Chapter 1 The Confrontation

Less than three kilometers from Tonglin Bridge, Lu Feng had just met up with some of his men. Seven or eight cars were parked on the side of the road, all with their hazard lights flashing.

Lu Feng sat in his car, head down, fiddling with his phone, waiting for his lieutenant to remotely gather their forces outside.

"Dilingling!"

A phone rang. Lu Feng answered, frowning, "Hello, what's up?"

"Feng-ge, where are you?" A hurried voice from Du Shengming's brother came from the other end. "We're blocked by a group of outsiders at Tonglin Bridge. They're fierce and ruthless. Du-ge has been cut. You need to come quickly!"

Lu Feng blinked. "You're being stopped?"

"Yes, by a group of outsiders, unfamiliar faces!" Du Shengming's brother shouted.

"How many are there? Are there any cops around?!" Lu Feng asked.

"Fifty or sixty people, no cops in sight. Please hurry, Feng-ge!" The man was practically screaming.

Lu Feng paused. "No cops around? The Su, Bai, and Kong families aren't here either?"

"No!!" The man was frantic. "Feng-ge, what time is it? Don't ask so many questions, just get over here!"

"...Okay, I'm coming right now," Lu Feng replied.

"Tonglin Bridge entrance, hurry, Feng-ge!"

...

Tonglin Bridge.

Da Xiong, after cutting down three men in a row, chased only Du Shengming with his long knife.

In the center of the street, at the heart of the brawl, the fifty men Cui Bin brought from Huadu were exceptionally fierce and organized. In the melee of over a hundred people, their formation remained intact. They didn't run around aimlessly, but moved forward in groups of ten, covering each other. If one of them was knocked down and couldn't get up, at least three others would come to his aid, using their weapons to relieve the pressure on him, even if they suffered a cut or two in the process. They would even drag the fallen brother back to his feet.

On the other hand, Changqing's side, although numbering over a hundred, was disorganized. They charged off the trucks in a scattered formation, with people on both sides of the vehicles. After Du Shengming shouted for everyone to charge, they attacked in waves, but the first wave was met by Cui Bin and a dozen of his fiercest men and was immediately scattered!

When the first wave scattered, Cui Bin's men pressed forward as a group, causing the rear ranks to become apprehensive and retreat, allowing the enemy to break through their lines.

In short, the fifty men Zhou Jia brought with Cui Bin were full of courage and clearly better quality than the Changqing group, daring and unafraid of knives.

Why was this the case?

This was the same reason the Su, Bai, and Kong families had always been unable to defeat the dockworkers' association and had never been able to directly confront Changqing!

Why did the Su, Bai, and Kong families run away a while ago? Why were they hiding, needing Chi Jun's Zhao Weihu to escort them back to the city? Simply put, they couldn't beat them.

Why couldn't they beat them? Because the men of the Su, Bai, and Kong families were all low-level brothers whose goal was to support their families. They were good at working, but they weren't willing to risk their lives in a fight; the interests were not aligned.

But today, the situation was reversed. Although the Changqing Company was united and tightly knit, they were ultimately a group of people from the bottom of society. The core members were mostly semi-criminal social outcasts. How could they possibly win against Zhou Yaoxiang, who was willing to commit murder at the drop of a hat?

The fifty men under Cui Bin's command were the kind of guys who competed with groups like the Mexican cartels in District One. A while ago, in Huadu, they were the pure *daquan* (big circle) who dared to use automatic rifles to spray into the Mexican cartels' territory!

Were these people afraid of knives? Their main job was fighting, and their livelihood depended on it. But was that the case for Changqing? No, fighting was just their side hustle.

If Du Shengming had brought fifty core brothers, they might not have been scattered in the first round, but he brought too many people, and the quality was uneven. In a group fight, if one person had a weak mentality and turned to run, a rout was only a matter of time.

When Du Shengming saw his men scattering and retreating, he knew it was over. He immediately called Li Hongze and told him to get Lu Feng over there!

...

Inside Tianhong Port, Li Hongze, hearing that Du Shengming was blocked at Tonglin Bridge, didn't even have time to explain to Xu Hu before rushing out to call Lu Feng. "Where are you? Get to Tonglin Bridge quickly!"

"I'm almost there!" Lu Feng replied.

"Hurry!" Li Hongze gritted his teeth. "You have to get across the bridge, understand what I mean?"

"Understood, understood!"

"I'll wait for your call!"

With that, they ended the call.

...

On the outskirts of Tonglin Bridge, Lu Feng sat in his car, frowning and anxious. So, he urgently lit a cigarette and took a deep drag.

If he were being honest, Lu Feng absolutely didn't want to get involved in this mess, because he had been completely burned in the last incident with the Su, Bai, Kong, and Liu families. He had truly seen through the world!

There was a reason why Lu Feng had been speaking sarcastically lately; it wasn't just him being a show-off or joking around! He was genuinely dissatisfied and felt unbalanced.

In the last incident, Lu Feng had paid most of the money himself, and most of the losses were on his side. In the end, not only did he not gain anything, but he was also blamed by Li Hongze, Li Xing, and others.

