Chapter 46: Rekindling Hope

At noon, Liang Guocheng climbed to the top of the mountain. The raindrops in front of me stirred up layers of white mist, and if it wasn't for crawling underground, it would be almost impossible to distinguish between heaven and earth. His upper teeth were now cold against his lower teeth, and he shivered all over; The hungry front heart is close to the back heart, and there is no longer the strength to crawl forward. He was now anxious to find a shelter from the rain, and to build a fire to dry his clothes; Find something to fill your stomach, or he'll catch a cold and get pneumonia. If you are sick, there is no medical treatment in the uninhabited mountains and mountains, and you will quickly die and be eaten by wild dogs. He looked around and now first determined the direction. Only with the direction can we determine the direction of going home, and we can get closer to home with each step. He will never forget that they set out from the northeast and took a train across the Yalu River all the way north to North Korea. He now has to figure out the four directions of east, south, west, and north, and he feels that he will definitely be able to return to the motherland if he goes all the way to the south. Now the point is that there is no reference and no direction can be discerned. He had no choice but to crawl in the opposite direction of the lake, and in this stormy time, there was only one way to die, and only by moving could there be hope for life.

He crawled forward with great difficulty, and felt a little feverish, not as bad as in the prisoner of war camp, which may also be the reason why the cold rain cooled down. A path appeared in front of him, and he slowed down his crawling pace, trying to figure out first whether it was a path trodden by the people or a road crushed by the enemy. If you go up blindly, you may be captured a second time if the enemy passes.

He rolled a few times, left the middle of the road, and slowly rubbed forward from the side of the road. There seemed to be a person lying in front of him, as if he was covered by something. He stared at it for a while, and it was unlikely that he would be alive if he didn't move for half a day on such a rainy day. He crept cautiously over, and a false alarm turned out to be an American-style poncho, indicating that the enemy had recently come from here. He tried to wear it on his body, and the American stuff was not bad, and it was much warmer even though the wind and rain were impenetrable. He left the path and flickered forward, throwing more and more bits and pieces, especially the pile of cans that made him happy. Hungry and blue-eyed, he went crazy and rushed to the pile of cans and tossed around. I found half a box to eat the leftovers, and although it was soaked in the rain and turned white, I could still feel the aroma of beef in my mouth. He continued to rummage through each empty filler box and had nothing left to eat. Disappointed, he threw the last empty box out and crawled towards what the enemy had thrown in front of him. Obviously, the large army ate and stayed here, and the things and garbage thrown away can be piled up into a small mountain. Most of them were household garbage, some worn clothes and blankets for sleeping.

He felt that he had to climb back to China, this may be the year of the monkey, and he didn't know how many difficulties he would have in the future; What's more, winter is coming, and there is a good opportunity to pick up some things to prepare. He picked up a sleeping bag, something he had heard of, but had never seen before. I picked up the torn military blanket and put it in the sleeping bag, and put several old American military uniforms into the sleeping bag. This was actually a sign of the end of the war, when the coalition soldiers received an armistice order and went on to party for days on end, throwing away unnecessary things and returning home to reunite with their families at any time. Of course, Liang Guocheng didn't know this information, thinking that the two armies were still pretending to be war. He didn't want to bring home the mildew of the battlefield, so he threw everything along the way except for the clothes on his body. Liang Guocheng never received official news from the prisoner of war camp. Although it was full of sleeping bags, except for the blankets, the other old clothes were not heavy. Now that I have food in my stomach, although the half of my body is covered with water, the other half of my body is covered with a raincoat and can't get wet. The body is much warmer than just now in the rain, and the fleeing prisoners of war can eat the canned meat left over by others, sleep in sleeping bags at night, and have blanket covers, which I am afraid that few prisoners of war in the world can enjoy this treatment!

