At night, Yingxing City was soon swept up in long-absent undercurrents.
The City Police Department's phones rang one after another, nearly getting overwhelmed.
Calls reporting all kinds of things flooded in. The complaints were about nothing more than neighbors arguing, someone upstairs smashing things in the middle of the night, or petty thefts and doors being forced open.
Yet these minor complaints managed to clog the emergency hotline for over an hour.
For that entire hour, ordinary people across the city who genuinely needed to report emergencies couldn't get through.
Worse, the City Police Department's higher-ups had already been bought off.
As long as nothing happened on too large a scale, the people who had taken the money were happy to pretend they couldn't hear or see anything, thanks to Jian's arrangements.
Teams searched the streets and alleys of one district after another, looking everywhere for Gewen.
Some even staked out toll booths and gas stations.
Others worked with traffic police to set up temporary checkpoints at intersections and stop cars for inspection.
More than two hundred people had been spread across several districts. It wasn't a large force, but if they used those people alongside their communications equipment to form a vast search network, they could still be highly effective at finding Gewen.
Every person was a pair of eyes. Any discovery would be reported to Jian immediately.
"We need more manpower." Jian sat inside the temporary command vehicle, his brow furrowed.
Using more than two hundred elite soldiers as information gatherers was far too wasteful. There had to be a better way.
For example, the local gangs.
After they had taken out Mantis, the gang forces in Yingxing City had quickly gone quiet and kept a low profile.
"After this, maybe I should suggest the boss bring the