At daybreak, the sun slowly and tiredly climbed out from the cracks in the distant mountains, walked into the blue, and continued its unstoppable journey.
As the path undulated up and down the mountain, Luo Fugui was sweating profusely and his steps became a little slow.
"Mule, can't you be faster? You eat the most, but you walk the slowest. Isn't it shameful!" Xiao Hongying urged Luo Fugui dissatisfiedly.
Hearing Xiao Hongying's complaints, Luo Fugui was so angry that he gasped through his nose: "Are you done yet? I've been listening to you nagging all the way! I've been carrying you for half the night, can you please get off and walk for a while?"
"I'm injured! The back of my head still hurts!"
"What the hell is a wounded soldier? Walking with feet has nothing to do with the back of the head. I am also a wounded soldier. My whole body aches. It's all your fault. You wicked thing, why didn't I hurt you to death? You deserve it!" Luo Fugui was regretting in his heart at this moment, blaming himself for being too mean. If he had known this would happen, he should not have instigated the little girl to go into the turret last night, and there would have been no trouble later. He ended up with a bruised face and no one knew how many punches and kicks he got all over his body. In the end, he had to work like a slave and carry her on his back to hurry on the road.
"Oh! You dead mule, I told you to speak! I told you to speak again!" Xiao Hongying lay on Luo Fugui's broad back and started swinging her little fists.
Hu Yi had never seriously considered what happiness was. He felt that the word happiness had nothing to do with him. However, when he saw the pigtails dangling down the stairs, he had an indescribable feeling, or rather, no feeling at all. It was very strange. Perhaps this was happiness. At that moment, there was no consciousness, as if everything was forgotten in an instant, forgetting the past, forgetting the present, forgetting himself, and forgetting others. From this, Hu Yi seemed to understand: happiness is forgetting.
The little girl pretended to be dead by falling down, which confused Hu Yi and created a ridiculous chaos. Under the eyes of all parties involved, she calmly entered the turret and was ignored by everyone, just for one thing: bullets! Hu Yi really didn't understand. Should the desperate act of collecting bullets be considered a hobby of the little girl? Or a habit? Why would a child be so obsessed with bullets
After leaving the turret, Hu Yi said nothing, let alone blame anyone. The little girl was fine, this was the best result, it was happiness, what else could he say. As for the second company, he was ruthless, but their counterattack was not ambiguous, at least it did not cause a disaster, no one could blame anyone else.
Turning around, Hu Yi noticed that Luo Fugui at the end of the team was a little slow, so he directly ordered Team 9 to rest on the spot.
The Second Company was also walking on this path. They were carrying the spoils looted from the artillery tower and were several hundred meters away from the Ninth Squad walking in front.
Gao Yidao walked in front of the team with a dark face, a circle of purple marks on his neck, as if he was wearing a scarf. What really made him depressed was not the souvenir on his neck, but the bullets. The wicked Class 9 had no bullets in the batch of goods buried on the valley path. No doubt they must have kept them for themselves. This time, I helped them clean up their mess, and the artillery tower was surprisingly smooth, but most of the bullets were stolen by them. Gao Yidao sorted those bullets himself, packed them into three satchels and placed them on the second floor of the artillery tower, but the wicked girl who faked her death took away two of them, which made Gao Yidao feel pain in his heart.
No matter how many guns there are, they are just firewood sticks without bullets. Seeing that the ninth squad in front stopped to rest, Gao Yidao gritted his teeth, urged the team to speed up, came to the resting ninth squad, ordered the second company to stop and rest as well, and then came to Hu Yi who was sitting on a rock.
"Mr. Hu, I have something to say."
When Gao Yidao came over, Hu Yi noticed that his eyes were always glancing at the little girl's two bags. He immediately guessed Gao Yidao's intention, threw away the small stone he was fiddling with in his palm, and patted the dust off his hands: "Speak."
"Let's talk about the bullet issue." Gao Yidao said with a dark face, and then looked at the two bags of the little girl.
Upon hearing this, Xiao Hongying subconsciously covered the two bags beside her and shouted to Gao Yidao, "You're dreaming!" After saying this, she found that Hu Yi, with a bruised face and nose, was looking at her with a frown. She couldn't help but blink guiltily and fell silent, not saying anything more.
Hu Yi stood up and looked at Gao Yidao again: "How do you want to talk?"
"Trade." Gao Yidao thought, we can fight or hate each other, but this matter is done behind the back of the regiment, so we can't bring it to the table, and naturally there is no place to reason. If you, the ninth squad, can come to us to make a deal, then our second company can naturally come to you to make a deal. Bullets are practical things, there is no need to act noble.
Hu Yi looked at the spoils brought by the Second Company, understood, nodded and asked: "Okay! Can you tell me a method?"
The method was very simple. Gao Yidao had thought of it before he came to Hu Yi: "You pick the items, and we'll quote the number of bullets. If it's a good deal, we'll make the deal."
Hu Yi understood that his Second Company wanted to set up a small stall, and our Ninth Squad could use bullets as money and conduct fair trade. This was a good idea, so he agreed without hesitation.