He laughed at himself, his nose was sour again, and if he hadn't tried his best to hold it back, he would have shed sad tears again. I crawled forward for a while, and I felt a little exhausted, and my whole body did not have any strength, and I was very tired. He knew that he was dragging his seriously injured body to crawl, which was different from normal walking, and crawling for the same distance required several times or even more than ten times more effort than walking. He had to take a break, preferably find a place to shelter from the rain, and make a fire to dry his clothes, and then he would get sick. The rain seems to be much lighter, the stone mountain does not gather water, the rain is not in a hurry, it seems to be full of water, and the rain quickly flows down the mountain after the rain is small. When the rain is light, the mist is gone; The sight is also much better. There are a few pine trees on a small hill in front. Trees can help him find his way and provide shelter from the wind and rain, so that he will not fall asleep in the rain at night. After resting for a while, I felt a little better and climbed in the direction of the tree. The road on the mountain seems to be one mile, and the walk is ten miles. After climbing for a while, I found a ditch between two hills. This ravine is more than 20 meters wide and more than 10 meters deep, the slope is steep and the rocks are slippery, and there is a small stream at the bottom of the ditch below, which is turbulent, who knows how deep it will be? He regretted a little that he had climbed on the edge of the ditch and hesitated, and in turn felt that if he had not been sheltered from the rain and had spent the night on the mountain, he would not dare to think about it any longer.

As soon as he came up from the lake, he was full of confidence and always felt that he had left the prisoner of war camp and became a free man. Although he was seriously injured and could not walk on one leg, he was determined to overcome all difficulties and quickly return to his homeland while crawling. Almost a day passed, and he was moved that the way home was too far away, and there were too many unexpected difficulties, and he even doubted that he could overcome the difficulties and return home. Especially when I didn't eat or drink, the road was far away, and it was cold soon. If he can't return to his motherland in winter, with his current conditions; There is no possibility of being alive at all. Although his confidence has been discounted now, he still walks home step by step, one step at a time closer to hope, and there is no hope when he stops. He found a place where the slope was not too steep, and his feet were lowered first, so that he would not plant the onions upside down. Slowly sliding and sliding to see that it was almost to the end, one foot did not step on it, the body lost control, rolled a few times in a row, and the whole body hung in the air; He fell hard at the bottom of the ditch and fainted.

The temperature difference between day and night in the north is more than ten degrees, and the temperature plummets after dark; Light rain turns into rustling Xiaoice particles under the action of air temperature. Liang Guocheng's body was covered with white ice particles. He had actually woken up a long time ago, but he felt tired and lay down without moving. The fall in the afternoon actually tumbled down, with a few scrapes and no injuries. He fumbled for the sleeping bag, which was sturdy and unbroken. The wet clothes on my body were a little hard, and the temperature had dropped to the freezing point. He felt very sluggish, and wanted to open his sleeping bag to find some old clothes that he had picked up during the day to put on. With his slightly trembling hands, he pulled out two shirts and put them on his body, regardless of whether they were shirts or coats, and immediately felt that his body was much warmer! He casually touched his coat pocket and found half a box of cigarettes and a windproof lighter. It was late at night, and a wolf howl could be heard in the distance. In the middle of the night, the mountains are not suitable for crossing from the ravine, especially in case of flash floods on rainy days, it is difficult to get out without being familiar with the terrain and without rescue. He decided to stop here for the night, hoping to find a slightly higher place to prevent floods, and find a stick with a longer weapon to protect against wild wolves. If you have a lighter in your hand, it is best to find some grass and branches, and make a fire to keep out wild beasts and warm your clothes. People often think well, but it is difficult to do. On such a rainy night, how difficult is it for a person who cannot walk on his feet to find timber and grass in a ravine that he is not familiar with at all?

