The Red Era: Living in Seclusion in a Siheyuan as a Boss

Chapter 621 “Kidnapping”!!!
Liu Yong's trip to Hong Kong is coming to an end. This journey has made him deeply intoxicated by the dazzling charm of this international metropolis.

From the bright lights of Victoria Harbour to the stunning night view of Victoria Peak, from the shopping paradise of Causeway Bay to the nightlife of Lan Kwai Fong, every bit of prosperity in Hong Kong made him linger.

What made him even more delighted was that he also made many good friends in this vibrant international metropolis.

What is particularly worth mentioning is that he had the good fortune to have a good relationship with the two sons of "Superman Li".

These two young masters from wealthy families not only allowed him to appreciate the unique style of Hong Kong's upper class society, but also unveiled the mystery behind this city for him.

As night falls and the lights come on, the top club "Genting" in Deep Water Bay, Hong Kong is brightly lit.

Li Zeju, the eldest son of Li Jiacheng, the richest man in Hong Kong, who is known as "Superman Li", personally hosted a banquet this evening and carefully prepared a private banquet.

He specially invited several wealthy young men in the circle with whom he had close relations to hold a farewell party for Liu Yong, a direct descendant of the "Liu" family who was about to return to the capital.

Under the crystal chandelier, the clinking of glasses displayed the elegance and grandeur of the upper class. This seemingly ordinary farewell banquet actually implied the far-reaching significance of the future cooperation between the two families.

Liu Yong is a straightforward person, and he has always been annoyed by these hypocritical social interactions.

However, as a direct descendant of the family, he was well aware that he had the responsibility to maintain family relationships and had to restrain his nature.

Even if one is extremely unwilling, one has to put on a smile and go with the flow to deal with these social situations.

This night really opened Liu Yong's eyes.

He looked at those big stars who used to be so glamorous on the screen, but now they were like ordinary waiters, carefully serving those rich young men.

They had professional smiles on their faces and their movements were respectful and humble, completely different from the glamorous images on the screen.

This scene made Liu Yong sigh inwardly: "The power of money and power can really make people bow down to you.

Those celebrities who are usually high and mighty are just a foil to embellish the scene in front of the real dignitaries. "

Even though the real strength of the "Liu Family" is far superior to those so-called wealthy families in Hong Kong, Liu Yong is still not used to such a life of extravagance and decadence.

After finally making it to the early morning, the group of young men finally dispersed after having fun.

In the early morning of May 5, Deep Water Bay Road in Hong Kong was already shrouded in mist.

A black luxury Mercedes-Benz sedan drove slowly by. In the car was Li Zeju, the eldest son of Li Jiacheng who had just finished a party. He was only 38 years old and in the prime of his life.

As the successor of Cheung Kong Group, his daily schedule is almost an open secret:
From a luxury home in Deep Water Bay to an office in Central, day after day.

However, today I came home late because of a party.

at this time.

Li Zeju's full-time driver suddenly discovered that the road ahead was blocked by a roadblock set up by the police.

Dazzling warning lights flashed in the night, and several uniformed police officers were on standby.

The experienced driver did not dare to rush through the checkpoint rashly, so he had to slowly step on the brakes and stop the luxury car steadily in front of the cordon.

"Sir, what happened?" The driver rolled down the window and asked with a smile.

However, as soon as he said this, he noticed something strange - the uniforms of these "police officers" were a little messy, and there was a fierceness in their eyes.

What is even more frightening is that they were holding AK-47 assault rifles in their hands, which glowed coldly under the street lights.

The driver's heart tightened: "When did the Hong Kong police force have such fierce firepower?"

A terrible thought flashed through his mind like lightning - "Could this be a case of encountering a gangster pretending to be a police officer?"

Unfortunately, his realization came too late. The leading "police officer" had already raised his gun with a sneer on his face, the black muzzle pointing directly into the car.

"Boy, come down obediently. We brothers are only interested in money and not in life. Otherwise..." The leader showed a mouthful of white teeth.

"Boss, do you know who you want to kidnap?"

"Isn't the guy sleeping in the car Mr. Li? Hahaha, he's the one we're looking for..."

"It's over, this is a premeditated kidnapping!" The driver was knowledgeable and understood their dangerous situation in an instant.

The leader of this group of kidnappers was Zhang Zhiqiang, a century-old gangster nicknamed "The Rich Man".

