War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1120 Leave Like A Hunter
"We are currently in this position"

Without waiting for Wei Ran to open his mouth, Mesut easily found their current location on the map, and then measured the distance with a cotton rope against the scale and said, "Leave the river from here, go west across the width of about After 3 kilometers of forest, we can return to the channel of the river connected to the camp, which we were supposed to cross.

If we continue along the current meandering river, we will eventually reach the river, but we will have to travel five times the distance. "

"Aren't you curious what the five-pointed star and other symbols marked on the map represent?"

Ihor pointed to the hand-painted five-pointed star on the map representing the river line and guessed, "What if there is a hunter's cabin here? What if we can find another shotgun from there."

"Let's walk this river now"

Mesut paused, and explained additionally, "Although the river is long, it is flat enough for Ihor to learn how to steer the sled."

"Shall we go here to have a look?" Ihor asked resolutely, pointing to the hand-painted five-pointed star on the map.

"What's your opinion?" Mesut looked at Wei Ran who provided the map but didn't speak.

"How do you plan to go next?" Wei Ran didn't answer the question, but instead raised a key question.

"First try to find a way to get rid of the very likely pursuit, and at the same time move as far south as possible."

Mesut hesitated for about a second, and added an extra sentence, "Find a suitable opportunity to return to the vicinity of the Yenisei River.

All three of us had learned Russian, so if we ran far enough, we could pretend to be Soviet hunters and follow the course of the Yenisei River south out of this permafrost. "

Glancing at Yihor, Wei Ran shook his head after thinking for a moment, and said indifferently, "I don't care, I can go in any direction, but I don't think it's a good idea to go to the location of the five-pointed star.

Now we are fleeing for our lives, not to satisfy our curiosity. If there is a logging camp or a labor camp for the Soviets, we will just serve our sentences in another place. "

"What if there is another wooden house there?" Ihor couldn't help insisting.

"Then you go by yourself." Wei Ran put away the map indifferently and stuffed it into his arms, then turned around and walked outside the wooden house.

Without waiting for Ihor to speak, Mesut stretched out his hand and patted it on the shoulder, "Go along the current river and be ready to enter the forest at any time. Now we really are not the time to satisfy our curiosity, and we have enough supplies."

Hearing this, Ihor opened his mouth, finally did not refute, and nodded honestly.

Now that they had made a decision, the three of them immediately harnessed reindeer to the sleigh cart they had just moved out, and tied two extra reindeer to the rear of the sleigh cart. Two bundles of hay were also hung on the shoulders of the other reindeer who did not need to pull the cart.

It took about 10 minutes to teach Ihor some basic knowledge of manipulating reindeer, and connected the head and tail of the car to the two other cars with ropes. Mesut immediately yelled at the car in the lead , followed the sledge marks when they came, and ran to the frozen river.

After experiencing the tension at the beginning, Ihor saw that no matter the reindeer pulling the cart, the reindeer tied to the sides of the sleigh cart and running with the hay, or even the reindeer cub lying in front of him to warm his feet, he was incomparably incomparable. To be honest, he also gradually relaxed.

After running so slowly for almost an hour, Ihor was able to steer the reindeer to accelerate and stop.At the same time, the strong wind that had been raging for two days gradually subsided, leaving only huge snowflakes rustling down.

Without the snow blown up by the gust of wind to block their sight, they could easily see that on a high ground in the distance, there was a particularly conspicuous dark cave, which was facing the river channel impartially. There was no doubt that the cave It is likely to be the location represented by the five-pointed star marked on the map.

"Shall we go and have a look?" Ihor yelled at the reindeer to speed up, keeping the sled and Mesut side by side while asking again, "There seems to be no one there."

"It's too late," Mesut responded loudly. "The snowstorm is coming to an end. We need to hurry before that."

After speaking, he shook the rein and urged the reindeer to run faster.

Looking regretfully at the caves on the highlands on the shore and the mountains beyond, Ihor could only shake the reins, urging the reindeer to catch up with Mesut.

The two of them didn't know that Wei Ran, who was beside them, had just held up the Kiev 30 camera hidden in his cuff, aimed at them and pressed the shutter again.

Without the urging of the strong wind, the speed of the three sleigh cars was getting faster and faster, but even so, it took them another hour to walk along the frozen river and see the road they had twice seen again. Across the Sukhaya Tunguska River, which connects the labor camps.

Contrary to Wei Ran and Ihor's expectations, Mesut did not cross the river. Instead, when he saw the frozen river, he immediately shook the reins, yelled at the reindeer to get into the coniferous forest, and ran towards the main road. east direction.

