march to victory

"God, this damn thief is really not a thing."

Zhou Baoyu, who was full of discontent, waved the spoon in his hand like a big knife, and shouted furiously: "Blow us with the wind, hit us with the rain, forget all these tortures, but we don't have much food. To waste our food like this is really... is..."

"Okay, what are you talking about?" Zhang Qingshan stopped Zhou Baoyu from nagging, pulled Zhou Ping to the front of the fire, and glanced into the pot again, seeing that only dried beef was cooking, he raised his head and asked : "Why don't you live in highland barley powder?"

"I didn't think that the highland barley on that horse would definitely get wet. After a while, I thought it would save some money. So, I just boiled the beef first. When you come back, I just cooked more highland barley."

For Zhou Baoyu's cleverness and foresight, Zhang Qingshan nodded in satisfaction.Zhou Ping, who was taking out a cigarette at the side, looked up at Zhou Baoyu, and joked: "Don't pretend to be arrogant, you kid, who doesn't know, you greedy guy is definitely thinking about cooking more beef, right? "

"Old Zhou, you can drink more wine, but you can't talk nonsense. I obviously want to save money..."

Before Zhou Baoyu finished speaking, he saw Lao Zhou glanced behind him, grabbed the bag of dried beef and handed it to Zhou Baoyu: "Come on, I will fulfill your wish today, cook more beef to satisfy your appetite .”

Zhou Baoyu was indeed a foodie, and when he heard that he could cook more beef, he immediately lost the intention of arguing with Zhou Ping.Cheerfully, he added three pieces of beef to the pot, then put his hand into his pocket again, but looked at Zhang Qingshan flatteringly.

"Okay, today you are specially allowed to cook an extra piece."

"Brother, you are so kind to me."

Quickly threw a piece of beef in, stirred it with a spoon a few times, and said to Zhang Qingshan: "Brother, it's dawn now, shall I go find the other horse that ran away with you?"

"What are you going to do?" Zhou Ping, who was smoking, immediately objected when he heard this: "You can go into the water to salvage with your small body? It's better to cook here and wait for us to come back."

"How can I do that? You and your elder brother went to salvage it just now, so it's my turn."

Zhou Ping was about to argue, but Zhang Qingshan on the side interrupted: "Forget it, Lao Zhou, let Baoyu go with me this time, you'd better warm yourself up by the fire, so as not to catch a cold."

Seeing Zhang Qingshan open his mouth, and now his whole body is indeed a bit cold - the key is that he understands that he feels the bone-piercing cold now, if there is another water, or if he doesn't hurry up to warm his body, I'm afraid it may really be cold.And once a cold has a fever, it will definitely affect the speed of progress.So, Zhou Ping pondered for a while, nodded and said: "Then you two, pay attention to safety, it's okay if it's not enough. The things we bring now are enough for the three of us to walk out of the aquatic grassland."

Zhang Qingshan took the elated Zhou Baoyu to look for it, but Zhang Qingshan couldn't figure it out: they searched for a range of two hundred meters, but they still couldn't see the horse.In the end, seeing that Zhou Ping was already urging them to finish the meal, they had no choice but to give up.

After breakfast, I began to count the supplies: In fact, there was nothing to count, because the things carried by each horse were similar, mainly because seven of the twenty torches had been used.And what this lost horse has more than other things are three pairs of high leather boots-this is what Lausanne gave them when they first arrived in the Lausanne tribe.

And Zhou Baoyu was the most unhappy of the three. When he heard that the three pairs of high leather boots were missing, he immediately pouted, looking sullen and sad.Although he said that he was sad for the horse, in fact, everyone understood that he was sad for the pair of high leather boots specially made for him, because this was Zhou Baoyu's first time in his 15-year life. Wear leather boots—his only pair of cloth shoes was issued to him after he participated in the revolution.

Or to say that Zhou Baoyu is a teenager at heart: the loss of this horse and the loss it caused caused Zhou Baoyu to attach great importance to it.

So, before setting off, he purposely only led one horse, and he was the one who had been designated to be led away, and no one else was allowed to intervene.Just because this horse is carrying his favorite: a large piece of toffee and a bag of crushed toffee - this is a snack specially given to him by Yang Jin Lanze, and it is naturally the best thing for him as a snack. like.In order to be able to eat toffee all the way before walking out of the water and grass, he deliberately calculated that he could only eat a few small pieces of toffee every day.Of course, he also calculated that part of it was set aside, which was mainly used to feed Zhang Qingshan and Zhou Ping's appetite, and to eat during the period after they walked out of the grass and found the main force of the Red Army.

Zhang Qingshan and Zhou Ping also knew the little Jiujiu in his heart: Isn't it because they are afraid that these two bags of toffee will be lost?But the two of them didn't point it out, they deliberately pretended not to know and acquiesced to Zhou Baoyu's little Jiujiu.

Some things are like this: when you are not looking for it, it seems that you can see it everywhere; but if you look for it specifically, you can't find it.

Zhang Qingshan and Zhou Baoyu couldn't find the lost horse after searching for a long time, but when the three gave up searching, they found it by accident.

After walking about 250 meters according to the direction, Zhou Baoyu turned his head to pay attention to his horse from time to time, and accidentally found something strange in a puddle beside him. Looking carefully, it turned out to be half a horse's head.

