In the shack with the fireplace burning, when Wei Ran woke up, his mouth felt dry, as if his whole body was about to turn into a mummy.
After looking at the four missing people in the shack, and then at the steaming enamel kettle by the fireplace, Wei Ran climbed up gently and filled the captured German kettle on his belt with hot water.
Then he took out the British army kettle in the metal book and filled it with hot water, then put on the German army backpack used as a pillow, then opened the ajar wooden door and got out.
At this time, the relatively warm sunshine was still casting dots of light from the treetops. The mule that was originally tied not far away had disappeared. Instead, on the top of the hillside, there was a person who seemed to be digging a bunker.
A little closer, at the edge of the tree stump, which was about 1.5 meters in diameter, Father Doferro was sitting on it, using a large file to repair the cracked butt of the anti-tank gun with seven red stars on it.
Without rushing over, Wei Ran took out his flyback watch and looked at the time. It was only around one o'clock at noon.
Putting away his watch, he used the cover of his backpack to take out his camera, walked a few steps forward, and took a photo of Father Dofero who was busy.
"Where did you get the camera?" Dofero looked up at Wei Ran, then lowered his head and asked while working.
"Picked it up yesterday"
Wei Ran made a random joke and put away the camera under the cover of his backpack.
Now there is no Molotov cocktail in his backpack, let alone the Molotov cocktail. Even the lunch box full of anti-tank gun bullets was taken away when he was transporting supplies last night. Only a lighter was left for him.
and the two heavy artillery magazines he hid in his lunch box.
Of course, there is also a pack of cigarettes and a Mauser bayonet given last night, plus a set of toiletries including towels, soap, razors, and shaving cream.
"Do you need my help?" Wei Ran asked after buckling his backpack again.
"I've been waiting for your words for a long time."
Dofero stopped what he was doing and pointed to the hillside in the distance, "But before that, go wash your face and sober up. By the way, help me go to the carriage to see if my ax and anvil were left there.
It’s up there.”
“I’ll be back soon”
Wei Ran picked up his backpack and ran up the hillside. Then he saw clearly that it was the shirtless machine gunner Fras who was digging a bunker near a dead pine tree.
While the other party was not paying attention, he took out his camera and pressed the shutter button towards him. The latter turned around after hearing the noise and waved enthusiastically to him. Seeing this, Wei Ran simply pressed the shutter button again.
"Did you seize the camera yesterday?" Fras, who was already covered in sweat, poked the dug-out soil with the engineer shovel and asked with a smile.
"Yes, I found it in the tank."
Wei Ran shook it pretending to be proud, "It's mine, but I'll take some more photos for you."
"Then it's up to you."
Vlas said, handing over a bulging Soviet sack bag, "Let's take them back later."
"What is this?" Wei Ran asked while putting away the camera in his backpack again.
"Delicious food, I just found it when I was digging a bunker."
Fras sat on the excavated floating soil, took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, took out a cartridge and gave it to Wei Ran, "When I was young, I used to dig these things with Sasha and eat them. After they are cooked,
It’s much more delicious than boiled potatoes.”
Picking up the uncaught cigarette and lighting it in his mouth, Wei Ran opened the other party's sack curiously, only to find that in addition to a few childhood truffles that were only the size of his thumb, there were two pieces as big as a basketball.
of lumps.
Wei Ran recognized the two lumps at a glance as Poria cocos.
Although he is not a traditional Chinese medicine doctor, when he was in college, the professor would take him to the pine forest every autumn to look for this kind of thing - his aunt would use it to make chicken soup, stew pear or even boil millet porridge.
"I'm going to wash up"
Wei Ran pointed to the creek at the foot of the mountain, "I will wash them clean by the way. By the way, do you know where Commissar Vinya and Alyosha went?"
"They went looking for a battlefield to ambush the Germans, probably."
Flass replied uncertainly, "Maybe they have also set up animal traps. We don't have much food reserves."
"makes sense"
As he spoke, Wei Ran had already picked up the other party's sack and walked diagonally down the hillside to the edge of the stream.
Wei Ran casually broke off a pine branch and used it as a brush. Wei Ran carefully cleaned the two heavy poria cocos and the few pitiful truffles, and then washed his face with the cold stream water.
After crossing the stream and searching for the carriage hidden in the bushes on the opposite side, Wei Ran took out an anvil and an ax that were no more than the size of a bucket of instant noodles, and returned to the edge of the shack.
After all this time, Yeremei and the three of them had also woken up, but before he returned to Dofero, these three people walked into the forest, carrying saws and axes, talking and laughing.
The other direction.
"If you don't come back, I'll think you're already queuing up in front of the state-owned store in Moscow to buy an ax for me."
