When I woke up early the next morning, I felt really good. I fell asleep smelling the smell of pine in this wooden house. It was rare for me to have a dreamless night.
As soon as we got up, Big Brother's wife warmly greeted us for breakfast. We simply washed up and were not polite. We sat down and started to wolf down the fragrant polenta, and the pancakes became sweeter the more we chewed them. Soaked in the thick soup of yesterday's leftover pork stewed vermicelli, and accompanied by green onions with soybean paste, I once again had a round belly.
When I arrived in Northeast China, I found that my appetite was surprisingly good, although it wasn't the spicy food I was used to.
After breakfast, I realized that neither Lao Zhang nor Big Brother were in the house, so I asked Big Brother's wife: "Sister, where have Big Brother and Lao Zhang gone?"
"Oh, they went to get something from Lao Yuan, who is guarding the forest at the forest farm. You just wait here. Lao Zhang said that he will help you sort it out when he comes back. Those big bags of your things are in this situation. You can't bring so many things with you when you go up the mountain." The eldest sister greeted me warmly.
After she said this, we had no choice but to wait. After waiting for less than half an hour, around 8 o'clock in the morning, Lao Zhang, Big Brother, and a young man came back pulling a carriage. Among them, Lao Zhang Zhang was carrying something wrapped in cloth on his back, and there was a package hanging on his waist.
After entering the house and chatting for a while, Lao Zhang started to sort out his things, and I discovered that the thing wrapped in cloth was a single-barrel shotgun. The whole gun was shiny and it looked like it was well maintained.
When the bag on his waist was opened, there were some brass bullets, some iron sand, a few bags of gunpowder, and other things that I didn't recognize at all. Old Zhang handed the bag to Big Brother. Said: "Brother, please help me load some of these ammunition, 50 of them, it will be enough for a few days, I will do the rest myself."
After saying this, Lao Zhang asked us to bring a few large bags of luggage, saying that he would help us pack some things that we could really use when going up the mountain in winter.
Big brother helped Lao Zhang load the ammunition. I saw it interestingly. It turned out that those brass bullets were shells, used to hold "powder". The bottom of the bullet shell was filled with gunpowder and separated by a layer of paper shells. Loading the iron sand needs to be compacted, and then separated by a layer of paper shell. It sounds simple, but it is very complicated to do. The big brother told us while filling the 'powder': "This is the gun and bullets used for hunting." , it is very particular. If you hold a machine gun, it may not be as useful as ours. The loading of this 'powder' is also very particular. The gunpowder cannot be more or less. If it is too much, it will easily explode the chamber, and there will definitely be less iron sand. In fact, it’s not very powerful, maybe less, and the bullets fired have no power, this is all based on experience.”
Lao Zhang, on the other hand, brought us a lot of food and cleared out some bits and pieces, leaving behind some of the items he owned, down to only a flashlight, a lighter, a snow shovel, an ice pick, and steel. A cone, a kettle, a tent, clothing items, a few compressed biscuits, and a pot. No one had a stainless steel lunch box, and nothing else.
"The rope must be left." Brother Chengxin said to Lao Zhang. It was a very long bundle of ropes, which actually took up quite a lot of space. But Brother Chengxin insisted. I saw Old Ghost Wu standing next to Chengxin. With a wink, I knew it was Mr. Wu's idea.
In fact, if you are not going to climb Everest, why would you bring such a long rope? I had questions in my mind, but I didn't ask any more questions.
Lao Zhang didn't say much and said: "Then take it with you. In short, going into the mountains is a matter of relying on the mountains. Try to keep the things you bring with you as simple as possible. Going into the mountains takes a lot of energy."
We nod, of course it is better to listen to professionals on these matters.
After the luggage was streamlined, the four of us originally had to carry and carry luggage, leaving only one bag per person, and it was not heavy. We changed into professional clothes for snow-capped mountains, and we felt a lot more relaxed.
Lao Zhang had his own clothes, which were accumulated over many years of experience. They were clothes that people in the mountains should wear. But he couldn't resist Brother Chengxin, so he also changed into the same clothes as us. To be honest, with the development of modern technology, You should not underestimate its power. This specialized clothing is light and warm. The fact that Lao Zhang is very satisfied with it speaks for itself.
