War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1485 Lack of water

Under the scorching sun, everyone hiding under a simple tent had an extra cup of broth in the enamel jar in their hands.

There was no salt added to the broth, and the only seasoning was a few slices of ginger that had been boiled countless times. Even the water used to cook the soup was filtered by Wei Ran with a towel.

This broth is just enough to moisten the throat, but it inevitably carries a strong fishy smell and a stench that cannot be filtered out by the capillary action of a towel.

Even so, everyone except Wei Ran still drank with great appreciation.

On the other hand, Wei Ran, after drinking a small amount of broth in one gulp, asked Nurse Ji for her knife to drill a small hole in the bottom of his badly chipped enamel jar.

He casually broke off two dead branches to be used as fuel, picked up pieces of charcoal that were still burning, and put them into an enamel jar under everyone's puzzled gaze.

After the jar was filled and pressed firmly with the handle of the anti-Japanese sword, he immediately picked up the other half cup of filtered water and poured it in as if making latte art coffee.

"laugh--!"

In the steaming water vapor, all the charcoal in the enamel jar was extinguished. After a while, water began to drip from the holes under the enamel jar.

After the initial turbidity, the water droplets gradually became clear. Only then did Wei Ran take the enamel jar that belonged to the patient Jiang Yu and stack it underneath.

This is destined to be a process that requires patience and time. Wei Ran has been waiting, Squad Leader Liu and others have been waiting, but the pile of charcoal fire lacking fuel cannot wait.

Before he could fill the enamel jar that served as a filter with water for the fourth time, the bonfire gradually extinguished, leaving only embers with wisps of smoke.

Even with these embers, after Squad Leader Liu asked Wei Ran if he still needed them, he immediately put them out and picked out the flammable parts and put them into a bamboo basket for next time.

"Comrade Wei Ran, who did you learn this technique from?" Squad Leader Liu asked curiously.

“It’s difficult to get water in our hometown”

Wei Ran told a lie casually. He couldn't tell the truth. He even believed that even if he told the truth, no one would believe it.

"I never asked, where does Comrade Wei Ran live?" Nurse Ji asked curiously.

"Ji Province" Wei Ran refilled the enamel jar filled with charcoal with water as he spoke. At the same time, the little lama also got up and walked away, not knowing what to do.

"Is there anyone else at home?" Monitor Liu glanced at the direction where the little lama disappeared, turned around and asked subconsciously.

"I have a younger brother. The family has been separated, and the house and land have been given to him. I came out to make a revolution, and it's useless to ask for those things." Wei Ran said again in panic to the person who should least be deceived.

He was afraid that when he encountered danger next, these people would take extra care of him because he had a family.

Without giving Squad Leader Liu and others a chance to continue asking him, Wei Ran steeled his heart and threw the question back unchanged, "What about you?"

When this question was asked, Zhang Erwa and Li Zhuang were the first to fall silent.

"My father is an old Red Army soldier who participated in the Autumn Harvest Uprising."

Li Zhuang, lying in the shadow of the tent, said matter-of-factly, "In the 21st year of the Republic of China, my father died when the Allergic Party encircled and suppressed our Central Red Army.

I was already 15 by then and could handle a gun. My mother asked me to join the army. She said that even if I had to cut firewood and lead horses for the Red Army, I still had enough strength. I couldn't use my strength to take advantage of the landlord. I falsely reported my age and joined the army, and then squad leader Liu picked me into the cooking class. "

When he said this, Li Zhuang covered his face with his bamboo hat, "Not long after I joined the army, my mother died of illness. I didn't even have time to kowtow in front of her grave."

"My parents are also dead. The harvest was good that year, but they starved to death."

Zhang Erwa, who was busy knitting a thatched vest, took over this painful topic without raising her head, "Because he didn't pay enough rent, my brother was beaten to death by the landlord with a whip, and the land at home was gone.

When I was 14, in order to buy three of the cheapest coffins for my parents and my brother, the son of the landowner who lent me money said that I would have to herd cattle for their family for 15 years!

