Iron Powder and Spellcasters

   Chapter 83 Find a way to survive

   "It's clear, the council members took away all the boats on the island a few days ago, and the farmers don't even have any large pieces of wood in their hands now." Gold brought back bad news.

  The remnants of Veneta who jumped out of the search net turned into pirates, and went around the port to the east without stopping. Winters even let Gold go into the port of red sulfur and exchanged his head for a sum of money.

  The enemy is now mostly hunting for the Veneta people in the southwest of the island, and Winters and his party have already run to the east of the island. The situation is temporarily safe, and the next step is to find a way to get the boat out to sea.

Bud rubbed the stubble on his chin: "As expected, the Red Sulphur Island Council took great pains to prepare such a big gift, of course they don't want to reveal any rumors. Even if there are islanders hiding ships, they will never pay come out."

   "Can we trust this man? Isn't he a pirate? Or was he captured by us?" Andre's focus was not on the ship at all.

Winters was scrutinizing the map of Iwo Jima and said without looking up, "I don't know why he's on our side, but if he wanted to betray us, we'd already be dead, so I choose to trust him. "

   First walking on the main road, then turning into a small road and walking a distance, Winters gave the order to stop and rest.

The    team stopped by a small stream. The tense spirit of the Veneta who had escaped from death had just relaxed a little, and tiredness immediately found them. Even the sentry was dozing off, and the others snored as soon as their backs hit the ground.

   "Fourteen people who can walk by themselves, plus a cart." Winters looked at his subordinates who were sleeping in the shade and meditated: "This is the last of my centurion."

   He tried not to think about what would have happened if he had chosen "turn back" instead of ordering "forward assault".

   But as the backbone of this remnant army, he can't think about "what if" now, let alone rest. Warrant Officer Montagne said to himself, "You must find a way out for these people."

"You two come and look at the map." Winters called Bud and Andre to his side: "The scale of this map is 1:10,000. I counted my steps all the way. After leaving Red Sulphur Port, we walked on the road. More than 4,400 steps, and more than 3,200 steps on the path…”

The number of steps that   Winters said refers to the marching step, each step of the left and right feet is a step, and a step is about 1.2 meters.

  Bud immediately calculated the result: "Then we have walked almost nine kilometers from noon to the present, which is quite fast, almost the speed of a forced march."

"You don't even have a pot to eat, can you walk fast?" Andre rolled his eyes and said to Winters, "It's useless, it's useless to know how far we've gone, do you bring a tape measure? "

   "I didn't bring it, but I have this." Winters smiled slyly and took out a steel cone: "My steel cone is exactly fifteen centimeters long, no more or less."

   The three warrant officers fiddled around the map for a while, picked up the work done on the map, and finally determined their current position on the map based on the distance traveled, the streams and roads around them.

   They followed the road all the way, and they were about to reach the east coast of Red Iwo Island. The straight-line distance on the map was only about three or four kilometers.

   "We can't ram through like flies now." Winters put away the map and said to the other two warrant officers, "The team is temporarily resting here, and Bud and I will go to the east to scout..."

   "I'm going too!" Andrei immediately became anxious when he heard that he would not be brought.

   "Fuck you too." Winters pressed him back again: "If the three of us are not there, the rest of the people don't think the three of us ran away? You stay behind."

  When the sun was setting, Winters, who had returned to the resting place, called everyone for a meeting.

   The current situation is rather special, the composition of the team is complex, and he is not sure of his own prestige, so he can only use this method of military democratization to make the soldiers more willing to obey orders.

   "We now have the coastline behind the hills to the east, less than four kilometers." He didn't say anything nonsense, and looked directly at several naval sailors in the team: "Anyone of you can make rafts?"

"Sir, if you want to go out to sea on a raft, I'm afraid you won't be able to." A relatively bold naval sailor explained: "The raft not only can't carry the load, but it will capsize if there is a storm, and... and we want to make a raft without tools. ?"

   "What if there were tools?" Winters asked rhetorically.

   The navy sailor counted for a long time with his fingers: "If you want to pack all of us, you have to cut at least fifty pieces of material, and you have to have enough ropes, preferably asphalt."

   "You know shipbuilding?" Winters asked again.

   "I used to work in a shipyard." The navy sailor scratched his head.

