20 years of the Republic of China

Chapter 575: A War Without Kindness and Justice (Ten) [Thanks to the support of the leader of wYL! ]

French Concession, Edoardo Road.

The moon was setting in the west, it was already the second half of the night, and the Great World Casino finally began to become deserted.

The circus performances had long ended, and only restaurants, dance halls, and other businesses that were not suitable for public viewing and not suitable for children were still open.

There were few people on the streets, and only occasional bursts of laughter could be heard from roadside stalls and late-night snack stalls.

Under the neon lights, Lao Jie, dressed in a suit and tie, carrying a suitcase, led the other two Jiang family members and walked slowly up the stairs into the hall inside the Great World.

As soon as I entered the door, Li Jae-soon came towards me.

The two parties walked towards each other, no one spoke, just exchanged glances briefly, and then hurriedly said goodbye tacitly.

Lao Jie and the others walked up the stairs and when they reached the second-floor platform, they also nodded to each other and then quickly dispersed.

At this time, the dance hall was still full of beautiful women and many guests were discussing the news that happened on the streets tonight.

Lao Jie walked around the dance hall and went straight to the bathroom at the end of the corridor.

He entered the cubicle, closed the door, locked the bolt, and then placed the suitcase he was carrying on the toilet.

When I opened it, I found a brand new waiter uniform inside, including a white shirt, suit pants, black bow tie, and silver-gray vest...

Lao Jie checked the time twice, then slowly took off his suit, put on a uniform, applied hair wax, combed his hair back, and did his best to dress himself up as a submissive and smiling waiter.

Finally, he took out a tray from his suitcase, picked up a glass, held it in the air, looked at it carefully for a moment, finally unbuttoned the leather buckle, and gulped down half a glass.

After about ten minutes of busy chattering, Lao Jie finally came out of the bathroom holding the tray in one hand.

However, he did not run directly to the dance hall, but turned and ran towards a narrow corridor behind the dance hall.

Along the way, he always had a smile on his face and nodded to every guest who passed by him. Even when he accidentally met two waiters, he did not blush or breathe heavily. He looked like a newcomer in the industry. Although it was a bit confusing, he did not arouse suspicion.

After turning into the narrow corridor and walking for a while, Lao Jie successfully found a secret room inside the big world.

From the outside, this secret room looks like a hotel room.

However, there were two young men who looked like bodyguards standing outside the door, looking around arrogantly. When they saw Lao Jie coming, they immediately stepped forward and raised their hands to stop him.

"Hey, what are you doing?"

Both of them spoke with a thick Cantonese accent.

Lao Jie nodded and smiled, saying, "Oh, I'm here to deliver some wine."

"Send wine?" The two looked at each other suspiciously, "We didn't even order any wine, why are you sending us wine?"

Lao Jie frowned, but asked, "No order?"

"Who are you asking? Don't we know whether we ordered any wine or not? Get out of here!" The two men spoke in a bad tone and raised their hands to chase them away.

Lao Jie scratched his head and said to himself, "Did I send it to the wrong place? That shouldn't be the case. The person just now clearly asked me to send it to Mr. Cheng's room..."

Hearing this, the two brothers' expressions suddenly changed. They hurried forward two steps, called Lao Jie, and asked, "Hey, stop! What did you mean by that? Who ordered the wine for Mr. Cheng? Bring it here so we can see it!"

At this critical juncture, the more panicked you are, the easier it is to be exposed.

Fortunately, Lao Jie was also an expert in liver work, and facing the other party's questioning, he still put on a big carrot face, neither red nor white, and told a bunch of pre-arranged lies on the spot, which scared the two men and they immediately started to ask questions.

One of them, before he even finished listening, had already concluded that there was something wrong with the glass of wine, so he immediately picked it up and sniffed it twice.

Unexpectedly, just as he brought the wine glass to his front, he felt a foul odor going up his nostrils to the top of his head. He almost vomited on the spot. His expression changed, and he raised his hand to splash the liquid in the glass on Lao Jie's face.

Unexpectedly, at this moment, a crisp "pop" sound suddenly came from somewhere!
Everyone saw darkness before their eyes, and accompanied by bursts of exclamations, the entire Great World Casino was suddenly plunged into darkness.

There was a sudden power outage in the room, and everyone was stunned for a moment.

Only Lao Jie is different.

He had already calculated the timing for the power outage. As soon as the lights dimmed, the tray in his hand slipped off and he quickly took out his pistol. At such a close distance, he pulled the trigger before the two Cantonese gang members could react.

"boom!"

"boom!"

"Clap!"

Two Cantonese gang members fell to the ground.

