Chapter 1124 The original transaction in the wasteland
On the wind-swept tundra, a pine tree that was only as thick as a thigh had its wind-catching crown cut off, and the remaining parts were used to prop up a not-so-large canvas tent.
At the entrance of this simple tent, which was almost one-third buried in snow, and in the lee of a watered snow wall, four reindeer lay on thick pine branches, burying their muzzles in the warm hollows of their thighs.
, relying on the fur to resist the severe cold, and from time to time, he would secretly take a bite of the pine needles used as a mattress.
Inside the tent, Wei Ran was sitting on a wooden box covered with animal skins, using an ax to chop the wood piles obtained after sawing off the tree crown into firewood suitable for burning.
Across the iron bucket with the charcoal fire burning, Mesut was holding a piece of dead wood in one hand and using a Finnish knife in the other hand, he was carefully carving a reindeer that also had its mouth buried in the hollow of its thigh.
This was already a week after the two of them crossed the Yenisei River, and it was also the second day after the blizzard raged.
Due to the lack of protection from coniferous forests, the snowstorm here was more severe than what they encountered on the east coast when they first escaped from the labor camp.
Let alone rushing in this weather, the reindeer would be blown away by the strong wind unconsciously even if they just stood up.
Because of this, their only choice was to set up the tent as firmly as possible, pile the snow as thickly as possible, store as much firewood as possible, and wait patiently for the blizzard to stop.
After chopping the firewood, which was estimated to be enough to burn for most of the day, Wei Ran pulled the log that came in through the gap at the tent entrance, then picked up a wooden stick and turned it around to knock on the tent.
The canvas shook off the accumulated snow outside.
After finishing his work, he lay down on the warm sled, covered himself with a wolfskin blanket, and stared blankly at the roof of the tent above his head.
In the past two days, or in this week, he and Mesut had talked about all the topics they could talk about more than once, so much so that both of them couldn't help but miss Ihor, who didn't know whether he was alive or dead.
At least with the Japs here, they might be able to talk about more topics, instead of having to find things to do each of them like now to pass the boring time that can't be separated from the tent.
"Would you like a drink?" Mesut asked, but he did not stop the carving work in his hands.
"Don't drink anymore, keep it to save your life." Wei Ran waved his hand, paused and asked, "How far have we run?"
"I don't know," Mesut responded calmly, as if he didn't care about the issue at all.
"What's the date today?" Wei Ran asked, changing the question.
"The 27th or the 28th," Mesut replied uncertainly, "or the 29th, I'm not too sure."
Hearing this, Wei Ran, who had run out of topics to talk about, fell into silence again.
"How much supplies do we have left?" Mesut started a topic that he asked almost every few hours.
"There is still a lot of flour and oats, there is also a lot of dried venison, and the cans are almost untouched, but there are only three venison legs left. No, only two and a half." Wei Ran answered without thinking.
He said, "There are not many vegetables left. There are 19 potatoes, 12 carrots, and 11 onions."
"And vodka and kerosene"
Mesut added without raising his head, "There are still two barrels of kerosene with less than 40 liters left, and only two and a half bottles of vodka left."
Looking up at the two unlit kerosene lamps hanging on the tree trunk, and the Winchester lever-action rifle also hanging on the tree trunk, Wei Ran yawned and asked, "What are you doing?"
A Christmas present?”
"Christmas present?"
Mesut blew the sawdust off the piece of wood in his hand, "It's a Christmas gift, I'm making a compass."
"how to do?"
Wei Ran became interested and simply stood up, took out an oil lamp, lit it, and placed it on the wooden box that served as a table.
“Mainly relying on this”
As he spoke, Mesut pointed to a diamond-shaped piece of iron with a hole in the middle placed on the lid of the box, "I magnetized this piece of iron with the magnet that Sergei's grandson often played with."
Mesut said as he showed off the circular hole dug in the middle of the reindeer wood carving in his hand, "When I hang this piece of iron in it with a fishing line, it can probably be used as a compass. Of course, now it can also be used as a compass."
Can use."
Mesut said, took out a thin wire from his pocket, passed it through the round hole in the middle of the diamond-shaped iron piece, lifted it up and hung it in front of the two people.
After a moment of rotation, the patch finally stopped and pointed steadily in two directions.
"This is south." Mesut glanced at the diamond-shaped iron piece, raised his finger and pointed in the direction and said affirmatively.
"What else did you make?" Wei Ran asked after waiting for the other party to put away the diamond-shaped iron piece, which was slightly larger than a melon seed peel.
"Yes, there are many more."
Mesut opened another wooden box and took out an inconspicuous but extremely heavy canvas bag and threw it to Wei Ran.
"What is this?" Wei Ran asked before opening the canvas bag.
"Ice axes and ice hammers, as well as some pitons and climbing crampons."
Mesut paused, and while continuing to carve his compass, he added, "Of course, the ice pick and ice hammer haven't had time to install the handles yet. If you really have nothing to do, you can install the handles on them yourself."
