War Photographer's Notebook

Deep in the dark and claustrophobic karst cave, Wei Ran walked with a flashlight along this natural tunnel that seemed to have no changes.

Soon, he once again saw the stalactite puddle that was once mined. The decorative and scary side of the puddle was still there, but due to the erosion of time, it was inevitable that part of it was almost integrated with the stalactite.

Perhaps in hundreds or hundreds of years, it will be completely wrapped in stalactites and become an unsolvable mystery that future archaeologists and geologists will scratch their heads to figure out.

After wading through the clear puddle, when he came to the floating soil pile again, he frowned and stopped.

The table with various landmines still stood on this pile of floating soil. Both the mines and the table itself were covered with a thick layer of floating soil.

And not far away, on the big stone where they used to rest and re-bandage Nahan's wounds, there was also a red Chinese coffin.

Beside the coffin, there were many dusty offerings and burnt incense candles.

If you get closer, you can still see bottles of Erguotou or Xifeng wine placed next to the coffin, or glass cans that seem to be filled with honey, as well as strips of dusty Hongta Mountains.

With a silent sigh, Wei Ran put the flashlight on the table in the floating soil, silently took off the backpack he had been carrying, took out a bottle of Xifeng wine from it, unscrewed the lid and slowly poured it on the coffin. around.

Then, he put away the wine bottle, took out a pack of Hongtashan, tore it open, lit three incense burners and placed them in the incense burner in front of the coffin. Then he lit one for himself and smoked slowly against the coffin of the squad leader.

"Captain Dao, I'm back."

Wei Ran gently stroked the crimson coffin and murmured to himself, "I'm here to help you. I'll help you take Xiao Xifeng and Squad Leader Cha back."

Before he finished speaking, a strange feeling came from the tiger's mouth on his left hand.

After looking around with a flashlight to make sure there was no surveillance, he took out the metal book and turned to the back of the latest page.

At this time, in addition to the red vortex, this page unexpectedly had a blue vortex.

Under this vortex, written in scarlet handwriting, "Dear comrades, let's go home together."

With a silent sigh, Wei Ran took out the thing from the blue vortex, and then found that his body tightened.

Looking down at the tactical vest that appeared on his upper body, Wei Ran couldn't help but be startled.

Each of the four magazine pockets on the chest of this vest has a loaded Bayi bar magazine stuffed with bullets. In the eight ammunition pockets just below the magazine, the four on the left each have an American M67 grenade, and the four on the right Each one was stuffed with a Type 72 anti-infantry mine.

Just like what he had seen in the squad leader's stilted house, there was a spool of nylon wire in the bag on the left side of the vest's magazine bag, and a pulse detonator in the bag on the right. and a roll of detonating wire, and a small mirror.

This time, there was finally no photo of Suisui on the back of this small mirror with a stainless steel iron cover. Instead, there was a group photo taken of everyone wearing masks before the departure of Operation Dongfeng - 11 people, including Wei Ran. group photo.

After thinking for a moment, he silently took off his vest and turned it over. Sure enough, on the back of the waistcoat, the words "Defend Southern Xinjiang" were written in black paint.

However, there was no directional mine in the bag directly above these four words. Instead, there was only an aluminum lunch box with the edges wrapped with medical tape.

Not only has this lunch box changed, there is also a rolled-up cloth stuffed in the canvas bag originally used to hold the 40-meter fire on the right waist of the vest.

Opening the roll of cloth, he couldn't help but reveal a satisfied smile. It was a Bonnie hat, with five-leaf camouflage on one side and tiger-spot camouflage on the other. It was sewn by the knife squad leader himself.

"In your eyes, I must be a child too."

Wei Ran murmured to himself as he put on his unfolded bunny hat, then took out the lunch box, and then put back the black panther vest.

Gently tearing off the medical tape at the gap in the lunch box, there was only a thin stack of letters and a photo album that was also not thick.

I picked up those letters, which were probably less than 20 in total. The sending addresses were all from an observatory in the capital of China. The senders were mostly Lu Yao or "Qing Yan", and the receiving addresses were from someone under Wenshan. Street, but the recipient has always been "Grandma Jiang, c/o Squad Leader Knife."

Without opening the bundle of letters carefully tied with hemp rope, Wei Ran gently opened the tightly stacked photo album.

In this photo album, there are photos of Squad Leader Dao and Lu Yao in front of his truck, photos in his small courtyard, photos of him and Platoon Leader Luo’s son Qing Yan in front of a beehive, and more A photo of him and the young Cha Xifeng.

In addition to these "famous" photos, there are also photos of Qing Yan.

In these photos of him, the background includes Tiananmen Square with the flag being raised, the Great Wall with people flowing in it, the Forbidden City in the sun, the Old Summer Palace marked with humiliation, the Terracotta Warriors and Horses that lead their respective eras, and the Palace Museum that seems to have not yet been completed and is under construction. Three Gorges Dam.

