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

Chapter 698 The First Fraud Case!!!
Years later, when Liu Zhiye reminisced about those glorious years with his family, his past police career was still as clear as yesterday, and every detail vividly appeared before his eyes.

That year, Liu Zhiye, who was twenty-eight or twenty-nine years old, had just returned from the "Northern Dynasty" and the "38th Parallel," and was in the prime of his life.

His upright posture exudes the fortitude of a soldier, his bright eyes sparkle with unwavering passion, and his whole being radiates the vibrant energy unique to young people.

Although his police career was a completely new beginning for him, Liu Zhiye achieved remarkable success in just two years thanks to his extraordinary perseverance and exceptional talent.

Back then, Liu Zhiye was like a rising star, making a name for himself in the Beijing Public Security system at an astonishing speed and becoming a legendary figure praised by his colleagues.

In just two or three years, thanks to the system's "golden touch," Liu Zhiye became like a veteran criminal investigator with decades of experience. He not only participated in solving numerous major cases but also repeatedly served as the core of special task forces, achieving remarkable feats.

Although Liu Zhiye served in the public security system for only seven or eight years and then returned to the military by chance, this seemingly short police career shone brightly.

In less than a decade, he successively won honors such as "National Outstanding People's Police Officer", "Heroic Model of the Public Security System", "First-Class Merit", and "Outstanding Cadre of the Ministry of Metallurgy". His office wall of honor is covered with commendation orders from various levels.

Even more noteworthy is that he was received by "Big Wang" and "Little Wang" on multiple occasions, spoke as a model representative at the Ministry of Public Security's annual commendation conference, and his crime-solving experience was included in police academy textbooks, becoming a model for the new generation of criminal police officers.

As time passed, many long-forgotten major cases were gradually deciphered. Liu Zhiye often recounted these thrilling past events to his nephew Liu Yong over tea and after meals, telling him the unknown inside stories.

Just now, when he mentioned the assassination case of enemy agents that his close friend Zheng Chaoyang had solved years ago, his eyes still shone with a light of reminiscence.

When he got emotional, Liu Zhiye changed the subject and revealed to Liu Yong a shocking case in which he had personally been involved.

This case shocked the nation and was later known as "the largest fraud case since the founding of the People's Republic of China." The sheer amount of money involved, the cunning methods used, and the far-reaching impact of the case are still talked about by the public security system.

Liu Zhiye clearly remembers that it was in the early 1960s, during the "Three Years of Natural Disasters," when the whole country tightened its belts to overcome the difficulties.

This was Liu Zhiye's third year working in the public security system, and he was already a renowned criminal investigation expert in the Yanjing public security system.

On the early morning of March 19th, Liu Zhiye had breakfast as usual and was preparing to drive to the security department of Hongxing Factory for work.

The spring sunshine outside the window was bright, and new buds were just beginning to sprout on the branches. It should have been a peaceful workday.

Suddenly, the telephone in the living room rang urgently, breaking the tranquility of the morning.

The ringing was particularly jarring, as if foreshadowing something unusual about to happen.

Liu Zhiye strode to the phone, and a deep, serious voice came from the receiver: "Comrade Liu Zhiye? Come to the Municipal Bureau immediately." The call was abruptly ended without a word of explanation.

Liu Zhiye's hand tightened slightly as he gripped the microphone, and his heart sank.

His intuition told him that something big must have happened behind this sudden phone call.

Liu Zhiye took a deep breath, his gaze sharpened, and he turned and strode towards the door, not even having time to put on his coat properly.

There weren't many cars on the road in the mornings back then, so Liu Zhiye sped all the way to the Municipal Bureau.

When he stepped into the city bureau's gate, the scene before him made his heart tighten—the heads of criminal investigation from each branch bureau and the chiefs of the local police stations had already gathered there, and everyone's face was filled with solemnity.

This commotion clearly indicates that something has happened!

On March 18th, a tall, thin man wearing a gray woolen overcoat and leather shoes entered the office of XX Bank.

The man was carrying a leather suitcase and claimed to be from ZWY, delivering an urgent document to the bank manager.