The plan failed, and Lu Feng suffered a great loss! But what if the plan had succeeded? Then Li Hongze, not him, would have been the one distributing the cake. He took the most risk, received mediocre rewards, and, most importantly, no matter how hard you worked, you wouldn't get a word of appreciation. People on the inside might even say you were nothing, unable to handle even a few kids.

Lu Feng was very unhappy, which was why he was reciting Buddhist scriptures!

Lu Feng had originally disagreed with joining Xu Hu's investment in Zhanan this time, but he didn't have absolute say in the Changqing Company. If Li Hongze wanted to do it, then everyone had to go along with it. But even in this situation, he, Lu Feng, wasn't going to be the biggest beneficiary, not even close to being one who got to drink the soup. Yet, he still had to risk his life!

Okay, risking his life was fine, since everyone ate from the same pot, one's prosperity was everyone's prosperity, and one's loss was everyone's loss. But behind the risk, he had to at least gain some respect in Changqing, right?

But was there any respect?...

Lu Feng sat in the car, feeling disturbed and agitated. He didn't want to go, but he had to.

After much deliberation, Lu Feng lowered the car window, threw away the cigarette butt, and shouted, "Call the people who haven't arrived yet and tell them not to enter Tonglin Bridge for now. Just the ones here will go."

"What's wrong, Feng-ge?"

"Du Shengming is getting beaten at the bridge entrance," Lu Feng replied with a serious expression. "Let's go, we're going over there."

The brother outside, hearing the call, leaned into the passenger seat. "If we're going, should we wait for the others? We still have forty or fifty people who haven't arrived yet!"

"Wait my ass!" Lu Feng raised an eyebrow and cursed. "Is Du Shengming your dad?! You're not even that nice to me! Still waiting for people? Hurry up and go!"

Seeing Lu Feng acting like a mad dog, the brother didn't say anything more. He just leaned halfway into the driver's seat, honked the horn, and shouted outside, "Let's go!"

The convoy set off, heading straight for Tonglin Bridge.

Lu Feng sat in the back seat, frowning, and thoughtfully called a friend in the Zhanan District Police Department. "Hey, Lao Lu!"

"What's up, Feng?"

"Hehe, nothing much, just asking, is there any movement tonight?" Lu Feng asked with a smile.

"What do you mean? I don't understand!"

"Don't play dumb with me. Such a big thing happened in Zhanan tonight, and you, a police chief, haven't heard anything?" Lu Feng curled his lip. "Have we grown apart because we haven't torn our pants in two days?"

"I really haven't heard anything," the other person replied with a smile. "To be honest, I'm at the police department attending a technical investigation meeting. Deputy Director Guo is presiding, and we've even bought midnight snacks. It'll probably go on until midnight."

Hearing this, Lu Feng frowned. "Meeting until midnight?!"

"Yeah!"

"...Okay, then you go ahead and have your meeting," Lu Feng replied.

"Not only me, but Lao Wang and Xiao Zheng, who we hang out with every day, are here too," the other person said helpfully.

Lu Feng paused. "Okay, I got it."

"Alright, that's it then!" With that, they ended the call.

The vehicles quickly approached Tonglin Bridge, but Lu Feng sat in the car feeling very uneasy and anxious.

"Damn it, something big is definitely going to happen tonight!" Lu Feng wanted to slap himself. "I just don't understand, why didn't I go to the temple fair?!"

...

Several hours earlier.

Wang Daolin did not receive a notice to attend the technical investigation meeting. Instead, he was called in by Director Guo for a long talk.

As soon as the meeting started in the evening, Wang Daolin called over twenty colleagues from his department to await orders.

After the brawl in Zhanan, the police department immediately reported it to the bureau. The bureau then issued an order, instructing the Zhanan Police Department to only gather its forces but not to rush to the scene immediately. Instead, Wang Daolin from the Police Bureau would set off first, bypassing the district-level handling unit.

At this moment, Wang Daolin was already very close to Tonglin Bridge. He sat in the car, holding a phone and asking, "Have you seen him?!"

"They departed from the port and have already gone to Tonglin Bridge!"

"Okay, I understand!" Wang Daolin hung up the phone and turned to his colleague in the passenger seat. "We're going to take him down tonight!"

Just as he finished speaking, six or seven cars drove out of the intersection diagonally across from them, led by Lu Feng's lead car.

As the two sides were about to meet at the intersection, Lu Feng narrowed his eyes, glanced at Wang Daolin's car, and suddenly said, "0229, that's a Police Bureau license plate, right?!"

"Yes!" the person in the passenger seat replied.

Hearing this answer, Lu Feng's chaotic mind instantly cleared up. He stared at Wang Daolin's car, his eyes gleaming.

"Big Brother, let's avoid them!" the brother in the passenger seat reminded him. "They're definitely going to Tonglin Bridge!"

Lu Feng sized up the other party's convoy. "No, even if they go, they won't make any arrests! There are only five or six cars in total. If they were going to make arrests, they wouldn't be in this formation!"

"Then what do you mean?"

"Where's my damn knife?!" Lu Feng loosened his belt, his expression turning vicious.