Tan Xiaoqing, deputy squad leader of the driver's class, calculated accurately. Before dawn, platoon leader Hu Zhijun came over with his car.
When they found it, seven people were gathered around a fire five or six meters away from the car. Several tree branches were holding the handlebars of the car, and they were hanging the roasted wolf meat! One of the wolves had eaten all that was left of the skeleton, and the other had eaten less than half of it.
"What did you guys do? You are eating roasted whole lamb here!" When the car headlights shone on the seven people, Wang Ke knew that the rescuers were coming, and he stood up quickly.
Platoon leader Hu Zhijun jumped out of the car and shouted. Wang Ke smiled happily and ran forward quickly, holding a wolf rib in his hand. "Report to the platoon leader, it's not a roasted whole lamb, it's a roasted whole wolf!"
"Roast a whole wolf, are you roasting wolf meat?"
Wang Ke immediately handed the wolf steak to platoon leader Hu Zhijun, "Platoon leader, try it, it's delicious!"
"Wait a minute, I have wine in my car." Platoon leader Hu Zhijun waved to the car he was leading and shouted to the driver: "Take my wine and come over here, don't turn off the engine, don't turn off the headlights, come over and eat wolf meat." .”
Normally, roast a whole lamb, roast a beef, roast a suckling pig, roast a fish fillet... Platoon leader Hu Zhijun has eaten them all before, but this is the first time to roast a whole wolf. When he got to the fire, he didn't ask Tan Xiaoqing. Did your car break down? He pulled off a wolf's leg and started to chew on it.
"Well, the meat is quite fragrant, but it's a little bit woody. The meat on the legs is like straw, and there's a bit of horse meat." Platoon leader Hu Zhijun commented while chewing. After a while, he almost finished eating a wolf leg. , then turned around and asked: "What's the matter with you?"
Tan Xiaoqing, the deputy squad leader of the driver's class, told the story of the cause and effect of the car's breakdown. Of course, he added some exaggeration and also told the story of a pack of wolves attacking the car. He didn't see the recruit Niu Suozhu instantly knocking down a pack of wolves and killing two. However, he could only vaguely say that Wang Ke and the others killed two.
And Wang Ke didn't want to embarrass him, let alone tell him about Niu's kung fu. Just a careless look, "By chance, by chance, I killed two of them with bayonets."
And the platoon leader Hu Zhijun was not surprised. During the period when the divisional farm was out of food, which night did he not tame a few wild dogs? He knew how powerful Wang Ke was, so he didn't delve into it.
"Don't eat any of you. I have to bring the remaining wolf leg to Deputy Company Commander Lu Zeran. He is also participating in the training with us. It is probably the first time for me to eat a roasted whole wolf."
Everyone laughed, stood up, patted the dirt on their butts, and started towing.
At dawn, they arrived at Tunliuzhuang where they were stationed for training.
Tunliuzhuang is difficult to find on the map, it is very small. The whole village has only three to five hundred people, and it is located in a mountain valley.
But the people in this village have been proud for thousands of years. Why? Legend has it that Jing Ke started from here when he assassinated the King of Qin. A large group of dead soldiers and tens of thousands of soldiers were hiding in this village, waiting for Jing Ke to succeed in his assassination. They immediately responded and attacked the Qin camp in Zhao State.
Unfortunately, the assassination failed. Some of these garrison troops had no place to go, so they stayed in this garrison village from generation to generation. So strictly speaking, they are also descendants of the Yan people.
The wind rustles and the water becomes cold, and the strong man will never return once he is gone.
Therefore, the young and old men in this village all think that they are descendants of strong men. During the war against Japanese invaders, many people in this village joined the guerrillas and contributed a lot to the war of resistance. It is said that several Eighth Route Army soldiers set out from Langya Mountain, less than ten miles away from here, leading the little devil step by step up the cliff, and finally jumped off the cliff and died heroically.
The troops came to this village for training and all lived in the homes of fellow villagers.
There are six people in the reconnaissance team, living in the home of an uncle named Geng. This uncle named Geng lives halfway up the mountain. He has never been married and has no children. He has three rooms. He lives in the east room by himself. The reconnaissance team passed the village house and lived in the west room with the uncle's consent.
The uncle doesn't cook on weekdays because his niece-in-law lives at the foot of the mountain more than 200 meters away from his home with two young children. Her husband died of illness the year before last and never remarried. Uncle Geng teamed up with his niece-in-law and his family, looking at several acres of orchards. He usually went down the mountain to eat three meals a day, and then worked in the orchard after eating. He didn't spend much time living in his own house.
Because they arrived relatively late, most of the company lived in the village, and only the reconnaissance squad lived a little more remote. Although the mountain road is not high, it is a little bit hard to climb up and down every day. Everyone was quite fresh on the first day, and the next day was fine, but when a week passed and after dinner, Hu Xinrui started to scream.
"Squad leader, the mountain road is winding and the walking is too hard. Let's talk to the company commander and live in a village instead. It will be easier to get up at night."
Wang Ke smiled, he understood what Hu Xinrui meant when he said "it's convenient to get up at night". Everything is good in this village except for the lack of water.
To what extent is this water shortage? Let me describe it first. There is only one well in the whole village. As long as it doesn’t rain, every household has to get up and line up to fetch water at midnight. It is estimated that no one from Tiannan to Haibei has seen the burden of the water carrier. The rope is a hundred meters long, and one end is a big bucket.
