War Photographer's Notebook

In the dark alley, Wei Ran and Tao Canhua had already taken off their woolen coats, each put on a set of coarse cloth clothes and brand-new thousand-layer cloth shoes, and both wore an khaki coarse cloth scarf to cover most of their faces. On the face, inside the scarf, they each also wore a pair of thick masks.

"come with me"

Guan Bingwen, who was here to respond, handed the clothes the two had changed to an old man pushing a wheelbarrow. In exchange for them, he got two Brownings and two pairs of sheepskin gloves from the other party and gave them to Wei Ran and Tao Canhua, and then took them with him. Then they walked out of the alley and hid in the shadow of this intersection.

"How many of us are there?"

Wei Ran lit a cigarette and asked in a low voice, while also observing the surroundings distractedly. At this time, there were many rickshaws parked at the intersection.

“Definitely enough”

Guan Bingwen paused and continued in Wei Ran's ear, "Right away, our radio station will fake reports to lure away a group of people. Our mission is to stop all these people."

Taking out his pocket watch and looking at the time, Wei Ran nodded silently. It was less than a quarter of an hour before twelve o'clock.

"Do you want to start here?" Wei Ran pointed to the rickshaws around him and asked Guan Bingwen in a low voice.

"Do it with confidence, but don't shoot."

"Do you want to live?"

"No," Guan Bingwen replied simply. At the same time, he took an ax from the nearest rickshaw driver, weighed it, and handed it to Wei Ran.

"I don't need this," Wei Ran waved his hand and refused.

"What about you?" Guan Bingwen looked at Tao Canhua.

After taking the small ax and weighing it, Tao Canhua returned it to Guan Bingwen, squatted down and lifted up his trouser legs, pulled out a double-edged dagger from the leather holster tied to his leg, and whispered at the same time, "I'm still used to stabbing people."

"up to you"

Guan Bingwen took the ax and held it in his hand nonchalantly, and said at the same time, "There are still 5 minutes left, be ready."

Hearing this, Wei Ran subconsciously took out his pocket watch and took a look. It was already 11:40, and there were only the last 20 minutes left on the last day of the year.

In the next five minutes, the only two streetlights at this intersection were accurately hit by stones hit by slingshots from unknown sources. At the same time, on both sides of the narrow street, One rickshaw after another also stopped, leaving only a passage barely two meters wide in the middle.

At 11:43, two more gangsters appeared out of nowhere and tied one end of a hemp rope as thick as a big toe to a telephone pole on the side of the road, and then spread it along the street to the other side. , after looping around another street light pole, it was finally tied to a top door bar.

At 11:44, Wei Ran put out the cigarette that was about to burn out, and together with Tao Canhua, followed Guan Bingwen and hid in the shadow of the rickshaw on the roadside.At the same time, people dressed as traitors appeared in the alley where they had changed their clothes.

At 11:45, the door of the teahouse opposite Taihua Building suddenly opened, and then, a dozen traitors and gangsters swarmed out, each riding a bicycle towards the intersection where Wei Ran and others were hiding.

At 11:47, a young man standing guard at the intersection drew several clockwise circles in the night with a cigarette in his hand.

"It's coming." In the night, Guan Bingwen clenched the ax in his hand and warned in a low voice.

Before he could finish his words, more than a dozen bicycles turned around at the intersection, rushing along this narrow street without street lights, as if they were pedaling like smoke.

Almost as soon as the leading bicycle passed in front of Wei Ran, the two strong men hiding behind the rickshaw on the other side of the road also yanked hard on the top door bar around the street lamp pole, pulling the rough line sticking to the road. After the rope was tightened at a distance of 1.4 and a half meters from the ground, they immediately used their strong bodies to grab the top door bar that was tied to the rope.

"Hey?!"

The traitor who pedaled the bicycle the fastest only had time to let out a cry of surprise before his neck was strangled by the thick hemp rope.

For a moment, a dozen traitors in this group either hit the rope and were strangled by the neck and fell to the ground, or they squeezed the car brake and barely stopped, and more of them collided with those in front and behind.

Without waiting for more people to fall, Guan Bingwen, Wei Ran, Tao Canhua, or the people on the other side of the road who were also hiding in the shadow of the rickshaw, all rushed out in a swarm, like making oversized sandwiches, and took the dozen or so people. The traitors were caught together.

