War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1450 Traitor and Stupid Camel

Beside the banyan tree that was filled with the smell of corpses, the angry female guerrilla beat Li Youfu for half an hour before she stopped panting.

"Troye, are you okay?"

Zach asked in a low voice as he tried to hold his chest in his mouth to protect the two cameras on his chest.

"I'm fine," Li Youfu, who had been beaten with a bruised nose and face, replied almost calmly.

"you"

"She said I was a traitor," Li Youfu replied with a sad smile, "Maybe she was right, so..."

Before Li Youfu could finish his words, the female guerrilla who beat him gasped and said something.

"She asked us to stand up." After Li Youfu finished speaking, he was already grinning and struggling to stand up.

However, because the three of them were handcuffed together, he wanted to stand up and had to cooperate with Wei Ran and Zach. But in addition to their respective cameras, the three of them also had several heavy weapons hanging on their necks, which made their climb up particularly awkward and difficult.

But the female guerrilla didn't care about this. Seeing that the three people were moving slowly, she immediately gave another one a rifle butt.

It was extremely difficult to get up leaning on each other. The female guerrilla finally released the handcuffs that imprisoned the three of them together, and then said something else.

"She said that if any of us made a sound again, she would cut out our tongues." Li Youfu bitterly translated.

Zach and Li Youfu naturally noticed his little move very quickly. They sat back in tacit understanding and helped Wei Ran cover up.

However, the steel needle on the gravity knife was still a little thicker, and he couldn't touch the tenon in the keyhole.

Zach sighed regretfully, and after moving his hands and feet for a while, he took out the piece of waterproof nylon cloth and a roll of rope from his backpack, and together with Li Youfu, set up a low tent with ventilation on both sides under the tree.

Next, under the force of the female guerrilla carrying an AK rifle, the three unlucky reporters with weights on their bodies lined up and walked forward honestly.

Shaking his head helplessly, Li Youfu translated this sentence. After a moment of hesitation, the girl sitting in the tent said something in Yuehan dialect.

As soon as Zach finished speaking, the female guerrilla gave him a gun butt, then hung the backpack frame he was carrying around his neck and said something by the way.

Hearing this, Li Youfu simply closed his mouth, turned to watch the female guerrilla drink some water, then took out a rubber raincoat from her toad backpack and spread it in the tent, holding the gun and sitting down in.

After Li Youfu finished speaking, the female guerrilla also hung her backpack around the former's neck, and then hung the rocket launcher around Wei Ran's neck.

Fortunately, the female guerrilla seemed to be quite easy to talk to. She dug out a piece of compressed biscuit with familiarity, then picked up Kabbah 1217 that originally belonged to Wei Ran, divided it into three pieces, stood up and stuffed it into their respective mouths. .

After a slight hesitation, Li Youfu translated his request.

Along the way, after Zach spoke twice in a row and exchanged a gun butt each time, the three Wei Ran wisely remained silent and honestly allowed the female guerrilla who walked at the end to Driving them forward.

Using his nails to pinch the width of the ring, Wei Ran secretly gestured with a thumb, then carefully took off the ring on the other's finger, and carefully straightened it bit by bit.

"Ask her, can we have some water and something to eat?" Wei Ran, who had been silent before, asked, "At least we can have some water."

"What's your name?"

"Of course not" Zach replied without thinking.

While Li Youfu was translating, the female guerrilla had used the key to open the handcuffs of him and Zach, and then pulled out a Type 54 pistol from her waist, pressed it against Wei Ran's back, and said something again.

"She warned us not to run around later or she would just shoot us."

After Li Youfu finished speaking, he didn't even wait for Wei Ran and Wei Ran to answer, so he explained in Yue difficult dialect, and then asked in English, "Should I remind her that the kettle is not clean?"

"Then let's set up a tent."

After restraining the three prisoners, the female guerrilla took off the weights that were about to break Wei Ran's neck one by one and lined them up, inspecting them all.

As time went by, the sky became darker and darker. After the four of them encountered helicopters or fighter jets flying in the sky twice, the last female guerrilla finally found herself next to an unknown tree that had lost all its leaves. He stopped and said something again.

Wei Ran tried to poke into the keyhole, and Wei Ran immediately felt confident that this thing could pry open the handcuffs!

"She let us pitch a tent."

After the words were translated, the female guerrilla pointed at the two of them and said something again.

Soon, she picked up the Yuanyue 65 kettle that Wei Ran had picked up before and said something.

"She asked us where the kettle came from."

"Let us shut up," Li Youfu translated promptly.

Zach spread his hands and said, "Tell her that we will cooperate honestly, but I hope to get an interview opportunity later."

