At nine o'clock in the morning, a black Santana turned from the riverside highway onto the Yangtze River Embankment along the road built during flood control.

It was the dry season and the embankment was far away from the river.

The gentle slope outside the embankment is covered with weeds, and there is a lot of garbage brought by the flood season in the weeds. To the south is a large piece of reeds, swaying in the wind. Further south, on the river, three 100-ton river cargo ships are anchored.

They were waiting to row across the river to load goods at the small dock on the other side.

The main and auxiliary channels further away are as busy as ever, and a cargo ship estimated to be at least 20,000 tons is moving upstream.

When working on the riverside, or even enforcing the law on the river, boat recognition is a basic skill that can be mastered quickly without deliberate study.

Although the flag of the People's Republic of China was hoisted on the foremast of the cargo ship, Xu Haoran parked the car and took a closer look, and knew that it was a Panamanian foreign ship and that there was a pilot on board. Because the Panamanian flag was hoisted on the stern of the ship.

flag, and also added the "H" flag representing the pilot on board.

Zhao Hongxing, who came by car together, was more concerned about the weather.

As soon as he got out of the car, he tightened the fur collar of his fur coat, rubbed his hands and said with a smile, "I don't feel much when I'm sitting in the car. It's only when I get out of the car that I realize how cold it is."

"Bureau Zhao, is it cold today?" Liu Guixiang, deputy detachment of the Criminal Investigation Detachment of the Changhang Branch, asked.

"The weather forecast says that today's minimum is 3 degrees. Isn't this cold enough?" Zhao Hongxing looked back at Han Yu and Li Jun, chief of staff of the border inspection station who had just got out of the car, and said with a bit of self-deprecation: "I'm already in my forties.

Now, I can’t compare with you guys. It’s normal for you to be strong-blooded and not afraid of the cold.”

The security of the Binjiang section of the Yangtze River has been good over the years, but the recent serial thefts on the river have not only slapped the faces of the Shuangshui Branch and the Changhang Branch, but also the Binjiang Entry-Exit Border Inspection Station.

Just a month ago, a foreign ship anchored at the inspection anchorage waiting to enter the port was also stolen. It happened under the customary supervision of officers and soldiers at the border inspection station, and the impact was extremely bad.

The Border Inspection Station and the Water Branch Bureau boarded the ship and investigated, and it was possible to rule out an "insider" committing the crime. Various signs indicate that it was probably the "Riot Bandit" who was being investigated by the Water Branch Bureau and the Changhang Navigation Branch.

Because of this, as soon as Li Jun heard that Han Yu was going to lead a joint investigation between the Water Branch and the Changhang Branch, he took the initiative to join this unofficial "task force."

Studying the case files in the conference room of the Shuangshui Branch is not as good as seeing it in person.

Hence, today’s trip to the riverside.

To avoid alerting others, none of the five people wore police uniforms.

Today, Han Yu put on the pilot jacket that his senior asked for from the Hong Kong Regulatory Bureau. Looking at the charming sandbanks in the river, the rippling blue waves, the reflected blue sky, the lush aquatic plants on the river beach, and the gathering of waterbirds, he sighed:

"Bureau Zhao, Lao Liu, have you noticed that things have gotten really warm in recent years?"

Zhao Hongxing was stunned and said: "It's a bit cold today, but it's definitely not as cold as before."

Liu Guixiang has worked in the Changhang Navigation Branch for more than ten years and is most sensitive to climate change. Pointing to the reeds on the riverside, he said: "In the two years when I first started working, the riverside was freezing in winter. Don't say that in the past two years.

Riversides and even inland rivers rarely freeze, and ice can only be seen occasionally in remote ditches and canals."

It used to be really cold in winter.

It snows as soon as winter comes, and the snow is knee-deep at its peak.

To this day, Xu Haoran can't forget the scene of trudging in the snow to go to school when he was a child. Walking in the snow was fun at first, but when he got to school and entered the classroom, he sat down and found that his shoes were all wet. After a while, his feet became wet.

It was cold and painful, and my whole body felt like I was in an ice cellar.

He recalled his childhood, looked back around, and said with a smile: "The weather is getting warmer and warmer. Look, the leaves have not fallen off, and the wheat and rapeseed are all green. This was not the case before."

"It may be that the world is warming as scientists say, or it may be affected by the El Niño phenomenon."

"Xianyu, are you saying that the glaciers in Antarctica and the Arctic will melt, the sea water will rise, the earth will end, and humans will become extinct?" Li Jun took out his cigarette and asked with a smile.

What my good friend said may seem like a joke, but there is a real market for "eschatology" like this now.

At the turn of the century, various fallacies and heresies emerged one after another, otherwise there would not be so many people believing in cults.

In fact, China is much better than abroad. Xiaoyu has learned how to use the Internet. He knows everything about China and abroad. According to him, there are more cults abroad than in China, and they all believe that mankind will perish in the next ten days.

Han Yu didn't believe that and said with a smile: "Global warming and the melting of the glaciers in the Arctic and Antarctic require a process. If you and I can see that day, not only is it not a bad thing but a good thing."

"Good thing?"

"This means that our life span will be very long, doesn't it mean that we will live a long life?"

"That's true, hahaha."

"No more joking, let's get down to business." Han Yu changed the topic, looked at the anchorage in the distance and asked: "Bureau Zhao, Lao Li, the foreign ship was stolen. When you came to investigate, did you inspect the river beach?"

"I didn't expect it at the time."

