After Director Li finished explaining the situation, An Moxue received the gun she had been longing for and was overjoyed.
Without further delay, the group set off in the night, with Old Ma driving the mule cart towards Anle Village.
Back in the village, An Moxue first went home for a meal, symbolically added a few pieces of wood to the stove, packed a bag of biscuits into her schoolbag, and waited for a while until the fire in the stove was almost burning before dressing, carrying her gun and crossbow, locking the door, and disappearing into the night.
Traveling at night, coupled with heavy snow, the three of them did not move very fast. As they entered the depths of the forest, they also had to be wary of large wild animals.
The three of them walked for most of the night, occasionally stopping for three to five minutes to rest their feet, clear their throats, and continue on their way.
Finally, as dawn broke and the group was nearing their destination, An Moxue stopped and instructed, "We'll be there soon. They've pinpointed the area to a radius of twenty or thirty miles centered on the iron chain bridge, so we need to be careful from now on. We need to eliminate our tracks as we go."
Both men nodded in agreement. They were both assigned to the bureau after retiring due to injuries, and both were truly capable.
The three of them proceeded with even greater caution. Along the way, they discussed their strategy, including a secret code for meeting, splitting up, assigning different people to monitor each other, and planning to meet again at night to summarize their findings.
After spotting the first target, the three split up. An Moxue spent the whole day walking around the suspension bridge, stopping and starting, measuring something with something in her hands, and making notes.
An Moxue analyzed that they were looking for the location of an ancient tomb, but how could they determine that there was an ancient tomb here just from this iron chain bridge? Could there be some clues on the bridge?
......
After An Moxue left, Director Li mobilized all the police force of the county public security bureau, worked through the night to develop an arrest plan, and called the military in the province to request support.
After the call ended, he called Zhang Jing in Kyoto and explained the situation. Zhang Jing immediately decided to send the comrades investigating in Ankou Town to participate in the operation and requested that the director of the Ankou Town Committee be arrested as well to prevent him from escaping.
By 4 p.m. on the second day, all personnel had assembled, totaling 23 people. They embarked on an emergency march and officially set off for the mountains and forests.
......
At night, the tomb raiding gang gathered together, around a fire, and discussed their day's loot.
Third Brother asked, "Sixth Brother, did you have any success today?"
"Nothing much to show for it, let's see how it goes tomorrow."
Third Brother then looked at the people opposite him and said, "Boss, what about you guys?"
A man in his fifties or sixties pondered for a moment and said, "It's hard to find. It might be very deep. We can't dig it up now. We can only wait until it gets warmer before we start. Besides, I think there aren't enough of us."
He then looked at the crowd and asked, "What about you? Have you discovered anything?"
They all shook their heads.
One of the younger ones, with a defiant look on his face, said, "Where the hell is this? How many places have we been to? Every place looks like it, but we haven't found it at all. When will this end? In this freezing weather, I've really had enough. Isn't it better to go home and lie on a warm bed? If this place isn't here, no one can call me for the rest of the winter. I'm not going anywhere." After saying that, he viciously took a bite.
The person next to him said helplessly, "We can't let you drink this horse urine. You always end up like this after drinking it. It's really too much."
After saying that, he snatched the deerskin wine flask from his hand and poured a big mouthful into his own mouth.
He had just finished drinking when the young man snatched it back from him.
"It should exist, but where exactly is it? We still haven't found the right place. Maybe we've overlooked something. Even if we can't find it, we've already searched for plenty of treasure, so let's just say we're looking for this!"
"Yes, that's a valid way to think about it, but I'm still a little unwilling to accept it."
......
Everyone chimed in with their own comments, but no further useful clues emerged. After finishing their meal, everyone dispersed.
It seems these people will continue their investigation tomorrow.
An Moxue and the other two waited until everyone had dispersed to rest before gathering together to share their findings from the day's tracking, and then dispersed again.
An Moxue walked a long way and found a secluded place to enter her spatial dimension. Knowing that the tomb raiders would not leave, she ate, drank, washed, and went to bed early in her spatial dimension.
They were all people out doing something, and it was cold outside, so the tomb raiding gang got up early.
An Moxue slept exceptionally soundly. When she came out and began her day of surveillance, she found that everyone had finished eating and were busy with their own things.
I sighed to myself, "Nothing is easy!"
Not long after, someone came to her and said that the main force had arrived and they had decided to make the arrests after they rested at night, as the group was more concentrated and less guarded.
An Moxue nodded in understanding and began her day of surveillance.
Because she was particularly interested in tomb raiding, she had been following them very carefully these past two days. Every time they took an action, she would analyze what they were doing and what their ultimate goal was.
As night deepened, the tomb raiding gang went to rest, but they still left someone on night watch every day.
Unbeknownst to them, a group of people was approaching them, hoping to wipe them out with minimal losses.
The operation officially began at 10 p.m.
As the group approached, they were spotted by the tomb raiders on duty, who then blew a warning whistle.
The soldiers and police officers no longer tiptoed, and rushed at full speed towards the underground cave where they were resting.
Some people were caught in a few moves, while others struggled with the police.
In just over half an hour, everyone was captured. An Moxue had expected a fierce battle, but to her surprise, the fight ended before she even had to lift a finger, leaving her somewhat unprepared.
I got the gun for nothing; I didn't use it at all.
The main reason is that Director Li takes this matter seriously. The troops dispatched are all highly skilled in combat. He doesn't want a repeat of the last incident. If there's even one person who knows ancient martial arts, they'll be a difficult character to deal with.
With more than twenty people, and two people arresting one person at a time, especially while the person was fast asleep, it was naturally surprisingly difficult, but the arrests were relatively easy.
Those who were arrested were all bewildered. How and when they were discovered was completely unexpected; there were no warning signs whatsoever, and no one had told them.
Soldiers and police officers are handcuffing them, packing their belongings, and preparing to descend the mountain overnight.
Taking advantage of the moment, An Moxue walked up to Qu Bing and the other two, quickly stuffed something into their mouths, and before they could react, she patted them twice on the back. While they were still in a daze, the thing was already in their stomachs.
An Moxue was extremely satisfied with the expressions of the three people. She had finally made up for the regret of not being able to fire a shot tonight, which was a pretty good result.
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