Chapter 839
: Alarming the Snake
“Another option is to follow our previous plan, not rush to go through with the authorities, but finish most of the work privately before considering closing in!” Wu Keji said in a deep voice.
"Hmm! Now we have two more cards in our hand, and Lao Ji has also given in! What do we do next?" Yue Feng nodded and continued to ask.
From Yue Feng's personal perspective, he is not inclined to resolve the matter directly through official channels.
Because he himself was also involved in Lei Laohu's death, this matter, despite their absolute right, could not be brought to light.
Moreover, Qiao Muzhou has repeatedly bared his teeth at Yue Feng, and now the relationship between the two sides is extremely hostile, to the point of no return.
Putting the other person in jail might give them a chance to get out, but it's never as safe as killing them outright.
Grandpa Wu said with a smile, "Now we just wait for Xiao Chen's intelligence! As soon as we find Qiao Muzhou's hideout, I'll give him a good scare!"
"To stir up trouble?"
"That's right! If he doesn't make any mistakes and cleans up his mess, and his men stay calm and don't blame him, then we officials can't really do anything about him unless we resort to private torture!"
Now that Ji has turned against us, we can make a fuss about it!
Spread the word, and use a combination of coaxing and deception to alert Qiao Muzhou!
Once Qiao Muzhou believes it, he will definitely take action!
His two sons are no pushovers; they'll definitely do everything in their power to get their father out of trouble!
Upon hearing this, Yue Feng scratched his head and asked, "And then? What do we get in return?"
"Once he takes action, he will most likely try to find someone to take the blame and settle things peacefully!"
Old Ji has already noticed his elder brother's cold-bloodedness, so naturally he won't take the blame! Guess what Qiao Muzhou will do?
Furthermore, now that the conflict is out in the open, the connections behind the Qiao family will definitely come to light!
Who would dare to protect them? We and Young Master Ye now have a clear objective!
"When the time comes, have Xiao Chen report the personnel to the Ye family. We won't need to worry about things within the system; that's a different set of rules!"
Hearing this, Yue Feng understood.
One of the purposes of all of Mr. Wu's schemes was to force the other party to do something drastic so that they would voluntarily hand over their "handle".
After Yue Feng understood this, he nodded: "Okay, there are quite a few tricks to this! You oversee it, and I'll listen to you the whole time!"
"I heard you say last time that you have a pretty good relationship with the forest police?" Wu Keji asked Yue Feng.
“Yeah! I’ve always kept in touch with the captain of the forest police, and I know all the squadron leaders down there too! I can also talk to Old Du from the Forestry Bureau!” Yue Feng said, counting on his fingers as he answered Grandpa Wu’s question.
"Okay, I get it!"
"it is good!"
……
After a brief chat with Grandpa Wu about serious matters, the conversation was temporarily put to rest.
If there's something to say, say it at length; if not, say it briefly. It's now the morning of the second day.
Around nine o'clock, Brother Chen drove over from the city.
As soon as this high-ranking member of the Embroidered Uniform Guard entered, Yue Feng immediately came out to greet him and led him into the living room to serve him tea.
Old Chen didn't hesitate and handed Yue Feng a piece of A4-sized kraft paper filled with all sorts of detailed information.
"This is the information that Mr. Wu wanted to know last time. I asked my colleagues to help me investigate it all!"
"That Qiao Muzhou is quite cunning. He changed his residence immediately. My colleague followed him and it took a lot of effort, but luckily we still found him!" Old Chen said calmly.
Yue Feng took the information and handed it to Grandpa Wu: "Thank you, Brother Chen! Grandpa, is there anything else you need to know?"
Wu Keji took the parchment, examined it carefully for a long time, and then looked up and said, "Brother Chen is indeed incredibly resourceful. Xiao Feng and I were just about to ask you for more information when your people found out directly!"
Old Chen took a sip of his tea: "Master Wu is talking about the Qiao family's smuggling dealings with the border, right?"
"Yes, Xiaofeng and I just learned this information from another source!"
Qiao Muzhou's two sons are secretly involved in smuggling and are flirting with the Russians across the border!
Old Chen nodded: "Indeed, I've checked with internal channels, and some of the information was already being gathered by our people! The timing isn't quite right yet, so we're not in a rush to close the net!"
"Is the timing not right? If we make a scene here, will it affect the plans of our comrades?"
Grandpa Wu, being observant, immediately asked.
Old Chen glanced at Wu Keji, very satisfied with the other's sense of propriety, and said unhurriedly, "It would be a lie to say that it has no impact at all, but there are priorities in things."
