War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1050 Meat Skin Jelly

"Om-!"

Just as Wei Ran was chopping off the sixth horse hide and stacking it on the sledge, the low roar of an airplane engine appeared in the sky.

Immediately afterwards, only a few hundred meters away from them, an anti-aircraft gun position that Wei Ran and others hadn't noticed before also started to roar. For a while, black smoke exploded in the sky. The fighter jets and bombers flying in the direction of the German army either raised their heights, or were unable to dodge in time, and were hit by anti-aircraft guns, drawing a parabola or spiral line in the air with black smoke, or, directly exploded in the air and became A huge black snowflake.

"Victor! We should get out of here!"

While Matwei was speaking, he threw a large piece of horse lung that was sawed off onto his sledge cart, and by the way, threw a piece of mutilated horse liver onto Wei Ran's sledge cart.

"Wait a minute!"

As Ke Na spoke, she tried again to pick up the frozen mass of the horse's stomach and intestines, but the heavy weight made her fail again without any surprise.

"You take Kona first!"

As Wei Ran said, he had already handed the reins of the sledge cart with a lot of horse hide and a lot of meat on the front legs of the horse to Ke Na, "Follow him and run!"

"Can"

"Come on!"

Wei Ran urged rudely, and at the same time, Matvey also grabbed Ke Na's arm and walked towards the city.

At the same time, Wei Ran also took a deep breath, picked up the lump of internal organs and intestines that Ke Na couldn't pick up just now, lifted it onto the sledge truck, and threw various tools into it indiscriminately , grabbing the rope and throwing it over his shoulder, he chased after him.

In such a short time, the artillery of the Germans had crossed the positions of the two armies and covered the anti-aircraft artillery positions just mentioned, but the artillery positions guarding Leningrad did not move, let alone stop fire.

"boom!"

Just when Wei Ran was trying to slow down his breath, a cannonball with a frightening whistle slammed into a position less than a hundred meters away from him, easily blowing up a birch tree into pieces, by the way Also left a huge crater!

And at the same time as he heard the whistle, Wei Ran's body had already reacted one step ahead of his brain, lying down on the snow directly!

"Pooh!"

Wei Ran, who got up again, spit out the snow that accidentally broke into his mouth just now, and hid beside the sledge truck with his head in his arms. He greeted the mothers of all Germans and prayed for the birch fragments and Do not drop the broken branches on yourself.

"Snapped!"

Accompanied by a muffled sound, a Y-shaped tree branch that was two meters long and one meter wide slammed on the frozen viscera on the plow truck from the other side, and immediately after that, it was sprinkled down one after another. The snow and the mud that still smells like gunpowder smoke.

Patting the dead branches and rotten leaves above his head, Wei Ran got up cursing, lifted the branch and threw it aside, grabbed the rope tightly and continued to run forward forgetting his life.

However, the artillery shell just now was like a signal, directing all the German artillery shells to this area. For a while, the rumble of artillery and explosions completely drowned out the curses in various languages ​​​​from Wei Ran's mouth. He and his sledge truck simply hid in a large enough crater, lying on the cold but smoking frozen soil, waiting for the shelling to end.

In less than 20 seconds, Wei Ran clearly heard that the counterattack from the anti-aircraft artillery position died down, and the roar of the planes overhead also became more intense.

Is that camp
Just when he was in a daze, when the German planes lowered their altitude slightly, dense anti-aircraft artillery was fired from the forest in the distance!

For a while, a large amount of black smoke was densely covered in the cold and windy sky, and the German fighter jets fell down with crackling black smoke like dumplings.

At this moment, from the direction of the city of Leningrad, Soviet fighter jets also flew over, firing dense barrage at the German planes through the dense anti-aircraft artillery fire.

Under this wave of rapid strikes that could be called tacit cooperation, the German fleet in the air suffered heavy losses immediately, and the remaining fighter jets that were originally escorting the bombers and preparing to fly to the city had to change their course to meet the Soviet fighter jets blocking the front.

And those bombers and dive bombers that lost their escort immediately became live targets for the air defense forces.

However, compared to the fierce battle in the air, Wei Ran, who had already pulled the sledge again and climbed out of the crater to run back, was already so happy that he was about to grin his cheeks to the back molars, because just now, he watched a plane The German plane made an emergency landing on the wasteland directly in front of him and to the right with black smoke, and rolled over!
Not only that, but he also saw that Kona and Matvey in front had already dragged their sledges and ran towards the German plane that was forced to land!
Glancing at the plane and the two people running towards the plane, Wei Ran looked at the two wings that were still burning when the plane just rolled over and broke off.

Adjusting the direction slightly, Wei Ran ran to a wing that was only a hundred meters away from him.