Wei Ran weighed this heavy bag of forged metal parts and said, "It seems that you are really planning to climb over the Ural Mountains from the beginning."
"certainly"
Mesut replied in a matter-of-fact and extremely confident tone, "And I will definitely cross the Ural Mountains."
Hearing this, Wei Ran smiled and said nothing more. He reached out to open the canvas bag and took out the contents one by one.
In addition to the pair of crampons with sharp teeth that can be worn directly on the felt boots, there are 12 piton nails of different styles. In addition, the rest include the hammer head of the ice hammer, the head of the ice axe, and the head of the ice axe.
One-piece tail vertebra, plus several thick iron rings.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! I glanced at the other party's unclosed box without leaving any trace. There was another canvas bag of the same size, but it was only that one.
.
There is no doubt that Mesut was not only ready to cross the Ural Mountains from the beginning, but he also had no intention of taking Ihor to play with him from the very beginning!
After thinking about it secretly, Wei Ran picked up the axe, sawed off a section of the tree canopy branch extending from the tent opening, then picked up the axe, and patiently made the wooden handles of the ice pick and ice hammer.
When you have something to do, time naturally flies by.
When Mesut finally made the suggested compass, he finally installed a half-meter-long wooden handle on the ice pick under the other's guidance, and fixed the tailbone and pick head with a few nails provided by the other party.
.
On this day, the blizzard that had been raging outside the tent for four days finally subsided, and the long-lost aurora could finally be seen overhead.
Not daring to waste too much time, and having no time to wait for the short dawn, the two immediately packed their bags, fed each of the four reindeer a handful of oats, and set off.
On the tundra where the cold wind still howled, the two sleighs finally ran towards the Ural Mountains 700 to 800 kilometers away.
During the following period, the two of them walked around without any sense of time. Wei Ran was too lazy to count the number of times he appeared during the short day. Moreover, since there was no map, they had no idea of their current situation.
Where - or even if there is a map, it doesn't have much practical significance at all in this endless wilderness of tundra.
I don’t know how many days after the snowstorm, Wei Ran, who was about to fall asleep in the warm sled, suddenly woke up, grabbed the reins and stopped the sled, and then tore off Mesut’s wooden stick.
and windproof glasses made of animal skin. He pulled out the Winchester lever-action rifle hidden in the blanket, adjusted the sight with a simple calculation, and aimed at a white fox in the distance that was poking its beautiful pointed beak into the snow again and again.
The trigger was pulled!
"boom!"
Along with the clear gunfire, the fox's beautiful white fur and the surrounding snow were immediately stained red with blood.
Before Wei Ran could put away his rifle, Mesut on the other sleigh immediately shook the reins, shouted at the sleigh and rushed over.
"Good marksmanship!"
Mesut picked up the fox's big fluffy tail and shook it towards Wei Ran. He skillfully peeled off the fox's skin and stamped it on the snow with his feet. Then he threw it into the sleigh, and then he disemboweled it.
The beheaded fox meat was wrapped in a layer of snow and tied with a rope to the handrail at the rear of the sled.
Although the two of them could no longer remember how many days they had been on the run, they had grown messy beards along the way. On the sleds of the two of them, they had each accumulated more than ten or twenty fox skins.
The owner's animal skin, and two large skewers of skinned fox meat.
"How many bullets are left?" Wei Ran asked after Mesut got closer. Although he was holding the gun, the bullets were kept by him.
"There are still more than twenty rounds," Mesut said, "Let's find a place to camp."
Wei Ran naturally had no objection. After the two of them set up the tent with increasing proficiency, the fox they had just shot was chopped into pieces and thrown into the pot.
However, before the pot of fox meat was cooked, a sled pulled by sled dogs appeared in the southwest of the tent!
Wei Ran and Mesut looked at each other, and then looked at the sleigh that was obviously heading towards them. The former loaded the gun with a "click", while the latter loaded the bullet from his boots.
He took out a piece of mine explosive and hid it in his cuff.
"Don't shoot without my signal," Mesut warned in a low voice before the sleigh stopped.
"I know." Wei Ran nodded imperceptibly.
Less than two minutes later, the dog sled stopped in the distance. Immediately afterwards, a bearded man wearing almost the same deerskin robe and carrying a shotgun came down from the sled.
He waved to Wei Ran and the other two, and at the same time shouted something loudly that neither of them could understand.
"Are you a Nenets?" Wei Ran responded loudly in Russian, "Can you speak Russian?"
I don’t know if he understood what Wei Ran was saying, but this Asian-looking bearded man walked over with his hands spread out, took off the windproof glasses that were almost the same as the two of them, and continued to listen to them on the phone.
He was talking in a language he didn't understand, while looking at the two sleds that were not pushing the tent.
Fortunately, neither of them knew this bearded man, and he clearly didn't look like the person who was chasing them.
Seeing this, Wei Ran and Mesut both breathed a sigh of relief. The former even picked up a piece of frozen fox skin and handed it to the bearded man.
After taking the fox skin and looking at it, the bearded man walked to his sleigh, rummaged through it, and counted eight bullets and handed them to Wei Ran.
