War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 111 Hot Springs on the Mineral Bed
At the end of the snowy airport runway, only Wei Ran and her aunt Zhou Shujin were left in the warm tent.

Under the gesture of the latter's eyes, Wei Ran put down the curtain of the tent, and waited until Ji Ma and others outside had gone far away, then sat back opposite his aunt again, and picked up the half-eaten charcoal-grilled deer ribs.

"Tell me your opinion," Zhou Shujin said softly in Chinese.

"What can I say?"

Wei Ran muttered, and finally answered truthfully in Chinese, "Although Jima is a little unreliable, he is definitely a good hunter, and he has a deep affection for Inta."

"What does his family do?" Zhou Shujin asked after refilling a cup of hot tea.

"It's just an ordinary farmer, but his teacher is very powerful. He was a high-ranking official in the Soviet era." Wei Ran unreservedly recounted the migration history of Nikolai and Jima's village, but only concealed what Nikolai had once said. It is a KGB identity.

"Is that the old Harley who lives next to the travel agency? The old man who often comes to eat?" Zhou Shujin asked in surprise.

Wei Ran nodded, "That's him"

"Since this is the case, there is someone to do this matter." Zhou Shujin made a decisive decision, "However, the cost price they gave is too low. You can tell at a glance that they haven't done any big business, so it won't last long at all."

"You want to increase the price for them?" Wei Ran looked at his aunt in confusion, why is there still a rush to increase the price?
“Of course the price will increase”

Zhou Shujin said confidently, "At least double the price of those prey, and give them some service fees. And even so, we still have a lot of profit margins. That's the only way, once we put Inta If this place is fired up, your classmate won't be jealous because we make too much money, and won't be poached by other travel agencies with higher bids. This is a good thing for both of us."

Wei Ran shook his head bluntly, "I don't understand this kind of thing, just talk to Jima directly."

Zhou Shujin rolled her eyes, "I won't participate in the hunting, you follow them to see if there are any hidden dangers. Now I'm going to sleep for a while, and wait until night to see if there are any aurora."

Speaking of this, Wei Ran, who was about to get up and leave, sat back to his original seat, "Auntie, if you bring tourists here, what about Akim and Aunt Chris?"

"It doesn't affect it at all, okay? The customer groups are different." Zhou Shujin waved her hand impatiently, "Hurry up and get out, I need to sleep for a while."

Carrying two ribs and leaving the aunt's tent, Ji Ma has been waiting for a long time by the campfire not far away like a fool.

"How is it?" Ji Ma immediately trotted over and asked nervously, "What's your impression of us, Auntie?"

Wei Ran would not easily reveal his aunt's attitude, and simply said ambiguously, "She has to think about it. How about we go hunting at this time? By the way, I will also help you evaluate possible problems."

"No problem at all!"

Jima nodded happily, and then shouted to his companions who were waiting not far away, "Misha, take someone to stay to protect the camp. Alili, take two people, and we go hunting!"

Hearing this, Alili took out the walkie-talkie from his arms and shouted, and then two sleigh carts were pulled over by reindeer, and they stopped firmly by the campfire.

"Go and change into warmer clothes first." Ji Ma pointed to another tent next to Zhou Shujin, "I've prepared everything for you."

"You should change this suit too." Wei Ran teased with a smile.

"Of course I have to change it. I borrowed it from a friend." Jimahan smiled and told the truth.

Getting into his own tent, Wei Ran couldn't help showing a smile on his face. This tent is the same as the one my aunt lived in. Not only is there a wood stove in the middle, but the tent itself is made of two layers of canvas inside and outside. On the other hand, the warmth of this tent is enough to withstand the low temperature of the arctic.

And on the camp bed not far from the firewood stove, not only was there a complete set of winter clothes, but also an SKS semi-automatic rifle and an iron box full of weapons on the folding table with a rabbit fur blanket at the head of the bed. bullet.Even the goggles and skis are ready.

This scene reminded Wei Ran of the memory of attacking the Soviet Red Army with Mika and the old hunter Ino in the Finnish forest.

While recalling the two old friends in his memory, Wei Ran also had a sharp Mauser bayonet in his hand, and he cut the rabbit fur blanket on the table into long strips in two or three strokes, winding them around the On the semi-automatic rifle, most of the exposed metal parts were wrapped and tied firmly with paracord cores.

