Early the next morning, the heavy snow that had been raging all night did not stop, but the howling cold wind finally died down as Ji Ma expected. In the quiet coniferous forest, only the faint sound of snowflakes was left.
sound.
While Wei Ran, who was on sentry duty in the latter half of the night, was catching up on his sleep, Jima had already cooked a large pot of oatmeal for breakfast. He even had time to use the leftover firewood from last night's burning to make a small space for two people's backpacks.
sledge.
After breakfast, the two of them, whose bodies had warmed up, extinguished the bonfire that had been burning all night, dismantled the tent, fixed everything except weapons to the sledge, and continued towards their goal in the snow that had covered their boots.
move forward.
“This heavy snowfall couldn’t have come at a better time.”
Ji Ma, who was responsible for exploring the path, pointed behind him, "In half an hour at most, our footprints will be covered by the snow. At the same time, as long as we see footprints on the snow, it proves that the prey is not far away from us.
"
"As long as we don't get lost." Wei Ran, who was responsible for pulling the sledge, tightened the rope on his shoulders. "Jima, what is the situation at our destination?"
"It's an abandoned gold mine," Jima said surprisingly.
"Gold mine?!" Wei Ran's voice rose a bit.
Jima nodded, "I have been there several times with Mr. Nicholas. According to him, gold mines were discovered there before World War II ended."
"If it's a gold mine, you should be able to drive there, right?"
Facing Wei Ran's question, Jima raised his finger and pointed in the direction and explained, "There is indeed an external road, but that road only connects the Kosiyu River. In other words, only when the Kosiyu River is completely frozen can we
That's the only way to go when you're driving a car."
"Where's the rowing boat?" Wei Ran asked unwillingly.
"It is indeed possible to go there by boating, but if you want to drive to the Kosiyo River, you have to go around at least more than 100 kilometers, and there are many places along the way because the ground has not been completely frozen, so it is more troublesome to get there by car."
Ji Ma turned around and smiled, "Anyway, just keep going. This is the fastest way at the moment."
"The correctional camps in the Soviet era were really good at choosing places." Wei Ran sighed, resigned himself to pulling in the rope, pulled the sledge and followed Jima, and continued to move towards the destination honestly.
In the heavy snow, the two of them pulled the sledge forward hard through the dense coniferous forest and the heavy snow. Occasionally they passed through relatively low ground. If they were not wearing snowshoes, the snow on the surface would even be waist deep.
This bad road condition not only seriously slowed down the two people's traveling speed, but also caused big trouble to the small animals in the forest. Even the reindeer that were busy migrating south could only move slowly in the soft snow.
, from time to time we have to stop and rest for a while, or change companions in front to help the deer clear the snow passage.
"boom!"
A clear gunshot sounded, and white smoke slowly overflowed from the barrel. Before Wei Ran could put away the gun mounted on the fork of the tree, Ji Ma, who was holding a telescope, said happily, "Good marksmanship, hit."
A male reindeer."
"You taught me well." Wei Ran returned the sniper rifle in his hand to Jima, and at the same time took the telescope from the opponent's hand.
Gently pushing the charging handle to pull out the empty cartridge case and put a new bullet on it, Ji Ma turned off the safety and put the gun on his back, "Let's go, that reindeer can feed us for several days, we can find a place to camp later.
I'll teach you how to carve up prey."
"Set up camp so early?" Wei Ran rolled up his sleeves and looked at his watch, "It's only less than two o'clock. Isn't it too early?"
"Don't be too hasty. Even if it's a little slower today, we'll be there at noon tomorrow at the latest."
Ji Ma signaled Wei Ran to take off his scarf, "And the most important thing is that you are already sweating from walking. It will be dangerous if you don't dry your clothes as soon as possible."
"What do you mean?" Wei Ran put the scarf on his shoulders and pulled the sledge towards the reindeer that was shot by himself a hundred meters away.
The reindeer's neck had been penetrated by a bullet, and the blood spurting from the broken wound dyed the surrounding snow red, indirectly completing the bloodletting work.
