Flip the table and divide the family property! Take his wife and daughter into the mountains and eat

Zhang Dafa lay sprawled in the mud, staring intently at the pile of scrap iron, the jumbled thoughts in his mind finally clearing up.

"Was your body switched?"

Zhang Dafa suddenly looked up at Zhao Shanhe, his face covered in mud, and said, "You mean, someone smuggled the machine out while we were still fighting?"

"right."

Zhao Shanhe nodded and kicked a piece of scrap metal on the ground. "Otherwise, there's no way to explain what's going on with this pile of scrap metal."

Hearing this accurate statement, Zhang Dafa felt as if he had been exonerated from a tremendous injustice.

"Damn it! Lao Liang, I've been misunderstood!" Zhang Dafa yelled at the top of his lungs.

Liang Tiejun's withered lips moved slightly as he looked at Zhang Dafa's swollen face, appearing somewhat embarrassed: "Old Zhang... I was a little impulsive just now."

Zhang Dafa wiped the blood from his face, slapping his thigh in frustration: "We've been brothers for so many years, you know I have my little problems, but being a bit greedy and digging up a factory's ancestral graves are two different things! This kind of big mistake couldn't possibly be mine!"

"alright."

Zhao Shanhe glanced at Zhang Dafa and immediately interrupted the brothers' heart-to-heart talk.

"Director Liang, tell me, just how heavy is this assembly line machinery?"

Liang Tiejun was jolted back to his senses by the loud shout, and his mind instinctively went through the accounts.

"Three cutting machines, five sewing machines, plus a seam sealing machine... all made of solid cast iron and heavy steel, totaling at least fifteen tons! The machinery arrived at 10 p.m. last night, and we unloaded it overnight, which took an hour and a half. Several workers didn't get back until almost midnight."

After listening, Zhao Shanhe picked up a half-burnt stick from the mud and water and drew a deep line on the snow.

"It's nine o'clock in the morning now."

Zhao Shanhe stared at the scratches on the ground. "That means that after the workers left at midnight last night, they loaded these machines onto a truck and drove them away, and they also had to put up these iron frames."

He raised his eyelids and glanced at the ruins.

"The fire was set around nine o'clock, and loading took place after midnight. How late do your workers usually arrive for work?"

Liang Tiejun quickly replied, "Usually it's eight in the morning, but some people arrive as early as six."

Zhao Shanhe poked another hole in the snow with the wooden stick in his hand.

"In other words, to be on the safe side, they loaded the goods up before six o'clock, then welded these fake empty shells together and set up the scene here. I arrived around nine o'clock in the morning, and then the fire started at nine o'clock."

Zhao Shanhe walked to the iron frame he had broken and used his muddy toes to pick up a thin piece of sheet metal.

"Director Liang, you are a senior fitter of the eighth grade."

Zhao Shanhe kicked the sheet metal to Liang Tiejun's feet. "Take a close look at this weld. How long would it take to weld a set of ten or so empty shells out of scrap iron, based on the exact dimensions of that entire foreign machine?"

Liang Tiejun squatted down, picked up the piece of sheet metal, and rubbed his rough fingers hard on the weld joint, his face growing increasingly grim.

"This is fish-scale welding, the craftsmanship is very skilled, definitely an old welder in the factory."

Liang Tiejun gritted his teeth, forcing out the words, "Even if the dimensions of the blueprints are all clear, to assemble such a large shell from scrap materials, it would take three or four experienced craftsmen working day and night for two or three days in advance!"

"Two or three days in advance?"

Zhao Shanhe's eyes suddenly darkened, and a chill ran through him.

Director Li clearly told him about this batch of machines just yesterday.

Could it be that someone knew about this even earlier than him and had already set up this switcheroo?

Zhang Dafa, who was listening nearby, broke out in a cold sweat. He suddenly slapped his thigh, as if he had remembered something unbelievable.

"That's not right!"

Zhang Dafa stared wide-eyed. "Even if they welded the casing beforehand and loaded the actual machine onto the truck between midnight last night and six this morning, workers started coming into the factory to start the furnaces right after six! How could a heavy truck loaded with fifteen tons of foreign machinery possibly drive out the gate in front of all the factory workers so early in the morning?"

Zhao Shanhe snapped out of his thoughts and turned to look at Zhang Dafa's terrified face.

"Who told you they drove off sneaking out?"

Zhao Shanhe pointed in the direction of the factory gate.

"A fifteen-ton truck, as long as it's covered with a thick tarpaulin and tied with ropes, who knows if it's carrying German machinery or factory junk? As long as there's a clearly marked 'Out of Warehouse' sign on the windshield, it can be driven off smoothly early in the morning. Which worker would bother to lift it up and take a look?"

