War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1121
In the mine with a small mouth and a big belly, Ihor lit up all the kerosene lamps and placed them everywhere. When the "living room" of the mine was illuminated, Mesut and Wei Ran would also light up the lamps. The last reindeer drove in.

Although sharing such a cave with more than a dozen reindeer is unavoidably crowded, these reindeer are the key to everyone's escape, and naturally they must be taken care of.

After cutting enough pine branches to calm the animals, the three of them worked together to build a snow wall to block wind and light outside the entrance of the cave and reinforced it with canvas for tents before they dared to collect firewood. A vital bonfire was lit in the mine.

Contrary to the expectations of the three, the smoke and dust from the bonfire did not float out of the cave. Instead, it stuck to the blackened stone wall above the head and was sucked into the mouth of one of the mines deep in the cave.

Based on this small detail alone, the three of them already guessed that there might be other entrances and exits to this mine.

"I think we should leave everything we brought out of the camp here, including our personal belongings."

Mesut said, "Since we are going to pretend to be Soviet hunters, we will inevitably come into contact with other people. If we are interrogated by Soviet soldiers and find our things, we will definitely be exposed. And look at this Mine, what else is more suitable for hiding things than here?"

"That's right." Ihor nodded subconsciously, and then asked, "Where's the gun? The gun stolen from the store warehouse is also kept?"

"Stay here"

As Ihor said, he put the dragoon rifle on the sleigh on the stone table beside the campfire, then took out the horse fur notebook and opened it, pointing to the pocket watch compass and other The pen on it said, "Sorry, Victor, Ihor, I plan to keep the birthday present you gave me and this escape note."

"Stay here"

Ihor pointed to the compass hanging around his neck and was the first to say, "We found a new compass in that hunter's cabin, and it will help us escape."

"It's just a pen," Wei Ran expressed his attitude.

Hearing this, Mesut wrapped the notebook with a leather rope and put it together with the rifle, then took out the aluminum bucket pot he bought before he escaped from prison and put it on it, and at the same time he did not forget to say, "We bring The oil barrels and kerosene lamps that came here must also be kept, but fortunately there are quite a few 20-liter oil barrels and kerosene lamps here for us to use."

"I don't have many personal items"

As Wei Ran said, he first took off the Soviet Army water bottle with kerosene on his waist and put it in the pile of things, and then dug out the bottle of bear oil that Panin gave him as a birthday present from the sleigh cart and put it in the pile of things. Jokingly asked, "Do we need to change our buckskin robes and boots?"

"We don't need these. Unless we are caught by Sergey or Panin, no one can recognize us through these common clothes. If we are caught by them, it will be useless even if we wear the clothes of Soviet soldiers."

As Mesut said, he took off the goggles hanging around his neck and threw them on the ground.Seeing this, Wei Ran also took off the goggles and threw them on the ground. At the same time, he also hid the pair of goggles that were still in his pocket. I don't know what to think.

After the two people who had finished throwing their things looked at Ihor, the latter hesitated for a moment, then rolled up his cuffs and took off a lady's Soviet watch!
"Where did you get the watch?" Mesut asked in surprise.

"in the till drawer of the store"

Ihor said indifferently, "It was a gift from the political commissar to Marina, and I found it in the cash register drawer when Victor went to steal something from the warehouse.

Marina is afraid to take this watch home, she always hides it in the cash register drawer, and I have seen it several times. "

While speaking, Ihor put the watch in the pile of things, but he didn't notice the frown of Mesut and Wei Ran at all.

"Let's find a place to XZ these things up"

While speaking, Mesut took the metal box containing the detonator, put the detonator aside, put various small items including notepads in it, and wrapped the lid with two pairs of discarded goggles. Finally put the bottle of bear oil into the aluminum bucket pot and put the lid on.

