Outside the house, cold snowflakes larger than a fingernail began to float in the sky again.
Also unknown at what time, Lao Zhangtou and the soldiers had prepared big mules for them to use on their way.
"There's a big mule for each of you."
While tying the cargo to the mules, Lao Zhangtou said, "You four little brothers must ensure the safety of the wounded and the safety of the supplies."
"Yes!" Tian Xiaohu, as the acting squad leader, stood at attention and saluted and responded simply.
"Do you have anything else to explain?" Lao Zhang turned his head and looked at Zhao Jinge.
The latter thought for a moment, then took out a ball of red cloth from his arms and handed it to Tian Xiaohu. He told Tian Xiaohu very seriously, "Xiaohu, our flag is here, and the first guerrilla team is here. No matter what, you have to survive.
We must also bring them to survive.”
Tian Xiaohu was stunned for a moment, then solemnly took the corner of the team flag, put it into his arms, and saluted Zhao Jinge again.
"Let's go"
As Lao Zhangtou said, he personally handed a kerosene lamp to Tian Xiaohu, and at the same time continued to ask, "Which of you will drive the car?"
"Me! Let me do it!"
Hu Bazhi rushed to say, but he ran to a tree nest not far away, rubbed the bottom of the pot vigorously with his hand, and then carefully smeared the black ash from the bottom of the pot on the big white mule
near the eyes.
"This big white mule is afraid of light during the day."
Hu Bazhi explained in a rather sophisticated manner while he was busy, "Put some black around his eyes so that he can see more clearly during the day."
Hearing this, the Zhao brothers looked at each other. It seemed that they also knew this method, but they didn't expect that Hu Bazhi also knew it.
Not long after, the two wounded men were carried onto a sledge pulled by a big white mule. At this time, the sledge had been covered with a thick layer of pine needles, and a layer of straw curtain was spread on top of the pine needles.
After the two wounded men lay down, the soldiers covered them with a tattered quilt with patches inside it. Several Japanese kettles filled with hot water were also forced into the quilt.
.
In addition to the two wounded men, half of the frozen mule ribs and two plump mule legs were also placed on the sledge, as well as half of the captured cotton-padded clothes and shoes and the Japanese backpack.
Finally, these things were tightly covered and tied up with two pieces of Japanese waterproof tent cloth and a tattered white sheet. Hu Bazhi also stepped on the skis and held the reins of the big white mule.
Wei Ran, Zhao Jinyu and Tian Xiaohu also stepped on their own skis, each holding a mule.
Their mules all carried wooden shelves on their backs. On the shelves were either bundles of various rifles and only two crooked handles that were not easy to use, or various ammunition packed in Japanese backpacks.
In fact, even the grenades and all the grenades that Zhao Jinge had repeatedly asked the Weiran Cult to teach them how to use, as well as two large lunch boxes full of mule oil that had been boiled not long ago were all hung on the back of the mule.
Without too much delay or communication, the four of them lined up in a line and left the camp hidden in the dense forest, leading the mules step by step into the wind and snow in the night.
“I don’t know when I’ll see them next time.”
Lao Zhangtou stood in the wind and snow while clicking his pipe and said, but there was no reluctance in his tone, instead he was full of relaxation.
"I hope it will be after the Japanese are driven away." Zhao Jinge smiled, and a trace of delusional expectation appeared on his face covered with frostbite.
"Squad leader, how far is the place we want to go?"
In the heavy snow, Zhao Jinyu stepped on his skis and let the mule pull him forward. He asked with a little excitement, "Can we come back tonight? How many people are there in our army? Ten thousand...
"
"Shut up!"
Tian Xiaohu, the anti-alliance fighter who was walking at the front, scolded in a low voice, "If you keep asking questions, go back!"
"Isn't he just an acting squad leader? Why are you so pretentious..."
Zhao Jinyu murmured in dissatisfaction and angrily, he was indeed dissatisfied, he was several years older than Tian Xiaohu, and his brother was also the biggest captain of "Guan'er".
He originally thought that even if he couldn't be the acting squad leader, it would be Brother Wei or Brother Hu who would fill the "vacancy". At least he would not let such a "younger brother" weigh on him.
"We have to pass through several big hills along the way. Are you afraid that our guns are not enough to honor them?" Tian Xiaohu asked angrily.
"I..."
"Shut up!"
