War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1039 Colorful Budyonny Hat

When the cold wind blew through the building full of fire marks, the scorched smell that hit the face made Wei Ran, who had just climbed up to the first floor, subconsciously think of another building that was also destroyed by the Germans at almost the same time. A "Galler", and those friends who met in a hurry in the historical fragments and never forgot.

Letting out a long breath, he looked around, perhaps because of the bombing, half of the three-story building had collapsed, and even for the remaining half, a long crack appeared on the ceiling of the first floor. crack.

Letting his eyes pass through this crack, he could even see the sky where bombers or fighter jets flew across from time to time, as well as black smoke rising from unknown places.

Looking back, he saw a wooden plow truck that was more than one meter long and half a meter wide in a nearby room that was mostly collapsed, and a gray blanket hung on the handle of the car.

Regardless of the sledge cart, Wei Ran stepped on the ruins and climbed up to the almost open-air second floor. After a rough inspection, he climbed along the ruins to the third floor with a smaller remaining area.

There are only two or three intact rooms on this floor, and these rooms are the same as those downstairs. All wooden furniture, floors, window frames, door frames, and even doors, everything that can be used as fuel has been removed. Yes, even in one of the rooms, there was a skinny, frozen corpse that had been dead for an unknown amount of time.

Sighing secretly, Wei Ran looked around, bent down and picked up a tattered sheet that was leaking everywhere, and covered the corpse silently, barely helping him retain the last bit of dignity.

Walking to the next room where the roof was also overturned, Wei Ran sat down against the wall, took out everything in the metal book and checked it.

To his surprise and delight, this time, no matter whether it was the kerosene gas lamp, the flatbread oven, or the American oil stove in the kitchen utensils basket, all of them were full of fuel.

Not only that, but the chocolate in the double-layer food box, the two cans of condensed milk he put in the basket, and the raw materials for camellia oleifera that were in the basket were also there!Also brought by him, a time smuggler, included the honey he packed in his portable flagon!
Even the three oil barrels, except one still full of kerosene, one of them even had at least a third of honey in it!But the oil drum that used to hold hot cocoa was empty this time, with nothing at all.

Fortunately, although the honey in the British P44 kettle was gone, it was replaced with hot cocoa from the USS Johnston destroyer.

But after the surprise, is there enough food and drink?
Not enough, obviously not enough, far from enough!

Sighing secretly, Wei Ran finally took out the Nagant revolver and checked it. Seeing that the magazine was full of bullets, he took a deep breath, put away the only weapon and stood up, while taking out the warm flying leather Putting on his hat and flying gloves, he returned to the first floor with the rusty saw.

Putting the tattered blanket on the sledge cart around his head and head, he dragged the sledge cart out of the ruins of the building. In the shadow of the building, with the last rays of the setting sun, he searched for Anything that can be used as fuel for the fire.

But along the way, I didn't see many things that could be brought to burn, but those pedestrians who were also wandering on the road with the sledge were slower and thinner one by one.

"Pfft!"

While he was looking at those unfamiliar Leningrad residents in a daze, a thin and out-of-shape person fell on his back and fell on the road while walking. While Wei Ran was watching or waiting, this person There was no struggle or attempt to get up at all!

When he came back to his senses, Wei Ran subconsciously pulled his wooden sledge and ran over, helping the fallen man to his feet.

However, before he saw the person's appearance or even the man and woman, his heart trembled just by the light weight.

He untied the other party's scarf. This is an old man with high cheekbones and sunken cheeks and eye sockets. He took off his gloves and tried his breathing. Put it on the sledge that the other party was originally pulling, and then pushed the sledge, which was used as a coffin, into the shadow of the building ruins on the side of the road with difficulty.

He didn't know if that skinny old man was also looking for heating fuel like himself, and he didn't know where his home was, and whether there were people waiting for him to bring the fuel back.

Wei Ran, who has also experienced extreme and prolonged hunger, knows very clearly that starvation is undoubtedly the cruelest and longest way of death compared to other ways of death.

But just now, he witnessed the last moment of this long death with his own eyes, watching the old man whose name he didn't even know starved to death in front of him - he couldn't save him in time.

If there are other family members behind this old man.
Wei Ran touched the frozen building ruins and sighed again, such a low temperature, I'm afraid.
Looking at the people around you who continued to wander the streets and alleys with numb faces like walking dead, looking at those who stopped and took off their hats to pay tribute, and those who participated in this short funeral, looked at those who also stopped and stared at the ruins where the corpses were People who don't know what they're thinking.