Gao Yidao returned to the Second Company and immediately issued an order: "Four of you go to the high ground outside to stand guard. The rest of you, except for the bullets, grenades and the crooked-handled machine gun, gather up the rest of the spoils and let the miscellaneous ninth squad come over to pick them up later."
There were originally two machine guns, but the Czech-type one was destroyed by a grenade during the battle and could not be used, so Gao Yidao only mentioned one Type 99 machine gun.
The soldiers of the Second Company were a little confused by the company commander's words. They had been fighting to the death with the bastards of the Ninth Squad in the second half of the night. Now they were asked to pick things for them? They all looked at Gao Yidao in confusion, speechless.
"What the hell are you waiting for? You're asking them to give you bullets in exchange! Do you understand? Follow the order!" Gao Yidao urged impatiently.
Good man, it seems that we have to do business with those bastards! The soldiers understood this time, and all of them stood up, busy unloading the spoils on their backs and stacking them neatly.
Gao Yidao called Kuaitui'er out again and said, "Kuaitui'er, you are smart and have dealt with them before. You will be responsible for the quotation and price negotiation. Remember, you must give me at least one bullet!"
Kuaitui was a little unsure and asked hurriedly, "Captain, I'm a little confused. You should be the manager yourself."
"Stop talking nonsense. I get angry when I see them! How can we talk?"
The fast-footed man had no choice but to become a hawker and turned around and ran to the stall.
Seeing that the Second Company had already started to get busy, Hu Yi turned around and asked Xiao Hongying beside him, "Girl, we need to buy things for our Ninth Class now. Is that okay with you?"
Xiao Hongying thought Gao Yidao was here to play rogue, but it turned out to be another business deal. Besides, Hu Yi and the others were all bruised and swollen because of her, so how could she have any complaints? Instead, she was a little impatient to know what the Second Company had looted. She handed a shoulder bag to Hu Yi, took one for herself, and headed towards the Second Company in a hurry.
Looking at the things scattered all over the floor, Hu Yi was really impressed. Not to mention the buttons, even the bullet shells after shooting were picked up and packed by the Second Company. The search was really meticulous. What attracted Hu Yi the most was naturally the Czech machine gun. Hu Yi picked it up. The bolt was deformed by the explosion and the butt was broken, but the barrel should be fine. Hu Yi carefully aimed at it.
After confirming that the gun barrel was indeed intact, Hu Yi said to Kuai Tui'er, "I want this one."
When Kuai Tui heard Hu Yi ask for this crippled machine gun, he thought about it. The company commander asked for a lot, but how much was too much? He had no experience in this? Not to mention himself, the whole independent regiment had no experience in this, right? He just guessed a number: "One hundred bullets." Then he looked at Hu Yi suspiciously. If it was him, he would never exchange a hundred bullets for this piece of scrap metal.
Hu Yi didn't react. He didn't intend to argue with Erlian about this, so he asked directly, "Including the other two magazines?"
Kuai Tui'er was afraid that Hu Yi would not be satisfied with the price, so he immediately replied, "Yes, yes, including."
Hu Yi said nothing more, opened his shoulder bag and started counting the bullets, then handed them to Kuaitui'er, and then stuffed the three magazines into his own bag. He removed the barrel of the machine gun on the spot and put it behind his waist, feeling very satisfied that his machine gun finally had real endurance.
Kuaitui looked at the disassembled machine gun and asked in confusion: "You don't want these remaining parts?" After getting Hu Yi's affirmative answer, he quickly packed them up and took them back. After all, this was steel. When he returned to the independent regiment, he could find the supply department to exchange for something else.
In fact, Kuai Tui'er didn't think that the company commander's idea could save many bullets. There were only six people in the ninth squad. How many things could they pick up? Unexpectedly, not only was the disabled machine gun sold, but Hu Yi continued to take things out.
A Type 38 rifle, a belt and a set of ammunition boxes are the equipment for Liu Jianqiang.
Three sets of Type 38 bayonets with scabbards, and three short engineering shovels, one each for Liu Jianqiang, Luo Fugui and Wu Shitou.
An engineer pickaxe, used exclusively by Wu Shitou.
Six canvas backpacks, one for all members of Class 9.
A Type 10 single-shot signal pistol and twenty red, green and white signal flares. These are intended for Ma Liang to take with him.
Two Japanese-style individual lunch boxes are required. Class 9 must treat everyone equally, and Liu Jianqiang and Wu Shitou must also be provided with one.
One of the marching blankets was very clean, and Hu Yi picked it out and folded it, and asked Luo Fugui to take it. The person who used it was Xiao Hongying.
Hu Yi saw that he had almost finished choosing and was about to discuss the bill with the stunned Kuai Tu'er when he noticed the little girl squatting on the other side. She gently picked up half a box of candies on the ground, put it under her little nose, squinted her eyes and sniffed it carefully for a while, hesitated, and then carefully put it down.
So Hu Yi pointed at the half box of candy and said, "Add that too."
As soon as he finished speaking, Luo Fugui came over with two boxes of Japanese beef cans in his hands, licking his face and smiling: "Boss Hu, I have never tasted this before, can you tell me if I can, that…"
Hu Yi rolled his eyes at Luo Fugui and said to Kuai Tui'er, "I'll keep this too. Let's settle the bill."