War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1448 The United States must win

In the withered jungle, the strong smell of decayed plants and the smell of residual defoliants intertwined, making the three Weiran people feel dizzy as they hurried on.

"boom!"

Amidst the dull crashing sound, an incoming Huey helicopter dragged thick smoke and fell very far away from them. The anti-aircraft firepower that was not dense just now but was hard to prevent also died down.

Wei Ran could even guess that at this time, the guerrillas who had achieved great success were not only busy transferring heavy anti-aircraft firepower, but also had probably sent out search teams, trying to catch them before more rescue forces arrived. There may have been helicopter pilots on board the two planes that crashed.

"shush"

Wei Ran, who was supporting Li Youfu, grabbed Zach in front of him and motioned for him to crouch down and hide his body in the withered bushes.

Seeing that Zach was about to replace the weapon in his hand with a camera, Wei Ran had no choice but to reach out and hold the back of his hand, shook his head gently, and made a silent gesture again.

With Zach's slightly confused expression and Li Youfu's extremely nervous expression, Wei Ran carefully put the grenade launcher on his shoulder, then pulled out the pistol from his waist, gently pulled the slide, and slowly pushed it bullet.

After a moment of waiting, three guerrillas, either wearing tiger-spot camouflage, black clothes and black pants, or simply wearing only a pair of green shorts, smeared with mud, carefully walked towards the Weiran and their vehicles with weapons in hand. The direction that the helicopter crashed.

Among the three people, one of them was thin and wearing black clothes and black trousers. She seemed to be a woman. In her hand, she held a Mauser rifle with a scope. There were some dead branches tied to the rifle.

The one walking in the middle, wearing tiger stripe camouflage, had not only an RPG on his shoulders, but also an M72 rocket launcher produced in the United States.

The one walking at the front was wearing only a pair of black shorts, his whole body smeared with mud, and in his hand was an AK47 rifle that was also wrapped with dead branches and leaves.

Seeing Zac looking at him, Wei Ran shook his head slightly and carefully reached out to hold down his slightly raised submachine gun.

Based on the current situation, it is not a big problem for the three of them to deal with these three people, but the gunfire when they deal with them is destined to attract more enemies.

And he believed that these three people were probably just "scouts" at most. Behind them, in the surrounding withered jungle, there must be more and more guerrillas!

"Walk"

After waiting for about ten minutes, Wei Ran greeted him gently, and Zach immediately stood up and continued moving in the direction of Angus.

However, the three of them had only walked less than a hundred meters when the roar of a helicopter was heard again above their heads.

Just by listening to the sound, I knew that there might be more than one helicopter flying in this time. Immediately afterwards, the roar of anti-aircraft machine guns came from further around, and the helicopters overhead also began to pour firepower towards the ground!

"Get down!"

Wei Ran had no choice but to say hello again, holding one down with one hand and lying in a bush at the base of a dead tree.

They can't move at this time. If they are seen by those helicopters, if the other party mistakenly thinks that they are guerrillas, they may be immediately fired by machine guns!

Before the firefight above ended, the roar of fighter jets also came from far away, followed by a group of "Phantom" fighter jets flying through the air at high speed, dumping a large amount of ammunition at the anti-aircraft firepower!

With the assistance of this team of fighter jets, the ground anti-aircraft firepower also suffered a heavy blow, but what followed was that more anti-aircraft firepower began to focus on the team of fighter jets that posed a fatal threat.

"Let's go!"

Wei Ran got up before he finished speaking, picked up Li Youfu, who had limited legs and feet, and ran towards the direction where Angus fell.

When Zach saw this, he immediately followed in a hurry. At the same time, he also paid attention to the things scattered from the helicopter along the way, trying to find his interview notes.

Thanks to the fire cover from those unknown friendly forces in the sky, Wei Ran and Zach were getting faster and faster, and finally found Angus who had fallen before the helicopter crashed!

