“Brother Weide, is this… is this really okay?” Huotou fidgeted, touching the cloth clothes he was wearing. “Chief Knight-sama said that zhifu is a symbol of our identity, and we must dress neatly when on duty.”
“Also, we’ll be punished if we get them dirty, let alone not wearing them at all,” Shaozi kept looking left and right, as if afraid of being seen by his colleagues.
“Stop the nagging. Wearing them does make us stand out. Standing in the snow in dark clothes, people hundreds of steps away will know there's a cop there. How are we supposed to catch anyone?” Weide spat. “You guys are from Border Town, right?”
“Yeah,” the two perked up at this. “My father is a hunter. He used to live in the old street. He’s a really good marksman. He could hit a fox running through the woods in the neck with a single arrow.”
“Me too. My dad always said hunting was unstable and it would be better to mine. He even prepared a hoe for me. If His Highness the Prince hadn’t become the lord, I’d probably still be stuck in the mines.”
“I can tell,” Weide shrugged. Only a hunter’s son would have such an obscure nickname. “Since you're from town, you must care more about the town's order than an outsider like me, right? I’m not afraid of punishment, so what are you afraid of? Is anything more important than upholding the rules set by His Highness?”
“This…” The two hesitated for a moment before saying as if they had made up their minds, “You have a point.”
“And Brother Weide, you’re not an outsider. You already got your ID card. His Highness said that everyone who gets this card is his subject,” Shaozi muttered.
Weide smiled and stopped talking, continuing to stare at the row of cave dwellings on the east side of the temporary settlement.
He had been a police officer for nearly three months and had fully adapted to life in the Western Region. He originally thought that a "patrol team" that didn't extort or cheat would have nothing to do, but he didn't expect that there would be so many things to do every day that he couldn't finish them all.
The police were needed to receive refugees, the police were needed to handle civil disputes, and even arresting those vicious criminals and spies was the police's job… And the First Army seemed to completely not interfere in the town's security operations, except for fighting the evil beasts.
This was very different from what he had originally expected.
In Gold穗 City, the patrol team was almost a supplement to the city guard, undertaking some dirty and tiring work, but the benefits were few, which was why many team members were used to looking for extra money. But in Border Town, the police and the First Army were more like unrelated systems, the former internal and the latter external.
What surprised Weide even more was that, in addition to direct assignments from superiors, most of their action targets actually came from public reports – that’s right, the residents of the town changed his view of ordinary people. These lazy and foolish people would actually actively monitor suspicious people and report them to the City Hall. Whenever a foreign merchant ship arrived in town, the Ministry of Justice would always receive five or six such reports.
Weide quickly realized the immense power contained within – no spy could completely avoid contact with the outside world, or completely integrate into the natives as soon as they arrived in a place, unless they had grown up there. When everyone becomes a vigilant outpost, what enemy can hide?
Of course, not every arrest would be fruitful. Like the last time they caught a suspicious person, it turned out to be a noble from Dawn. Weide was prepared to be punished, but there was no reaction from above, seemingly turning a blind eye to his beating of a noble, which strengthened his view.
“«Golden Boy» is here!” Huotou whispered.
“Don’t worry about him, just pretend to be sweeping snow,” Weide said calmly, “He didn’t bring any goods, he’s just here to scout the situation.”
Golden Boy was the code name of this arrest target – the Ministry of Justice received a report two days ago that a serf was privately selling grain. Lord Carter attached great importance to this and immediately assigned the task to him, requiring him to catch the person and the goods, calling it Operation Golden Boy.
However, the mission did not go smoothly. After some inquiries, they initially identified the target and five or six people took turns monitoring the temporary settlement for two days, but they didn't even find a trace of the target.
Weide knew clearly that the reason for the lack of progress was that the police zhifu was too conspicuous here. He had lived in the West
District for a long time, so he naturally knew that as soon as City Hall officials appeared, the news would spread quickly among the people. The East District was no better. This place was inhabited by serfs, and the black zhifu was as conspicuous as a firefly in the night sky.
So he simply persuaded Huotou and Shaozi to take off their zhifu, put on tattered coats, and dress up as snow sweepers, blocking the main road between the East District and the town. As long as a suspicious person passed by, they would inevitably be caught.
Golden Boy circled the East District once and then returned to the cave dwelling, but when he reappeared, he had a large cloth bag on his back.
“He’s really selling wheat privately…” Shaozi clenched his fists.
“Damn, he’s simply not taking His Highness’s words seriously,” Huotou said angrily, “Let’s arrest him now!”
“Don’t rush,” Weide waved his hand. “Didn’t Lord Carter say that we should catch the person and the goods? We’ll divide into three groups,” he instructed according to the previous plan for besieging rats, “Huotou, you set off now and go to the old city wall area first. There’s only one way he can go to enter the inner city.”
“Okay.”
“Then I’ll follow him – this requires a certain amount of skill, so I’m the most suitable.” He licked his lips. “Finally, Shaozi, you keep an eye on me from about a hundred steps away. Just don’t make eye contact with Golden Boy.”
“I understand.”
“Then let’s start the operation!”
Although the three had no hierarchy, they still followed Weide’s arrangement.
Weide carried his broom and walked unhurriedly three or four steps ahead of Golden Boy. According to past experience, following behind was easy to arouse the target's vigilance, but "leading the way" in front would greatly reduce the other party's alertness. If he could roughly figure out the area the target wanted to go to, this accompanying method was the safest. His attention was completely focused on Golden Boy. As long as the other party's footsteps changed slightly, he was confident that he could pounce on him in a few breaths.
Golden Boy stopped after passing through the broken section of the old city wall and leaned against a corner of the street to rest. Obviously, he also knew that if he walked further towards the center of the town, the chances of encountering the police would greatly increase. Weide walked dozens of steps forward, then turned into a side road, waiting for the buyer to appear.
Before long, a town resident pushing a cart appeared. He also looked around for a while before slowly approaching the serf. After opening the cloth bag and checking it, the town resident took out a handful of coins from his pocket. At the same time, Weide made a gesture to take action.
The three rushed towards the target from three directions, and the trader was immediately stunned and stood there at a loss.
Weide pressed the serf to the ground. Accompanied by the crisp sound of coins falling to the ground, he shouted, “You’re under arrest!”