Although all the team members walked on without eating[rice] for two more days and two nights, they felt fine and were not tired. [They did eat jungle products like bamboo shoots when they could find them.] But beginning from the second night after that, some team members fell behind because of hunger. Chia Koua and Tou Lee, who were walking ahead, had to stop and wait for the last ones to catch up. Then they pulled out the map to look at it again and found that there was a village nearby. Chia Koua urged the team members, "Let's make an effort to walk on until we can hear the roosters crow. When we get to the village we must make a detour and pass it before setting up our camp for the night. Then I will go and find some food for us."

Not far from where they started walking on they came to an intersection where another path branched off to another village. But Khua people of that other village were transporting salt [along the intersecting path], and another group was waiting for them a little beyond the intersection. Chia Koua's team came up behind [the forward group] without being spotted. After they passed the intersection they heard the Khua [of the forward group] talking, so they turned back to find a place to hide, but the following group of Khua had already reached the intersection, and the team found itself caught between the two.

They did not know what else to do but to exchange greetings and converse with the Khua [through the use of Chinese, spoken by the four members of their party who came from Phong Saly Province]. Chia Koua gave the Khua some money [paper currency used in the communist area]; the Khua were pleased and gave them lunch in return. Chia Koua told the villagers that his team wanted to go into the nearby village and asked whether or not they could do so. "Let us go and ask the village chief first," replied the Khua. "If there are no Vietnamese solders, we will come back to let you know." So the team stayed there waiting.

These Khua people, however, were actually all soldiers allied to the Vietnamese. Because they had been away to get salt they did not have their guns with them, so the team did not realized that they were soldiers on the side of Vietnam, but [thought they were] only civilians. Some of the Khua stayed with the team while the others went into the village to tell everyone to hide their weapons [as became evident later]. Then two of them came back to invite [the travelers] into the village. Chia Koua and the soldiers rested in the home of the village chief for one night, but since there were not many Khua soldiers there they did not dare to arrest the members of the team.

Visit to the district chief

When day break came the team bought food supplies from the villagers, but as they got ready to walk one the Khua said to them, "Our district chief wants to meet you. He asked that you go to see him first before leaving here." Chia Koua and his soldiers did not know what to do but to accept the invitation. "Of course, we also want to meet him," they said. "Can you lead us to him?"
 
They had to wait in the village until dark, and then the Khua led them, walking all night long, until they reached the district chief's village at dawn of the following day.The Khua asked the team to stay outside the village while they went to tell the district chief and have him send his own men out to welcome them. When Chia Koua and his soldiers arrived at the district chief's house, enough soldiers had gathered there to be able to seize them, so they felt very insecure and feared they would surely be captured, and were very worried.

Tou Lee said to Chia Koua, "We are probably trapped now. You are the only one who has assurance from Mother of Writing. How are you going to help?"
Chia Koua replied, "Don't be afraid. I am going to call Mother of Writing for help. Don't say anything, but let me do the talking to see if they are going to let us go." Chia Koua appealed to Shong Lue, telling him that they were in great danger, and that Shong Lue should therefore help by giving him ideas to convince the Khua.

In the evening of that same day when Chia Koua made the appeal to Shong Lue, the Khua commanding officers took steps to arrest the members of the team. The Khua officers brought liquor and opium to the district chief's house and divided the team into two groups, having them spend the night in two different places. The Khua soldiers gave the team members alcohol to drink to get them drunk before they tried to seize them. [It would not have been polite to the hosts not to drink. People came to them, drank from a cup and said, "I drink to you," obligating them to take a responding drink. However, . different Khua people would change off in doing this, so that the same member of the party would have to respond in this way to a number of different Khua
individuals.]

That evening the district chief also told Chia Koua that he wanted to talk with him. [They talked in Lao.] He also asked Chia Koua to send one of his men to go out and to stand guard with each of the Khua soldiers. One team leader would also go with one Khua supervisor to inspect the guards outside. Chia Koua knew that the Khua had divided them into small groups and scattered them in order to seize them one after
another, so he told the district chief that since the team had come to the chief's village it was now completely under the chief [so it was enough for] Khua people to go out on guard. The members of the team then laid aside their weapons,[and other American-made equipment], took off their uniforms, and left everything [in a pile in a corner], walking around freely [unencumbered and unarmed, to allay fear and suspicion].

Shong Lue helps Chia Koua persuade the chief

The Khua soldiers did not know how best to arrest the team members, so they gave them more alcohol to drink. Then, after they all became drunk and fell asleep, the district chief made a bed, brought some ready-to-smoke opium to it,and invited Chia Koua to join him. The chief poured the alcohol and they drank up the two bottles of rice wine and smoked all the opium. The district chief drank and smoked less than he offered Chia Koua, but when the latter showed no sign of drunkenness or weakness the chief became worried and suspicious and asked Chia Koua, "If you do not ever drink or smoke [as Chia Koua had already told him], why are you able to resist [alcohol and opium] so well?" Chia Koua said, "I don't know how much one has to smoke or drink to get drunk because this is the first time I have done these things." The chief then asked Chia Koua, "What brings you here?"
Suddenly [inspired by Shong Lue] Chi a Koua got the idea of telling the chief that he and his team were officials under the King of Laos. The King had sent them up there to tell the people in every village in his kingdom that the war was not being waged by the Lao, but only by the North Vietnamese and the Americans. The King did not want Lao
citizens killing one another any more. The district chief believed Chia Koua [who does not know why, except that Shong Lue was helping him], so in the morning the district chief supplied rice and meat for the team and ordered the Khua soldiers to accompany them to the next village. They led the team to a place near a Hmong village where the Khua soldiers told them, "There is a Hmong village on the other side of the mountain slope. We can only accompany you this far [as they wanted to go home, having escorted them as far as necessary]. Please go to the village and the people there will find someone to lead you on." After saying this the Khua soldiers returned home.