Almost when he used the snow cover to extinguish the remaining flames in this section of the wing, there was also a faint gunshot from the main part of the crashed plane in the distance, which was covered by the sound of firefights in the sky.

Standing on the sledge and tiptoeing to make sure that the two were still alive, Wei Ran didn't dare to waste time, and took out the oil drum that had been empty in the metal book as quickly as possible. Before Matvey and Kona left the wreckage of the burning fighter jet, they filled the empty bucket with still-warm aviation fuel.Immediately afterwards, it buried the wing, which still had a lot of fuel, with the snow that could be seen everywhere around it.

At this time, the firefight in the air had been pushed to a higher level by the ground anti-aircraft firepower and the Soviet fighter jets, and even at the front line behind them, the firefight became more and more intense.

Not daring to waste any more time, Wei Ran pulled the sledge and desperately ran towards the city.At the same time, he took as few detours as possible, and tried his best to shorten the distance between him and Matvey.

Maybe Wei Ran was hungry for a shorter time after all, or maybe it was Matvey and Ke Na who were hungry for too long after all.In more than ten minutes, Wei Ran finally caught up with the two people who were out of breath, and the three fully loaded sledges also maintained the same speed and formation.

"What did you find just now?" While Wei Ran was speaking, he had already reached out and tore off the thick scarf on Ke Na's face, and stuffed a piece of chocolate into her mouth.

While he was stuffing chocolate into Matvey's mouth, Kona also said out of breath, "One pistol, and one, a canvas bag, and, the same as the one you gave me, but, But wait"

After taking a few breaths, Ke Na swallowed the chewed chocolate and said out of breath, "But it's not as much as the bag you gave me, but I got, got this."

Glancing at the other party pointing at the German army goggles on his face with a bear-skin gloved finger, Wei Ran was about to speak when Matvey reminded him, "And the gloves on my hand, you also killed a The Germans also saved me. Congratulations, Cora, you're a qualified, qualified fighter."

"Correct!"

Ke Na shook the P38 pistol that Wei Ran had given her for self-defense before, "I killed that German pilot."

"You killed a German pilot?"

Wei Ran looked at Ke Na in surprise, he didn't expect this girl to be so courageous, but thinking about how this girl dared to secretly follow him to the front line and kill a German devil, it didn't seem like a big deal.

"He was going to shoot me," Matvey helped explain, "thanks to Ke Na's quick reaction and killed him first."

"I hit him in the shoulder the first time, and the second shot hit his head."

Cora put away the gun and explained, "Thanks to Mrs. Via who taught me how to use a pistol a long time ago."

After a short pause, Kona tentatively asked, "Victor, I gave Matvey the package we found just now, I know the children need it too"

"I don't have any objection to this kind of thing." Wei Ran expressed his attitude before the other party finished speaking, "Everyone is from Leningrad."

"Thank you" Matvey said seriously, "I"

"You don't need to explain." Wei Ran spread his hands, "You two, act as if I discovered the thing."

Hearing this, Ke Na and Matvey looked at each other, and there were smiles on their respective faces.

At this time, the battle group above also began to move towards the distance, and the three of them were undoubtedly much safer.

However, this is a dangerous battlefield after all, even though the three of them were exhausted and out of breath, they still didn't dare to stop.

After running in such a hurry for another half an hour, the three people who were really exhausted fell on the thick snow one after another, panting heavily.

But soon, no matter Matvey, Kona or Wei Ran, they all giggled and laughed.

In that laughter, there was rejoicing, happiness, hope, and a sigh of relief.

"Those little guys can have a few good meals again"

Matvey pointed to the horse lungs stacked on the sledge and said, "Especially that picky black vulture Veroshka, he likes these horse lungs the most."

"Brothers and sisters too. Victor, I still want to confirm, are the things we brought back really edible?" Ke Na turned her head and looked at Wei Ran who was also lying on the snow beside her.

"It can be eaten, of course it can be eaten." Wei Ran promised again, "Believe me, I will make them very delicious."

“Hope it's delicious”

Ke Na murmured cautiously, and then muttered, "Before the war, my parents would occasionally buy some offal and chop it up to make some sausages, but I've never eaten horse stomach or hide."

"You'll fall in love with them." Wei Ran said as he rolled over and got up, "speed up, let's go back as soon as possible while we still have strength."

"When will we come back next time?" Ke Na also stood up and asked while pulling the relatively easy sledge.

"Let's talk about it next time." Wei Ran and Matwei gave the same answer in unison, followed by hearty laughter.

They tacitly took out the canvas prepared in advance from the sledge cart to cover the harvest full of the cart, and tied it firmly with ropes. The three of them quickened their pace and pulled the sledge towards the direction of the inner city.