Without any discussion at all, the three of them each carried a kerosene lamp brought out from the labor camp, ducked into the narrow mine hole that was used as a range hood, and drilled deep along the narrow and low hole. After a distance of about ten meters, the dragoon rifle, which had been emptied of bullets, was stuck obliquely on the gap in the mine wall, and then the three-liter oil drums brought from the labor camp were placed against the wall, and the covered aluminum The barrel pot was placed on top of the stacked oil barrels.

Without wasting too much time, the three of them returned to the "living room" at the entrance of the mine immediately after putting down their items.

"It's time for us to shave our beards, and we'd better shave our hair off by the way."

As Mesut said, he dug out an old-fashioned razor and a piece of soap that was half the size of a brick from a wooden box. "I found this at the hunter's house. We can even take a bath."

"The last time I took a bath was in autumn"

As Ihor said, he had already picked up several tin buckets stacked together, "You guys make the campfire hotter, and I'll go prepare water."

Before the words fell, the devil left the cave with the tin bucket.Wei Ran and Mesut looked at each other, each picked up the firewood they had cut not long ago and put them on the bonfire pit.

After relatively long preparations, six in a row were either found in the mine, or in the tin bucket brought by the hunter's house, and the peaked snow in it finally completely melted and burned hot.

Even the stewed venison with carrots and onions in the iron pot hanging on the bonfire has a strong aroma.

Before eating, Mesut used the old-fashioned razor to help Wei Ran and Ihor to shave off the messy beard and messy hair. They took a simple bath with three pieces of soap, and washed their respective foot wraps by the way.

Under this little encouragement, the three of them not only relaxed a lot, but also looked a lot more energetic - at least not like a fugitive reform-through-labour prisoner.

After finishing their lunch with a large glass of vodka, Mesut handed over the work of cleaning the kerosene lamps found in the cave to Ihor, and handed over the work of cleaning the kitchen utensils and tableware to Wei Ran.Apparently the strict and no-nonsense Mesut is a clean German.

Compared with those kerosene lamps covered in thick sludge and dust, the kitchen utensils and tableware are simple and convenient. After all, there are only three big three small six enamel jars plus an enamel kettle, two pots and a few buckets, not to mention These things themselves are not dirty.

If the two of them had a dirtier job, Mesut's was a lot cleaner. He was going to bake some white bread that had literally "haven't been eaten in years" and bring the raw venison that everyone had brought with him. Roasted into jerky, this will not only keep it longer, but also reduce the weight, and as long as you are hungry, you can eat it at any time.

No matter it was dirty or clean, Wei Ran didn't want to help the two workers. After finishing his work, he turned the three sledges over and started the waxing work in a leisurely way. With the next development of the situation.

The third day of fleeing now is only November 11th in terms of date, and there is still a long time before Christmas.

It was indeed quite a long time, but Wei Ran didn't know that for Panin who had been chasing after them, the past three days were even longer.

At this time, he had already left the river and entered the vast forest at the southern end, but he didn't know that just behind him, less than 100 meters away from the position of the river to the north, it was yesterday that the three of Wei Ran turned to the east and entered the forest. A key location in the forest on the north bank of the river.

He didn't even know that when he was busy looking for the missing prisoners of war and reindeer in the heavy snow, in the labor camp more than 40 kilometers away in a straight line behind him, Schell, who hurried back after the blizzard stopped, got the news. Old Man Gai has already assembled the hunting team of the labor camp, looking for the four missing people.

In the middle of the night, Mesut ate white bread that was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside as he wished, and the kerosene lamps were wiped clean by Ihor and filled up with kerosene.

On the side of the bonfire, an emptied iron bucket was also filled with sliced ​​venison, and the bottom of the bucket was covered with a layer of charcoal steaming with heat.

Amid the inescapable smell of meat, Mesut and Ihor almost devoured the dinner—especially the freshly baked white bread.

Satisfied with wine and food, Mesut braved the heavy snow and set up a circle of animal traps outside the entrance of the cave, then covered the wooden door of the mine entrance and blocked it with stones, and then lay down on his sleigh.

