War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1111 Prisoner of War Escape Plan

"So the only clues that can be provided are three photos and one story?" Wei Ran asked, looking at Diane who was sitting opposite.

"Of course not, and this"

Diane didn't fully open her briefcase until this time, and took out a tattered hard leather notebook with mold spots and yellow hairs, and a small knife that was at most 20 centimeters long.

This knife is nothing special, more than half of its length is an antler handle with a one-piece keel structure. It is a typical Finnish knife shape. The mottled rust and remaining small holes on it really look like it was made with a horseshoe.

As for the hard leather notebook, just by looking at the stubby hair Wei Ran, you can tell that it is made of horsehide, which is the same material and craftsmanship as the waterproof horsehide coat used by the Rollei camera in the metal notebook. , a common process and material selection for making military waterproof backpacks in Germany.

Under Wei Ran's gaze, Diane gently untied the leather strap of the hardcover book, then flipped open the horse fur cover and pushed it to Wei Ran.

Inside this 32-carat notebook, a neat round hole is dug out on the page in the upper left corner. Inside this round hole, a small silver-sized piece that is only a circle larger than the cap of a beer bottle is tightly fixed. pocket watch.

On the case of this pocket watch, the words "Second Lieutenant Toshiro Koyama, Army Engineer" are clearly engraved in Japanese-style Chinese characters that are completely compatible with traditional Chinese characters.

Looking up at Diane, Wei Ran took out a pair of rubber gloves from his pocket and put them on, then easily opened the silver case that was slightly higher than the page.

Contrary to his expectations, the watch case turned out to be a compass, which not only had clear and complete azimuth differentiation, but also fixed a spirit level that was only as thick as a matchhead.

Trying to take out this pocket watch-style compass was in vain, Wei Ran simply turned to the last page, only then could he see that the bracelet and back case of this pocket watch have been made of glue of unknown material, It was firmly glued to the horsehide on the last page.

Turning back to the first page, and carefully covering the holes on each page with the compass, Wei Ran looked at the content on the page.

On the first page, there is a map that seems to be hand-drawn with a pen. It not only clearly marks the location of the logging field and the Yenisei River in German, but also marks some five-pointed stars or triangles.And on the bottom edge of this map, a horizontal meandering line is drawn, and on the edge of this line, the words "Siberian Railway" are written in German.

The second page was still a hand-drawn map, but this map detailed the layout of a logging camp.And the purpose of each building is clearly marked in German.

"This is where the captive reindeer are kept"

Diane pointed to a circle of fences that were not much bigger than a fingernail and introduced, "The wooden house next to it is the residence of Second Lieutenant Mesut, and it is also a maintenance station.

According to that Yhor, whether it is horseshoeing or repairing some broken sleigh carts, it is usually carried out in this wooden house.

Both Soviets and prisoners of war admit that Mesut's workmanship is very good and his work is very meticulous. "

"This Second Lieutenant Mesut is really versatile," Wei Ran said pointedly.

"Mesut's hometown is Holzkirchen under the Alps, less than 30 kilometers from Munich."

After a short pause, Diane continued, "His family has been running a small factory producing ski equipment since before the First World War.

Although the factory has moved to Innsbruck, Austria before the 1964 Winter Olympics, it is still operating advanced custom-made ski sports equipment. "

Family craftsmanship?
Wei Ran turned to the third page while muttering, as if to confirm Diane's introduction just now, what was drawn on this page happened to be a structure diagram that seemed to be a sled.

Different from the sled that Wei Ran has seen and used, the hand-painted sled in the picture is extraordinarily slender according to the marked numbers.

With a length of 1.9 meters and a width of only 80 centimeters, with such a slender body, it is destined that the speed of this sled will not be too slow, not to mention that there are three shafts extending from one end of the sled.

This undoubtedly implies that this sleigh cart needs to be pulled by two or four cattle at the beginning of its design, and at the same time, its speed has been further increased.

Continue to turn back, and the next four or five pages are almost all detailed drawings of the various parts of this sled.In particular, the three shafts, which are three and a half meters long, seem to be disassembled and used as tent poles in a separate page.

On the next two pages, the blueprints for a pair of skis and matching poles are drawn.

