War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1049 Horse Corpse
Before the sun rose, Wei Ran pulled Ke Na and two sledges, and finally met Matwei who was waiting for them at the intersection on time.

Contrary to his and Kona's expectations, what was waiting for them with Matvey included the dog who could only do arithmetic problems.

At this time, the dog was not only wearing a padded coat that was obviously specially sewn for him, which could cover the body, buttocks and even the neck, but also wore thick small shoes on its four legs, and even wore a pair of masks on its face. Modified German style goggles.

"Is this little guy planning to assassinate Mustache?"

Wei Ran pointed at the dog that was only dangling its tail out of the cotton coat, and asked jokingly, "I think it needs a Bobosa submachine gun."

"When there is a chance, I will give Joseph a Bobosha submachine gun." Matvey said humorously, "But now its task is to help us find horse meat."

"Can he find horse meat?" Ke Na asked in surprise.

"Of course"

Matvey said proudly, "Before the Germans surrounded here, I taught him to perform the game of finding objects. It is not difficult for him to find horse meat."

"His cotton coat looks good," Wei Ran praised sincerely.

"I made it with my own hands"

Matvey replied as he dragged his sledge while walking, and the dog named Joseph also sensiblely helped push the sledge behind it—just like it used to show children pushing baby carriages .

"Good boy, go and sit in the car." After Matvey finished speaking, he whistled.

After receiving the order, the dog nimbly jumped onto the sledge, wagged its tail, and got into the small nest wrapped in a canvas cover.

"What a sensible little guy." Ke Na, who was also sitting on the sledge, couldn't help admiring, "After the war is over, I want to raise such a smart dog."

"Wait until the war is over"

Matvey said hopefully, "When Joseph finds a bitch he likes and gives birth to puppies, I will give you one. I guess it will be in spring."

"I'm waiting for that spring," Ke Na said with a smile.

"Compared to that spring." Wei Ran pointed to the front, "Matvey, how long will we go?"

"About four to five kilometers away," Matvey replied, "we won't be able to start walking back until noon at the earliest."

"Have you eaten yet?" Wei Ran asked abruptly.

Matvey froze for a moment, nodded and said, "I have eaten, of course I have. I ate a particularly fat mouse and a piece of black bread I received yesterday evening."

"Kona, give me the bag."

As Wei Ran spoke, he stopped in his tracks, took the canvas bag from Kona, rummaged through it and found a round box that he ventured to find from the wreckage of the plane not long ago, and handed it to the horse who also stopped. Turvey.

"What's this?" Matvey didn't rush to take the box.

"Just recovered from the wreckage of the plane we met last time"

Wei Ran passed the box in his hand forward, "Take it, it's German chocolate, this kind of chocolate is too bitter, children can't eat it at all."

"Uncle Matvey, take it."

Ke Na took the canvas bag that Wei Ran handed back, and at the same time helped to persuade, "Although Victor found the things, we are all from Leningrad, so we should help each other, right?"

"That's okay." Matvey hesitated for a moment, and finally took the round tin box in Wei Ran's hand.

After giving this small gift that might save lives, the two continued to pull the sledge and the passengers on the sledge, and walked out of the city through the snow in the dark.

As they moved forward step by step, the surrounding buildings became more and more dilapidated, but even so, they could still see faint fires or steaming smoke in some buildings from time to time.

"That building is really complete," said Ke Na, who was sitting on the sledge, pointing to the outline of a looming building obliquely ahead.

"Astoria Hotel" Wei Ran and Matvey gave the same answer in unison.

"I'm from Leningrad too," Kona reminded, "Of course I know it's the Astoria Hotel."

"Moustache's 40-year winter declared that he would take Leningrad in 7 months"

Wei Ran didn't hide the sarcasm in his tone at all, "He was still announcing that he was going to hold a celebration banquet at the Astoria Hotel, and for this reason, the German artillery and planes kept avoiding it."

"Taking Leningrad?"

Matvey snorted coldly, and then said in unison with Kona, "Don't even think about it!"

"At worst, I will also go to the battlefield"

Kona said as a matter of course, "Unless he kills me, I will absolutely not allow that bastard to go to the Astoria Hotel to hold a celebration banquet. When I was admitted to the Leningrad Conservatory, my father took me and my mother to eat there." We had a meal once, and our family only ordered red cabbage soup and capuchin pie."

"I haven't eaten there yet," Matvey said regretfully.

"There will definitely be opportunities in the future." Wei Ran exaggeratedly rubbed his stomach, "I'm going to be hungry if you talk about that restaurant again, let's speed up now."

