War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1125 The Nenets couple in the mountain goods purchase station
On the wasteland, Wei Ran and Mesut used the animal skins they found to conduct a primitive barter transaction with this bearded man who appeared from nowhere.

It's a pity that the only things that the two can look at are the other side's total of about fifty rounds of rifle bullets, a Mosin Nagant rifle, and the sled dogs.

Obviously, although this bearded man who can't even speak Russian wants to exchange all the animal skins, he doesn't want to trade out the sled dogs and the only weapon he has in his hands-he is not the Soviet Union after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Wu Ke is a rotten person, how could he do such a stupid thing to destroy his martial arts.

After some enthusiastic gestures, Wei Ran and Mesut finally understood what the man meant, and invited them to sit at home.

Before the two of them could refuse or agree, the bearded man got on his dog sled, waved to them, and ran to the west at the head of the pack.

"Will you go?" Wei Ran asked Mesut who was hesitant beside him.

"Go and see"

After struggling for a while, Mesut said, "We need to know how far we are from the Ural Mountains, so it's best to trade the map. In addition, our reindeer has lost a lot of weight, so even if we can't trade the sled dogs, At least get them some concentrate."

"Let's go then"

Wei Ran said, turned around and got into the tent, put the uncooked fox meat together with the pot in the wooden box, then extinguished the charcoal fire just lit and dismantled the tent, chasing the sledge marks left by the other party, Shouting to the reindeer, they ran due west.

This distance is definitely not too short, so that after running for nearly two hours, Wei Ran and Mesut several times thought that they were following the wrong sledge marks, and then they were at the edge of a forest that suddenly appeared in front of them. , found a lonely stone house.

Seeing this, Wei Ran and the two were somewhat relieved. If the bearded man who seemed to be a Nenets took them to a gathering area or a place such as a forest farm, then they would definitely be interrogated. Right now With such a lonely stone house, it is obvious that such a situation can be avoided with a high probability.

But how could such a stone house be built in this place?And it's a round stone house?

Wei Ran couldn't help being a little puzzled. This stone house is not too small. Although it looks like only one floor, it can be about ten meters in diameter. Although the conical roof is covered with thick snow, the highest point in the middle is The chimney, which was also built with stones, was wafting wisps of green smoke.

Looking outside the house, in addition to the firewood stacked against the wall, there is also a low wooden house that is locked. There is also a dog hole in the door of the house, and the untied sled dogs are shaking and shining After removing the fur, they each got in along the hole where the animal skin was hanging.

It wasn't until the dozen or so sled dogs were arranged that the bearded man beckoned to the two of Wei Ran, and then pointed to a waist-thick pine tree with its crown sawn off next to the wooden house.

Although they couldn't speak the language, the two understood each other's meaning, and each tied the reindeer to the edge of the tree.The bearded man also walked around to the other side of the wooden house, opened another small locked door, and took out a large bag of dried moss and lichen from the inside and put it near the mouths of the four reindeer.

After touching the heads of these reindeer, the bearded man greeted Wei Ran and Mesut, followed him through a thick wooden door, and entered the warm stone house.

The lighting in this house is not very good, and the only four windows are only the size of a washbasin.

Fortunately, the fire in the large central fireplace provided a fair amount of light.Beside the fireplace, there was a woman with a big belly who was sewing something.

Looking down at the thick wooden floor under his feet, Wei Ran subconsciously observed the stone house.

On the top of the house, the circle of blackened wooden beams rests on the stone walls and the stone chimney in the middle like umbrella ribs.

In addition to supporting the conical roof, these wooden beams are also responsible for hanging heavy objects, some of which are hung with a few greasy kerosene lamps, some with strings of animal traps, and some with a There are stretched animal skins, and there are even some smoked fish strung together with ropes.

And in the gap between the wooden beams and the roof, there are still a few wooden boards, and some boxes made of birch bark are neatly placed on the wooden boards.

Looking at the room with a straight line of sight, apart from the large fireplace in the middle, there is a thick solid wood table near the window, and a large wooden bed by the window facing the hearth of the fireplace.

There is also a narrower wooden table on both sides of the hearth of the fireplace, on which some pots, pans and other things are placed.In the remaining half of the room, there is a small boat whose skeleton has just been made of wood.

Compared with these ordinary sundries, what really attracted the attention of Wei Ran and Mesut was that there was a hanging portrait of Stalin and a hanging portrait of Stalin on the left and right sides of the stone wall next to the window closest to the boat. A map in a frame!
Before they could move to the direction of the map, the bearded man also took off his buckskin robe, and at the same time communicated with the woman with the big belly in a language that Wei Ran could not understand.

"welcome"

The woman said to Wei Ran and the two in unfamiliar Russian, "My husband said that he met you on the tundra and wanted to trade your fox furs. He asked what you wanted."

Hearing this, the two looked at each other, and Wei Ran said, "There is no rush for the transaction, are you Nenets? Why do you live here?"

"We are indeed Nenets"

The woman with a big belly said frantically, "We are the tribes and hunters who stay here and around to buy the animal skins."