Doferro teased Wei Ran, then picked out four steel nails that were slightly thicker than cigarettes from the box containing various tools, and nailed the anvil that Wei Ran brought back to the tree stump.
"Fras found this"
Wei Ran placed the sack, which was heavier than an anvil, on the tree stump. "It took some time to clean them."
After opening his pocket and taking a look, Father Dofero said with a smile, "So you went to the bakery in Moscow and queued up."
"Just take it as such"
Wei Ran nodded dumbfounded, "What do you need me to do?"
"You have been an apprentice for so many years, so don't ask me everything."
Doferro said, handing the broken anti-tank gun to Wei Ran, and then picked up the sack bag that Wei Ran brought back, "Just figure out a way to fix it yourself, and I'll make breakfast."
He took the anti-tank gun and looked at it. The shoulder plate of the gun was gone. The spring used to buffer the recoil had also been taken out by Father Doferro. Even the broken place had been removed by the man.
Dad used a big file to make preliminary adjustments.
Looking at the spring on the tree stump, Wei Ran thought for a moment, took out the wire cutters from the metal book, trimmed the broken parts neatly, and then rummaged through the tool box to find a use
The leather-wrapped hand drill carefully drilled a small hole the size of a matchstick on both sides of the steel tube that holds the spring.
"it should be OK..."
Wei Ran muttered secretly, looked around, picked up the ax and carefully selected nearby, and it seemed that a tree branch that was as thick as a wrist and almost T-shaped came back.
Using an ax to chop and polish it carefully, Wei Ran also drilled a hole in one end of the tree branch and tried it by moving to the steel pipe at the end of the gun butt.
Seeing that it was almost done, he inserted the spring into it and installed the homemade shoulder board with considerable difficulty.
He hit it hard with an ax and finally pinned it with an iron nail. Wei Ran drilled an extra hole and added another pin, and then nodded with satisfaction.
But this was not over yet. Seeing that there was still time, he simply cut off two more car tires, tore open the towels he had received yesterday, and tied them tightly to the wooden shoulder board and the original cheek board.
Location.
This job doesn't seem like much work, but it takes a lot of time. If nothing else, Father Dofero has already made breakfast with a piece of Poria cocos and a can of German canned food.
Lieme and the other three also came back with saws and other tools. Even political commissar Vinya and Alyosha each came back with a mule. A little later, Fras, who was digging a bunker, also carried away engineers with shovels.
Come back.
"Look what we found!"
Far away, Alyosha proudly patted the two sacks and backpacks hanging on the horse, "We found a wild apple tree, and we picked all the apples back. There were two full apples.
Big bag!”
Before he finished speaking, everyone except Wei Ran swarmed around him, and Alyosha also gave everyone a few apples.
"Victor, this is yours." Alyosha said and handed Wei Ran two red apples as big as his fists.
"Thanks"
Wei Ran took the apples and put one into his pocket, while the other just rubbed it on his clothes and took a bite. I have to say that although this wild apple is not big, it is sweet enough.
"Let's talk about our plan before we eat."
As Vinya spoke, he took out a waterproof map from his pocket and laid it on the tree stump. He pressed the four corners with the tools on it. Then he took out a piece of diatomaceous earth from his pocket and left a mark on the map.
He pointed out a white dot and explained, "This is our current location. The straight-line distance from the edge of the forest is about five kilometers."
After a pause, he drew a circle at another location on the map, "This is your village, Sasha. There are many German troops stationed there. The supplies of the Germans we ambush before were transported from here."
On the front line.”
"How far is it?" Father Dofero asked as he filled everyone's lunch boxes with canned Poria soup.
"The straight-line distance is about 6 kilometers, and there is forest in the middle."
While answering the question, Vinia drew another white line, "This is the place where we ambush them before. For more than half a month, we have been carrying out sneak attacks on this transportation line, and the Germans have become more and more prepared.
We are getting stronger and stronger, and it is no longer possible for us to take action here, otherwise the losses will only become greater and greater, and the gains will become lower and lower."
"So we have to change the target?" Fras asked as he took the can of soup from Father Doferro and plucked it into his mouth with his fork.
"right"
Vinia nodded, turned to draw a circle on the other side of the forest and said, "This is the village of Polpino, which is a little further from the front line.
According to their reconnaissance, more Germans are stationed here, and wounded soldiers returned from the front line and armored vehicles in need of repair will also be sent here. The most important thing is that this village is also on the edge of the forest."
After Vinia finished speaking, Dofilo measured the distance between the two with his hand, frowned and asked, "This village should be very far away from us, right?"
"The straight-line distance is about 8 kilometers."
Before Vinia finished speaking, the other young people and even Bao Weiran fell silent. Eight kilometers didn't sound like a long distance, but it was just a straight-line distance, a straight-line distance on the map.
