Deep in the silent reed marsh, Uncle Zhou frowned after listening to Wei Ran's retelling of the information. After a long time, he asked, "Boy Wei, at this time, the puppet troops, traitors and even the Japs in the city are looking for you.
You definitely can’t go back, what are you going to do next?”
"Fight the Japanese" Wei Ran gave the answer without even thinking about it.
The other three people on the small platform looked at each other. After a moment of silence, Uncle Zhou said, "Shoutian, take Wei boy back first and find a fortress to live in to avoid the wind."
"Dad, what about you?" Zhou Houpu asked.
"I still have to go to the pier and continue to keep an eye on it," Uncle Zhou replied without thinking. "If Qiu Ermazi is not acting up, we must find out the time for the sweep."
"I'll go with you!" Zhou Houpu and Han Shoutian said in unison.
"Don't go, Morita. You have a wound on your leg. Go back and take care of it first. By the way, you can pass back the information that Mr. Wei asked."
Uncle Zhou thought for a moment and then continued, "Hopu, you go to Wild Duck and wait. If I find out anything then, it's up to you to pass the news back."
Zhou Houpu and Han Shoutian looked at each other after hearing this, and then nodded reluctantly, "Dad, you have to be careful."
"Don't worry." Uncle Zhou waved his hand nonchalantly, "Okay, don't waste time, I'll leave now."
"Wait first"
Wei Ran, who had been silent for the whole time, grabbed Uncle Zhou, picked up the flower-mouthed roller, took out the magazine and looked at it, then turned the handle of the gun and handed it over, and said seriously, "This roller is small, and it carries
It’s also convenient, just hold it for self-defense.”
Uncle Zhou was stunned for a moment, then he happily took the pistol and put it in his arms, "You are quite generous."
"They're all fighting against Japanese invaders. What's yours and mine?"
As he spoke, Wei Ran opened the hard leather satchel at hand, took out two gold bars and the collected paper tickets and handed them over, "Uncle Zhou, take these with you if you need them. They are all Qiu Er's pockmarks anyway."
Sent."
Uncle Zhou quickly waved his hand and took out the box of cannons he also got from Wei Ran last night. "These are useless. You can also take this gun back and give it to Captain Zhao. They will definitely use it. Wei
Boy, do you have any objection?"
Wei Ran quickly replied, "What can I say?"
"Okay, you guys should go back quickly!"
After Uncle Zhou finished speaking, he handed the rattan box he brought back to Houpu, jumped on the small wooden boat that had just brought him over again, followed the channel where Wei Ran and others had just come, and disappeared into the dense reed swamp in the blink of an eye.
inside.
Finally, after looking at the direction where Uncle Zhou disappeared, Wei Ran said, "I won't go back now. Brother Houpu, I'll wait for Uncle Zhou to come back with you. The two of us can take care of each other to some extent."
"Then I won't go back," Han Shoutian, who didn't want to leave, said accordingly.
"You have to go back"
Wei Ran and Zhou Houpu said in unison, and then before Han Shoutian could open his mouth, Zhou Houpu added, "The news that Brother Wei finally found out with great difficulty must be sent back quickly so that everyone can be prepared in advance. In case the Japanese really organize a raid, just from
The wheat recovered from the fields must have been snatched away by them."
"This..." Han Shoutian hesitated for a moment, and finally nodded, "Then...then you should be careful."
"Take all these things with you, except for the bottles and jars, keep them for me, and you can watch and distribute the rest."
While Wei Ran was talking, he took out the camera from the hard leather bag and hung it around his neck. Then he put all the other things into the satchel and handed it to Han Shoutian. When Zhou Houpu next to him saw this, although he had a look of reluctance, he still put all the things in his bag.
The cannon in the box he was holding was also put in.
Han Shoutian took the satchel, then picked up a bullet casing hanging on a pillar on the platform, brought it to his mouth and blew it gently a few times.
The not-so-sharp whistle echoed in the dense reeds in three long and three short minutes. Within five minutes, an old man who looked to be in his fifties or sixties came over on a wooden boat.