All he could do was to pull his sledge away and continue to live under the setting sun, amidst the slightly choking smoke, the roar of planes overhead and the sound of nearby or distant explosions and guns. , earnestly looking for any fuel that can be used to burn and keep those children warm.

However, until the sunset was completely swallowed by the horizon, he found nothing else to burn in his sledge except for a wooden chair with only two legs left.

Along the way, except for the buildings where people entered and exited, most of the doors and windows of other buildings have been demolished. The ruins that have been bombed and collapsed seem to have been cleaned up, and no wood can be found at all.

Just when he didn't know whether to continue searching in the dark or return as soon as possible, the night sky filled with gunpowder smoke and roaring artillery, but there was a whistle that made Wei Ran's heart palpitate!
Without thinking at all, the extreme fear and the sense of crisis cultivated by so many times of fighting on various battlefields made him subconsciously drop the sledge he had been pulling, and fly with a movement that was definitely not good-looking. He jumped on the side of a tram that had been out of work for an unknown period of time.

"boom!"

Just as he hugged his head and curled up his body, the second floor of a state-run store, which was only 10 meters away from him, was hit by a shell fired from nowhere, and exploded in a flash of flames. The entire wall facing the street!

In a burst of earth and rock splashing, several passers-by who couldn't dodge were hit by fragments and broken bricks. They fell to the ground before they could even utter a scream, slowly staining the footprints on the ground red. Snow.

Slapping a rag with sparks on his lap, Wei Ran waited for a while, seeing that there was no second shell, then stood up and looked at the state-owned store that was separated from him by a tram car .

After such a short time, thick smoke billowed from the closed store, and the floor on the second floor collapsed into the first floor.

"Crash!"

Just as the passers-by surrounded them subconsciously, the room next door to the store was also damaged and collapsed!
Subconsciously following the crowd, there was no goods in this state-owned store that had been closed for an unknown period of time, but even so, the people around them still untied their saws or crowbars from their sledges, or went straight to the store regardless of the danger. Climb into the burning shop, pick up two wooden chairs, hobble out, put them on your sledge and walk back.

Seeing this, Wei Ran immediately pulled his sledge over, trying to find something that could be burned.

However, before he could find the target, he found that there were waves of weak crying coming from the collapsed room next door.Stopping in his tracks, Wei Ran turned around and looked at the only remaining window in the collapsed room next door.

He is sure that without this war, this window decorated with strong Tsarist style would have been extraordinarily beautiful, but now, except for the anti-theft iron railings installed outside, there are no windows and window frames at all inside. It was the bricks blocking the windows.

Looking around and seeing that no one noticed him, Wei Ran reached into the gap of the anti-theft guardrail, and pulled out two bricks from the brick wall blocking the window to reveal a small hole only ten centimeters square.Before he could close his eyes and ears, the weak crying became much clearer.

Taking out the flashlight and poking it into the hole for a short while to shoot out a dim yellow light beam, Wei Ran was stunned when he saw the scene inside the collapsed room.

This not-so-big room has already been buried by the collapsed ceiling. In the only small space left, there is a skinny young woman leaning against the fireplace with her shriveled breasts exposed. side.

In the fireplace that she blocked with her body, there was also a baby who looked no more than two years old.When the light came on, the baby had slipped from the woman's arms, and one of his feet seemed to have stepped on a tin bucket of burning embers in the fireplace.

And the woman, still struggling at this moment, tried to reach out to the side of the little baby to keep him away from the dangerous but warm tin bucket.

However, she obviously couldn't do it, the corner of her mouth was overflowing with dark red blood, and on her back, there was still a wooden beam that collapsed from the ceiling!
After regaining consciousness, Wei Ran immediately extinguished the flashlight, and replaced it with wire cutters as quickly as possible. After using all his strength to cut through the anti-theft railings that were as thick as a little finger, he violently pushed down the brick wall blocking the window. , drilled in at the fastest speed,

"let me help you"

Wei Ran hadn't finished speaking, and in the faint red light provided by the tin bucket burning with charcoal fire, he had already hugged the tightly wrapped baby from the fireplace that was extremely clean and covered with a small mattress come out.

Covering the baby and the woman with a blanket, Wei Ran turned on the flashlight and checked. Fortunately, the wool felt socks on the little baby's feet were thick enough, she was only burned, but only the soles of the feet were red. , and was not scalded.

