War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1119 The Fugitive Favored by Fate

When Wei Ran and Mesut were woken up by Ihor, the simple stove in the tent was still burning red, and the outside of the tent was still pitch black. In the distance, they could still hear the whistling wind above their heads.

Taking off the warm tin bucket and putting it on the edge of the stove, the three of them each ate a roasted boiled potato, and drank an extra cup of pine needle tea, which was not very tasty, and then packed up the tent After burying the traces of setting up camp again, the reindeer yelled that they had enough food, drink and rest, and continued on their way under the leadership of Mesut.

As the mountains were left behind them a little bit, the two reindeer sleighs were once again shrouded in a violent snowstorm.

Walking in the sled behind, Wei Ran sat on a wooden box covered with fox fur, and between his legs was a metal bucket that slowly released heat.The outside is wrapped with the half piece of windproof and waterproof canvas used to pitch the tent.

Thanks to these things, he is warm enough now, but in this weather, it is inevitable to drive with the faint light provided by the kerosene lamp hanging on the shaft of the sleigh cart in front, which is really frightening. I don't know where the next second will be pulled by those reindeer whose night vision ability far surpasses that of humans.

Compared with the intuitive fear of the unknown road ahead, the fluorescent pointer in the compass dial that appeared in his hand from time to time was always pointing firmly to the north-south direction.

After walking slowly through the dense forest for two or three hours, the sky finally became brighter, but the raging snowstorm did not stop, but it seemed to become more manic as it intensified.

However, the good news is that in the dense forest directly in front of them, there is a frozen river channel that is only more than 20 meters wide and leads to nowhere.

This is undoubtedly a discovery with both risks and rewards. Along this river, they can undoubtedly speed up, but if there is a labor camp or a gathering area directly in front of this river, they may be caught at will.

Mesut, who was leading the way, just opened his notebook and looked at it, and then decisively yelled at the sleigh to leave the forest and set foot on the frozen river that was raging with strong winds.

The moment they left the forest, the mania of the wind and snow suddenly increased to a higher level, but the three of them could clearly feel that the speed of the two sleigh vehicles also increased a lot.

After the initial tension, Mesut and Wei Ran gradually relaxed.After running along this winding and narrow ice-covered river for an hour, not only did they not find any ruts along the way, but they also did not see any man-made objects on both sides of the bank.

Now they are holding on, but the reindeer pulling the cart has no strength.So even though they were in a hurry, they could only leave the river temporarily, return to the forest where they could somewhat escape the cold wind, and found two pine trees next to each other to set up the tent again.

After Wei Ran lit the firewood in the tin bucket, the awakened Ihor also got enough pine needles for the reindeer to fill their stomachs.

After hastily feeding each reindeer some concentrated feed and a large bucket of warm water, Ihor asked excitedly while tying the salt bricks to the tree trunk, "Aren't we escaped now?"

"doesn't count"

Mesut and Wei Ran gave an answer in unison, and the former said while busy unloading the luggage, "This is just the beginning, we are far from being completely safe."

"Which direction shall we flee next?" Ihor asked seemingly casually.

"Let's leave this forest alive before thinking about this matter." Mesut answered the other party's question noncommittally, and Ihor wisely didn't ask more.

Taking advantage of the rest time, Mesut used a piece of frozen fish and the crumbs knocked from the salt brick to boil a large pot of fish soup that was not very tasty. After getting into the boiling water, Wei Ran and Yihor undertook the work of waxing the skateboards of the two sleigh cars.

"Will someone catch up?" In the warm tent, Ihor asked everyone worried while holding a bowl of fish soup.

"definitely will"

Mesut said while chewing the fishbone, "but this blizzard that has not stopped will erase most of our tracks. As long as we don't attract attention, the people sent by the camp will not find us so easily of."

"Who do you think the camp will send to find us?" Ihor continued to ask.

