Courtyard House: From Deputy Division Commander to Civilian, Progressing All the Way

Outside the gate of the Hanjiang No. 3 Factory, the situation has completely spiraled out of control.

As Pei Yihong bled, the thugs bribed by the hidden hand in the shadows not only did not back down, but instead became even more frenzied, like hyenas that had smelled blood.

"He's bleeding! He won't dare do anything to us! Charge in! Smash all those new foreign machines!"

The man with the scar on his face roared and pulled an iron rod from his pocket, leading the charge towards the factory gate.

The crowd surged like a burst dam, relentlessly assaulting the flimsy metal sliding gate. The ear-piercing screech and twisting of metal sent chills down one's spine.

Pei Yihong stood on the jeep, looking at the group of thugs who had completely lost their minds, a trace of despair and sorrow flashing in his eyes.

He could die, but he couldn't stand by and watch as the nation spent enormous sums of foreign exchange to import a specialized cold-rolled steel production line from Germany, only to have it smashed into a pile of scrap metal by these thugs. That was the only hope for the revival of Hanjiang Heavy Industry!

"Security Department! Hold the line! We'd rather die in front of the gate!" Pei Yihong roared hoarsely, drawing his self-defense baton from his waist, preparing to jump out of the car for a final hand-to-hand fight.

Click—!

The metal sliding gate finally succumbed to the enormous force and broke in half.

The mob erupted in a frenzied roar and swarmed into the factory like locusts.

At this critical juncture, when the entire Hanjiang No. 3 Factory was about to be destroyed, it was an absolutely critical moment.

Rumble—!!!

A roar of engines, ten times louder than the shouts of the rioters, suddenly came from the end of the street outside the factory area.

The sound was like ten thousand horses galloping, or like thunder descending from the sky.

Everyone instinctively stopped and turned to look.

On the wide avenue in front of the factory, three completely black Hongqi sedans without any license plates were rushing straight toward the dense crowd at an almost insane speed!

There is no sign of slowing down at all!

The lead Hongqi sedan, with its massive grille gleaming with a cold and deadly metallic luster in the winter sun, resembled a prehistoric beast with its jaws wide open.

"Ah—! The car's gone mad! Get out of the way!"

The thugs, who had been so arrogant just moments before, were instantly terrified by the relentless crushing force of steel. A piercing scream erupted from the crowd, and like waves being cleaved apart, they scrambled and stumbled to both sides of the street in a frantic escape.

They trampled each other, and cries of agony filled the air.

Sizzle—!!!

With a piercing screech of brakes, the lead Hongqi sedan came to a screeching halt less than three meters from the broken factory gate. Two long, black scorch marks were left by the tires on the asphalt, and the air was thick with the acrid smell of burning rubber.

A deathly silence fell over the scene. Only the low, labored groan of a large-displacement engine idling could be heard.

Immediately afterwards, the doors of the two cars behind them popped open simultaneously.

Twenty internal security soldiers, dressed in black training uniforms and carrying Type 56 semi-automatic rifles, leaped out of the carriage with highly professional tactical maneuvers, like a group of black and white impermanence descending from the sky.

Click! Click!

Twenty crisp sounds of bullets being chambered rang out in unison in front of the factory gate. The black muzzles of the guns were mercilessly pointed at the thugs who were still stunned around them.

The chilling killing intent honed from special security missions fraught with corpses and blood instantly froze the blood of everyone present.

No one dared to move again. The scarred man who had led the charge earlier dropped his iron rod with a clang, his legs buckling like noodles, and he collapsed to his knees in the mud.

This is a real elite field army!

At that moment, the rear door of the lead Hongqi sedan slowly opened.

A pair of spotless black leather shoes stepped on the ground.

Lin Yang, wearing a knee-length black cashmere coat, stepped out of the car like a god who controlled life and death.

His gaze didn't fall on the thugs kneeling on the ground, nor on the silent crowd around him. His eyes passed over the broken gate and landed directly on Pei Yihong, who stood on the jeep, his face covered in blood.

Lin Yang strode into the factory area, step by step.

The crowd parted automatically in front of him, as if Moses were parting the sea, and no one dared to even breathe.

Lin Yang walked up to the jeep and stopped.

Pei Yihong's eyes instantly reddened as she looked at the man who had suddenly appeared before her, as if a god had descended to earth.

His unyielding, steely backbone trembled slightly at that moment.

"President...President..." Pei Yihong's voice choked. He wanted to jump out of the car, but his legs were numb from being stretched for so long.

"Stand still."

Lin Yang's voice was deep and resonant, carrying a calming power that penetrated the soul.

He reached out and pulled a clean white silk handkerchief from the inside pocket of his coat.

Under the watchful eyes of thousands, this supreme leader, who held immense power and controlled the nation's economic lifeline, actually stepped onto the jeep's running board, reached out, and used a silk handkerchief to carefully wipe away the blood from Pei Yihong's forehead and cheeks.

Lin Yang's movements were very light, but each wipe felt like a heavy hammer blow to the entire officialdom of Hanjiang Province.

"Blood cannot be shed in vain." Lin Yang looked into Pei Yihong's bloodshot eyes, his voice echoing in the silent factory area, "For every drop of blood shed by my soldiers, Lin Yang, I will make those parasites hiding in the shadows pay with their lives."

Lin Yang turned around and looked down at the dark mass of people outside the gate.

He didn't use a megaphone, but his deep, resonant voice, full of inner strength, clearly reached everyone's ears.

"I am Lin Yang, Chairman of the National Commission for Modernization Reform and Development!"

boom!

The moment this name was mentioned, the ordinary workers who had been stirred up widened their eyes instantly, a hint of fear and awe flashing within them. The thugs mixed in with the crowd, on the other hand, were utterly terrified, their faces turning deathly pale.

"You keep saying that the reforms of the Ministry of Heavy Industry have cost you your jobs."

Lin Yang's gaze swept across the crowd like a searchlight, a cold and mocking smile curling at the corner of his mouth.

"Shen Yan!"

"Here!" Shen Yan immediately stepped forward, opened the black confidential briefcase, and pulled out a thick stack of review materials stamped with the red seals of the Ministry of Heavy Industry and the National Development and Reform Commission.

"Read it to them! Let them know who ruined their livelihood!" Lin Yang shouted sternly.

Shen Yan stepped forward, his voice clear and loud.

"A joint undercover investigation by the National Audit Office and the China National Commission for Modernization Reform and Development has confirmed that the former abandoned blast furnace workshop of the Hanjiang No. 3 Factory has long been involved in serious collusion between internal and external parties to steal state assets!"

Shen Yan pointed at the scarred man kneeling on the ground and loudly proclaimed: "Sun Dashan, a social idler, nicknamed Scarface, colluded with the deputy head of the factory's materials department to smuggle 4,500 tons of high-quality special iron ore out of the factory area under the guise of waste slag over the past three years, reselling it to private small steel mills in the south! The profit reached 1.2 million yuan!"

"And you so-called 'shadow workers'," Shen Yan turned to another page of the ledger, "receive your wages and food coupons from the factory every month, yet you've never smelted a single furnace of steel in the workshop! Your wages are all earned through the blood and sweat of those workers who actually bleed and sweat in front of the high-temperature furnaces, painstakingly saved from their meager savings!"

After Shen Yan finished reading, he slammed the document shut.