Chapter 1630 The despair of not being able to see the light
In the cave, beside the fire pit, Wei Ran, who had just helped girl Hongxia straighten her broken bone, did not rush to treat the suppurating wound. Instead, he searched around the cave and finally found a gas lantern.
Fortunately, this lamp is also filled with calcium carbide. When it is lit, it is much brighter than a kerosene lamp.
By the time he had prepared the crucial lighting fixtures, the surgical instruments were almost cooked.
Not daring to delay any further, Wei Ran injected Hongxia with an anesthetic that might have expired, waited for a while, and then started working.
Under the blazing white light, as the suppurating wound was cut open, a stench came to the face, and the Oroqen girl Unakan, who was peeking next to her, could not help but show a trace of panic.
After only a brief hesitation, the girl walked further away and danced alone the shamanic dance that was passed down in ancient times and was used for prayer.
At the same time, Zhao Jinyu also found a large bowl, poured in the newly melted snow water, broke off a few ginseng strands, threw them in and patiently cooked them.
While Wei Ran was busy, the dead flesh and rotten flesh was cut off bit by bit from the suppurating wound, and he sutured it carefully. Finally, it was bandaged with the gauze dressing that had just been steamed, and a makeshift splint was attached.
"I'm ready here," Wei Ran said.
"I'll be fine soon too"
As Zhao Jinyu spoke, he brought over only half a bowl of ginseng soup that had been cooked, and then opened the tin box containing Angong Niuhuang Pills.
It was only then that Wei Ran noticed that this small iron box actually contained four wax pills wrapped in paper boxes.
After pinching out a wax pill and rubbing it open, Zhao Jinyu broke open the gold foil-wrapped pill and threw it into the ginseng soup and stirred it up. He said in advance, "I'm not a medical student, and I don't know if it's right to eat like this."
, these are all just like my brother-in-law did when he rescued my sister."
"Hey, let's treat a dead horse like a living doctor."
Wei Ran, who also didn't understand traditional Chinese medicine, said, "You saved me back then, and you will definitely be able to save Miss Hongxia this time."
"Try it..."
Zhao Jinyu, who had no confidence, sighed, called to Wei Ran to help Miss Hongxia up, and poured in the small half bowl of medicinal soup bit by bit.
"Then it depends on her own destiny."
Zhao Jinyu put down the bowl and sighed, "What trouble has happened to her? Where are Brother Hu and Squad Leader Xiaohu?"
"Just now I saw that there are still a few animal skins that seemed to have been removed a few days ago. I guess they haven't gone far."
Wei Ran said and looked at Unakan, who was still dancing, no, maybe I should say "dancing master", "What is she doing?"
"She should believe in shamanism"
Zhao Jinyu felt a lot more confident this time, "My grandma also believed in shamanism when she was alive. This is a trance."
"Hope it's useful..."
Wei Ran muttered and then said, "I'm going to see what's going on outside."
"Okay, I'll keep an eye on her." Zhao Jinyu waved his hand and said.
After extinguishing the gas lamp, Wei Ran carried an oil lamp and walked around Unakan, who was still dancing, and walked outward along the narrow tunnel that seemed to be naturally formed.
This tunnel, which is less than one meter wide, is unexpectedly long, and there are bends every now and then.
After walking around like this for nearly a hundred meters, this natural tunnel gradually became much wider. There were even a few food troughs made of logs on the side.
Beside the trough, there are piles of hay that can be eaten by animals and a salt brick tied to the edge of the trough.
He randomly broke off a grass stalk, piled it on the edge of a pile of dung, and poked it. Although the appearance of this pile of dung, which he didn't know whether it was horse dung or mule dung, was slightly dry and hard, it was still barely "fresh" on the inside.
”.
Looks like he didn't go long...
Wei Ran threw away the grass stalk, stood up, and continued walking outside. After turning another corner, he finally saw the entrance and exit of the cave.
Compared to the space inside the cave, the cave entrance is only one person tall and barely about one meter wide.
Pushing open the wooden door made of wooden boards, animal skins, and pine bark nailed to the outside for camouflage, the first thing he saw were two pine trees thicker than his waist growing about less than two meters away from the cave.
