Fortunately, with the "Winter General" as an ally, in the early morning of November 18, the long-awaited northwest wind blew on the surface of Lake Ladoga, and the weather was bitterly cold, and by dusk, the temperature dropped by 12 degrees Celsius. On 20 November, the thickness of the ice on the surface of the lake had reached 180 mm. At this time, the Military Council of the Leningrad Front decided to immediately start experimental transportation on the ice track where the road construction exploration team members risked their lives to mark the direction of the road construction exploration team, and to quickly transport a large quantity of grain and other urgently needed supplies to the Borisova-Griva and Ladoga stations on the western bank of the lake at the Lednevo transfer station.

Despite the fact that the horse-drawn sleds were brought in by experienced riders carefully selected from the suburban collective farms, on the first day of ice transport a number of horse-drawn sleds fell into the lake due to the ice breaking. In addition, considering that horse-drawn sleds not only carry less cargo, but also consume fodder, especially in the event of a snowstorm, it is easy to get lost and fall into the ice hole. So, this mode of transport was soon abandoned. On November 21, the first main road for the transport of cars on ice, built 12 to 13 kilometers from the southern shore of Lake Ladoga, within the range of German artillery fire in Shlischelburg, was finally successfully opened to traffic after the selfless work of the military and civilians of Leningrad. The next night, the first convoy of 60 large trucks carrying goods bound for Leningrad departed from Kabona on the eastern shore of Lake Ladoga and headed for Osinovetz on the western bank via the ice road. It was this ice highway that later passed day and night during the most difficult period of the starvation siege in Leningrad, connecting the transportation lines on the east and west banks of Lake Ladoga, and became the only way for Leningrad to obtain external support, so it was praised by the Leningrad military and civilians as their "road of life".

When the Road of Life was first opened, the ice in Lake Ladoga was not very compact, with some sections of the ice being as thick as 240 millimetres. As the truck drove by, the ice creaked and was in danger of being fractured at any moment. Drivers driving in the cold not only need to be highly focused, but they also have to open the cab door to be able to jump out of the cab quickly in case of an ice crack. Because the ice on the lake has not yet reached the 300 mm thickness required for safe transportation, and the drivers lack experience in driving on ice, each truck starts with less cargo and is slow. A 2-tonne truck sometimes pulls only 400 kilograms, and some convoys can take 10 to 12 days and nights to make a round trip. In the 10 days from November 23 to December 1, the convoy brought a total of 800 tons of flour to Leningrad, which was not enough for two days, but during this time, 40 drivers were stuck in the ice. On 9 December, the Leningrad Front, with the cooperation of the Volkhov Front, recaptured Tikhvin in one fell swoop and significantly shortened the distance of automobile transport, the transport situation remained not much improved. This is due to the abnormal climate this winter, heavy snow, howling winds, so that the ice on the lake surface often breaks, and the lake water seeping up from the cracked ice cracks is quickly frozen, the result is that the lake surface is as flat as glass, light and slippery, when the car is driving on such ice, not only the wheels will often idle and slip, but also the direction is extremely difficult to grasp, sometimes the wind will even scrape the car full of goods from the ice lane 5 meters, 6 meters away. In addition, in order to disrupt ice transportation, the German army also constantly sent planes to hover over Lake Ladoga to carry out frenzied bombing and strafing of convoys; The German artillery at Shlischerburg simply focused on aiming at a section of ice 5 to 10 kilometers wide, and thousands of high-explosive shells were fired at once, causing many cracks and craters in the ice, and the convoy could not pass safely for a while. In order to increase the speed of transport on the ice and ensure the safety of traffic, the Military Council of the Leningrad Front decided to immediately open four additional one-way road routes in a safe area outside the range of the German artillery at Shlischelburg: two of them were for cars loaded with goods to move from the east bank of the lake to the west bank; Two were for the return buses carrying Leningrad residents evacuated to the rear, back to the east bank. Despite this, less than a third of the minimum amount of goods was brought into Leningrad through this only "route of life", and Leningrad's predicament was not relieved. In order to further increase the speed of transportation, the Leningrad Front sent a large number of antiaircraft artillery units to protect the safety of the "road of life" on the one hand, and on the other hand sent a large number of competent political cadres to carry out propaganda and agitation work among car drivers and road maintenance personnel. On this ice transport line, known as the "Road of Life", brave Soviet drivers had to pay a lot of blood, sweat and even precious lives for every kilogram of freight they added. In the middle of winter, they braved the bitter cold of minus 30 or 40 degrees Celsius and the wind of more than 10 degrees, driving day and night on the frozen lake for hundreds of miles, carrying food, fuel and other much-needed supplies into the besieged city, and evacuating women, children, the wounded and most importantly equipment and cultural treasures. In order to run faster, the drivers crossed the ice transport line of Lake Ladoga four times in a row in 24 hours, covering more than 700 kilometers. They work tirelessly, eating and sleeping in tents on ice, driving for 16 to 18 hours a day. As a result of the vigorous measures taken, the volume of cargo transported into Leningrad via the "Road of Life" on Lake Ladoga began to increase day by day, and the speed of freight transportation increased day by day. Hunger was alleviated by the increasing volume of food brought into Leningrad and the increase in the city's food reserves.

"If you're going into town, you'd better bring more food with you when you get to the docks." Seeing that Sun Hui and the girls did not carry much belongings, especially food, Pantelov suggested, "Don't think about eating anything delicious when you enter the city, I heard that the bread there is not to be swallowed at all, but if you go to Comrade Zhukov and Comrade Zhdanov and stay with them, you should be able to eat better." ”

"Okay." Ye Chuchu smiled and nodded, "Let's go back and pull a whole box of food into Leningrad." ”

As soon as she finished speaking, as if she had heard something, her expression was solemn, and she looked up at the sky.

"Sister Chu Chu, it may be that the enemy's plane is coming!" Du Lili pointed to the sky and said loudly.

Sun Hui also heard what seemed to be a sound in the cold wind, he looked up, and soon found two small black dots in the gray sky.