Chapter 415: Lin Shimao

Of course, the focus of the sightseeing was Lin Shimao’s casino and residence. Neither was in a prosperous area. To understand Lin Shimao’s movements, Chen Tianxiong had already sent a subordinate to secretly investigate his routine.

Lin Shimao rested at home during the day and only went to the casino before the lamps were lit. The distance between the two places was about a ten-minute walk. However, he never walked, but took a sedan chair. Lin Shimao was a well-connected person in the county town, but his long-term operation of a casino and usury had ruined countless families. There were naturally many people who wanted to seek revenge on him, and even more heroes who wanted to chop him up to make a name for themselves and take over the casino. Lin Shimao had to be careful. Not only did he take a sedan chair when he went out, but he also had seven or eight strong thugs guarding him.

Qian Shuixie felt that attacking him on the road was not a good plan—it would cause too much commotion, and they were short on manpower, not enough to control the retreat route. Once the four gates were closed, they would have to fight their way out, which would inevitably cause a large number of civilian casualties and consume a lot of their own resources and manpower. Capturing Lin Shimao was itself a low-cost secondary operation. Anping was the big fish. A large-scale slaughter in Jinjiang would be putting the cart before the horse.

In the special reconnaissance team’s urban warfare, the city walls and gates had always been a troublesome problem for them, causing considerable difficulties for both infiltration and withdrawal.

“We can only snatch him from his bed,” Qian Shuixie said. “Go into his house or casino and tie him up directly.”

“It’s best to tie him up in his residence,” Xu Ke said. “There are too many people in the casino, making it difficult to act.”

But this meant that they had to act during the day. The advantage of acting during the day was that they could quickly leave the city and retreat after they succeeded, but it was difficult to approach and enter covertly during the day, and they were easily discovered.

After much consideration, they finally decided to act at night. After they succeeded, they would climb over the city wall and take him to the temple. Once they were out of the city, it would be very convenient to transport him.

“I’ve sent someone to scout out the inside of the casino—it’s very similar to the one in Leizhou.” Chen Tianxiong said as he took out a floor plan. “The first courtyard is the public casino, anyone can enter. The second courtyard is for people with some status, you need a recommendation, and strangers can’t enter…” He pointed on the map. “Our people can’t get into the third courtyard. It’s probably the accounts office or something similar. Lin Shimao is most likely in there, but we don’t have enough information about the third courtyard.”

“Does he come out at night?”

“He does. He usually comes out for a walk every hour or so and plays a few hands with people. But recently, he rarely comes out, and even when he does, he has several bodyguards with him.”

“It seems someone has warned him,” Xu Ke said.

The courtyard walls were high, and the back door was made of thick wooden planks covered with iron sheets. Under normal circumstances, it was bolted and barred from the inside, and it would be impossible to open without explosives. Because casinos often had large amounts of cash coming in and out, all of which was “black money” that couldn’t be seen by the authorities, they had always paid great attention to preventing theft.

The few of them discussed for a while and decided to dig a hole directly from outside the backyard into the third courtyard. Chinese-style buildings all have a “style,” and the better the house, the more rigorous the “style” of its construction. Although they had not personally investigated the structure of the third courtyard, they estimated that it was consistent with other similar courtyards. As for Lin Shimao’s location, he was most likely in the east or west wing of the third courtyard. When the casino was open, he would most likely be in the accounts office watching the money come in and out, and it was unlikely that he would be in the main room.

As night fell, the sea breeze gradually picked up, and the originally hot streets gradually cooled down. As the sound of the watchman’s clapper announcing the night watch rang out, the pedestrians on the street gradually became sparse.

The twilight grew thicker, and the streets gradually became deserted. Just as the first watch of the third watch had just been struck, a group of figures quietly climbed over the back wall of the inn, walked quickly along the alley outside the backyard, bypassed the county yamen, and entered the residential area south of the county’s main street. They passed through the back streets and alleys and stopped in a small alley behind the casino.

This was a back street alley, pitch black, filled with a nauseating stench of urine mixed with garbage. It was silent all around, and only when they stopped to listen could they vaguely hear laughter and conversation from behind the courtyard wall.

Xu Ke knew from Chen Tianxiong that there were very few residents in this poor alley, only some very poor people lived there—they were not interested in getting involved in anything.

He stopped to listen for a moment and confirmed that the back wall of the casino was here. The map provided by Chen Tianxiong was very precise. Even without a guide, he had successfully led his men to the exact location with the help of night vision goggles.

“The back door is right there,” Qian Shuixie whispered.

“Is that the door he mentioned?”

“That’s right. I’ve confirmed it. All the surrounding features are as he said.”

Xu Ke looked at his watch and said, “Let’s do it.”

It was already past midnight. The night was quiet, with only the sound of the whistling wind and a dog or two barking in the distance.

Qian Shuixie gave a hand signal: “Go!”