With a "click" sound, the bullets in the magazine were pressed into the gun, and Wei Ran washed his hands and put on the winter clothes and thick high-waisted boots prepared by Ji Ma.

Finally put on a cotton hat and goggles, and when Wei Ran came out again, Ji Ma was already sitting in a sleigh and waving to him.

"Let me drive." Wei Ran climbed onto the sleigh and said with a smile.

"Are you coming?" Ji Ma shook the rein in his hand, "Victor, don't be kidding, the horns on the reindeer's head are used for courtship and duels, not the steering wheel, and the two reins are not accelerator and brake .”

"Why so many words?"

Wei Ran threw the rifle on his shoulder and the snowboard in his hand to Ji Ma, then sat on the sleigh cart and snatched the rein from the opponent's hand with a light shake, and threw it on the round buttocks of the two reindeer and said " "Crack" sound.

After receiving the signal, the two reindeer pulling the cart immediately lowered their heads and ran steadily on the soft and thick snow.

Shouting to the reindeer, they wandered back and forth on the abandoned runway and stopped by the bonfire again. Jima's face showed a horrified expression as if he saw Stalin's resurrection, and even Misha and Alili and the dozen or so members of the coal mine patrol all looked surprised.

"Victor, where did you learn this?" Jima asked incredulously, "Don't tell me you have learned this since childhood."

"It's about the same." Wei Ran evaded the past vaguely, "Can we go now?"

"Yes, of course!"

Ji Ma sat on the sleigh car obediently, wrapped himself in a thick wolf fur blanket and only exposed the ski goggles on his face, "Victor, although you can drive a sleigh car, it's better to follow Ali , I don’t want to be thrown out by you and nailed to a tree.”

"I'll pull you out when the time comes." Before Wei Ran could finish his sentence, he shook the reins again and yelled at the reindeer to catch up with Alili's sleigh.

In the warm tent, Zhou Shujin watched Wei Ran, who was sitting on the sleigh, drifting away curiously while holding the breathable window, and then she pulled the soft rabbit fur blanket over her body and closed her eyes.

In the coniferous forest with heavy snow falling, three sleighs, led by Alili, were speeding forward on the deserted forest road like Santa Claus rushing to give gifts.

"Jima, where are we going now?" Wei Ran turned his head and asked.

"First take you to find a place to go hunting, and then take you to a hot spring." Jima yelled in response.

"Hot springs? There are hot springs here?" Wei Ran looked at Jima sitting behind him in surprise.

"Look ahead! You bastard, be careful not to hit a tree!" Jima kicked Wei Ran's ass while talking.

"Bump the tree, do you think those two reindeer are as stupid as you?" Wei Ran shook the reins, "Tell me what happened to the hot spring?"

"There was an iron mine a long time ago"

Jima approached and explained, "It was abandoned before the disintegration of the Soviet Union, but the mining workers in the Soviet era left behind a small hot spring. The skiing that I told you before is also there. .”

"Is there a hot spring? Can you still ski?" Wei Ran asked in surprise, "Then why not develop it?"

"It's more than [-] kilometers away from Inta, and it's also more than [-] kilometers away from Vorkuta in the north." Jima said helplessly, "Who would want to come to such a remote place for hot springs and skiing? What's more Without those two planes, it would take at least two days to get here from Inta or Vorkuta, and it could only be done by reindeer-drawn sleigh cart or sleigh motor.”

Wei Ran sighed secretly when he heard the words, indeed no one would come to Lainta for soaking in hot springs and skiing. Wilderness Ridge Bubble Hot Spring.Because whether it's hot springs or skiing, the relatively warmer south of Russia has countless sanatoriums to offer.

While the two were chatting, the reindeer pulling the sleigh cart ran for half an hour, and finally a large snow-covered open-pit mine appeared at the end of the road.

When Wei Ran yelled at the reindeer to stop, Jima took out a telescope from his arms and handed it over to explain, "This is it. The hot spring is in the beneficiation workshop at the innermost part of this ore deposit."

