War Photographer's Notebook

On the dim ice field, the crazy wind suddenly appeared and rolled up the snow on the surface, easily covering the red blood stains left when shooting the penguins.

Also under the blow of this strong wind, the ice that Wei Yan and the penguin fell together was filled up again almost in the blink of an eye. Even the 20 Greenland sled dogs dragging the sled car subconsciously They opened their paws, and under the leadership of the leading dog, they took the fat penguin carcass on the sled and, driven by the gradually violent wind and snow, ran hard towards the direction of the cave they came from. .

However, these dogs who seemed to be asking for help did not know that less than half an hour after they left, a wooden handle of a mountaineering pick with a steel tip poked out of the snow.

Pulling back the handle of the pickaxe and listening to the howling wind outside, Weiran, who stuck himself between the two ice walls with crampons and his back, did not dare to delay. After turning the mountaineering pickaxe, he continued to dig hard at the seemingly endless accumulation of water above his head. The snow, let it hit his face, goggles, and body, then slid along the edge of his body into the invisible abyss of ice beneath him.

"Wow!"

As a piece of snow the size of a washbasin hit Wei Ran's left elbow, he finally saw the snowy night sky outside.

He took off his gloves and whistled hard. After waiting for a while, Wei Ran saw that no dog came at all. Then he shook his head helplessly, endured the pain in his ankles and elbows, and continued to climb in the standard chimney style. Fa left the ice crack that almost killed him.

After slightly identifying the direction, Wei Ran retracted his nostrils to his collar and took a breath of air heated by body temperature. However, he did not dare to stand up at all. Instead, he lay on the snow and continued to wield the ice ax and smash in again and again. The snow surface, close to the edge of the ice crack, crawled towards the direction where he fell, and then towards the ice cave where the tent was set up.

This short distance of a few hundred meters was not easy. He moved his gradually cold body on the snow bit by bit, almost like an earthworm digging into the ground, and also gradually narrowed the distance between him and the ice cave. distance.

Finally, when his hands, feet and cheeks were almost knocked unconscious by the wind, he finally climbed to the edge of the ice cave!

Struggling to get into the ice cave, Wei Ran threw away the mountaineering pick in his hand, stumbled towards the tent, and struggled to take off the one-piece thermal insulation suit that had been blown through by the wind.

Bent down to get into the tent, Wei Ran took off his hiking boots that were still wearing crampons, and then took off his equally cold shirt and underwear. He sat down on the sled next to the cast iron stove, and stretched out his hand shakily. Bringing much-needed warmth to the body. As for where the sleigh went, he had no time to pay attention now.

After a long time, as his body warmed up a little, he finally breathed a sigh of relief and checked his red and swollen ankle again.

After some kneading, he became more certain that it was not a fracture or dislocation, but a pure soft tissue contusion. This is good news and bad news.

The good news is that he won't need to recover for a long time like a broken bone, but the bad news is that even so, his movements will be affected for at least a week in the future.

But now, those dogs didn't know where they were pulling the sleigh. He had a hard time riding the sled back to the warehouse cave by himself, let alone bringing back the more than 20 penguins in the ice cave. .

Fortunately, at least there are so many penguins

Wei Ran muttered to himself, and after repeatedly making sure that his ears, nose, fingers and toes were not frozen off, he moved the cast iron stove in the tent to the ice cave outside, and then took out the backpack, He placed the iron pot from Savage Mountain on the stove and put some clean snow into it.

After putting on the smelly one-piece thermal insulation suit again, Wei Ran dragged the body of a penguin to the stove at the entrance of the tent. While looking at the wind and snow outside the ice cave, he started to disembowel the body.

Soon, the steaming Chinese double-eared iron pot was filled with frozen penguin fat.

The pot of grease was simmering on the stove, but he did not stop. He pulled over the second penguin and continued the work of dividing it.

