"This is where we are now"

Mesut didn't wait for Wei Ran to speak, and easily found their current location on the map. Then he measured the distance with a cotton rope against the scale and said, "Leave the river from here and go west across a width of about

After 3 kilometers of forest, we can return to the river connected to the camp. We originally wanted to cross the river.

If we continue along the current winding river path, we will eventually reach that river, but we will have to walk five times the distance."

"Aren't you curious about what the five-pointed star and other symbols marked on the map represent?"

Ihor pointed to the hand-drawn five-pointed star on the map representing the river line and guessed, "What if there is a hunter's cabin here? What if we can find another shotgun from there."

"Let's take this river path now."

Mesut paused and explained additionally, "Although this river is long, it is flat enough for Ihor to learn to operate a sleigh."

"Should we go here to take a look?" Ihor asked unwillingly, pointing to the hand-drawn five-pointed star on the map.

"What's your opinion?" Mesut looked at Wei Ran who provided the map but said nothing.

"What are you planning to do next?" Wei Ran did not answer the question, but instead asked a key question.

"First try your best to escape from the most likely pursuit, and at the same time try to move as far south as possible."

Mesut hesitated for about a second, and then added, "Look for a suitable opportunity to return to the area near the Yenisei River.

The three of us have already learned Russian, so as long as we run far enough, we can pretend to be Soviet hunters and follow the course of the Yenisei River southward to leave this frozen land."

After looking at Ihor, Wei Ran thought for a moment and shook his head, then said indifferently, "I don't care, I can go in any direction, but I don't think it's a good idea to go to the five-pointed star.

Now we are running for our lives, not a time to satisfy our curiosity. If there is a Soviet logging camp or a labor camp, we will just change the place to serve our sentence."

"What if there is another wooden house there?" Ihor couldn't help but insist.

"Then go on your own." Wei Ran put the map away and stuffed it into his arms, turned around and walked out of the wooden house.

Before Ihor could speak, Mesut reached out and patted it on the shoulder, "Go along the current river course and be ready to enter the forest at any time. Now is really not the time to satisfy our curiosity, and we have enough supplies."

Hearing this, Ihor opened his mouth, but finally did not refute, and nodded honestly.

Now that they had made the decision, the three of them immediately hitched the reindeer to the sleigh they had just moved out, and tied two additional reindeer to the rear of the sleigh. They also did not forget to stuff two large bales of fodder into the sleigh every possible opportunity, and

Two bundles of fodder were also hung on the shoulders of the other reindeer that did not need to pull the cart.

It took about ten minutes to teach Ihor some basic knowledge of reindeer control, and he used ropes to connect the front and rear of the car to the two other cars. Mesut immediately shouted at the car in the front

, followed the sled tracks when they came, and ran towards the frozen river.

After experiencing the initial nervousness, Ihor saw that whether it was the reindeer pulling the cart, the reindeer tied to both sides of the sled cart, carrying fodder and running along, or even the reindeer calf lying in front of him to warm his feet, they were extremely happy.

To be honest, he gradually relaxed.

After running so slowly for almost an hour, Ihor was able to control the reindeer to accelerate and stop. At the same time, the strong wind that had been raging for two days gradually died down, leaving only the huge snowflakes falling.

Without the snow thrown up by the strong wind blocking their sight, they could easily see that on a high plateau in the distance, there was a particularly conspicuous black cave, pointed directly at the river. There was no doubt that that cave was

It's probably the location represented by the five-pointed star marked on the map.

"Should we go and take a look?" Ihor asked the reindeer to speed up, keeping the sleigh and Mesut side by side, and asked again, "There seems to be no one there."

"It's too late," Mesut responded loudly, "the storm is about to stop, we have to travel more before then."

After saying that, he shook the reins and urged the reindeer to run faster.

Looking regretfully at the caves on the shore and the mountains further away, Ihor could only shake the reins and urge the reindeer to follow Mesut.

The two people didn't know that Wei Ran, who was beside them, had just held up the Kiev 30 camera hidden in his sleeve, pointed it at the two of them and pressed the shutter again.

Without the urging of the strong wind, the speed of the three sleighs became faster and faster, but even so, it still took them another hour to see the frozen river again along the frozen river.

Crossing the Suhayatunguska River connecting the labor camps.

Contrary to the expectations of Wei Ran and Ihor, Mesut did not cross the river. Instead, when he saw the frozen river, he immediately shook the reins, shouted at the reindeer to get into the coniferous forest, and ran towards the direction.

East direction.

Of course, the three of them didn't know that right behind them, at the spot where they had waxed the sled for the first time yesterday, a dog sled also slowly stopped.

After patting the snow and frost off his body, Panin, a young guard with a tired look on his face, gently touched the heads of several dogs, stuffed a piece of frozen meat into each of their mouths, and then squatted on the lead dog.

Next to the pine tree.

Along the way, he was able to catch up here, in addition to relying on the remaining sled prints and hoof prints, he also relied on the keen sense of smell of these sled dogs.

However, this snowstorm caused him and his dogs to take too many wrong paths and find too many wrong places. But this time, he knew that these furry children had finally found the right place.

