Liu Wen, Director of the , was put in charge of the investigation. He travelled to most sightings of the Wang brothers by bus, since the ministry didn't have other means of long-distance travel to remote areas, purchasing an early model mobile phone with a radio function. Liu personally participated in several raids, arrests, and interrogations, though all ended up being false intel or impostors. At around 10:45, the brothers were running through the adjoining busy pedestrian street and having left behind their bike near the alley, the brothers mugged a married couple, Zhang Yeliang and Li Ruiling, who worked for Hengyang Electric Power Company and were riding bicycles to visit an aunt. Their teenage daughter Zhang Xiaoqin attempted to prevent the theft of her mother's bike by clinging onto the frame, for which Wang Zongfang fired two gunshots at her, grazing the girl's ear and shoe. Seeing his daughter fall to the ground, Zhang Yeliang lunged at the attackers and was shot in the chest by Wang Zongwei. Li Ruiling then fought with Wang Zongfang, grabbing onto a bag in his hands, in hopes that police could use it to help identify the men. Wang Zongwei shot Li during the struggle, just as she managed to snatch away the bag, with her right hand outstretched in defence. The bullet passed through the arm and shattered part of Li's lower jaw. With Zhang Yeliang dead and his wife and daughter injured, the Wang brothers took the parents' bikes and fled. It was later discovered that the bag taken by Li Ruiling contained 36 rounds of ammo and five hand grenades. MPS considered it unlikely that the Wang brothers would flee either further south or back north due to increasing police presence in either direction. Investigators instead believed that the Wang brothers would stay in the country's central region, most likely going for either
Changsha or
Wuhan. On 23 March, at around 10:15, Wang Zongfang was stopped by police officer Li Xinyan and militiaman Xiong Jiguo on the Daishan Bridge checkpoint in
Jiang'an district, at the . They were suspicious of him because his bike did not have a registration plate and he was lying by claiming to have done so inside a police station, when registration was actually in jurisdiction of the traffic department. Wang Zongfang was brought inside the checkpoint hut by Li and Xiong, being followed by his brother, who had stayed a distance behind earlier. During interrogation with Daishan Bridge checkpoint chief Wang Yun, Wang Zongfang's pistol was discovered by Li. Wang Zongfang was held down by Li and Xiong while Wang Yun pulled out his own gun. A passerby, Chen Zhenjian, overheard the commotion and joined the effort to restrain the detainee, attempting to take his gun. His brother's shouts alerted Wang Zongwei, who was hiding in a restroom across the street, rushing into the station and shooting ten times at the men fighting with Wang Zongfang. Wang Yun, Li Xinyan, and Chen Zhenjian were killed, while Xiong was injured and rendered unconscious. Before leaving, the brothers stole the station chief's handgun. A motorist found the crime scene shortly after and alerted Daishan police station, one kilometre away. Three officers went towards the checkpoint and spotted the Wang brothers escaping eastwards. However, only one officer was armed and during the ensuing shootout, the officer's gun jammed, allowing the Wang brothers to escape. an average college-educated worker had a monthly salary of 50 yuan. Security was also heightened in
Henan,
Shanghai,
Jiangsu,
Jiangxi,
Shandong, and
Anhui. While police were also swamped with misinformation, several hints turned out to be correct, allowing for a relatively accurate map of movement for the Wang brothers. Simultaneously, with increasing awareness of the Wang brothers and their crimes, there was a spike in suspected
copycat crime committed, with perpetrators hoping that the acts would be blamed on the fugitives. Reports were easily falsified by telling police about a short man and a tall man, which was the basic description of the Wang brothers. Some of those arrested even falsely claimed to be "Er Wang" to interrogators upon arrest for notoriety. Over the summer of 1983, Liu Wen went to Guangdong, Anhui, Jiangsu, Hubei, Henan,
Shaanxi, and
Hebei to investigate these cases. He later estimated that he went to around 100 locations, getting a bulletproof vest at each public security bureau. Two more prominent capture attempts took the form of an encirclement of Guangzhou's
Baiyun Mountain and a large-scale helicopter-aided search in Wuhan. Amid the ongoing search and increasing internal criticism,
Deng Xiaoping convened with other party leaders at
Beidaihe to discuss stronger policies against crime.
Guangchang County On the morning of 13 September 1983, the Wang brothers were spotted in the mountainous region of
Guangchang County, Jiangxi. 28-year-old Liu Jianping, a staff member of the Guangchang County Civil Affairs Bureau, said that he saw the brothers at around 8:00 at Xiangyang Local Products Shop in Guangchang's
Xujiang town. He spotted Wang Zongwei first, becoming suspicious because he wore a large straw hat and sunglasses despite the rainy weather, was constantly crouching over his bike, and had his face smeared with dark oil paint. Liu followed Wang Zongwei long enough to see him meet with Wang Zongfang, wearing the same disguise, at a post office, hearing the latter speak
Standard Mandarin, which wasn't in common informal use in the area. After briefly following the men, who kept a constant distance to each other, Liu went to the local
Chengguan office and informed station chief Zou Zhixiong, suspecting the men were criminal fugitives. The brothers had left town by the time Liu and Zou went to the shop they were last seen at, but Zou believed they were heading south for the highway out of the province. Within three hours, two circular blockades were formed around Ganjiang Forest Farm, with a circumference of 30 kilometres. By 1:00 of 14 September, a third circle with a circumference of 171 km was established. Overnight, (a member of the Standing Committee of the Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee and Secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission), Shen Zhongxiang (Deputy Commander of the
Provincial Military Region) and Sun Shusen (Director of the
Provincial Public Security Department and Political Commissar of the Armed Police Force), were directed to Guangchang city to direct the search effort with various county party leaders. The same day, all males aged 18 to 45 in the counties of Guangchang,
Nanfeng,
Ningdu, and
Shicheng, as well as
Jianning of neighbouring Fujian, were conscripted to take part in the search alongside each county's security bureau, under the command of
Nanchang Security Bureau director Wang Weicheng and deputy director Yang Xilin. A total of around 50,000 people participated in the search effort, mostly military, police and militia. The collaborative search included around 25,000 People's Armed Police, 25,000 militiamen, and 600 to 700 Public Security officers. Fourteen
sniffer dogs, trained on the scent of one of Wang Zongwei's discarded shoes, were sent in by Ningdu County Public Security Bureau.. Thirteen of them were recalled by the end of the first day due to exhaustion, with one of the dogs dying from dehydration while being carried out of the mountains. The remainder of the K-9 unit,
German Shepherd Wei Nan and his handler Xie Zhusheng, never picked up a trail during the first five days. At least one PLA helicopter was called in to fly over the area to aid in the search. The MPS issued a direct order to Jiangxi Provincial Security Bureau, stating, "Make every effort to encircle and annihilate "Er Wang" in Guangchang and eliminate this threat to the people!" ("尽一切努力，将‘二王’围歼在广昌，为民除害！"). == Death ==