Such a warm, strong and dry cave, together with the animal traps that have been set up, naturally does not need to arrange a vigil. The three of them also worked together to add fodder and water for the reindeer, and each lay down on the bed of the animal bed. In a sleigh drawn by a horse, he fell asleep under a hastily sewn wolf fur blanket.

After a rare sleep until they woke up naturally, the three of them, who had completely recovered their mental and physical strength, put on thick warm clothes and applied some antifreeze grease on their faces before putting away the animal traps and The canvas used to strengthen the snow wall, loaded the materials to be taken away on the sleigh cart that was carried outside, then locked the wooden door and buried it carefully with snow, shouted at the reindeer, and rushed to the foot of the mountain to meet them The direction of escape is almost in the opposite direction to the northeast.

After running in this direction for at least two hours, the three sleigh cars turned due east under the leadership of Mesut, spent more than half an hour crossing a frozen river, and got into the forest on the east bank of the river. Officially turned south with the help of a compass.

Although they made a big circle, the three of them had no complaints, especially when the sky was bright and the snowflakes were no longer falling on their heads, their three sledges had already crossed one of the upper tributaries of the Sukhaya Tunguska River .

While the reindeer was pulling the sleigh, Wei Ran, who was wrapped in a wolf fur blanket, took out the map in his arms and made a rough estimate. At this time, although the straight-line distance between them and the labor camp was only about fifty or sixty kilometers, There are not only dense forests but also mountains between the two.

In the east-west direction, they are almost in the middle of the vast forest between the Yenisei and the Lower Tunguska rivers.

There is no doubt that even if the labor camps now send people to look for them and try to find them, the difficulty is no different from finding a needle in a haystack.

Perhaps also aware of this, Mesut, who was walking in the front, also slowed down, trying to keep the reindeer physically strong and able to walk a longer distance.

In this way, except for the driver at the front, the people on the other two sleigh cars don’t even have to hold the reins. These reindeer are far smarter than people imagined. This is a good weather with no wind, no snow, and no need to run. , they will follow along the sled marks left by the car in front.

Putting away the map, Wei Ran took out the Kiev 30 camera that was tied to the handle of the kerosene lamp again, and secretly took two photos of the two sledges in front.

Putting away the camera and retracting his hands back into the warm wolf fur blanket, Wei Ran quietly took out the British army kettle in the metal book, took a small sip of vodka to warm his body, and threw another piece of jerky into his mouth, It can be described as extremely comfortable.

However, the good times didn't last long. As the sky darkened again, when they stopped temporarily, each lit a kerosene lamp and hung it on the handle at the rear of the sleigh, there was a sound in the dense forest that sounded extremely loud. Clear wolf howling!

"Ihor!" Mesut shouted immediately.

Before he finished speaking, Ihor quickly took off the only Winchester lever-action shotgun they had on his shoulder, and loaded it with a "click".

"Let's move on"

As Mesut said, he had already unscrewed a bucket of kerosene and poured some into a tin bucket.

In the tin bucket, there were still a few torches wrapped in rags or leftovers of animal skins, which they made last night.

Soon, the three sleigh carts continued to move due south through the dense forest, dragged by the restless reindeer.It's just that, as the saying goes, worry about what comes, and in less than 10 minutes, a pair of green eyes will appear around them from time to time.

"Woo-ow!"

Accompanied by a deep and unpleasant howl of wolves, a circle of slowly approaching wolves appeared around the three sleigh cars.

"call!"

Mesut resolutely lit the torch in the tin bucket. The sudden light caused the beasts to stop subconsciously, but soon, they began to shrink the encirclement again, and the reindeer became more and more anxious. .

"boom!"

