Binjiang Police Affairs
Chapter 295 - 210 Emergency Rescue

Chapter 295: Chapter 210 Emergency Rescue

Han Xiangning was born and raised in Jiangcheng, so coming to Jiangcheng felt like coming home.

Han Yu had finished dining at President Yu’s place and, after bidding farewell to the couple, accompanied Han Xiangning to visit her father-in-law and mother-in-law’s old comrades in the military.

Iron camps and flowing soldiers, most of her father-in-law’s comrades have since switched to other lines of work.

Hospitals, unlike other institutions, require experienced medical and nursing staff, so many of her mother-in-law’s comrades did not switch careers.

They met several military officers with the rank of Major, Colonel, and even Major General, and if one didn’t know better, they might have thought they were senior commanders; in reality, they were just doctors, with the highest position being an epidemic prevention station director with the rank of a company commander.

They spent the afternoon playing around in the military camp, and after dinner, they went to Xia Guan Pier to catch a passenger liner home.

After a night’s sleep on the boat, they arrived at Binjiang just as dawn broke.

Han Xiangning had a shift today, and Han Yu needed to return to the squad, so without even stopping by home, they hopped on their little motorbike and headed straight for Yingchuan Port.

Jia Yongqiang and Ma Haitao didn’t expect the squad leader to return so fast. Upon seeing him, they blurted out: "Captain Yu, Chen Zikun resigned and jumped into business!"

It’s nothing new for government officials to resign and go into business; reportedly, in 1992, a total of 120,000 officials across the country resigned to enter business, with even more transferring to companies or taking on part-time business ventures.

For instance, Deputy Director Shen, who formerly oversaw logistics for Linghai Police Bureau, resigned to start a driving school with a few friends.

Or take Niu Bin, a staff member in the Criminal Investigation Fourth Squad who had once had a secret crush on his senior classmate. Having a cousin with a company in Shenzhen, he also resigned last year to go there and make a fortune.

That’s why the headlines are full of news about entering business these days.

Headlines such as "The Great Exodus of ’93 Government Officials!", "Everyone’s Rushing to Get Rich, But Who Will Run the Government?", "I Want to Enter Business, But I Might Drown", "If You’re a Bureau Chief, Why Do You Need More Money?"—each one more shocking than the last.

After all, the salaries in government departments are too low, and some places can’t even pay on time. People who want a better life for themselves and their families have no choice but to enter business, and indeed, entering business can bring substantial profits.

Liang Xiaoyu’s family used to be so poor that they struggled to make ends meet, but because they ran a small business on water, they can now earn at least a hundred thousand a year.

Her own elder brother and sister-in-law rented a small shopfront in the Sanxing Embroidery Wholesale Market; like a shell company, their shop only had samples on display, and they fetched goods from her big uncle and second uncle as needed by their customers.

They’ve been doing well these past few years, not only building a two-story Western-style house in her sister-in-law’s hometown of Lingbei Town but also, in anticipation of Xunxun starting school, purchasing a set of commodity housing built by the Sanxing Town Construction Station.

They even plan to sell their three-year-old Xingfu 250 and replace it with a Changhe van that can both transport people and haul goods.

Her parents’ transportation business has been even more successful over the past few years; they’ve already paid off their loans last year. If it weren’t for the firm opposition from her sister and elder brother, her parents would have bought an even bigger boat!

In short, entering business has almost become a trend.

It led people to believe that all the capable people have gone into business, and only the incapable ones stay as officials.

Others going into business didn’t surprise Han Yu.

But Chen Zikun’s resignation to go into business caught Han Yu off guard.

There had been no indication of it before, and at the age of twenty-eight, he had become an Instructor in the brigade. Not only did the branch bureau place great trust in him, but the city bureau also considered him a key candidate for future development.

Han Yu could hardly believe it, asking in astonishment, "Is that true?"

"What would I gain by lying to you?"

