Chapter 577: Planning the Strategy, Ambushing Separately

For dinner, everyone ate rice—specifically, rice steamed by Wang An.

In this era, rice was typically cooked by boiling it in water and then straining it; this method is rarely seen in later generations, mainly because it is quite troublesome.

The process involves boiling the rice and water in a pot. Once it comes to a boil and the rice is more than half-cooked, you scoop it out with a strainer into a steamer basket, then ladle the rice water into a basin.

Finally, you boil water again to steam the rice for ten or twenty minutes, and it's done.

Of course, you can also skip the steaming, but then you must scrub the pot clean and dry-heat it until hot.

For this step of heating the pot, you must master the heat; it should be just hot enough, then immediately cut the fire—remember, cut the fire completely!

Finally, pour the half-cooked rice into the pot and let it dry-steam for ten or twenty minutes.

Doing it this way has an added benefit: you get to eat the most primitive, authentic "pot crust."

This "pot crust," called "guoba" elsewhere, is simply the layer of dried rice grains stuck to the bottom of the pot.

But in the Northeast, this thing has no other name; it's just called "pot crust." If the pot is too hot, it's called "burnt crust."

There are four great noises in the Northeast: scraping pot crust, sawing metal bars, donkeys braying, and children wailing.

From this ranking, you can tell just how powerful the noise of "scraping pot crust" can be.

Overall, you cannot leave the pot when making "strained rice," otherwise, if the rice is even slightly overcooked, it becomes porridge.

However, both methods of making strained rice share a common benefit: you have rice water to drink, and you can also use it to soak your rice.

As for steaming rice directly, most people cannot master the ratio of rice to water, and the heat is hard to control; one moment of inattention, and you get a pot of "burnt crust," or even a pot of "pitch-black charcoal."

The reason for this is that although the Northeast produced rice in this era, the staple food was corn.

Because they ate it rarely, they had little experience; if they burnt the rice, it would be heartbreaking, so straining the rice and then steaming it was the safest way to cook.

Of course, Wang An would absolutely never cook by straining the rice, because what Wang An feared most was trouble.

He steamed the rice at the bottom of the pot and steamed the meat filling on top; the meat was the smoked meat of the large bear he had previously obtained.

Then, mixing the meat filling into the rice, taking a bite of rice with a bite of garlic or green onion—the taste was simply incomparable! In the local dialect, it was truly "unbeatable!" Meat filling is perhaps also a specialty of the Northeast, and the preparation is quite simple.

Cut the meat into small pieces, the smaller the better—minced meat is best—add soybean paste and chopped green onions, and steam it directly.

If conditions allow, adding a few eggs and mixing them in makes it even more perfect.

It was never enough, simply never enough! The group finished the meal in less than ten minutes; it was quite swift.

After eating, the group hid the gold nuggets in the shrubbery where the gold rice and gold powder were located, then all returned to the tent.

Comrade Da Yan was still in a coma, and as for whether he could wake up, it would depend entirely on himself.

Given the conditions deep in the mountains, if one suffered an injury or other problems, there was truly no other way but to rely on one's own resilience.

Calculating the time, assuming the fastest round trip was four and a half hours, if Ma Zhengshan and his men were to come, the group had to be prepared by 11:30 PM.

After the group discussed how to deal with Ma Zhengshan and his men at night, He Liang suddenly sighed and said:

"If only we had brought some landmines before coming here, buried them around, and then it wouldn't matter who came, we'd blow them all into submission." However, as soon as He Liang's words came out, not a single person in the group responded; to be precise, no one even looked at him.

Mainly because in the current situation, let alone landmines, there weren't even any hand grenades left, and even for the Type 81 rifles, each person had less than two magazines remaining.

Finding that no one was paying attention to him, He Liang probably felt he had lost face, so he shouted with great dissatisfaction: "What's wrong with you all? Am I not right?"

Sun Nian nodded and said:

"Mm, Brother He, I feel you're right, everything you say is right. Anyway, we're going to sleep, just call us before 11 o'clock."

As she spoke, Sun Nian and Zhang Shuya walked toward the tent where they slept, while Wang An and the others also lowered their heads and walked toward another tent, leaving only He Liang and the comatose Comrade Da Yan in this tent.

After everyone had left, He Liang finally reacted and shouted anxiously:

"Leave someone to chat with me, I'm sleepy too if I'm left alone."

Wu Dong said without looking back: "Wake up that guy on the ground and let him get up and chat with you."

It must be said that Wu Dong's words were like a joke, so everyone burst into laughter.

Of course, although he said that, Wu Dong wouldn't actually do it, because deep in these mountains, when the group slept at night, they would take turns keeping watch, two people for two hours, which was just enough.

And Wu Dong and He Liang were in the same group, so Wu Dong just went to take a leak and then turned back into the tent.

No one heard what Wu Dong and He Liang said; anyway, the person who woke Wang An up wasn't either of them, but the fifth brother, Wang Li.

In this season, although the temperature at night was above zero, it was still quite cold, so as soon as Wang An crawled out of the quilt, he was instantly frozen into a state of high alertness.

At this moment, Wang Li suddenly said to Wang An:

"Fourth Brother, that person captured by the eldest sister is running a high fever now. Old Uncle-in-law fed him some honeysuckle and coptis decoction, but it doesn't seem to be of much use."

In this era, generally, if someone had a high fever, the most commonly used remedy was Chinese herbal medicine.

In extreme cases, if Chinese herbal medicine didn't work, they would use "opium paste."

Of course, if they happened to be with a village doctor who had "Analgin," most people would give up on "opium paste" and choose to take a tablet of Analgin instead.

In this era, Analgin was simply a miracle drug; it basically worked for everything, but it was usually in short supply, so herbal medicine was still used more often.

Wang An paused upon hearing this, then said without a trace of emotion:

"Leave it to fate. Anyway, we've done what we should have done; whether he lives or dies is up to him."

After Wang An's rebirth, although he had changed a lot in terms of human sentiment, he truly didn't care about someone like Da Yan.

From the bottom of his heart, in Wang An's view, it would be better if Da Yan died; it would save him the trouble!

Where did all that mercy come from? When the two brothers walked out of the tent, the group had already gathered, and according to the previously agreed plan, they split into two teams to lie in ambush.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 578 =====