At the same time, at the intersection, two rickshaws immediately turned around and blocked the already narrow intersection.

"puff!"

Wei Ran stabbed the bayonet into the chest of a traitor who was still riding the bicycle, then pulled out the bayonet and stabbed the liver diagonally, directly into the lung.

When he pulled out the bayonet for the second time, Guan Bingwen on his left had already lifted the ax from the collapsed chest of a traitor.Tao Canhua, on the right, had already stabbed the sharp, short double-edged dagger in his hand into the heart of the traitor he was interested in for the third time.

There was no communication at all. Wei Ran did not even wait for the third stab at him. The traitor he was responsible for was dragged off the bicycle by the people on the opposite side and thrown into a rickshaw. Immediately afterwards, the ownerless bicycle was He immediately got on top of a man who was also dressed as a traitor.

Almost in a breath, all the corpses of the traitors were thrown into the rickshaws and covered with various blankets, and the bicycles were immediately replaced with new "traitors".

"The wind is blowing!"

In the darkness, someone shouted something, and the thick hemp rope that originally blocked the road was cut with a knife, and the bicycles set off again.

Immediately afterwards, more than a dozen rickshaws pulling corpses also turned around and scattered in different directions.

While finishing work here, at another fork a hundred meters away, there were also a dozen rickshaws leaving Sanguang on this night, either running towards the Haihe River, or towards the former German Concession. , or ran straight to the suburbs.

"Let's go watch the dragon dance."

Guan Bingwen threw the bloody ax in his hand to a rickshaw and waved Wei Ran and Tao Canhua to the Taihua Building not far away.

Along the way, there were also some half-grown children who looked to be no more than eleven or twelve years old. The three of them and some people behind them all had masks such as the Monkey King, Nezha, or Lord Rabbit stuffed into their hands.

When Wei Ran put on his mask and followed the crowd to the door of Taihua Building, the time had reached 11:56. Less than 50 meters behind him, a lively crowd and a lion and dragon dance team also appeared.

Not only that, the shops along the street also hung firecrackers at their doors to prepare for the New Year.

Looking to the left and right through the mask, he saw the clerk from the cloth shop, the three brothers from the sesame cake stall, and a few young men who seemed to have learned skills in the book apartment before in the slightly crowded crowd. Sleeves, Cao Mute stood on tiptoes to watch the excitement.

He even saw a somewhat unfamiliar figure on the other side of the road, but he disappeared in a flash - it seemed to be Mr. Feng Maoyun and Feng whom he had not seen for a long time!

Obviously, now was not the time to recognize each other. Wei Ran and Tao Canhua, who was wearing a Rabbit mask behind him, looked at each other, but each held their weapons on their waists and waited patiently.

In the last five seconds of 11:59, along with three whistles, three dazzling fireworks also rose in the night sky not far away. At the same time, the dragon dance team parading through the streets also happened to arrive at Taihua Tower. On the road between the teahouse opposite!
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Amidst the explosions, the fireworks exploding in the night sky made everyone except the dragon dance team subconsciously look up. At the same time, Wei Ran and Tao Canhua, who were wearing masks, also turned around and rushed in after Guan Bingwen. Teahouse!

Almost at the same time as they raised the curtain, in the streets and alleys, some cigarette sellers, newspaper sellers, candies sellers, and even the clerks at the door of Taihua Building lit the firecrackers that had been hung to celebrate the new year. The arrival of the year.

Amidst the deafening sound of firecrackers, Wei Ran, Tao Canhua, and Guan Bingwen also raised their weapons, aiming at the gangsters on the first floor of the teahouse who had stood up and prepared to go out to watch the fun and pulled the triggers!

For a time, the sound of gunshots, screams, footsteps, and falling to the ground were all completely obscured by the dense sound of firecrackers, noisy gongs, drums, and cheers outside.This noisy teahouse also fell into a certain sense of absolute silence.

At the same time, at the back door of the teahouse, Cao Duba also ran in with three other young men who had wrapped themselves up extremely tightly.

However, they did not help the three Weiran people at all. Instead, only one person was left to find the location of the electric switch and prepare to cut off the power, while the other three climbed the stairs to the second floor. The floor was a few steps lower, so he crawled down and got ready.

"Bang! Bang!"