Ma Jintao, equally surprised, animatedly said, "I heard about it yesterday when I went to the branch to run some approvals. I didn’t quite believe it, so I asked Political Commissioner Wang. He confirmed it’s true."

Jia Yongqiang took out a cigarette, smiling bitterly: "Political Commissioner Wang said he had already submitted his resignation report a while ago, but kept it secret from us to avoid negative impacts."

"What’s he going to do after resigning?"

"His father-in-law is the captain of a construction team at a township construction station in Old Binjiang County, and he has recently started his own business, affiliated with a major construction company working on projects in East Sea. East Sea is undergoing the Pudong development project, and they’re swamped with work, so he resigned to help oversee it."

"Political Commissioner Wang said people seek to rise, and water flows to the lowest point. If someone wants to earn big money, we can’t block their way to wealth," Ma Jintao said, looking envious.

Jia Yongqiang sighed: "Capitan Yu, anyone with a little bit of connection is resigning to go into business. You, on the other hand, could be making big money on foreign merchant ships, but instead, you insist on coming to shore."

Ma Jintao strongly agreed, lighting a cigarette: "If you continued to work as a Chief Officer on international merchant ships, you could be earning a hundred thousands or two hundred thousands a year. Now you’re making just over two hundred a month; you won’t earn that much by the time you retire!"

Some things can’t be measured with money.

If he had really not come back, he would have felt guilty for the rest of his life.

Han Yu didn’t know how to explain and pressed on asking: "Now that Chen Zikun has resigned, who will take over as Instructor?"

"Political Commissioner Wang doesn’t know either. The city bureau probably will arrange someone for the Instructor position soon."

"The branch can only appoint squad instructors, while the position of brigade Instructor must be appointed by the city bureau."

Chen Zikun really played his cards well; he made sure to hinder others by exploiting his position as Instructor until the last moment, even helping endorse the expensive and challenging Public University’s Police Management program.

Han Yu couldn’t express how frustrated he was and grumbled, "President Yu was so caring toward him, but such a big decision as resigning, and he didn’t even give him a call!"

"President Yu doesn’t know?"

"Definitely not. He was asking about his recent situation yesterday. Since President Yu knows I’m close with him, he worried I wouldn’t treat him as a leader, reminding me to keep the right mindset and support his work."

"He must not have dared to tell President Yu."

"Forget about him for now, let’s talk about the case. Uncle Jia, did you go to the Development Zone Branch yesterday?"

"Done."

"Find anything?"

"Yesterday was New Year’s Day; there were only two police officers on duty at the branch office."

Jia Yongqiang opened his briefcase, took out a notebook, flipping through it as he spoke: "Besides, they look down on us. I simply went to the Development Zone Branch’s Yingchuan Port Police Station, the Criminal Investigation Second Team, and the Lang Mountain Police Station of the Chonggang Branch for inquiries.

Unlike those sitting in the branch offices, they face the pressure of solving cases and showed great interest in the information we provided. But just like us, they were short-staffed yesterday. They asked me to leave the material and said they would get back to me before the end of today at the latest."

Though case handling requires swift action, with such a tight number of officers on the ground, it’s not as simple as wanting to speed things up.

Han Yu nodded slightly and asked, "Brother Ma, what about your side?"

Ma Jintao hurriedly said, "That man with the surname Jiang, his background is clear now, he’s just a scrap collector. Because he collects scrap floating on the river and his boat has long been anchored at Tri-fork Port, which is at the junction of three districts and counties, none of the Security Teams of the three sub-branches can manage him; he has no formalities whatsoever."

"To whom does he sell the scrap he collected?"

"It depends on the scrap. There are several people on his boat, they’ve occupied the river beach, where they sorted things by categories. Scrap steel is sent to the small steel mills on shore, while glass bottles and waste paper are sent to the scrap collection stations on shore."

"There’s no point in continuing to monitor."

"No."