However, in the center where the three people gathered, Wei Ran secretly took out the paratrooper's gravity knife, carefully opened the steel needle at the end and inserted it into the keyhole of the handcuffs, trying to pry open the not-so-advanced handcuffs. .

After the three of them finished eating the not-too-much food, the young girl unscrewed a kettle and let the three of them take a sip.

Under such threats, the three people back to back had to remain silent again.

Just when he had no choice but to put away his paratrooper knife and was about to stop this futile effort, Zach reached out and touched his fingers, and then guided him to touch his own fingers, and touched the ring on his fingers. ring.

"She asked us to take off all our equipment, including cameras, and put them around Victor's neck."

After setting up the tent, the female guerrilla also threw the handcuffs to Li Youfu again. After Li Youfu cuffed Zach and then the female guerrilla, she took out a pair of handcuffs again, cuffed the three of them together again, and cuffed the other end of the handcuffs to On a thick vine hanging from the top of the head.

Zach, who had eaten and drank enough, asked in English without giving up, "We are not American soldiers, but reporters from CBS. Can we interview you?"

"All right"

"If we dare to play tricks, she will kill Victor." Li Youfu translated helplessly.

Li Youfu reluctantly took off the two cameras from his neck, and while hanging them around Wei Ran's neck, he suggested, "Zach, please, don't cause us any more trouble."

“Looks like I’m getting preferential treatment.”

However, he did not act in a hurry. Instead, he clutched the ring that turned into a metal bar and waited patiently as more and more mosquitoes bit him.

Half an hour, one hour, two hours, three hours later, when the legs of the three people who had been sitting became numb and sore, the sky finally turned completely dark.

Under the cold moonlight above his head, he glanced at the female guerrilla who was holding the gun and nodding from time to time, trying hard to resist sleepiness. Wei Ran touched the fingers of Zach and Li Youfu, and after they responded, he immediately started to pry. Handcuffs.

Thanks to the lock-picking experience accumulated at the Hongqi Forest Farm, and also because the handcuffs were a bit too primitive, he pried open the handcuffs on one hand in less than a minute.

After flexing his sore wrists, he fumbled and pried open the handcuffs on Zach's hand first, and then pried off the handcuffs on Li Youfu's hand.

Pulling the two of them with his hands to signal them not to act in a hurry, Wei Ran squinted his eyes slightly and looked at the female guerrilla who was less than two meters away. He gently pried open the handcuff on the other hand, and then pulled them The handcuffs on their other hands were pried open one by one.

After they each moved their wrists, Wei Ran said, "I want to pee, I can't hold it in anymore."

As soon as he spoke, the female guerrilla who was about to fall asleep immediately woke up and subconsciously picked up the rifle in her arms.

At the same time, Li Youfu also translated Wei Ran's request into more difficult language in a helpless tone.

Under the cold moonlight, Wei Ran could clearly see the female guerrilla rolling her eyes, but in the end she still put the AK rifle on her shoulder, then took off the handcuff key hanging on the gun sling and walked over. At the same time, he said something.

"She asked us to stand up," Li Youfu translated promptly.

"My legs are numb"

As Wei Ran spoke, he turned sideways, "Please help me untie it first. I really can't hold it in anymore."

When Li Youfu translated again, the female guerrilla muttered something that seemed to be a curse, squatted down and stretched her hand between the three of them.

However, before she could touch the handcuffs leaning on the vine between the three of them, the cold touch made her shiver!

"Click!"

With the clear beating sound of the toothed blades, Zach pressed the handcuffs prepared in advance on her slender wrists. At the same time, the blade of the paratrooper gravity knife in Wei Ran's hand also pressed against her slender neck.

Li Youfu was also not idle. At this time, when the girl was subconsciously exclaiming, he held the barrel of the AK rifle on her back with one hand, and the other hand held the hand that she subconsciously touched for the pistol on her waist. The wrist of the hand.

"Click"

During the second beat of the tooth blade, Zach cuffed the other half of the handcuffs to the wrist that Li Youfu held and brought to his side.

At the same time, Wei Ran put away his paratrooper knife as the young girl trembled in despair, and took the handcuff key from her hand.

"call--!"

Zach let out a long breath and climbed up with difficulty. While scratching the large mosquito bites on his exposed skin, he staggered to his feet and stretched his sore legs.

At the same time, Wei Ran turned around and knelt in front of the female guerrilla. He reached out and took off her helmet and threw it aside. Then he took off the AK rifle from her shoulder and put it in her jacket and pants pockets. He rummaged through it and took out two other handcuff keys, an ox horn comb that felt warm to the touch, and a box of ointment that he had seen in later generations and on the way to the cowshed camp.