With the sound of a glass cup falling to the ground and shattering, Lao Jie didn't have time to hesitate for a moment. He immediately strode forward, turned to the door of the secret room, raised his knees and kicked hard. In the dim light, there was a loud "clang" and the door of the secret room was broken open.

The room was filled with smoke, and there were two low beds, one on the left and one on the right.

Without the electric lighting, the room should have been pitch black, but unfortunately there were two cigarette lamps on the table, which dimly illuminated the outlines of the figures.

Cheng Maoling of the Guangdong Gang and Captain Lan of the British Concession Police Station were just smoking opium in the house while discussing trivial matters such as how power and money should be distributed when the Guangdong Gang changes its leader in the future.

Cheng Maoling has never been good at fighting, so he naturally never participated in any fights. The battle between the Guangdong Gang and the assassination of Zhang Xiaolin had just happened not long ago, and he had not heard any news about them.

Captain Lan originally worked in the British Concession. As the situation in Shanghai was turbulent tonight, he was only in the Old Town and the French Concession, so he naturally had some free time. In addition, the administration in the British Concession was relatively strict, so whenever he wanted to satisfy his craving for cigarettes, he could only come to the French Concession to have fun.

The two were originally chatting and smoking in the secret room, as if they were in a fog, but unexpectedly there was a power outage, and two gunshots were heard outside the door. Captain Lan's heart skipped a beat and he was about to get up and take out his gun for defense, but he was too drunk to handle the smoke, and just as he sat up, he saw the door had burst open!

"who!?"

The two men cried out in unison, but were only answered with a series of gunshots.

"Bang bang bang!"

"Bang bang bang!"

Lao Jie pulled the trigger one after another, first killing Captain Lan and then Cheng Maoling. Both of them were hit twice in the chest, and then were shot through the head one by one!
After the gunshots, the Great World Casino suddenly fell into a brief silence.

It was as if everything was extinguished, and there was complete silence.

Lao Jie took advantage of the brief opportunity, put away his gun, and quickly left the secret room.

After running a few steps, I saw shadowy figures at the end of the corridor, and three or five curious onlookers had gathered.

It was just that the light was dim and it was hard to see what was happening here, so there was a lot of whispering and speculation. Old Jie was experienced and knew that he couldn't flee in panic at this time, so he just quickened his pace slightly and walked out of the corridor as if nothing had happened.

The onlookers were all a little frightened, and subconsciously dispersed to the left and right, leaving a path for him. They watched Lao Jie hurriedly leave in shock and suspicion. In the dim light, they were unable to see Lao Jie's face clearly, but as he walked by, they tremblingly asked:
"Um...what was that sound just now?"

Lao Jie did not answer, but hurried down the stairs. After reuniting with the other two brothers, he hurriedly left Shanghai World.

As I was about to leave, I heard screams of terror gradually coming from behind me.

"Someone's dead! Someone's dead! It must have been that guy who fired the gun just now!"

"Who died? Who died?"

"Where have all the police gone? Go call the police!"

Soon, all the guests, managers and waiters in the Great World ran downstairs and rushed to the street outside the gate to take shelter.

However, despite everyone's panic and screams, they still couldn't see the figure of Lao Chai from the police station nearby.

It's no wonder that for some reason, all the phones in the Great World Casino could not be dialed.

On the other hand, Lao Chai from the police station was already extremely busy tonight.

In particular, the patrolmen of the robber squad were first inexplicably transferred to Edoya Road to guard against the Cantonese gang entering the French Concession; then there came news of unrest at Shilipu Wharf; as soon as they arrived at Shilipu, they received news of a fight at the Anhui Hometown Association Hall.

It was really like suppressing one problem but creating another. He was working non-stop and running around to various crime scenes.

Even the Annan patrol officers from other departments such as the field unit were gradually transferred to various places to provide support.

It's not that all the old men in the police station are incompetent, but that they have different responsibilities. One is a troublemaker and the other is a maintainer. They always have to respond passively, and all the cases happen one after another within just a few hours, so they are led around by the nose.

More importantly, among the old chai in the police station, quite a number of officers do not take these cases seriously, but instead assign many capable detectives to search everywhere for the old man's whereabouts.

Therefore, it was not until more than half an hour later that the police officers rushed over to the shooting incident at the Great World.

…………

The long night will eventually end, and dawn will come again in the blink of an eye.

At dawn the next day, when the sky was just beginning to brighten and the east was still hazy and chaotic, the senior police officers from both the Chinese and Western communities had already held separate meetings.