In this forest, not to mention what kind of terrain we will encounter during these eight kilometers, it is a challenge just to keep from getting lost. In actual walking, I am afraid that even doubling the distance would be normal.
In this war, we must not simply think that the Soviet winter will only kill the Germans, let alone think that the Soviets will not lose their way in the forests of their land.
In any case, this is a war, not stacking buffs in a canyon. The weather does not care about nationality, and the vast forest that contains unknown dangers also does not care about the justice of the intruder's camp.
"The Germans probably didn't expect us to emerge from the forest."
Sasha said abruptly, "I'm sure I can take you through this forest. Although I'm not as good a hunter as Sergey, I can definitely take you through the forest to the village of Bolpino."
.”
"Sasha, this kind of thing is not something you can do if you have the courage."
While drinking the canned soup, Doferro reminded that the old guy's lunch box really only had soup and a few pieces of Poria cocos, and no meat at all.
"They are also planning to sneak attack on the fashusi in this village," political commissar Vinia said. "These days, they have discovered a safe route."
"How long does it take to get there?" Yeremey asked.
"We can only travel during the day. If we carry weapons, it will probably take a whole day."
Winia paused and continued, "We don't act with them. In fact, they don't want us to follow."
"Why?" David couldn't help but ask.
"They think we are just farmers and inexperienced reservists who will hold them back."
Alyosha, who disappeared with Vinia in the morning, said with some dissatisfaction, "We are considered trouble."
“That’s not the case”
Vinia said before the others spoke, "The combat operations they have planned are very risky. They are worried that if we follow them, if something unexpected happens, they will not be able to save us at all."
"Aren't they considered a burden..." David muttered dissatisfiedly, "They are so powerful, why do they ask us to borrow weapons?"
"What nonsense are you talking about?"
Father Dofero slapped David on the back of the head, "You are so powerful, why don't you have a child by yourself? Why do you insist on pestering the little Dasha in the village?"
As soon as these words were spoken, David's cheeks immediately turned red, and the others immediately burst into good-natured laughter.
"Young men, listen to what I have to say."
Doferro put down his lunch box and said, "Those Red Army soldiers are doing it for you young people. They don't want you to be in danger. They are protecting you. I don't think they are looking down on you."
"Dad, you mean we just..."
"Of course not." Father Dofero waved his hand before Yeremey finished speaking, "Let Viniya make the decision."
Seeing everyone looking at her, Vinia pondered for a moment and then said, "We only have so many people in total, and our advantage is our anti-tank guns.
In other words, our target should be the German tanks and armored vehicles. Speaking of which, Papa Doferro, has that gun been repaired?"
"Ask Victor," Doferro said, lighting a cigarette, "I gave him the gun to repair."
"It has just been repaired, and I haven't had time to test-fire yet." Wei Ran, who had been wondering who "they" were, replied quickly.
Hearing this, Sasha immediately carried Weiran's newly repaired anti-tank gun to the tree stump. After some inspection, he said, "It looks very strong. Victor, your craftsmanship is no worse than dad's."
After saying that, Sasha put the anti-tank gun at his feet without hesitation, "It belongs to me, it's my turn."
"You also need an assistant shooter," Yeremei, who also lost his partner, said, "I also need an assistant shooter."
"We don't have that many people"
Vinia tapped the lunch box lightly with the spoon in her hand, "Even including Father Dofero, there are only 8 of us in total, but Father Dofero wants to stay. If possible, I hope Victor
Also stay..."
"It's enough for Father Dofero to stay alone," Wei Ran said, "I will go to the battlefield with you."
"Let him be"
Seeing that Commissar Vinya was hesitant, Father Dofero said, "I can also go to the battlefield. Although I can't help you, I can at least drive my mules to meet you."
"They also need an anti-tank gun." Vinia suddenly changed the subject. "They also need enough machine gun belts."
"Why do they want everything?" Fras said dissatisfied.
"Why do you talk so much?"
Doferro slapped him on the back of the head angrily, "How long have they been fleeing into the forest? Isn't it normal for us to support them with weapons? How many guns can you use even if you count your dick?
Are those weapons reserved for your grandson to use for hunting?"
This taunt successfully made Fras shut his mouth, and Doferro said without doubt, "Vinya, can you tell me specifically how many weapons they need?"
"They are all using Mosin-Nagant rifles now, but the bullets have been almost consumed in the previous battles."
As Weinia spoke, she took out a small book from her arms, opened it and said, "They have..."
"Commissar Weinia" Wei Ran interrupted what the other party was about to say, "I have a question."
"What's the problem?" Vinia asked.
"Who are they?" Wei Ran asked the doubt in his heart.
"you do not know?"
Vinia patted her forehead and said, "I remember, you really don't know that you were not here the last time Platoon Commander Taras came here."