"Snapped!"

Wei Ran flicked the girl's forehead with his finger, and said as the girl cried out in pain, "This is because she beat me before setting off, Troye, help me." I'll translate it."

Li Youfu rolled his eyes and translated Wei Ran's words to the other party. At the same time, he also gave the other party a clear brain break, and as expected, the girl said "Oops" again.

"Snapped!"

Zac also gave her a hard time and gloated, "For the same reason as above."

When Li Youfu suppressed his laughter and translated Zac's words, even the female guerrilla who had suffered a brain breakdown after three meals was about to shed tears of pain.

As for whether there is humiliation and regret in the tears that are about to fall, she is probably the only one who knows.

After getting up and moving his hands and feet, and scratching the itching all over his body, Wei Ran took two steps forward and couldn't wait to choose a bush that had lost all its leaves and open the gate to release water - he really couldn't help but hurry up. Come on, if he hadn't waited for the girl to get sleepy and relax her vigilance, he would have wanted to take a pee. After he shuddered and emptied the load in his bladder, Zach also chose a small tree and started peeing. Li Youfu, on the other hand, waited cautiously for Wei Ran to return to the girl's side, and then he couldn't wait to run to the side and unbuckle his belt.

"Quickly, apply this ointment on it."

Wei Ran said as he dug out a lump from the small metal box and applied it to his exposed skin.

Although he didn't know what kind of ointment this was, he had to admit that he felt cool immediately after applying it. Not only did the big bites no longer itch, but even the mosquitoes that were buzzing around him were gone. They couldn't avoid it and flew away.

"This ointment is really useful!"

Zach, who was also applying ointment to his face and arms, praised, "It's better than our insecticide!"

"I forgot the bottle I got earlier at the bullpen camp."

Li Youfu said regretfully, while taking the tin box, he also dug out a lump and began to smear it all over his body. He kept asking, "What should I do about that female Charlie?"

"I'm going to interview her," Zach said persistently.

"Before that, let's fill our stomachs."

Wei Ran was too lazy to answer the other person's words. He bent down and dug out the two remaining compressed biscuits from his bag, tore one of them open and divided it into three equal pieces with a paratrooper's knife.

"I just wanted to ask, where did you get the dagger?" Zach took the small piece of compressed bread that belonged to him and asked curiously.

"I pin it in the waistband at the back."

Wei Ran raised his chin towards the female guerrilla who was leaning against a vine not far away, "She didn't search her carefully at all."

"Speaking of which, where's my ring?"

Zach asked as if he just remembered, "Look for it for me quickly. That's the ring my girlfriend gave me."

"You have a girlfriend?" Wei Ran asked in surprise.

"Of course!" Zach showed off naturally, "She is a graphic model!"

"Scumbag"

Wei Ran muttered, took out the metal bar that he straightened from his pocket and handed it to the other party.

"Well--!"

Zach kissed the metal strip hard, then happily re-bent it into a circle and put it on his finger.

After finishing the small amount of compressed biscuits in two or three mouthfuls, Zach found his own camera and hung it around his neck. Then he immediately called Li Youfu to sit down in front of the handcuffed female guerrilla.

"Hello, I'm Zach, CBS war correspondent."

The sturdy Zach stretched out his hand towards the other party politely and said, "This beautiful lady, you are not our prisoner, and I am not interrogating you. I just want to torture you once."

"Pooh!"

Before Zach could finish his words, and before Li Youfu had time to translate, the handcuffed female guerrilla spat at the two of them.

He carelessly picked up the girl's sleeve and wiped the saliva from his face. Zach stretched out his hand again and continued with a big smile, "I just want to treat you equally."

"Pooh!"

The female guerrilla spat on Zach's face again.

"Equal interview"

After Zach finished speaking, he wiped the saliva from his face with his hand and applied it on the shoulder of the female guerrilla opposite.

"Pooh!"

Just as Li Youfu, with a strange look on his face, began to translate, the girl spat on Zack's face again.

"Pooh!"

Zach, who was pretending to be a gentleman just a second ago, spat on the girl's face under the stunned gazes of Wei Ran and Li Youfu.

"Bah!" The girl immediately spit on Zach's face, not to be outdone.

"Pooh!"

"Pooh!"

"Pooh!"

For nearly ten minutes, the interviewer and the interviewee turned into two disgusting camels under the cold moonlight. You pooped on my face, and I pooped on your face. For a moment, The faces of both of them were getting more and more disgusting.

"Stop! Stop it!"

