War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1043 Hope and No Hope
In the setting sun, Wei Ran, who was already so hungry that his chest was stuck to his back, dragged the sledge and walked slowly on the icy street. On the sledge behind him, there was a picture from the classroom of Alexander and other little guys. In addition to the only wooden podium and a few books borrowed from the library, there is a little guy who is only four and a half years old.

According to Alexander and others, this little boy named Bogdan is the child of their teacher Yuri.

The children headed by Alexander were not only the students of Mr. Yuri before, but after they lost their parents due to various reasons, the same Mr. Yuri took the risk to find them one by one. Come back and take care of them together.

Even, according to Alexander, they originally had a total of 16 classmates, but because the house where Teacher Yuri's house was also hit by German shells a few weeks ago, only six students including Alexander and Bogdan survived. a child.

Behind Wei Ran, the other five children dragged two sledge carts together. On the two sledges, one contained some books, and the other contained bundles of firewood and some tools such as saws and axes. tool.

Only from the regular size and shape, Wei Ran can tell that these firewood are basically decomposed from the floor or furniture.And these few bundles of firewood, which are not too much, are all the "wealth" of these children except the books they are unwilling to discard.

As night fell, the three sledges, which needed to stop and rest from time to time, finally entered the abandoned building under the leadership of Wei Ran, and saw Ke Na who had been waiting anxiously at the basement entrance.

"You're finally back!"

When Ke Na saw Wei Ran, she immediately breathed a sigh of relief, and then asked, "Where did you find so many children?"

"picked up"

Wei Ran responded vaguely, yesterday he picked up a little baby, and today he picked up so many "middle school students", if he goes out tomorrow, will he continue to pick up children?
The answer is almost yes, this long war and this long hunger have created too many tragedies for this city and too many orphans.

"Let's take everyone down!"

After Kona finished speaking, she lowered her low voice slightly, and said close to Wei Ran's ear, "Mrs. Via's son Belia didn't come back today, and Lydia hasn't come back yet. Mrs. Via came back from the sun. Worrying about them before they went down."

"Lydia didn't come back?" Wei Ran frowned immediately.

"Before the sun set, the Germans dropped a bomb not far from us." Kona explained in a slightly flustered manner, "Mrs. Via and I are worried."

"I see"

Wei Ran nodded, picked up Bogdan who was already asleep on the sledge, and helped carry an extra bundle of books, and then he was the first to step on the broken stairs to the warm room in the basement.

It was no different from when we left. There was a little guy who was no older than seven or eight years old sleeping around the stove. Mrs. Via was holding the little baby Galina alone, and beside her lap was the little girl who liked to eat her fingers. , Wei Ran clearly remembered that the little girl was named Anastasia.

"You're finally back"

Mrs. Wei Ya said when Wei Ran entered the door, "Kona and I are very worried about your encounter. Where did these little guys come from?"

"Halfway Encountered"

While talking, Wei Ran handed the little boy Bogdan in his arms to Mrs. Via.

This little guy is about the same size as Anastasia, who likes to eat her fingers, and of course, she is about the same skinny.

"I heard"

"do not worry"

Mrs. Via shook her head, "I believe, no matter whether my Villa or Lydia, they must be all right."

Without waiting for Wei Ran to say anything more, Mrs. Via took out two keys strung together with a rope and handed them to him, and at the same time changed the subject and said, "You and Ke Na go prepare bread slices for the children, Also take an extra third of the dried fish, and deal with that mouse. Finally, who will help introduce these boys and girls?"

Wei Ran took the key and said, "This is Grandma Wei Ya, and sister Ke Na is at the door, Alexander, please introduce your classmates! I'll go and prepare food for everyone."

Hearing that there was food, Alexander and his classmates were immediately impressed. For these "junior high school students" who are growing up, their hunger is actually more serious and more difficult than that of adults. .

"Hi, Grandma Via, I'm Alexander."

Taking advantage of the little guy's polite self-introduction, Wei Ran also greeted Ke Na to leave the warm room, and walked to the door of the next room with a candle light in his hand.

"Mrs. Via said rats are edible."

Taking advantage of Wei Ran's time to open the door with the key, Ke Na went to fetch the saw first, then whispered, and couldn't help swallowing at the same time.

"I see"

Wei Ran nodded, opened the locked door, and walked into the room, which was regarded as a material warehouse, with Ke Na holding a candle lamp.

