Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 307: Golden Medal Detective! Special Police Dog! [Subscription Request]

When Liu Kuan went out this time, in addition to the fifty soldiers of the Yiluansi who accompanied him as guards, he also brought his maids Xia He and Tao Yao, as well as the servants A Hu and A Rong. It can be said that he had enough servants.

If the Yiluansi officers and soldiers were not only responsible for protecting him and not being subordinate to him, Liu Kuan would definitely have sent most of them to help Fang Xiaoru find the child.

However, these Yiluansi soldiers did not know Fang Xiaoru's daughter, so sending too many of them would not be of much use.

Even if only a few people were sent to help, Fang Xiaoru would be very grateful.

With the help of the soldiers of the Yiluansi, the patrolmen in Taiping, Chang'an and even the nearby Liren streets learned in a relatively short period of time that human traffickers had abducted Fang Xiaoru's daughter.

After that, the patrol officers received reports from several families about missing children.

At the same time, several cases were reported up the chain of command, and soon the police stations in Shangyuan and Jiangning counties, as well as the Yingtianfu police station, which were still on duty during the New Year's Eve curfew, and even the magistrates of the two counties, the prefect of Yingtianfu and other officials knew about it.

Since the six ministries were reformed into nine ministries and the Ministry of Police was established a few years ago, local governments have set up corresponding yamen. There are police stations in every village, police stations in county and state governments, and police stations in every province.

And they all have independent offices.

Of course, in principle, police offices at all levels should still try to be concentrated in the same area with other government offices to facilitate the work of officials and the people.

The Yingtian Prefecture Police Station is a large courtyard located not far from the government office.

It was past eight o'clock in the evening and the courtyards in the compound were still brightly lit.

The current chief of Yingtianfu Police Station is named Song Zhong. He is in his thirties or forties, with a square face, thick eyebrows, fierce eyes, and a short beard.

This man was originally a general in the Yiluansi, and later a captain of the Jinyiwei. Two years ago, he was transferred out of the Jinyiwei and took over the position of director of the Yingtianfu Police Bureau.

In a large courtyard hall in the middle, Song Zhong was wearing a police captain's uniform similar to that of the Jinyiwei, with a steel knife hanging on the left side of his waist and a short gun on the right. He stood in front of a group of police officers with a solemn expression.

He first clasped his hands together and bowed diagonally upwards towards the Imperial Palace, then said loudly, "Your Majesty, by your grace, the curfew is lifted tonight, allowing the people to watch the lights and welcome the New Year together with the people!"

"We will not be reunited with our families tonight, but will remain on duty to ensure that the curfew is peaceful."

"But patrol teams on several streets just now have reported that children are missing. It's easy to imagine that thieves must have taken advantage of the curfew tonight and the parade to watch the lanterns to commit crimes and kidnap children!"

"If we don't solve this case quickly tonight, we will be derelict in our duty! Not only will our colleagues be embarrassed, but the police station, the chief, and even the imperial court will be ashamed!"

"So, tonight, no matter what, we must solve these child abduction cases and bring the thieves to justice!"

The police officers below all had solemn expressions on their faces. Upon hearing this, they all clasped their fists and said, "Yes!"

Next, Song Zhong began to discuss with his subordinates how to solve the case quickly.

Someone analyzed, "Although there's a curfew tonight, the gates to both the inner and outer city walls are locked. The missing children all happened in the streets near the Imperial City, so we know the thieves must still be hiding in the inner city."

"How about petitioning the higher authorities to order the people to return home and impose a curfew in the second half of the night to facilitate our investigation?"

"No!" Song Zhong rejected the proposal directly. "Your Majesty has already issued a curfew tonight, how can we easily lift it? If we use this method, even if we solve the case overnight, we police officers will lose face!"

Hearing this, the analyst said, "Tonight, the streets of the inner city are almost all filled with civilians, and they are all parading. If there is no curfew, how can we find the thieves?"

