Jiang Yuan and the others arrived early and found a small restaurant. They set up a dirty table and started drinking tea and waiting for the dispatch ahead.

From his position, Xu Taining's white shirt was particularly eye-catching a few hundred meters away.

The vehicles on both sides of the road were never in short supply.

Most of the vehicles and police officers who came to reinforce would be assigned tasks after waiting for a few minutes, taking maps or finding guides to go to their destinations.

But because more and more vehicles, police officers, and local personnel were coming, the road inevitably became congested.

The later arrivals parked on the side of the road and had no tables to sit at, so they simply sat on the ground on both sides of the road, or found a place like the bed of a pickup truck to chat and use their phones.

Find the original at "pawread.com".

The merchants in Zifeng Town quickly showed a commercial sensitivity no less than that of a first-tier city.

Everyone carried tables, chairs, benches, wooden stools, wooden planks, or anything that looked like it could be sat on out of the store and sold their goods.

The police officers who had been traveling for a long time were also hungry, so they held instant noodles, bread, or spicy strips to fill their stomachs until the chefs and bosses of various restaurants became excited.

At the same time, support from the Mining Bureau and the Geological Team also poured in.

Although Zifeng Mountain is a big mountain, it is different from Wulongsan. It is purely familiar territory.

Both the geological team and the coal miners have decades of experience in measuring the surrounding area with their feet. Farmers, workers, and others who live here all year round have very little knowledge of Zifeng Mountain.

That was the state of the coal mine's decline. If it were in the heyday of the coal mine in the 1980s and 1990s, there would be no place in the surrounding area where Li Li Town was not visited.

Tens of thousands of people lived and worked outside, traveling day and night on the mountaintop and at the foot of the mountain, producing here during the week and relaxing here on the weekends.

The most difficult-to-climb low mountain area happens to be the location of two small coal mines and one large coal mine.

The middle part of the mountain is the most important area of the coal mine. It is where the coal washing plant and coal yard are located. Transport vehicles from neighboring provinces gather here, and during the day and night, it is a stop for cargo transportation.

By nightfall, the headlights of the coal trucks waiting to be loaded shine like a dragon of light, coiling around the bare mountains, making the main peak of Li Li Mountain look like it has been enchanted.

Even on the eve of the Spring Festival, it will not stop.

The coal outside will give a few people a cool feeling.

Li Li Town on the southern foothills of the mountain is also the location of industrial giants such as coal machinery factories, machinery factories, repair shops, transportation teams, agricultural machinery factories, fertilizer factories, as well as the Mining Bureau, hospitals, schools, and government offices.

The residential areas of the coal mine are also concentrated here, with no dedicated commercial departments such as shopping malls, vegetable markets, or cinemas, supporting the lives of tens of thousands of people.

And in the northern foothills of Li Li Mountain, which is so deserted, there are a small number of large coal mines concentrated here due to historical reasons. They are mostly township enterprises operated by traditional methods, and the larger coal mines are still under the name of production teams or communes.

The workers in the large coal mines in the northern foothills are mainly local farmers, relying on mules and horses for transportation and pickaxes for excavation. The environment is good, and production and relationships are simpler.

The main search direction now is the No. 1 shaft in the southern foothills, which is the Li Li Mining Bureau No. 1 shaft. It sounds like a mine, but it is not actually a coal mine.

The No. 1 shaft is the longest-running and best-conditioned coal mine on Li Li Mountain. After the resources are depleted, there are more than 3,000 employees in the coal mine, but the actual number of workers is less than a thousand.

So few people using the outdated machinery that state-owned enterprises could purchase at the time, and continuing to mine for decades, it is hard to imagine the simplicity inside the mine.

If you want to search all these inclined shafts, it would take a lot of manpower and resources that the provincial department can support.

In the past, unless Huang Qiangming lost his mind, I should also be able to retreat into those abandoned mine tunnels. The situation outside is really unpredictable, it's like investigating with your own life.

Xu Taining's goal should also be to save someone, risking the lives of hundreds of people.

So, my arrangement is concentrated at various intersections, cave entrances, mountain villages, ditches, temples, and other places.

My trouble is (This chapter is not finished!)

It is to determine Huang Qiangming's goal and direction, so I still have to investigate the No. 1 shaft and arrange for multiple people to go to the No. 7 shaft, the Split Coal Mine, the Temple Gully Coal Mine, and even search the large coal mines in the northern foothills.

The advantage is that the coal mines in Niedeshan have all stopped production, and the once bustling roads have returned to the mountains and forests. Inexperienced police officers or exploration personnel can easily find traces of people and horses passing by.