"Hunting team" Mesut replied with almost certainty, "Maybe there are Sergey and Panin, do you know? No matter who it is, as long as we are caught, we are all dead."

"boom!"

Just when Ihor was about to continue to say something, there was a faint gunshot outside the tent!
Almost subconsciously, Ihor threw away the enamel stick containing the fish soup in his hand, picked up the dragoon rifle, and Mesut, who also threw away the food, also took out a plate of bullets and handed it to the other party.

Before Ihor could press the bullets into the magazine, a series of rapid gunshots came from outside the tent again!
"A total of five shots"

Wei Ran put down the enamel rod and said, "This fire rate is not like a bolt-action rifle, it's faster, but it's not Sergey's or Panin's weapon either, it's slower than that gun's fire rate."

He glanced at Wei Ran in surprise, and Ihor looked at Mesut again. After hesitating for a moment, the latter said, "It doesn't sound like it's coming towards us. Pack up your things and let's go and have a look."

Hearing this, Ihor immediately closed the safety of the rifle, and he and Mesut picked up the fish just dropped and stuffed them into their respective mouths.

Wei Ran, on the other hand, ate the last piece of fish slowly and drank the last sip of fish soup. Then he got up and dismantled the tent, and put the reindeer on the sleigh that had not been loaded with supplies.

"Yhor, you are here guarding a sleigh wagon and all our supplies," Mesut said before setting off. "We can't have two wagons on an adventure together."

"Take your weapon." Ihor handed over the rifle in his hand.

"Need not"

Mesut first rejected the opponent's weapon, and then pointed to the direction of the river not far away, "If there are enemies, we will lead them from that direction, then you can just shoot, if you come back from other directions , it proves that it is not an enemy."

"I see"

As Ihor said, he had already hid to the side of the sleigh, put the rifle on the sleigh, and aimed at the direction of the river.

Seeing this, Mesut got on the sleigh cart controlled by Wei Ran, and rushed towards the direction where the gunshot just rang out.

Nearly half of the load has been lost, and they have just rested. The two reindeer pulling the cart are also working extra hard, and the speed is naturally much faster.

After running less than 200 meters in this direction, they had already reached the edge of the forest. Right in front of them was a forest glade that might be 200 meters wide.

At this time, on a piece of snow not far from them, four wolves were frantically biting two reindeer pulling a sleigh cart, and a hunter who was still waving a shotgun to resist!Around them, there are several wolf corpses!
"Save him" Mesut said without thinking.

Hearing this, Wei Ran immediately yelled at the restless reindeer to turn around and get the rifle in Ihor's hand as quickly as possible.

After they rushed back to the edge of the open space again, Mesut waited for Wei Ran to stop the sleigh, and immediately aimed at a wolf that had knocked down the hunter in the distance and pulled the trigger!

"boom!"

After the clear gunshot, the wolf was shot in the shoulder blade, and its four legs tensed before falling on the hunter.

“Good marksmanship”

Wei Ran praised, although the distance between the two sides is less than [-] meters at this time, but in such a windy day, you can confidently shoot at the wolf that is throwing you down. This really requires you to have absolute confidence in your marksmanship just work.

"boom!"

Although Mesut did not respond to Wei Ran's praise, he fired a second shot immediately after loading the gun, knocking down another wolf that was biting the hunter to the ground.

After the two shots, the two remaining wolves also gave up on the reindeer whose throat had been bitten by them, and rushed towards Wei Ran with their teeth bared.

"Peace the reindeer!"

While Mesut was speaking, he had already jumped off the sled car, and at the same time pushed and loaded the bullet and fired the third bullet.

"Bang!" After the gunshot, another wolf stopped with a cloud of blood bursting from its head.

Until this time, the only remaining wolf seemed to realize that something was wrong, turned around and ran to the forest on the other side of the clearing.

"Bang!" Following the fourth bullet, the wolf also fell to the snow.