There are photos of Qing Yan standing tall and saluting in front of the tombstone of his father, "Martyr Luo Bing," and there are also many photos of him holding various awards.

In these photos, the little guy is growing up, and his facial features are becoming more and more similar to those of Platoon Commander Luo. But in every photo, he was wearing the double-sided Bonny hat given to him by the squad leader.

With an uncontrollable smile, Wei Ran closed the photo album again, and then closed the lid of the aluminum lunch box again.

"I'll send you back first, and then I'll go find Xiao Xifeng and Monitor Cha."

As Wei Ran spoke, he took off the bunny hat on his head, carefully rolled it up, and stuffed it into the canvas bag on the right back side of the vest he wore after taking it out again.

When he put away his vest and returned to the fork in the road with the lunch box, Cha Xifeng was chatting with Brother Yang about various landmines.

When she saw the lunch box in Wei Ran's hand, Zha Xifeng was obviously surprised, "What is this? Where did you find it?"

"What happened to the floating soil near your adoptive father's coffin?"

Wei Ran asked in confusion, "I tripped over there, and then I found this lunch box."

"over there?"

Zha Xifeng was stunned for a moment, and then a dumbfounded expression appeared on his face, "It's hidden there, no wonder I haven't been able to find it."

"You haven't looked there?" Wei Ran asked while handing the lunch box to Brother Yang.

“That’s where I learned about demining”

Zha Xifeng explained with a wry smile, "The first landmine I dug out was the Type 72 anti-infantry mine that my adoptive father buried in the floating soil. I was so familiar with it that I never thought that my adoptive father would Things are hidden in that floating soil.

From this point of view, I am still not as good as my adoptive father, far inferior. He can not only clear mines, but also lay mines, and he always places them in places that I can't even imagine. "

"That lunch box contains the identity of your adoptive father and letters from his family."

Wei Ran pointed to the lunch box in Brother Yang's hand, "Comrade Cha, why not let him take those things to your adoptive father's family."

Hearing this, Zha Xifeng was stunned, and subconsciously wanted to refuse, wanting to see for himself the secrets left by his adoptive father.

But after only a second or two of hesitation, he nodded and said calmly, "I am his adopted son, I, Wei Ran, please. Please, that is my adoptive father, my father."

"On the day we meet, remember to wear your bunny hat." Wei Ran reminded with a smile.

Zha Xifeng was stunned for a moment, then nodded vigorously.

Before he could say anything, Wei Ran looked at Brother Yang and said, "Brother Yang, take the lunch box back immediately. You or Miss Wan Qiu will hand it over to Qin Er or Xia Shushi personally."

"Yes!"

Brother Yang responded simply, and then asked, "What about you? Are you staying here by yourself?"

"I'll stay here by myself," Wei Ran said with a smile, "I believe Mr. Cha will entertain me well."

Hearing this, Brother Yang hesitated for a moment, walked up to Cha Xifeng, who was still in a daze, and whispered something into his ear.

Although Wei Ran didn't hear what Brother Yang said clearly, he could clearly see Zha Xifeng's eyes widening instantly, and there was even an unconcealable look of fear on his face!

"well!"

Zha Xifeng came to her senses and hurriedly replied in English, "I will take good care of him, and I will also take care of my mouth and eyes."

Hearing this, Brother Yang did not respond. He just looked at Wei Ran and said, "Mr. Wei, I will send the things immediately. Before I come back, you can't run around and do anything dangerous."

"I'm not a child anymore," Wei Ran said pretending to be helpless.

"I'll be back tomorrow morning"

Brother Yang thought for a while, but still worried about taking off the pistol from his leg, and forced it to Wei Ran along with the Bayi bar on his back, "Just one day, I beg you, you are here I’m hunting for fun at Mr. Cha’s demining school. I’ll be back by this time tomorrow at the latest.”

"Row"

Wei Ran agreed more and more happily, but it also made Brother Yang, who was vaguely aware of something bad, more and more unsure.

But thinking about his guess about this young man's skills, he felt relieved. Without even a word of nonsense, he stuffed the lunch box into his bag and ran back.

Watching the other party go away and finally disappear at the end of the tunnel, Wei Ran casually hung the Bayi rifle on the hook fixed on the rock wall and asked, "Comrade Cha, what did he just say to you?"

"I didn't say anything." Cha Xifeng quickly shook his head, "I just said let me ensure your safety."

Wei Ran smiled and did not continue to press, but pointed to another fork in the road and asked knowingly, "Where does this tunnel lead to?"

"The place where my adoptive father and I met for the second or first time."