At this moment, in addition to Wei Ran's portable wine jug and some coal brought back from the baby Galina's home yesterday, there are still mice in the cage and two additional traps in this room. mouse cage.

"Wait for some hot water"

Wei Ran ordered, and used another key to open the wooden box on the table, took out a piece of bread from it, sawed them carefully into slices like yesterday.

At the same time, Ke Na, like Mrs. Via yesterday, used the scale in the box to carefully weigh the weight of each piece of bread. At the same time, she also said weakly, "I heard Wei Mrs. Yata said that this platform is said to be the property of the Soviet Bank, and it was originally used to test the weight of gold bullion."

"Now what we weigh is as precious as gold"

Wei Ran stopped pulling the saw, took a breath and corrected himself, "Now if there is a kilogram of gold and a kilogram of bread in front of me, I will definitely choose bread."

"I'll definitely choose bread too." While speaking, Ke Na couldn't help swallowing.

"Can you tell me about what happened before I joined you?" Wei Ran asked tentatively.

"Here?" Ke Na pointed to her feet.

Seeing that Wei Ran nodded, the girl carefully wrapped the slices of bread with a handkerchief and said, "My family and Mrs. Via's family used to live in the two rooms next to each other on the far right of the third floor. Of course, you can't see it now. There It has been reduced to ruins.

After my father entrusted me to Mrs. Via's care, the war situation became worse and worse. Then one day, when the two of us were looking around for food together, we found Andre, the child of my mother's colleague, and took him away. He brought it back. "

Speaking of this, Ke Na sighed, and said with a wry smile, "But when we came back with Andre, we found that our apartment had been hit by German shells.

The shell not only turned the apartment into ruins, but also killed many neighbors who lived here. It took Mrs. Via and I a whole day to find the three working ones. basement.

This used to be the bakery's warehouse, and a stock of yeast and half a bag of oats saved the three of us. "

Speaking of this, Ke Na wiped the corners of her eyes, "Later, we picked up many children one after another. After Lydia also found us, she decided to take care of these orphans together, and then we picked you up as a childcare worker."

"These." Wei Ran hesitated to speak, and nodded with his fingers on the bayan and the snare drum placed in the corner of the table.

"The snare drum is left by my father," Kona explained proudly, "I told you, he is a musician of the Leningrad Radio Orchestra."

"What about this one?" Wei Ran asked, pointing to the very familiar bayanqin side by side.

"That's Uncle Shostakovich's instrument."

Ke Na wiped the short stave on the bayan with her cuff and said, "Look, there's still his signature here."

"DSCH motivation"

Wei Ran subconsciously said that Olga had mentioned this music signature to him a long time ago. Before deciding to enter this period of history, he also deliberately searched the list of Shostakovich's music works, and according to the premiere time was memorized.

Naturally, the purpose is to provide logical clichés or clues. After all, he is no longer a rookie now, so naturally he will not fight unprepared.

"You know this?" Ke Na looked at Wei Ran in surprise.

"When I was about your age, I saw the premiere of his opera Lady Macbeth in Mtzensk in Leningrad."

"Have you seen it too?!"

Ke Na looked at Wei Ran in surprise, "January 1934, 1! Opera Marie, right? Which row of seats are you in?!"

"Have you seen it too?"

Wei Ran asked in astonishment, he hadn't seen it himself, he even knew roughly what the opera was about, and he memorized the opera just as a way to talk about it, but he didn't It occurred to me that this little girl who was strictly speaking underage had also watched this opera!
"Of course!"

Ke Na stroked the bayanqin and said excitedly, "The ticket for that opera was my 9th birthday present, and that was the first time I saw an opera! I vowed to be an opera singer at that time! Damn Germany Man. If it wasn't for them, I'd almost be living my dream!"

"So this bayanqin is a gift from Shostakovich?" Wei Ran asked deliberately with envy.

"Not so"

Kona glanced at the door first, then tiptoed to Wei Ran's ear and whispered, "Uncle Shostakovich is the composition professor of the Leningrad Conservatory of Music, and my mother is also the professor of Leningrad Conservatory of Music." My teacher, once NKVD found Uncle Shostakovich in the school. At that time, he was playing the bayan on the school lawn to find inspiration for his creation.

My parents were listening to him playing the piano. My mother said that she, my father, and some of her students danced on the lawn by the way. "

"And then?" Wei Ran asked curiously.

