Chapter 2 Task 4 of 5

  Qin Minghui received the report and felt slightly relieved, instructing: "Be sure to be careful, I have ordered the search personnel at the foot of the mountain to meet with you..."

  Lao Jiu was like a dog that had lost its home, abandoning the water snake and scrambling to escape from the valley. He finally let out a sigh of relief when he saw a small path and followed it, but soon discovered a large group of armed police and police officers in a line formation searching upwards from the foot of the mountain. With roadblocks ahead and pursuers behind, Lao Jiu panicked and wanted to leave the path, but the slope was covered with tall weeds and there was no way to walk. Without hesitation, Lao Jiu fled into the half-person-high weeds, hoping they would provide cover for him to escape the search.

  Liu Dajin contacted the search team led by Shandong, and the search party's cordon had been set up. It was almost certain that Lao Jiu was in a certain position within the cordon. As night began to fall, if they didn't find him before it got completely dark, Lao Jiu would still have a chance to escape under the cover of darkness. Liu Dajin couldn't help but feel anxious.

  "Head, we've got a situation!" suddenly came over the intercom from Cheng Teli, who was searching along the small path.

  Liu Dajin took three steps forward and ran two steps ahead. Cheng Te Li and Qin Xiaoyu were holding guns on high alert. Liu Dajin asked, "What's the situation?"

  Cheng Te pointed to the weeds by the side of the road, which were divided in two directions. This was a sign that someone had just passed this way.

  Liu Dajin looked at the small road and for a moment couldn't judge whether Lao Jiu had escaped along the small road or into the weeds.

  The waist-high weeds were not easy to search, and if the team was assembled to search this area of weeds at this time, Lao Jiu could escape from the encirclement by taking a small path as soon as he judged that something was wrong. However, it was already getting dark, and if they didn't search, they would have to spend another unbearable night.

  Peng Sizhe and other special police followed, waiting for Liu Dajin's decision. Liu Dajin looked up at the sky, Peng Sizhe roughly guessed his difficulty and quietly reminded him: "Boss, can we use a police dog?"

  This is a good way to avoid casualties. The search speed of police dogs is fast, as long as the police dog can drive people out, everything will be easy!

  The police dog handler listened to Liu Dajin's plan without a word. The police dog was his second life, and he understood the advantages of the police dog searching in such complex terrain. However, if the other side opened fire, the police dog would likely be sacrificed. In theory, the police dog team could refuse Liu Dajin's command, but he still squatted down silently, stroking the police dog's head, whispering "be careful" in its ear. He released the police dog and let it sniff the ground, pointing his hand towards the thicket of weeds, giving a single order: "Search!"

  Two police dogs rushed into the tall grass along the trail, only to see the tall grass swaying back and forth.

  Lao Jiu escaped into the tall grass, his continuous fleeing had left him seeing stars, and this kind of grass should be able to provide cover for him to catch his breath. He sat down in the grass with a thud, feeling all over his body, only to find that except for three guns, he didn't have any water or food. The handgun in front of his dazed eyes almost looked like a roasted chicken leg. He could only hope that night would fall soon, as only then would there be a glimmer of hope. Just as Lao Jiu was catching his breath, he suddenly saw the tall grass swaying violently, and his nerves, which had just relaxed, tensed up again. He crouched down, looking towards the swaying grass, which was getting closer and closer to him, but it didn't seem like a person - people's search speed wasn't that fast. Although he was starving and seeing stars, his judgment hadn't been lost yet. Lao Jiu suddenly realized that this was the movement of a police dog!

  He couldn't be unaware of the speed and power of a hundred-pound police dog, and the dense weeds made it impossible to see the exact position of the police dog. Firing blindly would undoubtedly expose himself, and at this time, escaping might still have a thread of survival opportunity! He could only lift his sore feet and continue to escape.

  Liu Dajin led the special police team into the tall grass, anxiously waiting for the search results of the police dog. More than ten minutes passed, and Liu Dajin heard the angry barking of the police dog in front!

  This is a police dog reporting its discovery. The anxious police dog instructor rushes ahead of Liu Da to run in the direction where the police dog is barking.

  Two police dogs surrounded the entrance of a cave, barking loudly towards the inside. Seeing that the police dogs were fine, the instructor felt relieved.

  Liu Dajin rushed to the cave and asked: "Can you confirm he's inside?"

  The instructor said confidently: "My dog is never wrong!"

  What depth the cave was, what terrain it had, Liu Dajin was completely unclear. Qin Xiaoyu opened a tactical flashlight, but Liu Dajin stopped him from entering. In this narrow space, the opponent could easily seal off the entrance. Liu Dajin arranged the special police in a guard formation at the entrance of the cave and shouted inward: "I know you're inside, Lao Jiu! We've already sealed off the entire mountain. There are over a dozen special police outside the cave now. You can't escape. Throwing out your gun and surrendering is your only way out..."

  The old nine who was forced into the cave by the police dog had nowhere to go. Just now, he tried to find another exit of the cave, but under the weak light of the lighter, he desperately found that this was a small cave, and both forks were dead ends. The special police had blocked the entrance of the cave, unless he could dig a tunnel like a mole, otherwise he would be trapped inside!

  He knew that he would be caught by the police and it would be a dead end, the police wanted to catch him alive just to extract information from his mouth, which was also an unacceptable result for him. Now he can only keep silent, hoping that the SWAT team will rush in and he can at least pull someone back as a shield...

  But Liu Dajin was not stupid. This kind of enclosed space was a blow to one's willpower, and all he needed to do was shout, after a while the people inside would collapse mentally...