Zha Xifeng adjusted her mentality and replied, "As I told you, he saved me in a minefield and once again in the hands of militiamen. You can get there by walking along this tunnel. "

"Can I go take a look?" Wei Ran asked casually.

"Of course, of course, please come with me, but the journey may be a bit long." Zha Xifeng said hurriedly.

"I have plenty of time anyway"

Wei Ran spread his hands pretending to be helpless, "I guess I won't be able to go anywhere until that strong man comes back." Zha Xifeng smiled, but didn't dare to continue the topic at all. He just followed the topic and introduced, "This The mountain cave on Tiaosancha Road connects three villages in total. The village where we got off the bus just now is where I grew up, and it is now called Dongfeng Mine Clearance School. "

After a pause, Zha Xifeng pointed in the direction of the coffin of Squad Leader Knife, "That direction leads to the nature reserve that I established in cooperation with the local people. When my adoptive father was alive, he lived in a village there, and I was the same at the time. He was rescued after being placed by a well in that village."

After finishing speaking, Zha Xifeng pointed in front of the two of them and said, "Go out from here. There are three nearest villages. One of them used to be called Ganzhu Village. All the villagers in that village have moved away. It was also where my adoptive father used to go when he was alive. Places to go."

"In this case, let's go to Ganzhu Village to look for it." Wei Ran made a noncommittal decision.

Zha Xifeng naturally had no objection, and enthusiastically led Wei Ran forward, and finally drilled out a hole that was also locked.

“This is where the demining school exams are held and where explosives are destroyed.”

Zha Xifeng raised her hand and pointed to the valley in the distance and said, "When my adoptive father and I were learning demining, we always sent those dangerous explosives to the valley to detonate, and a pond was blown up there."

Before he finished speaking, Zha Xifeng had already led him to the door of a three-story concrete building at the foot of the mountain. He was familiar with the road and asked a man on duty to get the key. He drove a capital jeep produced in China, carrying a sanitary ignition machine. Driving along a cement road sandwiched by paddy fields.

Along the way, while Zha Xifeng was introducing the situation along the way, Wei Ran had already taken out his tablet computer from his bag and opened the satellite map.

As expected, although the coordinates at this moment almost coincided with the coordinates provided by the metal book, in fact after zooming in again and again, there was still a straight line distance of five or six kilometers between the two sides.

“This is Ganzhu Village”

When the car stopped, Zha Xifeng pointed to a small village surrounded by paddy fields and said, "Before, there were only 17 households in total, but they have all moved away. Those houses are small museums of the demining school, which mainly exhibit various landmines.

In addition, when my adoptive father was alive, he would come here almost every month and stay in the mountains behind this village for several days.

As far as I know, in 1984, this village rescued a white man, but he did not survive and instead killed their village chief. "

"What happened next?" Wei Ran asked.

"The white man was later buried in the hill behind the village."

Zha Xifeng explained, "People in this village were afraid of causing trouble and did not dare to tell what happened that year. The reason why I knew about it was because I only asked the villagers after my adoptive father passed away.

I suspect it has something to do with my adoptive father. After all, when he captured me, he also captured a commander. Although I couldn't see him because I was blindfolded, based on my speculation, it should be the same person. "

"What else did you ask?" Wei Ran asked noncommittally.

"The location where the villagers found the white man," Zha Xifeng raised her finger and pointed in the direction, "is also the location where my adoptive father often goes."

Without rushing to respond to the other party, Weiran continued to zoom in on the satellite map and carefully observed the situation in the mountains behind the village.

"Is there a minefield there?" Wei Ran asked without raising his head.

"It has been cleared over the years," Zha Xifeng replied confidently.

"In that case, I want to go visit the back mountain." Wei Ran said and extended the invitation, "Do you want to come with me?"

"certainly"

Zha Xifeng happily agreed, then took a shotgun and a troubleshooting knife from the trunk of the jeep, and walked in front without hesitation.

Under his leadership, the two climbed along the mountain path to the top of the mountain first, and then came to the valley of the back mountain.

This valley is densely covered with large and small rocks, and there are still dry water lines and moss on the rocks. Obviously, this place is often flooded.

"This is the channel for mountain torrents to flow away."

Zha Xifeng raised her hand and pointed in the downstream direction and said, "There, the mountain torrent will merge into a river."

I took out the GPS and took a look. It was still three or four kilometers away from the coordinates provided by the metal book, and the coordinate point provided by the metal book was obviously further upstream.

"I remember you once told me that your adoptive father rescued you from a minefield?"

After some thought, Wei Ran guided the topic, "Where is that minefield?"

"That direction?" Zha Xifeng replied, pointing in the upstream direction.

"How long will it take for us to walk along the valley?" Although Wei Ran said this, he had already taken steps in the direction pointed by the other party.

