Chapter 86: The Impending Gunfight
Patrol missions are boring and dull. Without the occasional wild animals popping up, the team members felt they would surely go crazy.
No one knew who started humming a nameless tune first, but soon everyone joined in singing along.
A melodious tune rang out in the convoy, sounding somewhat desolate across the vast wilderness.
“Stop the car!”
Ba Duojie, sitting in the passenger seat, told Suo Nan Da to stop.
As an experienced veteran soldier in wilderness survival, Ba Duojie had the qualification to have Deputy Secretary Suo Nan Da drive for him in the wild. Besides, the two were close friends with no need for formalities.
“What did you discover?”
Seeing his friend’s face darken, Suo Nan Da grew uneasy in his heart, thinking they had encountered poachers.
Although he was prepared to fight the poaching gang, that didn’t conflict with his inner fear.
Facing his friend’s question, Ba Duojie offered no explanation.
He simply reached for the walkie-talkie: “Everyone, do not get out of the vehicles casually. Wait for my news.”
After speaking, Ba Duojie opened the car door, but just as he turned, Suo Nan Da grabbed him.
“Ba Duojie, what exactly did you discover? I think as the nominal captain of the patrol team, I have the right to know.”
Suo Nan Da said seriously.
If his friend had discovered something dangerous, he needed to stop him from getting out.
These newcomers still relied on the veteran soldier Ba Duojie to lead them. If something happened to Ba Duojie, they would be blind in the Nature Reserve, very likely to run into trouble with a high probability.
Though they were all local residents from the vicinity, they only knew some routes. They had virtually no wilderness survival experience.
If Ba Duojie, the veteran soldier familiar with wilderness survival, met with an accident, Suo Nan Da dared not imagine how their group could continue the patrol mission.
“Don’t worry, it’s nothing.
I just discovered a Tibetan Antelope corpse. I want to go down and see if I can find some useful intelligence.”
Ba Duojie said to Suo Nan Da, gently patting the hand grabbing his clothes, signaling its owner to let him go.
Suo Nan Da stared intently at Ba Duojie’s face, trying to read something from his expression.
He failed. Ba Duojie’s face was calm, with no extra expressions, only his eyes exceptionally clear and bright.
“Alright, be careful yourself.”
Suo Nan Da instructed his friend to stay safe.
“Don’t worry, I may lack other skills, but I have ways to stay alive.”
With that, Ba Duojie got out and walked toward the Tibetan Antelope corpse he had discovered.
This was a Tibetan Antelope that had been skinned and beheaded. From the degree of meat drying, it had been killed no more than an hour ago.
But in the vast wilderness, after losing the trail for over an hour, tracking the target was too difficult.
“Hope I can find something useful in the vicinity.”
Ba Duojie looked at the sun about to set, worried.
The poaching gang was already so brazen now. To think, another twenty kilometers ahead was nearly the Armed Police Border Station.
If they couldn’t catch this gang, who knew what the Nature Reserve would be ruined into!
Circling the Tibetan Antelope corpse, Ba Duojie began carefully searching for clues.
Sometimes he crouched on the ground flipping weeds, sometimes staring at a flattened grass patch in thought.
“Found it!”
Persistence pays off. After relentless effort, Ba Duojie finally found a clue.
It was footprints. From the number, there should be three to five people.
One person wore the same shoes as him, Liberation brand leather boots. Ba Duojie was all too familiar with the sole pattern.
“Found clues. What next? You’re the captain, you decide.”
Back in the car, Ba Duojie told Suo Nan Da his discovery, then waited for the captain to issue orders.
“Since we’ve found this gang, how could we let them go easily?
With so many of us, I don’t believe we can’t catch them!”
After careful consideration, Suo Nan Da decided to lead the patrol team in pursuit of the poaching gang.
“Good, I’ll give directions, you drive.”
The patrol team followed the trail left by the poaching gang and drove in pursuit.
Meanwhile, Scarface took his younger brother onto the highway, drove to their temporary hideout to stow the goods, then hurried back into the Nature Reserve without pause.
Their target was clear along the way, obviously eyeing another Tibetan Antelope group.
“Notify the other buddies to gather at Dacuo Lake.”
The Long Hair Man was somewhat stunned by Scarface’s order. He knew his boss rarely called the other younger brothers to gather under normal circumstances.
Even last time with the black-on-black deal, it was solo. This time calling all younger brothers was a complete reversal—looked like they were planning something big.
The Long Hair Man was stunned inwardly, but his hands moved deftly.
He drove with one hand, using the other to grab a well-used satellite phone from the side storage box, and began notifying the other buddies one by one.
The wound on the back of his hand still throbbed faintly, constantly reminding the Long Hair Man not to question Scarface’s decisions.
This made him, even with intentions of black-on-black, not dare to act too boldly now.
‘Timing isn’t mature yet.’
The Long Hair Man wanted to trick Scarface into revealing the largest Tibetan Antelope group he knew, then take him out.
But Scarface clammed up whenever the topic of Tibetan Antelopes came up.
The Tibetan Antelope corpse the patrol team encountered earlier was done by another of Scarface’s buddies with his men.
Upon receiving big brother Scarface’s message, he immediately loaded half a car of skinned hides and rushed to Dacuo Lake.
This scene was happening simultaneously across the Nature Reserve.
Scarface’s force was massive, with five or six buddies “stocking up” at the same time throughout the Nature Reserve.
And each buddy gathered anywhere from one or two to dozens of underlings.
So Scarface could summon dozens of daring, battle-hardened underlings in short order.
This was why no one dared provoke Scarface here—ruthless and merciless was one thing, but more importantly, he had numbers, strength, and knew the Nature Reserve roads well.
Without absolute certainty of catching Scarface, no one wanted to offend such a ruthless figure.
Dacuo Lake was on the western side of the Nature Reserve, the largest water source and the place wild animals loved to gather most.
Scarface gathered everyone at Dacuo Lake because the large Tibetan Antelope group he had targeted earlier would head there soon.
With so much cargo, he and the Long Hair Man clearly couldn’t handle it alone and needed to call in manpower.
Chang Ning, the patrol team, and the poaching gang—all three parties headed toward Dacuo Lake simultaneously.
A medium-scale gunfight was about to erupt here. As the third-party force, Chang Ning alone would bring the greatest variable to this gunfight.
At this moment, the setting sun on the horizon dyed the clouds orange-red, rendering the earth a sea of crimson.
