Chapter 48: The Road Spike Case

"Did you see it? This is our director, Comrade Zheng Aiguo. Are you surprised? Our director is a former soldier and has a somewhat reckless personality. Please don't be offended, Boss Lu."

Wei Zheng stood up with a bitter face and introduced both parties.

Then he turned to the burly man and said, "Director, this is the Lu Yang I told you about. He just came back from Shencheng. Next to him is his cousin, who also just came back from Shencheng to deal with the previous dispute."

"Hello, Comrade Lu Yang."

"Hello, Director Zheng. I didn't expect to meet you. I'm so sorry."

The burly man drank two bowls of tea in a row before extending his hand to greet Lu Yang.

This person is actually taller than me?

Lu Yang thought to himself.

He couldn't help but look at the other person silently, and saw that there was a horrible scar on the left side of his face, like a centipede. It looked particularly hideous, but not evil at all. Combined with his natural beard, it actually highlighted his heroic appearance.

Then I knew that this person should not be a bad person.

If he had served in the military and was in his early 30s, it was very likely that he had been to the battlefield in the south.

"Ping An, are you okay? Hurry up and give me some food. I have to go to the railway to patrol the line later. Damn it, something bad almost happened this morning."

Just finished a belly full of tea.

The burly man turned and shouted towards the door, urging the young man outside.

"Oh, by the way, I forgot to introduce him to you. He's my brother-in-law, Gong Ping'an. Like his father and his brother-in-law, he was a soldier and just got discharged half a year ago."

The burly man yelled and spoke to Lu Yang and his cousin.

Lu Yang thought to himself: Wow, they are from a military family.

So he kept silent and picked up the tea bowl: Cheers to the most lovely person.

We weren't all that familiar with each other, so the conversations were a bit awkward.

However, the content of the conversations between the burly man and Wei Gongan occasionally caught Lu Yang's attention.

Zhao County produces coal.

It is one of the largest coal-producing areas in Hunan Province.

But in fact, the specific location is the Fan Town under your feet. In order to transport the coal out, Fan Town even has its own freight train station. The railway department has specially built a railway branch line that goes directly to the state-owned coal mine.

At its peak, the town's state-owned coal mine employed thousands of coal miners and tens of thousands of their families.

It accounts for almost half of the total population of Fan Town.

Therefore, Fan Town is also a big town, and its overall configuration is half a level higher than that of ordinary towns.

The police station is no exception.

In addition to maintaining local public security, there is a more important task, which is to work with railway patrol officers to inspect and eliminate hazards to ensure the safety of the two railway lifelines, one for passenger and one for freight, that run through the entire town.

"Damn it, don't let me catch those nail thieves. If I find them, I will beat them to death. They dared to do such a thing. If it weren't for the careful inspection by the old Dingtou who came to patrol the line this morning, there would be a big accident in our jurisdiction."

"Okay, Chief, calm down. Even if you find them, you can't really beat them to death. We are the police, how can we break the law knowingly?"

"I'm angry, Old Wei, you don't know how dangerous the situation was. You see, it's just a few nails, right? Yes, it's a little big, but no matter how big it is, it can only be sold as scrap. How much can it sell for? How could someone think of stealing even this?"

"Hold."

"I don't want to think about it anymore. The more I think about it, the angrier I get. I want to find this person right away and beat him up so badly that he can't even recognize himself. No, I have to stuff him back into my fucking stomach."

"Alright, alright, have some tea to calm down first. I'll help you look for it after dinner. This matter is urgent, so we can only go to the countryside tomorrow."

"I can't eat it. I've already had a belly full of tea. Ping'an, Gong Ping'an, why don't you serve me, your brother-in-law, some food? Goose meat. I want to eat the goose head. I just smelled its fragrance. And this goose is what Lao Wei brought today, right? The one he raised at home? I've been thinking about it for a long time."

The goose stewed in the iron pot is not cooked yet.

That thing can't be rushed. But soon the young man outside the door brought in two plates of radish, one plate was dry shredded radish, made into pickles, and the other plate was wet dried radish, just taken out of the pickling jar, cut into strips, sprinkled with some chili powder, which looked quite appetizing, and finally a plate of fried peanuts. With these three things, the burly man was finally able to shut up.

On the other hand, Lu Yang was already deep in thought at this time.

He is very familiar with this case.

And it is still fresh in people's memory because it caused a sensation at the time. Even after more than ten years, many people still use it as a topic of conversation after dinner.

The reason is that this case was not handled properly.

It's broken.

But it's not completely broken.

The thief was caught.

But it wasn't fully caught.

So what do you say?

The reason is simple. The thief is not just one person, but multiple foolish and ignorant people.

Nails like these on the railway are called railroad spikes. They are inconspicuous and common. They are found on every rail on the railway line. Whenever a train passes by, they play the role of stabilizing the rails and preventing them from being deformed or loosened due to unnecessary pressure when the train passes.

So it is particularly important.

A large part of the work of all railway workers is to check whether the railroad spikes are loose or lost, or whether they have popped out when a train passes. If they find any loose ones, they will hit them with a hammer; if they find any lost ones, they will replace them. It is not a big deal.

Then why is it so important today?

A lot was lost.

Almost every few meters, every few nails, there was one missing, or even one missing every other one. After checking inside and outside several times, it was found that there were dozens of missing nails in a distance of less than a few hundred meters. If a train happened to pass by at that time, it would very likely cause a serious train derailment accident.

So no matter what, we must take it seriously.

Moreover, it is already very obvious that there are traces of theft. If the thieves are not caught and made a public example, then this line will never have a zero day, and no one can guarantee whether the railroad spikes on the line will not be lost tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.

This is correct.

And the case was solved very quickly.

Because it was easy to catch the person who stole the railway spikes.

This man is an old farmer who herds cattle.

According to his confession, he had only been caught stealing once, and the reason was because his family was short of a kitchen knife. The old woman told him that she saw someone in the village playing with a knife made of an iron nail, and asked him why he didn't pick one up as he had to pass by the railway line every day to herd cattle.
Yes!

The speaker has no intention, the listener has the heart.

The old farmer who herded cattle had always been looking forward to such a good thing, but he had never picked it up, so this time he had an evil idea.

To be honest, he deserved to be arrested.

The sentence was just a bit heavy. In order to set an example, the court sentenced the old farmer to the maximum sentence of ten years in prison, almost putting all the responsibility for the previously lost railway spikes on the old farmer.

When the old farmer's wife heard the sad news, she couldn't accept it and felt deeply guilty. One night when no one knew about it, she picked up the herbicide at home in despair.

Let’s put it this way.

The case ended here, and there were no further losses of railroad spikes, so everyone was happy.

but.

It's only been quiet for half a year.

The real thieves who stole the road spikes may feel that they are safe and start committing crimes again.

(End of this chapter)