Many people nodded and thought: Yes, in this situation, how can they find the thief in such a huge crowd?

Song Zhong frowned and said, "The people who kidnapped the children tonight are most likely a gang. If so, they will probably make another move later. This is our chance."

"Later, we will dispatch all patrol officers, change into civilian clothes, and divide them into small teams to infiltrate several streets with the most people and conduct surveillance everywhere."

"As long as those traffickers dare to strike again, we will have a chance to capture them - if we catch just one, we might be able to find all the missing children!"

The method proposed by Song Zhong was obviously a stupid one, but it also seemed to be the most effective way to handle the case without re-imposing a curfew.

Just as several deputy police officers were wondering whether to do this, a patrolman came in to report.

"My dear superiors, someone from the Six Gates is coming!"

Are the people from the Six Gates coming?
Song Zhong and others were surprised when they heard this.

Speaking of which, although the Six Gates are also under the jurisdiction of the police department, they usually only handle major cases, important cases, and secret cases.

Since its establishment, storytellers in the streets have told some stories about the Six Gates Divine Constables, but in daily life, even ordinary patrolmen rarely see the Divine Constables involved in solving cases.

Under normal circumstances, cases involving several missing children would not be transferred to the Six Gates unless children continued to go missing in a certain place and the patrol officers were unable to solve the case.

Even though tonight was special, it was surprising that the Six Gates sent people to participate in the case so quickly.

Just as Song Zhong and others were thinking about this matter, three people in black police uniforms strode in.

Although the robes of these three people were similar in style to those of the patrol clerks, the materials used were obviously of higher quality, the workmanship was more refined, and the robes were embroidered with flying eagles and cloud patterns.

The warriors were equipped with a high-topped, hard-style Tang scarf without earrings, a wide belt tied tightly around their waists, and cowhide boots. They also wore a long sword with a goose feather hanging from their waists, a delicate short gun, a crossbow and a chain on their backs.

The three of them looked much more imposing than ordinary patrolmen.

The leader was already in his forties, with gray hair and a weathered face. He immediately flashed a golden badge upon entering and said, "Lu Sanqi, the master detective of the Six Gates, has been ordered to assist in the investigation of tonight's missing child case."

After showing his badge, Lu Sanqi took out a document with the seal of the Chief of Police and handed it over - the Chief of Police was the only one of the nine departments who had not yet been sealed.

The Six Gates Divine Constable was a seventh-rank official, and a highly valuable one at that. Although Song Zhong was a sixth-rank official in Yingtian Prefecture, he didn't dare to be too negligent. He stepped forward to take the document, and after reading it, his brows furrowed even deeper.

Although Lu Sanqi had just said that he was here to help with the investigation, the Chief of Police had indeed written a letter asking their police station to fully cooperate with the Six Gates - it was obvious that the senior police officers had more faith in the Six Gates' ability to handle the case.

Although Song Zhong was a little unwilling, he did not dare to do anything bad out of selfishness, and he did not even dare to deliberately cooperate passively.

After handing the document to the deputy director, he said, "I didn't expect that Inspector Lu would be on duty at the Six Gates tonight. I wonder how Inspector Lu plans to handle this case?"

"Also, I wonder if Detective Lu has received instructions from the department—no curfew for this case, and the case must be solved before dawn."

Lu Sanqi asked, "Could you please ask Director Song to first have someone explain to us how the five children went missing, and then tell us about the method the police department has prepared to handle the case."

This wasn't the first time Song Zhong had dealt with Lu Sanqi, so he didn't mince words. He said, "Seven children have gone missing so far, and the circumstances behind them are largely similar..."

Afterwards, Song Zhong personally explained the case to Lu Sanqi and told him the stupid method they had discussed before.

Lu Sanqi nodded after hearing this. "Director Song's idea is sound. Just send someone to do it. Then send someone to find the families of the seven missing children and have them take the children's personal belongings. It shouldn't be difficult to solve this case."