And between the two pine trees, there is a mound that looks to be two meters high and covered with snow.
By the light of the oil lamp, he could still vaguely see the branches of the shrubs on the mound that had not been buried by the snow.
Wei Ran even suspected that this mound might have been artificially piled up to block the view, otherwise how could it have buried the tree nests at the bottom of the two tall pine trees.
I don't know where Hu Ba pointed them to go. Now I can only wait until Miss Hongxia wakes up. Before that, maybe we can get the animals and sledges from the other end of the mine.
Wei Ran was thinking secretly. He had just noticed that there was nothing decent to eat in the cave where Hongxia was hiding except some dried meat.
Thinking of this, he also took a step back, closed the thick wooden door again, turned around and walked back.
All the way back to the end of the cave, Unakan was still dancing the shaman dance to pray for blessings religiously, while Zhao Jinyu was playing with various weapons on the ground.
"Where did you find all this?"
Wei Ran asked curiously. Among the weapons in this pile, the most numerous ones were the Japs’ 38 caps. In addition, there were also Golden Hook rifles, Ma Sihuan, Liao 13 rifles, and a few box cannons and large guns.
There are all kinds of flower traps in the Gu factory, and there are more than 20 of them in total.
"I just dug it out of the box over there."
Zhao Jinyu raised his hand and pointed to a wooden box placed against the wall not far away, as well as a pile of animal skins that he had moved to one side. He frowned and said, "Many of these guns are rusty, and none of them have bullets.
"
"It seems they are having a hard time..." Wei Ran sighed, and then expressed his thoughts.
Glancing at Unakan who was still dancing to pray for blessings, Zhao Jinyu nodded, "Then let's go back now. Unakan, you take care of Miss Hongxia."
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! After hearing this, Unakan, who was mumbling words, opened his eyes and glanced at the two of them, then closed his eyes again.
"Let's go"
Zhao Jinyu said, stepping on the ladder and climbing back to the window deliberately left above his head.
The two of them crawled back into the rock crack one after another. After that, they made some noises in tacit agreement. Then they extinguished the kerosene lamp and hid in the darkness to secretly observe Unakan in the cave outside.
.
Obviously, Zhao Jinyu also did not completely believe that Oroqen girl.
After observing silently for nearly 20 minutes, they saw that Unakan was still dancing the shaman dance religiously. The two of them looked at each other, quietly relit the oil lamp, climbed down the crack, and followed the original path.
Quickly returned to the other end of the abandoned mine.
Not daring to delay at all, the two extinguished the charcoal fire in the clay stove, led all the animals out as quickly as possible, and then carried out the sledges and the things they had brought with them and yoked them.
"I can't make a deer," Zhao Jinyu said awkwardly.
"It's okay, I can."
Wei Ran had already sat on the reindeer sledge before he finished speaking, "I'll leave the rest to you?"
"OK!"
Zhao Jinyu breathed a sigh of relief, tied the two horses to both sides of the mule's sledge, and shouted at the mule to start running.
Leaving Langcaozigou in the wind and snow, the two of them walked several times in the deep mountains and old forests. When they finally found the hidden cave, it was already more than an hour later.
Fortunately, when they drove the animals in and tied them up, moved everything including the sledges in, and returned to the end of the cave, Unakan, who was already out of breath, was still dancing the shaman dance religiously.
"Isn't she going to stop?" Wei Ran asked in a low voice.
"You have to jump to exhaustion before stopping. I don't understand." Zhao Jinyu also replied in a low voice, "I don't believe this, so I don't understand. Brother Wei, do you have anything to eat? I haven't eaten anything all day.
Already."
"If you didn't tell me earlier, there is food, just wait."
As Wei Ran spoke, he took out an untouched lunch box and placed it on the clay stove. Then he walked to the fire pit and reached out to touch Miss Hongxia's forehead.
"The fever is really gone!" Wei Ran exclaimed, and Hongxia, who was lying on the kang, seemed to slowly open her eyes because of the touch on her forehead.
"Yes...it's Brother Wei..."
Hongxia glanced at Wei Ran, then at Zhao Jinyu who was running over, and at Unakan who was running out of breath after stopping his dance routine. She murmured feebly, "Brother Jinyu is here too, why is Unakan here too? Me.
