On July 17, 2000, an explosion occurred in the eastern suburbs of Quancheng, and the city's criminal police and firefighters arrived quickly. Fifteen minutes later, a "prison break" incident that shocked the whole country occurred in the Western Suburbs Prison. The guards engaged in a gun battle with more than 20 armed criminals for half an hour. Due to the rapid support of the military garrison, the prison breakers failed to succeed and fled in the dark.
The Shandong Provincial Public Security Department immediately held an emergency meeting and agreed that the Dongjiao bombing was intended to divert attention and that the prison break was the work of a group of people. Their purpose was to rescue Shan Ya, and they obviously did not know that Shan Ya had committed suicide by falling from the building.
That night, the Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China upgraded the "July 17 Prison Break" to the "No. 1 Major Case of the New Century", and Deputy Minister Bai Jingyu went to listen to the report in person. Bai Jingyu said at the meeting that we can no longer simply call the other party criminals, they are enemies, this is a war, and there must be a great underworld criminal group hidden behind it. We are in the light, and they are in the dark. This is the first prison break case since the founding of New China. In the face of new crimes, we must have a strategic awareness and must wipe out this group of people, otherwise it will cause tense consequences.
"It's easier said than done," said Sun Lijie, deputy director of the Quancheng Public Security Bureau, standing up. "Shan Ya is a wanted criminal who has been on the run for more than ten years. We know very little about him. In addition to drug trafficking, what else has he done over the years, who he is familiar with, and why those people broke into the prison to rescue him, we don't know. He is currently in a coma, and we have interrogated the other three drug users many times, but they can't provide any valuable clues."
"No," Director Li Changshui retorted, "Shan Ya and the three men are the only clues we have. We must make full use of them. We should think about how to use them."
Wu Shaoming, director of the Criminal Investigation Division of the Provincial Department, bravely proposed: "There is only one way, to infiltrate their ranks, conduct undercover investigations, identify the leaders of the group, arrest them all at once, and wipe them out."
Bai Jingyu pondered for a moment and said, "This reminds me of the anti-drug campaign in Ping County in 1992."
On August 30, 1992, 1,300 armed police officers surrounded Ping County, Yunnan. Ping County is known as the "Golden Triangle of China". There are 16 armed drug trafficking gangs in the three villages of Yinxin, Molong and Songmaopo alone, and thousands of drug-related personnel in the county. It is a transit point for foreign drug traffickers to transport drugs to mainland China. In order not to hurt innocent people, the undercover team headed by Tang Shanglin, chief of staff of the frontline command of the Yunnan Armed Police Corps, successfully infiltrated the drug trafficking family and provided the correct military attack target.
That was the largest anti-drug campaign since the founding of New China, and the only time the army was used to attack criminals. Bai Jingyu said, now, it is likely to be the second time. This time, we will work with the Central Military Commission and the Ministry of National Defense, and we will use all means to capture this group of people and wipe out this criminal group.
That night, Bai Jingyu personally took charge of the establishment of the No. 1 Major Case Command, which was supervised by the Ministry of Public Security of the country and unconditionally cooperated by the Public Security Bureaus of all provinces. The command formulated an undercover operation plan of "release when you want to catch, and wipe out all the criminals at once". Regarding how to infiltrate this criminal group, the command held several meetings, repeatedly studied, and formulated the general working principles and detailed operation guidelines.
Bai Jingyu said that they should immediately find several of the best police officers from the national public security system to form an undercover team and bring them in by helicopter before dawn.
At 6 o'clock in the morning, Li Changshui reported to Bai Jingyu: "The person has been found."
"who?"
"Zhou Xingxing, Hualong, and Han Bingyu."
"Oh, who are these three?"
"Zhou Xingxing is a criminal police officer, Hualong is a military police officer, and Han Bingyu is a special police officer."
"Let them in."
"Is it very hurtful?"
"It was a narrow escape."
“Why did you choose us?”
“It’s luck!”
We are already very familiar with Zhou Xingxing. Let me briefly introduce Han Bingyu and Hualong.
Han Bingyu, a former special forces soldier, participated in the Southern War. He knows all kinds of guns, can throw flying knives, and has strong field survival experience. After retiring, he has always kept his name secret and served as the caretaker of the local martyrs' cemetery. After 1997, he served as a credit instructor for the local special police brigade. Other information about him is a state secret, and even the neighbors and relatives know very little about him.