He is not tall, but his eyes are as sharp as an eagle, and behind him are more than 10 well-trained men.

A van rushed out from the side, and before any gunshots were heard, the action was as fast as lightning.

Li Zeju was quickly dragged out of the car, a sack was put over his head, and he was put into a white van that had been prepared in advance.

The whole process took less than two minutes, clean and neat, like a movie scene.

The convoy gradually disappeared into the vast mountains and fields of the New Territories. Li Zeju's eyes were covered with a black cloth, his hands were tightly tied with thick ropes, and he was pushed into a dilapidated house.

Outside the door, Zhang Zhiqiang's men were taking turns on duty, their vigilant eyes scanning the surroundings from time to time.

The room was dark and damp, with only a creaky, broken wooden bed and a few rickety chairs.

The air was filled with a pungent smell of mold and dirt, which was nauseating.

"Mr. Li, don't be nervous," a hoarse voice sounded in the darkness, "Call your father."

Li Zeju suppressed the fear in his heart and dialed the familiar number with trembling fingers.

Despite the danger, his voice remained surprisingly calm: "Hey, dad, it's me. I've been kidnapped!"

On the other end of the phone, Li Jiacheng, who was awakened late at night, woke up instantly.

He took a deep breath, and a steady and powerful voice came through the microphone: "Zheju, don't be afraid. Dad will definitely bring you home safely. Now, give the phone to the kidnapper."

A deep voice came from the other end of the phone: "Hello, Mr. Li!"

Li Jiacheng held the phone tightly, his voice trembling slightly: "Hey, this big boss, you can ask for anything you want, as long as you can ensure that my son is safe!"

"Don't worry, Mr. Li. I, Zhang Zhiqiang, have been in the underworld for so many years, and the most important thing to me is credibility!"

Zhang Zhiqiang gave his name without hesitation, his tone revealing full confidence.

He was certain that Li Jiacheng must have heard of his "reputation" and would not dare to act rashly.

On the other end of the phone, when Li Jiacheng heard the three words "Zhang Zhiqiang", he felt as if he had fallen into an icy cave.

He took a deep breath, and the hand holding the microphone began to tremble unconsciously - this was a well-known ruthless character, and now he had targeted his son.

Who exactly is Zhang Zhiqiang?
It turned out that in the 90s, during the special period when Hong Kong was about to be handed over by the foreigners, the foreigners had no intention of managing the city and the public security on the streets was in chaos.

At that time in Hong Kong, there was a desperado named Zhang Zhiqiang who committed many major crimes that shocked Hong Kong and became the feared thief of the century.

In the 1950s, Zhang Zhiqiang was born into a poor family in Guangxi Province.

In order to make a living, his parents brought him across the ocean to Hong Kong when he was only 4 years old.

When they first arrived in Hong Kong, Zhang Zhiqiang and his family were penniless.

His father could only make a living by opening a small herbal tea shop in Yau Ma Tei with the little knowledge of Chinese herbal medicine he learned in his hometown.

Yau Ma Tei, where their family lived at the time, was located in the western part of the Kowloon Peninsula and was also a notoriously "poor community" at the time.

Most of the people who settled here were poor, but from time to time, all kinds of people came and went, and gang fights often occurred.

Zhang Zhiqiang grew up in such an environment, and was influenced by his surroundings and acquired many bad habits.

When he was still in elementary school, Zhang Zhiqiang had no interest in studying. He often hung out and fought with street kids around him, and even dealt with some young gang members.

Most parents of the older generation adhere to the concept that "a good son is born under the stick". Seeing that Zhang Zhiqiang was not living up to his expectations, his father would beat and scold him at will.

But Zhang Zhiqiang's condition not only did not improve, but became worse, and he dropped out of school very early.

His father had no choice but to send him to a tailor shop as an apprentice, hoping that he could learn some skills and make a legitimate living.

Later, by chance, Zhang Zhiqiang got to know some underworld figures.

Especially after becoming acquainted with the master Wang Fengqi, he became even more fascinated by the bizarre and fantastic things in the martial arts world.

Wang Fengqi is a typical "half the sky" who has a lot of skills but does not follow the right path. He brags about his empty "heroic deeds" all day long.

Zhang Zhiqiang believed it without a doubt, and gradually began to yearn for the kind of "jianghu life" where one lived on the edge of a knife and licked blood.

Do you think this can be good?
Zhang Zhiqiang was taken to the police station for stealing when he was 12 years old, and was sent to prison for fighting when he was 16 years old.

