The next morning, at ten o'clock, the Huafu police found the kidnapped Tan Hengqiang family in an apartment building, but the kidnappers were nowhere to be found.

That noon.

A staff officer from the Dragon City garrison command flew directly to District One with more than twenty people, specifically to investigate the incident.

At the same time, within the Dragon City stevedore association, a large number of well-informed veterans and key members, upon learning of Jing Yan's death, immediately packed their money and fled overnight.

These people had been loyal to Jing Yan and extremely firm in their stance. Among them were figures who could sway the Elders Council with a single word, and even presidents of district associations.

They had no choice but to run!

After Zhang Ming became president, these people had hollowed out his power, turning him into a puppet. They had been secretly taking orders from Jing Yan, creating trouble for Li Mingsheng's team. Now that Jing Yan, the big tree, had fallen, they had no backing and were likely to be purged if they stayed in Dragon City.

...

One day later.

Gu Baisun held a funeral for his mother in Dragon City, but because the stevedore association was in a state of flux, not many people attended the funeral.

Around seven o'clock in the evening, the guests at the Gu family villa had mostly left. Gu Baisun sat beside the coffin, wearing mourning clothes and drinking baijiu (white liquor) with a blank expression.

Niu Feng walked over, glanced around and said, "The men are in the water room."

"Let's go take a look." Gu Baisun picked up the half-jin baijiu bottle, stood up and followed Niu Feng.

"Close the door!" Niu Feng ordered his men.

The courtyard doors were closed, and the group walked through the front yard of the villa to the detached water room at the back.

The water room was forty square meters, dimly lit, and damp. After Gu Baisun and the others entered, they turned to look at the pool, where five men were being held under the water by Niu Feng's men.

Gu Baisun pulled up a chair and sat down, waving to Niu Feng's men.

The strong young men let go, and the five men in the pool coughed and spluttered, scrambling out of the water in a wretched state.

The leader, a man in his forties, immediately knelt on the ground when he saw Gu Baisun, kowtowing repeatedly, "...I...I had no choice! Jing Yan was the president. If he told us to do something, how could we not?"

Gu Baisun looked at him: "Brother Bin, ever since I became the Dragonkou district vice president, if I said go east, you would say go west. I said let's open a mine with Lao Li, and you said I had no stance, but you didn't take any less of the money the mine made! Heh, Jing Yan told you to do that too?"

"I really had no choice, I don't know...!" The middle-aged man continued to kowtow.

"Alright, alright." Gu Baisun waved his hand and turned to ask, "Uncle Guo! Do you have the contracts?"

"I have them." Guo Zhengdao pulled a large stack of documents from his bag.

Gu Baisun took the documents, glanced over the contract details, then bent down and handed them to the five men: "Sign!"

The five leaders of the Longkou district association took the contracts and examined them carefully in the dim light.

Gu Baisun was able to become the Dragonkou district vice president mainly through the efforts of Zhang Ming and Jing Yan, but their purpose was clear: to use him to occupy a position and make him a puppet.

The stevedore association had a total of sixteen branches, and among these branches, the Longkou district was always the most important, because it was the core of Dragon City, where most administrative agencies and top enterprises were located.

Before Jing Yan took office as the president, he had worked in Longkou for three years, and it was his accumulation of resources here that allowed him to rise to the top.

However, after Gu Baisun took office, the status of the Longkou district branch declined significantly, because he was a puppet leader with no decision-making power on major matters. The backbone members of the various families and teams below were too lazy to pay attention to him, either listening directly to Jing Yan or to Zhang Ming.

In short, the situation in the Longkou district for the past two years had been one of disunity. The grassroots level was confused, the middle and upper levels were busy making money, and even many small bosses would not notify Gu Baisun when they were moving goods privately.

But today was different!

Jing Yan was dead, Zhang Ming dared not show his face, and Gu Baisun was preparing to wield the big knife on the first day after his mother's funeral.

The five men in front of him were all bosses with some influence in the Longkou district. They controlled nearly sixty percent of the members in the branch and more than half of the association's businesses.

The middle-aged man called Brother Bin finished reading the contract while kneeling on the ground, and raised his head anxiously, "Baisun...Baisun, you're not leaving us anything."

"What's the point of leaving it for you? Are you waiting for Tan Hengqiang to take it?" Gu Baisun crossed his legs and reached out to pinch the other man's face, "I'm not outright robbing you, am I? I'm just making you spit out what I've fed you these past two years."

"You talk too much," Niu Feng drew his dagger and felt the blade, "Or should we kill you, let your son inherit, and talk to him?"

"No need, no need." Brother Bin nodded immediately, "I'll sign, I'll sign!"

Five minutes later, the men transferred all ownership of the small factories, warehouses, and dozens of storefronts that the association had placed under their names to Gu Baisun free of charge.

"Signed...!" Brother Bin said with a forced smile, "We...we'll leave, so we don't bother you."

Gu Baisun took the contract and scanned it, handed it to Niu Feng, then suddenly stood up, drew his gun, pointed it at Brother Bin's head and shouted, "Where are you going?"

"Baisun, you can't do this...We've given you everything, and we won't fight you for it. You can't be so ruthless...!" Brother Bin's face was pale, and he trembled as he kowtowed again.

"Are you scared?" Gu Baisun asked.

"Don't...don't kill me, Baisun, don't...!" Another man lay directly on the ground, clutching his heart and wetting his pants.

"Haha!"

Gu Baisun grinned, threw the gun to Guo Zhengdao: "I used to be so afraid of them! I didn't expect them to be like this. Feng Ge, find a few brothers with good stamina and send them to Siberia to dig ice mountains!! The work isn't over until they've transferred all the money in their cards."

"Got it." Niu Feng nodded.

Guo Zhengdao followed Gu Baisun out of the water room and frowned, "You're not going to kill them?"

"Jing Yan is dead, what can they do? Heh." Gu Baisun waved his hand and replied, "Killing them would ruin my reputation! Letting them go will make the people below willing to follow me. That's benevolence and righteousness."

"Su Tianyu came today. Do you want to talk to him?"

"No hurry. Jing Yan is dead, and I'll be in my coffin soon." Gu Baisun paused and said, "I'll get my amulet first, and then talk to him."

"Okay, as long as you know what you're doing!"

...

At the same time.

Yu Mingyuan sat in the association and turned to ask Su Tianyu, "If we take down Zhang Ming next, the association will be stable, right?"

"Yeah, we need to look into Zhang Ming's matter." Su Tianyu nodded.

"Do it as soon as possible. I have other important things to do." Yu Mingyuan replied.