After doing all this, Big Brother also loaded the special bullets, put them in his bag, and handed them to Lao Zhang. Lao Zhang hung these things on the hooks of his pants, which was very convenient. When he put the shotgun on his back, So we set off.
Speaking of setting off, it means getting on the carriage driven by Big Brother's son. There is a road from here to the mountain. In order to save time, you can drive the carriage up.
It was a broad dirt road. On this freezing day, there was a thin layer of ice on the snow-covered road, but the carriage was quite stable when running.
It took us about an hour to actually arrive at the foot of the mountain. There was already a dense forest at the foot of the mountain. I couldn’t identify the specific trees. Anyway, there are always pine trees. In this winter, the branches and leaves are all covered with trees. Covered in a layer of silver, the short shrubs on the ground were also covered in snow, which looked dazzlingly white.
And it can be seen in the distance, with layers of mist, the old forest as far as the eye can see looks mysterious, beautiful and awe-inspiring.
Big Brother's son is an enthusiastic young man. He was afraid that we would be bored on the road, so he told us all the way about the trees and grasses in the forest at the foot of the mountain. He was very proud as he spoke, and would intersperse words from time to time: "This is amazing. , you know? It’s so precious.”
It was fun for us, and we didn’t find the time difficult. Besides, we couldn’t see all the scenery in the mountains. However, the carriage only drove for an hour before we reached the end. At the end of the main road was a small road, which was already a place where the carriage could not go deep. .
The young man stopped the carriage, jumped out of the car, and said to us: "I don't know how deep Uncle Zhang will lead you, but this ridge, the one next to it, and that one, we are here People in the mountains still go out for activities frequently. If you go deeper, there are some places that we mountain people find dangerous and unclear. If you come to experience the life in the mountains, see the scenery, and walk around the places I mentioned a few times, , just go hunting and freshen up, don’t go to other places, I’m not saying this to scare people, in some places even the most experienced ginseng goers may not be able to come out.”
The young man's words were not polite, and there was some warning in them, but he meant well, and he was also worried about us. I, Ruxue, and Brother Chengxin smiled and stopped talking, but Lao Zhang laughed and cursed: " Go away, your parents are still waiting for you to rush back for dinner. Don’t I know what to do in the mountains? Don’t worry.”
The young man was not annoyed and said to Lao Zhang: "Uncle Zhang, shall I leave then? By the way, there is a shack on the mountain, which was built by our village for the convenience of hunting. Now you go into the mountain. If you walk faster, you can still reach the shack, boil some hot water, and eat hot food."
"Do I still know? Go back, hurry up." Lao Zhang urged, and the young man scratched his head with a smile and drove away in the carriage.
At this time, Lao Zhang asked us to put our equipment on our backs, then walked in front and led us into the mountain.
On the way, Lao Zhang was silent and told us to try not to talk, not for anything else but to save some energy. He just reminded us that if possible, it is best not to spend the night in the wild, in this old forest. It's not a pleasant thing. There are a lot of things that have become spirits in the old forest. Who knows if you will get mad and go to this mountain range with frequent human activities.
Regarding Lao Linzi, I had a dark eye and didn't understand anything. Lao Zhang said whatever he said was what he said, so I just followed his footsteps.
But the freezing cold mountains today are indeed not what I imagined. The snow-covered roads are very difficult to walk on. The places where the snow is thin are slippery, and the places where the snow is deep are slippery. Compared with the mountains and forests in other places, this road is very difficult to walk. The mountain road in Laolinzi takes an extraordinary amount of energy.
I feel that I have good physical strength, but after walking for less than two hours, I still can't help but pant slightly. You must know that I have practiced martial arts since I was a child, which makes me feel that climbing mountains has never been difficult.
I was already like this, Brother Chengxin and Ruxue were naturally even worse. Ruxue was a girl after all, and she acted weaker. I simply took Ruxue's package and held Ruxue's hand. : "I'll pull you along to save some energy."
Ruxue's expression didn't change much, she just said a soft 'hmm'. Brother Chengxin smiled and didn't say anything, but Lao Zhang turned his head and said breathlessly: "Brother, you have good physical strength. Better than me, an old mountain man."
Wu Laogui, who was floating next to us, put his hands in his sleeves, pretended to be shivering, and shouted: "It's so cold, why can't we reach the ground? I'm tired from floating. Old, old.”