What’s interesting is that not only is the sidecar of the motorcycle that Wei Ran rode back at the stern of his boat, but there are also four wheels hanging on both sides of the wooden boat, and there is also a motorcycle sitting under the butt of this particularly honest old man.
Seat.
Wouldn't this old man dismantle the motorcycle in such a short time? Wei Ran looked at the other party's full boat with a strange expression and thought to himself.
"Uncle Lao Chui, did you finish the demolition so quickly?" Han Shoutian asked Wei Ran's doubts.
"We brothers have dismantled several kid's steamboats, how troublesome can this be?" The honest old man clicked his pipe and pot, "Are you planning to go back?"
"Yes! And you have to hurry up." As Han Shoutian spoke, he had already jumped onto the boat with his cowhide satchel in his arms.
"Then sit tight"
Before the honest old man, who was called Uncle Lao Chui, finished speaking, he had already pushed the fully loaded boat into the reed swamp. Wei Ran, who was still sitting on the platform, couldn't help but pick up his camera and look at this
The back view of a fully loaded boat clicked the shutter button.
What he didn't expect was that before he could put away the camera, two small wooden boats emerged from the reeds. One of the two boats held the frame of the motorcycle, and the other held the dismantled engine.
class parts.
Wei Ran, who was sitting on the small platform watching the fresh food, took photos of them one by one. The old men, who were shirtless and only wearing shorts, were not frightened. They waved enthusiastically to Wei Ran, who was full of wrinkles.
His face clearly still held the joy that comes only when crops are harvested.
"What can we do with those things if we send them back?" It wasn't until the boats were far away that Wei Ran curiously asked Zhou Houpu.
Zhou Houpu untied the boat tied to the edge of the platform, and waited for Wei Ran to jump on and sit firmly. Then, while holding the boat forward slowly in the reed swamp, he explained matter-of-factly, "There are many uses, but the worst is
You can make some big blades, or simply make them into iron sand, and use a big lifting rod to return it to the little devil, anyway, it won't be a waste at all."
"Have you ever fought a Japanese?" Wei Ran asked curiously.
"I would like to fight the Japanese, but in fact I have never even beaten the traitors."
Zhou Houpu said with a grimace, "Shoutian and I are tasked with supporting my father, and they say it's just a different division of labor. I see, they just don't want me to fight the Japanese!"
"There will definitely be a chance," Wei Ran assuredly reassured him. His return mission this time included assisting Zhou Houpu in completing the ambush mission, so he was naturally committed to it.
"If only it was like what you said."
Zhou Houpu sighed, with confusion and depression on his wheat-colored Chinese character face, "I can hit the wild geese with a big lift stick very accurately, the boat can row very fast, and the water is no worse than theirs. Just look at it."
Why don’t you want to fuck me?”
Hearing Zhou Houpu's complaints, Wei Ran's boat sailed through the reed marshes for a long time before finally seeing the light of day and entering a channel four to five meters wide, hidden in the reed marshes.
Zhou Houpu tied the bamboo poles to the side of the small wooden boat. After sitting down facing Wei Ran, he expertly swayed the oar and rowed forward along the intricate channel.
At noon at the end of June, the water surface was warmed by the sun, and the people on the boat were also exposed to the sun. As the boat moved forward, the reeds on both sides gradually disappeared, and the water surface became more and more open.
Gradually, a lotus lake covering several acres appeared on the water in front of the boat. On the green lotus leaves, you can occasionally see one or two small frogs, or a bird that cannot be named.
Zhou Houpu picked up a sickle from under his feet, cut off a few lotus leaves in two strokes, and then cut off a few full lotus pods.
Wrapping a few lotus pods in one of the lotus leaves and handing them to Wei Ran, Zhou Houpu continued to rock the boat through the lotus lake. At the same time, under the guidance of Wei Ran's words, he changed the topic to the previous raids by the Japanese.
In Zhou Houpu's words, what Wei Ran heard was very different from what he learned about the Yanling team in later generations.
Those Yan Ling team members whose names were mentioned by Zhou Houpu as either having "uncle" or "uncle" or "so-and-so brother" after each name, almost all of them had a blood feud with the Japanese.