Fortunately, the medic with his face covered in blood did not fall directly to the ground. Instead, he was stopped by layers of vines and hung in the air less than three meters above the ground.

"Angus, are you still alive?" Zach shouted as he ran over quickly, dropping the submachine gun and pulling out the troubleshooting knife at the bottom of the backpack frame.

"Be wary of possible enemies around you," Wei Ran reminded Li Youfu while putting him down, and ran over with weapons in hand.

"Victor, look how he's doing!" Zach shouted, looking around at the same time, trying to find a place to climb up.

Without waiting for Wei Ran, who also ran over, to respond, Angus waved his hand with difficulty, and then there was no movement.

"Look around"

While Wei Ran reminded Zach, he had already run directly under Angus and looked up to observe.

It could be seen that Angus had already rescued himself before they arrived. At this time, at Wei Ran's feet, a spent bottle of morphine and epinephrine, as well as another large blood-stained bullet, were discarded. front teeth.

However, it is unknown how long these two potions can last him. What's more, even if they want to "pick" Angus from the vine at this time, they will probably waste a lot of time.

But fortunately, he was still alive, and apart from the dense scratches on his face, there seemed to be no other wounds.

"Zach, pick me up." Wei Ran said immediately.

"quick!"

Zach greeted him, immediately handed the obstacle removal knife to Wei Ran, and then bent down and squatted beside him.

Holding the knife in one hand and the dead vines in the other, Wei Ran raised his feet and stepped on Zach's joined hands, letting the latter stand up and lifting him up easily.

"Stand on my shoulders," Zach followed, "I'll hold you steady."

Hearing this, Wei Ran grabbed hold of the vines, stepped on Zach's shoulders with his feet, and moved closer to Angus.

After some observation, he waved the obstacle removal knife to clear away the obstructing vines, and at the same time called out to the unconscious Angus again and again.

When it seemed that he could be freed by cutting two more vines, Wei Ran threw away the troubleshooting knife in his hand, grabbed the thickest vine with one hand, and Angus's belt with the other hand. , and then waved Zach at his feet to leave.

Without his support, the two remaining vines were dragged down by the weight of the two, allowing Wei Ran to barely touch the ground with his feet.

Without needing to be reminded, Zach had already picked up the obstacle removal knife, cut off the last two vines with a "snap", then threw the knife away and helped Wei Ran catch Angus.

"How is he doing?" Zach asked anxiously.

"Be aware of your surroundings"

After Wei Ran finished speaking, he laid Angus flat on the ground and conducted an urgent inspection.

In addition to the previous wounds on his legs and the scratches on his face that almost disfigured him, Angus seemed to have two broken ribs, but there were no other injuries.

"Fortunately, you are still alive."

Angus regained consciousness after Wei Ran checked his front and rear feet. He grinned with a difficult smile that was covered in blood and missing two front teeth. He weakly asked, "Those bottoms?"

"They're all here, nothing is lost." Wei Ran patted the bullet bag on his waist without waiting for the other party to finish speaking.

He raised his head with difficulty and glanced at the fighting helicopter in the sky. Angus weakly pointed to another medical bag on his waist with a finger covered in blood and wounds, "Fire a signal flare and a marker bomb, if the helicopter doesn't have one. If you don’t fire at us, you can come out and find a way to hijack the helicopter and return to Da Nang.”

Before Wei Ran or Zac could speak, shouts in Yue Yuan language could be heard from the distant dense forest. Immediately afterwards, Li Youfu and Zac also raised their guns and opened fire one after another, suppressing those who seemed to have discovered them. and attempted to capture their guerrillas.

Gritting his teeth, Wei Ran took off the grenade launcher, took out a high-explosive round from the bullet bag on his waist and filled it into the chamber, aimed at the guerrillas in the distance and pulled the trigger!

"Tom!"

With a soft sound, the grenade hit the position where the guerrillas fired, and exploded with a bang, easily silencing them.