Young Tian Xiaohu scolded him again, and then shook the reins, urging the big mule to speed up.
"Hold it up and stop making noises."
Hu Bazhi leaned behind Zhao Jinyu and whispered, "This is the territory of shopkeeper Cao Da. If he catches us, none of us will survive. Otherwise, your brother and the others will be hurt."
Hearing this, Zhao Jinyu opened his mouth, then subconsciously touched the wooden gun box on his waist, and finally nodded and calmed down.
Amid the growing snowflakes, everything behind the group was finally swallowed up by darkness. Looking back, all that could be seen was the silvery snow and the snowflakes mixed with the howling cold wind.
"Stop for a moment"
I don’t know how much time passed, but Tian Xiaohu, who was walking at the front, suddenly stopped the team, turned and slid nimbly in front of Wei Ran on his skis, and said very politely, "Brother Wei, help check on Brother Shen and the others.
Well, right ahead is Langcaozi Ditch. Once we enter Langcaozi Ditch, we can't stop. We have to run for most of the night before we can get out."
"Why can't it stop?" Zhao Jinyu couldn't help but ask.
"The name Langcaozigou is not for nothing."
It was Hu Bazhi who answered the question, "This place has been covered with blisters since the beginning of summer. When winter begins to freeze, and from the first snowfall, the wolves will drive their prey into this valley."
, surround them, and let the prey freeze to death inside.
When there is no food in the twelfth lunar month of winter, this wolf will come with the pack of wolves and dig out the frozen prey and eat it until the spring of next year, just like the wolf pack's food trough.
Similar.
If anyone dares to take advantage of this place at this time, the wolves around here will have to fight for their lives."
"We have guns, why are we afraid of this?" Zhao Jinyu patted the box on his waist and ran away.
"There are two mountain ridges between Cao Da Zhangpan Bureau and Langcaozigou."
Tian Xiaohu glanced at Wei Ran, who was busy checking the condition of the wounded on the sledge, and lowered his voice and said, "I don't know if the wolf will be scared away if a shot is fired here. Cao Da, in charge of the plate, will definitely lead his people to rush away."
Come here and leave us to feed the wolves."
"So he's hiding here..." Hu Bazhi couldn't help but muttered.
Before Zhao Jinyu could continue to ask, Tian Xiaohu asked someone else, "Brother Wei, how are they doing?"
“Not a big problem”
Wei Ran paused and added, "I mean, the situation hasn't gotten worse, but it hasn't gotten better either."
"Then let's run faster and find a place to rest after passing through the Langcaozi ditch." Tian Xiaohu breathed a sigh of relief and made the arrangement.
"How long do we have to go to get there?" Wei Ran asked as he covered the two wounded people tightly again, "I mean to get to the destination."
"If the snow keeps falling this hard, I guess I'll be able to arrive in the middle of the night tomorrow."
"Then let's go quickly"
As Wei Ran spoke, he had already pulled out a Japs Sanba Gaigai from his horseback, and then pulled out a Japs bayonet from the sack and put it on the muzzle of the gun.
Seeing this, Tian Xiaohu followed suit and replaced the Ma Sihuan he was carrying with a 38 large cover that was more suitable for stabbing, and also installed a bayonet.
"What are you doing?" Zhao Jinyu asked without knowing why.
"If you are targeted by a wolf and you can't shoot, you have to rely on stabbing." Tian Xiaohu explained matter-of-factly.
"If I had known about this problem, I would have brought my bow and arrows with me."
Hu Bazhi couldn't help smacking his lips, and together with Zhao Jinyu, they each installed bayonets on the Sanba Gai they were carrying on their shoulders.
When everything was ready, Tian Xiaohu lit the kerosene lamp that the old squad leader had given him before departure, adjusted the brightness to the maximum, and hung it around the neck of his mule.
This was said to be entering Langcaozi Valley, but in fact it did not enter the valley bottom. Instead, it was walking quietly but quickly along a winding path buried in snow halfway up the mountain.
But no matter how prepared they were, not long after, there was a low and unpleasant howl of wolves, and there were more shadows flashing by in the surrounding dense forest. Almost subconsciously, all four of them increased their vigilance.
"clang!"
At this moment, Tian Xiaohu took out half a broken gong fragment, which was about the size of a pizza, from the edge of the mule's shelf. He held the broken gong's lanyard in one hand and let it go with the broken gong in the other hand.