..Have I entered the underworld?"
"You're still alive?" Wei Ran and the other three said in unison, and Unakan burst into tears and burst into tears.
"Still... still alive..."
Hongxia was a little disappointed. She looked around and said blankly, "Little...brother Xiaohu, and...where is Brother Hu?"
"Where have they gone?" Wei Ran asked.
"I...I don't know..."
Hongxia didn't finish her sentence before she fainted and lost consciousness again.
"It's okay, it's okay"
Seeing the look of panic and despair on Unakan's face, Wei Ran immediately reassured her, "Let her sleep. She will wake up when she has had enough sleep."
"I just don't know where Squad Leader Xiaohu and Brother Hu are." Zhao Jinyu muttered worriedly, and then asked, "Brother Wei, do you think how did Miss Hongxia get the injury on her leg?"
"Not a gunshot wound"
Wei Ran guessed, "The fracture seems to have been caused by a fall. When we just debrided her, we found some wood stubble in the wound on her calf."
"Before Miss Hongxia wakes up, it seems we can only wait for them to come back before we know what happened." Zhao Jinyu said helplessly.
"I'll continue..."
"Save your energy"
Wei Ran stopped the Oroqen girl who was about to continue praying, "Unakan, can you tell me about the letter Cui Bearded asked you to send now?"
"It's best to talk about the causes and consequences," Zhao Jinyu added.
After a moment of hesitation, Unakan sat down against the edge of the Kang, took off the robe-corner hat he was wearing, and said, "A few months ago, shopkeeper Yang contacted Zhao Jinshan. At that time, my father was responsible for helping Yang.
The shopkeeper delivered the letter."
"How do you, Shi... and Shopkeeper Yang know each other?" Wei Ran asked.
"More than ten years ago, my father helped shopkeeper Yang Da collect leather materials. Many of the leather materials from our tribe were sold to shopkeeper Yang Da. My father and shopkeeper Yang Da are old friends.
Later, when Shopkeeper Yang took over, especially after they moved to Khabarovsk, the boss asked my father and I to follow Shopkeeper Yang and do her work."
"So that's what happened." Wei Ran nodded, "Let's continue talking about Cui Big Beard."
Turning to look at Wei Ran, Unakan paused and continued, "Almost two months ago, Big Beard Cui came, and Shopkeeper Yang asked us to take Uncle Big Bearded to find Zhao Jinshan."
"Then something happened halfway?" Zhao Jinyu couldn't help but ask.
"No"
Unakan shook his head, "After the bearded uncle stayed there for a few days, shopkeeper Yang asked us to escort him back across the river. Not long after crossing the river, the Japanese started chasing us."
At this point, Unakan paused and continued, "After Uncle Bearded's accident, I kept rushing here with the letter he gave me, and then I met Brother Wei."
"Cui Dabeard's letter..."
"I want to hand it over to Hu Bazhi or Tian Xiaohu with my own hands." Unakan was still wary.
"What do you think?" Zhao Jinyu turned to look at Wei Ran.
“At least Shiyi is fine”
Wei Ran said calmly, "Otherwise, the Japanese would have found this place by following the clues. Now we can only wait and see what Hu Bazhi and Squad Leader Xiaohu say when they come back."
"That's all we can do," Zhao Jinyu sighed feebly.
"You should eat something first"
Wei Ran took the initiative to change the subject, "Open it up and eat. I even picked up half a fan of pork on the way here."
"You are so lucky." Zhao Jinyu shook his head in confusion.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Unakan, who knew the inside story, rolled his eyes secretly, "Aren't we going to find Hu Bazhi or Tian Xiaohu?"
"Need not"
Wei Ran waved his hand, picked up the lunch box on the clay stove and handed it to Zhao Jinyu, "When we came here, there was still a fire in the clay stove, not to mention that Miss Hongxia was still there.
I guess they can't go far, so let's wait, maybe they will come back after daybreak."
Hearing this, Unakan could only suppress the anxiety in his heart, and sat on the edge of the kang, looking worriedly at the sleeping girl Hongxia.
