War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1495 Insomnia

At the edge of the meadow, under the gaze of Zhang Erwa and others, Wei Ran picked up his anti-Japanese sword and used the sharp tip to cut the fur of the army horse from its neck.

As the blade of the knife sliced ​​through, the horsehide, which had already lost its soaked hair, was stretched open by the swollen body, revealing yellow, smelly fat and rotten muscles.

Wei Ran remained unmoved. Instead, he grasped the blade of the knife with both hands, carefully avoiding slicing the intestines, chest or abdominal cavity.

Wei Ran cut open the chest and abdomen from the neck to the horse's buttocks, and then cut a circle at the ends of the four hooves, then threw the anti-Japanese sword in his hand behind him, holding the rotten horsehide in one hand, and clenched it into a fist with the other, like It was like pulling out dough, peeling off the entire smelly horsehide.

This is really thanks to Ji Ma, or rather, thanks to the hunting skills he learned from Ji Ma. Otherwise, it would be a fool's errand for him to peel off this horse skin.

After a lot of work, the expressionless Wei Ran tied the four hooves of the horse corpse with leggings, called to Zhang Erwa and others, and dragged it hard to turn it over, so that the horse that was originally soaked in the mud could turn over. Side up.

Compared with the side that was originally exposed above the mire, the side that was in the burning phase at this time had a much lighter degree of skin and flesh rot due to the low temperature of the mire itself and its "genius" of isolating oxygen.

First, he asked everyone to pull off the horse's hide completely. After some observation, Wei Ran couldn't help but shook his head. The horse's abdominal digestive system had "fermented" to its peak state.

Especially in the position of the chrysanthemum, a large group of intestines has been pushed out by the gas, showing a state of anal prolapse.

Not to mention, both the ribs and the muscles on the two hind legs began to rot because they were too close to the abdominal cavity.

Not only that, but even the horse's neck and head, which were originally soaked in the mud, and even the front legs closer to the water, had various degrees of corruption and swelling.

The only thing left that looked like it might be edible was the right front leg that was soaked in mud.

After some observation, Wei Ran picked up his anti-Japanese sword again and started cutting along the "shoulder blade" of the horse's right front leg.

With his skillful skills, he completely cut off the skinned horse leg along the joint gap.

This is the only edible part, maybe.

Wei Ran was not sure. The only thing he could be sure of was that the other parts must not be eaten. Otherwise, they might suffer from diarrhea at worst or have to stay here at worst.

just

Monitor Liu's life was only exchanged for such a weak leg. The price was too painful.

Because of this, Wei Ran cut open the hind legs without giving up, only to find that the meat inside had become rotten, sticky and smelly due to the infection of abdominal bacteria.

Shaking his head helplessly, he and Zhang Erwa looked at each other and said apologetically, "This is the only front leg that can be eaten. Let's go back."

Zhang Erwa opened her mouth, looked up and glanced in the direction where Monitor Liu disappeared. In the end, without saying anything, she took the only horse leg and the smelly horsehide and put them into the bamboo basket, and then put the kettle, raincloth, etc. The items were placed in another bamboo basket.

Wei Ran did not stop, but carefully cut off the not too much fat on the horse body bit by bit, and finally collected a lump that was only as big as two fists.

Looking at the bloated belly of the army horse again, he sighed silently, raised his anti-Japanese sword, and lightly slashed the bloated belly of the horse.

"laugh--"

Foul-smelling gas spurted out, and this military horse, this comrade who was also considered a comrade, slowly sank into the mire.

"Let's go back," Zhang Erwa suppressed her emotions and said as calmly as possible.

Before the others could respond, the young lama walked to the edge of the meadow, took out the prayer wheel he always held in his hand, said something in a chant that no one could understand, and then turned him around. The prayer wheel was thrown towards the position where Captain Liu sank.

Turning to look at Wei Ran and others, the little lama patted his chest hard, first said something again in Zang language that no one could understand, and then said "Jianpa Kelsang."

"Let's go."

Zhang Erwa sighed softly, picked up the heavy bamboo basket on a pole and walked in the front, leading everyone in the direction they came from in the rain.

It took more than half an hour to return to the campsite. From a distance, they saw that Nurse Ji who had stayed behind had lit a bonfire and was looking at them expectantly.

"Where's Squad Leader Liu Liu?"

Nurse Ji asked in a panic, "Why didn't he come back? He..."

"He can't come back"

Before Li Zhuang finished speaking, he squatted down and started sobbing. Zhang Erwa wiped his eyes hard and described what happened before.

Supporting the swaying Nurse Ji, Wei Ran said hard-heartedly, "Don't let the squad leader's sacrifice be in vain. We...we have to live and get out of this grassland."

He looked at Nurse Ji, who had tears streaming down his face and could only nod his head, but couldn't say a word at all. Then he looked at Li Zhuang, Zhang Erwa, who were also in tears, and even the little lama who was at a loss.