Continuing to the next two pages, there finally appeared dark blue German pen writing, but what was recorded was an extremely detailed list.

From tents, canvas, animal skins, clothes, to food, medicines, tools, and even cooking utensils, etc., there are two full sheets of paper listed on the front and back, and each entry is marked with a hook.

Seeing that Wei Ran was lost in thought, Diane put down the coffee cup and added, "When Mesut's wife was alive, she confirmed that this is her husband's handwriting, and it also conforms to her husband's rigorous work habits."

Nodding his head noncommittally, Wei Ran continued to turn the page, and the following pages described an escape plan in a few concise German words.

"Yenisei River - Trans-Siberian Railway - Leningrad - Finland - Port of Narvik - Captain Kale"

"Who is Captain Kale?" Wei Ran raised his head and asked.

"unclear"

Diane shook her head, "Whether Mesut's son or wife, or the nuclear survivor Ihor, don't know who this Captain Kale is, but according to the available files, Mesut is indeed Was stationed in Finland for a while."

Nodding and continuing to turn back, the next few pages are blank, and it seems that the middle pages have been torn out.

"A few questions." Wei Ran pushed the notebook to the middle of the table, took off his gloves, and looked up at Diane.

"Please tell me," Diane finished, picked up the coffee cup again and took a leisurely sip.

"First question." Wei Ran waited for the other party to put down the cup and asked, "Let me briefly introduce Mesut's wife and son."

"Mesut's wife is from Innsbruck, and she passed away in 1975. After the end of World War II, she has been running the small factory of the Gotze family. It is also under her leadership that this small factory that was on the verge of bankruptcy Moved to Innsbruck smoothly, and with the 1964 Winter Olympics, made his first pot of gold."

Diane paused and continued, "Mesut's son is named Mesut Jr. He was born in 1943. He took over the factory in 1970 and began to look for his missing father instead of his mother.

Although he has not found Second Lieutenant Mesut for so many years, and the factory has not developed and grown in his hands, his reputation has always been very good regardless of his factory or his personality, especially in the 90s. Skiers have asked him to customize ski sports equipment. "

"second question"

Wei Ran pointed to the notebook between the two of them, "According to common sense, since you have already started to escape, how could you keep such an important note? Especially this pocket watch-style compass, which is obviously the result of the recruitment method. Equipment, how did it get to the labor camp?"

"According to Ihor, Mesut had already found the Yenisei River before he separated from him. Next, he is going to go all the way south along the Yenisei River. He no longer needs these things, so leave this notebook Gave it to him in exchange for the certificate Ihor snatched from the guard and a pistol snatched from the hunter."

Diane spread her hands, "At that time, Ihor had lost a few toes from the cold, and he couldn't run anymore. He exchanged this notebook in anticipation of using it the next time he escaped."

"What about this?" Wei Ran pointed to the pocket watch-style compass.

"Ihor said that it was preserved in his body when he was captured, and it was because he had a compass that Mesut was willing to cooperate with him."

"In the body?" Wei Ran was stunned for a moment, subconsciously looking at the rubber gloves he had just taken off.

"Just as you would expect"

After Diane finished speaking, she gestured with both hands, "Although the behavior is disgusting, in order to survive, it makes sense. Of course, all of this is what Ehor said. Not only the truth needs to be verified, but also Ihor Hall is dead."

"last question"

Wei Ran asked a seemingly insignificant question, "What did Ihor do for a living, where did he live, and did he have any family members alive?"

"It's not a problem"

Diane reminded Wei Ran in a joking tone, and then answered one by one, "Before Mesut's wife passed away, Ihor had been making a living by selling low-priced ski equipment imported from their factory. It is from Hokkaido, and the shop was opened in Sapporo at that time.

After the death of Mesut's wife, Mesut Jr. stopped this kind of preferential treatment immediately.Yihor's shop also closed down shortly thereafter and turned into a residence because of the lack of low-priced goods. In the following years, it has been relying on intermittent sales of Mesut's memories and half-truth clues about Second Lieutenant Mesut. Mr. extort some money to live there.

In addition, Ihor once had a son who was alive, but passed away due to an accident in the last century.His only surviving granddaughter had also married a few years ago, so she didn't know any valuable news at all.