I couldn't bear it anymore, so after burying my parents and my brother, I took advantage of the windy night to set fire to all the haystacks in the landlord's house, and even set fire to the landlord's house. "

When he said this, Zhang Erwa's face was not as happy as the revenge, "But what's the use of just burning a landlord? There are so many landlords in the world exploiting us poor people?

How big of a fire is needed to burn them all to death, burn them thoroughly, and turn them into ashes? "

After sniffing, Zhang Erwa's face showed the same bright smile as the little lama, "So I joined the army and wanted to follow our Red Army to burn a huge fire and burn all the landlords and capitalists to death."

"It turns out this little kid speaks with an accent!"

Squad leader Liu, who started to make straw sandals, laughed and added, "The little comrade at the army registration office thought he wanted to be in charge of cooking fires in the army, but seeing that he was small, he was put into my cooking class! "

As soon as these words were spoken, Wei Ran and Nurse Ji laughed out loud, and even Zhang Erwa had a simple and honest smile on her face, "I wasn't happy at first, I always wanted to share a gun. Fighting on the front line. However, since I started climbing the snow-capped mountains, I no longer think so. Now the cooking class is the front line, and our cooking class must keep all the comrades well fed!"

“This is a well-spoken statement.”

Monitor Liu, who was obviously only about thirty years old, sounded particularly gratified and kind at this time, and his eyes were full of determination.

"My family is all here"

Nurse Ji, who was also busy playing with straw sandals, said with a smile, "My father is a landlord who deserves to be burned to death."

Before the others could say anything, Nurse Ji continued with a smile, "My mother is my father's ninth concubine. When I was 13 years old, my father wanted to marry me to an army officer.

At that time, I really thought that was the best way out, and thought that I would be able to live the life of a rich wife in the future.

When the marriage was already discussed and the date was set, and my father accepted the bride price, my mother unexpectedly found out that the officer had been infected with the disease for a long time and was prone to beating people. He had taken several concubines before. They were all beaten to death by him.

My mother didn't want to push me into the fire pit, so she ran away with me. She fled all the way from Yucheng to Changsha, which was her natal home, my grandmother's home that I had never met before. "

Sighing softly, Nurse Ji's hands on the straw sandals were already turning white from the excessive exertion. "Who would have thought, my uncle was already a poor and heavy smoker at that time. Not only did he want to secretly kill me My cousin sold me and wanted to sell my mother as well. My mother fought with my uncle with scissors to let us escape, and my cousin took me to escape for half a year before joining the revolution. .she."

Nurse Ji turned to look in the direction she came from, "She failed to come down and stayed on the snowy mountain."

Taking a deep breath, Wei Ran gritted his teeth and looked at Squad Leader Liu who was smoking his empty pipe again.

"Oh, my life is good!"

Squad Leader Liu proudly took a puff of the pipe pot without any grass leaves, "Two children, one son, hey! One girl, now all depends on my mouth to take care of her."

Having said this, Squad Leader Liu dug through his satchel, took out the brown glass medicine bottle and unscrewed it, then took out the wax paper stuck on the inside of the bottle cap, took out a particularly well-preserved black and white photo and showed it to everyone. .

In this photo, which is only two inches in size, there is a woman sitting on a chair, holding a swaddled baby on the left and right, with a bright smile on her face.

"This is my house and our two children."

Squad leader Liu proudly introduced, "My son's name is Liu Xinmin, and my girl's name is Liu Xinshu. They are the names I specially asked Comrade Instructor of the Company to give them."

This black and white photo, which was no bigger than a matchbox, was passed around in the hands of everyone. Nurse Ji murmured to herself, "When these two little babies grow up, I wonder if they will be able to live the life that Comrade Wei Ran taught us to sing." The peaceful days in the song.”

"Yes, definitely yes!"

The person who answered this question so definitely was not Wei Ran from later generations, but squad leader Liu, Li Zhuang and Zhang Erwa, three soldiers from the cooking class.

"They can definitely live like that," Li Zhuang added.

"When we burn all the landlords, capitalists and invaders to death and remove the mountains that are weighing them down, they will definitely be able to live a good life." Zhang Erwa's face unconsciously showed the same expression as the sunshine above his head. A bright smile.