Wei Ran gritted his teeth, took out the horse leg, first chopped off the rotten horse hoof with an anti-Japanese broadsword, then cut off all the edible meat from the horse leg and put it into a copper ladle in batches, and placed it on the charcoal fire that Nurse Ji had just lit.

Not only that, he also threw the not too much horse meat fat he collected into his kettle cup and roasted it on the bonfire.

Under his guidance, Zhang Erwa, no, squad leader Zhang came over first, gathered a handful of grass, and helped Wei Ran wash the copper kettle he brought back.

After a while, Li Zhuang, the little lama and nurse Ji also gathered around, each silently gathering a handful of grass or grabbing a handful of mud, and carefully washed the kettles, enamel bowls, and imitation German-style dishes they had brought back. Lunch boxes etc.

While everyone was busy, these containers were washed one by one, heated one by one on the charcoal fire for thorough disinfection, and each of them was filled with water using bamboo hats and placed next to the bonfire.

Later, everyone used the raincloth to set up a tent that was relatively more spacious and did not leak. Even the old tent that everyone used before was set up beside the campfire and roasted patiently.

Nurse Ji carefully washed the two patched tattered blankets she brought back twice, and also used wooden sticks to roast them by the campfire, which also blocked part of the wind and rain.

After such busy work, Wei Ran used the horse meat fat to boil out some grease. The horse meat picked from the horse legs had also been cooked in boiling water for a long enough time.

But he didn't mean to share the meat with everyone. Instead, he cut it into strips with a knife, and then strung it up with hemp rope and hung it above the campfire to bake patiently.

He then used the back of a knife to smash open the horse bones that had been cleaned of meat and roasted on charcoal fire for a long time, threw them into a copper ladle, replaced them with fresh rainwater, and continued to cook them.

"Are you making jerky?" Li Zhuang asked, breaking the oppressive atmosphere.

"right"

Wei Ran nodded hoarsely, "The altitude here is high, and the boiling point of water is not high enough. It is difficult to kill the toxic bacteria in the meat. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the temperature and sterilize it by baking it, and drying out the water can make these Meat lasts longer.”

"I don't understand what you are talking about" Li Zhuang muttered blankly, and then fell into silence again.

"It's time for us to eat something"

Wei Ran thought about it and said, "Let's eat what you haven't eaten before. By the way, take a look at what squad leader Liu has left behind." As soon as he said this suggestion, everyone else stopped what they were doing. , and gathered around after a moment of hesitation.

After looking at the people around her, Nurse Ji sighed and took out the things that Squad Leader Liu left behind before setting off.

These things are really pitiful, including two glass medicine bottles, a pair of iron-footed horses, even a fire sickle, a piece of flint, a pipe pot and a pipe holder, and the only remaining piece of beef jerky that belongs to the sanitary ware. That's all.

Especially in the glass medicine bottles, one of them still contained a few pieces of uneaten leather, and the other contained the few remaining highland barley grains and bark powder.

After some deliberation, Nurse Ji threw half of the leather pieces, half of the bark powder and highland barley into the copper ladle. Then she cut the last piece of beef jerky into pieces and threw them into the pot, and added some coarse meat. Salt – This is definitely a hearty meal.

"Before you set off, Comrade Liu Youxiang gave his party membership card to me for safekeeping."

As Nurse Ji spoke, she opened her copper lunch box, took out Squad Leader Liu's party membership card and showed it to everyone.

"We cannot let down the squad leader's sacrifice."

Zhang Erwa glanced at the sizzling and greasy horse meat beside the campfire, and murmured to herself, "You guys must get out of this grassland alive!"

"What should we do next?" Li Zhuang asked.

After a moment of silence, Zhang Erwa said, "There is no shortage of food now. There are so many kettles. When the water inside is boiled, there will be no shortage of drink. We even have tents and bedding."

As he spoke, he raised his hand and pointed to the horsehide still placed in the bamboo basket, "We are just missing shoes now. Next, we have to get a few pairs of fur shoes as soon as possible, and then try to catch up with the large army as soon as possible."

"That's it!" Li Zhuang was the first to express his support.

Immediately afterwards, Wei Ran and Nurse Ji also expressed their support. Even the little lama, who could not understand Chinese, looked at Zhang Erwa with burning eyes, obviously having no objection.

Before the water in the pot, bowl and kettle boiled, everyone began to work. Under the command of Nurse Ji, they first cut out "shoe patterns" from horsehide, and then under Wei Ran's suggestion Bake the horsehide dry and hard over charcoal fire.

Finally, while everyone was busy, Wei Ran used the almost unlimited supply of smelly horsehide to make himself a pair of fur shoes.

However, before he could try on these three-layer horsehide-soled fur shoes, he fell to the ground with a "plop" due to the indescribable sense of brain shutdown caused by the surprise attack. On the incomplete horsehide beside him.

"Comrade Wei Ran!"