Of course, the three of them didn't know that just behind them, at the place where they had waxed the sled car for the first time yesterday, a dog sled slowly stopped.

Patting off the snow and frost on his body, the tired young guard Panin gently stroked the heads of several dogs, stuffed each of their mouths with a piece of frozen meat, and then squatted on the lead dog's body next to the pine tree.

Along the way, he was able to chase here, except for the remaining sled prints and hoof marks, all rely on the sensitive sense of smell of these sled dogs.

It's just that this blizzard has caused him and the dogs to go too many wrong ways and find too many wrong places.But this time he knew that these fur kids had finally found the right place.

Because, on this tree, there are not only the remnant hairs of the reindeer and the traces left by the friction on the trunk when the tied reindeer tried to break free from the rein, but also lightly brushed off the snow on the surface. He also found the reindeer as he wished. Feces and pine needles obviously laid down by hand, and even ice marks left by buckets of melted snow!
After some searching, he walked under another tree next to him, dug up the snow little by little, and successfully found the charcoal that had been covered.But when the clue came here, it was completely broken.

At this time, there were no sledge marks or hoof marks in the forest at all.With such a thick snow, not only did the sledges struggle to run, but their noses could hardly function anymore.

After thinking for a while, Panin clenched his fists, got up and sat on the sled, yelled at the dogs to turn around in circles, and returned to the channel of the Sukhaya Tunguska River not far away, starting again along the direction of the river. run wildly.

The young Panin knew very well that whether it was the three missing prisoners of war or the missing reindeer, if they wanted to run, they would only run south.

"Didn't we say we were going south?" In the coniferous forest on the north bank of the river, Ihor asked Mesut loudly.

However, I don't know whether his voice was too low or Mesut was distracted, so he didn't answer his question.On the other hand, Ihor didn't continue to ask, and didn't even slow down the sled.

After running like this for almost an hour, when the sky was completely dark, Mesut finally yelled at the reindeer to stop.

"Camp," said the tall and thin German prisoner of war succinctly, "I will explain the rest when I rest."

Hearing this, Wei Ran and Ihor immediately untied two bundles of canvas from the only male reindeer, first used one of the bundles to surround three pine trees to form a shelter from the wind, and drove all the 14 reindeer into it Feed water and feed, and then found another tree to set up a tent, pushed two of the sleigh carts in, and blocked the tent door with the third one.

After a busy bonfire in the tin barrel, Mesut finally explained, "We assume that someone has been chasing us along the sled marks, how can they determine which sled marks are left by us and which are left by hunters?" of?"

"Keep going south"

Wei Ran, who was busy cooking oatmeal, responded, "Hunters will only circle in the hunting range they are familiar with, but escaped prisoners of war will only keep running south."

"That's it"

Mesut nodded and said, "We are hunters now, so we must leave the sledge marks that only hunters would leave. Victor, take out the map you found."

Hearing this, Wei Ran stretched his hand into his bosom, pulled out the two maps, and spread them on two wooden boxes that served as stools.

Mesut lit the oil lamp, went to the side of the map to search, and then pointed to a certain point on the map and said, "Based on the mountain we can see, we are probably at this position now, which is due south of the mountain. .”

Looking at the other's finger, Ihor, who had been silent just now, saw a bright light, because in the northeast direction not too far away from them, he also hand-painted a five-pointed star!

At the same time, closer to the south of them is an upper tributary of the river leading to the labor camp. If necessary, they can cross the river at any time!

Seeing Ihor looking at him, Mesut immediately said without waiting for him to ask, "We'll take turns to rest tonight, and when the sky is about to dawn, we'll go look around this pentagram.

If the last five-pointed star represents a cave, then there is a high probability that this five-pointed star also represents a cave.

No matter what is there, as long as there is no one, we can rest, our reindeer have been running in the snowstorm for two days, and they will wear out if they continue. "

After finishing speaking, Mesut looked at Wei Ran and Ihor, "What's your opinion?"

"I'm okay with that," Ehor was the first to say.

"I don't mind either"

Wei Ran responded noncommittally, and now he has vaguely seen that Mesut's real escape plan is definitely not going all the way south along the Yenisei River to far away Finland.

After discussing the plan, when Wei Ran put away the map, the three of them finalized the order of duty.

Mesut is on the most comfortable first shift, Ihor is in charge of the hardest second shift, and Wei Ran is in charge of the shift before dawn, and breakfast by the way.