Zhao Hongxing sighed and said helplessly: "The anchorage of the cruise ship is estimated to be two kilometers away from the river beach. The weather at the time of the incident was not as cold as it is now, but it was not warm either. Who would have thought that someone would swim from the shore to the anchorage and climb up the anchor chain?"

Ship theft!"

Li Jun was convinced and added: "We first suspected that an 'insider' committed the crime. The composition of the crew on that freighter was quite complicated. There were Taiwanese crew members, Filipino crew members, and even Indian crew members, and half of the crew members came here.

We boarded the ship in Hong Kong in front of Binjiang."

"Then how did you exclude the mole from committing the crime?" Han Yu asked in a low voice.

"When we investigated, several crew members were very resistant. The captain was German. He also suspected that the crew members had done it. When he saw that the crew members were not cooperating, he became angry and summoned all the crew members to the bridge. Not only did he ask the crew members to cooperate with the investigation, he even asked us to

Search the crew cabin and even search the body.”

"Have you searched?"

"We searched it, inside and out, three times, but no stolen money was found."

"Are those crew members so cooperative?"

"The German captain said that if anyone refused to cooperate, he would call the company and ask the company to arrange crew rotation."

"What was lost on the ship?"

"cash."

Zhao Hongxing was deeply impressed by the foreign-related cases and said without hesitation: "A sailor in the deck department lost more than 13,600 US dollars, and a mechanic in the engine department lost more than 8,000 US dollars. Their rooms are on the second floor of the living area.

No one lives on the first floor, so just go up the ladder to their room."

Han Yu asked: "The door was pried open?"

"Well, the room was turned into a mess. What's strange is that the crew's laptop on the desk and the digital camera in the cabinet were not lost."

Han Yu thought about it and asked: "The two crew members were not in the room when the crime occurred?"

Before Zhao Hongxing could speak, Li Jun introduced: "On the afternoon of the incident, we contacted the customs and boarded the ship for quarantine inspection. Although the German captain was very old-fashioned, he was very kind to the crew and asked us if we could let some crew members go ashore first.

, we agreed, so when the incident occurred, six crew members went through immigration formalities and took the boat ashore first."

"How many people are there on board?"

"Including the captain, there are a total of eighteen people."

"There were twelve people on the ship, and the thief dared to break open the door and steal, and he broke into a cabin that was unoccupied that night. What does this mean?" Han Yu was silent for a moment, asking and answering: "If we want to arrest this theft case,

If there is a connection with the criminal thief, then this criminal thief should have a certain understanding of shipping, especially cargo ships."

Liu Guixiang raised his head and said, "It's probably not related."

"That's right. Although you have searched the ship and even the crew members, what was stolen was more than 20,000 US dollars. The cargo ship is so big. It is not difficult to hide more than 20,000 US dollars so that you can't find it."

"It would have been nice to have surveyed the river beach at that time. If it had been the gangster who had done it, he would have definitely gone ashore after he succeeded. As long as he came ashore, he would have left footprints on the nearby river beach."

If you are on shore, you can ask the traffic police department for assistance and check nearby traffic monitoring.

If you are at a dock, you can ask the port for assistance. CCTV surveillance is now installed at the docks.

But here is the riverside. There is a reed marsh on the outside of the embankment and a crop field on the inside of the embankment. Which unit will install surveillance cameras to monitor the river beach.

The five people just walked eastward along the embankment, stopping and stopping based on the location of the crime they knew.

At noon, we passed by the Yingchuangang Water Rescue Center, had a quick meal at the rescue center, and walked all the way to the junction of the Yangtze River Main Line and the North Branch of the Yangtze River.

At half past six in the afternoon, it was already dark.

The five people visited more than a dozen crime scenes and did not rush back to the city. Instead, they borrowed the small conference room on the third floor of the Changzhou Maritime Department to look at the crime locations marked on the waterway map and summarize and analyze the Jiangyang robbers' crimes together.

law.

"In terms of the choice of crime targets, the suspects chose relatively remote waters. There were very few anchored ships at that time, and there was a certain distance between the anchored ships."

Han Yu held his chin and continued: "Then there were seventeen theft cases. All the items stolen were cash, and mobile phones, VCD players and other valuable electrical appliances were not lost. Although it made it impossible for us to trace the stolen goods, it also confirmed that Zhao

According to the previous judgment of the Bureau, he swam over and climbed onto the boat to steal. Valuable electronic items such as mobile phones cannot be taken away, and even if they were taken, they would be damaged by water."

Liu Guixiang drew inferences and said: "He is very familiar with the terrain in our area and has a certain understanding of shipping and even ships. He may have run a ship, may have worked at a dock, or may have worked in a shipyard."

"Judging from the frequency of committing crimes, he should not be young. He is probably over 25 years old." Zhao Hongxing added as he put out his cigarette butt.

"Bureau Zhao, where did your guess come from?" Xu Haoran asked curiously.

"It's very simple. He committed more than a dozen crimes and only missed one. He succeeded in almost all of them before, and each time he gained a lot of money. The amount of cash stolen can easily reach tens of thousands. If it were a young man who could steal so much money at once,

He will definitely spend a lot of money and wait until all the stolen money is spent before committing crimes."

Zhao Hongxing paused and added: "But this gangster is different. He may really be from our Binjiang people. He only knows how to steal money but not how to spend it. Otherwise, he would not commit crimes frequently after he succeeds."

People on the boat are different from those on the shore.

Ships need to burn oil when sailing, and it costs tens of thousands to fill up with oil. And people from all over the world don't know where they will go on their next voyage, let alone whether there is a bank near the next gas station where they can withdraw money, so they always have a lot of cash on board.

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To be continued...