The rifle bayonets collided with a hoarse knocking sound.
I don't know if they made an agreement in advance, but after this noise, the shadows around them seemed to have regained some rare sanity.
Seeing that they still had not dispersed, everyone did not dare to relax their vigilance. They followed Tian Xiaohu and shook the reins to speed up. The latter also tapped the broken gong piece with his bayonet from time to time.
In this increasingly difficult balance to maintain, the black shadows around them were getting closer and closer to them, the four mules became more and more restless, and Tian Xiaohu struck the broken gong more and more frequently.
At the end of the team, watching the wolves getting closer and closer to Wei Ran, Hu Bazhi suddenly turned on the flashlight that had been seized and given to him.
Suddenly, a bright beam of light was aimed at the wolf that had already bent up behind Wei Ran.
The sudden appearance of the bright light startled the wolf, as well as the surrounding wolves that were about to complete the encirclement, and spontaneously dispersed the encirclement.
"ignition"
Tian Xiaohu said that he had already pulled out a torch from the sledge. Seeing this, the others also pulled out torches.
This torch is basically a tree branch with pine branches. The burning pine branch is tied with a layer of oil-soaked rags and a circle of pine branches.
Soon, the four people lit torches respectively. As the flames steamed and the cold wind blew, a large number of sparks splashed out from the pine branches and spread to the surroundings.
Stimulated by the flames and the diffuse smell of charcoal fire, the surrounding wolves became calmer, and the two sides returned to a stalemate in a sense.
But everyone knows that these torches can't last long. It's not that the torches don't burn long enough, but that the wolves' fear of fire can't last long.
Because of this, everyone tightened their reins and urged the four big mules to speed up. Hu Bazhi, on the other hand, sat on the sledge at this time and pinned his torch to the other side of the sledge.
.
Immediately afterwards, he dug out another marle seed from his sack.
These so-called marlezi are not children's toys like the Sky Monkey. At least the ones in Hu Bazhi's hands are each about the size of a 40mm grenade.
Wei Ran had almost no doubt that all he had to do was throw this thing into paste, roll it once in iron sand, and finally wrap it up with waste paper and rags, and it would become almost a simple hand grenade!
"Mareizi's movement might be louder than the sound of shooting," Wei Ran couldn't help but remind him.
"I know"
As Hu Bazhi said, he had already taken out his food knife, carefully dug out the sealing mud at the end of the marlezi, pulled off a piece of birch bark and rolled it into a ball, loosely sealing the bottom.
Without pausing at all, he handed the Marleite to Wei Ran.
The latter took Mareko without pause, leaned on the torch, ignited the cannon, twisted it and threw it behind him.
"Boom!"
In an explosion that was not too loud, not even an explosion, the Mare seed turned into a large Northeastern flower, violently spitting out a large ball of flames and a miniature mushroom cloud.
As expected, this movement frightened the surrounding wolves into howling, and Sayazi ran away.
"How many more are there?" Wei Ran asked with a smile.
"Nine." Hu Ba pointed his fingers and patted the sack next to his feet.
"Save your money, we'll come back soon." Wei Ran kindly reminded him.
"The wolf was afraid of the smell of gunpowder, so he didn't dare to come over for a while."
Hu Bazhi explained quite confidently that he was an experienced hunter and knew how to deal with these beasts.
For the next section of the road, the wolves that were still following behind became much quieter and more cautious. Correspondingly, Wei Ran and the others also speeded up a lot, and their bodies naturally became more and more tired - even if they stepped on
skis and being pulled along by mules.
I don't know how long it took, when the dog-skin hats of the four of them were covered with large amounts of frost due to the water vapor brought out by breathing, when Hu Bazhi threw out the last one that could only crackle flowers about half an hour ago.
After the Mareko, the sky finally became bright.
However, the wolves that had been following him all the way finally lost their patience because Hu Bazhi could no longer throw out big flowers for them to appreciate.
"Prepare!"
Wei Ran said hello, holding the 38 big cover with both hands and pointing it at the wolf pack that was about to pounce. He had already seen that this wolf pack had actually been waiting. When they reached the end of the wolf trough, they needed to
When climbing uphill, this is their hunting ground.
"Oooh-ooh!"
Accompanied by a low wolf howl coming from the direction behind them, three wolves pounced on Wei Ran at the same time!