When Mesut sat on the sleigh again, Wei Ran immediately shook the reins and rushed towards the hunter who seemed unable to get up.

However, when they arrived here, they found that a large amount of blood had flowed from his neck, and the skin on his face had been bitten open.

Without even waiting for the sleigh to come to a stop, Mesut jumped down and knelt beside the wounded man, leaned over and put his ear to his mouth, while covering the bitten wound on his neck with his hands.

But soon, he straightened up and shook his head towards Wei Ran, "He's dead, we're late."

Hearing this, Wei Ran nodded silently, then bent down and picked up a Winchester M1895 lever-action rifle buried in the snow.

Although this obsolete weapon is an American product, it is not too much to appear on the land of the Soviet Union. You must know that as early as the Tsarist Russian period before the Soviet Union, the Tsarist Russian army ordered a full 30 of these rifles for use Equipped with the army.

For this reason, in order to sell the unsalable weapons, the Winchester company happily changed the caliber of this rifle to the 7.62X54R required by Tsarist Russia, and it can also be loaded with the same magazine as the Mosin Nagant rifle. bomb.

Not to mention that Tsarist Russia is long gone, even World War II has ended for so many years, it is reasonable for this outdated weapon to be exiled to remote Siberia.

When he picked up the weapon, Mesut also found a bag of Mohe cigarettes and a dozen scattered bullets after groping around the old man.Among other things, he found a glass flagon filled with vodka and an old-fashioned brass key.

The two looked at each other, and walked towards the two killed reindeer and the sleigh behind them in the distance.

In addition to a pair of skis, the sleigh also contained two wolf skins that seemed to have been peeled off not long ago, and a box of animal traps of various sizes.

The two looked at each other, and Mesut handed all the bullets he found to Wei Ran and said, "Go and pick up Ihor, and bring back the other car and all the reindeer by the way."

"What do you want to do?" Wei Ran, who had already guessed the answer, took the bullet and asked.

Mesut pointed to the remaining ruts on the snow, "Let's see if we can follow the ruts to find the old hunter's home, send him back, and see if we can find anything."

Hearing this, Wei Ran nodded and yelled at the reindeer to turn around and go back.

While the reindeer was walking back, Wei Ran focused on the lever-action rifle he had just picked up.

The lever of this gun was covered with a thick layer of cowhide, but compared to this decorative and practical leather case, what really caught his attention was the scale used by this weapon.

This kind of weapon of the Tsarist Russian era, the unit of gauge is not "meter", but "big power", the unit of measurement used by the Tsarist Russian Empire.

This creates a small problem, as it is not easy to hit targets with this weapon if you are not familiar with this unit of measurement that has long been obsolete even in 1951.

Fortunately, Wei Ran is a historian. Fortunately, he has an uncle Maozi who is a history teacher, so he not only clearly knows that Yiquan is about 71 cm, but also knows that this is definitely not an easy-to-use American lever rifle. Its gauge returns to zero at about 300 meters.

Of course, he was not going to share this little knowledge with Mesut or Ihor, who didn't like it at all, before he was sure who would use this gun in the end.

While thinking about this matter, he loaded the gun with five bullets. After returning to the temporary camp, Wei Ran called to Ihor to help him load the supplies into the sled, and then connected the two sleds with ropes. Together, with all the animals, they hurried to the clearing in the forest.

When he returned to the hunter's corpse and Mesut's side, Ihor immediately jumped out of the car and hurriedly took off a deer that was similar in style to Wei Ran and Mesut's. The leather robe was put on his body.

While the man was changing his clothes, Wei Ran and Mesut harnessed the two reindeer to the hunter's sleigh.As for the hunter's body, he naturally didn't intend to take it away.

"Who is this gun for?" Wei Ran asked after finishing his work.

"Give it to Ihor"

Mesut thought for a while and made an arrangement, "This gun has better firepower continuity, and the two of us will be driving a sled, so it's the most suitable for it to use."