The last two shots killed the traitors who were about to run into the counter and hide. Wei Ran put a new magazine on the PPK pistol in his hand, walked over quickly, took out his Mauser bayonet, and hit the necks of these traitors one by one. A touch up.

At the same time, Tao Canhua also closed the wooden door on the first floor of the teahouse and pushed it against the door.Guan Bingwen hid a tin biscuit box under a corpse facing the door.

Everyone finished their work in a hurry, and Wei Ran climbed up the stairs to the second floor amidst the sound of firecrackers that didn't stop.

A total of six people looked at each other. Guan Bingwen, who was at the end of the line, gestured to the people who were ready at the electric switch on the first floor. The latter immediately turned off the switch and cut off the power. At the same time, Cao Duba also led everyone quickly to the second floor. building.

This sudden power outage undoubtedly caused people to poke their heads out of the occupied rooms on the second floor, or loudly ask what was going on amidst the dense sound of firecrackers.

"Boom!"

Wei Ran shot down the person who came out of the box he was responsible for with two consecutive shots. At the same time, he quickly ran over and broke in with a kneeling posture that was only used in later generations when there were occasionally conspicuous packaging. This box.

Although such tactical actions were not particularly practical in later generations, in this era it was quite advantageous due to the "generation difference".

One shot easily hit the chest of another person in the room. Before Wei Ran could stop his forward momentum, he fired another shot at the other two traitors who were hurriedly taking out their guns, knocking them down easily. On the ground.

There was no time to change the magazine, so he slashed the necks of the three traitors in the room who were still alive.

When the papered window was lit up again by the fireworks outside, he had already put away his bayonet and ran to the door of the room as quickly as possible.

To put it simply, the layout of the rooms on the second floor is that there are less than ten boxes in a C shape surrounding a square stage in the middle. Behind the stage is the staircase leading to the second floor. According to the information obtained by Guan Bingwen, on the other side of the staircase The room was where the traitor Hu Dacai lived.

"boom!"

One shot hit a figure on the opposite side of the stage who was holding a gun and looking out. Wei Ran took out the Browning that Guan Bingwen had given him not long ago, and shot the traitor who was hit first in the light of fireworks that lit up from time to time. , then turned the gun, and together with Tao Canhua, who was holding a revolver in both hands, suppressed the enemies who dared to show up in the few remaining rooms.

While firing, he knelt down on one knee, stuck the empty PPK in his knee socket with the gun handle facing up, and clamped it with his legs. He took off the empty PPK magazine with one hand and put it into his pocket. He took out the last new magazine filled with bullets and stuffed it into it.

After a while, Guan Bingwen and others also came out of the boxes they were responsible for, and Wei Ran also emptied the few Browning bullets in his hand.

Throwing the pistol casually on the stage, he held up the PPK with the magazine replaced, and Cao Yuba, who held the Ruger P08 in one hand and a three-gun box in the other, covered each other, carrying behind him Tao Canhua and Guan Bingwen ran towards the room where Hu Dacai was suspected to be.

"Boom!"

The two shot and killed two traitors who ran out of the room with no pants on and guns in their hands. At the same time, they rushed over without stopping.

"Boom!"

When passing by the two traitors who had been shot, Wei Ran and Cao Duba shot them one after another.Wei Ran aimed at the door and fired two more bullets. Unfortunately, even so, the door was still bolted from the inside. "Crunch!"

Guan Bingwen, who was following the two men, used the crowbar in his hand to easily open the wooden door that was locked from the inside. Inside the wooden door, as expected, someone immediately shot through the wooden board of the door.

"If you dare to shoot again, grandpa, I will reward you with a grenade!" Guan Bingwen, who was almost hit, lay on the floor and threatened loudly.

"Don't! Don't! I won't shoot!"

In the room, a man replied in a panic, but the nearest Wei Ran felt a cool breeze mixed with the unique smoke smell of firecrackers blowing out of the room.

Before he had time to think about it, he and Cao Yuba, who also realized something was wrong, rushed into the room one after another, and then saw a man wearing only bright red trousers and a white shirt, riding on the window that had just been opened. From the looks of it, he was obviously trying to escape by jumping down.Not only that, Wei Ran also noticed that one of his arms seemed to be stained.