The only thing left is Ihor’s house in Sapporo, which was sold to Mr. Mesut Jr. before his death.But as far as I know, there are no valuable clues in that house at all. "

Speaking of this, Diane tore a piece of paper from her own notebook and pushed it to Wei Ran, "The coordinates on it are the specific location of the labor camp site, which was completely abandoned shortly after Mr. Khrushchev came to power. up.

The address below is the address of the store in Sapporo just mentioned.It is also in a semi-abandoned state now.

Mr. Victor, as long as you are willing to help find Second Lieutenant Mesut, no matter which address you want to visit, Mr. Mesut Jr. is willing to bear the travel expenses to and from. "

"Mr. Little Mesut is really generous." Wei Ran complimented casually.

"actually"

Diane hesitated for a few seconds, and finally said, "Actually, because of the influence of Ihor, little Mr. Mesut doesn't have any good impressions of people with yellow skin and black hair, eh. Maybe it should be said With irremediable resentment.

Frankly speaking, after you investigated the Liuban Forest Guerrilla, I recommended you to him, but after learning that you are Asian, he refused very simply. "

After a short pause, seeing that Wei Ran's face didn't change, Diane continued, "If the incident about your attack hadn't been on the news this time, I'm afraid that Mr. Mesut would still be unwilling to cooperate with you.

And even if he is willing to offer a high commission of 15 Euros, he does not want to meet and communicate with you directly.He said."

Diane, who seemed to have slipped her tongue, stopped the car in time, with an expression of apology on her face.

"It's okay." Wei Ran smiled, "I'm very curious about what he said."

"He says."

Diane lowered her voice a little, and said very apologetically, "He has physical discomfort with people with yellow skin and black hair. I'm sorry Mr. Victor, it's my fault"

"It's really okay." Wei Ran waved his hand, "Let's get back to business, does Mr. Little Mesut have time to ask for it?"

"no"

Diane breathed a sigh of relief, "He has been looking for it, as long as he finds the body of Second Lieutenant Mesut before him, he will pay the commission, but the extra cost he can afford is only a round-trip cost to the old labor camp, And the round-trip cost of going to that store in Sapporo."

"In this case, can this notebook and this knife stay with me?"

"certainly"

Diane nodded, took out a German agreement and pushed it to Wei Ran, "But if it is lost or damaged, you need to compensate the same amount as the commission this time."

“What a serious German guy”

Wei Ran joked with a smile, after some careful reading and saw that there were no loopholes, he reached into his pocket as a cover, took out a pen from the metal book, and signed the name "Victor" in Russian like a fool.

"In this case, this matter is up to you."

Diane stood up as she spoke, and stretched out her hand towards Wei Ran, "Thank you again for your help. That guerrilla movie was very successful, which means a lot to the Edelweiss organization."

"Looking forward to the release of this movie." Wei Ran gently held the other person's hand, "Thank you for introducing me to this job."

After reaching an agreement, Diane let go of Wei Ran's hand and asked, "Victor, when do you plan to start the investigation?"

"It's already started"

Wei Ran said with a smile, "For the sake of 15 Euros, I will give Mr. Mesut a satisfactory answer as soon as possible. In addition, if I decide to go to Sapporo or that labor camp, I will promptly communicate with you." You contacted."

"Then it's settled"

As Diane said, she had already put the agreement that Wei Ran had just signed into her briefcase, she refused Wei Ran's persuasion and chose to leave.

After seeing off the fat woman who came and went in a hurry, Wei Ran found out a pair of gloves again, put the horse fur notebook on the table into a sealed bag, and then temporarily put it aside.

He is willing to take this business, and the 15 euros is undoubtedly the main reason.In addition, it is another reason to take advantage of this opportunity to go to the recruitment process reasonably, legally and openly.

After all, I haven't visited the house in Kobe that I asked from Sakurada Tori. If I can find the negatives of the burnt photos in the album from that house, then Mr. Simpson's side will undoubtedly be considered There is an explanation.

But right now.
Wei Ran glanced at the notebook on the table that was put in a sealed bag, found a laptop, and entered the coordinates of the labor camp provided by Diane into the satellite map.