Huang Qiangming, with two other police officers, a total of eight people, must have deliberately disappeared.

On the other hand, this is also a heavy pressure. With so few people going down the mountain, if you want to find Huang Qiangming's trail, it will be easier than before.It's over, Xu Taining must be very good at that level of crime scene investigation.

Nie De and Liu Wenkai and others waited for almost eight hours before they were finally called.

After approaching Xu Taining, they waited for more than ten minutes before they came to Xu Taining's side.

The low-level police chief in a white shirt, at this time, looked not at all tired, his square face slightly collapsed, and there was no sign of dryness on his lips.

Zifeng immediately thought, "I shouldn't drink water too much. It's a waste of time to go to the bathroom."

If it were my leader, the extraordinary search operation would probably be arranged in the form of a meeting and assigned to the middle-level cadres.

But Xu Taining personally arranged every detail.

Naturally, that would be less tiring.

"Zifeng." Xu Taining didn't recognize Liu Wenkai, just waved his hand and asked, "Who is their team leader?"

"Xu, you are Nie Defu, the team leader of the Criminal Police Team in Ningtai County." Nie Defu took the initiative to greet him. I am a few years younger than Xu Taining, but my status is not much lower.

Xu Taining smiled, "Yes, the team leader came in person, thank you for your hard work. How many people are there in total?"

"28 people were supposed to come, and 28 people actually came." Nie Defu answered very formally.

The last time I brought out the seventh team. The seventh team in Ningtai County, which hadn't solved a case every day, had a slight increase in the degree of relaxation in the past two months.

For Nie Defu, this support mission was also an opportunity for training.

"Yes, one team has arrived, and they also brought police dogs, right?"

"Yes." Liu Wenkai also called Bai Zi from Longli County, because the Provincial Department did not have a unified deployment of tasks, the dogs this time were all from the province.

Xu Taining looked at Zifeng again and said, "You have a very good impression of Zifeng's on-site investigation ability."

"Yes." Zifeng answered, and there was no modesty in his words.

"They ended the search at Baqing Temple, and there was no local activity there. The situation is relatively stable..." Xu Taining arranged a few more sentences, indicating that Nie Defu and others could finish their work.

Liu Wenkai agreed, took Zifeng and the dog down to the pickup truck, and drove off following the signs on the side of the road.

The road signs on both sides of the road were rearranged by Xu Taining today.

There were few forks at the foot of the mountain, and as long as the road signs were clear, even a guide could not be found, which was convenient for no one.

For special search personnel, they didn't want to be so detailed.

A small part of the commanders just eased the tension, and the ability to organize was possessed by everyone. There were even more excellent ones.

Baqing Temple is actually on the side peak.

The car had to drive to the middle of the mountain, then take a fork in the road and go up to the temple valley, and then climb down.

The temple valley is also a very small mountain valley, where a whole village used to live, but it was all relocated to Li Li Town for the development of the coal mine.

On one side of the temple valley is the main peak of Li Li Mountain, and on the other side is the side peak where Baqing Temple is located.

The altitude of the side peak is also high, and the circumference is a little larger. Because a coal mine was discovered there, it was originally not suitable for development as a tourist attraction.

Now there is potential for development, and looking up from Baqing Temple, it is all a dilapidated open-pit coal mine, which still looks pockmarked even though it has been backfilled.

"I thought I would arrange an important task for you." Nie Defu took Xiao Zhuang into the car, and Xiao Zhuang's feet were all swaying.

Mountain roads are a nightmare for car passengers, and now it seems that it is a hellish difficulty for dog passengers.

"That temple still looks maintained, so it's also an important task." Liu Wenkai corrected Jiang Yuan's point of view and said, "We also have some ordinary tasks."

"We don't have any, but Zifeng does. And we also brought a police dog." Jiang Yuan said with a weak tone, "We'll look at the dog and the river."

Zifeng knew whether Jiang Yuan was praising himself or mocking himself.

It was early in the morning outside the mountain, and now looking at Jiang Yuan, his face was clear but his body was vague, and Zifeng's tone was very stable: "Let's look at the scene first."

"Xiao Zhuang might need to rest for a while." Jiang Yuan took Xiao Zhuang in his arms with pity. People who get carsick will be very uncomfortable, not to mention a dog.

Zifeng nodded and took out the power supply, inspection lights, and other items from outside the car.

Most of the items were just returned from the Great Wall Cannon. Things like mobile power supplies were not originally equipped in Ningtai County, but as the years went by, the battery capacity was high, and the performance in all aspects met the requirements.