After speaking, Vinia explained without reservation, "Platoon leader Latas and the others are from the 50th Group Army. They were separated from the main force in the previous battle to carry out the task of breaking off the rear. Now they are hidden in the building at the other end of the forest.
Near the abandoned mica mine."
"How many are there?" Wei Ran asked.
"That's what I'm going to say next."
Vinia shook the notepad in her hand and said, "When I met with them last night, Platoon Leader Taras said that they now have a total of 26 soldiers, and not long ago they captured a German communications team.
We robbed a lot of things from them, and most importantly, they robbed a radio station."
"What's the use of this?" Sasha asked blankly.
"Platoon leader Taras said that there is a soldier in their team who speaks very good German. He used to be an interpreter who was responsible for interrogating prisoners."
Political Commissar Vinia explained with a smile, "They asked about the German communication channel and were preparing to use that radio to set a trap and ambush the French silkworms who had been besieging us in the forest.
However, now they can only use the two machine guns and one submachine gun they grabbed, and the total number of bullets they have is less than 200 rounds."
Having said this, Vinya looked around at everyone's faces and finally said, "Platoon leader Taras wants to ask us to borrow 20 submachine guns and enough bullets and grenades. We also need an anti-tank gun and enough
German machine gun belt."
Before anyone could say anything, Wennia added, "He promised that after they complete the ambush, they will not only return all these weapons to us, but also give us some extra things."
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! "There are only eight of us in total"
Doferro had already stood up as he spoke, "The weapons we obtained were originally intended to be provided to other guerrillas around to fight against those magic suction threads, weren't they?
Come here, everyone! Let’s count how many weapons and ammunition we have, and try to get the weapons that Commander Talas needs.”
Obviously, Father Dofero's words still carry a lot of weight. The young men sitting around the tree stump immediately stood up and followed their father to the small shack under the canopy.
Moved out like this.
However, after this inventory, in addition to the submachine guns used by Sasha and others, the total number of submachine guns they seized during this period was only 16, and four of them were damaged by machine guns. Optimistically, they can be used out.
Use the missing parts to piece together two more pieces.
Although there were not many submachine guns, they captured a large box full of bullets and six or seven pistols.
As for the machine gun bullets, there were about three to four hundred rounds scattered here and there, and there were even two boxes full of about 40 grenades.
Although everyone was a little reluctant to part with these things that were exchanged for the lives of their companions, they happily decided to lend them to the Taras platoon leader. But when it was the turn of the anti-tank gun, these boys started to shirk the blame.
"Lend them Sasha's one."
Alyosha hugged the Simonov anti-tank gun he used before and said first, "We bought this gun in exchange for so many things. Although it gets jammed every time, its rate of fire is the fastest."
Come on, without it, how can we ambush German tanks in the future? So give them the Sasha one, that one is already broken, even if..."
"My father, my two brothers, uncle Ivan and brother Mark all fought with this gun. This gun was also picked up by my father and my brother from the battlefield."
Sasha pointed to the seven stars on the barrel and said, "When I picked it up, someone had drawn two stars on it, and the political commissar said that proved that two tanks and armored vehicles were destroyed.
Later, my father and his friends also used this gun to destroy two German tanks and three trucks. In yesterday's battle, Sergey and I also used it to destroy a tank."
Before the others could speak, Sasha continued, "They are all dead, and I am still going to continue fighting with this gun. I...can't we not lend them the anti-tank gun?"
Hearing this, the scene fell into silence again.
"They are going to fight the fascinators, not to grab the hottest faucet in the public bathroom!"
Father Dofero snorted coldly and said, "Since you don't want to, just give them the Molotov cocktail, and let them rush to the front of the tank with their lives and throw out the Molotov cocktail!"
Hearing this, the scene fell into silence again. After a long time, Yeremey said, "Lend them the anti-tank guns used by me and Wavila. Wavila has died, and Sasha also needs a deputy shooter."
Lend them this gun and Sasha and I will form a team."
"Let's lend them ours."
When David said this, he looked at his partner Alyosha, "If you want to borrow it, just lend them the best one. And didn't the political commissar say that those bastards will return the weapons to us? Alyosha, please
Lend ours to them, and then how about you go with Sasha and I go with Yeremey?"
Seeing everyone looking at him, Alyosha gritted his teeth and reluctantly placed the anti-tank gun he was holding tightly on the thick tree stump that served as a round table.
Seeing this, Commissar Vigna smiled and placed the German lunch box filled with anti-tank gun bullets that was originally in the sanitary ignition bag on the tree stump.
"Dad, and Victor, while there is still time, try to see if you can use those broken submachine guns to piece together two more weapons."
Vinia said, "After dark, we will send as many weapons and ammunition as possible."
"Victor, come with me." Doferro waved his hand towards Wei Ran, "Let me see if your skills have improved."