Kona nodded, "And of course the NKVD took Uncle Shostakovich away, and Uncle Shostakovich handed over his bayanqin to my parents for safekeeping.

The bayan has been in my house ever since, and my parents have been looking for a chance to give it back to him, but before we could see him again, the damn German came. "

Ke Na raised her finger and pointed upstairs, "I dug in the ruins for almost three days to find out the bayan and my father's snare drum. Fortunately, my father put it under my bed, otherwise It would have been crushed otherwise."

"Where's the bayan next door?" Wei Ran picked up the saw again, and asked while sawing the hard dried fish.

"That's my bayan," Cona said proudly, "it was my 15th birthday present from my mother, and that piano cost her almost half a month's salary, Victor, will you Can you play the bayan?"

"I won't"

Wei Ran put the one-third of the dried fish he sawed off on the tray of the scale and said, "I can't sing, let alone dance."

"We have a little concert every night"

When Kona said this, she obviously thought of Lydia, and she became very worried. While wrapping the weighed slice of bread in a handkerchief, she said, "I don't know if sister Lydia is in trouble. She should have returned with the bread by then."

"She'll definitely be back"

As Wei Ran said, he had already walked towards the mousetrap cage not far away, "In addition, although I can't sing or play the bayan, I can play a piece of music on the harmonica. Although there is only one piece, it should be enough gone."

"Harmonica? Do you have a harmonica?" Kona's eyes lit up. "We finally have a new instrument."

"Of course, I bring it with me." Wei Ran waved his hand, "Okay, I'll deal with the mouse first."

"Wait!" Ke Na said quickly, "Ms. Via requires that there must be more than two people in this room every time, you, wait for me."

As expected of a retired banker, he is quite rigorous.
Wei Ran muttered to himself, stopped in his tracks, and waited patiently for Ke Na to divide the bread and lock the cabinet, then walked out and locked the door.

After a while, the girl walked out of the room carrying a small pot of boiling water and handed it to Wei Ran who was waiting outside.And behind the girl, there was a small head swallowing and looking at the fat mouse in the cage.

"Stand back a little bit," Wei Ran said, pouring scalding boiling water on the mouse through the wire mousetrap.

Amidst a burst of squeaking noises, the fat mouse straightened up quickly and lost its movement.

Dragging the cage to turn it over, Wei Ran poured the remaining boiled water on it, then returned the kettle to Ke Na, opened the cage and took out the fat mouse.

After scalding in boiling water just now, he didn't need to exert any effort at this time, and he easily plucked out the mouse hair.And the reason why he didn't peel the skin was just to let these children eat an extra bite of meat.

Under the gaze of those eager eyes around him, Wei Ran took a small Finnish hunting knife from Kona, cut off the claws and tail of the limbs neatly, and then opened the stomach and cleaned the internal organs.

He scalded the cleaned mice inside and out again with boiling water, and then he handed them over to Ke Na for disposal, while he himself carried three mouse traps and used a broken enamel bowl to clean them. He left the basement with those mouse offals.

After some searching, he found a hidden location in the ruins on the first floor, and then took out an oil drum that was only one-third full of honey.

First, he poured more than half of the honey into the P44 jug of the British army that had been emptied. Then, he put away the oil drum, put the jug into the enamel bowl containing the mouse internal organs, and carefully dripped a small lump of honey the size of a cigarette end.

Carefully licking off the traces of sweetness remaining on the spout of the kettle, Wei Ran tightened the lid without hesitation and put it into the metal book, then stirred it with a small piece of iron wire that he picked up at random, and put the honey stained The internal organs of the mouse were divided into three parts and hung inside the mousetrap as bait.

"11 mice, and I don't know when to catch them."

Wei Ran muttered to himself, feeling the darkness, scattered the three mousetrap cages and stuffed them into the gaps in the ruins to hide them.

When he returned to the basement, the five "junior high school students" and older children headed by Andre had not only moved the firewood and books they brought into the room, but also had more hair on their heads. A different colored Budyonny hat.

At this time, Ke Na was sitting on a small stool by the table and playing the bayan, while Alexander and other five older children sat down facing the number of children twice as many as them, and sang in unison a song about For this era, the song "Night at the Harbor" was written not long ago, and it was written in Leningrad under siege.

just sing!Tomorrow, my friends, we set sail for the misty ocean.

just sing!Happy singing, old white-haired captain, come and sing with us.

Farewell, dear harbor, to-morrow sails away.