Upon opening the suitcase, there was nothing else inside except a large envelope printed with the words "ZWY" and the words "Express Delivery" written on it, along with a small note specifying the delivery time as "5:40 PM".

The secretary took the envelope, carefully opened it, and found an approval document addressed to "[Name of Leader]": ...to Comrade Zhao, of the Office.

The secretary on duty was still secretly astonished by the huge sum of money when the visitor had already left in a hurry.

Looking at his watch, he realized the time specified in the approval document was almost up. The duty secretary then called the branch and asked them to deliver 20 yuan in cash to the Minzu Hotel within half an hour and hand it over to a comrade named Zhao. The notification of the fund allocation was immediately issued by Deputy Director Li.

Since several branch managers from the head office are away attending training courses, the daily work is temporarily being handled by Deputy Director Li of the Research and Design Bureau, and approval of funds requires his order.

Deputy Director Li, being a veteran with many years of experience, couldn't help but wonder after reading the approval document: "This 20 yuan is no small sum. Why didn't they go through the Ministry of Finance and just let us approve the funds directly?"

He read the approval document over and over again, and it was indeed "so-and-so's" handwriting. Looking at the large envelope, it was also the style that Zw Institute was using.

Just then, a call came in from "so-and-so's" office, saying that the bank should do its best to cooperate with the work, and so on.

Deputy Director Li naturally connected the phone call with the 20 yuan loan approval, and without any hesitation, immediately notified the branch to deliver the funds to Comrade Zhao.

Three branch managers personally took out 20 yuan in cash, filled a bag, and delivered it to the Minzu Hotel.

……

In the hotel lobby, a man in a navy blue Zhongshan suit stood up from the sofa and quickly went to greet him.

"You must be Comrade Zhao?" the three cadres asked.

"Yes, this is my letter of introduction." Zhao handed over his letter of introduction, which was stamped with the official seal of "Xiao Wang's" office, proving that this person was indeed Zhao.

"Okay, you can check the amount and then give us a receipt." The officials took the letter of introduction and invited Zhao to count the money.

Zhao simply opened the bag, glanced at it a few times, then tore off a page and wrote a receipt.

When handing the receipt to the person making the payment, he deliberately said, "It's alright, you guys are very responsible and honest, who wouldn't trust you?"

The following day, several bank managers who had been away on business returned.

Upon learning of this huge expenditure, they called "so-and-so's" office to inquire about how to record it.

Unexpectedly, the reply from "so-and-so's" office astonished the bank managers: "Comrade Zhao is not found, and 'Little Wang' did not approve this money."

Soon, the city bureau received a report that fraudsters had forged a document bearing the signature of "so-and-so" and swindled 20 yuan in cash from the bank!
Upon learning of this, "So-and-so" was furious and specifically ordered the Ministry to supervise the case and set a deadline for its resolution.

Liu Zhiye thought to himself, "Good heavens, who exactly is this 'Zhao Yimou'? How dare he use 'So-and-so's' name to swindle money like this?"

The ministry issued a strict order to solve the case within a specified time. The municipal bureau drew elites from various departments to participate in the investigation, and Liu Zhiye was one of them.

This case was already extremely difficult, and the limited time allotted for solving it further increased the difficulty.

Back then, there was no video surveillance or networked big data. After the bank reported the crime, the municipal police station only had four clues left by the criminals:
One large envelope used by each department of ZW Institute, one forged handwritten approval document from "a certain leader", one forged letter of introduction from the "leader's" office, and one handwritten receipt from "Zhao Yi".

The city bureau's technical staff retrieved these four key pieces of evidence and analyzed them overnight.

They came to the conclusion that, although the handwriting on the four sheets of paper was different in font and style, it could be basically determined that they were written by the same person.

The forensic results showed that the so-called "signature of a certain leader" was forged by a criminal who called himself "Zhao Yimou".

Undoubtedly, this criminal must have a high level of education and be familiar with the format of official document writing.