Hualong, an instructor of the armed police, was born in Henan in 1970. He was the national martial arts champion in 1989, first place in the International Police Free Fighting Competition in 1991, Sanya Sanda King in 1994, and winner of the 60kg gold belt in the King's Cup of Thailand in 1995. In 1997, he went to Japan secretly to participate in the K-1 International Fighting Competition (a stand-up mixed martial arts event held in Japan), but was ordered back by the guide and did not get a ranking.
In the early morning, Hualong likes to wear sunglasses and go jogging; in the evening, he likes to go to the night market and drink beer with his bare chest.
At the intersection of a small town on the border of Henan, north of Hubei, several cars drove quietly like ghosts and stopped by the roadside one day at noon. Suddenly someone shouted "The urban management is here", and the street was in chaos. The vendors rushed to hide in various corners. Some rode three-wheeled motorcycles at lightning speed, some pushed wheelbarrows and ran wildly, and some pulled baskets full of various fruits to escape to the courtyards and alleys of residents. A woman selling vegetables led her child and carried a load, panting and losing her shoes. The urban management chased her, snatched the scale in the basket and broke it in two. Another fat urban management stepped hard on the vegetables on the ground, and the child screamed in fear. Other vendors who didn't have time to run had their stalls overturned. A man selling sugar-roasted chestnuts went to argue with the urban management, but was beaten up. Just as the urban management confiscated the vendors' things and prepared to load them on the car, a shirtless young man wearing sunglasses said, "Stop!"
"What do you do?" the urban management officer asked.
"Beat people." The young man answered, holding a cigarette in his mouth.
Perhaps it was the first time in history that the city management officers heard such words. Suddenly, more than a dozen of them surrounded them angrily. No one in the crowd could see what was going on. One of the city management officers groaned and fell into the holly bushes on the side of the road. Then, the young man kicked one of them away, like kicking a straw bag, and more than a dozen city management officers flew to the ground.
Zhou Xingxing, Hualong, and Han Bingyu are the best among China's 1.6 million policemen, three elites in the police force. Now they are going to walk into a cave, light a torch, and illuminate the dark corner. We will see many unimaginable things and many very strange people below.
Those people were originally in the cave, and now they are going to be put into the sunlight.
Bad guys should go to jail first and then to hell.
Cangzhou Prison holds more than 1,000 prisoners, including the most inhumane murderers, the most notorious villains, the most despicable and shameless perverts, and the most ruthless robbers.
Cheng Peng, the murderer and dismemberer, Zhu Lirong, the court bomber who killed her husband, He Zhonghai, the daughter raper, Tang Jin, the beastly teacher, and Li Lijun, the vicious translator, were all imprisoned in Cangzhou Prison.
Where are they now?
In hell.
The prison escape was a miracle.
Cangzhou Prison was expanded in 1977. The surrounding walls are 7 meters high, with dense electric fences and a searchlight in the center that can illuminate every corner. There are corridors outside the cells, and prison guards patrol 24 hours a day. The cells are made of stone, the floor is concrete, and the roof is embedded with iron sheets.
A guide inspected the scene backwards and said, "No one can escape from here."
However, the next year, a prisoner nicknamed Oil Hammer disappeared like air.
On the wall of the cell he carved a sentence:
Death is death no matter where!
Eighteen years later, a young prisoner was looking at this wall in silence. He was the son of Oil Hammer.
One day at noon, the prison guard who brought him food told him: "Xiao Youchui, your father has been found."
"Where?"
"In the sewers!"
In 1998, before the great flood, a skeleton was found when Cangzhou Prison was renovating the sewer. In the skeleton's hand was a rusty iron nail.
That nail probably means freedom.
The prisoners showed contempt when discussing the oil hammer, but showed respect when discussing the small oil hammer.
One prisoner said: "The big oil hammer should learn from the small oil hammer. The small oil hammer is very smart, while the big oil hammer is too stupid. He doesn't know that the stench can also kill people."
The prisoners affectionately called Xiao Youchui "that clever ghost".
A few days later, Xiao Youchui also escaped from prison.
To be precise, he was deserting his post.
The flood forced some of the prisoners in Cangzhou Prison to be transferred to another prison. The heavy rain washed away the roads, and 18 military trucks were all stuck in the mud. The prisoners on the trucks were all serious criminals, who were urgently gathered in their sleep, so they all remained in a real and complete state.
18 big cars, 18 levels of hell!
At dawn, this hell appeared before people. The chaotic convoy occupied the entire muddy street. The prisoners were handcuffed together, all with pale faces like corpses, and wet rags stuck to their bodies. Most of them were yawning, and the others were whispering something. A few were tied with hemp ropes, they were patients, with their heads down, and the sores on their bodies were inflamed and pus was oozing.