Zach, who was thirsty, was the first to lose. While making a pause gesture with both hands, he took a step back to avoid a mouthful of saliva that was getting thicker. He turned around and took out a towel from his bag. He wiped his own face first, and then wiped the face of the girl whose face was covered with mud and saliva. As expected, she was sprayed with spit again.

Rolling his eyes helplessly, he said while untying the water bottle from his waist, "Victor, untie one of her hands."

"Are you naive or not?"

Wei Ran shook his head even more helplessly, took out the handcuff key, then picked up another pair of handcuffs, first brought the girl's legs together, and then unlocked the handcuffs on her hands.

"Take it!"

When Wei Ran finished his work, Zach had already handed a kettle to the female guerrilla.

Taking the kettle fiercely, the thirsty female guerrilla who was also spitting unscrewed the lid and took several large gulps. Then she wiped the corners of her mouth and took a deep breath, "Bah!"

"Bah!" Zach also started to fight back not to be outdone.

"Let them both play slowly."

Wei Ran waved to Li Youfu tiredly, "I'm going to sleep first. Remember to wake me up when those two stupid camels start talking human language."

“It may take a long time”

Li Youfu twitched the corner of his mouth and muttered, and also sat far away to avoid being affected. Then he took off his water bottle and took a sip, watching the excitement with interest.

Wei Ran had no interest in the ridiculous and disgusting salivary enzyme exchange activities outside. He took off his wet boots and lay in the tent that was set up, with his buttocks pillowed on his head. Soon he entered a place surrounded by spit. The strange dream of a camel.

When he dreamed of a camel nudging his calf with its big face full of saliva, as if it was about to take a bite and be frightened awake, he also saw a camel shaking his leg at his feet and saying something in Yuehe language. Li Youfu, as well as Zach and the female guerrilla who seemed to be wiping their faces with half a towel each.

When he rubbed his face and sat up shivering, the female guerrilla whose feet were cuffed also responded in a hoarse voice after Li Youfu finished speaking.

"She said her name is Ruan Qingcha," Li Youfu helped translate.

"What's it called? Say it again." Zack asked with the same hoarse voice.

“Nguyen Thanh Tea”

After Li Youfu finished speaking, he yawned, "I have already remembered this name. Please ask quickly. After asking, take a rest as soon as possible. I can hardly open my eyes."

"immediately!"

Zach then stuffed the half towel into his pocket, "I want to hear her views on this war, and I also want to hear the real life conditions of the Viet Cong guerrillas."

Hearing this, Li Youfu immediately translated the words.

After listening for a moment, Wei Ran saw that the questions he asked were all insignificant, so he simply lost interest. He reached out and pulled over the toad backpack of the female guerrilla named Ruan Qingcha, opened it, and looked through it unceremoniously. holding something inside.

Although this bag is not small, there is really not much in it. In addition to various ammunition and a few U.S. military plastic water bottles filled with water, as well as the miniature radio and batteries belonging to Zach that had been discarded by the munitions before.

There were also Weiran's broken Minolta and Zach's Super 8 camera, as well as various small blood-stained items that seemed to be picked up from the corpses of American soldiers who had been on the same helicopter with them, plus a pile of Dollar bills and vouchers stained with blood and even had burnt edges.

Fortunately, it does not contain the footage that Zach buried, but unfortunately, it does not contain the interview notebook that Zach has not found yet.

In addition to these things, he also found a set of US military pilot survival radios, a compass, and a telescope made in China in the accessory bag on the side of the backpack.

However, looking at the degree of wear and tear on this radio, you can guess that this thing seems to be specially used to set up "pilot traps".

When he turned to the end, the last thing he found was a piece of American soap in an iron box and wrapped in a towel.

"Zach, are you done with the interview?"

While Wei Ran asked, he restored Ruan Qingcha's things to their original state and replenished ammunition for their respective weapons.

"There are still a few questions left. Do you plan to interview her too?" Zach asked without looking up while writing down drawing notes in his notebook.

“Not an interview”

Wei Ran transferred the smoke bomb in the medical bag to the ammunition bag and said, "Ask her where to find a clean water source, none of us can survive without water, and ask her which direction to go to get out of the jungle. "

Hearing this, Li Youfu translated Wei Ran's original words, and the female guerrilla named Ruan Qingcha said something after a moment of silence.

Without waiting for Wei Ran to ask, Li Youfu translated, "She said she can take us to find water, as long as we are not afraid of death."

"I have no opinion"

Wei Ran pointed at Ruan Qingcha's toad backpack, "But I want to borrow her soap to take a bath. By the way, I asked where her companions went. The companion who used the rocket launcher and the companion who originally used the AK rifle."

However, what none of the three expected was that when Li Youfu translated Wei Ran's question, the girl who had just done well in the spitting competition burst into tears.