"makes sense"

Before Matvey finished speaking, he had already taken a step, trying to increase the speed a little bit. At the same time, he couldn't help but secretly opened the chocolate box that Wei Ran had just given him, and broke off one-eighth of a piece of round chocolate. A petal of one stuffed into his mouth.

Before he could put the re-covered tin box into his jacket pocket, the chocolate in his mouth had already released a bit of bitterness, strong sweetness, and the unique aroma of coffee.

"Isn't it bitter?" Matvey muttered to himself in the bitter cold wind, and at the same time looked gratefully at Wei Ran, who was about two meters behind him.

Even with the help of this box of chocolates, every half an hour at most, the exhausted Matvey needs to stop and sit on the sledge for a rest.Not only him, but even Wei Ran, who had only been hungry for a few days and had some chocolate as an energy supplement every day, secretly stuffed a piece of chocolate he brought into his mouth when he was resting.

Under this rush, the sky gradually brightened, and they also heard the increasingly clear sound of artillery fire, gunshots, and faint shouts of killing coming from the front.

"The front is our position"

Matvey pointed to the front, and then released the dog Joseph in clothes who looked like a dog, and at the same time he kept explaining, "After our army horses die in battle, soldiers will drag them to the back of the position After dividing, the edible meat will be sent to the field kitchen, and the unedible meat will be discarded at will, and the discarding location is not fixed, so we need Joseph to help us."

With that said, Matvey patted Joseph's butt lightly, "Good boy, go."

After receiving the order, the dog rushed out immediately, first circled a few blown down birch trees in the distance, peed a few times, then arched his nose, and started searching.

"There's so much firewood here," Ke Na muttered greedily looking at the fallen trees around her.

"It's not worth pulling them back, they're too heavy and too far away from you."

As Matvey said, he had already dragged his sledge to the edge of an abandoned trench and stopped, "Let's take shelter from the wind here first, and Joseph will come to us when he finds it."

Climbing down the trench with the opponent, Matvey wrapped the blanket tightly around his body, leaned against the cold trench wall, and then fumbled out the cigarette case that Wei Ran gave him, took out a cigarette from it and gave it to him. Both Wei Ran and Ke Na shook their heads, then stuffed them into their mouths, and lit the cigarette with the lighter in their hands.

For a moment, the abandoned trench fell into silence, and Ke Na also subconsciously moved to Wei Ran's side, and at the same time kept moving her feet to try to warm herself up.

"Joseph won't be in danger, right?" Kona couldn't help asking before Matvey finished smoking a cigarette.

"Don't worry, it won't." Matvey was confident enough, "It has been here many times."

Hearing this, Ke Na nodded silently, and continued to move her feet to resist the cold.

After waiting like this for half an hour, the dog named Joseph leaped over his head and kicked off a little snow at the same time.

"Good luck, found it so quickly"

As Matvey said, he was the first one to stand up and climb out of the trench. First, he took out something from his pocket and brought it to the dog Joseph's mouth. After he ate it, he patted the furry dog's head lightly. .

Under the leadership of the dog, a group of three people dragged the sledge cart and walked sideways for about 20 minutes, before the dog who led the way sat down on a wooden stake.

And next to the wooden stake, you can clearly see some bulges in the snow on the ground.

Seeing this, Matvey immediately took off his coat and slapped the raised snow, revealing the buried and frozen corpses of several war horses.

The legs and neck meat of these war horses are basically gone, and what is left is only a relatively intact horse head, the frozen horse hide, and the internal organs and intestines without the heart and liver.

"What parts do you need?" Matvey said, already pulling a saw out of the plow truck.

"What part do you need?" Wei Ran gave the other party the right to choose.

"Lungs, spleen and kidneys, as well as neck and tail." Matvey said with a little embarrassment, "If you need me."

"Don't you want the horse's head?" Wei Ran asked in surprise.

"Horses are animals too," Matvey said in embarrassment, "and they are also warriors, so."

"Sorry, I get it."

Wei Ran nodded, pondered for a moment and said, "We need horse hide, stomach pouch, intestines, and spine. If there is any, we also need an extra horse liver. It can supplement vitamins for children."

"Can I eat in these places?" Matvey asked subconsciously.

"It's better than a mouse." Wei Ran picked up the ax while speaking, "Don't waste time, let's start quickly."

"Victor, are the things you said really edible?"

While Ke Na was asking, she had already picked up the saw and helped dissect the body of the first army horse she had just discovered.

"I can eat it, don't worry, I can definitely eat it."

Wei Ran confidently gave an affirmative answer, and at the same time swung the ax fiercely, chopping on the frozen horse hide like a steel plate.

(End of this chapter)