If necessary, we will take action. When I was gathering intelligence, I gave my colleague a heads-up, and he should have been prepared in advance!
Now that the intelligence gathering is almost complete, I wonder what Mr. Wu plans to do next?
I still have plenty of time. Before I came, Young Master Ye specifically told me to make sure I handled this matter thoroughly before going back!
Upon hearing this, Wu Keji smiled slightly and said, "We have turned Qiao Muzhou's brother, Lao Ji, against us!"
This man killed two of the pack animals from the Thunder Tiger Hunting Team just to clean up his mess!
We have information about his murder, as well as photographic evidence!
Through this evidence, I learned an important piece of information from him: he hadn't destroyed the bodies of the three white-skinned men, but had hidden them in a tree hollow. I've already determined the location, and we'll be able to verify it when he returns this afternoon!
"Oh? This is an unexpected bonus! With these corpses as evidence, it seems like we can just have Young Master Ye make a call and arrest them directly through the authorities!" Old Chen said calmly.
Wu Keji shook his head and continued, "Qiao Muzhou has two sons. With this evidence, we can at most arrest one, and even arresting just one is not a sure thing!"
They are brothers. If it comes down to it that someone has to make a tough decision, someone will definitely have to take the blame!
In fact, Qiao Muzhou would even take all the blame himself so that his two sons could be exonerated!
These charges are at their maximum penalty; the ringleader faces the death penalty, while accomplices will at most get ten or twenty years at most!
Upon hearing this, Old Chen's brow twitched slightly, but his heart was already churning with turmoil.
Wu Keji's meaning was very clear: putting them in jail was not the goal; the real goal was to wipe out the three members of the Qiao family and then make them all eat peanuts.
"You mean..." Old Chen didn't finish his sentence, giving Wu Keji a long, meaningful look.
“Yes! Just like you think! This isn’t enough! I need to give it a push!” Wu Keji nodded and continued.
"I understand! If you need anything, please have Xiaofeng continue to communicate with me, and I will try my best to cooperate!"
Wu Keji said, "You also have information about the Qiao family's backing. What does Young Master Ye say about this?"
"We'll do what needs to be done, and it certainly won't hinder our plans!"
"Okay, let's move on to the next step!"
"no problem!"
……
After a lively conversation with a wise man, Old Chen stayed at Yue Feng's house for less than an hour and a half before saying goodbye again and leaving.
Yue Feng could understand most of what the two were saying, but there was still a small amount of information that he found a little confusing. However, that was no longer important.
After seeing Old Chen off, Wu Keji immediately called Yue Feng to gather Xiao Hui and the others together.
That noon, Xiao Hui, along with two other brothers, followed Yue Feng to Qiao Muzhou's old home in the village and his previous residence in the city to 'find him'.
Meanwhile, through Lin Hongjian's connections, Yue Feng arranged for Zhao Kai, the captain of the forest police squadron, to lead a raid on Qiao Wentao's warehouse where he stored smuggled goods.
Yue Feng didn't take anyone to Qiao Muzhou's latest residence, so he naturally didn't catch Qiao Muzhou himself. However, the information that Yue Feng had taken people to his hometown home quickly reached the ears of the Qiao family.
In addition, Zhao Kai also made a considerable haul from the Qiao family's smuggling warehouse.
Fox pelts, mink pelts, salted fish, and salmon from Russia filled more than half the warehouse.
In addition, some Chinese food, strong liquor, candy, tea, and other supplies that were prepared in China but had not yet been shipped out of the country were also seized.
That evening, Qiao Muzhou learned about the situation at home and in the warehouse from his eldest son, Qiao Wentao.
In an instant, Qiao Muzhou knew that Yue Feng's counterattack was coming!
The Qiao family has been operating in the area for many years. Although they cannot be considered a prominent family, they have many intricate connections.
Take this smuggling business for example, there are quite a few 'high-level' people who hold shares in it.
In the past, during holidays and festivals, everything was well-organized and peaceful, and nothing ever went wrong. Even if there were inspections or something, the Qiao family would receive the news in advance and make preparations well, so nothing ever happened.
But now, things have turned out differently. The largest warehouse has been raided, and all those informants seem to have suddenly become ineffective.
The situation is not looking good.
Qiao Muzhou's latest destination.
On the heated kang, Qiao Muzhou sat cross-legged. On the kang table were fried peanuts, cold pork head meat salad, sauerkraut stewed tofu, and a plate of fried ribbonfish.
The four dishes were of a high standard, and despite the fact that they were trying to avoid trouble, they were still living a very good life.