Ihor finally couldn't help firing a bullet, but this crucial shot missed any target at all. Instead, it aroused the wildness of those wolves, and made them shrink the encirclement at a much faster speed!
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

After another three shots in a row, a wolf was finally hit in the back and howled in pain. At the same time, Wei Ran also lit the tin bucket with the torch hanging on the other side of the tail of the sleigh.

Just at this time, Mesut cut off the only male reindeer's rope that fixed the canvas and feed, as well as the rope tied to his neck. By the way, he stabbed the root of the tail of the reindeer with a knife. one time.

Under the stimulation of the severe pain, the reindeer let out an ugly neigh, kicked off its hooves and started running wildly.Almost subconsciously, two wolves rushed towards the stag.

"Ihor! Leave the fawn behind!"

Mesut shook the reins fiercely and rushed towards the south direction. By the way, he didn't forget to use the torch in his hand to slap the reindeer buttocks of Ihor's sleigh cart.

Almost at the same time, Wei Ran also yelled at Yihor, "Give me the gun!"

Before the sled fell due to the sudden acceleration, Ihor threw the rifle and a canvas bag with bullets to Wei Ran, and then kicked the juvenile reindeer off the sled.Then, it also fell on the sled, grabbed the reins frantically, and was the last one to light the torch in the tin bucket that was originally used for heating and lighting in emergency situations.

On the other side, Wei Ran, who had already caught the rifle and the bullet, pulled out a lighted torch and slapped the reindeer's butt hard after sitting firmly, and then poked it into the snow.

"boom!"

Wei Ran decisively pulled the trigger towards the wolf closest to Mesut. After hitting the target, he immediately clicked the last bullet, pressed down on the muzzle, and fired at a wolf that was about to bite the reindeer behind him. one shot.

Stretching out his hand from his pocket, he took out a clip of bullets and pressed them into the magazine. Before Wei Ran could remove the clip, he swung the butt of his gun and slammed it into the nose of a pounced wolf. At the same time, the The wolf also used his claws to ruthlessly scratch Wei Ran's chest.

Although this blow failed to cut through the reindeer robe, the huge force almost made Wei Ran lose his balance.

Once again, Wei Ran gave the wolf a gun butt, and finally had time to close the magazine, aimed at the other wolf that had started to bite the spare reindeer behind Ihor, and fired a shot. After knocking the opponent down, he immediately fired the gun. The voice turned to the other side of the sled.

Under his continuous firing, five bullets were shot out quickly, but the surrounding wolves ran out from all over the forest as if they were not missing at all.

What makes people even more desperate is that they don't know if the pack of wolves who ambushed them did it intentionally. After such a short time, they have already rushed out of the forest, and the extremely flat land in front of them also made the three of them realize that there is no place here. It seems to be a frozen lake!

And although such an unobstructed landform is indeed conducive to Wei Ran's shooting, the snow on the lake is far thicker than that in the forest, so that the speed of the three reindeer sledges has suddenly dropped by a knot!
But even so, the frightened reindeer dragged their sleds and moved desperately towards the center of the frozen lake—until they were bitten by the necks of the pounced wolves!
"Ah! Eight Ga! You all go to die!"

Ihor, who was driven into a hurry, suddenly let out a roar. He took out something from his arms, and then lit it with the torch he held in his hand. While waving the torch to prevent the surrounding wolves from approaching, he Throw away the things in your hand.

Less than two seconds later, Wei Ran, who emptied the bullet again, only heard a muffled "boom", and then saw the snow that had been blown away, the wolf corpse that had been torn apart, and the The cold water of the lake gushing from the ice!

"Crack!"

An incomparably crisp sound of ice cracking made Wei Ran grab the reins, desperately forcing the frightened reindeer to turn to the right, finally avoiding the blasted ice with difficulty.

But compared to his safety, the reindeer pulled by Ihor’s sleigh car lost traction because one of them was bitten through the neck. It deflected, and then even brought the sled car upside down on the blasted ice layer!

