Fourteen Gege was climbing the ladder, putting his ears against the stone slab above his head, listening carefully to the movement above. The ground was about a foot away. As long as he pressed the mechanism at hand, the stone slab above his head would slide.
Open it and you can go out.
But I don't know what's up there. Is it empty space, or is it the muzzle of Soviet gunfire?
"How is it...is there any movement..."
Xiang Xiaoqiang's half-dead voice came from below.
Fourteen Gege glared, lowered his head and whispered:
"Shhh!!!"
Then she continued to close her ears and listen to what was going on above.
Next, Xiang Xiaoqiang groaned half-deadly:
"Fourteen...you must steal a radio station..."
Fourteen Gege got angry and shouted in a low voice:
"Shut up!"
I have been listening for almost half an hour, and there is not a sound from above. Fourteen Gege made a basic judgment that there is no one above.
She looked at the luminous watch and saw that it was already three o'clock in the middle of the night. At this hour, even if there were people on duty, they should be fast asleep.
It has been three days since the ruins of the mosque were cleaned up. And the old imam who hid them has not appeared for three days. He was probably taken away. Now the water and food in the secret room are almost gone, and there is no oil in the lamp. More importantly
Yes, the toilet hasn't been emptied for three days, and now the secret room smells so bad that both of their noses are almost numb.
In short, we definitely can't hide any longer. No matter what the situation is above, we have to go out and take a look. Even if we are caught by the Soviet army as soon as we go out, it is better than rotting alive down there.
…
After three full days of cleaning, all the remaining bricks and tiles in the mosque were cleaned up. Even the dust on the ground was almost swept away. The slate floor was also mopped spotless. Now, except for the parts of the mosque that were destroyed by the bombing,
The interior has been basically restored to order.
Now, the interior of the mosque has been basically converted into an exhibition hall. Many photos, explanatory boards with various texts, and some physical objects, such as shackles, whips, torture instruments, etc., have been displayed in the long corridor and chapel.
The Ming army prisoners of war who had worked for three days slept in the chapel at night. There were intact iron bars on the windows of the chapel, making it impossible to get out. The only exit was the corridor. And outside the corridor were several Soviet guards.
There is a light machine gun pointed at the corridor.
It was already early June, but it was still very cold at night in Dihua. Apart from the clothes on their bodies, these dozens of Ming army prisoners of war only had some tattered blankets and rotten cotton batting to keep out the cold. The glass on the windows was shattered, and the cold wind outside hit them directly.
It blew in. The prisoners of war huddled together to keep warm and could barely sleep.
The one squeezed in the middle is Wu Yanbin. In the past few days, these prisoners of war have known his identity and his "life and death" deeds in Liaodong, and they already admire him very much. Every time he goes to bed, he can get the most.
The middle is the warmest position.
Wu Yanbin had a nightmare tonight.
He dreamed that he was sitting in the cemetery for some reason, and then a woman's hand suddenly stretched out from the soil beside his feet, grabbed his feet, and dragged him down. The female ghost was still miserable while dragging him.
shouting...
Just when he was about to wake up with a fright, suddenly...
With a "Hula", the bottom of the butt suddenly became empty, and suddenly the legs and butt were stuck there. Then a woman's voice from below said "Ah".
Wu Yanbin's scalp exploded and he opened his eyes. Looking down in the moonlight, he saw a large crack opened under his feet, and a woman's pale face appeared, as well as a woman's pale hands, clutching his feet tightly.
, drag it down as hard as you can.
"Ouch————!!!"
Wu Yanbin let out the most miserable howl, but it stopped abruptly in the middle of the cry.
With the pull of gravity, he was swallowed by the earth.
Hula, the stone slab returned to its original position.
"Ah?" "Huh?" "Who called it?" "What's going on?" "Whose leg is it pressing on?" "Who's having a nightmare?"
A group of prisoners of war opened their sleepy eyes, looked at each other, and muttered, all with confused expressions on their faces.
Then, they found that there were some gaps in the middle, which were a little cold, so they all squeezed in consciously, and squeezed tightly together again, feeling warm and cozy.
There were footsteps in the corridor, and then the door of the chapel opened, and a flashlight beam shone, followed by the sound of a gunshot.
The flashlight beam shone around the prisoners of war, and all they saw were a bunch of sleepy-eyed prisoners. The light beam shone again on several windows, and they saw that the iron fences were also intact.
A Russian voice mumbled something, turned off the flashlight, and closed the door again.
The prisoners of war also cursed each other, huddled together again, and went to sleep.
…
The next morning, it was dawn.
