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."
To be continued...