As time went by, piles of "goose feet", "goose skins", "goose legs", "goose breasts" and "goose breasts" were gradually placed in the ice cave illuminated by kerosene lamps. "Rack", and of course, there are all kinds of penguin internal organs buried in snow and intestinal tracts that are temporarily unavailable to clean.

When he finished killing the last penguin, several hours had passed, and he had already boiled a lot of precious oil in an iron pot.

Once again, he took out the browned and crispy oil residue and placed it on the chopping board. Wei Ran poured the bright yellow and hot oil from the iron pot into the 100-liter iron bucket that was used to hold coal.

In order to ensure that these fats could be safely consumed when necessary, he had even carefully brushed the bucket with snow just now.

As the hot oil was poured into it, the solidified oil in the iron bucket also melted, revealing a few bay leaves, ginger slices and a handful of peppercorns soaked in it.

He once again put a few handfuls of snow and the last bucket of penguin fat into the iron pot for boiling oil. After throwing some ginger slices that had been cut in advance, Wei Ran even took out the wine bottle and poured it into it stingily. A sip of gin.

Sitting on the box next to the stove again, he took out the bamboo tube containing salt from his backpack, broke out some salt grains and sprinkled it on the still hot oil residue on the chopping board, and then poured himself a large bowl full of durian. Gin.

He picked up a piece of oil residue and threw it into his mouth, then picked up the bamboo bowl and took a sip of wine. Wei Ran, who regained his composure, shook his head with regret. After all, the combination of earth and foreign things did not go well together. If he could combine Just replace the gin with white wine.

While he was drinking wine and eating side dishes and leisurely admiring the snow and listening to the wind, Hannuo and others in the warehouse cave had already placed the sled dogs that they had dragged back with a penguin. My heart was in my throat.

"Victor must be in trouble."

Dr. Jörg said as he put on the one-piece thermal suit, "Hanno, we have to save him, we have to go."

"We really have to save Victor," Dr. Cross also said, "We can't lose another person."

"Of course we have to save him."

Hanno stopped the two of them and said, "But not now. Look at the weather outside. There is no difference between going out at this time and dying. Yog, Cross, we have to wait until the snowstorm stops."

You have to believe in Victor. Like me and the major, he has obtained the badge of a mountaineering expert. He will definitely be able to persist until we rush over. "

"Can"

"He discovered the penguin and asked the sled dogs to return a penguin. I am confident that he is still alive."

Hanno kicked the frozen penguin beside his feet, "What we have to do now is to make all preparations to find him before the snowstorm stops."

"Weather Balloon!"

Dr. Cross subconsciously shouted, "Just like the major taught me, how about we hang oil lamps with weather balloons!" "That's a good idea."

Hanno had already picked up the ax as he spoke and began to decompose the fat penguin carcass at the entrance of the cave. "Thanks to Victor, our sled dogs can fill their stomachs."

Wei Ran himself naturally didn't know what kind of preparations Han Nuo and others were making to rescue Wei Ran.

After he finished the last pot of fat while eating and drinking, he cut up some bits and pieces such as penguin heart and liver, goose gizzards, goose racks and even necks, and threw them into the oil pan and fried them over low heat until cooked. An enameled pot.

Finally, he poured the remaining grease into the almost full iron bucket, and then Wei Yan dragged the cast iron stove fixed to the airdrop box back into the tent and reinstalled the chimney.

Before the coal in the stove burned out, he took out the oil drum filled with coffee from the metal book and placed it on it until it was about to boil.

Finally, he put away the hot oil drum and a basket full of kitchen utensils, sealed the tent door, sat around the stove and continued to eat the freshly fried snacks, while also thinking about how to get back alive.

There is no doubt that it is simply unrealistic to stay here and expect Hanno and others to save him, and he does not expect those dogs to come back on their own. In this case, going back slowly on skis became the only option.

Fortunately, he had no shortage of skis, either the pair he had brought or the pair provided by the metal book were enough for him.

And with the existence of the tent, he didn't have to worry about freezing to death when he couldn't walk in the middle of the journey.

I just don’t know how long this journey will take, let alone when this snowstorm will stop.