"It's very far. If you go over the mountain, you need to climb three mountains."

Zha Xifeng, who was no longer young anymore, followed Wei Ran and introduced, "In addition, judging from the weather, there will definitely be heavy rain in the afternoon. We might as well go back first, at least prepare some supplies, and find some helpers before going in."

"How about I trouble you to arrange these?"

Wei Ran said as he walked, "I'm going to walk upstream along this valley to take a look."

"Do you suspect that my adoptive father's comrades are in this valley?"

Zha Xifeng shook his head and said, "This is unlikely. I have walked along this valley with my adoptive father countless times. We have turned over almost every stone."

"Since we've walked so many times, Comrade Cha will definitely not mind walking again, right?" Wei Ran didn't stop at all as he spoke.

"I'll arrange the manpower right now"

Before Zha Xifeng finished speaking, she had already taken out the satellite phone and dialed. Seeing this, Wei Ran once again took out the insect repellent he had prepared in advance and sprayed it all over his body. Then he lit up a red pagoda mountain. After taking two puffs, he burned off the newly appeared insect repellent on his arm with a scarlet cigarette butt. Leech.

"Do you also like to smoke this kind of cigarette?" Zha Xifeng asked curiously after hanging up the phone, "I knew it was Hongtashan just by smelling it."

"You like it too?"

"My adoptive father likes it"

Zha Xifeng walked in front of Wei Ran and recalled while leading the way, "He was very addicted to cigarettes, but he didn't smoke often. When he wanted to smoke, he would smoke more than a pack a day. At that time, he would also drink and smoke. Whether you drink Erguotou or Xifeng wine produced in China, it all depends on how much money you have.”

"Want one?" Wei Ran said, already handing over the cigarette case.

"Thank you"

Zha Xifeng took the cigarette box, took out one and lit it skillfully. After returning the cigarette box to Wei Ran, she continued to recall every moment between him and his adoptive father, Captain Dao.

"Boom!"

Just when there was a muffled thunder above the head, a group of young guys were chasing behind them.

These young men have dark skin and are generally short in stature. They all wear lightweight clothes and quick-drying clothes, and without exception, they all wear a double-sided camouflage benny hat.

"headmaster!"

The leading young man put down what he and his companions were carrying on bamboo poles, raised his chest and raised his head, saluted, and said in Vietnamese, "Report from Dongfeng Class 1!"

"Find a camp," Zha Xifeng said casually, "The flash flood is coming soon."

"Yes!"

The young man, who looked to be in his early 20s, saluted again, and then asked the young men behind him to continue carrying supplies in pairs on bamboo poles and run halfway up the mountainside on the side of the valley.

"Let's go there too," Zha Xifeng said in Chinese, "The flash flood will arrive in at most 10 minutes."

"Are these your students?" Wei Ran asked with interest, "They look more like soldiers."

"They are all orphans created by bombs left on the battlefield."

Cha Xifeng paused and added, "Like me, they are all war orphans, so I adopted them and let them learn demining. With the demining skills, it will be harder to leave and go to live in a better place, or, Or die in a minefield, either way is a good ending.”

"The harder it is to leave? I thought"

“As early as the first meeting, I said I never considered myself Vietnamese.”

Zha Xifeng walked halfway up the mountain and said mockingly, "After my adoptive father passed away, I don't even know who I am, do you know?"

"I do not know"

Wei Ran shook his head. Although this mixed-race American-Vietnamese, possibly even Asian-American and Yue people grew up in Yue, the person who raised him was a Chinese veteran.

Indeed, as he said, after his adoptive father, Captain Dao, passed away, he had no idea where he was from, just like a duckweed without roots. For the rest of his life, his only sustenance was the big five-leaf camouflage pattern facing up and the tiger-spotted camouflage inner bunny hat on his head.

After a brief silence, the roar of the chain saw reached the ears of the two people. Soon, a tropical tree halfway up the mountain was sawed off by the demining students, and it took only a very short time to sort out a piece that was enough The camp where more than ten of them rested, by the way, sprinkled powder to repel snakes and insects around the camp, and dug vital drainage ditches.

When Wei Ran and Zha Xifeng arrived amidst the gradually falling raindrops, these young men had already quickly set up three tents of different sizes, as well as a large and conspicuous tent. One can’t help but wonder if there is a nylon cloth canopy hiding some new type of aircraft underneath.

At this time, these young men are working together under the sky to dig out the smoke stove - a Chinese-style smoke stove. There is even a Chinese-style marching pot on the stove.

"Crack!"

Another muffled thunder exploded overhead, and the torrential rain also poured down in the blink of an eye. In the valley where they had just stayed, a flash flood that was turbid and mixed with various floating objects appeared in a very short period of time.

All of this is just like that unforgettable spring in 1984, which many people will never forget.