To Wei Ran's great regret, although Ihor also fell into the water, he firmly grasped the lead rope of the only living reindeer at the back of the sleigh, and the only living reindeer at the front of the car also fell into the water It has been fluttering ever since.

On the other hand, the explosion just now not only successfully blasted the ice layer, but also successfully scared off the wolves that had achieved a lot.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

After stopping the sleigh with difficulty, Wei Ran immediately raised his gun and repeatedly pulled the trigger towards the wolves who hadn't run away in the distance.

He spent more than a dozen bullets and managed to drive away the pack of wolves. On the other side, Mesut also used a rope to drag Ihor, who had already started to freeze, out of the icy lake and wrapped him up. Put on a wolfskin blanket.

Immediately afterwards, he called Wei Ran to help, and pulled up the upside-down sleigh cart and the two living reindeer.

Without going far at all, Mesut, with the help of Wei Ran, gathered the torches in the tin buckets of the two of them together as quickly as possible and lit a bonfire to warm Ihor who was frozen all over, and at the same time helped Leaning on it, he took off his soaked robe and all his clothes.

While the unlucky ghost was sitting in Mesut's car to keep warm and asked the latter to check its injuries, Wei Ran also hurriedly checked the loss of the three people.

In this raid, not only did they lose an adult male reindeer and the pre-adult fawn that served as emergency food reserves, but they also lost two cart reindeer and three spare cart carts.

In this way, there are only seven reindeer alive, but even these seven reindeer are all wounded.

In addition to the heavy loss of reindeer, they lost two pieces of canvas and a sack of fodder for the tent, not to mention that Yhor's sleigh was completely wet and would soon be covered with ice. .

In particular, it was covered with a layer of animal skin to keep warm. If the animal skin is not dried, let alone the extra weight, even if you want to continue to use it, it can only be used as a cargo and cannot sit on people.

Fortunately, although the sleigh cart and Ihor were soaked, the supplies were not damaged because they were tied firmly enough before departure.

On the other hand, the explosion that Ihor just finished is obviously a masterpiece of the fire detonators and mine explosives found in the mine. It didn't mention these things to Wei Ran and Mesut before departure.

Temporarily suppressing these small thoughts, Wei Ran walked up to Ihor with an oil lamp, and then found that the calf bone of the devil's right leg seemed to be fractured, and the frowning veterinarian Mei Huo beside him Suter, obviously a little helpless in such a situation.

"We need to find a place to camp as soon as possible." Mesut paused, "Perhaps, we need to go to the hospital as soon as possible. I can't help this kind of injury."

"Yhor, do you still have those explosives?" Wei Ran asked.

"Have"

Ihor, who was constantly shivering from the cold, stammered, "In my boots, I brought a lot out, if not enough, there is still in the box."

Hearing this, Wei Ran immediately walked towards the pile of frozen clothes that the other party had just taken off, and sure enough, a total of 11 detonators with fuses and explosives were poured out from the two boots.

He took out a Finnish knife from his boot and cut off a length of fuse from his finger to try to ignite it. Seeing that it was not affected by being soaked in water just now, he immediately took three and fastened them to his belt, and then put the rest One by one inserted in the snow.

"What are you going to do?" Mesut couldn't help asking when Wei Ran walked towards the sleigh.

"Get back our tent and feed"

Wei Ran yelled at the reindeer and explained, "Without a tent, the three of us will freeze to death soon."

After speaking, he shook the rein violently, yelled at the reindeer to go back the same way, and ran to the forest just now. From time to time, he would shoot a bullet at the wolves who were guarding the carcass of the reindeer far away and waiting for their meal.

Under the temporary ceasefire agreement reached because of the explosion just now, after a lot of twists and turns, Wei Ran finally found the reindeer that had been disembowelled, and took away the two tents that were stained red with blood. , and the sack of fodder and the bale of fodder.

