Under the surging aurora, while Wei Ran was setting up the animal trap, Mesut also set up a tent around a calf-thick pine tree, and then lit a bonfire in a tin bucket as quickly as possible.

Pushed the two sleds together with Ihor into the tent.

Slowly, he tied all the seven exhausted reindeer to the sleigh that was left outside. Wei Ran checked their wounds again, fed them fodder, and then got into the tent.

After such a delay, Mesut had already cleared the snow from the tent and was using chopped wood sticks to dry Ihor's clothes that had been frozen into armor by the campfire.

Glancing at the red-faced and unconscious Ihor lying on the sleigh, Wei Ran silently lit the firewood poured with kerosene in the second iron bucket, and waited patiently for the fire to stabilize before setting it on the rack.

Kettle filled with snow.

Before the pot of water could boil, Mesut winked at Wei Ran and then got out of the tent.

After a while, Wei Ran also followed him out, took the cigarette from the other party, put on the filter and lit it. He followed the other party, stepping on the snow that was almost knee-deep, and walked about ten meters downwind.

.

"Ihor can't leave with us"

Mesut said straight to the point, "Not only will it be a drag on us, but with his current physical condition, he probably won't be able to last long."

"So what are you going to do?" Wei Ran spat out the question while nonchalantly kicking it back.

After hearing this, Mesut hesitated for a moment and then said, "If I remember correctly, there is an east-west river not too far directly in front of us. If you follow this river to the west, you can reach Su."

There is a north-south tributary in the upper reaches of the Hayatunguska River. Follow this tributary to the north and you can return to the camp."

"You are really familiar with the rivers nearby," Wei Ran praised noncommittally.

"There is a map in Sergei's room"

Mesut blew out a cloud of smoke that drifted away in the wind, tapped his temple and said, "It took me four months to memorize almost the entire map in my head."

"So you plan to send it back to the camp?" Wei Ran brought the topic back.

Mesut sighed, "That's the only way it can survive."

"Actually, your plan is not to go south along the Yenisei River at all, right?" Weiran said abruptly.

Hearing this, Mesut glanced at Wei Ran, then at the tent in the distance. After hesitating for a long time, until the cigarette almost burned the filter tip made of antlers, he bit the filter tip and blew hard, and waited.

The cigarette butt, which was no longer than a fingernail, smashed into the thick snow in a parabola, and then he nodded, "Of course not, I never planned to go too far south."

"Can you tell me your detailed plan?" Wei Ran asked calmly.

"I plan to go to the west bank of the Yenisey River when the time comes, and go as far west as the polar night can cover."

Mesut explained calmly, "No matter how good we speak Russian, without the cover of the cold, wilderness and polar night, we will soon be exposed. The only way to leave the Soviet Union alive and escape to Finland alive is

, heading all the way west in the wilderness, spanning a straight-line distance of more than 2,600 kilometers, and entering Finland in the Arctic Circle."

"Do you know what you're talking about?"

Wei Ran frowned and looked at the other person. He had already heard that this crazy escape plan was indeed Mesut's true idea, and with Ihor's physical condition, it was indeed impossible to complete the journey alive.

“The biggest difficulty is simply crossing the Ural Mountains.”

Mesut, whose tone was extremely calm, seemed to be well prepared and said, "It is indeed difficult to cross the Ural Mountains, but it is easier than serving the remaining 20 years of the sentence alive.

Victor, I want to go home to see if my factory is bankrupt and if my wife and my children are still alive."

"Mesut, you will die on the road."

Wei Ran looked into the other person's eyes and reminded him very seriously, "Maybe he can go back as long as he serves a few more years in prison?"

"I'm not sure if I'll die on the road, but I'll definitely die in the mines."

Mesut paused, "Besides, we have already run so far, isn't it too late to talk about this now?"

"So how should you persuade Ihor?" Wei Ran asked, changing the subject.

"After his fever subsides, let him make his own choice."

Mesut spread his hands, turned around and walked towards the tent while switching into German and finally said, "Even if we go south along the Yenisei River, he will not survive."

The two of them got into the tent one after another. The clothes placed on wooden sticks next to the campfire bucket were already steaming with steam. In the kettle placed on another iron bucket with charcoal fire, the clothes were covered with water.

The compacted snow has also melted, but Ihor is still in a state of high fever and semi-coma.

Seeing this, Mesut opened his wooden box. After some hesitation, he took out a bottle of veterinary medicine without being too confident, poured out a white pill from it, broke it open, and stuffed half of it into Ihor's chest.

Then he took out the enamel jar, poured some water into it, and helped it feed the pills.

Obviously, they have to wait for Ihor to wake up and fully regain consciousness before they can move forward. Fortunately, what they lack most now is time and food.