Song Zhong understood immediately, "You want to use a police dog? There are so many people here tonight, and the smells are so mixed. I don't think a police dog can find the person, right?"

Lu Sanqi said, "It's not the police dog from your police station, but a special police dog specially trained by our Six Gates. As for whether it works, you'll know after trying it."

A special police dog specially trained by Liushenmen?

Song Zhong and others were stunned when they heard this.

Because before, the Six Gates had to call in police dogs from the police station and did not have their own police dogs.

But from what Lu Sanqi just said, it seems that Liushenmen had trained a group of police dogs at some point, and they seemed confident that they were better than the police dogs in the police station.

At this time, Zhao Rao, a relatively younger Six Gates Silver Medal Constable standing next to Lu Sanqi, said proudly, "If you superiors don't trust our special police dogs, you can go to the courtyard and take a look."

"Did you bring the police dog?"

"good."

Song Zhong and other police officers immediately came to a yard in front and saw six bronze-medal constables each leading a police dog.

The police dogs squatted beside them and did not move even when they saw a large group of people surrounding them.

Zhao Rao came to the side of the police dog and shouted, "Stand up!"

All six police dogs stood up immediately, but still did not make any other moves.

Most of Song Zhong and others have come into contact with police dogs. In fact, as soon as they saw these police dogs from the Six Gates, they had a feeling that these police dogs should be able to do the job.

Seeing the police dog so obedient again, I trusted it even more.

Song Zhong then said, "Since the Six Gates have such a good police dog, let's try Detective Lu's method!"

Then he began to order his subordinates to do their work one by one.

Teams of patrol officers changed into plain clothes, divided into small teams and left the Yingtianfu Police Station, sneaking into several streets around the imperial city.

On the other side, not long after, the family of the missing child also came to the police station with the child's personal belongings.

The detectives, constables, and police dogs of the Six Gates also took action...
At around eight or nine in the evening, the flow of people on Taiping, Chang'an and other streets remained undiminished. Many people were enjoying this rare peaceful and prosperous New Year's Eve, and almost no one noticed the search operations of the Six Gates and the police station.

After midnight, the two water-powered mechanical clock towers near the imperial city rang out the time at the same time, and the traditional bell and drum tower also rang out the sound of striking bronze bells.

The people of the Ming Dynasty entered the 20th year of Hongwu amid the sound of clear bells.

At this time, there were already fewer people on the streets - many people had gone home early to prepare for the New Year's sacrifices.

By one or two o'clock, there were far fewer people on the streets than at eight or nine o'clock, and the street seemed deserted.

The six police dogs of Liushenmen, after experiencing the mistake of finding the homes or residences of lost children, finally gathered at Liren Street and wandered beside a culvert.

Song Zhong, Lu Sanqi and others also came here.

A police officer in charge of the on-site command came forward and said, "Reporting to the Director, we have thoroughly checked and searched more than a dozen households nearby, but we haven't found any useful clues!"

After saying this, he looked at Zhao Rao, then at the special police dogs. Although he didn't say anything, his meaning was very clear - had the special police dogs of the Six Gates found the wrong place?
Song Zhong nodded but said nothing.

Lu Sanqi approached the culvert where the police dogs were lingering, watched for a moment, and then said, "I once heard a rumor from the Yuan Dynasty—it's said that when the Zhao Song capital was still in Bianliang, or Kaifeng, the population once reached several million."

"Over 100,000 of them, for various reasons, lived in the deep and complex underground canals of Bianliang City."

"Most of these people are beggars, but there are also many fugitives, thieves, and criminals. Many of them make a living by trafficking children and women, and even form several gangs out of this. The most famous one is called Wuyoudong."

Song Zhong was a member of the Jinyiwei and had even become the head of the Yingtian Prefecture Bureau, so he was no ordinary man. Upon hearing this, he understood what Lu Sanqi meant and said, "Captain Lu is saying that the thieves and the child might be hiding in this culvert?"

　First update.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)