The sky was just getting brighter, and looking back at the pier, the blue turbans of relatives were waving.

Outside the basement, the roar of planes and explosions continued overtime.

Inside the basement, on the warm stove, the enamel pot that had just put a piece of rat meat and a small piece of dried fish was steaming.

The five boys and girls who had just joined, and even Kona, who was a few years older than them and was busy playing the bayanqin, all sang this song that brought them hope.

Even Mrs. Via, who was worried about her son, held the baby Galina in her arms, and sang along with her eyes closed and a smile on her face.

These ordinary people in Leningrad, these old people and children who have been tortured by hunger for too long may not be able to sing the full emotions in the lyrics. Make the accompaniment a little out of shape.

But these old people, these children, are still waiting for the time before dinner. In the basement covered by gunfire and not seeing the sun, they are full of hopeful smiling faces. Songs of them fighting together.

Involuntarily, Wei Ran took out the camera silently and hid behind all the children. Then, with the red light from the fire, he pressed the shutter towards the hopeful children, women, and old people, and silently took pictures A group photo that I don't know if I can see it clearly.

Putting away the camera, he leaned against the wall and began to secretly think about the ratio of supplies and personnel.

At present, there are already 16 children in this small basement. Except for the five boys and girls headed by Alexander who may be able to do something within their capabilities, the rest are just seven or eight years old, and at most they are less than 10 years old. There are not many things that the little ones can help, not to mention, there is also a baby who can only eat liquid food.

As for the adults, no matter Mrs. Via or Kona, or the other girl Lydia whose life and death are currently unknown, they are also not much better because of long-term hunger.

But outside this warm basement, judging from his experience of living in Kazan for so long and having been to ghost places like Inta, even during the day, the outdoor temperature may be twenty or thirty degrees below zero. At night, it might be thirty or forty degrees below zero.

But what about their supplies?More than half of the wooden beams he brought back yesterday have been burned, and the ones he brought back today are probably just a drop in the bucket.

The same drop in the bucket, and food reserves.In the basement next door, the few pieces of bread and dried fish might not be enough for so many children and adults to eat.

The honey in the metal book looks like six or seven liters, the food box is also filled with chocolate, and even the ingredients in the pan full of cooking utensils are enough to cook three or four pots of oil tea and then stew a large pot The savory rice is rich.

He eats these things by himself, and if he saves some, he may be able to last for a month or two without any problem.But with so many children eating together, no matter how economical they are, I am afraid they can only last for about a week, and this has to be an optimistic estimate.

As for the only jug of hot cocoa he gave the children to drink before and the portable flagon with only half of the honey left, which had been locked next door, he didn't think it was a waste.

Because he knew that without that pot of hot cocoa and all that honey that was eaten, and even that bar of chocolate that he gave to the second batch of kids during the day, he'd...seem to starve to death again. scene.

"I don't know when it will be my turn to transport these children out"

Wei Ran sighed secretly. As a historian, he clearly knew that since the road of life on Lake Ladoga was opened, not only material resources have been continuously transported in, but also a steady stream of refugees have been transported out.

But this is not without danger and disorder. First of all, in view of the current not particularly perfect anti-aircraft firepower network and low temperature, the casualty rate of this road of life is actually not lower than that of the front line.

On the other hand, those who need to be transported out first are the wounded who need to occupy a lot of human and material resources, and then it is the turn of the children.But when will it be the turn of these kids here.
Think about the return mission given by the metal book, which includes "boarding the boat" instead of "boarding the car". I am afraid that it will not be possible until the ice surface of Lake Ladoga thaws, which will not be in mid-to-late April.
Thinking of this, Wei Ran got more and more headaches, and didn't know how to get through the next time.

Is it true that it only depends on catching mice?

After the Savage Mountain last time, there was an extra fishing net on the row boat in Baiyangdian, but it can only be used after the river and lake are thawed. I really don’t see any hope of surviving.
Just as he was pulling his hair in annoyance, he wondered if he could risk going to the ruins to find a few unexploded bombs and throw them into the river to blow up the ice, and whether he would be shot down by the second generation ancestors of the KGB At that moment, Ke Na on the other side of the stove also stopped playing.

"Victor, it's your turn." Kona said weakly, "I'm exhausted."

"I only know one song"

As Wei Ran said, he pretended to take out the blues harmonica from his pocket and took out the blues harmonica from the Pacific battlefield. theme song.

(End of this chapter)