More and more residents gathered around.
Several prisoners who were in good spirits began to wave to the audience and grin. A tall prisoner hugged a short prisoner and blew kisses to the girls in the crowd, while the short prisoner was saying obscene words.
The prisoners in the leading car sang a song that was widely circulated in the prison, and the people in the following cars whistled complacently to accompany the song. The scene became more and more lively. The escorting police were busy repairing the road and had no time to take care of the prisoners. The prisoners in two cars began to scold each other, and the prisoners in another car threatened the audience.
The prisoners in the fifth car were showering, and since it was raining, people could see hairy chests and various tattoos, including eagles, tigers, dragons, scorpions, hearts with flames, swords with snakes wrapped around them, scars from cigarette burns, the words "endurance" and "hate". One prisoner rubbed his neck and looked up and said, "What a nice shower head!"
Let's not talk about the prisoners in the ninth car. The whole car was full of people peeing and shitting, the stench was overwhelming, and one bad guy was laughing and throwing his feces at the audience.
The eleventh car was filled with female prisoners. One woman grabbed her hair and said to herself, "I seem to see my husband."
The prisoners in the fifteenth car were begging for cigarettes from the onlookers. An old prisoner shouted to the woman selling fried dough sticks on the roadside: "Sister, those are fried dough sticks, right? I can smell them. Fried dough sticks are delicious. I ate them last time. Let me think about it. Oh, it must have been ten years ago. I was sentenced to life imprisonment. His uncle's, I will die in prison, give me one, let me taste it. Yes, sister, throw it up, pick up the thick ones, I will catch them, we are brothers and sisters, I will not be humble."
In the last car, the little oil hammer was giving a speech. He was gesticulating and spitting. He spoke very profoundly, as if he could spit out stones from his mouth. People kept cheering and applauding him. Here is the speech:
"My father and mother, one is in jail, the other is in the ground. Neither of them is a good person, all are bastards. I know my mother well, but I have never seen my father. Sorry, I have seen him once. A few days ago, I saw a skeleton. Some people say that death is easy . Look, that's your father. What do you think of this? The first time I saw my father, he died and looked like that. What? You asked me how I got in. I was stealing something, and I accidentally stabbed someone's liver. It was not intentional. I cut his wallet and he caught me. I have to be sent to the police station, there is no way. You can't blame me. I will cut wallets, but I won't cut throats. I am smart. What? Find a job? If I earn more than I steal, why would I be willing to be a thief? My arms want to work, but my head won't allow it. My mother never taught me what work is. Do you know what my mother taught me? She didn't teach me anything. I learned to do bad things by myself, and after doing bad things, I want to do worse things. Being a thief is the most useless thing, and I always get beaten. If I go out, I have to think about robbing some banks or something."
The situation became increasingly chaotic.
The escort captain ordered the other policemen, "Go, let the son of a bitch be quiet."
Then there was a thrilling sound of sticks and rubber batons banging from every car, and even the most noisy prisoners gave in. The escort leader said again: "The road can't be repaired. The prisoners in the last car get off and push the car in front."
More than 20 prisoners lined up in a line, with Xiao Youchui walking at the end. At a street corner, he should have followed the line and turned left, but he turned right and disappeared like a fart. No one noticed him, not even the escort captain next to him.
Did the captain let him go on purpose?
no!
The captain later recalled in his report that I just sneezed and he disappeared.
There are some things that should not be described in detail, and escaping from prison is one of them.
Okay, let's close our eyes and watch Prison Escape in the gloom.
Wu Gengqing escaped from prison using a kite, Yao Yuansong escaped from prison using his hair to open handcuffs, Ma Ying escaped from prison by digging a hole with a toothbrush, Wei Zhenhai escaped from prison by using a manure pit, Kang Shengping escaped from prison by setting fire, and Song Haiwa escaped from prison by taking hostages.
There is a corner in Beijing No. 1 Prison. Once, a prisoner escaped from there without any tools, relying on the strength of his hands and feet, shoulders, knees, back, hips, and gecko-like will. Since then, the prisoners in No. 1 Prison have gained a new interest. When they are let out for exercise, they all look up and marvel at it. In order to commemorate the corner, the prisoners named it "Ritian". "Ritian" means "impossible miracle" in slang.
The wall of the prison in the three northeastern provinces was five meters high. Once a prisoner did a pole vault and jumped over the wall and escaped.