  Lao Jiu was silent for over an hour, the sky had completely darkened, and the entrance of the cave occasionally flashed with a beam of light from a flashlight. His innate longing for brightness made him yearn to crawl out of the cave, but the consequence of crawling out would be spending the rest of his life in prison or even being sentenced to death. He was about to go crazy, finally unable to bear it, he fired several shots towards the entrance and shouted: "If you have the guts, come in and catch me... catch me!"

  Hearing Lao Jiu's voice, Liu Dajin felt relieved, now the problem is how to get him out...

  "Lao Jiu, you have nowhere to escape...!" Liu Dajin shouted again. Lao Jiu responded with a few bullets: "So much nonsense! If you have the ability, come in and catch me... I knew there would be today when I walked on this road..."

  The two sides confronted each other for another two hours, and all attempts to persuade him to surrender were in vain. They had no choice but to use force to flush him out. Cheng Te Li and Qin Xiao Yu raised their guns and fired two bursts into the cave. The bullets struck the hard walls of the cave, sparking a string of fire sparks. Lao Jiu felt that the special police were about to launch a strong attack, and he stared intently at the entrance of the cave with his eyes wide open. He opened the safety catch on his AK47, thinking that if he could take out one or two of them, it would be worth it...

  But Liu Dajin didn't want to launch a strong attack, the gunfire was just to attract his attention. Peng Sizhe and Gao Commander pulled out two tear gas grenades, with a forceful swing, they threw the tear gas grenades as far as possible into the depths of the cave near Lao Jiu's location. In the darkness, Lao Jiu couldn't see the tear gas grenades being thrown in from the entrance, he only heard "thud thud" two sounds, something fell around him, at first he thought it was a hand grenade, instinctively he pressed himself to the ground, but there was no explosion sound. In the darkness, he heard a hissing sound, soon after he started coughing violently.

  The arresting officers heard the coughing, formed a line at the entrance of the cave and waited for him to rush out to be caught. Unless they had gas masks, no one could withstand the power of tear gas for long.

  The strong attack he had been expecting turned out to be two tear gas grenades! Lao Jiu was already utterly hopeless... Taking advantage of the fact that he still had some consciousness left, he gritted his teeth, raised his pistol at his own head, and ruthlessly pulled the trigger...

  Outside the cave, the SWAT team heard a gunshot, but after more than ten minutes had passed, they still didn't see Lao Jiu rush out of the cave entrance, nor was there any coughing sound. Liu Dajin probably guessed what had happened inside and told Peng Sizhe and Gao Shuai to put on gas masks and go take a look...

  Under the spotlight of the flashlight, Peng Sizhe's eyes printed out a ferocious and blurry face with blood and brains, Lao Jiu was half leaning against the stone wall, his eyes wide open, brain pulp and blood flowing down the stone wall. This was Peng Sizhe's first time facing a dead person so closely, in such an enclosed environment, seeing this corpse made anyone uncomfortable, Commander Gao muttered behind his gas mask: "Nauseating..." and turned his face to one side.

  Peng Sizhe suppressed his nausea, picked up the gun that had slipped from Lao Jiu's hand, and Lao Jiu's empty eyes seemed to stare at him, making his heart skip a beat. Peng Sizhe took the gun in his hand, exited the cave, and handed it over to a SWAT officer who was waiting outside. Liu Dajin asked, "What's the situation?"

  Peng Sizhe lifted his gas mask and said, "I'm dead."

  Commander Gao followed closely behind, lifted his gas mask and shouted: "Water... give me a mouthful of water..." He needed something to push down the other things that were surging up in his throat... But after drinking only two mouthfuls of water, his churning stomach still managed to spew out the little acid it had left... Commander Gao hugged the tree at the edge of the cave and vomited until he was empty.

  Finally finished vomiting, Qin Xiaoyu handed over a jug of water: "Are you serious... isn't it just a dead person..."

  "Go in and take a look..." Commander Gao was furious: "I've never seen anyone die so disgustingly..."

  "You speak as if you've seen several..."

  Just as General Gao was about to counterattack, the brain matter and blood in his mind triggered a reaction in his stomach again, so he had to go hug that tree and vomit again...

  Finally exhausted, Commander Gao also became like a limp eggplant, with his gun slung diagonally across his chest, but he leaned softly against the tree. Peng Sizhe patted him on the back: "Want to take a sip of water?"

  It's not easy to recover, and the high commander doesn't dare drink water anymore. He shook his head and said: "Peng Sixhe, why aren't you vomiting? I've vomited out all the milk I drank over 20 years ago..."

  The team arrived at the cave, and the special police team was able to withdraw back to the mountain village. The civilian police in charge of logistics quickly handed out boxed lunches to the special police officers, who were already famished. Some stood or squatted down to hastily fill their stomachs with something. Commander Gao opened his boxed lunch, staring blankly at the tofu and sweet and sour pork ribs inside, as the scene from earlier replayed in his mind, leaving him completely without appetite...

  "Why aren't you eating?" Peng Sizhe asked.

  "Oh no...... Do I have to spit out all the amniotic fluid?......" Commander Gao sighed and decided to starve, covering the boxed lunch and putting it aside.

  They got on the transport vehicle, and the special police officers were overcome with fatigue. There was no excitement or discussion like there usually was after completing a task. Everyone leaned back in their seats to rest. By the time they returned to the special police team, it was already the second half of the night. It wasn't until then that Peng Siche remembered his brother's interview. It was too late now, and he could only wait until tomorrow to go find Liu Dajin and De Shu.