The Soviet Union's mountain goods purchase station?
Wei Ran immediately understood the meaning of this house. This kind of purchasing station in the wilderness is not uncommon. Let alone the Soviet Union, it actually appeared in the wilderness of Siberia as early as the Tsarist Russian era.Even he suspected that this stone house might be left over from the Tsarist Russian era.

After simply finding out the identities of the couple, Wei Ran and the two of them communicated with this woman with a big belly before they found out.

In fact, someone else was in charge of this job. The reason for the husband and wife is simply that the old gentleman who was originally in charge of this job had a physical problem before this winter, and it just so happened that this Russian-speaking tribal woman was about to give birth. It is suitable for migrating with the tribe, which temporarily replaced the job.

And just as Wei Ran guessed, this stone house that has been around for a hundred years is really left over from the Tsarist Russian era, but the more important information is that not far to the west of this stone house is the Ob River. A tributary!
Whether you go northwest along this tributary or cross the river directly to the west, you only need to walk about 150 kilometers to reach the Ob River!

As long as you cross the Ob River and walk less than 150 kilometers to the west, you will be the second difficulty of this trip-the Ural Mountains!The Ural Mountains stretching [-] kilometers from north to south!
Wei Ran and Mesut looked at each other. Although they didn't speak, they could see that the other was relieved.

Having obtained enough information, Mesut and Wei Ran also brought in thirty or forty animal skins they had hunted along the way and placed them on the table.

After communicating with the woman with a big belly, Wei Ran and Mesut were inevitably a little disappointed. The distance from here to the nearest gathering area is hundreds of kilometers, but there are really not many trading items they can provide.

After picking and choosing, Mesut exchanged two pieces of animal skins for a watch-style compass produced by the Soviet Union during the war, and then exchanged four white sheets, a small bag of oats, and a bag full of oats. A box of raw and frozen fish.

Wei Ran also changed some white sheets. There are quite a few of these things here, and it is also normal for hunters to change these things. In this wilderness, white is the best camouflage. prey.

After asking again if he could change some sled dogs to no avail, the man took out a Mosin Nagant rifle with more than a dozen five-pointed stars engraved on the stock from a box on the wooden beam. The woman's translator said that five animal skins can be exchanged, and 20 rounds of bullets are included.

Without hesitation at all, Wei Ran happily counted out five animal skins and handed them to the other party, in exchange for this World War II rifle with a lot of traces of use and soul rings, and 20 greasy bullets.

Seeing that there were still a lot of animal skins in the hands of the two, the bearded man thought for a while, then climbed to the edge of another beam with a ladder, and took out the skin from a wooden box made of birch bark. Two second-hand binoculars in leather cases!

But this time, the man offered a high price. One of the telescopes needed to be exchanged for all the animal skins they had on hand, and the other telescope wanted to be exchanged for two pregnant reindeer!

Pregnant reindeer?

Wei Ran glanced at Mesut, who was astonished. Obviously, this unqualified veterinarian probably didn't notice this matter at all.

After some questioning, it turned out that the man in his 30s was worried about lack of milk after his wife gave birth, so he wanted to get a doe.But this season, unless you go to the warmer south, it is already difficult to find pregnant doe.

Obviously, just as the bearded man couldn't sell his sled dogs, Wei Ran and Mesut couldn't sell the reindeer used to pull the cart.

So in the end, the two of them could only use all the remaining animal skins, and only exchanged one of the telescopes and the map in the photo frame centered on the Ob River.

After completing the transaction and obtaining the most important information, the two didn't dare to stay for long, so they took the two extra bags of moss and lichen for the reindeer as a gift from the bearded man, and shouted that the four reindeer were about to set off.

"Wait a minute," the pregnant Nenets woman called to stop them.

Seeing Wei Ran and Mesut looking back, the woman reached out and touched the reindeer pulling the cart, then turned her head and communicated with her husband in Nenets, and then pointed to the cart for Mesut. The two reindeer said, "It's better to leave the two pregnant doe first. Their stomachs have begun to grow, and they are not suitable for pulling the sled anymore. No hunter has the heart to let the pregnant doe pull the sled."

Without waiting for Wei Ran or Mesut to refuse, she continued, "You can take a few of our sled dogs first, they are enough for you to pull the cart. When spring comes, you can take a lot of our sled dogs How about sending it back and taking the reindeer and just leaving us with one more fawn?
And the sleigh, with the bearskin on it, was to remain.If you send back more than one sled dog, this bear skin will be returned to you; if more than two sled dogs are missing, this bear skin will be ours. "

This woman is good at business
Wei Ran muttered to himself, obviously, on this tundra shrouded in severe winter, meat-eating sled dogs are more useful than vegetarian reindeer, which is an irresistible temptation for Wei Ran and Mesut.

When the short spring comes here, the snow melts and the vegetation turns green, and the sled dogs are not as easy to use as the reindeer with tall legs, long legs and big feet.

Surely they'd send the sled dogs back for the two reindeer by then—if they really were hunters.

In this deal, the two Nenets not only got a fawn, but also got deer milk, and the price they had to pay was just sending the dogs out to work.And with that valuable bear skin staked here, there is no need to worry about these two unkempt hunters running away.

"We'll send the sled dogs back when the grass grows." Mesut readily agreed to the deal.

(End of this chapter)