Hearing this, Wei Ran simply handed the lever-action shotgun to Ihor, but kept the remaining ten rounds of ammunition in his pocket.

When the guy took the shotgun in his arms, Mesut drove the sleigh that had just been set up and walked in the forefront, chasing after the remaining traces on the snow.Wei Ran also yelled at the sleigh cart he was in charge of, with the cart tied behind with a rope, and Ihor, who was sitting on the cart, followed slowly.

After walking along the remaining traces on the snow for more than ten minutes, they returned to the river, and the covered, faintly visible mark led to where they were going.

For the sake of caution, the three sleigh carts did not follow into the river, but hid in the dense forest by the river bank and continued to chase the mark.

It can take nearly two hours to walk so slowly, and the sledge marks in the river have long since disappeared, but they found a not-so-big one on the river bank highland where another frozen river meets this river. wooden house.

The three looked at each other, and Mesut said, "You two wait here, I'll go and have a look."

After speaking, he threw the reins of the sleigh to Ihor, then took off the rifle and handed it to Wei Ran, put on the skis and took the snowball fight, and walked towards the small wooden house that was still smoking from the chimney.On the contrary, Ihor, who stayed behind, had already put on his snowshoes impatiently, as if he was ready to run over at any moment.

Less than 10 minutes before and after, Mesut stepped on the skis and returned to the side of the two, "We are lucky, there is no one in the house, and there are only traces of one person's life."

Hearing this, Ihor, who was eager to discover something, immediately left the two of them and ran over first.

Wei Ran and Mesut looked at each other, waited patiently for the other to take off their skis, and then joined forces to shout three sleigh cars, and slowly left the forest and walked towards the cabin.

When they arrived at the door of the wooden house, Mesut led him to a wooden shed with a wooden fence and animal skin blankets hanging beside the wooden house, and drove all the nine reindeer they had into it.

There were four female reindeer and a male deer in the shed. Not only that, but there was also a lot of forage and firewood piled up on one side of the shed.

After slowly feeding all the animals except Ihor, the two of them each carried some firewood and walked into the cabin that had been occupied by Ihor earlier.

"Look at what I found!"

As soon as the two of them entered the door, they saw Ihor holding a tanned bear skin in his hand, "There are still a lot of animal skins in that storage room, at least dozens of them!"

"Is there anything to eat?" Mesut put the firewood in his hand by the fireplace, and asked after adding a few sticks to the charcoal fire.

"Yes!" Ihor nodded, "There are a lot of sausages in the storage room, as well as a lot of wine and meat."

Hearing this, Mesut just nodded, "Bring in our things and the sleigh."

Under his arrangement, the three of them carried the supplies on the three sledges and the sleigh itself into the cabin, and then Mesut asked Ihor to find all the animal skins, and He himself dug out a set of tools that a carpenter or a blacksmith would use.

"Victor, how about you get some food?" Mesut continued to arrange work, "Ihor, come and help me."

"What do you want to eat?" Wei Ran asked.

"Just do something"

While Mesut was speaking, he had already taken a wolf skin from Ihor, and began to make gestures on one of the sledges. Seeing him like that, he seemed to be preparing to wrap a layer of animal skins on both sides of the sleigh .

This is a good idea, in this way, at least it will be much warmer when you are on your way.

While thinking secretly, Wei Ran also found out their enamel kettle, together with the kettle in the wooden house and the aluminum bucket pot that Mesut bought before, filled it with snow outside, and put it on the fireplace on the hob.

Taking this opportunity, he also took out the kerosene lamp, removed the Kiev 30 camera hanging on it, and secretly took a picture of Mesut and Ihor in the room, and then inspected the wooden house with only one floor. After a while.

Generally speaking, although this wooden house is not big, there are quite a lot of supplies inside.

Among other things, in the box under the bed, he found two maps of different scales and a compass, as well as two bags of flour, two bags of oats, and a dozen huge glass jars.

