Chapter Twelve: The Iron Stream Rolls Westward, Sweeping Across the Journey

  Until the second day, except for eating, it was still waiting indoors until 1 pm, and finally waited for the departure time.

  A whole train, sixteen cars. More than 600 prisoners, more than 200 armed guards and prison police are ready to depart. The officer on duty gives the order to count the number of people, preparing to start the train in an orderly manner. After finishing counting, a cadre named Ma Haitao from the troops rushes to the front of Commander-in-Chief Ma Wanzhi and reports loudly: "Reporting to the commander-in-chief, a certain unit has completed the assembly and preparation for transporting prisoners, with 836 people present as required, and 836 people actually present. Please instruct whether to start the train!"

  The commander returned the salute and shouted loudly: "Attention, alert! Start organizing the rickshaw!"

  As they boarded the train, Ye Haodong and Ji Chenggang gathered together in car number eight, along with Jin Rongzhe. The seasoned traveler Gong Maoxiang was also in this carriage, and he even exchanged greetings with Ye Haodong after boarding. Ye Haodong beckoned him over, intending to chat with him for a bit longer.

  The carriages were initially in disarray, with several heavily shackled prisoners slowing down the entire group's boarding speed. The squad leader, responsible for organizing, angrily rushed over and struck one of the prisoners on the shoulder with his rifle butt. Several people immediately perked up and endured the 36-jin (about 18 kg) weight of their restraints as they quickened their pace.

  Ye Haodong asked Gong Maoxiang: "What's going on with these people?"

  Gong Maoxiang glanced at the prison guard in charge of escorting and quietly told him: "These people are all serious criminals, deprived of their political rights for life. They have no hope for this group, fearing that they will go out and make trouble, and being shackled is a precaution."

  "What can someone like him do even if he is sent?"

  Gong Maoxiang chuckled: "When you get there, you'll know. They're nothing special, just small potatoes. The prison guards and management officials over there are all transferred from the military, each one more ruthless than the last. If you encounter a relatively easy-going management official when you get there, it's not so bad. But if you run into a crazy one, you'll be in for a world of trouble."

  "What is epilepsy?"

  "It's just crazy and abnormal. Once they encounter a person who has been arrested, they rush up like they've been injected with chicken blood."

  All personnel boarded the train, and with a single order from the commander-in-chief, the train slowly started moving, heading towards the Great West.

  On the train, when passing through Gangcheng, Ye Haodong reluctantly looked out of the window and silently bid farewell to his hometown. When the train entered Gangcheng Station, Hong Yuzhou and Jiang Wei were also standing on the platform, apparently intending to see off Ye Haodong. All the way west, stopping only once a day to replenish supplies, the first stop was Jincheng, a city marking the border. At Jincheng Station, Ye Haodong and the prisoners on the train saw with their own eyes the soldiers standing upright on both sides of the station, armed and dressed in steel helmets, their military uniforms neat and tidy, exuding an aura that could be seen at a glance as belonging to elite troops. The crowd of prisoners on the train were all stunned into silence.

  "Let's all get some rest, we'll have plenty to see when we arrive in Lanzhou. The First Army of the world, its prestige and killing aura, tsk tsk, that's what I call the elite of the elite."

  In the carriage, the prison guard patrolled back and forth seriously, preventing the prisoners from whispering to each other and preventing them from colluding with each other. The person in charge of this carriage, Gao Wei, walked over and asked in a low voice: "Are you Ye Haodong?"

  Ye Haodong nodded in surprise.

  "Come with me."

  In the corridor of the train, Gao Wei whispered to Ye Haodong: "I and Qi Zhendong are classmates, he introduced me to find you, I need your help now."

  Ye Haodong said in the same tone: "What do you need me to do, you tell me."

  Gao Wei: "Keep an eye on the suspects and see if there's any collusion or abnormal behavior between them. If you find anything, please let me know immediately. I know you call this 'pointing guns', but in extraordinary times, I hope you can understand that this is for everyone's good. Once things get out of control, our troops at the back will use heavy weapons, and by then, the entire train carriage will be in danger."

  Ye Haodong nodded and said nothing, quietly returning to his own seat.

  The train advanced in a dull manner, leaving Shanhai Pass and heading straight west. The entire route is expected to pass through seven provinces, including Liaoning, Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Qinghai, and Xinjiang, with a total distance of over 4,000 kilometers. It will take five days in total to reach the destination.