Signaling Zhao Jinyu to eat quickly, Wei Ran also found a wooden pillar to sit down on, secretly sorting out the context of the whole thing.
Obviously, whether Zhao Jinyu couldn't wait for the contact person at the place where the letters were exchanged, or Cui Bearded was chased by the Japanese, this can only mean that someone in the middle leaked the information.
And just like what he said just now, Yang Shiyi is unlikely. She really wants to sell them and just lead the Japanese to the abandoned mine in Langcaozigou.
Now let's see what Hu Bazhi and the others say after they come back...
While thinking about it, Wei Ran lit a cigarette and looked at the situation in the cave again.
The living conditions here are definitely harsh, with dust all over the ground, slightly choking smoke from burning firewood, a faint smell of horse manure and urine coming from the direction of the cave entrance, and tanned animal skins to dry.
The stench emitted during the process, and even the fleas he accidentally saw on Hongxia's body when he was debriding her just now, all hinted at how difficult their life was.
But even so, even though he couldn't find anything else to eat in this cave except dried meat and coarse salt, the place was still filled with pairs of jingle shoes and a set of clothes made of animal skins.
.
I just don’t know how many people live in this cave...
Before Wei Ran could figure out these issues, a slightly violent cold wind blew in from the direction of the cave entrance.
Suddenly, both Wei Ran and Zhao Jinyu realized that someone had come in!
Just looking at each other, the two of them asked Unakan, who was confused, to hide behind the stretched leather.
A moment later, they heard someone coughing loudly and loudly in the direction of the cave exit, and said in a loud voice, "It's windy and snowy outside the door, where is the God of Wealth coming..."
"Brother Hu, it's us! Zhao Jinyu!" Zhao Jinyu, who was hiding behind the pile of leather, was the first to say, "Brother Wei is here too!"
"Jinyu! Brother Wei?!"
Hu Bazhi, who was hiding in the cave tunnel, let out an exclamation and ran in with great strides. Then he saw Wei Ran and Zhao Jinyu standing up from their hiding places, as well as Unakan wearing a roe deer horn hat.
"Ouch! Ouch!"
Hu Ba pointed his fingers and slapped his thigh continuously in joy, "Why are you here! You are here! I miss you so much!"
Before he finished speaking, Hu Bazhi, who was wearing an animal skin coat, a dog skin hat, and a beard, was already hugging Wei Ran and Zhao Jinyu.
Before the three of them could separate, Tian Xiaohu also walked in carrying a baggage.
"Brother Wei! Jinyu!"
Tian Xiaohu loosened the rope, shook hands with Wei Ran and Zhao Jinyu with equal excitement, and asked excitedly, "When did you come? How did you come?"
"It's a long story."
Zhao Jinyu was the first to ask, "Where are you going?"
"The robbery is gone," Tian Xiaohu and Hu Bazhi said in unison.
"Sister Hongxia is injured. We plan to go to the county town and kidnap a Japanese doctor who knows how to operate. However, we need a certificate of good citizenship to enter the city. It just so happened that Mr. Sun was busy checking people recently, so we ambush some people in the middle of the road.
Use the good citizen certificate."
While talking, Tian Xiaohu also threw the furoshiki on a solid wood table and opened it. In addition to some silver coins and Japanese money, there was also a stack of at least twenty books of good citizen certificates in the furoshiki.
"I just treated Hongxia's injury and took medicine. The fever has gone away."
After Wei Ran finished speaking, he glanced at Unakan, who was hesitant to speak at the side, "Let's wait for a while to reminisce about old times. Unakan, let's get down to business first."
Hearing this, Tian Xiaohu and Zhao Jinyu all looked at Unakan, who also took out the envelope with three beautiful feathers on it that he had taken out from the roe deer hat before!
"Da Hu...Cui Da Beard entrusted me with the letter before he died."
As soon as Unakan finished the first half of the sentence, Tian Xiaohu and Hu Bazhi's eyes widened, "Before he died, he asked me to hand the letter into your hands with my own hands."
"What's wrong with Big Beard?" Tian Xiaohu asked calmly as he took the letter.
"He was chased by the Japanese, and my father and I failed to protect him..." Unakan said guiltily.