A prisoner in the Northwest Prison killed a policeman, then changed into policeman's clothes and walked out of the door in a swagger.
The most classic prison escape took place in Cangzhou. There were five people escaping from prison, Zhou Xingxing, Shan Ya, Tie Zui, Qiu Ba, and Tu Laoye. This was the largest prison escape in history, and also the most difficult one. It was already very difficult for a living person to escape, and Shan Ya was in danger, no different from a dead person. How did Zhou Xingxing and his team "transport" Shan Ya out?
Let us first study the structure of Cangzhou Prison.
Like other prisons, Cangzhou Prison also has three guard posts. It is impossible to get out through the gate.
The prison cell has been mentioned before. It is made of stone. A ray of sunlight shines in at noon, but it is dark the rest of the time. A guy who was imprisoned for corruption once muttered: "It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. There is no air conditioning or heating."
The wooden bed in the prison cell had two functions: sleeping and making fire.
What do you need fire for?
smokes!
Prisoners all have the custom of chewing tobacco. They cannot get lighters or matches, so the most primitive method of making fire by drilling wood is widely used in prisons. Prisoners sprinkle washing powder on wooden boards, rub them vigorously with cotton wool, and soon green smoke comes out, which will catch fire as soon as they blow.
The wooden bed also provided a tense tool for the escapee.
The oil hammer found a nail there.
Zhou Xingxing came up with a plan there.
A new surveillance system was installed in the corridor outside the prison cells. The searchlight tower in the center of the prison was cracked by the flood in 1998 and was finally demolished in 1999. A large chimney replaced it. Below the chimney is the kitchen, where the pot is as big as a pond and there are several shovels against the wall that are used for cooking. A large pot does not mean there is no hunger. People in southwestern Shandong and Hebei still refer to going to prison as "eating eight taels of rice."
Some prisoners complained: "Eight ounces of tael is not enough to feed the worms in my stomach."
The oil hammer used the sewer, did Zhou Xingxing use the chimney?
There is a small kitchen next to the big kitchen, and prison guards often bring out fish. Cangzhou Prison maintains the good tradition of letting death row prisoners eat fish before being shot.
Cangzhou Prison has its own execution ground, which consists of a few pillars. In the past, prisoners were mostly shot on riverbanks, at the foot of mountains, in fields, and in woods.
The cells near the execution ground held serious criminals and death row prisoners. They saw their peers being beaten to death through the iron bars, and their eyes were filled with even more sadness.
A man's seventh rib is a woman, and his eighth is fantasy.
The prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment live in fantasy, in a mirage, slowly aging until they die, with hungry maggots waiting for their corpses with their mouths open.
Masturbation and homosexuality were open in their cells, and male prisoners raping other male prisoners was common. One rapist fell ill as soon as he entered prison, and the prisoners in the same cell reported to the prison guards: We had "beaten" him up.
Outside the prison, he raped others; inside the prison, others raped him.
There are two dark rooms next to the death row cells. One is the solitary confinement room, where groans are often heard. It is normal to be beaten in that dark room, and it is abnormal not to be beaten. The other is the medical room, where Shan Ya lies, and the soldiers are responsible for feeding him water and food, and taking care of his excrement and urine. Letting prisoners manage prisoners is the civilized part of the prison.
Shan Ya and Qiu Ba were in the medical room, while Zhou Xingxing, Tie Zui and Tu Laoye were imprisoned in cell No. 43. How did they get in touch before escaping from prison?
July 29, 2000, Saturday, cloudy.
At noon, when the soldier was queuing for lunch, he was unlucky and something hard hit his head, but he was happy again, it was a steamed bun. He didn't eat it, but after breaking it open, he found a small 50-cent note inside.
There is a line of words written on this banknote.
At 11 o'clock in the evening, three dark shadows were squatting in cell No. 43, and a small black mouse eavesdropped on their conversation.
Tiezui: "Where to go from here?"
Zhou Xingxing: "Did you see the chimney?"
Tiezui: "I saw it, it looks like a dick!"
Zhou Xingxing: “Climb up.”
Tiezui: "It's too thick, I can't climb up."
Tu Laoye: "It's not a tree."
Zhou Xingxing: "You are right, Lao Ye, that is not a tree, that is a quilt."
Tu Laoye: "Bed?"
Tiezui: "Damn it, please explain it more clearly."
Zhou Xingxing: "I have already searched this prison thoroughly. Going through the chimney is the only way out."
Tiezui: "What if we climb to the top of the chimney? There's an electric grid underneath."