Ji Ma took out a box of tape measures from his bag and measured the reindeer's head, then counted it carefully again, and then said with satisfaction, "It's not bad, the width of the antlers is more than one and a half meters."
, there are more than 30 forks, and just this deer head can be sold for a lot of money as a specimen."
"So that's why you won't let me start?"
"certainly"
Ji Ma nodded matter-of-factly, "One of the most valuable parts of a reindeer is the deer head specimen, especially the antlers of this kind of wild reindeer. The traces of fighting left on them are unmatched by farmed reindeer."
As he spoke, he had used a saw and an ax to chop off the entire deer head and half of its neck, and poked the wound downward on the snow. He grabbed a handful of snow and rubbed the blood off his gloves. Ji Ma pulled out a knife and handed it to him.
Wei Ran, "The next step is your job, peel off its deerskin completely."
"What should I do?" Wei Ran asked as he took the knife. Although he and the professor had shot deer before, the professor had done all the skinning and disemboweling work himself. He had never done it himself.
"Cut along the midline of the chest, with the blade pointing upward when it is close to the abdomen. Otherwise, once the abdominal intestine is cut open, the piece of meat will be useless."
Under Ji Ma's patient guidance, Wei Ran carefully cut open the deer skin, then turned the body over, dumping the entire set of still steaming internal organs onto the snow.
Ji Ma carefully inspected the reindeer's liver and saw that there were no visible lesions on it, so he cut out the heart and threw it aside, while his instructor Wei Ran continued to complete the work of peeling off the skin.
After working hurriedly for nearly an hour, a complete deerskin was peeled off and spread on the snow. Following Ji Ma's example, he rubbed the deerskin completely with the snow to kill the fleas hiding in it. The two worked together to remove the deerskin.
The venison was carried to the sledge and covered with deer skin, and then the deer head was taken away from the "murder scene".
Continuing to walk at least a kilometer upwind, Ji Ma chose a sufficiently open and flat location to set up the tent again. When the campfire was lit, two fat deer legs were cut off and propped aside.
Under the licks of the flames, slowly dripping grease sizzled.
After all this busy work, the sky outside the tent gradually darkened. Wei Ran used a knife to make a few cuts on the deer's legs from time to time, while Ji Ma had already diligently used a wooden stick to hold up the deer's skin and was patiently scraping it.
With the fat involved above.
"How much money can you make from such a deer?" Wei Ran asked curiously.
"If a deer head like this is treated well, I can earn at least seven or eight thousand rubles by selling it as a specimen to my client. Deer skin is relatively not worth much, let alone venison. Basically, I can't bring it with me.
When I go back, I will digest it all on the spot.”
Jima said that he stopped what he was doing here, raised his head and smiled at Wei Ran, "Coupled with other profits from bringing people here to hunt, basically it is not too difficult to make sixty or seventy thousand rubles a month."
Wei Ran nodded secretly after hearing this. This income is not low for Russia, but Jima's hard work and risks are indeed not low.
During the chat between the two, the deer skin that had been processed first was thrown outside the tent. As for the deer head that would be made into a specimen, we could only wait until we got back.
After finishing their work, the two of them ate roasted venison and drank cold vodka to fill their stomachs. At the same time, they also put their sweat-stained clothes on logs and hung them on the edge of the campfire to dry.
Another peaceful night passed, and when the sky lit up again, the heavy snow outside the tent finally stopped, and even the temperatureless sun symbolically showed its head.
After packing up all their belongings, the two people pulled the sledge and set off again, finally arriving at the abandoned gold mine deep in the forest at around one o'clock in the afternoon.
In a forest clearing the size of four football fields, a large four-story building is particularly conspicuous. Not far from it, there is an artificial waterway that has long frozen like a moat across Weiran.
Between the two of them and the building. In the rest of the place, there were some abandoned mineral processing equipment covered with thick snow.
But in addition, the smoke rising from a room on the second floor of the building also indicated that they were not the only guests visiting here.
"What should I do?" Wei Ran, who was lying behind a pine tree, turned to Jima and asked.
"Maybe another hunter"
Ji Ma said vaguely, "This season happens to be when the reindeer migrate south, and many hunters come to the forest to hunt during this season. But..."
