Wang Ke drove the sleigh, put his hat ears down, raised his coat collar, put on his cotton gloves, and directed the company's little braying donkey out of the barracks gate and headed west.
Although there is still light snow, this road is easier to walk because there are trees on both sides of the road. In addition, the little braying donkey of the company knew the road again, and ran for twenty-seven or eight kilometers in a blink of an eye. Along the way, there were few people and no birds. There was no one or one donkey, and no one was breathing.
"Huh..." Wang Ke stopped the little donkey and untied it. A thick layer of snow had fallen on its neck and back. Take a bag of hay from the sled, shake it open and feed it to the little braying donkey. After eating the grass, Wang Ke unscrewed a bottle of water from his coat and stuffed it into the little donkey's mouth to let it drink a few sips. Then pick up the reins and move on.
After walking for more than ten kilometers, we arrived at Nanshao Village at the foot of Xishan Mountain.
Nanshao Village is directly west of the army barracks, but to the south of Xishan Mountain. It has towering mountains on one side and fertile land on the other. It is particularly suitable for the cultivation of Chinese medicinal materials, so according to the advice of the old Chinese medicine practitioner, it is now the end of the year. If Tongcao cannot be purchased in this place, then it will be impossible to purchase it anywhere within a radius of one or two hundred kilometers.
Therefore, Nanshao Village must go.
Four or five kilometers away from Nanshao Village, there are many huge pits for sand mining. This place used to be the bifurcation of Yishui and Xushui. For thousands of years, the old river bed was rich in sand and gravel. Villagers dug sand and stone here, forming hundreds of deep pits of various sizes.
Whenever you go to this place, vehicles and pedestrians should be careful to avoid falling into the pit and being unable to get out.
After a night of heavy snow, the wind blew all the snow on the road into the pits. At first glance, these pits were not deep, just shallow pits. But Wang Ke knew that under the falling snow valley, there were many things in these pits. There is at least two meters of snow, so falling down is no fun.
Wang Ke carefully drove the sled and ran along the middle road.
This section of road is at least three kilometers long. After passing through it and climbing over a small hillside, you can see the village of Nanshao Village. According to today's progress, we might be able to get back to the barracks before or after dinner.
A series of messy animal footprints on the hillside converged on this road. In the snow, you could vaguely see a small black dot in front of you driving a group of donkeys or horses!
Is it a phantom or a real scene? Wang Ke shook his head. In the snow, the messy animal footprints in front of him disappeared again. The herd of donkeys and horses were gone. The scene that had not appeared for a long time suddenly changed, and suddenly it became me standing under the pit looking up, with snow all over my head. Could it be that I was buried in the pit by snow?
careful! He tried hard to get the little donkey to walk toward the middle of the road. He could no longer obey the traffic rules and keep to the right as usual to prevent the sled from sliding down.
After climbing the hillside, Wang Ke took a breath. Finally, the flashed scene did not reappear. Falling into a pit would not be fun.
On the snowy hillside, messy animal footprints really appeared, and a small black dot of a human figure could be vaguely seen in the front, driving a group of donkeys or horses into the village.
Wang Ke, who was sitting on the sleigh, lowered his head and took out a jug of water from his coat, opened it and took a sip. He immediately chased them away and looked up again. There was a group of donkeys in front of them, and the little black dot of the figure had disappeared.
Wang Ke rubbed his eyes. Could it be that his eyes were deceived just now? There was no black dot of figure in the snow at all? No, on both sides of the road near the village, although there are not as many pits for quarrying and sand, there are still many big pits.
The sled continues to move forward, and which are the animal footprints that can be vaguely distinguished? What are human footprints? Sure enough, he saw the snow nest made by the feet of several people. There were people there, but why were they gone again?
The sled was speeding by, and a dark shadow under the tree on the roadside flashed past in the corner of my eye.
"Huh..." Wang Ke restrained the little donkey and turned around to look at the black figure just now. It seemed to be a hole.
Could it be that what I just saw was really a person, and this person who followed the donkeys slipped into the hole. Wang Ke jumped off the sled and walked backward through the hole. This irregular hole was not small. The other side of the hole clearly looked like a snow nest that someone had walked through. Then I turned back and walked over. At the edge of the cave, the footprints were gone. There was only an indentation extending into the cave. I looked at the group of donkeys in front of me from a distance, running towards the village.
Wang Ke squatted beside the snow cave, turned one ear of his hat up, and shouted down: "Is there anyone there?"
There was no voice response from below.
Maybe he was dazzled, but there was no one just now. Wang Ke stood up and wanted to leave, but suddenly he seemed to hear some noise in the snow cave again. The snow cave is only two feet deep and can be seen with the naked eye. It is covered with snow and there is nothing inside.
Wang Ke walked away and had to buy Tongcao. As soon as he took a step forward, Wang Ke immediately stopped. wrong. If a person were to slide down alone, the snow hole would fill up in an instant. The person should be under the snow, and maybe he would have slipped to the bottom of the pit by now.
No matter what, I want to go down into the hole and have a look, what if it’s a human?
Wang Ke stood there and looked around. There was no one there. The group of donkeys just now ran into the village and disappeared. Should I go to the village first, call the master and then come back to help?
On this snowy day, everyone is sitting in front of the stove at home. What if there is no one under the snow, will the people in the village say that I am making a fuss and looking for trouble?
