In the forest, the patter of freezing rain began to fall again at some point, and the singing of Alyosha and others, as well as the accompaniment of Wei Ran's harmonica, also stopped one after another.

"Have the Germans broken into the forest?"

Father Dofero, who was lying on the sledge, waited for the explosion in the distance to stop and immediately asked weakly.

"They can only die if they come in."

David, who was responsible for holding his horse, mocked, "In the forest, they can only be beaten, so they only dare to use cannons for a while outside the forest."

"That's good..."

Dofero's old face relaxed somewhat, but the others secretly tensed up their nerves, and the singing and harmonica sounds never came out again.

Guided by the compass, they walked all the way to the northeast for who knows how long. There were more chirping birds in the forest, and the grass and fallen leaves under their feet were much thicker. From time to time, they would see some wild animals using their

Feces and urine leave marks everywhere.

The life atmosphere of these small animals also hints that the war outside the forest has not affected here yet. Both the birds and animals and the people who have escaped here can finally breathe a sigh of relief.

"Take a break"

At five o'clock in the evening, Fras, who was walking at the front, stopped and said hello, "None of us have been here before. Even with the help of a compass, it is still very dangerous to travel at night, so camp and rest. We will go back tomorrow morning."

Walk."

Alyosha raised his finger and pointed to a small piece of high ground not far away, "Go there!"

"You two are responsible for setting up camp. I'll go look for firewood and see if there's anything to eat."

As he spoke, Flass had already ordered the army horse he was leading to walk to the high ground that Alyosha had just pointed to, and unloaded the things on the sledge one by one. Then he ordered the army horse and dragged the empty sledge to the high ground.

far away.

Wei Ran, like Father Doferro, couldn't help with the matter of setting up camp, so he simply took out his harmonica again, lay on the sledge and played a few tunes he could think of.

Amid the music, Alyosha and David also used their cloaks to build a low hut that was barely big enough for the two of them to lie down and rest in. They also dug out a bonfire surrounded by stones.

pit.

While the two young men were busy, Father Dofero also asked weakly in a low voice, "Victor, is Commissar Vinya still alive? And Yeremey, is he really still alive?"

Hearing this, Wei Ran, who was sitting side by side on another sledge, stopped playing the music and turned to look at his father on the sledge next door.

"well..."

Father Dofero sighed and whispered, "I already guessed that when I brought Vinia back, I already guessed that he might not survive. That German tank drove up to that position.

At that time, I knew that Yeremey might also be dead."

Hearing this, Wei Ran was silent for a moment, then continued to put the harmonica to his mouth and continued to play the music that had just been interrupted. Father Dofero, who had already received the answer, sighed and stopped asking any more questions. He lay down in his arms again and started playing the song.

He took out a tin hip flask, took a sip of the vodka he had kept for himself, then held the flask and drew an Orthodox cross on his chest, staring blankly at the sky above his head, wondering what he was thinking.

In the silence and soothing harmonica music, the sky above his head gradually darkened, and Fras also used a horse-drawn sledge to transport back some dead branches collected from the surroundings, and also picked up many pine cones by the way.

However, before the three of them could light the bonfire in the dug bonfire pit, the unusually clear and low roar of an airplane came from overhead!

Almost subconsciously, Alyosha covered the bonfire that was about to be lit with his cloak and leaned down. Fras and David also immediately ran and hid under the pine trees.

However, the roar of the plane became closer and clearer!

Finally, a low-flying fighter jet roared past them from the north-northeast direction, dragging thick smoke behind them, almost grazing the treetops above their heads!

"boom!"

Less than 10 seconds later, the five stunned people and the three animals all heard an extremely clear crash!

"Wow!"

It wasn't until the explosion reached their ears and the pine branches falling from above their heads that the pine tower fell like rain. Everyone subconsciously protected their heads.

"Quick! Go and take a look! David stays to take care of dad! Get ready for battle!"

Wei Ran was the first to react, put away his harmonica, pulled the pine cone that had just hit the Tianling Gai, struggled to sit up and gave the order.

After being reminded, the others also reacted and dropped all the things in their hands. Alyosha and Vlas also drove the mules and horses that had not yet unloaded the sledges, and led Wei Ran, who had already picked up the bullets from his submachine gun, toward them.

He ran towards the direction of the explosion.

Amid the violent jolts of the sledge truck, Wei Ran, who was lying on the sledge truck, also saw the fire rising in the forest a few hundred meters away, and even saw flocks of birds and beasts frightened by the roar and explosion flying into the air.

As the distance got closer, the first thing Wei Yan saw were two broken wings, and fallen leaves ignited by the fuel spilled from the wings.

Just looking at the cross painting with white borders and black hearts on the wings, he and Alyosha recognized it at a glance. This was a German bomber! Or to be more precise, this was a He111 medium bomber produced in Germany!

