The situation was critical.
The police department dispatched 150 officers, 200 SWAT members, and 150 detectives, totaling 500 personnel, just to deal with the Qinglongkou faction.
The Zhongxintang faction received the same level of attention.
It was an absolute, overwhelming assault.
There was no playing by the usual rules.
Slowly probing, giving them a chance to take hostages and negotiate?
Not a chance.
The authorities had already sealed off the area five miles away.
They went straight for the kill.
Why bother with "honor" when dealing with criminals?
Do they deserve it?
Scarface Fatty never imagined, even in his final moments, that the other side would send hundreds of people to take on his dozen or so men.
Due to the information gap,
Scarface Fatty mistakenly thought only a few dozen were coming.
So, as he ordered his men to arm themselves, he added,
"Cough, cough—light the place on fire! Don’t leave any important information behind. Old Three, Old Four, Eighth Brother, you’re in charge of covering our retreat, cough, cough—then break out through the side door!!"
They set the place ablaze.
The important data stored in the computers.
Gone in an instant.
Of course, besides the data,
there were also drugs, enough to seal their fate with a death sentence.
This was a two-pronged plan.
First, become lawless desperadoes and fight their way out.
Second, even if caught, without sufficient evidence,
they’d only face a few decades in prison.
They had brothers from other factions backing them.
They could hire the best lawyers.
To clear their names.
With a bit of luck, they could be out in a decade, or even just a few years.
Soon, these desperadoes.
Pulled out their weapons.
All handguns.
Only two automatic rifles.
Because they never imagined.
The police would come knocking.
The original idea behind keeping these handguns was just for emergencies.
To intimidate rival gangs.
And to scare off unruly clients.
As lawyers, carrying guns isn’t too outrageous, right?
Well, it is, because these weren’t exactly upstanding lawyers.
The Qinglongkou faction, being located in the city center,
had somewhat lackluster equipment.
After all, they never expected.
Hundreds of people with automatic rifles would come storming in.
Scarface Fatty thought that with three men, equipped with the best weapons—those two automatic rifles—they could hold out for a while.
But as soon as they stepped out,
the police’s firepower was overwhelming.
Rat-tat-tat-tat—
A hail of bullets rained down.
Scarface Fatty’s arm was grazed.
Blood gushed out.
His men fell one by one.
Finally, the fat man snapped out of it and shouted,
"Damn it, grab some hostages!! There are too many cops; breaking through is impossible!"
In less than ten minutes of engagement,
Scarface Fatty’s men were down to half.
When you’re poor, you go for precision strikes; when you’re rich, you go for overwhelming firepower.
You think precision strikes are effective, but the enemy can just take cover.
But with overwhelming firepower,
there’s no escape.
You can dodge countless times.
Whether by sheer luck or chance.
But if you slip up just once,
the result is being turned into Swiss cheese.
Scarface Fatty was covered in dust and grime.
His men weren’t much better.
At this moment, they fully agreed with Scarface Fatty’s plan.
Taking hostages was their only hope.
But at this point,
where were the hostages?
The building had been evacuated.
Those who couldn’t be evacuated were guarded by dozens of heavily armed SWAT members upstairs.
Charging up to grab hostages.
Was clearly not a wise move.
Why hadn’t Scarface Fatty and his men been more alert beforehand?
It was a case of being too clever for their own good.
They had rented out the neighboring offices.
To prevent eavesdropping.
And because of this,
they didn’t have enough time to react.
In less than half an hour,
Scarface Fatty was down to two men.
The ferocity on his face faded, replaced by deep fear.
When faced with death,
fear is a natural instinct.
No one is born unafraid of dying.
Especially those who’ve enjoyed the finer things in life.
Once you’ve tasted sweetness,
you cling to life even more.
"We surrender, we surrender—"
Scarface Fatty shouted.
But the response was the rat-tat-tat of gunfire.
At that moment, Scarface Fatty realized.
They didn’t want them to live.
Fear drove Scarface Fatty into a frenzy.
He decided to fight to the death.
Finally, as he accidentally peeked out from behind a window,
a police sniper blew his head off.
Similar scenes played out elsewhere.
The Zhongxintang faction had better equipment than Qinglongkou.
But the police outnumbered them more than ten to one.
Plus, they’d lost some men the night before.
The entire Zhongxintang faction was wiped out in no time.
The three factions operating more freely outside the city.
Had weaponry that far surpassed the two city-based factions combined.
Their arsenal was like a small army’s.
Besides weapons, they also had plenty of drugs.
After all, they had to guard against betrayal.
Weapons and manpower were essential.
But even with their impressive arsenal,
they were up against the regular army.
An army that outnumbered them more than tenfold.
Zhang Naixi and Yang Jingxuan not only tricked the factions into revealing their locations,
but also learned about their distribution of forces from Xu Mo’s mind.
This intelligence was invaluable to them.
If the official forces had been on par with these desperadoes,
the casualties would have been severe.
These desperadoes had no qualms about dying.
Before they went down, they’d fight like rabid dogs.
So overwhelming force was absolutely necessary!!!
A pack of rabid, dying dogs.
Trying to take a piece of their prey with them.
Only to find their efforts futile in the end.
In such a situation,
even if they weren’t afraid of death,
as the body count rose,
their ferocity was gradually replaced by fear.
In the end, the tree fell, and the monkeys scattered.
They became a flock of startled birds, fleeing in all directions.
Running amok.
Their morale crumbled, and they were quickly routed.
The faction leaders were all shocked.
Filled with rage.
To have so many regular troops come after them.
There must have been a traitor among them!!!
It’s no wonder they thought that.
First, the precise locations.
Then the mobilization of military forces more than ten times their size.
If that’s not a traitor’s work,
what is?
Zhouhu Hall Leader: "Damn it, if I find out who the traitor is, I’ll skin them alive!!!"
Zhuque Hall Leader: "Screw this, I’ve lived a glorious life, only to die at the hands of a traitor. Which bastard betrayed us?"
Kuangdao Hall Leader: "Damn it, this is so frustrating!! I could’ve died honorably, but to die at the hands of a backstabber, I can’t accept this!!! Traitor, may your son be born without a d***."
These were the final words of the faction leaders before their deaths.
And they would never have guessed.
It wasn’t a traitor among them.
Nor was it a rival faction that sold them out.
The one who betrayed them was someone they’d never have imagined in a million years—Xu Mo, who had no business ties to them whatsoever.
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