Not daring to pause at all, Weiran dug open the grenade launcher again, pulled out the still hot shell, stuffed the only red flare into it, aimed at the sky above his head and pulled the trigger again!

It was only then that he took off the other medical bag from Angus's waist.

In addition to a disposable morphine injection and an equal amount of epinephrine, this medical bag also contained several bottles of amphetamines and a dozen smoke bombs of different colors.

"Hide quickly"

Because his ribs were broken, Angus was grinning in pain every time he breathed. He said with a painful expression, "There are still people in the bullpen camp and the sticks, they will definitely kill you, so wait, I will help you later." You attract attention and seize the helicopter."

Before he could finish his words, the Phantom fighter jets in the sky began to swoop down and began to pour firepower around the location where the flare was raised. At the same time, the roar of the helicopter also began to approach.

"Let's hide!"

As Wei Ran spoke, he hurriedly took out a smoke grenade for ground marking and hit it on the trunk of a nearby large tree that had lost all its leaves. He then hung the medical bag on his belt and called to Zach, who had already carried Li Youfu. , ran a few steps to the side and hid in a withered yellow bush.

As the flare began to release conspicuous red smoke, a Huey helicopter with a "T" spray-painted on its fuselage flew over.

At the same time, an AC47 aerial gunship also appeared in the sky, and began to circle and pour out more intensive firepower to cover.

Soon, guided by the smoke grenade, the helicopter hovered directly above the smoke grenade and dropped a gondola dubbed the "jungle elevator" as well as two soldiers clinging to the gondola.

"They're from Team T," Zach said firmly.

"That helicopter was not planning to land."

Wei Ran said regretfully that although there was an open space less than ten meters away from the smoke bomb that was large enough for a helicopter to land, the ongoing firefight around it obviously made the helicopter pilot more vigilant.

"Should we fight?" Li Youfu asked a stupid question.

"can not fight"

Zach said in an extremely sober voice before Wei Ran spoke, "Not to mention that we won't be able to grab the helicopter now, and we will be charged with treason. The most important thing is"

"Gives Team T a reason to shoot at us." Wei Ran said the reason first that Zach had not yet said.

"Then what should we do?" Li Youfu asked slightly panicked.

"We can only return to Da Nang on our own." As Zach spoke, he actually raised his Nikon camera again and pressed the shutter repeatedly towards Angus who had been placed in the gondola.

"Do you know what you are talking about?" Li Youfu said almost desperately, "I might be caught even if I can't leave this jungle."

"Staying here is as good as death."

Wei Ran glanced at the helicopter that had already taken off with its gondola and said faster, "We have to leave as soon as possible before the guerrillas arrive here."

“There is another crucial question”

Zach put away the camera, picked up the submachine gun again and asked, "Do you know which direction Da Nang is?"

Otherwise, let's throw away the shoes.

Wei Ran muttered to himself angrily, stood up and said, "Anyway, get out of here first."

Hearing this, Zach nodded and handed the submachine gun to Wei Ran as a matter of course. He then picked up Li Youfu and let him lie on his shoulders and the backpack rack behind his back.

Not daring to waste any more time, Wei Ran took a step towards the southeast after briefly confirming the direction, while the air and the ground were still fighting for life and death for another crashed helicopter.

Gradually, the sound of the firefight behind them became smaller and smaller, and finally calm returned as the aerial gunship with full firepower flew away.

But at this time, Wei Ran and the other three people did not dare to let down their guard at all. Based on the scene they saw before the crash, the area of ​​​​the jungle that had been taken care of by the defoliant was not small, especially when the helicopters that rushed to support the T team flew away. For almost an hour, it would take dozens or even hundreds of times for them to walk out on two legs.

We're rushing through the jungle again.