As the research and analysis deepened, Liu Zhiye and his task force discovered a great deal of information from these four pieces of evidence:

The large envelope was not a counterfeit, but was printed in 1959. However, it was not brand new; the old writing had been scraped off by criminals with a blade, and there were traces of a second sealing at the seal.

The forged letter of introduction from the office of a certain leader was printed by the criminals themselves using steel plates, wax paper, and ink, rather than being printed by a printing factory machine.

The official seal on it was drawn by the criminals themselves using colored pens.

These two areas, when carefully compared to the genuine product, reveal a significant difference in quality. While technical experts in the police force can easily distinguish them as counterfeit, ordinary staff members often struggle to differentiate them without careful examination, thus providing an opportunity for unscrupulous criminals.

Soon, the types of ink and paper used by the criminals were identified, and the city bureau officers began purchasing samples from various parts of Yanjing for comparative analysis.

However, due to the large number of people purchasing these papers and inks, no valuable clues could be obtained.

However, to everyone's delight, the approval document that was forged with "so-and-so's" signature was actually made of genuine official paper commonly used by various departments.

This paper is A4 size, folded in the middle with two short horizontal lines connected, and has 15 red lines on each side.

However, the paper used for official business was not standardized across different ministries. The task force could only ask each ministry to provide samples of the paper they used and compare the characteristics of the evidence one by one. Ultimately, they confirmed that the paper used by the criminals came from the Ministry of Trade!
On the afternoon of April 2, the task force dispatched personnel to the Ministry of Trade.

In the large room, security personnel from the Ministry of Trade had brought out the file folders of all public officials for the task force to review.

After a night's work, I was overjoyed to find that a person named "Gao Zhuo" had the name "Zhao Mouyi" in his file!

The task force members reviewed Gao Zhuo's file multiple times and became increasingly suspicious of him!

Gao Zhuo was born in 1924. In his youth, he joined the "Guozi Party Sanqing Group" and also spent some time in a gang.

He graduated from the Department of Economics at Northeastern University in 1948.

Seeing that the liberation of the whole country was an inevitable trend, he applied to the university run by our army.

After graduation, I was assigned to work at a military region health clinic.

Shortly afterward, the Korean War broke out, and the troops quickly reorganized and headed to North Korea.

Gao Zhuo and Li Guochang, a colleague at the health center, were afraid of fighting and dying, so they agreed to ask for leave to go home.

Originally, without approval from their superiors, the two of them couldn't go back. However, Gao Zhuo forged travel permits for himself and Li Guochang. Li Guochang's travel permit used the false name "Zhao Yimou".

Gao Zhuo was punished for deserting before the battle, and this incident was recorded in his file.

Later, because he sincerely admitted his mistakes and made a self-criticism, and because he was indeed highly educated, he quickly found a job in the Ministry of Trade.

Of all the employees in the entire Ministry of Trade, only Gao Zhuo's file contained the three words "Zhao Mouyi". Isn't that an admission of guilt?

The handwriting experts compared Gao Zhuo's handwriting with that of the suspect on the spot and concluded that, based on the handwriting alone, it was almost certain that he was the one who did it.

Excited, Liu Zhiye and his team did not alert the enemy, but continued their investigation in secret.

According to Gao Zhuo's superior, on the afternoon of March 18, the day the fraud case occurred, Gao Zhuo had also asked for leave and did not come to work.

Gao Zhuo asked for leave because he wanted to accompany his elderly mother to Peking Union Medical College Hospital for a medical check-up.

Liu Zhiye then went to Peking Union Medical College Hospital to inquire, and with the help of his younger brother Liu Zhitai's father-in-law, he checked the hospital's records.

However, Peking Union Medical College Hospital did not admit Gao Zhuo's mother that day.

Gao Zhuo's colleague, Wang Linlin, also recalled Gao Zhuo's interesting reaction when the Ministry of Trade received a notice from the public security department at the end of March regarding a criminal suspect.

Wang Linlin saw that the description of the suspect in the notice was very similar to Gao Zhuo's, so she made a joke in front of everyone:

"Comrade Gao Zhuo, you weren't here that afternoon. Could it be that you were the one who did it? Hahaha!"