Some of their families died in the raids by the Japs; some of the village where they grew up had countless people massacred by the Japs; and some of them were forced to death by traitors who worked for them, including their parents, wives and even children.
Some had their homes burned down, their stoves smashed, and even several acres of reed fields that they depended on for their livelihood were robbed.
Gradually, when the fresh and juicy lotus seeds in Wei Ran's hand were thrown into his mouth, they no longer tasted sweet, leaving only a bitter taste in his mouth, but he clearly remembered that he had just peeled off the bitter lotus seeds.
At some point, the particularly beautiful lotus lake was left behind, and not far in front of the empty water they were about to cross, a large reed swamp appeared again.
The small wooden boat, which was not too big, carried the two of them, drifting along the edge of the reed swamp, and finally turned into a channel.
Continuing to move forward along the channel, Zhou Houpu, who had his back to the direction of travel, put away the oars, untied the bamboo pole on the side of the boat and pushed it hard, dexterously maneuvering the small wooden boat under his feet and once again got into the reed swamp.
While the scorching sunshine overhead was blocked by the dense reeds, the surrounding temperature also dropped slightly. Zhou Houpu, who was punting the boat, also made a silent gesture towards Wei Ran.
The boat rowed forward silently in the reeds for only a dozen meters, and a channel less than half a meter wide quietly appeared.
After walking for a long time along this channel with countless forks along the way, and turning countless forks along the way, finally there appeared a piece of open water directly in front of us that could barely allow the boat to turn around.
Pushing the bamboo pole in his hand into the mud at the bottom of the water, Zhou Houpu pointed behind him and made a silent gesture again.
It wasn't until Wei Ran nodded that Zhou Houpu took out a kid's lunch box from the wooden box between the two of them. On the tray of the lunch box were several finger-thick black incense sticks and a box of matches, and on the second floor were
There were a few browned cornmeal pancakes, a fist-sized pickle dumpling and two smoked fish, a specialty of Baiyangdian.
He took out two pieces of pancakes and a piece of pickle dumplings and placed them on the lotus leaves he had picked before. He also handed Wei Ran a piece of smoked fish. Then Zhou Houpu picked up a stick of incense, lit it, and inserted it into a small hole on the side of the boat.
inside.
As the lingering green smoke began to disperse, Zhou Houpu was not in a hurry to eat. Instead, he continued to take out a roll of thin hemp rope with a fishhook from the box, and casually hooked up some corn tortilla crumbs.
After throwing it into the water, he tied the other end to the waist of a reed.
After finishing all this, he picked up the pancake and took a big bite, then tore off a piece of pickle and threw it into his mouth.
The two of them finished their simple lunch in silence, but Zhou Houpu was not idle. Instead, he picked up a black mud-like thing and a small bamboo tube more than ten centimeters long from the small box that served as a stool.
.
Under Wei Ran's puzzled gaze, Zhou Houpu simply kneaded the piece of mud, and then skillfully filled it into the hollow bamboo tube. It wasn't until black mud emerged from the other end of the bamboo tube that he took it
He picked up another slightly thinner bamboo tube and quickly pushed it from one end, and a stick of incense was squeezed onto the wooden board placed between the two of them.
"Are there any more?" Wei Ran asked in a low voice, pointing to the two bamboo tubes in the other person's hands.
Zhou Houpu nodded and took out two matching bamboo tubes from the box and handed them to Wei Ran.
Taking the bamboo tube, Wei Ran imitated the other person's example and grabbed a piece of black mud-like stuff. Although it looked like mud, it felt like dough in his hands with a trace of toughness. He just kneaded it.
After a few strokes, Wei Ran's hands were dyed dark brown, and he also smelled a vague medicinal fragrance.
"This incense can not only repel mosquitoes," Zhou Houpu explained in a low voice, "it is also used to ignite the gunpowder on the fire door when the gun is fired."
"You did it all?" Wei Ran asked in a low voice.
"How could it be possible? It's a craft that everyone can do." Zhou Houpu shook his head and continued busy with the work at hand.
While the two were busy, the sun above their heads moved westward little by little, and the incense sticks on the boat were burning one after another. Until dusk, a crisp gunshot was faintly heard outside the reed marsh!