Wei Ran took off the water bottle from his waist and took a stingy sip. The only thing he was thankful for at this time was that it was the dry season in the jungle, so he didn't have to worry about possible floods. Moreover, due to the defoliant, this area was temporarily dead. There are almost no nasty little creatures like locusts in the jungle.

But the locusts are gone, but there are still a lot of mosquitoes carrying various viruses.

What's even worse is that they didn't see any clean water sources or wild fruits growing on the branches along the way.

"boom!"

Just when Wei Ran had just put away the kettle, a gunshot sounded suddenly from the direction behind him, and a bullet mark as big as a child's fist exploded on the trunk of a big tree less than two meters in front of him. .

"Get down!" Before Wei Ran could finish his words, he was already lying on the ground.

Following closely behind, Zack and Li Youfu, who was walking with the help of a stick, also fell to the ground in panic.

"Victor, are you not injured?" Zach asked hurriedly.

"no"

Wei Ran had already turned on the safety of the grenade launcher in his hand as he spoke, "It's a warning shot. The other party seems to want to capture us alive."

Hearing this, Zach and Li Youfu also subconsciously looked around, looking for possible enemies.

"boom!"

The second gunshot that followed hit Zach less than one meter away, and he couldn't help but let out a cry of surprise.

"What should we do?" Li Youfu asked in panic, "What should we do?"

"It sounds like the gunfire of a Mauser rifle," Wei Ran said almost confidently.

"Mauser rifle?"

Zach reacted very quickly, "You can hear this? How did you do it?"

“The more you listen, the more you can tell the difference.”

Wei Ran grinned bitterly, "Remember those three guerrillas we evaded before? One of the women seemed to be using a Mauser sniper rifle."

"That kind of antique from World War II?" I don't know if it's because Zach is lacking in brains, but he still maintains strong curiosity at this time.

"Garbage sent from the Soviet Union"

Wei Ran, who seemed to be equally carefree, explained, then raised the grenade launcher and suddenly fired a smoke grenade that had been pressed inside in the direction of the bullet.

"Run!"

As Wei Ran spoke, he rolled around and changed positions, while inserting a second smoke grenade into the grenade launcher.

"Tom!"

When the second smoke grenade was fired, the opponent also fired a bullet, but as the smoke became thicker and thicker, Wei Ran changed his submachine gun and emptied the bullets in the magazine directly towards the opposite side. , but immediately called to Zach, who was also rolling, to pick up Li Youfu and start running wildly.

At the same time, he has also determined that the sniper opposite is most likely a novice, and there is probably only one person.

"Why not use high-explosive bombs?" Zach asked as he ran.

"The other party is more afraid of smoke bombs"

While Wei Ran was speaking, he had already installed the third smoke grenade for ground marking. He pulled the trigger back and pointed to the top of his head. "This thing can attract the helicopters patrolling the air, and I guess the other party will I’m a newbie.”

"Why?" Li Youfu, who was lying on Zach's shoulder, also seemed to have a strong curiosity that made him forget about life and death. This seemed to be an "occupational disease" for a reporter.

"He wanted to capture us, but he didn't change his position with both shots. If he's not too conceited and thinks he's sure to defeat us, he must be a rookie."

Wei Ran said firmly, "And the other party doesn't seem to have any help, so don't ask, let's run faster!"

Before he finished speaking, he finally loaded a precious high-explosive bomb into the grenade launcher.

Unlike the smoke bombs that still had nearly ten rounds in stock, he only had two of these amazingly powerful and potentially life-saving gadgets left, so he really didn't need them if he could.

This is the real reason, and it may cause Zach and Li Youfu to panic.

However, for Zach and Li Youfu he was carrying, even if Wei Ran said that the person behind him who was trying to capture them was most likely a rookie, they also knew that even if the bullet fired by a rookie, as long as it hits, It can also kill people.

What's more, just like the smoke bombs fired by the Weifang may attract helicopters patrolling the air, the noise of the bullets fired by the rookie can also attract more guerrillas!