Upon hearing this, Liang Tiejun's mind went blank, and he suddenly stood up, his body swaying violently.

"Scrap materials..."

Liang Tiejun's voice trembled, and his eyes were bloodshot. "Today is the 15th...it's the day we transport scrapped machine tools and scrap iron to the provincial steel plant every month! The convoy usually has its regular morning schedule!"

The cold light in Zhao Shanhe's eyes instantly intensified.

"That makes perfect sense. Under the guise of transporting scrap machine tools, they brazenly pulled the real goods out the gate. Then they left someone to lie in wait here, timing it so that when I entered the factory at nine in the morning, they would pour kerosene on the fire and leave us with a pile of broken copper and scrap metal with no way to prove anything."

Zhao Shanhe laughed in anger and casually threw away the remaining half of the wooden stick in his hand.

"Director Liang, the workers who know how to weld prepare fake goods in advance, the people who know the warehouse stay behind to set fires at the right time, plus the leaders who can legitimately approve the release of fifteen-ton heavy trucks early in the morning."

Zhao Shanhe coldly swept his gaze across the surrounding factory buildings, his voice like a knife chilled to the bone.

"From the bottom workshops to the top offices, your Hongxing Factory has been hacked into a production line from top to bottom."

These words were like a resounding slap across Liang Tiejun's face.

The old man's chest heaved violently, and his eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep.

He suddenly turned around and kicked away the half-burnt log blocking the road, sending sparks flying everywhere in the snow.

"To the main gate!"

Liang Tiejun gritted his teeth, his throat feeling like it was full of blood. "Even if I have to scrape every last inch of the Red Star Factory's land today, I'll drag this beast out!"

Zhang Dafa scrambled out of the mud and followed Liang Tiejun out, shouting as he ran, "Check the release slip! Old Qin at the gate definitely has connections!"

Zhao Shanhe dusted off his hands and strode after him.

Inside the guardhouse, Old Qin, who was on duty, was drinking hot water from an enamel mug when the wooden door was kicked open from the outside with a loud bang.

The wind and snow, carrying a chill, rushed into the house. Old Qin's hand trembled, and he spilled all the hot water onto his thigh.

Before he could even shout, Liang Tiejun pounced like a wolf guarding its prey, grabbing Old Qin's overcoat collar.

"Where's the cop?!"

Liang Tiejun spat all over Old Qin's face, slamming his hands on the table. "Where's the clearance slip for this morning's trip?! Give it to me!"

Old Qin was drinking hot water from an enamel mug when he was startled by the loud shout, causing him to tremble and spill the hot water all over his thigh.

His face turned deathly pale, and he was completely dumbfounded: "Old... old factory director... what cop?"

Zhang Dafa squeezed in from behind, grabbed Old Qin's military overcoat collar, his eyes red with anger: "Stop playing dumb! Those two trucks that drove out this morning have their exit permits!"

Old Qin was so frightened that his legs trembled. He opened the drawer, pulled out two slips of paper stamped with red seals, and handed them over.

Zhang Dafa snatched the order form, glanced at it, and his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

"That damned Li Defu!"

Zhang Dafa gasped sharply, then burst into a tirade, "That old bastard usually manages logistics, so lazy he wouldn't even pick up a fallen oil bottle! He spends all his time in the office with a teacup in his hand, reading the newspaper, counting down the days until retirement! But today, what the hell happened? He actually drove out himself!"

Zhao Shanhe didn't say anything, but snatched the order from Zhang Dafa's hand.

His gaze swept across the paper like a knife, and he read out the destinations directly: "One to the southern suburbs branch factory, one to the northern national highway. Two cars, one to the south and one to the north."

Upon hearing this, Liang Tiejun swayed violently.

The old man's eyes were completely red, filled with the extreme anger and sorrow of being bitten by his own dog.

He gritted his teeth, turned his head, and stared intently at Zhao Shanhe.

"Shanhe, you go after the one to the north, I'll go after the one to the south!"

Before Zhao Shanhe could even reply, Liang Tiejun turned and roared towards the door, "Security officers! All of you, grab your weapons! Get in the car! We're going south!"

The old man, like a mad lion, smashed open the wooden door of the guardhouse and charged into the swirling snow with a belly full of anger.

Zhao Shanhe stood there for a moment, holding the two release slips in his hand.

Zhao Shanhe suddenly crumpled the release slip in his hand into a ball and slammed it on the table.

He strode out of the guardhouse and roared at Ergazi, who was shivering and stamping his feet outside, his roar overpowering the wind and snow.

"Ergaizi! Call all the brothers!"

Zhao Shanhe pulled his military overcoat tighter and strode towards the trucks parked in the factory yard. "Start all our trucks! Let's go out and get to work!"