A few special reconnaissance team members walked a few steps along the wall, found a spot, and began to dig a hole.

This technique was taught by a group of thieves that the police department had caught in Lingao. Unless it was a stone foundation, even a wall of finely laid bricks with glutinous rice mortar could be pierced.

The special reconnaissance team was very interested in this technique. Climbing over walls was fast, but many large households had guards in their courtyards who paid special attention to the roofs and walls. If they happened to be on patrol, it would be easy to turn a sneak attack into a frontal assault. To quickly and quietly eliminate the target, the special reconnaissance team lacked silencers and could not silence their automatic weapons. Crossbows were too slow, and they could only shoot once in a hurry.

After several practical observations and consulting materials, Xue Ziliang and Bei Wei had developed a special set of wall-digging tools. They were all made of high-quality carbon steel, not only hard and durable, but also more efficient than the tools used by the thieves.

Two team members approached the wall with the wall-digging tools. They used a shovel to gently scrape the lime between the bricks, back and forth, scraping and carving the lime seam. They had to use force, but they couldn’t make any noise. When the lime seams on all four sides of a brick were dug in and a gap appeared, one team member held a crowbar with a hook in both hands, inserted the pig’s-trotter-shaped tip into the dug-out lime seam, and gently pried it up. The brick loosened. Another team member gently pulled out the brick, handed it to someone else, and then slowly placed it on the ground as if it were a fragile piece of porcelain.

Qian Shuixie stopped the team members from digging further. He put on his infrared night vision goggles and carefully lay down at the hole where the brick had been pulled out, looking into the courtyard to ensure that the area where they were digging was clear of enemies.

The position where they were digging was at the corner of the courtyard wall, which was originally a very dark place. Moreover, toilets were usually built in the corners, which were blind spots that were difficult to observe. It would be easy to hide after digging through.

After the first brick was pulled out, the efficiency increased. The figures in the dark worked nervously, the shovels scraping the lime seams, making a slight scraping sound.

The hole was quickly dug large enough for one person to pass through. A team member wearing night vision goggles carefully crawled in, followed by Qian Shuixie.

The structure of the courtyard was basically as they had expected. There were two bodyguards, one standing under the eaves of the east wing, and the other was well hidden, but the thermal imaging effect of the infrared made his hiding place in the flower trellis ineffective.

Qian Shuixie made a throat-slitting gesture. Two team members quietly moved along the shadow of the eaves to behind the flower trellis and the pillar, and silently slit the throats of the two bodyguards.

The team members were already ready to attack in groups. There were four doors in the courtyard: the main room, the left and right wings, and the courtyard gate. To be safe, every door had to be secured.

Qian Shuixie leaped into the courtyard, waving his submachine gun. With a whistle, four groups rushed towards the three house doors and one courtyard gate. Almost at the same time, the three doors were kicked open, and the assault team members rushed in.

The main room was silent, but from the east and west wings came the sound of cracking and the dying gasps of someone whose throat was being choked.

Xu Ke followed Qian Shuixie into the east wing. On the floor of the wing were already two corpses, both dressed as accountants. At this time, the team members had already dragged out a half-naked, strong man, covered in blood.

“It’s him,” a team member said. “He tried to resist, so we had to give him a taste of it. We also took care of a rabbit inside.” He said this with a look of disgust.

Xu Ke was afraid he would die. Seeing that he had only been stabbed in both arms and was bleeding profusely, his life was probably not in immediate danger.

“Bandage him up and take him away!” Xu Ke said. “Pry open the silver chests!”

The accounts office was filled with account books, but Xu Ke didn’t need to know the casino’s business situation. The team members quickly pried open the money chests. The first three were full of copper coins. The fourth was filled with various whole and scattered pieces of silver. The team members opened their empty backpacks and quickly poured the silver into two of them, disguising this kidnapping as a robbery by a notorious bandit.

A few minutes later, the entire team had already taken Lin Shimao and quietly retreated through the hole in the wall.

The next night, the secret room of Chen Tianxiong’s small temple had become an interrogation room. After a team member pulled out his second fingernail, Lin Shimao, who had been enduring the pain without changing his expression, finally spoke.

“Name?”

“Lin Shimao.”

“What do you do for a living?”

“I run a casino to make a living…” Lin Shimao had lost a lot of blood and had been tortured. He was listless.

“Do you know Mori Hisakatsu?”

Lin Shimao looked at him in surprise and immediately understood their purpose.

“He’s a Japanese man who has been living off the land here… I often help him out.”

“What about Li Shun?”

“He’s also… also living off the land here…”

“Who hired you to hire Mori Hisakatsu?”

“…”

Xu Ke glanced at the team member, who glanced at the pliers in his hand.

“I’ll talk, I’ll talk. I don’t really know much…” Lin Shimao was both scared and in pain, almost fainting. He knew that these people were not to be trifled with. He had already been warned that someone might be after him recently and that he should find a place to hide as soon as possible.