Because of this, Wei Ran and Zach ran faster and faster in the jungle.

After running like this for more than half an hour, Zach, who was not only carrying a backpack frame but also responsible for carrying Li Youfu, finally couldn't hold on any longer. He was panting and waved his hand to indicate that he needed to take a rest.

After looking around, Wei Ran just asked him to put down Li Youfu, who had been thinking about getting down and going on his own, but he didn't stop and instead continued walking forward.

It was still a jungle here, a jungle that had been sprayed with defoliants. Wherever he looked, there was still a withered color. He even saw a flower that had died for unknown reasons and had become rotten and smelly, attracting countless flies. Leopard carcass.

Wei Ran pinched his nose and moved away from the leopard, but Wei Ran became more and more strange. They had walked a hundred meters away, but the rancid smell not only did not lighten, it even became stronger.

Frowning and looking in the direction of the leopard carcass, Wei Ran followed the smell and walked a hundred or ten meters forward, and then saw a small clearing in the forest.

This open space is barely the size of a basketball court, and as far as the eye can see, there are several burned thatched houses.

The tree trunks surrounding the remains of these thatched huts were densely covered with bullet marks left by machine gun fire, and yellow-orange bullet casings were scattered on the charred ground that seemed to have been licked by flamethrowers.

But compared to these, the source of the strong corpse odor that almost penetrated the nose armor was even more shocking.

It was a banyan tree that had lost all its leaves. The aerial roots, which were only as thick as a calf and went straight up and down, were tied with stinking corpses!

Most of these corpses, which seemed to have been stripped of their clothes during their lifetime, were bloated and looked like terrifying giants, but even so, the three of them could still easily tell them apart. Among them were men, women, old people and children.

Without exception, their legs were all burnt black, and some of them were even burned to the point of seeing the bones.

But there were no wounds on their upper bodies, and no bullet casings could be seen around them.

Just above the heads of this circle of nearly 20 corpses, on an aerial root, hung a wooden sign with a line of English and a line of Vietnamese characters that Wei Ran could not understand written in white paint.

That line, with three huge exclamation points in English at the end, said "America must win."

"vomit--!"

Just when Wei Ran was about to open his mouth and ask Li Youfu what the Vietnamese words said, Li Youfu and Zach had already started retching in no particular order, vomiting out some of the food in their stomachs.

"Troye"

Wei Ran turned his head and asked amidst the strong smell of corpses, "What does the Vietnamese writing on the sign say?"

Wiping the dirt from the corner of his mouth, Li Youfu raised his head and glanced at the wooden sign that was fluttering slightly in the wind. When he was about to say something, he started retching again.

In contrast, it was Zach. At this time, he didn't even have time to wipe the corners of his mouth. He raised the Leica camera hanging around his neck with an angry look, and pointed it at the unknown star with trembling eyes. Will the banyan tree sprout new buds?

He tried to take a deep breath to calm himself down and stop shaking, but the smell of corpses inhaling into his nose caused him to start retching like Li Youfu.

Sighing secretly, Wei Ran picked up the Nikon half frame hanging around his neck. After hesitating for a moment, he took a few steps forward to avoid Zach and Li Youfu, and then used the cover of his butt bag to take out the metal notebook. That Nikon SP.

Taking out the light meter and taking a look at it very solemnly, Wei Ran carefully adjusted the camera in his hand, pointed it at the banyan tree and pressed the shutter.

Just as he finished taking this "group photo", Li Youfu also answered his question with difficulty, "On it, it is written that he was born in the north and died in the south."

Before he finished speaking, Zach slapped himself hard twice, then pursed his lips tightly, raised his Leica camera again, and pressed the shutter towards the banyan tree, again and again once.

Sighing secretly, Wei Ran also moved the camera and carefully took individual photos of the horrific corpses tied to the aerial roots, proving that they were once alive and recording what happened to them during their lives.

(End of this chapter)