To Wang Linlin's utter surprise, Gao Zhuo, who usually had a good temper, suddenly yelled at her.

Gao Zhuo was like a lion with its mane bristling. Suddenly, he realized he had lost his temper, slammed the door shut, and left, leaving his astonished colleagues speechless for a long time.

Even before the task force had found Gao Zhuo, some of his colleagues had already become suspicious and couldn't help but associate him with the criminals who had defrauded the bank of 20 yuan.

As the investigation deepened, the municipal bureau's technical department issued a handwriting identification certificate, confirming that Gao Zhuo's handwriting and the written words left by the criminal were written by the same person.

Furthermore, the local police station where Gao Zhuo works reported an important message:
A few years ago, Gao Zhuo's like-minded friend Li Guochang came to Yanjing to visit him. In order to keep his friend for a few more days, Gao Zhuo acted as a guarantor for Li Guochang and obtained a temporary identity certificate, using the fake name "Zhao Yimou"!

Police officers who were staking out Gao Zhuo's residence noticed him suspiciously taking out the trash early in the morning when no one was around.

After Gao Zhuo left, the police found a pile of black ash in the garbage.

After examination by experts sent by the ministry, the ashes were confirmed to be RMB that had been burned.

All the evidence points to Gao Zhuo; it's time to close the net!
On April 4th, Director Chen Wusheng, sent by the ministry, personally led the arrest team, which included Liu Zhiye, Ge Shuping, and others.

At around 2 a.m., with Director Chen's order, the arrest operation began!

The agile Liu Zhiye was the first to take the lead, and with a running start, he jumped over the more than 3-meter-high courtyard wall and opened the gate silently.

They staked out the place for several days, and even went undercover under the guise of a health inspection to find out where Gao Zhuo was staying.

In the still of the night, Liu Zhiye kicked open the door to Gao Zhuo's room first.

Gao Zhuo has a habit of reading before bed. His room has an electric light, and the light cord is right next to his pillow.

Liu Zhiye kicked the door open, waking Gao Zhuo up. He pulled the light cord, and the light turned on, blinding him. Liu Zhiye then tackled him to the ground, and Ge Shuping, who came in afterward, handcuffed him with his hands behind his back.

Before arriving, the superiors instructed that they must catch the culprit red-handed. Director Chen Wusheng immediately interrogated Gao Zhuo at his home, demanding that he confess immediately and honestly reveal the whereabouts of the embezzled funds.

Gao Zhuo's expression was cold, with an expression that said, "I'm a good person, how could you frame me for nothing!"

A thorough search of Gao Zhuo's home revealed that this seemingly honest man and his wife had raised four children.

Gao Zhuo's wife and he had a strained relationship. She often stayed at his workplace and rarely came home.

Gao Zhuo usually goes to work, while his mother, who is over 60 years old, and his godmother, who is over 80, stay at home.

After Gao Zhuo was arrested, his children were a little scared, and the two elderly people comforted them.

Liu Zhiye also helped to comfort the children and calm the emotions of the perpetrator's family.

As dawn broke, the all-night search only yielded a bag containing bank money in Gao Zhuo's house; the money itself was still missing.

Seeing that the police had found the money bag, Gao Zhuo was so nervous that he was sweating profusely, but he still refused to confess.

After daybreak, Gao Zhuo's godmother took care of the children, while his elderly mother pleaded for her son's innocence in front of the comrades.

Seeing that the old woman was still making a fuss and was on the verge of losing control, Chen Wusheng had no choice but to have someone take the bag that had been found and the criminal Gao Zhuo back to the station.

Liu Zhiye led the remaining comrades to seal off the courtyard and began digging in the yard in front of Gao Zhuo's house with shovels and hoes.

Almost every inch of digging space has been dug out, and any suspicious spots are dug even deeper.

While watching his comrades busy themselves, Liu Zhiye was not idle either, and quietly observed the expression on Gao Zhuo's mother's face.

As the sun rose and it approached noon, Gao Zhuo's yard was covered in freshly turned soil. The comrades were exhausted but had gained nothing.

(End of this chapter)