The Soviet soldiers outside shouted and drove all the Ming prisoners of war into the yard for a routine daily count.
It had been like this for several days. There were fifty prisoners of war cleaning the ruins, and it was too troublesome to count them one by one. But counting the number of people every morning was a rule and had to be obeyed. So he asked the prisoners to count by themselves every day. As long as the last number
If it's "fifty", that's right.
This is definitely not reliable, but there is only one exit in the chapel. How could it be wrong to drive prisoners of war in at night and out at dawn every day? Escape can only be done during the day while working, and it is impossible to escape at night.
Every night when work is done, the number of people must be carefully counted.
"one!"
"two!"
"three!"
"Four!"
…
"Forty-six!"
"Forty-seven!"
"Forty-eight!"
"Fifty!"
Under the protection of the light machine gun, the Soviet sergeant in charge lowered his head and compared the Chinese characters for "fifty" on the book, as well as the pronunciation marked in Russian next to it, and the Arabic numeral "50", dot dot
He turned his head, closed the book, and muttered:
"Ta. Horatio."
Then he waved his hand, and several Soviet soldiers armed with light machine guns drove the forty-nine prisoners of war to work elsewhere.
…
And in the underground secret room, in the darkness, a debate was going on.
The three of them were both surprised and happy last night. Wu Yanbin did not expect to meet Master Xiang and Her Royal Highness the Princess here, and Xiang Xiaoqiang and Shi Shigege also did not expect that Wu Yanbin was not only alive and well, but also fell from the sky as soon as he turned on the mechanism.
Came down.
The three people talked about their experiences over the past few days, and then all focused on what to do next.
It was definitely impossible to escape in the middle of the night, because Wu Yanbin knew that the only exit was guarded by the Soviet army with machine guns. Until daytime, all the prisoners of war went out to work, and no one was watching here.
Xiang Xiaoqiang advocated running away now, but Wu Yanbin said no. There are many Soviet soldiers outside now, because this place is next to the Soviet military camp. Now three people suddenly come out. Wu Yanbin is still wearing the Ming army uniform, which will immediately attract attention.
Fourteenth Princess also agreed with Wu Yanbin. On the one hand, because Wu Yanbin knew the situation outside, it was safer to listen to him. On the other hand, Fourteenth Princess planned to take a risk and wait until the first batch of people who came to "visit" came in to mix in.
Go out among the common people.
As for clothes, Xiang Xiaoqiang and Shi Shigege had no problem. Over the past few days, they had already changed into local casual clothes brought by the imam. However, Wu Yanbin did not have casual clothes and was still wearing Ming army uniforms.
After many discussions, no one has a perfect solution. The problem is that the water and food will soon be gone, and we can no longer hide. There is another Wu Yanbin, and we can't hold on for another day. No matter what, we have to do it today.
escape.
Xiang Xiaoqiang was still suffering from a low fever and was extremely weak, making escape even more difficult.
"There is no other way," Shi Shigege said through gritted teeth, "We can only take one step at a time. You stay here while I go up to take a look."
Wu Yanbin said:
"Your Highness, you are here, let your subordinates go up and take a look first!"
Fourteen Gege was stunned and said:
"If you are discovered wearing these clothes..."
Wu Yanbin said:
"If I am discovered, I am just a prisoner of war who slipped through the net. I will be beaten at most and I will have a chance to escape in the future. Once Your Highness and Your Excellency are discovered, they will have no chance to escape."
The Fourteenth Princess was quite moved, nodded and said:
"Okay. Then be careful. Don't stand up after you go up. Lie down lower so that no one can see it from the window. Come down when you have a clear view."
"Your Highness, don't worry!"
Fourteen put his ears against the stone slab and listened for a few more minutes. Finally, he pressed the button and the stone slab slid open, letting in the dazzling light from outside.
Wu Yanbin first put half of his head out, looked around to make sure there was no one in the chapel, then he squatted on the ground with both hands on his hands.
He quickly rolled and rolled under a window, then carefully exposed his head and looked outside the mosque.
There was at least one platoon of Soviet soldiers active outside. Some were chatting, some were playing the accordion, and some were brushing horses.
Wu Yanbin was really surprised. He didn't expect there to be so many. Why did the number of Soviet soldiers suddenly increase when the prisoners of war left? Is it to protect the "exhibition" this morning? Or is it the first batch of visitors today?
, are the Soviet officers and soldiers themselves?
The sweat on his forehead fell. Then he bent down again, walked to the door of the chapel, and gently pushed the two doors.
It couldn't be pushed open. The door was locked from the outside.
Wu Yanbin looked around the chapel and saw that it had been turned into an exhibition hall.