Thanks to the precise enough coordinates, when the page was loaded, he immediately used the satellite map to see a house on the bank of the river, surrounded by forests, whose name was not displayed on the map at all.

Zooming out on the map, he also gradually discovered that moving along the river next to the house, the river eventually merged into the Yenisei River, and the name of the place displayed at the intersection of the river was Sukhaya Tunguska.

After some measurement, the straight-line distance between the unnamed building and Turukhansk is really a full hundred kilometers.

After thinking for a while, Wei Ran clasped his notebook, but at the same time he called Suisui.

"Is your health better?" As soon as the phone was connected, Sui Sui on the other end asked.

"It's completely healed." Wei Ran asked with a smile, "Where are you? When do you plan to come back?"

"I just returned to Tula town two hours ago"

Sui Sui on the phone said wearily, "Have a half day's rest, and we will take a transport plane back to Kazan tomorrow morning."

"Are you busy when you come back?" Wei Ran asked.

"What do you want to say?" Sui Sui immediately heard something from Wei Ran's tone, "I can be busy or not."

"I just took over a business, which may be related to the Devil's prisoners of war." Wei Ran deliberately paused for a moment before continuing, "So I may go to Turukhansk."

"not busy!"

Sui Sui immediately said, "The transport plane will stop at Turukhansk tomorrow morning, we can go there ahead of time and wait for you."

"Then it's settled." Wei Ran thought for a while and said, "Also, help prepare a car."

"Don't worry, don't worry," Sui Sui patted her chest and agreed, "Leave these to me! Remember to bring Beria here, so that you don't have to be on duty at night."

"I'll take it with me" Wei Ran then promised.

After some chatting, he hung up the phone, and he immediately called the chatty captain Dmitry.After learning that there was a plan to fly to Turukhansk tonight, Wei Ran immediately picked up the notebook in the sealed bag and ran back to the villa next door.

It is not necessary to go to the former site of the labor camp, but as the saying goes, even if it is for the sake of the 15 euros, it is worthwhile to take a trip, not to mention that if you don’t go to the relatively nearby labor camp Going directly to Sapporo seems too deliberate.

After some preparations, Wei Ran drove an armored pickup alone in the evening, took his dog Beria to the airport, and took a transport plane to Turukhansk overnight.

Actually, the latitude of this place is higher than that of Inta, but not much different from that of Vorkuta.Correspondingly, the temperature here is also lower.

According to the news sent by Sui Sui, she found a hotel that cooperated with her and brought her dog Beria to stay for free. After checking the room carefully, Wei Ran checked the things he brought this time. luggage.

After all, he was going to the wilderness, and he was attacked not long ago, so this time, in addition to bringing the three-barreled survival shotgun that he pretended to be, he also went to the Hongqi Forest Farm to borrow two that looked very beautiful. , and brought the AK12 with the gun number removed.

Although he knew that there was a high probability that these two weapons would not be used, he had no intention of returning them.Anyway, that's a lot more than the blank-fired gelding guns that are sold legally.

What's more, even if this thing is not needed, it can be placed in the bedroom or the basement of the library just in case, and it will not be ruined.

He put an additional PSS micro-sound pistol and two spare magazines in each of the two gun boxes, and then he stacked the three gun boxes together, took off his clothes and walked into the bathroom with a small sauna.

In the blink of an eye, the next day, although it was still dark outside the window, when Wei Ran opened the knocked door, Sui Sui, who had rushed over an hour earlier than the expected time, was directly hanging on his window. body.

The dog Beria jumped out of the room, and the tassel that was still hanging on Wei Ran immediately pushed the door to Wei Ran's ear and asked, "Are you in a hurry to go?"

"Of course not in a hurry." Before Wei Ran could finish his sentence, he had already hugged the girl and turned around towards the not-so-spacious big bed.

After all, they hadn't seen each other for more than half a month, so this little Biesheng newlywed naturally had to waste a lot of energy and time.Obviously, Sister Katenka, who deliberately walked a few steps slower in the corridor, had expected such a thing to happen.

So after the two sisters rolled their eyes in unison, they tacitly stretched out their hands to guess Ding Ke.Immediately afterwards, the winning Anfisa happily dragged their luggage into the room, while the losing Anfeya had no choice but to take her dog Beria, who had nowhere to go, into her room. Room.