Because this tree not only had the remaining reindeer hair and the traces left by the friction on the trunk when the tethered reindeer tried to break free from the reins, but also gently stroked away the snow on the surface, and he also found the reindeer as he wished.

Feces, obviously artificially paved pine needles, and even ice marks left after the bucket melted the snow!

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! After searching, he walked to another tree next to him, dug through the snow bit by bit, and successfully found the covered charcoal. But the clue came

Here, it's completely broken.

At this time, there were no sled or hoof marks in the forest. With such thick snow, not only did the sleighs have a hard time running, but their noses could no longer function.

After thinking for a moment, Panin clenched his fists, stood up and got on the sled, yelling at the dogs to turn around in a circle, then returned to the Suhayatunguska River not far away, and started again along the river.

Run wildly.

Young Panin knew very well that whether it was the three missing prisoners of war or the missing reindeer, if they wanted to run away, they would only run south.

"Didn't we say we were going south?" In the coniferous forest on the north bank of the river, Ihor asked loudly to Mesut, who was at the head of the queue.

However, I don't know if his voice was too soft or Mesut was distracted, so he didn't answer his question. On the other hand, Ihor didn't continue to ask, and he didn't even slow down the sleigh.

After running like this for almost an hour, when it got completely dark, Mesut finally ordered the reindeer to stop.

"Set up camp," the tall, thin German prisoner of war said succinctly. "I'll explain the rest during the break."

Hearing this, Wei Ran and Ihor immediately untied two bundles of canvas from the only male reindeer, first used one bundle to surround three pine trees to create a sheltered fence, and drove all the 14 reindeer in.

After feeding them with water and food, they found another tree to set up a tent, pushed two of the sleighs in, and blocked the tent door with the third one.

After a lot of work building a bonfire in the iron barrel, Mesut finally explained, "We assume that someone behind us has been chasing us along the sled marks. How can they determine which sled marks were left by us and which were left by hunters?"

of?"

"Go south"

Wei Ran, who was busy cooking oatmeal, responded, "Hunters will only circle in the hunting range they are familiar with, but escaped prisoners of war will only keep running south."

"That's it"

Mesut nodded and said, "We are hunters now, so we have to leave the sled marks that only hunters would leave. Victor, take out the map you found."

Hearing this, Wei Ran reached into his arms, pulled out the two maps, and laid them on the two wooden boxes that served as stools.

Mesut lit the oil lamp, went to the map to search, then pointed to a certain point on the map and said, "Based on the mountains we can see, we are probably at this location now, due south of the mountains.

.”

Following the opponent's fingers and looking over, Ihor, who had been silent just now, suddenly saw a five-pointed star drawn by hand in the northeast direction, which was not too far away from them!

At the same time, closer to their south was an upstream tributary of the river leading to the labor camp. If necessary, they could cross the river at any time!

Seeing Ihor looking at him, Mesut immediately said without waiting for him to ask, "We will take turns to rest tonight, and when it gets almost dawn, we will go and have a look near this five-pointed star.

If the previous five-pointed star represents a cave, then there is a high probability that this five-pointed star also represents a cave.

No matter what is there, as long as there is no one, we can take a rest, our reindeer have been running in the snowstorm for two days, they will be exhausted if we continue."

After speaking, Mesut looked at Weiran and Ihor, "What are your opinions?"

"I have no objection," Ihor said first.

"I don't have any objection either"

Wei Ran responded noncommittally, saying that he could now vaguely see that Mesut's real escape plan was definitely not to go south along the Yenisey River to distant Finland.

After discussing the plan, after Weiran put away the map, the three of them finalized the order of duty.

Mesut was in charge of the first shift, which was the most comfortable, Ihor was in charge of the second shift, which was the hardest, and Wei Ran was in charge of the shift before dawn, and was also responsible for breakfast.

After arranging these trivial matters, the aroma of oatmeal mixed with dried meat flakes came out from the aluminum pot. The three of them each took out their own enamel pots and filled a large bowl of porridge, or fried sausages with split skin and flesh.

Or just sliced ​​into slices of raw frozen fish, each eating a hot dinner in silence.

"If I can escape the recruitment process alive, I want to open an izakaya."

Ihor picked up a piece of frozen fish with his homemade chopsticks and said with a satisfied expression, "I will add this to the menu when the time comes. I have already thought of a name, it will be called Yenisei River frozen fish fillet. What about you?

?If you can go back, what are you going to do?"

After a moment of silence, Mesut saw that Wei Ran was silent, and then pointed at the sleigh behind him with a wooden spoon he had whittled, "My family has a factory that produces snow sports products. After I go back, if that small factory

If it were still here, it would probably produce this kind of sled."

"How did you become a veterinarian?" Wei Ran asked casually.

"I originally wanted to be a doctor"

Mesut put down the enamel jar in his hand, took out a pack of cigarettes, took out two cigarettes and gave them to Wei Ran and Ihor. He took out another one himself, put on a filter made of antlers and lit it, took a big sip and then explained.

He said, "My wife is a pediatrician, and she and I have learned some methods of treating diseases. You may not believe it, but I joined the Mountain Hunters just to try out whether I could sell the ski equipment produced by my factory. At that time,
To be continued...