"Read the letter first," Wei Ran reminded with a sigh, "Let's talk after you finish reading the letter."
"good"
Tian Xiaohu responded, took a deep breath to suppress his nervousness and worry, tore open the envelope and took out the envelope.
"What's going on?" After waiting for less than a minute, Hu Bazhi couldn't help but ask, "Xiaohu, are you going to tell me what's going on?"
"Commander Zhao is not dead. He successfully evacuated to Mao Zi's side."
Tian Xiaohu handed the letter to Wei Ran and whispered, "The captain asked us to gather the soldiers as soon as possible and be ready to join them at any time."
"Meet? How to meet?"
Hu Bazhi said dejectedly, "We have lost contact with Sister Shiyi's people. We don't know where to go. How can we meet up?"
"What did you just say?" Zhao Jinyu asked in astonishment, "You have also cut off contact with sister Shiyi?"
"Broken"
It was Tian Xiaohu who answered this question, "Shortly after Cui Dabeard left with the people arranged by Shiyi, the person she arranged to contact us was arrested by the Japanese.
We estimated that the man was a special girl who had joined the Japanese. Sister Hongxia was almost blocked by the Japanese when she went to ask him about Xin'er a few days ago.
When she fled all the way, she was forced to jump into a ravine and barely survived."
"Didn't I read in the letter that you went to Wang Yachen's department?" Zhao Jinyu pointed around, "Why..."
"Originally, it was over there, but Cui Big Beard took us there."
Tian Xiaohu sighed and explained, "Later, when we got the news that Commander Zhao was coming back, we left there and prepared to continue to follow Commander Zhao to fight the Japanese. Who would have thought... Oh!"
"Commander Zhao suffered heavy losses. Your brother's last letter to us told us to stand still."
Tian Xiaohu sighed, "Big Beard Cui couldn't wait any longer, so he followed Shiyi's people to the north. Not long after he left, something happened to the people arranged by Shiyi, and then something happened to Sister Hongxia, too.
Thinking of a big beard..."
"Uncle Bearded asked me to tell you before he died."
Unakan said at this time, "We must preserve our strength and hope, and don't do things that will lead to death.
He also said that it was necessary to establish a liaison line that the anti-alliance fighters themselves were responsible for, and Zhao Jinshan was waiting on the other side of the river to meet the comrades in charge of liaison."
After a slightly long silence, Hu Bazhi asked the most fundamental question, "What should we do now?"
"How many people are left after you leave the Wang Division?" Wei Ran asked before Zhao Jinyu could speak.
"There are less than 30 people now, and they have all developed in the past few years."
Tian Xiaohu said, "I am the captain, and Brother Hu is the vice-captain. The Japanese have been searching the mountains very hard these years. We don't dare to get together at all. They are all scattered in the mountains nearby. Sun Da is in charge of the dishes."
There are also a few hidden in the kiln."
"Speaking of this, why did you move here?" Wei Ran continued to ask.
"Langcaozigou is still too close to Sun Da Zhangpan's territory."
Hu Bazhi explained, "That old guy just wants to go hunting. We are afraid of bumping into him and causing unnecessary trouble. That old guy licks the devil's asshole so well!"
"This place has a good view and the entrance to the cave is hidden. Even if we are really discovered, we can still escape all the way and let Sun Da Zhang take the blame." Tian Xiaohu also added.
"Let's get down to business."
Zhao Jinyu said, "I think we have to restore contact first. Since my second brother..."
"Before that, we must kill the one who surrendered to the enemy."
Tian Xiaohu said, "Although he doesn't know the location of Langcaozigou, he has seen many of us. If we don't shovel him out, many people will suffer."
"Where is he?" Wei Ran asked.
"Where's Mulan?"
Tian Xiaohu said, "He is the shopkeeper left by the Yang family to deal in leather goods. We must kill him at all costs before we can do anything else."
"So we have to go to the city?" Wei Ran asked.
"right!"
Tian Xiaohu said, pointing to the Good Citizen Certificate on the baggage, and said, "We grabbed the Good Citizen Certificate, firstly, to hire a doctor for Sister Hongxia, and secondly, to kill the traitor to prevent more people from suffering."