In addition, such a delay might last another hour. If there is someone below, it is only natural for me to go rescue him. If there is no one below, it will delay things. I still have to buy medicine. What should I do if I can’t see the way back after dark?
Let's talk about it again. Wang Ke stomped his feet, walked back to the sled, and got on the sled with one foot, but at this time he hesitated again. Human life is at stake. If it is really a human being buried alive in the snow, if no one finds it, he will definitely die.
However, if you go down to the hole and take a look, how do you get up?
Wang Ke looked at the tree opposite. He had a rope with him, tied the rope to the tree opposite, and pulled one end of the rope down and back up. Wouldn't that be enough? But if there really is someone down there, can the two of them still be able to get along?
With a thought, Wang Ke immediately had an idea.
He took off his coat, untied the little braying donkey from the sled, led it to the other side of the road, with its head facing the snow cave just now, and said to the little braying donkey, "Just stand there. If you hear me shouting, just go ahead." Move forward and drag me up!”
Wang Ke tied one end of the rope to the saddle of the little donkey, and tied the other end of the rope around the big tree and tied it to himself. This road is six or seven meters long, and the snow will not be this deep, no matter how deep it is.
After finishing all this, Wang Ke slid down from the entrance of the cave with his feet together. Sure enough, with a "chip", he was immediately submerged in the snow cave. It was really deep. This slide along the edge of the ditch, made an arc, and actually slid to the bottom of the pit. A full four or five meters away, he stopped when his foot hit something hard.
The hard thing under his feet that he stepped on moved, "Is it a human?" Wang Ke shouted, and there was some "um um" sound under his feet. I couldn't even hear clearly from my own place, let alone the entrance of the cave just now.
Wang Ke turned around and grabbed the rope. He used his hands and feet to remove the snow as much as possible. He touched down and finally grabbed something. He pulled it up and it seemed to be a scarf. He quickly threw it away, and when he touched it again, he grabbed it as it seemed to be hair. The other hand pulled the rope down, and soon the rope was tight.
Wang Ke bit his teeth and wrapped the rope around his hand a few times with one hand. Then he let go of his teeth and desperately pulled the rope downwards with one hand. The humane little barking donkey started to move forward, dragging the rope forward. . The rope's handle was very painful. Wang Ke now opened his hands in a "big" shape, and grabbed the hair of the person below with the other hand, not daring to relax at all. In this way, the little barking donkey dragged the two people step by step. Pulled both people up from the snow cave.
When I came up, I saw two people lying on the ground, both covered with snow, almost like snowmen. The hand with the rope wrapped around him was already bleeding from the stranglehold. Wang Ke quickly got up and put on a glove. He didn't want the person who had just been rescued to see him, so he didn't care about himself and crawled over. He hurriedly let go of the other one and went to slap the snowman who had just been dragged up on the ground. After wiping off the snow on the man's head, face and body, he looked at the hair that he had just pulled. It turned out to be a woman. The whole body is covered with snow, and one cannot tell how old he is.
"Can you hear what I say?" Wang Ke sat up and said to the woman lying on the ground.
The woman covered her head with her hands and said, "It hurts me so much." The woman lying on the ground moved and her hands moved as well.
In fact, just when he was in the snow cave, Wang Ke felt this woman holding his hand and not letting go. But at that time, he had no way to change hands, so he could only drag her up by the hair with all his strength.
For a moment of shock, the woman seemed not to have woken up from the snow cave. But she was still lying on the ground in the snow.
"It's snowing so hard, how can a woman like you run out? Are you not injured?" Wang Ke asked loudly, and if she didn't wake up again, he would give her some water.
At this time, the woman opposite finally sat up, wiped the snow off her face, and patted the snow off her body and head. Now I can see that this woman is about twenty-six or seventeen years old, quite tall, her face is red, her lips are purple and trembling. She has shoulder-length hair and wears a floral cotton-padded jacket. If she didn't have such long hair just now, it would be over for her. No wonder she had a headache. First, she was stamped on the head by her big-toed shoes, and then she was dragged up by her hair.
She composed herself and finally said: "Brother, thank you, ah, you are the People's Liberation Army!" Her whole body was still shaking.
"Are you from Nanshao Village?"
The woman nodded, "I came out to drive the animals home from the mountain, but I didn't expect to fall into a pit. I was careless."
Seeing her trembling, probably partly from fear and partly from cold, he immediately went to the sled, took his fur coat over and wrapped it around her.
"Your animals have gone home, don't worry." Wang Ke continued.
The woman continued to nod and rested for a long time before answering Wang Ke's words. "Comrade of the People's Liberation Army, are you also going to Nanshao Village?"
"Where is it? It's great to meet you. I'm here to buy medicine."
"What medicine are you buying? Comrade of the People's Liberation Army."
"I'll buy Tongcao."
"Oh, I bought it for your wife, for breastfeeding?"
"I'm not married yet. I bought it for our platoon leader's wife." Wang Ke blushed at what the woman in front of him said.
"Then let's go to my house. My house is the pharmacy!"
ah? There are such coincidences in the world. The woman who was rescued by herself owns a medicine shop at home. What a coincidence.
"Then get in the car quickly!" Wang Ke smiled as soon as he finished speaking. This was a dirt sled made of chopping boards.
Wang Ke quickly hitched the little donkey, packed up the rope, helped the woman get on the sled, and the two of them drove towards the village.