"puff!"
Wei Ran stabbed the bayonet accurately into the chest of the wolf that was charging at his neck.
Before he could draw out his bayonet, the second wolf had already pounced on him, throwing him to the ground with a near impact, opening its bloody mouth and biting his neck!
Seeing this, Wei Ran immediately took out the anti-Japanese sword and placed it across his neck!
"clang!"
Amidst the teeth-piercing knocking sound, the wolf bit hard on the knife!
Before it could let go and scream, Wei Ran pulled the blade fiercely and pushed it forward, directly slicing the wolf's jaw open and cutting off its tongue!
Without waiting for the anti-Japanese sword to be completely drawn out, he put it back into the metal book, then gradually grasped the wolf's mouth with his hands, turned over and sat on it, and sat down on its soft but dry belly.
Go down and put your whole body weight on it.
However, before he could deal with the wolf that almost bit his neck, the third wolf pounced on the mule next to him!
Perhaps from beginning to end, larger mules were their target!
"puff!"
What Wei Ran didn't expect was that before the wolf could succeed, the big mule suddenly kicked and kicked the wolf's belly hard with a hoof, pushing it far away, almost
It spun around and hit a birch tree hard!
"Boom!"
Amidst the dull crashing sound, the accumulated snow on the birch tree rustled down. Wei Ran finally got out of his position, hugged the wolf's head with both hands, and pulled hard to break its neck.
"Bang!"
Before he could let go of the wolf's neck, a gunshot suddenly sounded from the other side of the mountain ridge!
Immediately afterwards, whether they were the startled people or the wolves who were also startled and were about to run away subconsciously, they all heard an exclamation from the woman!
"Oooh-ooh!"
After a slightly unwilling wolf howl, the wolves that had followed them all night suddenly ran away and disappeared into the vast snow.
It was only then that Wei Ran realized that his face had just been scratched with three bloody scratches by the wolf's claws.
Looking at the rest of the people, Hu Bazhi had his hands free. He was holding a ski pole in each hand, but lying at his feet was a wolf that was still twitching, with a Japanese bayonet stuck in the wolf's chest.
Zhao Jinyu and Tian Xiaohu were standing back to back at this time, each holding a Sanba Gaigai in their hands. However, judging from their appearance and the snow on their bayonets, it seemed that no wolves had just besieged them.
"Did you hear that just now?" Hu Bazhi asked in a low voice.
"I heard it"
Tian Xiaohu said that he had already blown out the oil lamp hanging on the mule, and then pulled off a piece of white patched cloth from the mule's back to cover the largest mule.
Upon seeing this, Wei Ran and the other three immediately followed suit and each found a coarse white sheet on their mules and draped it over the mules.
"It seems like a girl shouted just now," Zhao Jinyu whispered uncertainly.
"Yes"
While Wei Ran was talking, he had already tied the mule to the branch of a birch tree, and said in unison with Hu Bazhi, "You guys wait, I (I) will go take a look."
"No, just wait, I'll go take a look." Tian Xiaohu and Zhao Jinyu also said in unison.
"You two just don't go."
Wei Ran whispered, "Squad leader, you are the only one who knows the way. If something happens to you, we will have no choice but to go back."
Before Tian Xiaohu could speak, let alone Zhao Jinyu, Wei Ran continued, "Brother Zhao, you must protect the squad leader and the wounded."
After saying that, Wei Ran had already put on his goggles again, held his ski poles, and climbed to the top of the mountain ridge with Hu Bazhi one after another.
"Squad leader, what should we do?" Zhao Jinyu had already pulled out the cannon from his waist as he spoke.
Looking at Wei Ran's back worriedly, Tian Xiaohu whispered, "Bear the fire and hide."
After a short pause, Tian Xiaohu added, "Brother Zhao, if... if I am glorious..."
"What are you talking about!" Zhao Jinyu panicked.
"Listen to me"
Tian Xiaohu said, "If I am honored, I must take away the flag from my arms. The flag is there, and the first guerrilla team is there. There is also a letter. I have a letter from the captain in my arms to Commander Zhao. I must protect it."
it."
"I..."
"No one can read that letter except Commander Zhao. This is an order!" Tian Xiaohu whispered seriously.
"Yes!" Zhao Jinyu made his promise seriously, like a true anti-alliance fighter.