"Everyone has heard that the enemy has looted all the boats, and even if we want to make some makeshift rafts, it will be difficult." Winters looked into the eyes of the soldiers and said loudly: "And before Warrant Officer Budd and I Going to reconnaissance in the direction of the sea, there are enemy sentries everywhere, and there is no way we can cut wood and build ships under their noses."

The eyes of the    soldiers dimmed.

"However, we still have a way out." Winters' purpose was not to attack the military, he calmly stated his plan: "Lieutenant Colonel Conter's plan is to find a way to go to the sea and find a boat to go out to sea. But my The plan is just the opposite, not only are we not going to the sea, we are going to the northwest, we are going further inland to the island."

  The temporary meeting place was silent except for the murmur of the stream. Although the soldiers were surprised and puzzled, they didn't say anything and just listened intently.

The crowd stood in a circle, and Winters put the map in the center, pointed at the map with a branch and explained: "Although we were trapped on the island, the Tanirians' ambush actually failed, and our The main force was undamaged and will land again soon. That's why Warrant Officer Bard and I found so many Tanirian sentries on the coastline whose main defense was the coast. Lu, there will be fewer enemies."

Winters looked at the crowd and said, "I don't want to talk to you about 'save your strength and wait for victory.' We're going to do everything we can to survive until the day Veneta conquers the island. In my opinion, heading towards the hinterland of the island has the best chance of surviving."

   The soldiers of the chief brigade of the Third Army are full-time professional soldiers. Among the small team of Winters, there are several ten commanders who have served for more than ten years, much longer than the three warrant officers.

   But no officer, veteran or recruit, has ever explained “why” to them in their service life. Winters actually underestimated his authority. With the **** battle in the forest and leading the team out of the siege, he had won the respect of the soldiers.

   "Centurion Montagne, we're all going with you! Just give your order, and we'll do it all!"

  —cut—

   Early morning.

   The sound of scolding and crying broke the tranquility of Tadong Village.

   Located in the hinterland of Chi Su Island, this small farm with only forty residents broke into a group of uninvited guests.

  Seven or eight fierce men dressed as sailors armed with machetes kicked open the courtyard gate of a farmer in the east of the village. They first beat the male owner who wanted to resist, and then drove the entire farmer's family, young and old, into the courtyard.

"We are Captain Kidd's Grain Requisition Team!" The headed pirate with the tooth clattered with the machete and shouted in a shrill voice: "If you have any good things, take them out quickly, if the uncle finds it by himself, Don't blame the uncle for not reminding you."

   "The cellar is here!" A surprised voice came from the backyard.

   "Move!" The Tooth Pirate waved his hand.

   A few pirates came out of the backyard carrying bacon, pickles, and fine noodles. These pirates would pick and choose good things.

   "Don't be angry, we'll give you the money." The Huoya pirate jokingly shouted at the farmer's family, and then he put the machete on the unconscious male host: "Tell me, where is the village chief's house?"

The woman and child who were sobbing in a low voice suddenly cried loudly, the old lady of the family went to grab the leg of the Tooth Pirate and cried: "You killed my son, you killed it this day, you will kill it too. leave me..."

The pirate    was also taken aback, and hurriedly stepped back to avoid the old lady.

The old man in the family quickly pulled his old woman back, he stopped between the family and the pirates, stretched out his arms like a hen protecting his hens, his expression stiff: "Don't hurt my son, I will take you to the village chief's house. ."

"Okay, head of the family. Let your girls stop crying, we're not here to kill." The Tooth Pirate giggled and looked at the farmer's family. She walked over to the women and children who were snuggling together: "Your mother's skin is beautiful, is it your daughter-in-law or your daughter..."

The old man angrily stood in front of the pirate with teeth, and said angrily: "You...you come to my house as a guest, you can take whatever you want...but my ladies, you are not allowed to move, unless you kill me."

Another tall pirate behind the Tooth Pirate reached out and grabbed the Tooth Pirate's shoulder: "Captain Kidd asked us to collect food, not for you to play with women. Work first, when this is over, I invite you Expensive."

"Master, you are too angry. I just saw your mother-in-law crying pitifully, and I want to help you coax." The Tooth Pirate raised his hands high and took two steps back: "Forget it if you don't like it, master, take us with you. Go to the village chief."

A large car was parked outside the yard. Seeing that everything was loaded into the car, the pirates grabbed a handful of paper with writing from their belts, counted a few and stuffed them into the old man: "Don't say we don't give money. , This is called a military ticket. Once you have collected it, after the war is over, you can go to the Gott Club in Chisulfur Port to collect the money with the ticket.”