The French Concession Police Chief Salle was furious on the spot. He first convened a high-level police meeting and then planned to go to the front line, personally deploy the troops, crack down on the gangs and thoroughly put an end to the gang riots.

The first available person that flashed through Salli's mind was naturally the famous Chinese detective - Huang Ma Pi!

So, he hurriedly sent someone to call Inspector Huang over for questioning.

Unexpectedly, the reply I got was: Inspector Huang has caught a cold and is bedridden. I'm sorry I can't obey your orders.

This really pissed off Mr. Yang. He immediately flew into a rage and yelled, "I don't care what disease Huang Jinyong has. As long as he's still alive, he has to come see me today. If I'm held accountable by the Municipal Council, he won't have to work as a detective anymore!"

Dozens of gang members died in the French Concession in just one night. This was undoubtedly a huge scandal for the French.

Sarli was very angry about this.

If the public security in the French Concession is not as good as that in the Old City, how will the superiority of the foreigners be demonstrated in the long run?

How should we promote the argument that "the Far East is more prosperous under the governance of foreigners" in the future?
The Municipal Council also issued an ultimatum to the French police, demanding that the police arrest the culprit as soon as possible. Therefore, Salley sent out numerous detectives and secret agents to secretly contact various secret societies, business gangs, social organizations, and hometown associations in Shanghai...

In short, they use coercion and inducement, and use all means to get to the bottom of things and trace the source.

There is no wall that is impenetrable. Under such a massive investigation, it seems that the work of uncovering the cause of the recent public security chaos in Shanghai and catching the culprit is just around the corner.

…………

At the same time, the highest police office in the Chinese community in Shanghai was also greatly shaken by the kidnapping case at Xintaijie and the stabbing case at Guanghe Building last night.

Chief Xu of the Songhu Police Department was furious and felt ashamed. He immediately ordered that all means should be used to solve the case as quickly as possible.

Although this Commander Xu is in charge of police affairs in name, he also holds the rank of lieutenant general. In reality, he is the representative of the direct warlord Qi Dujun's power in Shanghai. He has 7,000 patrolmen under his command. Although they are called patrolmen, they are actually soldiers in other people's clothes!
He was not interested in caring about the so-called public security issues, but he was very interested in leading troops into the city under the guise of rectifying public security, expanding his influence in Shanghai, and at the same time squeezing out He Fenglin, the Songhu Guard Commander who came from the Anhui faction.

For a time, hundreds of detectives and patrol police from both the Chinese and foreign communities worked together to conduct open and secret investigations, and to pursue and intercept the criminals, vowing to give the people an "explanation."

…………

As for the major gangs, the whereabouts of the famous underworld leader Huang Ma Pi is unknown. This incident has caused unrest in the Huang Mansion, but it is inconvenient to make it public.

Although Huang Ma Pi's disciples tried every possible way to block the news, the French police could not find Inspector Huang, and all kinds of rumors spread like wildfire, becoming difficult to control.

Of course, while the news was blocked here, they were also trying their best to find the whereabouts of Huang Jute Pi.

So far, the most reliable clue is the phone call Huang Mansion received last night.

So Erqing took a few tight-lipped disciples of the Huang Sect and immediately went to the telegraph and telephone office to check the connection records of the Huang Mansion.

After several investigations, the telephone operator quickly came to the conclusion:

"The call that Huang's residence received was made from the French Concession, at a small warehouse in the northwest corner. The person who opened the phone service was named Shi Liancheng. He seemed to be doing department store business in Fengtian and came to Shanghai to work as a buyer."

Once you know the exact news, it becomes much easier to investigate further.

Erqing immediately contacted his connections in the French Police Station and, with two teams of patrol officers and several detectives, he finally arrived at the warehouse in the northwest corner of the French Concession before daybreak.

Everyone was armed with guns and had serious expressions. Although they did not hold out much hope, they were fully prepared to rescue Huang Ma Pi.

But unexpectedly, when the warehouse door was opened with a "clang", a disgusting fishy smell suddenly hit my nose!

Erqing and others covered their mouths and noses with their hands and looked into the warehouse in the dim light of morning. However, they saw only blood on the ground but no corpse.

Just when I was wondering where the stench came from, a detective suddenly raised his hand and pointed, shouting, "It's up there!"

Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and were startled at the sight. Suddenly they saw seven or eight people hanging upside down from the beams, their stomachs ripped open and their organs scattered everywhere. At this moment, they were like wind chimes, swaying and fluttering in the morning breeze.

Looking closely at those faces, there are Yan Chaosheng, Captain Jiao, and Agent Mei Bao...

There was a rope hanging from the beam. Erqing and the others already knew who it was for...

(End of this chapter)