  When the train entered Shanxi Province, something suddenly happened in the front carriage. The prison guards on Ye Haodong's side immediately took action, taking out electric batons and beating the prisoners who were trying to squeeze over to see what was happening. Later, the disturbance on that side was quickly brought under control. Gao Wei came in quietly and told Ye Haodong that a few prisoners had taken advantage of going to the toilet to dismantle several metal pressure bars from the glass window, fortunately they were discovered early and the situation was quickly brought under control. The few prisoners who tried to cause trouble had already been taken away by the soldiers, and it's estimated that they won't have a good outcome.

  The prisoners in the car all heard the news and whispered to each other, but this time the prison guards did not stop them.

  Hu Guangli was shackled and locked in the carriage near the prison guard's duty room, from the moment he got on the train, he remained silent, not saying a word to anyone. Ye Haodong noticed him because this guy was too silent, it was a silence that bred explosion, making Ye Haodong feel dangerous. A prisoner with sixty-four kilograms of shackles on his body was already more eye-catching than others, let alone this guy who was so calm and quiet, vastly different from other prisoners who were also in shackles and constantly cursing and complaining.

  The train entered Longcheng and began to replenish supplies. Ten minutes later, just as the train was about to depart, Hu Guangli suddenly said he wanted to use the restroom. Under the escort of a prison guard, he walked into the toilet with great difficulty, dragging his heavy shackles. The guard stood at the door, and they were temporarily locked together by an iron chain. Ye Haodong had been paying attention to Hu Guangli's movements from time to time, and suddenly found that there was no one in that position. He quickly got up and walked to Gao Wei's side, asking: "Where is the person with the largest shackles?"

  Gao Wei: "You went to the bathroom, didn't you? Xiao Li accompanied you. What's wrong?"

  Ye Haodong nodded: "He's too calm, that prison uniform seems to be on someone else's body. On such a hot day, how can he not be annoyed at all? I guess he's making up his mind to do something big, so his thoughts are all on that."

  Gao Wei quickly glanced towards the toilet, and saw Xiao Li standing at the door, still holding the chain. He finally felt at ease. He said to Ye Haodong: "Are you being too cautious? Xiao Li is watching him, with such heavy shackles on his body, what big waves can he stir up?"

  In the toilet, Hu Guangli spat out a small piece of soap he had hidden under his tongue, quickly drank a mouthful of water from the flushing toilet, and then held the soap in his mouth. Soon, a lot of foam came out, which he carefully applied to his wrists and ankles.

  Ye Haodong thought of something and asked Gao Wei: "How long has he been in there?"

  Gao Wei also felt that the time was a bit too long, he got up and walked towards the toilet, Ye Haodong followed him. In the toilet, Hu Guangli finally took off the last piece of shackles, his shrinking bone skill combined with soap suds, finally allowed him to get rid of the handcuffs. Gao Wei walked into Xiaoli, asking: "What's going on, why did he stay in there for so long?"

  Xiao Li: "The chain is still attached, I just heard him whistling." As he spoke, he pulled on the chain, but it came loose in his hand. The other end of the chain was an empty handcuff. Gao Wei and Xiao Li's faces changed simultaneously, and they hastily pushed open the toilet door, only to see a giant pair of shackles left inside. The window was open just a crack, not enough for an adult to squeeze through. At this moment, the train was slowly starting to move, having just left the station and entered an area outside the control of the local garrison. The speed had not yet picked up, making it the perfect time to escape.

  Gao Wei and Xiao Li immediately left the toilet, Gao Wei picked up the walkie-talkie to report to his superiors, while Xiao Li stood by nervously with nothing to do. It seemed that the prisoner's shrinking bone technique was indeed very powerful, able to squeeze out of such a small gap. Xiao Li suddenly thought that the prisoner might not have gone far yet, so he took out the key to lock the window and opened it to look outside, but saw nothing. Ye Haodong followed closely behind, but was stopped halfway by a prison guard who asked him a question, so he arrived a step later than Gao Wei. Now he also walked over, and the scene was clear at a glance, but Ye Haodong's thoughts were completely different from those of Gao Wei and Xiao Li. He carefully observed the situation in the toilet, then suddenly looked up to see Hu Guangli supporting himself with his hands and feet on the top of the toilet, hanging there like a strange bat spanning the ceiling. As soon as Ye Haodong saw him, Hu Guangli was startled and could no longer hide, his body slid towards the window opened by Xiao Li like a fish, head first and feet last. Ye Haodong grabbed his right foot just in time before he completely slipped out.