"he's fine"

While talking, Wei Ran helped the woman pull down the hem of the raised blouse, then picked up the little baby clumsily, and showed the woman his white and tender soles.

"She's a girl"

The thin woman whose lumbar spine had been broken by the collapsed beams and whose clothes were blood-stained said weakly, "Her name is Galina, Galina Valentine Valentinovna Atman. Her birthday...was...September...September 1941, 9. Her father was...was...Valentin Peter Peternovich Altman of the Horse-Sled Convoy."

"Her name is Galina Valentinovna Aitman, born on September 1941, 9, and her father is Valentin Petronovich Aitman of the horse-drawn sled transport team." Wei Wei While repeating, Ran brought the baby's immature hand to the young mother's mouth, giving her a chance to kiss her daughter for the last time.

"Yep."

The young mother, whose mouth was bleeding, gently kissed the baby's palm, leaving a blood-stained hickey on it. At the same time, she let tears fall on the baby's face, and ran down the thin face. It slides down and eventually drips onto the neckline, where the hammer and sickle logo is sewn into the fabric.

"I will take good care of her." Wei Ran continued while putting the baby in the other's arms, "What's your name?"

"Fennett," the young mother replied weakly.

"Listen to Finnette"

Wei Ran took out the Rollei SLR camera while talking, "Persist a little longer, let me take the last photo of you mother and daughter, Galina needs a photo of her and her mother to accompany her through the day." In the days after the war, she needed to know what her mother was like."

"Thanks"

"You don't need to talk, just save your energy and hug Galina tightly and look at the camera."

While talking, Wei Ran pointed the beam of the flashlight at the mother and daughter without any scruples, and at the same time pointed the hastily adjusted camera at them and pressed the shutter.

With such light and such a photo environment, he wasn't sure if he could capture anything, but he knew that he had to leave something for the mother and daughter.

"Do you still have any wish?" Wei Ran asked while putting away the camera after finishing the filming.

"No more." Finnette let Wei Ran carry her daughter away, and slowly closed her eyes while muttering.

And the little baby in Wei Ran's arms seemed to realize something, and started crying weakly again.

Silently put away the flashlight, Wei Ran sat on the other side of the fireplace, took out the portable wine jug filled with honey in the dark, unscrewed the lid and brought it to the baby Galina's mouth.

When the sweet but energy-rich honey flowed into her little mouth, the little guy who was also starving stopped crying immediately, grasped the silver flagon with both hands as if he had no teacher, and murmured The mouth sucked the sweetness that had hardly been tasted since birth.

But Wei Ran didn't dare to let the little guy drink too much, so after just three or two sips, he took away the jug, fumbled to find half a candle to light it, and observed the little guy even if it didn't collapse. Exceptionally small room.

In addition to a sewing machine that was overwhelmed by the collapsed roof, there are two small wooden boxes under the bed that only has an iron frame. In one of the boxes, there is a small bucket of coal and chopped A few pieces of firewood were opened, and in another box were colorful cotton Budyonny hats, a few pieces of Leba and half a cat in an enamel basin. I don’t know if it was the hind legs of a cat or a dog, but But he knew that this hind leg must have been boiled many times...

After regaining his senses, he picked up a hat. There is no doubt that these are probably worn by children, and the uniform price tags on it, as well as the cloth price tags that have not been sewn on in the box, are enough. Explain that the hats appear to have been assigned to the woman by the state store next door.

After thinking for a while, he put the little baby into the box with the hat, and then pulled a woolen blanket off the bed, wrapping the little guy and the box.

Carrying the two boxes to the window, Wei Ran found the rusty saw again, and carefully sawed off the wooden beam that was still on Finette's back and was as thick as a thigh.

Finally, he hugged Finette into the fireplace covered with blankets, Wei Ran finally took a ring from her hand and held it in his palm, and held the iron bucket that was still burning with charcoal fire in his other hand, without hesitation Leaving this small room that could completely collapse at any time.

Under the cover of the night outside the window, he tied two wooden boxes firmly to the sledge in the dark, and then he saw off the wooden beam with a thigh that was less than two meters long and was still stained with blood. Tie it to the rear of the sledge with a rope.

Finally, he put the still warm tin bucket on the gap between the two wooden boxes, and then he wrapped the blanket tightly around his body, dragged the sledge cart, and walked step by step towards the direction he came from. .

(End of this chapter)