Chapter 186: Pursuit

As mentioned last time, Cao Pi sent a force to track down the special forces and Sima Yi's family, and this cavalry unit tracked the traces of the horse convoy from the south gate of Xuchang City all the way, turning westward. A day later, they finally caught up with the convoy, but there was no one in the convoy they were looking for.

The pursuing Wei army searched the entire convoy and found that the carriage was filled with ordinary passengers. The general of the Wei army, surnamed Xu, was a tun commander, who led a tun of men and horses (100 people) under his command to pursue key criminals, and he was unwilling to lose the trace of Sima Yi's family in this way, so he interrogated the person in charge of the horse convoy.

The person in charge of this team is called Wang Da, and he is the richest landlord in the town in front. There is no need to torture at all, when he saw Xu Tunchang's fierce look, he was already so frightened that his feet were weak, and he would answer whatever Xu Tunchang asked, and he didn't dare to hide it at all.

He told Xu Tunchang that he had purchased the convoy from a middle-aged man this morning. At that time, the convoy was passing through their town, and after the riders got out of the car, the middle-aged man approached him and said that he would sell the carriage to him, along with the horses that drove it.

He didn't want it, after all, his family was not in the business of a carriage and horse dealership, and it was useless to ask for so many carriages. Later, the middle-aged man said that he would sell it to him at half the market price.

When he saw that the price was unbelievably cheap, he became greedy in his heart, thinking that even if he didn't drive a horse, he could pull the carriage to the city and sell it to the carriage and horse dealer or others, and buy it back at such a cheap price, and he would not lose money no matter how he sold it.

It just so happened that he had a little spare money in his hand, so he gritted his teeth and bought these carriages. As for why he was here, it was because when he first bought the convoy, some small traders and tourists happened to be present, and these people said that they were going to Songshan Mountain in the west, or to do business, or to visit relatives and friends, or to visit famous mountains and rivers.

Since the distance was long (not far, in fact, these people did not want to walk), they wanted to hire some carriages to sit in, and it happened that he had a convoy, so they encouraged him to take out the convoy and hire them to travel on their behalf.

Wang Da's purpose in buying the team is naturally to use this team to make more money, and now he sees that there is business coming to the door just after buying the team, and he is of course so happy that he can't see his teeth when he sees the money. He agreed without saying a word, and his calculation was that even if he had to sell the team in the end, it would not prevent him from making a fortune first.

After hurriedly collecting some deposits from those people, and going home to call some housekeepers to come over as coachmen, Wang Da personally led the caravan on the road and started a long-distance transportation business.

He regrets it to death now, he knew that these carriages came from unknown sources, and he didn't dare to buy them if he was killed, but now it's too late to regret it, the government has already found out about him, although he doesn't know what case these carriages are related to, but when he saw the elite cavalry sent by the imperial court to chase him, he knew that this matter must not be small. He's at a loss for words now.

The middle-aged man who sold him the carriage was naturally pretended to be someone from the "CIA", and after the special forces and Sima Yi's family got off the carriage in that small village, they mixed into the caravan and continued southward, while the "CIA" people drove the carriage westward, with the aim of diverting the tracking Wei army.

These carriages left the city from the south gate and were seen by the guards at the south gate, and the Wei army would definitely visit and track them all the way according to the characteristics of these carriages. The CIA men did not destroy the wagons, camouflage them or change their appearance, but instead changed the direction of their walking, directing the pursuers to the west.

After the middle-aged man sold the carriage to Wang Da, the small traders and tourists who said that they wanted to hire his carriage to Xiangyang were actually pretended to be people from the "CIA", otherwise it would be such a coincidence, Wang Da had just bought the carriage and someone wanted to hire him.

The purpose of the "CIA" in doing so was to enable these convoys, which had been blacklisted by the Wei army, to move forward and continue to lead the pursuers in the wrong direction. Therefore, in this convoy, except for Wang Da and the family members who drove the car, everyone else is actually a spy of the Shu Kingdom, if Xu Tunchang detains them, he is guaranteed to catch the right person.

It's a pity that he didn't know it, and it was impossible for him to blame these ordinary people who seemed to be "innocent", so he automatically ignored these passengers and blindly chased Wang Da to ask questions.

Wang Da really knew very little, and Xu Tunchang couldn't ask anything at all, so he asked Wang Dazhi if he knew who the convoy was carrying before it was sold to him.

Wang Da replied that he saw some sturdy men and some old and weak women and children getting out of the car. Hearing this, Xu Tunchang was in high spirits, he thought he had found the right master, and hurriedly asked where those people were.

Wang Da's reply was that after these people got out of the carriage, they turned around on their horses and galloped south in the direction of Xiangyang.

When Xu Tunchang heard this, he was anxious, if these people all rode a horse and galloped, then it would be difficult for his own people to catch up with them.

When he heard that those people were running in the direction of Xiangyang, he was dizzy in the hall, and he wondered if these people had gone to Xiangyang to defect to Sima Yi, could it be that the thieves who robbed Sima Yi's family were actually sent by Sima Yi? In this way, does Sima Yi really want to rebel?

Such a high-level issue should not have been considered by a commander like him, and even, if according to the general situation, his superiors assigned him such a pursuit mission, he might not tell them the true identity of the target they were pursuing, because the identity of the target person is too sensitive, and once the news leaks, it is likely to cause an uproar. So, in general, Shangguan only needs to explain to them the requirements for performing the task.

But this Xu Tunchang's identity is very unusual, he is a descendant of Xu Zhu. Xu Zhu's status in the Cao Wei group is very unusual, although he is dead, and his boss Cao Cao is also dead, but the boss's successor, Cao Pi, still cares about his descendants. Therefore, the Xu family still has a very high status in Xuchang.

Although this Xu Tun Commander is only a side branch of the Xu family, everyone knows that he has a bright future, he just joined the army and became an elite cavalry Tun Commander, that is, he is still young, and his qualifications are still blank, everyone knows that as long as he accumulates a certain amount of qualifications and military merits, he will definitely be able to continue to rise.

Because of this background, although this Xu Tun chief is humble, he knows a lot about the riots that happened in Xuchang. Not only did he hear some news from his family, but Shangguan did not hide it from him when he sent him this pursuit mission, so he had a clear understanding of the goal of his mission, and he was also clear about the meaning and consequences of the mission's failure, so he was so worried.

But it was because he was too worried about it, too anxious in his heart, and not thinking calmly about the problem, that made him ignore a lot of things.

For example, how could there be so many old and weak women and children among those who fled that they could ride a horse and a horse, and even if they could ride on a horse, how far would they go? For another example, the Sima family is so big, and his family is just a drop in the ocean, does Sima Yi really dare to give up the entire family and betray the imperial court?

Xu Tunchang didn't have enough wisdom or calm enough to figure out these things, and after listening to Wang Da's words, he left one of his subordinates to watch over him, and then hurried in the direction of Xiangyang with the others.