After he was released from prison, he showed no remorse and became even worse.

Zhang Zhiqiang was not interested in learning tailoring. He completely gave up the idea of ​​learning tailoring, thinking that learning this would not help him succeed.
However, he met a woman in the tailor shop who influenced his life - Luo Yanfang.

She is 9 years younger than Zhang Zhiqiang and is an ordinary teacher.

Sometimes, the fate between people is so strange.

Luo Yanfang, a teacher, fell in love with the "hooligan" Zhang Zhiqiang at first sight. They quickly became acquainted and got married.

At that time in Hong Kong, there was a huge gap between the rich and the poor. There seemed to be a huge chasm between the rich and the poor, and the quality of life was very different.

Zhang Zhiqiang saw all this. He really wanted to live a rich life, but he had no way to get rich.

Want to "get rich through hard work"? No, in Zhang Zhiqiang's opinion, that is too slow, and it can be said to be impossible.

Therefore, mixing in the "gray world" became his only choice.

Zhang Zhiqiang told his wife Luo Yanfang about this idea.

Unexpectedly, Luo Yanfang not only did not object, but also agreed with Zhang Zhiqiang and thought he was very ambitious...

So he gathered a group of bad friends and started to do some sneaky things.

In this way, Zhang Zhiqiang tasted the "sweetness" of sin. The money that came from illegal sources made him feel extremely stimulated and excited.

Gradually, small fights could no longer satisfy his appetite, and he began to eye bigger prey like a hungry wolf.

One day, Zhang Zhiqiang discovered that the security measures of a Rolex watch agency store were not strict, and they would pick up goods from the airport regularly.

So he came up with an idea.

Zhang Zhi first planted a younger brother as an insider, who went to the store to work as a salesperson and found out the time when the goods came in and out.

On February 1990, 2, Zhang Zhiqiang and several desperate men had been lying in ambush at the airport cargo terminal for a long time.

As soon as the armored car took out the Rolex watch, they rushed forward, pointed guns at the escort personnel, and robbed everything.

When the Hong Kong police arrived, they saw a mess on the ground and Zhang Zhiqiang and his gang had disappeared.

This robbery made Zhang Zhiqiang a fortune, reportedly worth 2500 million Hong Kong dollars.

Overnight, Zhang Zhiqiang transformed from a small gangster into a powerful gang leader.

Having tasted the sweetness, Zhang Zhiqiang's appetite grew bigger and bigger.

Zhang Zhiqiang has set his sights on Hong Kong’s money transport trucks.

This is not an ordinary target. After all, the armored car is loaded with huge amounts of cash, so the security level is very high.

But Zhang Zhiqiang just didn't believe it and he was determined to make a big splash.

After careful investigation, Zhang Zhiqiang discovered that there were some weak links in the security of the armored car at Kai Tak Airport.

In order to find out the truth, he arranged for his wife Luo Yanfang to apply for a job at the banknote-keeping company.

Having an insider is indeed convenient. Luo Yanfang soon got an important piece of information: a batch of cash worth 1.7 million Hong Kong dollars would be shipped out of the airport one day.

On July 1991, 7, Luo Yanfang gave the secret code.

Zhang Zhiqiang and a few of his trusted aides were waiting at the airport.

They were all fully armed, holding submachine guns and sniper rifles, and looked aggressive.

Several armored trucks loaded with cash were loading and unloading at the warehouse. Although there were three escort personnel on the scene, they were completely unable to resist Zhang Zhiqiang and his gang of gangsters.

The escort was so scared that he dared not say a word and watched helplessly as 1.7 million yuan in cash was looted by the criminals.

The whole process was clean and efficient. In less than 10 minutes, Zhang Zhiqiang and his gang drove away with the money.

The amount involved in this case is so huge that it is considered to be the largest case of banknote loss in Hong Kong since its founding. This has made the police force extremely nervous and they vowed to find out the truth as soon as possible.

Zhang Zhiqiang was very cautious in committing the crime and there were no obvious mistakes at the time.

Just when the police were at a loss, Zhang Zhiqiang's wife Luo Yanfang revealed her true colors.

A few days after this incident, the Hong Kong police received a valuable piece of information: in a local bank, a woman deposited 410,000 Hong Kong dollars into the same account at the same time, and all of the 410,000 Hong Kong dollars were new banknotes with consecutive numbers.