And in this room that was filled with the unique stench of heated smoke cream, on the absolutely luxurious Qiangong bed, there lay a naked woman with snow-white skin, who was still panting violently. , obviously, she was just helping three other men celebrate New Year's Eve in a special way.

Just when Cao Yaba subconsciously avoided looking at the woman, Wei Ran quickly ran over, pinched the mouth of the woman who was obviously in high spirits and looked at her teeth, and then looked at her bow legs.

"What are you doing"

"puff!"

Before Guan Bingwen could finish his words, Wei Ran had already taken out his Mauser bayonet and stabbed directly through one of the pair of small and pitiful breast shields on the woman's chest, and also stabbed through her heart.

"Don't worry, I killed you right."

Wei Ran drew his bayonet and walked towards the half-naked man who was still sitting on the second floor window, not daring to get down, and even less daring to jump down.

"Jump or not?"

While Wei Ran was speaking, he did not forget to use the bayonet in his hand to gently pat the man's fairly white buttocks.

"no no no"

The man hugged the window frame and shook his head repeatedly, then turned to look at Guan Bingwen, who was wearing the Erlang Shen mask, and begged in a tearful voice, "Young Master Erlang, please let me go. I, I, I will all listen to you. Uncle Guan and I have had our lives together."

"Is it him?" Wei Ran asked without looking back.

Now that "it's him" was recognized, Guan Bingwen simply took off his mask.

Hearing this, Wei Ran grabbed one of the other man's hands, and at the same time used the bayonet in his hand to lightly cut his other hand holding the window frame, and successfully removed the traitor who was riding on the window. .

"Oh!"

Wei Ran hit him behind the ear with the handle of the knife, successfully knocked him out, and then asked, "How to deal with it?"

"Kill it"

Guan Bingwen said as he walked out, "Thanks to the help of several leaders of the Qinghong Gang this time, killing this guy will also give an explanation to everyone who is doing nothing."

"Shall I do it?" Wei Ran turned to look at Cao Yuba and asked.

After hesitating for a moment, Cao Muba glanced at the woman who was stabbed to death by Wei Ran on the bed, and finally nodded.

Just at this moment, a young man ran in and whispered with suppressed excitement, "I found something that looks like a radio station."

Hearing this, Uncle Mute, who had been hesitant just now, immediately ran out of the room with Guan Bingwen.

"Don't be stunned, come here and help." Wei Ran said, bending down and picking up a long strip of cloth from the floor that seemed to be a kimono belt.

"How to do it?" Tao Canhua, who was the only one staying in the room with Wei Ran, asked.

"Hang him from the rafters"

As Wei Ran spoke, he had already tied Hu Dacai's feet with the long strip of cloth, and then threw the other end over the wooden beam above his head. With the help of Tao Canhua, he hung Hu Dacai head-down on the wooden beam. On the rafters.

Looking around, Wei Ran took out a large copper basin for washing his face and placed it directly under Hu Dacai. Then he stretched out his hand, pinched and pulled, and released Hu Dacai's jaw joint. Before the other person woke up from the severe pain and started shouting, he pulled it A towel was stuffed into his mouth and tied tightly with the belt he picked up.

"You go out first," Wei Ran said with a smile towards Tao Canhua.

Perhaps thinking of some rumors, Tao Canhua shivered involuntarily and hurriedly ran out of the room that was filled with the strong smell of blood.

After removing the joints of Hu Dacai's arms three times, Wei Ran took out the bayonet again, and cut open the veins in his feet and hands under the light of fireworks that lit up from time to time.

When gurgling dark red blood flowed from the wound, Wei Ran picked up a white sock that seemed to belong to the Japanese girl on the bed, dipped it in the blood that was still flowing, and left " "Treason to the country is punishable by death" are four simplified Chinese characters that I don't know how many people can understand.

Wei Ran threw away the socks in his hands, put the bayonet on Hu Dacai's crotch and pulled hard. Hu Dacai, who was hanging upside down and his face was covered with blood flowing from his ankles, immediately let out a changed tone of screams and violent The struggle.

"Uncle Hu, I wish you a happy New Year."

Wei Ran knelt down and whispered into the other person's ear with a smile. Then he reached out and picked up a suit jacket, flipped through it, and found a pile of silver dollars from it. He weighed it, "This is considered lucky money."