This well is too deep. It is said that it was passed down from generation to generation during the Warring States Period. It is an ancient well. The old people in the village have a happy legend, saying that the water in this ancient well is very prosperous and sweet. I don’t know which dynasty or generation, the water head suddenly decreased, began to dry up, and became less and less, forming what it is now. But it’s hard to leave the homeland, and water is scarce but always there. For thousands of years, water has limited poverty and imagination. The water used to wash rice and vegetables is used to wash the face, and the water used to wash the face is fed to the pigs. The village is not overpopulated, but only a few hundred people have been maintained. .
On the day they first arrived, the entire reconnaissance class did not use water. Wang Ke took people to the well to fetch water, and wrapped the rope around the pulley at the wellhead. After putting it down for a long time, he heard the sound of the bucket colliding with the bottom of the well. After beating again and again, no water was found. Wang Ke was lying on the edge of the well. Looking down at the wall of the well. The stones around him were smooth, but it turned out to be a hole dug out from the middle of the stone. He took the flashlight Wu Xiangyu gave him and shined it downwards. It was unfathomable.
The government once wanted to rebuild a motorized well here. But this ancient well is too deep, people can't go down, and the water is not strong. A geological team was called in for exploration. The geological team took machines to search inside and outside the village. They discovered that although the village was in a mountain col, the ground was entirely made of rocks. There was no conditions for drilling wells at all, so it was suggested that the whole village be relocated.
Some people didn't believe it, so they dug wells by themselves and tried several times, but all failed.
According to Huang Zhonghe, the wireless squad leader, there is a custom in this village that must collect water in the middle of the night, and each person can only fetch one bucket at a time. At the end of the line, only half a bucket can be fetched at a time. It takes several fetchings to collect the water. A bucket full. Wang Ke thought, if he wanted to shoot three buckets, wouldn't he have to queue three times, which would take more than an hour, which would be harder than standing on the night guard.
The reconnaissance team lived a little further away, so they had to fetch water from the mountains in the middle of the night, and the road was difficult to walk in the dark, so bumps and bruises were common. Training during the day and fetching water at night made the whole class sleepless, so it was understandable that Hu Xinrui would yell.
This is an old revolutionary area, and the military and civilians have a close relationship with each other, so we have to do the work of carrying water for the fellow villagers.
At this point, one can imagine how difficult the training conditions are. So from the third day of the reconnaissance class, Wang Ke drew up a water fetching duty schedule. Two people fetched four buckets of water every night, which could generally meet the daily needs of the whole class and Uncle Geng.
But since he discovered that Uncle Geng also had a niece-in-law, Uncle Geng still queued up at midnight every day to help his niece-in-law's house fetch water, so the reconnaissance team simply sent three people every night, and two people helped her nephew-in-law's house fetch six buckets of water. Only three barrels.
Hu Yanlou was so warm-hearted that he would go to Uncle Geng's wife's house to fetch water in the middle of the night every day, regardless of whether he was on the water meter. This caught Wang Ke's attention, so he went to Uncle Geng's niece's house to have a look.
Although Uncle Geng's niece has two children, she is not very old. Judging from his appearance, he might be twenty-one or twelve years old. Moreover, in this mountain village, people are relatively upright, and their homes are kept in order. In addition to helping Uncle Geng take care of the orchard, he also raises a pig and a dozen sheep. In the yard, there are several jujube trees, persimmon trees, and pear trees.
It turns out that Hu Yanlou did this for a reason. Did this new recruit fall in love with Uncle Geng’s nephew-in-law? If you fall in love with a fellow villager at the station, it is a serious violation of discipline. Hu Yanlou's abnormality attracted the attention of reconnaissance squad leader Wang Ke. So he decided that starting tonight, he and Hu Yanlou would fetch water for Uncle Geng's niece-in-law and keep a close eye on him. Don't let him have any inappropriate thoughts or opportunities.
Since there are men at home fetching water, women cannot sleep there. Wang Ke and Hu Yanlou carried water and entered the home of Uncle Geng's niece and nephew. Uncle Geng's niece kept holding a lantern and stood at the door of the courtyard to shine the light and wait. As soon as he saw the water coming, he quickly led the way and welcomed the two people and the water into the house like the head of state.
The water is a little turbid when you pour it into the jar. It doesn't matter. After you finish fetching the water, pick up a piece of alum and stir it in the water a few times. The water will become clear after a while.
After three consecutive trips, Wang Ke and Hu Yanlou went back to sleep after fetching water, and they didn't say many words to Uncle Geng's nephew-in-law. If you don’t say it today, it doesn’t mean you won’t say it tomorrow. Wang Ke has made up his mind to spend the rest of his time with you talking nonsense. I won’t tell you anything, but I’m monitoring you around the clock.
But the next day, things started to go wrong in Hu Yanlou. After filling three buckets of water, he stood there and refused to go back.
"Let's go, Hu Yanlou, go back to sleep."
"Squad leader, please go back first. I'll wait until the people fetching water are gone and then try to fetch a bucket."
"I've already filled six buckets, what else do you want to do?" Wang Ke thought, he was risking his life, which meant that he would have to draw water until midnight, he would not sleep, he had to be energetic, and he would have to train tomorrow.
"No, I have to go back to sleep."
Having no other choice, Hu Yanlou put down the bucket and rope and followed Wang Ke back to Uncle Geng's house halfway up the mountain.
After getting into bed, Wang Ke fell asleep quickly. In the hazy state, he felt that Hu Yanlou was getting up quietly in the dark. If he got up early to clean the courtyard, it was still a little early. It was only after three o'clock. What did he get up for?
So, he turned over and watched Hu Yanlou leave the yard. He quickly put on his clothes and followed him out.
Hu Yanlou was walking towards the home of Uncle Geng's niece, the little widow.