  The old man took the "military ticket" in humiliation, and followed the Huoya pirate out of the yard with three steps.

   The tall pirate was the last to leave. He raised his hand, and a silver coin crossed an arc in the air and fell precisely into the arms of the old lady: "Keep it, don't say we don't give money."

   After saying that, he left and closed the door.

  Because they were in extreme panic, the family didn't realize that this tall pirate was speaking in a melodious Hailan Yayin.

   However, there are people in this group of pirates, and it is not uncommon for Veneta people to be pirates.

  The village chief's house was kicked open for the second time.

  The pirates repeated the process of "beating up those who dare to resist - driving the whole family to the yard - collecting grain".

   "Masters, we have already handed over the quota for Tadong Village." The village chief bowed his head and said nonchalantly.

"Fart, you ate yesterday, but you don't eat today? You have already paid the quota before, so you don't have to pay this time?" The pirate with a machete slapped the village chief's face with the face of his machete: "The flour , oil, meat, salt, we want everything. By the way, there are carts, we also need six carts. I don't want too much of your stuff, fill me three carts, and I will leave three carts. Go to another village to dress up."

  The village chief of Tadong Village looked at his son's bruised nose and swollen face, and said bitterly, "Where can I find you six big cars?"

"Don't you know who has a big car?" The Tooth Pirate raised his eyebrows, pressed the machete to the other's neck, and smiled evilly: "It seems that you are not afraid of Captain Kidd, right? Well, follow me. Come on, William Kidd likes to slowly torture hard bones into soft ones..."

  The village chief shuddered at his terrible laughter, begged for mercy, swore that he would pee his pants every time he thought of Captain Kidd, and that Captain Kidd would give everything he wanted.

  The Tooth Pirate nodded with satisfaction, and asked casually, "By the way, where does the barber in your village live? Is there a doctor nearby?"

  …

  "My name is Captain Kidd

   When I sail on the sea

  I can do anything

  I do evil

   I killed William Moore

   I killed William Moore

  …”

The    cart crunched away, and the pirates' wailing and wolf-like singing also went away. The carts of the village head and several other rich peasants were requisitioned together with the animals that pulled the carts. The farmers in Tadong Village were left with "military tickets" in their hands and wanted to cry without tears. The pirates actually stole the wok too.

   "It's really become a robber now." Winters sighed and sat in the cart, rarely swearing swear words: "Will you not be court-martialed for this in the future?"

Bud, who was driving the car, said calmly: "It's actually nothing, we mainly take non-staple food, and we don't take much of the staple food, so people can't starve to death. During the sovereign war, there are many worse things, and the book is only just Just remember the phrase 'year-old hunger, people eat each other'. Isn't it discussed? If we want to move around the countryside without suspicion, we can only pretend to be a grain collection team. If the grain collection team doesn't even have a cart, we can't What is the Grain Requisition Team called?"

   "Let's talk about the future." Winters sat up and said with a headache: "There is only one doctor who can bleed within a few miles, and he is still a plantation owner. This is very difficult."

   Lieutenant Colonel Contell's vitality is amazing and tenacious, and thanks to the careful care of the three warrant officers, the lieutenant colonel's state has stabilized. But another problem arose. Contaire, who was in a coma, began to have a fever.

   Apparently, Contaire had a fever because a foreign body had entered the wound. After inspection, everyone found that the lead bullet even entered Contel's body together with a piece of fabric from his clothes.

   But even Bard, who was familiar with the Medical Classics and had the best grades in the hygiene class, did not have the ability to open his abdomen to take lead bullets.

   Help Lieutenant Colonel Contell take out the buckshot, he may still die. But if he didn't help Lieutenant Colonel Contell take out the buckshot, he would surely die.

   Whether to watch Lieutenant Colonel Contaire die, to give Lieutenant Colonel Contaire a treat, or to find a doctor to do his best.

   Winters, Bud and Andre face a tough choice.

   In fact, the song "Captain Kidd" was not sung until after Captain Kidd was hanged.

   Thank you to the book friends who have voted for the recommendation before, thank you to the book friends who are righteous and pure is a koala, please call me Pleasant Goat, I don’t know what it is called, writersblock, Yuan Hongjian, book friends 20181013204343295, and kkkkk’s recommendation votes, thank you all.

   (end of this chapter)