How could I possibly be confined in a cage?

Chapter 175 Raid on the Docks (2)

"Brother, look here."

Sergeant Zhang leaned over to take a look and saw Zhang Xun tear off the seal on a small box and open the lid. Inside the box was a stack of papers, yellowed and moldy, clearly quite old.

"This has been sitting here for more than a year, it must be some stock. And look at these guards outside."

Chief Zhang looked over and saw that several of the guards who had just been knocked unconscious had been woken up, while the rest remained unconscious.

Sergeant Zhang pulled out his gun and pressed it against the guard's forehead, squinting his eyes and threateningly demanding, "Tell me, in which warehouse does the Zheng family keep their opium?"

Surrounded by so many police officers, the guard trembled with fear. "It's not my fault! My supervisor ordered me to stay here! I don't know anything, please spare my life!"

Sergeant Zhang slammed his rifle butt down on the guard, who clutched his head and cowered in a ball, wailing with a mournful face, "Please, I really don't know!"

Chief Zhang chuckled and loosened his belt. "I've been a chief for so many years, I know exactly how to deal with disobedient criminals."

The imposing and tall San'er pushed his way in, saying menacingly, "You don't know? Then die!"

The guard was terrified and hurriedly cried out, "No, no, sir! I'm just ordered to guard this storeroom. We only open it once a month on the first and fifteenth to move some boxes around. We don't even dare to tear off the seals! I really didn't know!"

"Move? Why are you moving the boxes?"

The guard cried and said, "I don't know. The supervisor forbade us to ask or talk about it in private. But we guessed that there might be some calligraphy or paintings or something, nothing special."

Zhang Xun said, "No, it's just some waste paper, all yellowed, and quite old."

Sergeant Zhang and San'er each took one side of the rope and pulled hard. The rough straw rope cut into their flesh, instantly tearing through the skin and digging into the tendons.

The guard cried out in pain, "There's more, there's more..."

Sergeant Zhang chuckled, "You won't shed tears until you see the coffin, huh? Tell me, what else?"

“Our boss also has an abandoned warehouse to the north.”

An abandoned warehouse?

That warehouse is quite far from the dock.

Sergeant Zhang frowned. "Is that so?"

"Yes, I wouldn't dare lie, it's all true. I just don't know what's inside. I only went to help out once when we were short-handed, and that was the only time. I haven't been there since."

After pondering for a long time, Chief Zhang said, "Alright, San'er, take him over and have a look."

"Yes."

San'er led the guards and a group of men away, while Chief Zhang paced back and forth in the warehouse.

"Zhang Xun, have you tried it? Is there a secret room in this warehouse?"

"No, the warehouse at this dock was built after the commander arrived, just like the other houses. It's unlikely that it was built later. Besides, I just asked other people, and I didn't see any craftsmen coming in or out, nor were any earth or timber being transported."

"What if they're using loading and unloading as an excuse, stuffing it into boxes? You wouldn't even notice what's in someone else's boxes, would you? I've been thinking about this carefully. If this warehouse is a deliberate deception by Zheng, a comprador, to mislead people, then the fact that he unloaded the opium at the dock, transported it to the warehouse, and then from the warehouse to the north warehouse twice would make it much easier to expose him. With the Commander-in-Chief investigating so rigorously, would Zheng, the comprador, put himself in danger?"

Zhang Xun thought about it carefully and became increasingly convinced that this was indeed the case. If that was the case, then there was definitely something fishy about this warehouse.

"Explore again!"

This time, Zhang Xun and his team conducted an even more thorough inspection than before, determined to find any trace of opium trafficking that had occurred there.

After a while, Zhang Xun finally noticed something amiss.

"here!"

Zhang Xun pointed to a corner of the wall. Chief Zhang walked over and found a pile of wooden boxes there, with dried mud stuck to the edges. At first glance, it looked like they had been glued on from the outside.

After moving all the boxes aside, the floor underneath was finally revealed. "This place is newer than the others."

The dark floor was damp and cold, smelling musty.

Sergeant Zhang squatted down and tapped the floor tiles. "The sound was a bit dull, not like they were hollow. But in this case, as long as the floor is made thicker, we can still take advantage of the situation."

Zhang Xun picked up a shovel and tried it out in different places around him. "It's louder here."

Chief Zhang looked at him, made up his mind, and said, "Dig!"

He took out his pocket watch and saw that there were still fifteen minutes left before the time he had agreed to meet with Guo Zixing. In another fifteen minutes, Guo Zixing would have to leave.

The docks are a chaotic mix of people and swindlers, with warehouses belonging to various businesses scattered around. If Guo Zixing fails to find his goods and lingers for too long, the merchants of Sifang City might cause trouble again.

"hurry up!"

Zhang Xun and Sergeant Zhang worked together and quickly pried open a thick floorboard, revealing what was inside.

This is the entrance to the secret passage!

Sergeant Zhang and his team looked pleased; at least they had made some progress and their efforts hadn't been in vain.

"Let's go in."

Several plainclothes police officers went down to investigate first, followed by Sergeant Zhang and Zhang Xun.

The secret passage was not wide, but it was well hidden. Torches were lit inside, barely illuminating the way.

After walking about ten meters, the view suddenly opened up, and a huge warehouse appeared before them.

Chief Zhang and the others looked up and saw that the warehouse was about a hundred square meters. Although it wasn't very big, the shelves were densely packed with black lumps.

Zhang Xun was young and inexperienced, and found it hard to believe.

"Is it real? Is it really opium?"

"You'll see when you see it." Sergeant Zhang's expression was serious. Although he wasn't a completely good person, he knew better than anyone how opium ruined people's bodies and eroded their spirits.

When General Guo first banned opium, he participated in the search and arrest of opium dens and other secret smoking spots throughout the city.

Looking at the scene before me, smelling the pungent odor in the air, and the bitter and urine-like smell, there was no need to ask any further—this was opium!

"Cover your mouth and nose, don't inhale it yourself. Also, smoking is strictly prohibited here. Anyone who dares to light a fire here will be killed immediately."

Chief Zhang knows better than anyone the dangers of this stuff; once you get hooked, it won't stop until you die. Therefore, he absolutely cannot let his men make a mistake.

Zhang Xun responded with a "yes," quickly covered his mouth, and retreated. Once he was out of the secret passage, Zhang Xun immediately launched a signal flare into the sky.

We found it.

Guo Zixing was initially overjoyed, but then he was filled with lingering fear. Fortunately, he had not gotten involved with the Zheng family; otherwise, they might have used his name to commit even more heinous acts.

"Take down the entire Zheng family!"

Jiang Shen also received the signal and his face lit up with joy. "That's a wrap!"

After saying that, he led his men and immediately rushed to the warehouse.