Thanks to the energy provided by those chocolates, as well as the urging of the artillery fire and fighter jets just now, the three of them rushed back to the gate of the zoo before two o'clock in the afternoon.

"Before I go to the front line next time, I will go to your place to give a performance to the children one day in advance." Matvey said while releasing the great hero locked in the cage - the man in the clothes looks like a dog dog Joseph.

"The children and I will always be waiting for you to come." Wei Ran said, and he also held hands with the other party.

"Wait a minute, I'll give you some presents."

After Matwei finished speaking, he let go of the hand he held with Wei Ran, turned around and walked to the ruins of a building on the side of the road, bent down from behind a collapsed broken wall, and pulled out a bulging sack and handed it to Wei Ran.

After receiving the sack, Wei Ran opened it and was surprised to find that it was filled with rat traps!

"So much?" Wei Ran asked in surprise, "For me?"

"Yes, for you and the children."

Matvey showed a simple and honest smile, "There used to be a lot of these mouse traps in the zoo, which were specially used to catch the mice in the feed warehouse. After discussing with my colleagues, I decided to allocate 10 more cages for you and the children." .”

"Thank you, thank you for your help." Wei Ran said gratefully. With these cages, he could complete the task of catching 11 mice earlier.

"Nothing." Matvey waved his hand. "The rats in this city have been caught long ago. We don't need so many rat traps."

"Then I'll accept it." Wei Ran said, he had already tied the sack again, and threw it on the sledge pulled by Ke Na.

Saying goodbye to Matvey and his multifunctional dog Joseph, Wei Ran and Ke Na each pulled a fully loaded sledge and walked towards the place that can be called "home".

Halfway through the journey, when they passed the wreckage of the plane again, the body of the German pilot hung on the wooden beam by Wei Ran was still floating with the cold wind.

Residents passing by with sledge carts would subconsciously glance at the corpse, and then either muttered something, or greeted his mother, or slowly pulled off their scarves, and walked towards the corpse Spit on a mouthful.

But no matter what the reaction was, the faces of these Leningrad residents finally had some vivid brilliance.

Seeing this, Wei Ran and Ke Na looked at each other, each took a hard breath, and quickened their pace again.

At around four o'clock in the afternoon, Wei Ranran finally rushed back to the ruins where the basement was located with two sledges.

Before they could stop, Alexander, who seemed to have been keeping watch on the side of the road, spotted them.

Seeing this, the young man immediately stuffed his cuffed hand into his mouth and blew a barely loud whistle.

Immediately afterwards, the other older children came out in a swarm surrounded by Mrs. Weiya who looked worried.

"Aren't you in any danger?" Mrs. Via grabbed Wei Ran's and Ke Na's wrists with her skinny hands.

"No, we haven't encountered any danger."

Ke Na hugged the thin and out-of-shape old lady, and at the same time, she did not forget to wink at Lydia who was walking at the end, and then she fluently uttered a series of lies, explaining the dangers she encountered before, All understatements have been tampered with "with the help of a few well-meaning Red Army soldiers."

At any rate, they had fooled the old lady, and everyone immediately cooperated with each other, unloaded all the things from the two sledge trucks, and carried them to the room that was originally used to store firewood like an assembly line.

"Victor, can these things be eaten too?"

As Alexander said, he stuffed the corner of the horse hide that was as frozen as a steel plate with hair on it into his mouth, and tried to take a bite with his pair of big dies.

"Of course you can eat it, but it's definitely not the way you eat it."

As Wei Ran spoke, he had already walked into a room full of firewood and frozen internal organs.But with just one glance, he saw the three mousetrap cages he had set up yesterday.But the most important thing is that in these three mouse traps, there is actually a mouse with red fur!

"Is this caught in a cage?" Wei Ran asked in surprise.

"Correct!"

The older child named Alyosha said proudly, "In the morning, Alexander and I accidentally discovered the cage you arranged, and then changed the place for them, and then caught these three mice."

"You... where did you catch them?"

Wei Ran was even more surprised. He had been busy for two days without even catching a single hair. These two half-grown children were amazing, and they caught three of them in less than a day.

"there"

Alexander pointed in the direction, "There's a burnt down house there, we set up the cage there and caught it."

"We were going to dig some charred furniture out there," Aleutian added. "We just put the cages in there and caught three rats."

"Take me to see later," Wei Ran said subconsciously.

"I'll go with you later," Lydia, who had been silent just now, said abruptly.

Hearing this, Wei Ran was startled for a moment, and then nodded his head.

"Okay, you two take a break first."

Mrs. Via clapped her hands, "Lydia, let us cook today, let's cook a pot of broth with the three mice caught by Alexander and Alyosha, and use the carrot left over from yesterday. put in."

