alleviation work is so bad. We tried to teach them some skills, but they all said they were too dumb to learn. We tried to help them with animal husbandry, so we gave them piglets. We thought we could raise them and sell them at the end of the year to at least provide for their basic needs. But you never imagined that as soon as our poverty alleviation officials left, every household slaughtered the piglets for food, and sold the remaining ones for alcohol."
"These people, even if our poverty alleviation efforts could only include giving them money, rice, and meat every day, are becoming too lazy to do anything. They're just gluttons, lazy, and don't have any proper jobs. Those with even a little ambition have gone to work in the city, leaving you with nothing but misfits."
Township head Chen said excitedly: "It really proves the saying that impoverished mountains and bad waters produce unruly people."
After saying this, Township Chief Chen calmed down. "I'm sorry. As the township chief, I shouldn't have said that. But there's really nothing I can do. Sanpo Village is a persistent problem in the township. I'm always held accountable in county meetings, accused of not doing enough to alleviate poverty."
Village Chief Chen clapped his hands and said, "What else can I do?"
Zhou Yixin thought, no wonder Jiang Baogen, the village party secretary, came up and asked them if they were here to help with poverty alleviation.
It turns out that this village is the parasite of the countryside.
"Village Chief Chen, don't get excited. I understand that grassroots work is not easy, but some things cannot be accomplished overnight and can only be done slowly." Zhou Yi comforted him.
"I'd like to ask, does Sanpo Village have a strong sense of clan identity?"
"It's not really a clan, Officer Zhou. You've seen how poor they are, there's no ancestral hall or anything like that in the village. But it's true that these villagers are basically all related. If I remember correctly, there are about 63 households in Sanpo Village, with a population of over 300."
The fact that he, as the township head, remembers the population data of the villages under his jurisdiction shows that he is still a responsible cadre.
"Is this village party secretary Jiang Baogen a relative of Jiang Aqing?" Zhou Yi asked.
"Oh, I didn't know that. I'll ask the director of our Poverty Alleviation Office when we get off the bus. He's the most familiar with Sanpo Village. But speaking of Jiang Baogen, he wasn't originally the village party secretary. It was his youngest son, Jiang Zhichao. Jiang Zhichao was a college graduate and well-educated, so the township was very pleased with him as the village party secretary. Grassroots work is best done by villagers, so it's easier to get things done."
"But unexpectedly, Jiang Zhichao quit after just over a year and went straight to the city to work. We had no choice but to let his father take over. The previous village party secretary was also the village head. He was a tyrant in the village and was arrested after something went wrong."
Jiang Zhichao, went to college.
Zhou Yi silently noted down this information. Just as Village Chief Chen said, some things might only be understood by villagers.
"By the way, why did your comrades from the Municipal Bureau's Criminal Investigation Division suddenly come to our remote village?"
"Oh, Jiang Aqing has a son named Jiang Hu. He was involved in some cases before and is now in a juvenile detention center for reform. We are here for his case."
"So that's how it is. Well, this kind of thing is very common in Sanpo Village. Almost every family has a runaway."
Sitting in the front passenger seat, Chen Yan, who had been listening, couldn't help but turn around and ask, "Village Chief Chen, don't you care about this kind of thing?"
"Oh, comrade, you've wronged us. It's not that we don't care, it's that we can't. You saw it today too. Not only did Jiang Aqing run away from home, he even sold his child and kept cursing. Let me put it this way, these people combined can't even read a single word. In their eyes, children are their personal assets, things, not people. If they don't obey, they'll beat them to death or maim them, and they think it's none of outsiders' business."
Chen Yan said angrily, "How can this be possible? Don't you have any legal awareness at all?"
"Brother Yan, this kind of thing..." Zhou Yi paused and said, "Actually, we really need to be more open-minded. The spiritual civilization construction and legal publicity of the people are a long and arduous road ahead."
Township Chief Chen immediately clapped his hands and said, "Officer Zhou, what you said is so good. I really understand it."
When getting off the car, Zhou Yi saw that Chen Yan was obviously a little depressed, but he did not comfort him anymore.
He needs to process this kind of thing himself. Young people are like this. They are easily swayed by things and find it difficult to get over it.
What's more, there may be more serious criminal problems that have not yet been uncovered.
Being a criminal police requires extremely strong psychological endurance, otherwise you will get yourself into trouble.
But this poorest village in Hongcheng still made Zhou Yi feel creepy, and the miserable appearance of the woman in the pigpen still appeared in his mind.
It’s dark, too dark. The whole village is completely dark.
Village head Chen warmly entertained the two and even called the director of the Poverty Alleviation Office to come over and confirm from him that Jiang Baogen should be considered Jiang Aqing's uncle.
Zhou Yi used the excuse of going to smoke a cigarette and ran to the gate of the township government building, and Chen Yan followed him.
"Give me one too." said Chen Yan.
Zhou Yi lit a cigarette for him. Chen Yan took a puff and immediately started coughing, with tears coming out of his eyes.
Zhou Yi joked, "Even the three-good students can't smoke this thing."
As they were talking, a car stopped at the door of the building and Wu Yongcheng and others got out of the car.
Zhou Yi and Chen Yan immediately went to meet them.
Before Wu Yongcheng could say anything, Zhou Yi said, "Captain Wu, I have a request."
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