"Kellero?"

Under the white sheets that rustled in the cold wind, Wei Ran tentatively called out the other person's name.

"What's wrong?" Kelelao, who had been staring above his head, asked without looking back.

After thinking for a moment, Wei Ran asked, "How far are we still?"

Hearing this, Kelailuo finally looked around and responded, "It's not far away. In about ten kilometers, we will reach the place where sister Ke Na works. The vehicle technical service point where you work shares the same place with them.

big tent, so when you find them, you find your place to work.”

After looking at the set of skis placed on the sledge, Wei Ran was silent for a moment and asked, "How is this job?"

“Can fill your stomach”

Kelailuo said in an extremely simple manner, "As long as I can get to Kobona, I can have a full meal, and every time I come back, I can bring a piece of bread to Sister Kobona."

"Sister Ke Na?" Wei Ran looked at the young man next to him strangely.

"She's a few months older than me."

Kelailuo pulled the back of his head and explained matter-of-factly, "She asked me to call her sister. She said she has 23 other younger brothers and sisters. I have never seen them. Brother Victor, is that true?

"

"Indeed it is"

Wei Ran nodded absently, "You will meet those younger brothers and sisters if you have the chance. They are all living in the air-raid shelter now."

"The Germans are like rabid dogs recently. This road is too dangerous."

Kailuo paused and continued, "Although I really want to see them, I don't want it to be at this time. I encountered a snowstorm yesterday. If my Sasha hadn't been smart enough, I might have lost my way."

"It's Sasha again..."

Wei Ran secretly grinned and listened quietly to the young coachman describing his adventures on this ice road. From time to time, he also asked for some key information in a sideways manner.

From Kelailuo's few words, Wei Ran finally learned that this night was March 4, 1942.

In addition, he was assigned to drive a bulldozer at a certain vehicle technical service point on the Ice Highway, and that vehicle technical service point happened to be at the same location as where Kona worked. Even, listening to what he meant, it seemed that this was

Political Commissar Yin Liqi specially arranged it.

After an unknown amount of time, the roar of aircraft engines overhead gradually faded away, and anti-aircraft fire ceased fire one after another.

After waiting for a while, the red lights lit up one after another, first flashing, and then turning into steady light spots.

Until this time, Keleluo lifted off the canvas blanket covering the mule as quickly as possible, folded it twice and spread it on the sledge. He also picked up a brush and brushed it as quickly as possible.

Dropped the snow and ice on the mule.

At the same time, Wei Ran also folded the white sheet covering the sledge and put it back in place. He also checked the condition of the two wounded people and removed the lid of the iron bucket.

Soon, the horse-drawn sledge returned to the original road and continued to run towards the other end of the road under the guidance of the traffic controllers who were on duty with red lights.

Along the way, Wei Ran saw horse-drawn sledges running in the same direction, trucks one after another, and militiamen standing on the roadside every 500 meters to direct traffic.

Those militiamen with frost on their clothes and eyebrows all had oil lamps that emitted red light hung around their waists, and they all had skis at their feet.

Whenever there is a congestion on this one-way ice highway, these hard-working militiamen will immediately rush to evacuate the traffic.

On the way, he also saw a major driving a GAZ sedan who was trying to jump in line. He was stopped by the young female militiamen, who mercilessly used their weapons to persuade him to go back to the line and continue queuing.

After looking at the aurora still surging above his head, then at the dim environment around him, and at the carbide lamp hanging around his waist, Wei Ran wisely gave up on taking out his camera to take pictures.

Sitting on the sledge obediently and letting the hard-working animal pull him for more than half an hour, Keleluo shouted to the mule to stop, raised his finger and pointed in the direction and said, "Sister Kena and their tents

It's in that direction. If you walk along the fork in that direction for about two hundred meters, you'll see it. It's the only tent nearby, so I won't send you there."

"I can just go there by myself"

While Wei Ran was talking, he had already jumped off the sledge and walked to the roadside with the set of skis in his arms, "Kailalo, please pay attention to safety on the road."

"You too, Comrade Victor." Kelailuo saluted Wei Ran in a decent manner, shouted at the sledge and started running along the road again.

Leaving this busy ice road along the fork in the middle of the windshield wall with a height of more than one meter made of snow, Wei Ran fumbled to put on his skis, pushed the snowball with all his strength, and pulled away from the man behind him.

The distance of a highway.

Soon after, a large yurt-style tent made of white oilcloth appeared directly in front. In the center of the tent, there was a chimney emitting blue smoke.

Next to it, there is not only a pile of boards and logs covered with snow and a tight pile of coal covered by canvas, but also parked a little further away is a tracked truck that is also covered with snow and spray-painted white.

Bulldozers. A little further away, there seemed to be many 200-liter oil drums buried.

After a moment's hesitation, Wei Ran took off his skis, lightly tapped the canvas curtain of the tent with his snowball, waited for a moment, and then gently opened it.