After arranging these trivial matters, the oatmeal porridge mixed with air-dried meat slices in the aluminum bucket pot also smelled fragrant. The three of them each dug out their own enamel pots and filled a large bowl of porridge, or fried sausages with their skins ripped apart. Or with the sliced ​​raw and frozen fish, each silently ate a hot dinner.

"If I can escape back to the recruitment check alive, I want to open an izakaya."

Ihor picked up a piece of raw frozen fish with his homemade chopsticks and said with a satisfied face, "I will add this to the menu at that time. I have already thought of the name, and it will be called Yenisei river raw frozen fish. How about you?" ? If you can go back, what are you going to do?"

After a moment of silence, seeing that Wei Ran was silent, Mesut pointed to the sleigh behind him with a wooden spoon he had sharpened, "My family has a factory that produces snow sports products. After I go back, if that small factory If it is still there, it will probably produce this kind of sled.”

"How did you become a veterinarian?" Wei Ran asked casually.

"I wanted to be a doctor"

Mesut put down the enamel jar in his hand, took out a pack of cigarettes, took out two cigarettes and distributed them to Wei Ran and Ihor, and he took out another one himself, put on a filter tip made of antlers and lit it, took a big puff and explained Said, "My wife is a pediatrician, and I learned some ways to treat diseases with her. You won't believe me, the first thing I joined the mountain hunters was to see if I could sell the ski equipment produced by my factory. At that time My family's factory is close to closing down."

"And then?" Wei Ran also put filter tips on the cigarettes he was assigned, leaned over to the red-hot tin barrel and pressed it lightly, and took a sharp puff after it was lit.

"The factory must be closed now, but I became a veterinarian, a veterinary assistant to be precise, and after I was almost qualified, I was thrown into the ski destroyer brigade."

Mesut spread his hands, "Actually, I want to go to the medical company. I heard that it is the most survivable unit. But unfortunately, my medical skills are actually very reluctant to be a veterinary assistant. If it is not because I can handle animals There'll be some carpentry, and I'm afraid I'll get a rifle."

"Speaking of this, your accuracy is really good." Wei Ran complimented while puffing.

"I have been hunting at the foot of the Alps since I was a child, and I joined the hunting club." Mesut smiled and asked, "What about you? If you can go back alive, what are you going to do?"

"Let's go back alive first." Wei Ran replied vaguely, "I might become a hunter, who knows."

"I'll give you a sleigh I made myself"

Mesut patted the sleigh cart behind him, "It's definitely better than this one, at least I will use more suitable walnut wood for the wood, it will be much stronger and more beautiful."

Speaking of this, Mesut looked at Ihor again, "If you run a tavern in the future, I will give you a beautiful enough bar table."

"You will also come to recruit me in the future, and I will treat you to drink the best sake." Ihor finished speaking happily, but fell into loneliness again.

"We'll get out," Mesut reassured.

"Even if I escape, my home will be gone."

As Ihor said, he got up and opened the tent door, took out a bottle of vodka from the sleigh cart he was in charge of and unscrewed it, then untied a small enamel mug from his waist and poured half a glass, and handed the bottle to Mesut also explained, "My home is in Hiroshima. Do you know Hiroshima? The Hiroshima that was bombed by the Americans."

"Where is your home?" Mesut and Wei Ran looked at Ihor in surprise.

"yes"

Ihor took another sip of vodka, "There is probably nothing there now. If I can go back alive, I will probably go to my grandfather's house. His house is in Sapporo. It must not have been bombed there. Maybe my Mom and Dad are right there."

"It's really worth a good drink."

Wei Ran muttered to himself, took the wine bottle calmly, poured half a glass of wine into the enamel bar he had just dug out, and felt that there seemed to be a lot of conversations between him and this little Baga.

Hmm. In this freezing Siberia, what could be more heart-warming than talking about the topic of "Little Boy's Hiroshima Trials"?

After drinking the wine in the glass in one gulp, Wei Ran also changed his indifferent attitude in the past two days, and asked Ihor about everything about Hiroshima with some enthusiasm, and at the same time, he showed a regretful look from time to time.

He even didn't hesitate to say a few words in Japanese, and by the way made up a few words about his real experience of going to Dongjing.

Undoubtedly, such a prisoner of war, Victor, immediately made Ihor feel like a fellow countryman seeing a fellow countryman in a trance.

And Wei Ran intentionally used Japanese words to frequently mention Hiroshima, and every time it responded, the regretful expression on the pretending Wei Ran's face also made it unavoidable for a while, feeling sad, lonely and bewildered.