Having said that, Wei Ran threw the silver dollar in his hand into the large copper basin that had already collected a layer of blood with a clang, stood up, put away the bayonet, and left the room.

After a while, Guan Bingwen also walked out of a room. In his arms, he also held a Japanese 94-type 6 radio that Weiran had seen in Youmei's suitcase.

"It's not in vain." Guan Bingwen was obviously very satisfied with this harvest, "Let's withdraw."

"This should just be a place to mobilize troops."

Wei Ran and Tao Canhua looked at each other, bent down to pick up the Browning pistol that had been thrown on the stage, and walked down the stage while saying, "I guess there must be a Japanese radio surveillance vehicle nearby. They are responsible for looking for radio signals." , and then notify Hu Dacai here through the radio station to send people to search the location where the radio signal was discovered."

"This method is indeed effective. Not only does it not require a large number of Japs to attract attention, but also with these traitors who are familiar with the terrain, the success rate is much higher."

Guan Bingwen sighed, "And their monitoring vehicle is well hidden. It's been more than a month, and we haven't found the vehicle. On the contrary, they almost discovered our radio station several times."

"really"

A young man Wei Ran had never seen before took out a stack of white anti-Japanese leaflets from his bag and scattered them everywhere in the teahouse. It will definitely shock a bunch of people, and we can have a good year at least."

"That's true"

Guan Bingwen nodded, patted Wei Ran and Tao Canhua on the shoulders and whispered, "You two come with me."

Hearing this, Wei Ran and Tao Canhua took one last look at Cao Muba, who was looking at them with a smile, and followed Guan Bingwen silently to leave the teahouse through the back door.

Under the cover of the crowd, the sound of firecrackers and fireworks, it didn't take long for the three of them to return to the alley. After returning the pistol to the old man waiting where they were, they changed back into their own clothes.

"A rickshaw will take you to the Haihe River later."

Guan Bingwen hesitated for a moment after speaking, "Canhua, I have something to tell you."

"Yeah" Canhua responded. After tying his shoelaces, he followed Guan Bingwen and walked a few steps further away.

Not long after, the two came back again.

"Xiaoguan, I also have something to say to you." Wei Ran spoke first, pulling the other party a few steps further away.

"What's wrong?" Guan Bingwen looked at Wei Ran in confusion.

"take this"

Wei Ran took out a longevity lock wrapped in a handkerchief from his pocket and placed it in Guan Bingwen's hand, then repeated Andy's original words against his ear.

"I will personally put it on the neck of my enemy."

Guan Bingwen tightened the longevity lock in his hand and promised seriously, "Let her rest assured that she is an uncle and half a father. I will definitely take good care of my enemy."

"I will tell her. By the way, the people who are working together today are all our people?" Wei Ran asked casually.

"Those who rode away on the bicycle were all my father's men. It was considered a certificate of surrender that he handed over to me, and it could also be regarded as a certificate of surrender that those people handed over to my father." Guan Bingwen explained in a low voice against Wei Ran's ear. road.

Hearing this, Wei Ran stopped asking any more questions and finally patted the other party on the shoulder. The latter nodded seriously and disappeared into the dark alley with the old man carrying the pick.

Before the other party could go far, a rickshaw stopped at the entrance of the alley.Upon seeing this, Wei Ran and Tao Canhua immediately sat on the rickshaw driver. The rickshaw driver also opened the sunshade of the rickshaw and brought a thick blanket to the two of them.

When the rickshaw started running, Tao Canhua whispered, "Brother Guan...he asked me to take good care of Qiushi."

"Then take good care of her," Wei Ran lit a cigarette and muttered in a low voice, and the rickshaw fell into silence.

Soon after, the rickshaw stopped at an alley beside the Haihe River. After getting off the car, Wei Ran and the two ran out from the other end of the alley, and happened to see the car in the study park parked on the side of the road.

After looking around, the two of them ducked into the rear compartment and squeezed in with Mei Xiang.

"Come back home"

Meixiang, who had really drank a lot at night, gave the order soberly. Jasmine, who was sitting in the driver's seat, immediately turned the car around and drove straight to the study apartment.

The journey back to the study apartment was smooth, and the fireworks in the distance showed no sign of stopping. Wei Ran, who had just emerged from the carriage, finally saw the intense white light that he had not seen for a long time.