"Got to die? Why are you only coming back now!? ”

Looking at Hitoshi Onozuka, who was walking from the forest, the squadron leader hurriedly stepped forward to check the situation.

It's not that he cares about this little soldier very much, but the kettle on this guy's body, which is an important material for everyone's survival.

"I'm sorry, Squadron Leader." Onozuka replied with severe pain: "I was just stunned by the shelling of the Huaxia people, and I just ......."

The squadron leader didn't have the patience to listen to Ono Tsuka's slow words, so he directly reached out and took a kettle, and couldn't wait to pour two sips.

Later, many Japanese soldiers also surrounded him, divided the kettle hanging on Onozuka's body, and left him alone to stand awkwardly in place with a branch.

Looking at his companions who were grabbing water and drinking like a group of beasts, Ono Hitoshi had mixed feelings in his heart.

After a busy morning, his throat was about to smoke, and he wanted to go up and get a piece of the pie, but the pain in his leg made him unable to stand anymore, and he sat on the ground and let out a moan.

The squadron leader only took a few sips before putting down the kettle, and with some unsatisfied satisfaction, he closed the lid and carefully hung the kettle on his body.

It was only then that he noticed Hitoshi Onozuka, who was sitting on the ground holding his legs and wailing.

"Hurt?"

"I'm sorry, but it's just the shelling... Hiss... Please rest assured, squadron leader, I can do it. ”

Ono Tsuka gritted his teeth in pain, and there was a pleading look in his eyes, because he didn't want to be abandoned by his superiors because of his injuries.

You must know that the wounded in the current team are basically thrown in the corner and waiting to die.

Losing the ability to act means losing value, and no one cares about them.

"It's really troublesome, I have to change someone to get water."

The squadron leader just glanced at it and turned to leave, muttering as he went, not at all trying to help Ono Tsukashi deal with his injuries.

In his eyes, suffering this kind of injury is basically no different from death, in this place where eating and drinking are problems, who has the strength to care about you?

Even with such an attitude of the other party, Ono Tsuka Ren was helpless. I can't help it, I can only blame myself for my bad luck.

"Ah Ren, how is it? Can you still walk? ”

Just when Ono Tsuka was at a loss, a familiar voice came to his ears.

The team's sergeant Soyoshino Jiro walked over, checked his injuries, and said with a solemn face, "You're not in a good situation." ”

"Yoshino-kun, please help me, please!" As if grasping at a life-saving straw, Hitoshi Ono grabbed the other party's arm and pleaded.

Jiro Yoshino and Hitoshi Ono are from the same place, both from Nagasaki Prefecture.

Yoshino had to enlist in the army two years earlier, because of his military exploits, he was promoted to the rank of squad soldier, and he usually took good care of him.

Now it seems that only this fellow villager can help him, and Ono Tsuka Ren is full of expectations, after all, no one wants to die.

"I don't have gauze and medicine, how can I help you?"

Yoshino Jiro shook his head helplessly, looked into the distance and pondered for a moment, and then said, "The medical center of the wing is on the island to the south, otherwise you will go there and have a look?" ”

"Huh? Can... But how am I going to get there? Ono asked.

"Wait a little while the tide will recede, and there will be no other way to pass through the swamp beyond the woods."

Jiro Yoshino pointed in one direction, though he also understood that such behavior was very dangerous.

The Ayeyarwady Delta is actually a large depression with almost all the islands connected.

When the tide rises or rains fall, the sea divides these places into hundreds of small islands of various sizes, and you have to rely on boats to get to other places.

When the tide recedes, the waters between the islands become shallower, revealing a large amount of land and muddy swamps, and in some places you can even walk straight through.

The team from the former United Medical Center was on an island not far away, and Yoshino was impressed by the fact that Yoshino had helped carry the bodies of the wounded when he first arrived on the island.

Hearing this, Ono Tsukasa Ren seemed to have hope in his heart, no matter what, it was better to go there than to stay here and wait for death.

Anyway, the squadron leader already sees him as a dead man, and he doesn't care where he goes, and he can only find a way to survive.

"Let's eat something first."

Yoshino mashed the vines and fruits of the fallen sunflower potatoes and put them in a steel helmet, which was full of green and bubbling mush, which looked even worse than pig food.

Even though it was so disgusting, Ono still took it and swallowed it in a big gulp.

He hadn't eaten a full meal normally since the heavens of the Great Ago, and everything he could find on the island was all eaten, and if someone hadn't found out that the potatoes could be eaten, they would all have starved to death here.

Although the taste of this thing is disgusting, it is also the only wild vegetable that can be eaten raw, and it is a great source of starch and water.

……

Time passed minute by minute, and at noon, the surrounding tide finally receded.

Hitoshi Onozuka, who had suffered all morning, came to the southwest side of the island with Yoshino's support.

There was a road here, and the depth of the water dropped sharply at low tide, revealing a large area of shallow swamp and connecting to the adjacent island.

Now the water between the two islands is knee-deep, and it is normal to walk along the shallows, but the danger is not in the water, but in the sky.

The planes of the Chinese people often circled overhead, and it was good for them to hide in the woods, but once they were exposed to the open ground, they would be shot at by the other side.

Because there was nothing to eat, earlier the little devil was forced to wait for the low tide to sneak to the water's edge and pick up fish and shrimp on the swamp.

And those fighters would get stuck over the Gu Islands at low tide every time, and as long as they saw the traces of the Japanese below, it was unceremoniously a dive fire output.

Pilots call this behavior rat fighting, and even compete to see who shoots more "rats".

Jiro Yoshino observed the edge of the woods for a while, and now there seemed to be no shadow of an enemy plane overhead, and no sound was heard.

For now, he could only pray that the enemy hadn't noticed this, so he immediately beckoned Ono Tsukashi and prepared to cross the shallows while he was now.

It's just that Jiro Yoshino didn't agree to Onozuka's request to escort Onozuka in the past.

Before leaving, Yoshino took out two palm-sized pieces of wild sweet potatoes and stuffed them into Ono Tsukashi's arms, saying nothing but asking the other party to hurry up.

Onozuka Ren understood what the other party meant, and it was already benevolent and righteous to send him here, after all, the other party was also afraid, and he didn't want to risk himself alone to expose himself to the enemy's fire.

Seeing that the opportunity could not be missed, Onozuka gritted his teeth and mustered up his courage, using a wooden stick as a crutch, and limped towards the opposite bank.

There were no clouds overhead, the scorching sun made the skin hurt, and the seawater splashed on the leg wound even more painful, but all this was far less than the desire to survive.

(End of chapter)