Chapter 8

  When Daniu arrived at the front yard, there were indeed two police officers and Uncle Song Wu there. When they saw her enter the house, he said to the two police officers, "Comrades, this is our vilge's forest ranger."

  It seemed that they did not expect that the forest ranger was a female comrade. The two were stunned for a moment. The girl nodded to them, "Ma Shun." She said her name and stretched out her hand very generously.

  This posture was beyond the two people's expectation. The older one quickly stretched out his hand and said, "Zhang Xiang, this is Hu Tong."

  After getting to know her a little, the older man Zhang Xiang said to the girl, "I didn't expect the forest ranger to be such a young female comrade."

  He was a little hesitant, not knowing whether to hand the matter over to this retively young girl or to look for another forest ranger somewhere else.

  Uncle Song Wu seemed to see his concerns and said, "Comrade Zhang, don't look at our Shun's young age, but she is the first forest ranger in the surrounding vilges. Even if you look for someone else, they may not be as capable as her."

  Zhang felt a little embarrassed about what Uncle Song said, but he still didn't quite believe his bragging. However, time waited for no one, so he said, "Comrade Ma, we have an urgent task that requires the help of forest rangers. I wonder if Comrade Ma can go with us?" He didn't say what it was.

  Daniu nodded and said, "Wait a minute while I get something."

  Daniu returned to the west room, and her two younger sisters were weaving flower ropes in this room. When they saw her enter the room, they stopped and said, "Sister is going out again."

  "Yes, I'm going out for a while, and I don't know when I will be back. I bought cotton and cloth on the street this morning; you two and Mom can make new cotton-padded jackets."

  As Daniu spoke, she got on the kang and opened the cabinet door inside the kang cabinet. Unlike the cabinets in other people's homes, this cabinet contained a separate compartment with not many things in it: two guns, a dagger, and a few boxes of bullets.

  Daniu took out one of the guns, fifty bullets, and the dagger. She closed and locked the cabinet.

  The sisters were used to it and were not surprised to see their elder sister holding a gun.

  Daniu changed her cotton jacket, took out a thin cotton jacket and cotton pants, which were very close to her body, from the closet, and then put on a mink vest and finally put on her leather pants. Finally, she picked a leather jacket that was long to her knees, jumped twice, and it was okay. She adjusted the hunting rifle in her hand, loaded five rounds of ammunition, put them on her back, put the dagger in a hidden pocket on the side of her leather pants, and put the rest in her waist bag. Finally, she picked up the leather hat hanging behind the door and went out.

  Her mother knew that she was going out, so she prepared a bag with water and dry food in it. The bag was made of a leather strap and could be carried diagonally behind her without getting in the way.

  Zhang Xiang and Hu Tong saw that she changed her equipment very quickly and was carrying a rifle on her shoulder. Wow, they didn't have such a thing in their station. Only then did they believe that this girl was a forest ranger.

  "Let's go." Daniu said and left the house first.

  "How do we go?"

  "We came by bicycle. Let's go to Beidianzi to enter the mountain."

  “Okay.” Daniu nodded. Beidianzi is a mountain pass to the north of their vilge, only five miles away from their vilge. It is not far. Generally, outsiders go into the mountains through here, and their vilgers go into the mountains from the west hill behind the vilge.

  "This time we want you to help find someone. A week ago, a deputy director of the city library, Cheng Zhiyou, and a high school teacher, Fan Jie, were kidnapped. After investigation, we found that the deputy director was a history researcher who was appointed deputy director when he got old. The high school teacher is from our county. According to his wife, Fan Jie taught history in school and had compiled the county annals. He knows our county very well."

  As the Daniu listened, a middle-aged man appeared in her mind. She had seen Fan Jie before. After sorting it out, this teacher Fan, was in his forties and wore a pair of gsses with the handle of the gsses wrapped in medical bandages. She had met him twice before. Thinking back, this teacher loved to tell stories about the Jin Dynasty and its prosperity.

  After organizing some information, she continued to listen to Zhang Xiang’s introduction.　"Yesterday we found several fake letters of introduction in a guesthouse in the county. After investigation, we found four people with fake names and identities. They had been staying there for half a month and left a week ago but did not check out. After investigation, we determined that these people entered the mountain from Beidianzi."

  The three of them were already on the bicycle, and the road was bumping.

  "We found a witness who said he saw six or seven people entering the mountain. That happened five days ago. We are not familiar with the mountains. Yesterday a forest ranger led our people into the mountains, but they didn't come out because it snowed yesterday. Today a team of people was transferred from the forest farm, and we want to ask you to go into the mountains to look for people."

  Zhang Xiang shouted loudly, fearing that the Daniu couldn't hear him.

  Daniu nodded.

  Beidianzi was not far away, and they arrived in a short while. However, they did not stop the bicycle and continued to ride forward on the mountain road. Two kilometers ahead, there were three wooden houses, and they stopped the bike there.

  These houses were built by forest rangers, and there was a forest ranger on duty here.　"Uncle Lin." Daniu saw a short old man in his fifties with a dark face, sitting on a big stone pilr in the yard, smoking a pipe.

  "I asked them to look for you. Sanxiao ran into them that day. They had a letter of introduction from the Cultural Bureau and guns, so he didn't stop them. Sanxiao took his men in, but I am afraid he won't be able to find them. It's been a week."

  "Well, don't worry; I will definitely bring Sanxiao back." The big girl knew that Uncle Lin was worried about Sanxiao. His first two sons died young, leaving only Sanxiao for him to depend on.