Zhou Xingxing: "Climb up, climb down, step on the electric fence, and walk to the wall."
Tu Laoye: "Fuck, that would electrocute me to death."
Tiezui: "Damn you, you naughty kid."
Zhou Xingxing: "Make a few pairs of special shoes with wooden boards."
Tu Laoye: "There are guards under the power grid."
Tiezui: "The police will find us, and bullets will follow us like flies."
Zhou Xingxing: "So we must be extra vigilant."
Tu Laoye: "The wall is high. If you jump down, won't you fall into a pile of shit?"
Zhou Xingxing: “So we need a rope.”
Tu Laoye: "There is no rope."
Zhou Xingxing: "Tear the sheets, tear the clothes, twist the ropes."
Tu Laoye: "Naked butt, hehe."
Tiezui: "Let's do it. God is helping us. It's thundering and windy. What a perfect night to go slacking off."
Zhou Xingxing: "It must not rain."
Tiezui: "By the way, what about Master Shan?"
Tiezui: "He can't climb chimneys or jump over walls."
Zhou Xingxing: "I have a way, do I have to take him away?"
Tiezui: "Yes, that's the condition."
Zhou Xingxing: “What?”
Tiezui: "Take him out, there will be a lot of money, man."
Zhou Xingxing: "Money is money, and the staff is the staff."
Tu Laoye: "You can't do it alone."
Tu Laoye: "You need us to help you."
Zhou Xingxing: "Well, what if he's too late?"
Tiezui: "That's his business."
Zhou Xingxing: "Can that soldier do it? He doesn't know the tricks of this job."
Tiezui: "Tell me what he hasn't done. Theft, robbery, rape, murder, drug trafficking, fraud, kidnapping."
Tu Laoye: "Now there is one more crime, escaping from prison."
Tu Laoye: "There is one more thing. How do I open this door?"
Zhou Xingxing: "Iron Zui is an expert at unlocking locks."
Tiezui: "I just need a nail."
Zhou Xingxing: "We need three things: nails, ropes, and wooden boards."
Tu Laoye: "What is the wood board used for?"
Zhou Xingxing: "Now, one person is dismantling the bed, one person is twisting the rope, and one person is looking for nails."
Tiezui: "How long will it take?"
Zhou Xingxing: “Three hours, a little more or a little less.”
Zhou Xingxing: "Now in the cage, and outside the cage in three hours."
Tu Laoye: "Oh, there's a mouse."
Tu Laoye: "Good fellow, you stabbed me, there is a nail here."
Tiezui: "What about the patrolman in the corridor?"
Zhou Xingxing: "It's easy. Just throw a stone to lure him away."
Zhou Xingxing: "The rope is ready."
Zhou Xingxing: "Are there enough wooden boards? We need eight."
Tiezui: "That's enough."
Zhou Xingxing: "Have you found the nail?"
Tu Laoye: “Found it.”
Zhou Xingxing: "One, two, three, let's do it!"
The corridor was extremely quiet. Zhou Xingxing dragged the rope, as if he was holding a dog that might bark at any time. Every time he took a step, he felt the ground tremble. Tiezui and Tu Laoye followed behind, hiding in Zhou Xingxing's shadow, and they slipped out of the corridor.
They met Qiuba and Shanya in the small kitchen. Shanya was lying in the corner like a dead dog, and Qiuba slapped his butt and growled, "Why are you here so late?"
Zhou Xingxing said: "I ran into a little trouble."
Qiu Ba asked: "Who are you?"
Zhou Xingxing said: "I am the one who threw the steamed bun to you."
Tiezui said: "His name is Zhou Xingxing, he just came in and wanted to take us out."
The soldier asked, "What are you doing here?"
Zhou Xingxing said: "I didn't do anything. I am innocent."
Tu Laoye said: "Same as us, hehe."
A prison guard on duty seemed to hear the voices and walked over here. People never found out where the five people were hiding at the time.
Those with a strong imagination could "see" several "Tai" characters rising in the chimney, several guilty souls wanting to be free. The rope pulled the fang up, and then they tied wooden boards to the soles of their shoes and carried the fang over the electric fence. Lightning may have been helping them all the time, but there was no rain, and they overcame many unexpected difficulties and finally reached the wall.
Outside the wall is freedom.
At 3 a.m., a family near Cangzhou Prison was robbed. Three naked men stole several sets of clothes and half a pack of cigarettes. The next day, the hostess said to the host: "Last night, wasn't it a nightmare?"
The man said: "It's not a dream, our clothes are gone."