"Dad! Our warehouse has been raided! I found out that Lin Hongjian arranged for Zhao Kai to lead the raid! None of the leaders from the various departments have said a word! When I called them, they were all avoiding us!" Qiao Wentao said to his father in a deep voice as he sat on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed).
Qiao Muzhou picked up his wine cup, took a sip, popped a peanut into his mouth, and said while eating, "Let him investigate! We took their lives, and they survived, so it's only right that we pay a price!"
"What's next? I heard from home that Yue Feng brought people to your hometown to look for you during the day! It looks like he's not going to let this go!"
Qiao Muzhou was mentally prepared for this. Back home, only his elderly mother and wife were there, and according to the rules of the underworld, one shouldn't harm one's wife and children. Therefore, Qiao Muzhou wasn't afraid of Yue Feng playing dirty tricks.
Qiao Muzhou said, "Now we just have to wait patiently!"
Those people arrested at the warehouse, are they all keeping their mouths shut?
If they need to, they should ask someone to pass on a message; if they need to find someone to handle things, they should find someone to handle things! As long as they don't implicate you and your second brother, losing some money is acceptable!
Ideally, we should make the arrested people take the blame! As long as they can get through this, we still have a chance!
"Even if Yue Feng and his gang have connections in the capital, they're far from the capital. Do you really think we're afraid of them on our own little patch of land? If they push us too far, I'll just spend some money to hire a few more people and kill them!" Qiao Wentao said somewhat unhappily.
Qiao Muzhou shook his head: "It's not as easy as you think! The Russians we brought in from outside all failed!"
This time, Lao Zou, Lao Ji, and I underestimated the situation. We never expected that Yue Feng, at such a young age, would have so much experience and skills in the mountains!
Our connections within the local officialdom have all gone cold; this is a bad sign!
The person behind Yue Feng must have intervened!
If the conflict is escalated further at this point, the only outcome will be a fight to the death!
This is not in our interest, so we can't do it!
According to your Uncle Ji, he burned the bodies of those three Russians. Now Yue Feng wants to fight us through the authorities, but he doesn't have any solid evidence!
Let's give him a chance to vent his anger. Once he's calmed down a bit, we can find a mediator to reconcile. There should still be room for negotiation!
"We've already sent people to kill them, do you think they'll make peace with us now?"
Qiao Wentao looked extremely puzzled when he heard his father's words.
Qiao Muzhou picked up another piece of pig's head meat and stuffed it into his mouth, saying slowly and deliberately, "This is a misunderstanding!"
I'm retired at home now, and I don't care about worldly affairs anymore. What does it have to do with me? It's all the messes up by my subordinates!
"When the time comes, we'll find someone to take the blame, give the other party an explanation, and pay some compensation. That'll make it all go away!"
"You mean, let my Uncle Ji..." Qiao Wentao hesitated for a moment after hearing his father's words.
"This is the only way! Old Ji has been with our family for so many years, and he has benefited a lot from both our family and the outside world. It's time for him to give his all for us after all this time of training.
"At worst, I'll just give my family some money later!" Qiao Muzhou said casually, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"But……"
"No buts. If you're going to make it in society, you're bound to have this day sooner or later!"
If one day we can't hold on any longer and the three of us get arrested, I, as the father, will definitely take the blame for everything and pave the way for you two brothers to get a chance!
Similarly, if anything happens to you two brothers, you'll have to take the blame for your younger brother so that the Qiao family can avoid falling from power!
After listening to his father's meaningful yet matter-of-fact words, Qiao Wentao paused for a few seconds before continuing to ask, "What if Uncle Ji doesn't agree?"
"He won't do it? Then let him shut up forever and take the blame! We'll even save on a resettlement fee!" Qiao Muzhou said in a cold tone.
Qiao Muzhou felt that the situation was still under his control, but after hearing his father's words, Qiao Wentao was already on the verge of losing his composure.
From the moment he started working, Lao Ji was the old man's right-hand man, and they were practically family.
At this stage, the old man has already come up with plans for the next phase.
"If we really follow this approach, what will others think of our family? No one will be willing to risk their lives for us anymore!" Qiao Wentao swallowed hard and continued to ask.
Qiao Muzhou put down his chopsticks and gave his son a deep look: "If someone falls into a well, do you think two ears can hold them up?"
What I just described was a relatively ideal situation.
If the situation worsens and Yue Feng becomes relentless, we'll have no hope of turning the tide.
If it doesn't work, we'll just leave.
Over the years, our family has saved up some money. With that money, we can go to the border and, relying on our old connections, achieve something great! (End of Chapter)