The old sheepskin herds cattle and sheep on the grassland all the year round, and often encounters wolves, lynx and other fierce beasts from behind the horse, knows how to deal with it, is worried about not finding a chance to clean it up, this guy sent himself to the door, immediately whistled, the old military horse carried him and Ding Sitian, at the moment when the big worm swooped into the horse's buttocks, he bowed forward suddenly, the front legs supported the ground, and the two hind legs kicked hard to the grasshopper that pounced from behind the horse. Far from the ground, roll out and roll away.

I saw that the old sheepskin won by surprise, and climbed down from the branch with a cheer, and Ding Sitian dragged the fat man who fell into a lot of meat and eight vegetarian grains, and threw down the bark weeds on the body, and then remembered that there were two horses running into the depths of the forest, and the cattle were not recovered, and a jujube red horse was just poisoned by the worm, and now there is only one old military horse left among the four horses, and the losses are getting bigger and bigger, and the old sheepskin has blown a few whistles to greet the horse, After waiting for a long time, there was no movement, and I didn't know where the two horses had gone.

The old sheepskin is afraid of this area called the "Hundred Eyes Cave" from the bones, but people sometimes have no choice, and the responsibility for the loss of cattle and horses is even heavier. After all, the old sheepskin was old, and the fight just now had made his heartbeat worse, and his chest was snorting like a bellows, and the psychological burden was too great, and his eyes were black for a while.

Ding Sitian saw that the old sheepskin was weak and almost fainted, so he hurriedly helped him sit under the tree, rubbing his heart to smooth him, but the old sheepskin was still coughing and wheezing, and he didn't turn his breath upside down, and he coughed so much that he went back to breathe.

Ding Sitian cut the queue on the grassland, and was always taken care of by the old sheepskin family, she almost regarded the old sheepskin as her own grandfather, seeing him unconscious at the moment, how could she not be in a hurry, and asked me what to do with tears? In the tun where I cut the line, there is a barefoot doctor, nicknamed "Mixed Film", sometimes I will go to assist him to treat the mules and horses, I and the fat man, Ding Sitian, among the three, I also have a little medical knowledge, but I also feel at a loss in the face of the unconscious old sheepskin, even if I send him back to the pastoral area quickly, it will take nearly a day to walk, and the pastoral area is still a day away from the hospital, and it will be long before I find the eldest lady.

Unexpectedly, the fat man woke up, and the fat man said, "Is this old man hungry?" We have been out chasing the cattle in a hurry since we got up in the morning, until now we have seen that the sun has set halfway, and there is almost no water and rice touching the teeth, not to mention his age, even my physique is a little unbearable, and I am dizzy with hunger. ”

After the fat man mentioned this, Ding Sitian and I also felt hungry, we hadn't eaten for a day, we were looking for cattle during the day, and no one who was in a hurry to get on the fire didn't think of eating, the old sheepskin must have been overworked, and I didn't eat during the day, so I fainted with hunger.

When we were about to set out, the old sheepskin was worried that he would not be able to find all the cattle in a day or two, so he brought some dry food, and even used the horse to carry a pot of boiling water, and in order to take care of the old horse, he only hung the empty pot and some bits and pieces of light things on the horse, and the rest of the food and supplies were loaded by the remaining three horses, and unfortunately we were left with this old horse in front of us, and there was nothing edible on it.

The fat man said that there was no way, let's slaughter the horse and eat meat, otherwise we won't be able to get out of the forest. Ding Sitian hurriedly stopped it, the animals on the grassland who had made meritorious contributions and participated in the army could not be slaughtered, they were all friends of human beings, they would rather starve to death than eat horse meat, and when the old sheepskin woke up, you must know that someone slaughtered his horse to eat, and he must not play with his life.

It gets dark early in the wilderness, and as soon as four o'clock in the afternoon the sun sets, and then the sky begins to darken, and the night fog in the forest is getting thicker, and the light is getting less and less, and it is almost night, and the objects that fly overhead, I don't know whether they are birds or bats, make a terrible chirping, and the sound makes people feel that every hair on the back of the head stands up.

We are all a little confused, the fat man and Ding Sitian are looking at me, hoping that I will have an idea, what should I do now? I hesitated for a moment and said to them: "Although the old horse knows the apprentice, but this forest is foggy, if we walk out without a head and no brain, first, people are sleepy and tired, and they have not rested for a day, and then continue to walk is easy to have an accident, and secondly, if we encounter a snake hidden in the deep grass, or a fierce beast such as a wolf pack and a lynx, we must not have our good fruit to eat, ** teach us that we should minimize unnecessary and unnecessary sacrifices, so I think what we need to do now is to light a campfire, one to prevent insects and beasts from attacking, Second, I came to find something to cook and eat, so that the people and the horses had enough strength, and waited until dawn tomorrow to continue the action. ”

The fat man said: "This plan is good, but it is not comprehensive, you look at this forest, except for the grass roots and bark is mud, not to mention the food, there is not even clean water, what are we cooking?" But I can't walk without eating, and this situation reminds me of a little poem written by my revolutionary predecessors, the sky is about to get dark, the hungry intestines are like a drum, and there are a few rice in the bag, wild vegetables and boiled water. General Chen Yi's guerrillas were so hard back then, after all, there were still a few grains of rice in the rice bag that could be boiled and eaten with wild vegetables......"

I listened to the fat man mention rice and wild vegetables, and my stomach suddenly drummed: "What do you mean, fat man?" We are in such a difficult situation and dare to mention cooking wild vegetable porridge, the more hungry we are, the more we can't mention eating, otherwise we will feel even more hungry. ”

At this time, Ding Sitian suddenly pulled my sleeve: "Bayi, listen, is there the sound of running water in the forest?" "I thought to myself, how can there be any river in the forest of this mountain col, maybe whose hunger sounded that made Ding Sitian hear? But when I calmed down and listened, there was the sound of a stream tinkling not far away, and there was living water where there was water, and our throats were dry, and if it was a stream, there might be fish in it, and if we walked along the water, it was not easy to get lost in this misty forest.

We didn't delay for a moment, there was a kerosene lamp in the old military horse's bag, this lamp was called a foreign oil lamp before liberation, in fact, foreign oil is kerosene, there is no pine oil in the pastoral area, and kerosene lamps are generally used to illuminate at night, I carried the lamp in front of me, the fat man put the old sheepskin on the horse's back and carried it, he supported it beside him, Ding Sitian led the horse, and a group of people groped their way towards the place where the sound of flowing water came.