Man Bao and the others waited in the town for a day, and as expected, the guards quickly caught up with them and brought back a letter from General Meng.
After Bai Shan and the others saw it, they put it away, packed their bags, and went into the desert the next day.
Man Bao and the others got a camel. In addition to putting some heavy goods, they also climbed up and sat on it for a while out of curiosity, and then they began to feel distressed, "Are they tired because it's so heavy?"
"There doesn't seem to be much food prepared for them..."
Du Yu rode a horse and walked aside. He rolled his eyes and said, "They are so big, so what's the point of burdening them with just such a small amount of cargo?"
However, Manbao and the others refused to sit down, so they got off the camels and continued riding.
After all, the horse only carried them alone, but the camel also carried a lot of cargo on both sides.
The group of people headed west at a slow pace. They were very careful along the way. After all, there was a group of horse thieves watching them from somewhere in the dark.
Although Nie Canjun kept sending scouts to check back and forth, no one was following him.
Manbao spent points to have Keke scan it, but no one was found, so they could only speculate that those people were not near them, at least not close to them.
It's a pity that information is not easily circulated. Otherwise, we could ask General Meng if he got anything out of those two people.
Alas, Teacher Mo and the others can still contact her at any time even though they are separated by time and space. It's just that they are separated by a few days' distance and it is difficult to communicate.
Man Bao felt that the sun was getting stronger, so he dismounted and entered the carriage.
The others also moved to the carriage, had some tea and started talking while looking at the yellow sand outside. Even in the heavy rain, I didn't know why they could talk so much. It seemed like they couldn't finish talking every day.
However, when traveling in the desert, the most fearful thing besides lack of water is loneliness. With them around, I feel less lonely.
The marching team lost contact with the outside world. Not only did Jin Kui'an and others rush from the desert to Shazhou City again, they could not find any trace of them. Batur, who arrived in Shazhou City one day earlier than Jin Kui'an and the others, could not find any trace of them either.
.
As soon as the three of them arrived in Shazhou City, they first went to a restaurant that was familiar with their town to inquire about the situation. Their original intention was to ask if they knew Zhou Man and his group, and if they knew they were still in the city.
, if not, when is the best time to leave, so that they don’t have to go to the Yamen.
Although the mayor said that they were doing a good deed this time and could feel free to ask questions, but...
Thieves are all afraid of the government. Of course, they are not afraid, but they just don't want to see the officers and soldiers and are not willing to say hello to them. So why go to the government office when you can get information about things in a restaurant?
As a result, as soon as they entered, the owner of the restaurant said: "You really came to find someone, Heavy Rain and the others left."
Batur was stunned for a moment and said: "I know they left. They should have returned to the town by now. Shopkeeper, do you know the convoy they sent into the city during the heavy rain? Are they still in the city now?"
The shopkeeper looked at him with a puzzled expression, "What are you talking about? I mean that Heavy Rain and the others followed that convoy and didn't say that they returned to your town. He said that they took the order from the convoy and wanted to send them to the Western Regions.
I don’t know how much they charged, but I see that they are very happy, so it should be quite a lot.”
The three of Batur were shocked.
Heavy Rain actually followed Doctor Zhou and the others?
It took Batur almost an hour to figure this out. Not only did he know the time they left, but he also knew that Da Yu had bought a lot of things from Shazhou City and wanted to sell them in the Western Region.
It is said that before leaving, Heavy Rain declared that when he came back from the Western Regions, he would go to Suzhou or Liangzhou to marry a Han wife. His money should be enough.
The other two partners looked at Batur, "What should we do?"
Batur wiped his face and said, "Kurban, go back and tell the mayor that the two of us will chase them. There are evil wolves chasing them behind. We must find them before they catch up."
But in fact, no one had to go back to notify the mayor and noticed something unusual, because he thought there was no news about Heavy Rain who should return to the town.
If he was delayed on the road, it would be fine if he was two or three days later than expected, but it had been seven or eight days and why was there still no one there?
The mayor's back stiffened when he thought about how long Zhou Man and the others had stayed in his town. "It won't be a self-defeating thing. They are still staying somewhere in the desert, right?"
The housekeeper said: "It's impossible. There aren't many people in this desert. What's so fun?"
Although there is no oases as big as their town elsewhere, it does not mean that there are no oases. There is still water in other places and there are people living there.
Who knows if Zhou Man and his friends will stay like they are in a small town?
The mayor began to ponder, and finally couldn't sit still any longer, and said: "Hello brothers, divide into three teams and go out to look for people. Let's forget about Zhou Man and the others. We have brother No. 20 inside, and we just met..."
The mayor suddenly paused and sat back in his chair, stroking his chin and thinking deeply, "You shouldn't be afraid if you encounter them. There are only seventy or eighty of them. Zhou Man and his group have about a hundred.
Except for those ten or twenty untied chickens, the others should have seen blood on their knife edges, plus Heavy Rain and the others..."
The housekeeper smiled and said: "It's stable!"
The mayor nodded, "As long as they don't have any other manpower, it's safe."
So the mayor took back the order he had just given and continued to retire in the town waiting for the brothers to come back.
At this time, the person who was to deliver a message to the mayor hid at the gate of Shazhou City and watched Jin Kui'an and his party enter the city. Then he quietly left the city with his horse and took water back through the desert road.
As soon as Jin Kui'an and the others entered the city, General Meng knew, "...it was said to be a caravan, but it didn't even have a car. It was just that each horse carried something. When the soldiers at the city gate inspected it, they quietly touched it. There was nothing inside.
The grain was just things like wheat bran, but they paid the tax for entering the city according to the cloth."
"There were seventy-nine people in total. They all brought weapons. As soon as they entered the city, they found an inn to stay. They kept looking for someone to keep an eye on them. As soon as they settled in, someone approached them. He seemed to be familiar with them.
I guess they are the people Dr. Zhou said they were."
General Meng frowned and asked, "They didn't ask for news?"
"No, we are buying water now, and there are people going to the checkpoint to get documents. It seems that they will leave the customs tomorrow. General, do you want to detain their documents and take them for questioning?"
General Meng pondered for a moment and shook his head slightly, "Don't give them the documents yet. Check to see if they are from within the customs or from outside the customs. Let Governor He send someone to check their goods."