Some of these cans are pickled pickles or tomatoes, some are candied apples or unknown red jams.Others are large chunks of red meat or fat boiled from the fat of unknown animals.

And in that separately built storage room, in addition to the animal skins hanging on the wooden beams and half a barrel of kerosene of more than 100 liters, there were also a lot of sausages, dried deer legs, a box of vodka and Two large boxes of frozen potatoes, onions, and carrots.

Of course, there is also a full set of tools for tanning leather, animal traps of various sizes and some well hidden, what seems to be tools for panning and melting gold.Such a rich material reserve is undoubtedly good news for the three people who fled in a hurry.

After some sorting and picking, Wei Ran selected some ingredients, and took two enameled cast iron pots hanging by the fireplace, and then went to cut a rib from the two reindeer carcasses, and stewed a large A pot of venison, and a large pot of thick oatmeal.

When he was frying the sausage and sliced ​​black bread in a pan, Mesut also, with the help of Ihor, wrapped a layer of warm wolf skin on the side rails and back of one of the sleigh cars, It was wrapped with a layer of white canvas for camouflage, and even the bottom of the sleigh was covered with a thick bearskin.

"Will this be too heavy?" Wei Ran asked.

"will not"

Mesut temporarily stopped what he was doing and explained, "We now have three sledges, and that one is even bigger than our two. So we just need to teach Ihor how to command those reindeer, and we will be able to do it." Can hold more stuff."

"I can definitely learn it," Ihor said confidently.

Seeing this, Wei Ran didn't say anything more, but just greeted the three of them to take their own tableware, finished the extra meal in a flustered manner, and each drank a small glass of vodka.

Satisfied with food and drink, Wei Ran also joined in the work of transforming the sled. The three of them spent about an hour wrapping the other two sleighs with animal skins and canvas, and hastily sewed three wolf skins. blanket.

After this transformation, the three sleighs also looked much warmer. After Ihor put on another robe that Wei Ran found out, the three of them scraped apart the robes they found in the wooden house as quickly as possible. something to take away.

Today, Wei Ran is still in charge of the original sleigh cart. In addition to a bag of oats, a box of sausages, and a box of potato, onion and carrot mixture, there are also two dried deer legs and A fresh deer leg, several bottles of canned fruits and vegetables and a bottle of animal fat, plus an enameled cast iron pot that can only be tied to the handrail.

To this end, he had to strap his own skis and poles to the sides of the sled to make more room.

However, the two boxes of coking coal brought out from the labor camp were discarded by the three of them in this wooden house without hesitation.There is no other reason. The heat released by this thing is too high when it burns, and it will burn out the tin barrel that acts as a stove. Moreover, the difficulty of obtaining firewood along the way is too low. It is not worth carrying such a heavy thing on. Hurry up.

Although he didn't intend to continue to carry the coking coal, Wei Ran found an opportunity to secretly fill the British army kettle in the metal book with vodka, and by the way, filled the tin bucket originally used as Tang's wife with more important kerosene.

Except for the addition of an extra weapon for each of the other two, there is not much difference on the surface. It is just that the meat on Ihor's car has become a box of raw and frozen fish that he prefers to eat, and the extra Just a few bottles of vodka.

Of course, although the compass that Wei Ran found was assigned to Ihor by Mesut, the two maps were handed over to Wei Ran, the only one who did not have a compass.

Even in the wooden shed, the male reindeer that belongs to the hunter has a job. Although he doesn't have to pull a cart like his wives, he has two extra bundles of canvas for tents and a bag of concentrated feed on his shoulders.

After such busy work, the sky outside the cabin became darker, and the blizzard that had been raging for two days seemed to be lessening.But for the three people who fled, it was really not good news.

Before setting off, Wei Ran spread the two maps he found on the only table in the cabin. Now that there are enough supplies, it's time for Mesut to talk about his escape plan.

(End of this chapter)