  Daniu and her companions did not stop and set off with a group of people who had been waiting here and went straight into the woods. Sanxiao and his companions entered the mountain yesterday afternoon. It snowed at night, and although all traces were covered, Daniu still discovered the path these people took from the details.

  They were the second group to go into the mountains to search for people, with a squad of soldiers. These people were very hardy and walked very fast, so they didn't g behind Daniu and went forward at full speed.

  Based on the information she had obtained so far, she knew that the people she was facing this time were not ordinary people. They were carrying weapons and leaving no way for retreat. They were all desperate criminals.

  The group walked for more than three hours when Daniu suddenly stopped, looked around with a frown, and gently swept away the snow with her hands, revealing the ground underneath.

  "What's wrong?" Zhang Xiang asked.

  Daniu didn't say anything. She walked to both sides to clear the snow. After looking for a while, she said, "The direction is wrong."

  "How wrong?"

  The person asking the question was Lee Li, the squad leader.

  "San Xiao and his men went the wrong way. Those people walked past here, but San Xiao chased them this way."

  Lee Li squatted down and didn't see anything.

  Daniu didn't keep it secret and said directly, "Sanxiao led the team to follow the footprints. Although the footprints have been unclear for the past week, it didn't snow when they left yesterday, and it hasn't snowed in the past week, so they can still be tracked. But they followed the wrong group here. Look at the footprints over here. There are two sets. This one is San Xiao's group, and the one with less obvious traces over here is another group."

  "But there are no traces here. How can you be sure that those people left from here?"

  Lin Li asked.

  Daniu said, "From the footprints here, it seems that these four people are all over 1.75 meters tall, wearing rubber shoes and cloth shoes, and they walked without deliberately covering up. So they should be people who went into the mountains to look for mountain products or hunt."

  "There are no footprints here, but it is covered up. This road is a fork road, and those people walked on other people's footsteps. Look here."

  The Daniu pointed to one of the traces and said, "One footprint here covers another one. It's very shallow. It's a military leather shoe, but it looks more like an American one. Their soles have deep prints. They may have covered them with cloth to cover them up to prevent people from tracking them."

  "Then how do you know that these people walked from here? As far as I know, this side leads to Shilin Mountain, where the road is difficult to walk on. You have to climb the mountain if you want to get there."

  Lin Li was stationed here and was very familiar with the mountain conditions.

  "They are very careful, but look here."

  Daniu had already cleared a lot of space on the ground.

  Several people looked at the ground carefully. There was some dead grass on the ground, but they couldn't see anything.

  "There's a mark here." Daniusaid, pointing to a very shallow crescent edge.

  "This mark has always been there. It was made by someone who deliberately walked with his foot tilted to one side. If I'm not mistaken, it must have been left by that history teacher."

  Everyone present was a little bit skeptical when they heard this. If they were to trace the footprints, they would believe it, but to tell that it was done by Sui from such a small crescent moon was a bit unbelievable.

  Daniu didn't expin. The crescent edge was made through the cotton cloth. The traces inside should be a pair of homemade cotton shoes. The teacher had big feet, so the front was widened when the shoes were made. The irregur shoes made the prints different. Daniu could see this slight difference, but there was no need to expin it to them.

  "This is the situation. I think we should go this way. These people didn't hide their tracks outside but were very cautious in the forest. This is a bit unusual." Daniu stood up and said.

  Zhang Xiang and Lin Li looked at each other, and Lin Li nodded, "Okay, we'll do as you say, but we have to leave someone behind to deliver the message."

  The Daniu nodded and said, "Okay. Squad Leader Lin, you leave two people behind. They just need to walk through a white pine forest from here. There is only that white pine in our forest. After you pass it, you will see a wooden house on the opposite ridge. Sanxiao should have left a message in that house. Your people can go there, get the message, leave the message, and then go back. Go back to find Uncle Lin, and he will ask people to go into the mountains to look for Sanxiao and the others."

  Since Sanxiao and the others have chased the wrong person, there should be no danger. The reason why there is no message now is either that they didn't find anyone or that it snowed too heavily st night and they found a pce to rest.

  "Okay, Xiao Wu, you stay and make sure to deliver the message." Squad Leader Lin called a soldier who was about seventeen or eighteen years old in the team.

  "I is better leave two people. This is a jackal hunting ground, and two people will be able to take care of each other. It doesn't matter if we have one more or one less," said Daniu.

  Lin Li thought about it and asked another soldier to stay.

  After they separated, the Daniu led the group and left directly. This time their goal was clear. If they went this way, they would definitely pass by Shilin Mountain, so there was no need to continue looking for traces. What's more, she was familiar with every tree and bde of grass in the mountains and could see some slight changes.

  They continued walking for more than an hour and arrived at Shilin Mountain. As the name suggests, Shilin Mountain is made entirely of stones (shi = stone). The road was difficult to walk on, and the stones stood in clusters.

  Daniu led the people into the mountains. Halfway through, she stopped and saw a cigarette butt on the ground. She frowned and said, "This is a foreign cigarette."

  There are only a few types of cigarettes with holders in their country.

  Zhang Xiang put on gloves and took the cigarette butt to look at it, then handed it to Hu Tong. Hu Tong looked at it and sniffed it. "It seems to be the isnd country's cigarette. Their cigarettes are softer than ours, and the filter tip is very simir to that of the isnd country."

  "Damn it, these Japanese are still ambitious." Lin Li couldn't help but curse.

  Danii turned around and found that there was something wrong with a rock. She walked over and moved it, and a piece of cloth with "Tiger Ridge" written on it in blood also fell off.

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