Carrying these things all the way back, whenever he encountered a reindeer or wolf carcass, he would peel off the fur, take one or two deer legs by the way, and leave the rest of the carcass to the surviving members of the wolf pack.

Under this little tacit understanding, he left the forest smoothly and returned to the center of the lake again.

After such a short period of time, Mesut has brandished a snow shovel to build a windshield wall, and also made simple treatment for the bite wounds on the reindeer.

Walking to Ihor's side again, Wei Ran bent down and picked up the glove that the other party took off and handed it to its mouth, "Bite it, it will hurt a lot later."

"What are you going to do?" Yihor looked at Wei Ran in horror.

"Help you heal your wounds." Before Wei Ran finished speaking, Mesut also turned his head and looked over, obviously curious about what Wei Ran was going to do.

"Help me hold him down, don't let him move around." Before Wei Ran finished speaking, he had already sent the frozen glove to Ihor's mouth again.

After hesitating for a moment, the pale-faced Ihor bit his cold glove and let Mesut hold his body.

Deliberately pinching the location of the fracture, Wei Ran, who was extremely satisfied with Ihor's screams, then slowly started the work of setting the bone.

After a few times of careful proofreading, Ihor's broken calf bone was finally aligned by Wei Ran, leaving only a misalignment of less than half a centimeter caused by many reasons such as the cold weather and inflexible hands. A temporary splint was put on.

Looking at Ihor who had fainted and woken up by the pain several times, Wei Ran clapped his hands and said confidently, "Don't worry, I won't die. If you have anti-inflammatory drugs, you can give him some."

Hearing this, Mesut rummaged through his sleigh, found a glass syringe with a thick needle, then found a small bottle of veterinary anti-inflammatory medicine, and gave Ihor a shot in his ass.

After putting away the syringe, Mesut said painfully, "These damned wolves, our loss is too great, and half of the reindeer is missing. It will be very difficult for us to move forward."

"Even so, we can't stay here for long."

Wei Ran reminded, "After the wolves finish eating the corpses, they will stare at us again soon. Before that, we need to leave as soon as possible."

"Half an hour," said Mesut, "we will take half an hour to rest, and then we will start immediately."

Looking up at the turbulent aurora, Wei Ran nodded and handed the animal skin just peeled off to Mesut.

Taking advantage of the time he re-attached two reindeer to each sleigh cart, Mesut also cut off the frozen animal skin on the sleigh cart that fell into the water at the fastest speed, and took Wei Ran from the The animal skins stripped off the reindeer or wolf were nailed on, and then the thick ice crust that had just frozen was beaten away with an axe.

Under Wei Ran's urging, the two moved the supplies from Mesut's car to Ihor's sleigh and assigned the only extra reindeer to this car. Mesut remained in his own car.

When everything was ready, Wei Ran, who was walking in the lead, immediately shook the reins, yelled at the surviving reindeer, and rushed towards the wolves at the fastest speed before the wolves digested their prey and the fear attached to the loud noise of the explosion. The south bank of this frozen lake can have a diameter of more than 300 meters.

That night, both the people and the reindeer were in incomparable pain. In addition to worrying about the wolves behind them who brought them heavy losses, the three were more worried that the explosion that saved the three of them would attract the attention of the pursuers and the surrounding Soviets.And those reindeer, because there is no companion who can replace the work of pulling the cart, it is extra hard.

After such a difficult night's work, when the short daylight replaced the all-night aurora, the leading doe finally knelt on the snow-it could no longer walk.

Looking at the surrounding coniferous forest, Wei Ran dug out the animal trap he brought from the abandoned mine and said, "Let's camp here, how is Yihor's situation?"

"Then here it is"

Mesut yelled at the reindeer to stop, turned to look at Ihor, shook his head and said, "He has a fever, he should have a cold."

"It's not my fault"

Wei Ran muttered something in Chinese that Mesut could not understand, but this time, there was no happy expression on his face—the real test may be coming soon.

(End of this chapter)