“What a coincidence”
Wei Ran pointed to half a fan of pork and other items lying casually not far away, "These things were also snatched from the hands of those who were ready to get together."
"Sun Da in charge of the dishes is really a big help," Zhao Jinyu couldn't help but joke.
"Can't"
Tian Xiaohu and Hu Bazhi couldn't help but agree, and then they laughed like they were having fun.
“I haven’t eaten pork in years.”
Hu Bazhi looked at the half fan of pork with greedy eyes, "When we celebrated the New Year here before, we only shared one flying dragon per person. At that time, we didn't even have anywhere to find salt."
"Now Sister Hongxia can also replenish her health."
Tian Xiaohu also breathed a sigh of relief, "Brother Wei, Sister Hongxia..."
"As long as you can wake up and no longer have a fever, it's not a big problem." Wei Ran's cautious answer was enough to make Tian Xiaohu and Hu Bazhi breathe a sigh of relief.
"How have you been in the past two years?" Zhao Jinyu's sudden question caused Tian Xiaohu and Hu Bazhi to fall into silence.
After a long time, Hu Ba pointed out the pipe and took a puff, sighing, "It's hard... the Sun sisters are dead. After they died, the three of us fought guerrillas for a while, ambush on the road.
, when seeing a Japanese enemy, he would shoot a few times from a distance, not caring whether he hit or not, and then run away after finishing the shooting.
I was hungry a lot of the time. The mountains and plains were full of Japanese soldiers, so I didn’t dare to use a gun when hunting. Sometimes when I was hungry and anxious, I would chew tree bark and make some grass root soup.”
"Later, Big Beard Cui found us."
Tian Xiaohu said with a smile, "He took us to gather up many scattered soldiers, and then took us to Wangbu to continue the struggle."
However, when it came to this, both Hu Bazhi and Tian Xiaohu suddenly became silent.
"The soldier who took us to Wangbu at that time... hanged himself after sending us there."
Hu Bazhi forced a bitter smile and said, "Just...heh...I can't see a way to survive. How can I hang myself..."
"Isn't it a way to survive if you fight the Japanese?" Zhao Jinyu said subconsciously, "Isn't there a way to live if you fight the Japanese away?"
"yes"
Hu Bazhi looked at the clay stove in the distance and murmured, "One time, we ambushed outside a circle of people and killed two Japanese. Guess what?
What a bloody devil! They hung a row of corpses outside the human circle the next day, a total of 20 of them! They were all old people and children selected from the human circle!"
"At that time, we really thought there was no way out."
Tian Xiaohu also smiled bitterly, "Wherever you fight the Japanese, the people nearby will definitely suffer.
When we killed a Japs, the Japs would pull ten people from the nearby crowd, kill them, and throw them to the place where we killed the Japs. Later, we didn't dare to kill them."
"This...is this the miserable life you have been living these past few years?" Zhao Jinyu asked calmly.
"yes"
Tian Xiaohu laughed at himself, "Although I know a few words, I don't have the ability to lead an army. Let alone the two of us, even Cui Bearded can't do ideological work.
So we thought, if we could contact Commander Zhao, or maybe our brother, we would have a backbone and know what to do next."
"Stop talking about these disgusting things."
Hu Bazhi waved his hand and changed the topic, and asked expectantly, "Brother Wei, did you send all those letters back then? Did you get any replies?"
"I...sorry"
Wei Ran opened his mouth, but for a moment he didn't know how to answer this question.
"I'll make food for you!"
Realizing that he had opened a topic that was impossible to discuss, Hu Bazhi quickly said, "I haven't eaten pork in years, and here are dried branches... vermicelli and white wine! There's even a bag of white noodles.
!I’ll make you pork stewed with vermicelli to eat!”
"I...I'll call the other soldiers over!"
Tian Xiaohu also said, "It just so happens that you two are back, let's celebrate the New Year all over again! Brother Wei, do you still have your camera? You have to take another photo for us!"
"Here he is!" Wei Ran said quickly, "I will definitely take pictures for you!"
"I'll be back as soon as I go!"
Before Tian Xiaohu finished speaking, he was already running towards the entrance of the cave as if he was running away.
only...
What are you running from...
Can you escape the despair of not being able to see the light...