"Remember to keep the rat's internal organs," Wei Ran reminded worriedly, "I still want to use them as bait."

"Go and rest," Lydia urged with a smile.

"Just rest"

Wei Ran waved his hand, picked up a half-meter-square piece of horse hide and said, "Alexander, go and bring me a pot of boiling water. I want to boil the water."

"No problem!" Alexander ran into the warm room without thinking.

But Wei Ran picked up the saw, first sawed off a short section of frozen horse intestines, and then took out a fist-sized piece of dark red horse liver.

Finally, he took a wooden basin and walked to the open space outside the room. Wei Ran first put the furry horse hide into the wooden basin, and ordered Alexander to pour a pot full of boiling water on it.

Under the high-temperature washing, the space where the circus performances used to be performed suddenly filled with a stench, and the horse hide softened visibly with the naked eye.

Until a pot of boiling water was poured on it, he didn't even take off the leather gloves of the German pilots on his hands, so he began to rub the horse hair on it vigorously, and pulled it off easily.

Seeing that this method is also effective, Wei Ran threw the frozen horse intestines into a wooden basin filled with hot water to soak.

As the children and Ke Na watched while holding their noses, the half-meter-square horse hide was gradually plucked, revealing the white skin.And the intestines soaked in the basin were completely softened after the second pot of boiling water was poured on the horse hide.

First spread the horse hide on a wooden table and put nails on the four corners. Wei Ran took off his gloves again, endured the nausea, turned the intestines over and cleaned them carefully, and scalded them carefully with hot water. again.

After all, the disgusting smell of his messing with internal organs is no match for the steaming aroma when Mrs. Via and Lydia are cooking dinner, so soon, except for Ke Na, the rest of the children hid in the warmth and filled with the aroma of food. in the room.

"There's a gasoline stove in that canvas bag, give it to me."

Wei Ran wiped his hands, and said as he walked towards the wood storage room with a table on which horse hide and intestines were nailed.

Hearing this, Ke Na immediately opened the canvas bag that was still straddling her shoulders and found the small oil stove from inside.

"Go get me another pot"

Wei Ran arranged a new job for this girl who was so tired that her legs started to tremble but she didn't want to rest at all, and lit the small gasoline stove before the other party came back with an enamel pot.

Taking advantage of the time when the stove was preheating and pressurizing, he also filled the enamel pot with ice cubes and put it on top.

He took out the gravity knife he searched in the morning and threw it out to test the sharpness of the blade. Under Ke Na's watchful eye, Wei Ran cut the horsehide that had been cleaned and hadn't had time to refreeze into strips half a centimeter wide, and then The same washed small intestine was cut into small circles.

Finally, the piece of horse liver was roughly rinsed with hot water, but Wei Ran directly found an ax and chopped it into fine pieces with ice slag.

His operation was naturally for the purpose of making pigskin jelly, but the pigskin must not be found, but it would not be too bad to use horse hide instead.And most importantly, he is too good at doing this stuff.

When I was young, almost every holiday, Suisui’s grandma would boil frozen fish scales and pork skin jelly, and put marinated pork head meat in it. For both, it is also the most commonly eaten snack in childhood.

Correspondingly, if you want to eat, you have to help. Whether it is lighting a fire or cooking pig skin, whether it is he or Suisui, it is already a family skill engraved in childhood memories.

While recalling the happy memories of childhood, Wei Ran blanched the cut horse skin and small intestine twice, and after changing the pot of water again, he directly cooked in a simple pot, and while Kona was called When I went to sing to the children, I took out some seasonings such as ginger, pepper and coarse salt soy sauce from the basket and added them.

After cooking in this way until the firepower of this small gasoline stove weakened, Wei Ran sprinkled the chopped horse liver into it. Considering that this thing might be able to supplement some vitamin A, it would definitely be bitter to eat, so he He added some honey to it on his own initiative and stirred it indiscriminately.

Finally, he turned off the fire and closed the lid, and then he left the room, went into the next door, and got a cup of oily broth from Lydia's hand, and a corner of black bread that was definitely not delicious.

"Victor, when can you eat those things you made?" Alexander leaned close to Wei Ran and asked.

"Don't you think it stinks?" Wei Ran asked with a smile.

"I want to fill my stomach more," the boy Alexander replied frankly.

"Wait, how about you take me to see where the mice were caught first, and then we can see if those things can be eaten?"

"Shall we go now?" Alexander asked immediately.

"What about you?" Wei Ran looked at Lydia.

"Go, go."

As Lydia said, she drank the broth in the cup in one gulp, and stood up staggeringly while leaning against the wall.

(End of this chapter)