The inspection lights were not very bright, but the power of such items was getting smaller and smaller. And it is said that the smaller the power, the better.

After a while, Liu Jinghui, the captain of the seventh team, arrived at the scene with his men.

We were all sitting in the old car of the seventh team, the main force was a Skoda, an Iveco, and two Qiling Hongguang.The old road to the coal mine was already full of potholes, and several vehicles struggled to make their way. Not a single team member could keep it together like Xiao Zhuang did; they all started vomiting as soon as they descended the mountain.

"Go further away to vomit, don't contaminate the scene," Liu Wenkai shouted first, then sighed, "That's why air conditioning is also a form of combat power. Without a single decent vehicle, it's not conducive to preserving the scene."

Squad leader Liu Jinghui looked at the wilderness around them and agreed, "Good vehicles are too seldom used. Back in your younger days, you'd also bring your boyfriend to such mountains. Nowadays, everyone has money for a hotel room, wanting to do something at the foot of the mountain. In the end, they borrow an A-class car, and the boyfriend's legs are too long... sigh..."

Liu Wenkai gave me a sharp look with his eyes and hurriedly said, "You're talking about the Great Wall Cannon."

Liu Jinghui replied with a cheeky grin, "You're also talking about a cannon."

...

Wang Zhong brought out an investigation kit from the Iveco, approached Zifeng, and asked while assisting, "What are we looking for?"

"We know, let's start with the footprints."

"Footprints... what about them?" There were indeed many footprints around. Some were on the dusty corridors and outside the rooms, some on the wet mud outside the courtyard, and others were composed of incense ash.

The people from the nearby Baqing Temple had increased in number, and the temple keeper had moved out of town, only coming down every now and then to collect the merit box, light some incense, burn some joss paper, and clean up.

As such, the footprints outside the temple were likely formed in the last few days.

Zifeng examined them and said, "Let's start by looking at a small section of the footprints, how they were formed. The walking paths, the manner of retreat. See if there's anything peculiar, anything out of the ordinary."

After a pause, he added, "It would be even better if we could directly find traces of a struggle, or bloodstains, for instance."

"Understood," Wang Zhong said, feeling like he had learned a lot, and contentedly lifted the investigation lamp to illuminate Zifeng's way.

The two walked back and forth several times, with Zifeng remaining silent the whole time.

What I said earlier was complicated, but in practice, it wasn't that difficult.

The footprints left behind were few and the degree of difficulty was low, which meant determining behavioral patterns was possible, but not very challenging. In fact, it was more suitable for use with blood footprints.

Among the various footprints at a crime scene, blood footprints are always the least valuable.

On the other hand, we were also trying to determine what state Huang Qiangming was in.

Based on complex reasoning, Huang Qiangming actually had a very slim chance of coming to Baqing Temple, as it was a low point on the side of the mountain. Just by coming to the side, one would likely descend there.

Having spent so much time at the Niande Mountain coal mine, it wouldn't be unusual for Huang Qiangming to come to the side of the mountain for a look.

Considering the temple's ordinariness and the occasional visits by the temple keeper, it was likely that something or some knowledge could be gleaned.

However, it's certain that Niande Fu was just looking inside the temple, perhaps even burning incense like the other pilgrims (Chapter not finished!)

Whatever it was, Niande's method of examining footprints afterward was also revealed.

I assumed that Huang Qiangming was inside Baqing Temple, engaging in activities similar to investigation or reconnaissance.

More importantly, Niande Fu might never have come here at all.

Casting a wide net in search is not always effective; unless you happen to come across something, even with Zifeng's myriad skills, I couldn't make use of them.

The detectives from the seventh squad spontaneously dispersed, searching around Baqing Temple.

After a short while, Xiao Zhuang woke up from his continuous motion sickness.

Jiang Yuan took out a white leather shoe from the evidence bag, let Xiao Zhuang sniff the outside and the sole of the shoe, then released it to find the source of the scent.

Liu Wenkai also shifted his attention over.

During a small-scale search, even Zifeng could hardly be compared with Xiao Zhuang.

Xiao Zhuang raised its head, searching for the scent source, wandering back and forth, eventually returning to the white leather shoe, then leaving and coming back again.

This was a sign that the police dog had not made a breakthrough, and Jiang Yuan tried several different locations without success.

Jiang Yuan and Xiao Zhuang continued to try.

Liu Wenkai once again turned his attention back to Zifeng, as if he had never lost faith in me.

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