What he didn't expect was that after entering the tent, there was a square wooden sign hanging directly in front of it. There were also two conspicuous white arrows painted on the sign. Right below the sign, there was an iron bucket without a lid.

Inside were several sets of skis of different lengths and two manual oil pumps.

Looking left and right, there was another cotton curtain on both sides of the arrow. They seemed to lead to two spaces.

He took out the flashlight from the metal book and turned it on with his hand covering the head of the lamp. He looked at the wooden sign with a little light leaking between his fingers.

The sign points to the arrow on the left and reads "Vehicle Technical Service Point" in white Russian. Under the arrow on the right, it says No Entry.

Seeing this, he wisely walked to the left side, opened the cotton curtain, and at the same time made the fingers covering the lamp head wider.

Through the light, he could see that in this space that only occupied less than half the area of ​​the tent, the ground was covered with a layer of pine needles and wooden boards. There were several boxes containing maintenance tools and some carpentry tools placed beside it.

There was also an anvil, a box of horseshoes of various sizes, and a box of tools that were most likely used for hoof trimming.

There is a small table closest to the curtain. On it is not only an oil lamp, but also a Volga radio, as well as an enamel lunch box containing Morhe cigarettes and a few newspapers. Under the table,

It is a small foot-operated generator.

Behind the table, next to the thin canvas that separated it from the next door, there was a narrow camp bed. When he walked to the bed, he could still feel the warmth coming from the next door, and

A faint red light can be seen.

After thinking for a while, he lit the kerosene lamp, then walked out of the tent and looked around. He was relieved when he saw that there was no light coming out.

When he opened the curtain again, the cotton curtain on the right just opened, and a thin female soldier who wrapped herself tightly walked out.

After a brief silence where their eyes met, the female soldier asked, "Are you the bulldozer driver sent here, Comrade Victor?"

"it's me"

Wei Ran, who was holding the curtain open, took a step back and waited for the thin female soldier to come out, then said, "I am Victor."

"Kona told me about you"

The female soldier took the initiative to reach out to Wei Ran and said, "I am Ekaterina. Like Kona, I am also a traffic controller."

"Hello, Comrade Ekaterina." Wei Ran took off his gloves and shook hands with the other party.

"Let's wait in our dormitory, it's warmer there."

Ekaterina lifted her finger and pointed behind her, "I'm going to change shifts with Kona right now. She'll be back in about half an hour."

"Are there any other ladies inside?" Wei Ran asked politely.

"If you had come half an hour earlier, you could have met two other girls."

Ekaterina said while putting skis on her feet, "But they have just gone to the road to wait for their boyfriends, so you may have to wait until a little later to see them. Okay, the rest will wait until Kona comes back.

After that, let her introduce you, goodbye, Comrade Victor."

After saying that, the skinny girl had already put on her goggles, used her strength to support the snowball fight, and bravely slid out along another fork in the road.

Watching the other party go away, Wei Ran first went to the compartment on the left to pick up the newly lit kerosene lamp, and then got into the relatively spacious tent compartment on the right.

In this compartment, there are also thick pine needles and wooden boards under the feet. On one side of the door, there is also a table. There are also a row of six enamel cups, three kettles and a small table on one side.

A small mirror, and a glass bottle of what seemed to be grease.

Although these supplies look like they are for six people, in fact, there are only two beds in it.

In the middle of the two beds, near the canvas partition, was the German airdrop box that Wei Ran was very familiar with.

However, not only was this box painted white, but the cast iron stove in the basement was also fixed on the end of the main body near the handle!

Holding an oil lamp and getting closer, this cast iron stove did have the Russian words "Putilov Arms Factory" cast on it, but upon closer inspection, Wei Ran slapped his forehead. This stove that released warmth was just the same model.

, not the one in the basement.

Of course he cares whether this is the stove in the basement, because if it is the same one, it means that Ke Na has most likely gone back - even though it seems that there is no need to specially transport a broken stove from that basement.

After coming back to his senses, Wei Ran also noticed that in order to fix the stove on the main frame of the airdrop box, even one-third of the space in the airdrop box was given up, and look at the smaller box.

You will know from the hard work that the person doing this DIY work is at least very skilled in carpentry skills.

Not only did this person replace the box with a thicker wooden board, but it was also wrapped with a thin layer of iron sheet from who knows where.

However, at first glance, there are no personal belongings in this short box. There is only a half-meter-long panel saw and a Finnish ax of about the same length fixed with straps on the inside of the lid. The remaining items are

The leather case underneath, judging by its size, seems to be used to fix the fire strip.

As for the main space of the box, it is filled with briquettes. Instead, it is a long strip-shaped compartment with a wooden lid that is surrounded by wooden boards on the side.

Opening the wooden lid of this compartment, the inside was divided into three small spaces. In the first space was a German Gems brand gasoline stove that was very familiar to the company. When he picked up the oil stove, there was another one underneath that he was also very familiar with.

The familiar German kettle—these were the things he prepared for Kona before they left.
To be continued...