While chewing the fried meat, Wei Ran secretly calculated how many days the coal in the airdrop box would burn, and how much food supplies he could carry on his way.

Drawing a warning line for himself in his mind, he drank the last sip of wine, filled the stove with coal, and lay down on the sleigh again.

However, what he didn't expect, and what Hannuo and others didn't expect, was that this snowstorm would be far longer and more violent than he imagined.

Time flies to the fourth day, and the wind and snow outside the ice cave are still strong, and Weiran has to start saving precious coal.

In the tent that was filled with the slightly choking smell of fireworks, Wei Ran had put on the Mariza robe from the Arctic over the one-piece thermal insulation suit, and also put on the Lapland pair from Murmansk. boots.

Even so, he lay down on the bearskin sleigh and covered himself with the reindeer skin blanket.

At this time, although the cast iron stove in the tent was filled with black coal, it was not ignited.

There are various pots and pans on the stove, on the connected airdrop box, and even around the stove and sleigh. These large and small containers all contain a piece of white grease that was boiled before and has now frozen and solidified.

In the middle of these greases, a piece of cloth used as a wick is fixed with a penguin bone.

These simple candles are the only heating device in the tent at this moment. This is definitely not as high as the temperature that the fire can provide, and the black smoke emitted when burning also slightly smokes the top of the tent. blackened.

Although they have such major shortcomings, these small candles not only provide more adequate lighting, but also help save valuable coal for the sanitary ware.

On the sleigh covered with bearskin, Wei Ran, who was dressed like a rice dumpling, turned over with great effort, lit a cigarette with a tortoiseshell holder and took a puff, patiently continuing to listen to the howling wind outside.

The past four days were indeed boring, so boring that he had already started playing with ice sculptures - leaving all kinds of swear words and words in the ice cave in various languages ​​​​that he knew that could take away negative emotions. Vicious curses.

But despite being bored, his ankles and elbows were obviously swollen under his massage three times a day.

He was even confident that if he was given another three or four days, his ankle and elbow might be able to recover without affecting his activities at all.

After finishing a cigarette in this random thought, the sound of the wind outside seemed to have weakened a bit.

It seems to have weakened.

Wei Ran thought for a while, then simply turned over and sat up, bent down and got out of the tent and walked to the entrance of the ice cave.

At this time, the wind outside did show signs of weakening. At least the randomly flying snowflakes no longer blocked his sight. The most important thing was that he finally saw the gorgeous but monotonous aurora again.

"Ah——! Ah——!"

Wei Ran yelled at the top of his lungs to vent his inner loneliness. He coughed repeatedly until he was choked by the cold wind sucked into his lungs. Then he took a deep breath, turned around and started to dismantle the tent, and lit the cast iron stove again. , burned most of the pot of hot oil, and fried another pot of penguin meat prepared in advance.

When this large pot of incredibly hot fried food came out of the pot, he immediately put away all the tools that could retrieve the metal book, and then poured the hot food into the bread bag that had been boiled and dried in advance.

Throwing a piece of fried meat with a slightly fishy smell into his mouth, Wei Ran tied the penguin oil he had worked so hard to get to his skis, and then stuffed the hot bread bag into his one-piece thermal suit.

Finally, he stepped on another pair of skis provided by the metal book. Just as he picked up the relit oil lamp and was about to drag the bucket of grease back and leave here, he vaguely heard the sound of one after another coming from outside the ice cave. Barking!

After a quick reaction, Wei Ran immediately dropped the rope and ran out of the ice cave on his skis. While shouting in the direction of the barking dogs, he adjusted the oil lamp to maximum brightness and raised it high with ski poles. Over the head!

Soon, the barking of dogs became clearer and clearer, and before he saw the sleigh, he first saw three weather balloons with kerosene lamps hanging dangling from a distance!

"Hey-! Victor! We're here to save you!"

While he was staring blankly at the weather balloons, Hanno's shouts reached his ears at the same time as the sled dogs appeared.