The effort of a meal stabbed the devil's spirit enough in words, and Wei Ran, who was full, got out of the tent in a good mood and wiped the enamel jar with snow, and then chose another piece of snow to sprinkle with satisfaction. After urinating and burying it with snow, I returned to the warm tent, lay on the sleigh covered with bearskin, and entered the beautiful dream of a day trip to Hiroshima in a large plane with the help of alcohol.

At the same time, Mesut, who was on the first shift, was also sitting on the wooden box next to the fire barrel, writing something on the horse fur notepad with Wei Ran's pen.

When Wei Ran threw nuclear bombs at Mount Fuji again and again in his dream and finally squeezed the boil on the earth, Yihor also gently woke him up.

"Victor," said Ihor, who smelled of alcohol, with a little drunkenness, "Okay, it's your turn to be on duty at night."

Hearing this, Wei Ran nodded, took the Winchester lever rifle in the opponent's hand, and silently gave up his sleigh to the opponent.

First, he opened the tent door and turned around outside to urinate, Wei Ran looked up at the heavy snow that had never stopped, and then diligently added some fodder for the reindeer, guessing that Ihor was about to fall asleep. When he was sleeping, he opened the tent door and got in, bringing a biting cold wind to the opponent.

Seeing the devil turned over, Wei Ran closed the tent door, sat on the edge of the iron bucket with burning charcoal fire, waited patiently for Ihor to snore, and then took off the Soviet army kettle hanging from his waist all the time , took out the armpit and refilled it with kerosene.Then put the pot on again and boil a pot of oatmeal porridge.

As he waited patiently, the sky outside the tent door gradually turned pale, and the tent was also filled with a strong aroma of meat porridge.

After waking up the two inmates to fill their stomachs in a hurry, the three of them got into the car again, and with the help of the compass, they rushed to the location marked by the second five-pointed star on the map.

Compared with the cave they saw from a distance before, this time they didn't find a cave at the foot of the mountain until it was daylight, which was only more than one meter wide and most of it was buried by snow.

The three of them took turns digging through the snow, and the first thing they saw was a wooden door covered with iron sheets. There was a thick copper lock on top of the door lock.

"I should have brought the key that the hunter found with me." Mesut said angrily, "Maybe that key can unlock the door here."

"let me try"

As Wei Ran spoke, he took out the two iron wires pinned to his cuffs. These were lockpicking tools prepared for the store warehouse before he fled, but he did not expect to use them in this place.

Deliberately dawdling for five or six minutes to pry open the padlock, and as the wooden door frozen with the ground was pushed open, they could also see that this was a cave dug by hand.

Although the entrance and exit of this cave are pitifully small, the space inside is not small, at least twenty to thirty square meters, and the height of the top of the cave is simply untouchable even if Wei Ran stretches his hands and stands on tiptoes.

At the end of this nearly circular cave, there are several winding caves that are only one meter in diameter at most, and are completely artificially dug.On the other hand, on the side of the cave entrance, there are two tin barrels against the wall.

Open the wooden lid of the tin bucket, one of which is full of coking coal and a box of detonators.

In the other tin bucket, in addition to several 20-liter oil drums containing kerosene, there are also several kerosene lamps and an iron box containing mine explosives.

Between the two metal barrels, there are bundles of animal traps of different sizes, a wooden bellows that looks very Chinese, and a campfire pit with an iron pot suspended on an iron frame.

Looking up and looking directly above the bonfire pit, the rock wall has been blackened. On one side of the wall, there is an iron hook nailed to it, and a large kerosene lamp is hung on it.

"So it's just an abandoned mine?" Ihor muttered in disappointment.

"Maybe it's an abandoned gold mine"

Mesut picked up a crucible that was about the size of an enamel jar from the bucket of coking coal, and weighed it, "I remember that there were similar things in that cabin. This is probably a crucible for melting gold, right?"

"Is there gold here?" Ihor, who was extremely disappointed just now, became excited again.

"Maybe there will be, but certainly not many."

Mesut threw back the cauldron in his hand, and said mockingly, "Otherwise, there must have been many prisoners of war busy here, instead of being locked up by a hunter."

"That's true." Ihor grinned, "Fortunately, there is no gold. I don't want to mine in such a ghostly place."

"Bring in our reindeer and sleigh."

"Let's rest here for a day before leaving like hunters," Mesut said as he took down a kerosene lamp on the wall.

(End of this chapter)