Without stopping at all, Alyosha and Vlas continued running forward with their horse-drawn sledges, while loading their respective submachine guns with bullets.

Soon, they saw the main body of the bomber with its wings broken off. Perhaps because of the broken wings, although the main body of the aircraft was also emitting thick smoke, it did not catch fire.

When the sledge truck stopped, Wei Ran struggled to get up, holding a submachine gun in one hand, and covered each other with Alyosha and Vlas and moved over.

When he got closer and saw the condition of the main body of the aircraft clearly, Wei Yan couldn't help but frowned.

The wingless plane was stopped by two pine trees as thick as truck tires. The nose of the plane had been disconnected and flipped upside down like a flip phone, and the glass observation window was completely shattered.

Even the other half of the fuselage has become as pitted as a metal toothpaste that has been accumulated countless times due to the shocking impact.

But compared to the miserable state of the fuselage, he also noticed that there were only three torn corpses of the crew members in the cockpit and cabin of the plane. And judging from the location, these three unlucky guys should be separated.

They are the pilot and two gunners in the nose position.

But he knew clearly that there were a total of five crew members on this aircraft!

But both the gunner's position and the navigator's position on the back of the aircraft were extremely clean. There were neither corpses nor parachute bags, nor much blood. There were no bullet holes in the skin of the surrounding aircraft. It was obvious that this aircraft

The aircraft's navigator and machine gunner had most likely ejected and escaped.

"Which direction did the plane just come from?"

Wei Ran asked while tiptoeing into the cabin. Unfortunately, perhaps because of the small load capacity of this broken plane, he did not find valuable items such as three-barreled survival guns in the cabin.

.Fortunately, in the position of the navigator, half of the aeronautical chart remained, which was adsorbed by magnets on the table.

"Northeast" Fras, who had been leading the way before, immediately replied, "A little north by northeast."

"We need to get out of here quickly"

Wei Ran stood on tiptoe and pulled away the aeronautical chart. He took one last look at the belly of the plane, turned around and walked towards the sledge not far away. At the same time, he explained, "The belly of this plane was probably shot down by our fighter jets."

Yes, its tail horizontal rudder and aircraft rudder were shattered, and the bullet holes in the skin seemed to be punched from top to bottom.

In addition, it was a bomber, but there were no bombs on either the belly or the wings, which shows that it was bitten by our fighter jets and shot down when it was returning from the front line to complete the bombing."

"Victor, you should be a detective."

Alyosha praised him, threw the bloody trophies he had just collected onto the sledge, and then asked, "But what's the use of knowing these?"

"The aircraft had a crew of five"

Wei Ran was already lying on the sledge as he spoke, and kept explaining, "But we only found three, and there are two machine gunners who probably parachuted."

"Then what?" Fras asked curiously, but at the same time, he shouted to go back with the sledge without delay.

"There's good news and bad news"

Wei Ran looked at the half of the aeronautical chart in his hand and said, "The good news is, based on the flight's heading back, we can know exactly. As long as we keep going northeast, maybe we can find the big mountain after leaving the forest.

The only pity for the rear is that this chart is useless, the most important part of it has been burned, and I don’t know German.”

"What's the bad news?" asked Alyosha.

Raising his hand and pointing to the flames and thick smoke that were still burning in the distance, Wei Ran continued, "The bad news is that if the two parachuting pilots want to survive, they will most likely go in the direction of the plane. They did not bring any

Looking at the aeronautical map, this smoking plane is the best landmark for survival.

Moreover, a living pilot is far more valuable than a plane, especially the navigator, who can be contacted via radio. So if nothing else happens, Germans may soon enter the forest to look for the surviving pilot of this plane.

"

"This is really bad news"

Alyosha and Fras immediately realized the seriousness of the problem, and they both quickened their pace, drove the animals back to the location where they had just decided to camp, and recounted their findings and Wei Ran's speculations.

"We need to inform Platoon Commander Taras of this bad news immediately."

After Alyosha finished speaking, Dofeiluo immediately thought of other hidden dangers, "How far is this place from the camp of Platoon Commander Taras and his colleagues?"

"Half a day's journey" David replied immediately.

"Children, you continue to move forward to complete your mission."

As Father Doferro spoke, he was already struggling to stand up, "Give me a horse, and I will rush back now to inform Commander Taras, and then I will come after you."

"no!"

Alyosha and the three of them unanimously rejected the proposal, and David pushed Father Doferro back onto the sledge. With the help of Fras, he tied him to the sledge with a leather rope without any explanation.

.

"What are you going to do! Untie me quickly!" Dofero shouted anxiously.

"Dad, just follow everyone and continue walking out."

David had already untied the reins as he spoke, "I'll go back and inform Platoon Commander Taras and the others."
To be continued...