“This place is big enough”

Holding a telescope, Wei Ran couldn't help sighing in surprise. The area of ​​this open-pit mine surrounded by coniferous forests is at least six or seven square kilometers. On the surface of the mine deposit, which is tens of meters lower than the ground, there are still all kinds of engineering equipment from the Soviet era scattered. Among them, the most conspicuous one is a locomotive-shaped locomotive, one end of which is raised tens of meters high and hangs a large Weird machinery for buckets.

As if he knew what Wei Ran wanted to ask, Alili, who was in charge of leading the way, walked over with his skis in his arms and explained, "That's a stepping excavator produced in the 70s, it's a landmark here."

"Which airport was the iron ore excavated here?" Wei Ran just asked, and the people who followed him couldn't help laughing in good faith.

"Victor, this is only an iron mine, not a gold mine, so how could it be transported by plane."

After finishing speaking, Jima pointed to the direction he came from, "Have you noticed the fork in the road you just passed? That road is connected to the tributary of the Usa River. Cars can be run on the ice in winter, and boats can be run in summer. , the minerals here are transported out through that river.”

"So that's how it is." Wei Ran put down his binoculars and asked, "Is that road still available?"

"I can't go anymore"

It was Alili who answered this question, and he said regretfully, "That road has to pass through two bridges and a tunnel several hundred meters long, but they were all destroyed in an earthquake a few years ago. .”

"Don't worry about those, if you are interested, I can take you to have a look when I go back."

While talking, Jima handed the semi-automatic rifle on the sleigh to Wei Ran, "It's time to hunt now, and there are quite a lot of prey on this mine bed."

Wei Ran didn't have the mind to hunt at this time, he took the rifle and carried it directly on his shoulder, "How about going down to have a look first?"

"No problem at all!"

Jima proudly raised his chin at Alili who was beside him, "I'm not wrong, they must be interested in hot springs."

"Go down with the skis or the sleigh?" Aliri asked, but he had already started to tie the skis to his feet.

The skis used by Alili are not the style that needs to be matched with ski boots as is common today, but an ancient style that is wrapped in buckskin and tied directly to the shoes with leather ropes.And this kind of skis is exactly the same type that Wei Ran used in the battle of Suomusalmi.

"What about you?"

Jima asked while taking the skis out of the sleigh cart, "You may not be used to this kind of board, but I have prepared ski boots for you."

"Who do you look down on?"

Wei Ran returned the binoculars to Ji Ma, took the skis that he had just picked up, and skillfully tied them to his boots.

"Don't be brave, this place is at least [-] kilometers away from the nearest hospital." Ji Ma kindly reminded.

"So watch out for yourself."

Wei Ran had already tied the board while he was talking. After stepping on it and trying to make sure it was all right, he put on the snow goggles, took the ski pole from Ji Ma and gently pushed it, and circled along the board that was about ten meters wide. Lu rushed out.

"I'll leave the sleigh to you." Before Alili could finish his sentence, he had already chased after Wei Ran and disappeared.

Ji Ma shook his head helplessly, waved to the two coal mine patrol members who came over, and yelled at the reindeer to pull the sleigh and rushed towards the snow-covered mine.

The four to five-kilometer-long spiraling downward spacious road is exceptionally flat after being covered with thick snow. Wei Ran is quite addicted to sliding down all the way, although this place is not as good as a professional ski resort. facilities, but it is not easy to encounter such a large, long and flat snow track.This alone is already attractive to someone like him who likes skiing.

With the acceleration of this semi-natural snow track and the acceleration of several ore piles piled up in the middle, it didn't take a few minutes for everyone to rush to the entrance of the three-story mineral processing workshop.

Stopping steadily at the entrance of this huge lonely workshop, Alili gave Wei Ran a thumbs up, then took off his skis, took out a key from his pocket, and opened the huge iron door.

Amidst the harsh noise of Kerala, the iron door that was enough to drive a locomotive was slowly pushed open a two-meter-wide gap.And Wei Ran who was waiting outside the door.He also noticed the steam rising from a large pool in the corner for the first time.

　Thanks to the God who exists between Niu A and Niu C for rewarding 3000 points

　　Thanks mfive for rewarding 1500 points

　　Thank you Flying Hands for rewarding 200 points

　　Thank you for the regulations and play, and Liang Ziyi for rewarding 100 points respectively

　　
　
(End of this chapter)