"Brother! Old Zhou, you two, look, is this the horse we lost?"

Zhang Qingshan and Zhou Ping ran over happily, but they had to be disappointed when they saw it: it was indeed the lost horse, but, except for the half of the head exposed on the mud, the other parts of the horse were all covered by the mud .

After cooperating for such a long time, there is no need to talk about many things, and often it only takes one look to understand what the other party wants to express.Just like now, Zhou Ping frowned and looked at Zhang Qingshan. Zhang Qingshan sighed and shook his head.

"Okay, Baoyu, let's go!"

"Brother, don't you want to salvage?"

"This aquatic grass field is too weird, and the water is poisonous to varying degrees. The horse's stuff is covered in mud, even if it is salvaged, it will be useless in all likelihood. It will be poisoned."

Zhou Baoyu opened his mouth and wanted to say: It would be good to salvage those three pairs of high leather boots!But thinking about it carefully, for three pairs of high leather boots that have no practical use for the time being, there is a possibility of catching a cold and fever, which is really not worthwhile.He could only swallow the words that came to his lips.

He sighed, looked at it regretfully, and left reluctantly.

For the next three days, nothing unexpected happened.However, probably because of the loss of two horses, the three of them were not in a very comfortable mood. Coupled with the depressive atmosphere brought about by the silence around them, the three of them were not very talkative.Even if the three of them wanted to raise the atmosphere to break the oppression, they often lost their conversation after a few words.

It was precisely because the two bags of highland barley were wet that the three of them deliberately ate three meals a day for the past three days, and they ate as much as possible for each meal. The purpose was self-evident.On the contrary, everyone is very savvy, and they don’t need to be reminded, so they just collect wild vegetables that they know along the way, just in case there is not enough food, they can use wild vegetables to satisfy their hunger.

However, they are not all bad things, and there is also one great thing that strengthens the confidence of the three of them in chasing the main force and walking out of the grass: Along the way, the three of them encountered more than a dozen corpses intermittently, all of which were still alive. One was bones. Obviously, these dozens of corpses all died recently, that is to say, these people were all left by the troops of Zhang Qingshan and the three of them.Occasionally, a grave can be seen on a certain slope. Obviously, when the troops passed by, they buried those bones.In other words, Zhang Qingshan and the three chased in the right direction, but they didn't know the exact distance.

What's more, some corpses began to appear on the road instead of lying on the relatively dry soil slopes, but fell on the weeds, and no one cleaned them up.This is the first time for the three of them to encounter such a situation, and they are half happy and half worried: the happy thing is that this situation shows that they are getting closer to the main force, and the worrying thing is that such sacrifices are gradually increasing, and they are all comrades , Seeing this situation, who doesn't feel uncomfortable?Moreover, they are increasingly worried about the loss of the main force.

"The left thigh is injured and has rotted." Another corpse fell on the water and grass. This is the most common thing in the past few days. , in order to catch up with the almost hopeless hope—in case a dying comrade-in-arms is encountered, perhaps, with the medicine brought by the three of them, even one can be saved, but every time they can only get disappointment.

Under the constant blow of disappointment, it is difficult for the three of them not to become numb to such situations.

As a result, the three of them just subconsciously stepped forward, first touched the other's artery, and after confirming the death, they checked whether the other died from injury or hunger.Afterwards, they could only take off the five-pointed red star on the opponent's military cap--most of the five-pointed red stars on the dead soldiers were taken off, but a small number of the five-pointed red stars on the dead soldiers' military caps were still there.In the end, he could only pay a military salute to the corpse, then turned around and continued the long march.It wasn't that the three were cruel and didn't help to bury the corpse of their comrade-in-arms, but because there was no dry slope nearby, and all of them were water plants. Even if the three of them wanted to drag the corpse away, they couldn't be sure when they would be able to bury it. For safety.To put it bluntly, it would be futile to do so, and it would greatly delay the journey—in case a lying comrade-in-arms was dying, and the three of them would feel sad because of their fast feet, wouldn’t it be more important to save their comrades at a critical moment? significance?

Zhang Qingshan nodded slightly, and couldn’t even bear to look at Zhou Baoyu who was full of disappointment—at the beginning, Zhang Qingshan comforted Zhou Baoyu patiently and advised him not to be disappointed in the revolution. I was a little disappointed, so I could only rely on Zhou Baoyu to adapt.

"Take off his five-pointed red star, and we continue the long march."

I collected the five-pointed red star on the comrade-in-arms' cap, saluted, and left.

Although this kind of blow is not severe, but subtly, it still makes people feel doubts about the future, and even despair in confidence - if a person walks in a daze like a machine, I am afraid that he will be mentally overwhelmed by the environment Fortunately, there are three of them, and the feeling of being accompanied by a companion is particularly important and precious at this time, although the three of them are more or less disappointed and confused: Can we really get out of this water and grassland?

When the three of them dragged their exhausted bodies and minds, they walked silently on the vast water and grassland, and when the sun was setting, Zhou Baoyu suddenly pointed to the front, with three parts excitement, three parts anticipation and four parts doubt in his voice.Restraining the volume, he asked:

……