Waiting patiently for the melted snow water in the kettle to boil completely, Wei Ran slowly put on the iron pot, dug a piece of animal fat into it, stir-fried the fresh venison shanks cut into pieces, and then fried the old venison.

The three kinds of potatoes, onions, and carrots were chopped randomly and thrown in together.

Wei Ran cooked and served the food as if he were doing nothing, lying on his back on his sleigh, secretly thinking about the route he had just asked from Mesut.

He could vaguely see that Mesut must be telling the truth this time.

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! It can even be said that this German prisoner of war may have planned from the beginning to let Ihor escape south to attract attention, and he took the opportunity to go west and follow his true plan

Escape plan to get out of here.

If you look at it this way, Mesut deliberately left his notebook behind in the abandoned mine, perhaps to interfere with the direction of the search?

So this rigorous German guy had already anticipated what would happen after Ihor, who was acting as a bait, was caught? So did Ihor know? Wei Ran couldn't help but glance at the Japanese prisoners of war on the other sled on the opposite side.

I'm afraid Ihor is also aware of Mesut's plan, or rather, it must have expected that Mesut would use it as bait, and it probably has its own preparations and plans.

Unfortunately, the unplanned encounter with the wolves not long ago and Ihor's unexpected injury completely overturned most of the plans of these two people.

So what is Ihor's back-up plan? Could it be those mine explosives? I'm afraid not, those things also appeared unplanned.

After some thought to no avail, while the stew in the pot was cooking, Ihor also opened his eyes.

"Thank you for not abandoning me," Ihor said hoarsely after getting up.

"It's our turn to thank you for saving us with mine explosives."

Seeing that Wei Ran didn't speak, Mesut responded proactively. At the same time, he unscrewed a bottle of canned fruit found in the hunter's cabin. After unscrewing it, he poured out half a cup of sugar water and a few pieces of apples, and then added some heat to it.

The water was handed to Ihor.

"Thanks"

Ihor took the enamel cup and drank a few sips before saying, "Tell me what happened next."

“The situation is very bad”

Mesut shook his head, "First of all, we don't know whether the explosion will attract attention. Secondly, we are not sure whether the wolf pack is still following us. Thirdly, your leg is broken, and we still have

Lack of reindeer to pull the cart."

"Isn't there any good news?" Ihor asked with a pale face.

"Of course there is good news"

Mesut spread his hands and pointed at the meat that Wei Ran cut from the reindeer killed by wolves and said, "At least we have enough food to last for half a month."

"Can we still escape?" Ihor asked almost desperately.

"It's hard to say." Mesut shook his head. "Given the current situation, it's probably only a matter of time before we are caught."

After he finished speaking, the tent became quiet. For a while, the only sounds the three of them could hear were the slight sound of burning firewood in the tin barrel and the occasional braying of the reindeer outside the tent.

“Anyway, let’s eat first.”

As Mesut spoke, he had already opened the lid of the pot, filled a large pot of stew, and took a few slices of bread that he had baked himself in the mine before and handed them to Ihor.

After finishing the meal in silence, Ihor drank the glass of sugar water he poured before the meal, and finally said, "Mesut, why don't you tell me directly, what are you going to do next?"

"In order to let you survive, I hope you can go back to the labor camp." Mesut seemed to have been waiting for the other party to say this, and gave an especially straightforward answer.

"What did you say?" Ihor obviously didn't expect Mesut to be so straightforward.

"Keep following us and you will die."

Mesut patted his leg and said very sincerely, "Ihor, this is the only way you can survive. And you are injured. As long as you insist on chasing the reindeer, you will definitely survive. Maybe you can

Taking advantage of this fracture, I don’t have to go to work in the mines.”

"So I have no choice, right?" Ihor said.

"You can put all the blame on me"

Mesut pointed to the box used as a seat in the tent, and even the Winchester lever-action rifle, "You can take these things with you if you need them. Of course, you can also shoot me."

After a long silence, Ihor took a deep breath and said, "I understand."

Hearing this, Mesut also breathed a sigh of relief, signaled Wei Ran to take out the map, briefly explained the route to send Ihor back, and then added, "I will send you to that river, and then you only need to

If you control the sleigh and run north for a day, you can return to the mouth of the river near the hunter's cabin."

Ihor nodded silently, lying on the sleigh as if he had resigned himself to his fate, staring blankly at the roof of the tent.

On this night, the three of them rarely had any communication, and Mesut also took the initiative to take up the vigil.

After only five or six hours of resting in this tent, Mesut, who was keeping watch, woke up Wei Ran and Ihor who were lying on the tent. During this night, the German guy actually made something for Ihor.

A walking stick.
To be continued...