This could not help but arouse suspicion, and subsequently, the Hong Kong police arranged personnel to investigate the identity of the woman who deposited the money.

That’s right, she is Zhang Zhiqiang’s wife—Luo Yanfang.

In the subsequent investigation, the police also found that the couple's income and expenditure were very abnormal. Combined with the identification of the escort personnel, the Hong Kong police identified them as criminal suspects and arrested them.

It seemed that Zhang Zhiqiang's sinful life was about to end at that time, but unexpectedly, the situation in the court changed suddenly.

The origin of the mutation was a lawyer, but no ordinary lawyer. He was a "troublemaker" hired by Luo Yanfang at a huge expense, the kind who could turn black into white.

At the trial, the lawyer used the identification of the escort as a breakthrough point and, through repeated questioning, came to the conclusion that "the escort could not immediately identify Zhang Zhiqiang, but turned back and identified him after leaving the scene", questioning the truthfulness of the escort's statement.

On the other hand, Luo Yanfang also invited many reporters and held a press conference.

At the press conference, she burst into tears and bluntly said that the Hong Kong police had "tortured and extorted a confession." She then lifted up her long skirt to reveal a scar on her thigh.

She slandered that this was a knife cut on her leg by the Hong Kong police when they were interrogating her.

Under the dual attack of the court and public opinion, Zhang Zhiqiang was eventually acquitted.

That day, he stood at the door of the court, clenched his fists, made a victory gesture, and looked very arrogant.

Not only that, after Zhang Zhiqiang was released, he drove his own Lamborghini sports car and invited TV reporters to accuse the Hong Kong police and demanded HK$800 million in compensation from them.

For a time, it seemed that the couple had Hong Kong's laws and media in their hands.

……

In this way, Zhang Zhiqiang gathered some accomplices to rob gold shops and armored car hijacking in Hong Kong. In order to "get money", they did all kinds of evil.

Zhang Zhiqiang himself gradually became famous, and in this circle of gangsters, he was nicknamed "the rich man".

But if this kind of street robbery is carried out for a long time, there will inevitably be concerns about life. In this regard, this criminal gang has been thinking about a safer way to "make money".

One day, Zhang Zhiqiang was flipping through a magazine in his hideout, and fell into deep thought when he saw the "Top Ten Richest People in Hong Kong" list.

"Mr. Rich, do you have any solution?" one of his accomplices asked him.

Zhang Zhiqiang smiled and said, "Look, there are so many wealthy people in Hong Kong. It shouldn't be difficult for us to ask them for a 'settlement fee', right?"

As soon as he said this, his accomplices immediately became excited and started discussing who to kidnap.

After the others finished discussing, Zhang Zhiqiang remained calm, pointed to the ranking in the magazine, and said, "Tie them accordingly."

If we follow the list, the first person on the list happens to be "Superman Li", the founder of Hong Kong Cheung Kong Holdings.

So, Zhang Zhiqiang and his gang set their sights on "Superman Li" and wanted to make another big move.

Li Zeju was not a random choice: Li Jiacheng was the richest man in Hong Kong with great wealth. Li Zeju's public appearances and fixed schedule provided Zhang Zhiqiang with an opportunity.

His gang members had followed Li Zeju for several months and had tracked his every move.

On that day, no one else discovered the kidnapping because the kidnappers had arranged people to block the way they came. Li Zeju was trapped in the middle and became a "turtle in a jar."

So, the group tied him up and took him to an abandoned chicken farm in the New Territories of Hong Kong.

Zhang Zhiqiang was extremely excited to have this "meat ginseng" in his hand.

When they arrived at the chicken farm, he personally carried Li Zeju out of the car and even couldn't help but give him a kiss.

In Zhang Zhiqiang's eyes, Li Zeju had already been a walking treasury.

Just like in TV dramas, after a successful kidnapping, the first thing the robbers do is to ask the victim to call home and warn his father not to call the police.

So, when a policeman found that the eldest son of the Li family's car broke down on the road and called to inquire.

The reply he got was: "Ah S, you worry too much, it was just a minor car accident, my young master Li Zeju is safe and sound."

So how much money did these robbers want to extort from this "meat ginseng"?

They had discussed it before the kidnapping, and some people suggested asking Li Ka-shing for 10 million yuan, but Zhang Zhiqiang rejected it on the spot.

"Can we do a deal worth 10 million? At least 1 billion!"

(End of this chapter)