"Since his peers on shore can’t handle him, we will." After weighing the options, Han Yu asked, "How many people are on duty at the team today?"

"I, Xiao Ma, and Yang Yong," Jia Yongqiang replied, looking up.

"I’ll go change into my police uniform, and we’ll take the motorboat over there in a moment to check for any suspicious scrap items on his boat and on the beach at Sancha Port, then carry out a security punishment for his unlicensed scrap collection activities and order him to promptly apply for a license."

"Okay."

"Also, when we’re not so busy, we’ll call a meeting with the related personnel who have been punished before, urge them to quickly handle the necessary licenses, and invite Director Qian to provide them with training in scrap recycling industry management. We need to both manage them and turn them into our eyes and ears."

"No problem, I will also get ready."

To maintain order on the water, it’s essential to monitor the scrap collection, as most of the scrap collectors around here are located on the river beach and boats.

Just as Han Yu went back to his office to change into his police uniform and was about to find the Instructor to open the safe for the gun, he saw the old auxiliary policeman and chef of the squad, Huang Yuhua, rush out of the duty room.

"Captain Yu, Director Han is calling, says something on the river is entangled with an anchor, please hurry over."

"Is there a ship anchored that has entangled an anchor?"

"It seems so."

Anchor entanglement, as the name suggests, means that anchors have become tangled with each other.

This is no trivial matter. If the anchor chains of several ships are tangled together and they start to drift, it means that several ships will drift with the tide, and even if they are at full power, it would be hard to adjust their course.

In the worst case, they could collide with other ships that are navigating normally.

The Jiangbin section of the Yangtze River in Yingchuan Port has strong winds, with at least one hundred and eighty days a year with wind forces exceeding force six, known for its windy and wavy areas.

If they don’t act quickly to eliminate the danger, it could lead to several ships getting entangled and losing control together, and the consequences would be unthinkable.

Han Yu didn’t dare to delay for a moment, nodded to Jia Yongqiang, and rode a small motorcycle to the Water Rescue Center.

Deputy Director Chen of the Rescue Center and the staff on duty from the Port Patrol Second Team had already set off on Supervision 37, Captain Wang and Zhu Baogen were preparing the vehicle, and the crane ship had just set sail.

Liang Xiaoyu was off today, who knows where he went with his girlfriend.

Taking over the walkie-talkie from Han Xiangning, Han Yu gazed at the river surface and asked, "How many ships’ anchors are tangled?"

"Six."

"Any dragging anchor?"

"It’s because two ships started dragging anchor that the anchor chains of several ships became tangled. Chief Jiang had noticed the mooring conditions were prone to dragging anchor during patrol yesterday and reminded the shipowners, who didn’t heed the warning."

"Where is it?"

Han Xiangning ran into the command cabin, took out the binoculars, and as he led the way to the second deck, he said, "It’s five hundred meters downstream from buoy number 14; the tide is falling right now, otherwise, I wouldn’t have called you over."

The Yangtze River has two tides a day along the Jiangbin section.

The position of the ships with tangled anchors was very close to the cross-waterway, which forms a thirty-degree angle, so during the ebbing tide, the current would press towards the South Bank very noticeably. Due to the long hidden reefs on the southern side, the southward pressing current was blocked and turned towards the North Bank.

In other words, if the danger is not eliminated in time, the six ships tangled together are likely to spin under the influence of the current and the wind.

Collision with each other is inevitable. If they lose control and rush into the main waterway, ships passing by may get stranded to avoid them, causing a series of maritime traffic accidents.

Seeing that the view from the side of the cockpit was not very good, Han Yu simply climbed to the top of the cockpit and raised the binoculars to carefully observe, then yelled down: "Captain Wang, let’s circle around from the west to see if we can stop them from upstream!"

"Okay."

"Ningning, help Captain Wang check the water depth."

"Got it."

"Uncle Zhu, prepare the ropes, get ready to tow!"