Seeing the other party's hesitant look, Wei Ran couldn't help but tensed up his nerves, "What?"
"It could also be a gold digger who wants to make a fortune."
Jima pointed in the direction not far away, "That direction is the entrance to the mine. People often go there to try their luck in the summer."
"Can you find it?"
"It's difficult." Ji Ma shook his head, "otherwise this place wouldn't be abandoned."
Wei Ran raised the telescope again and looked at the smoking room, "Then what should we do now?"
"Wait first"
Ji Ma looked at his watch, "When it gets dark, if no one comes out of that mine, we will go say hello. If the other party is really a gold prospector, we will have to change places and wait for them to leave.
."
Wei Ran immediately guessed Ji Ma's worries, "Do you suspect that what Mr. Nicholas asked us to take from the safe was gold?"
"If it were really gold, we would be in trouble."
Jima said worriedly, "The people who are still willing to come here to dig for gold at this time are either mentally ill or poor and have no other way of living. To them, we are almost the same as the gold in the mine. I'm afraid the best outcome is
We were also put under house arrest by him and forced to go gold mining. So Victor, if the worst happens, don't tell us our original purpose, otherwise, no matter whether there is gold in the safe or not, it will be difficult for us to survive."
"I see"
Wei Ran swallowed hard. Although this danger was far less than what he experienced in Stalingrad and Don Position 19, the threats posed by the two were exactly the same.
Apart from anything else, although the previous two experiences of returning to World War II were always life-threatening, combined with the studio's surveillance footage and his own physical condition after returning, Wei Ran had vaguely guessed that his body might not really be able to survive.
go back.
In other words, even if he really died on the battlefield of World War II, he might still have a slim chance of surviving in his original world. But if he was shot by a possible gold digger in that building, he would be dead.
I really have to lie down.
"Put this on"
Ji Ma slowly took out a snow-white blouse from his bag and handed it to Wei Ran, then took out a tent of the same color and spread it on the snow.
In addition, the animal skin that was still supported by a wooden frame was given to Wei Ran. The two people wearing smocks lay on the tent cloth, each holding a telescope and a sniper rifle and staring quietly at the building and the entrance of the mine in the distance.
direction.
As the two of them waited quietly, the cold sun above their heads began to set a little to the west. When it started to get dark, two reindeer pulled a sledge and ran out of the coniferous forest opposite and stopped at the door of the building.
At the steps.
"Looks like a hunter"
Ji Ma, who put the gun on his backpack, breathed a sigh of relief, "There are wolves and reindeer on his sledge. The other party might be a hunting team."
"Then do we want to go there?" Wei Ran, who was also holding a telescope, asked.
"hold on"
Ji Ma pointed the gun in the direction of the mine again, "When it gets completely dark, and if there is still no one entering or exiting the mine, we can go over and make contact with them."
Wei Ran didn't say anything after hearing this, he just secretly took out a pistol that was kept in a cowhide book, filled it with bullets, and put it back without even turning off the safety.
For him, although the two brutal wars he had experienced before did not teach him much, at least he no longer had any hesitation about killing people - whether with a gun or a knife.
Time passed minute by minute, and about two hours later, Jima handed the sniper rifle in his hand to Wei Ran, and then took out the bolt-action shotgun from the latter's backpack, "Victor, I'll go and talk to Wei Ran."
When the other party comes into contact, if everything is safe, I will wave the flashlight at you. If it is dangerous, I will find a way to shoot. At that time, you will have to find a way back to Intali."
"How about we camp somewhere else?"
Wei Ran grabbed Ji Ma, who was about to stand up, "Anyway, we have plenty of time, we can wait until the other party leaves."
"In the next month, this forest will only become more and more lively." Ji Ma showed his big yellow teeth that were exposed by the smoke. "And it will be Principal Nicholas's birthday in half a month. I still want to go back to attend his birthday."
It’s my 90th birthday.”
Before Wei Ran could say anything else, he had already picked up the gun, carried the half-deflated tent on his back, and walked a hundred meters away. Then, holding a bright flashlight, he came out of the dense forest and walked straight towards the covered building.