It wasn't until the short day came outside the window that the energetic Wei Ran and the energetic Sui Sui took their sauna leisurely enough, and then woke up the Katenka sisters who were catching up on sleep, carrying large and small luggage, and The aggrieved dog Beria went downstairs and walked into the parking lot.

"I prepared three cars this time"

Sui Sui pointed to the three six-wheeled monster trucks parked in the dedicated parking space, raised her chin and asked Wei Ran, "Should it be enough?"

“Sure enough”

Wei Ran handed the two long gun cases containing the AK12 to the Katenka sisters respectively, and then moved his and Suisui's luggage into a fluorescent car with "Tunguska Wilderness Free Travel Club" printed on it. Chinese characters, and there are a large number of fluorescent signatures in Chinese and Russian in the monster truck.

Just like when I was looking for old Ivan back then, there was also a small trailer attached to the rear of this monster truck. Except for four of the small trailers, which were filled with fuel, a ring of tires was wrapped around the outside as a package. In addition to the oil barrel, there is also a reindeer that has been slaughtered.

Look at the trailers at the rear of the other two trucks, which are also filled with fuel, the difference is that the food supplies have become some canvas bags that don't know what they contain.

"This is the standard equipment for cars that come here to drive themselves now"

Sui Sui got into the car first, and while beckoning Beria to jump on it, she explained, "In this way, even if there is an accident on the road, you don't have to worry about freezing to death and starving to death, and even if you don't need it, the tourists will see it after seeing it." will feel at ease."

"How is the development of your route going?" Wei Ran got into the cab and asked.

“Already almost there”

Sui Sui said happily, "Although we couldn't connect to the wild fire rescue station in the end, we connected more than a dozen gathering areas. Both the local aborigines and mining areas are very satisfied. Along the way, we only sent out tropical fruits. There are four big trucks."

Glancing at the smug girl, Wei Ran couldn't help but smile when he started the car.The four big carts of tropical fruits were sent out, and the girl might not know how much money she would earn back from this icy and snowy place.

Chatting along the way that Sui Sui personally participated in the development of the route during this time, the three trucks also left Turukhansk and headed south along the frozen Yenisei River.After driving for about 70 kilometers in a row, the sky, which had only brightened outside the window for a short time, darkened again, and on the navigation map, it also showed that the fork of the river directly ahead was Suhaya Tunguska.

However, although it has a place name and a triangular forest clearing with a side length of 500 meters on the river bank, in this clearing, apart from a gas station, vehicle and boat maintenance point, emergency medical aid station, rest point and Except for the wooden building that functions as a helipad and the flat open space covered with snow, there are no redundant buildings.

Even Wei Ran suspected that there might only be staff and drivers running around on the frozen river—just like the wild fire rescue station.

Without stopping too much, Wei Ran took a photo of the snow-covered forest glade, and then drove the monster truck along the branch of the Yenisei River to the destination slowly. .

Unlike the channel of the Yenisei River, although this frozen channel can be two to 300 meters wide by visual inspection, there are no ruts at all, and the snow on the channel is nearly half a meter deep, which is not like the Like the Yenisei River, there are bulldozers dedicated to clearing it.

Because of this, the speed of the three monster trucks also dropped to about 10 kilometers per hour.At this speed, it would take at least seven or eight hours for them to rush to the abandoned labor camp surrounded by virgin forest more than 60 kilometers away.

Since the speed could not be improved, Wei Ran simply took advantage of this time to briefly describe the business, and gave the girl a vaccination in advance, implicitly hinting that he might have to go there next time Enrollment.

"You just said that devils were imprisoned in that labor camp?!"

After listening to Wei Ran's introduction, Sui Sui, who was still a little sleepy, not only instantly became energetic, but her big eyes seemed to glow green.However, her focus is neither on Wei Ran's possible recruitment and business trip, nor on the 15 euros, which is an extremely rare situation for this little money fan.

Of course, just looking at the little ancestor's eyes and the excited expression on his face, Wei Ran knew that after they rushed to the deserted labor camp, he'd better find some devil's objects as targets, and finally It's better to borrow the shotgun from this girl for fun.

(End of this chapter)