Monitor Liu nodded and said with the same certainty, "Isn't that why we sacrificed our lives? Isn't it just to let the children live such a good life."

As the topic reached this point, these young warriors couldn't help but start thinking about the future.

But this time, Wei Ran did not speak. He was just busy quietly using a filter to get a copper ladle and a three-aluminum pot full of fresh water that looked relatively clear, and quietly listened to their wishes.

In the imagination of the four squad leaders Liu, their desire for the future is so simple that it is touching. The topics tossed around are just "everyone can have enough to eat", "drive away the invaders", "no longer suffer Exploitation and oppression” and “Babys don’t have to fight anymore”.

Or rather, they seem to have never thought about what a "good life" should be like. What they care more about are the necessary conditions for a "good life", such as having enough to eat, wearing warm clothes, and not having to worry about it. No more exploitation and oppression, such as no more fighting.

In the almost endless but "the same" chat about this topic, the sun set a little bit in the west, and Wei Ran also relit the bonfire with a fire sickle and tinder, and put the copper gourd with boiling waterfowl and three more than half-full aluminum pots. Kettles and enamel jars filled with water were placed around the bonfire and heated patiently.

Taking advantage of this sultry afternoon, Wei Ran knitted another pair of straw sandals, and Li Zhuang regained some energy.

Even the little lama returned to this small highland with two frogs no bigger than a matchbox and a few wild vegetables when the sun was about to set.

It seemed that everything was going for the best, but as the bamboo baskets contained more and more firewood that looked like it could only be used for one or two more burnings, everyone began to worry about the days to come.

In this vast grassland, there are only meadows and swamps everywhere, but there are very few trees, and there are even fewer dead branches that can be used as fuel.

But without fire, they would not survive either.

It was only at this time that Wei Ran truly realized how difficult the Long March was.

This was just crossing the grass, but the hardships he had already experienced included hypothermia, hunger, thirst, high temperature, exhaustion, and the possibility of falling into the mud at any time.

Before entering the historical segment, he even naively thought that with the wilderness survival experience mastered and accumulated by later generations, how difficult could this mere grassland be?

But in fact, without mentioning Wei Ran, he wouldn't be able to recognize enough edible wild vegetables. Even if he recognized all the wild vegetables, it would be meaningless, because

The large troops in front who were also short of food and clothing had already dug up all the edible wild vegetables and grass roots. Even the grass used to weave straw sandals, there was not much left for them.

Even Wei Ran's language task, which was only short of a pair of straw sandals, had to be temporarily stopped because there was not enough dead grass.

That night, there was a silvery moon in the sky overhead. The cold moonlight made everything in the field of vision faintly visible, but it also meant that it might not rain that night.

Wei Ran threw the remaining three grains of highland barley into his mouth, and carefully crushed them one by one with his molars and then slowly crushed them, but for a long time he was unwilling to swallow the mouthful of saliva that contained a small amount of starch.

In the evening, although they each drank a large cup of tasteless waterfowl and wild vegetable broth, due to the lack of drinking water and vital firewood, they were unable to drink as much as they had last night.

Even in order to avoid getting thirsty easily, monitor Liu didn't put even a grain of salt in the soup that he drank all day long.

Even so, when they decided to take a break, only two kettles were left containing fresh water that, even though it had been filtered through charcoal and boiled for more than ten minutes, was still filled with the strong stench of sewers.

That night, everyone lying side by side in the simple tent seemed to be tossing and turning insomnia. From time to time, someone's stomach would make a growling sound.

But everyone secretly swallowed the few saliva to resist the hunger that never disappeared.

"I have a silver dollar in my brown glass jar."

In the quiet night, Captain Liu, who was lying in the corner, suddenly said to himself, "That silver dollar is the end of the food for our cooking class. Now, the three of us in the cooking class are still alive." Li Zhuang, Zhang Erwa, if

If I don’t wake up tomorrow, or any day. You have to get out of this meadow alive. When you see Comrade Instructor, remember to hand him the tail of the meal, my party membership card, and the party dues I sandwiched in my party membership card. "

"Yes"

Li Zhuang and Zhang Erwa gave a firm response in hoarse voices to this desperate request.