Amid everyone's exclamations, Wei Ran, who had just fallen down, was also helped up. When the indescribable feeling of brain downtime gradually subsided, he finally recovered.

"I'm fine"

Wei Ran waved his hand and glanced at the anxious little lama. He was almost certain that the language task he had just completed was definitely Zang language, and now he just had to have a chat with the little lama.

"Eat, eat something quickly!" Zhang Erwa said anxiously.

"That's right!" Li Zhuang quickly agreed.

"Dried meat, horse meat jerky should be edible too."

After Wei Ran sat down by the campfire again, he reminded, "We can each eat squad leader today. Squad leader Zhang, tell me, how many pieces of dried meat should each of us eat?"

"Half a dollar for each person, half a dollar for each person. What do you think?"

Zhang Erwa almost gritted his teeth and made the decision. After becoming the acting squad leader of the cooking class, this young soldier seemed to have inherited the tradition of "stinginess" from squad leader Liu.

"Then half a piece"

Wei Ran was the first to express his agreement. The meat he removed from the horse's leg weighed at least 15 kilograms. Although it sounded like a lot, there were six of them. There were five of them, not to mention that no one knew the way forward. How far is it and does need to save some.

Perhaps it was because Wei Ran suddenly fainted just now and frightened the young acting squad leader Zhang Erwa. He hurriedly took off two pieces of disposable lighter-sized horse meat jerky, cut them in half and distributed them to everyone, and then He forced a whole stick of horse meat jerky into Wei Ran's hand, and then gave everyone a bowl of bone soup in a copper ladle.

Objectively speaking, both the bone soup and the dried horse meat in his hands had an unavoidable fishy smell. Wei Ran was not even sure whether there would be any problems if he ate this meat in his stomach.

But he knew that at this moment, if he ate, he might have a bad stomach, but if he didn't eat, he might faint in the next second and never have a chance to wake up.

After taking a sip of the bone soup with a little bit of oil floating in it, Wei Ran just put the horse meat jerky he made by himself into his pocket, stuffed a few pieces of leather into his mouth with an expressionless expression, and chewed while thinking about what everyone was seeing. Right situation.

Because of Squad Leader Liu's sacrifice, they got tarpaulins to protect them from wind and rain, enough food and containers to hold water, and all the water in those containers had been boiled by this time.

They even had a whole horsehide that would allow them to make enough shoes, and maybe even eat it if necessary.

But at the same time, he also knew that maybe when it gets dark next time, they will face a new problem - there will be no firewood to burn.

Can.

Wei Ran raised his head and looked at the sky. It was already around seven or eight o'clock in the morning, but although the rain that had been raging all night had lightened up, it showed no sign of stopping.

It doesn’t rain when there’s a shortage of water, and it doesn’t stop raining when there’s no shortage of water. What a shame.

Wei Ran cursed secretly, silently picked up his own enamel jar and took a sip of the boiling hot soup with bark powder, and then rushed the piece of leather in his mouth into his stomach.

After finishing breakfast in two or three mouths, they each refilled their cups of bone soup, which they had all they could drink because of the rain. The dried horse meat was finally almost done, and coincidentally, even the charcoal fire was almost burnt out.

Instead of adding more firewood, which was extremely precious at this time, Zhang Erwa thought for a while and said, "Nurse Ji, it's up to you to preserve these dried meats."

"it is good"

Nurse Ji didn't refuse, picked up the still hot horse meat jerky, carefully put it into her lunch box, put it together with the party membership cards, and carefully closed the tray and lid, and then She wrapped it carefully in a rag and stuffed it into her satchel.

"Rest according to the original plan, wake up and set off." Zhang Erwa issued the order awkwardly, but the order was filled with too much uneasiness and hesitation.

Having said that, in fact, no one took a break. Instead, they still sat around the bonfire that was about to burn out. They first used the firewood collected earlier to cut several new kettle stoppers to plug the mouths of the kettles filled with boiling water. They were placed one by one in a bamboo basket and an extra bamboo hat was placed on top.

After everything was done, Wei Ran habitually picked up some unburned charcoal and saved it. Together with everyone else, he spread the remaining half-dried horsehide in the tent, then spread the embers of the charcoal and absorbed them as much as possible. After losing some of the water and eliminating some of the odor, I lay down in it.

Covering himself with the tattered blanket he had previously used as a tent, Wei Ran glanced at the little lama lying next to him, but was not in a hurry to talk to him.

Soon after, the only sound left in this much more spacious and less dripping tent was the sound of raindrops pounding overhead.

But everyone was insomnia. Vaguely, he could still hear Zhang Erwa's suppressed sobs at the edge, and he could even see Li Zhuang on the other side, raising his arms from time to time because he was secretly wiping away tears. You can even hear Nurse Ji sighing and turning over from time to time.

Ugh.

Watching Wei Ran rub his face vigorously on the roof of the tent, he also couldn't sleep - blaming himself for not being able to stop Squad Leader Liu, let alone save him.