On rainy days, the sky is already dark, and the peaks in the ravines are darker. He fumbled around his body for a while, and there was nothing at all that could make a fire. The wolf did not seem to be one, one howled and the other two responded in different directions, followed by several wild dogs barking as if they were withdrawing. The ravine itself echoed loudly, and the beasts rose up and echoed everywhere, as if they were surrounded. I can't find anything to defend myself, I can't make a fire, and if I am eaten by wild beasts tonight, I will be a little too wronged in this life. He dug out the military uniform he had picked up from his sleeping bag, fumbled for the most worn one, and took out a water drawer to light it. The flames grew up like torches, and he held them up and spun around a few times to drive the beast away. But because of the mental effect, I heard the wolf howl far away. He opened the sleeping bag and took out the contents, spread out the blanket and placed the sleeping bag on the floor. Others slipped into their sleeping bags and covered the other half of the blanket, feeling that something was much warmer than a quilt.

I don't know when the rain has stopped, because the temperature is low and the Xiaoice particles turned into drizzle have not yet melted, and the entire ravine is supplemented with a layer of bright crystal ice particles, a bit like the crystal road in a fairy tale. After the rain stopped, the water at the bottom of the ditch also became a trickle like an earthworm in the cracks of the stones, and if a normal person avoided the water and stepped on the stones, he would not even be able to get his shoes wet. Liang Guocheng woke up, and it was the best night he slept after being a prisoner of war. He stretched out his arm and stretched his waist slightly; If you stretch it urgently, it will hurt the wound. The sleeping bag is a good thing, the eiderdown inside is rolled up on the ground, spread it out and patted it with your hands, and it will naturally be inflated. When people sleep in and zip up, they can't get into the water but are still warm, and they have the feeling of sleeping in a pit in the countryside at home. The stomach grunted, and the grunt protested. Yesterday at noon, I ate half a box of canned meat soaked in rain, and I still haven't got my teeth wet! Although meat has more calories than grains, it has been too long since yesterday noon. If you want to find something to eat, you must go down to the ditch and then up to the mountain. The trees on the mountain can help him identify the direction of his home, and if he is in the right direction, he may meet his fellow Koreans, because many of them have fled to the border between China and North Korea during the war. Even if you can't find anyone for the time being, you can find a field of crops that have been planted with the enemy, and you can always find some corn and potatoes left by your fellow villagers. If there is crops, there must be timber and grass, and the lighter in your hand can be lit and eaten.

He sensed the importance of what he had picked up, carefully stuffed the blanket into his sleeping bag, picked up a few military uniforms to keep warm and put them on his body, If he didn't speak, Yan Yan was a Korean soldier in an American military uniform. At the bottom of the ditch between the two mountains, most of the flash flood aisles. Generally, there is heavy rain and flash floods, and when the rain stops, there is no flood on the mountain, and soon there is no water. Because the rain stopped last night, the flash flood also ended early. He crawled down to the bottom of the ditch, and the torrent at the bottom of the ditch washed down large and small pebbles and filled the bottom of the ditch. A trickle of water between the cracks in the stones gathered into a stream more than a foot wide. He didn't want to get his clothes wet anymore, so he put his sleeping bag on top of it like a small bridge; Anyway, the sleeping bag couldn't get into the water, so I climbed up it. When I looked up, I could see a few trees on the opposite hill, and not far away there seemed to be a corn stalk that had not been cut down. The tree in front is originally hope, from yesterday to today's efforts are to go to these trees, when hope is about to arrive, you will feel that there is an invisible push hand to help you! He quickened his way forward, for he didn't know which direction he was going in even though he had been moving forward for a day yesterday. If you find a tree, you can tell the direction, and every step forward with the direction is one step closer to home. It would be better if one side was really a cornfield, there was no absolutely clean cornfield, if you could find a few ears of jade cobs, use the corn stalk to burn and eat. Thinking about it, it couldn't help but flow out of the corners of his mouth. He found a place where the slope was not too steep to climb up, and then he really realized that it was easy to go up the mountain and difficult to go down! He crawled with his hands in front of him, but unfortunately he could only push on one leg behind him, although he stopped to catch his breath after climbing a few steps, but he felt that it was not hard to work and was much safer.