War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1500 Long Live the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army!

On the river bank, Wei Ran, who was already soaked all over, "put away" his camera, picked up the shoulder pole again, and followed Zhang Erwa and Li Zhuang, who were walking at the front of the team, to the small raised ground more than fifty or sixty meters away.

"We'll be back with the basket later."

Zhang Erwa said excitedly, "This river is so big, maybe we can catch a few fish."

"I'll come back with you to catch fish later!" Li Zhuang said immediately.

"I'll come with you guys," Wei Ran agreed, "Three people and three baskets, maybe we can catch three fish."

"it is good!"

Zhang Erwa readily agreed, and arranged more and more skillfully, "Nurse Ji, you stay and help the little lama set up the tent. And see if there is anything that can be cooked or if there are any wild vegetables nearby. We will eat when we return."

"Okay," Nurse Ji nodded. She had no objection to Zhang Erwa's arrangement.

The group walked on the meadow and waded through the mud. By the time they reached the small hill a hundred meters away, the sky had become increasingly gloomy.

"Let's hurry up and try to get back before the rain starts."

Without waiting for Wei Ran to put the bamboo baskets on both ends of the carrying pole firmly, Zhang Erwa urged him and helped take out the things in the bamboo baskets one by one.

Seeing this, Li Zhuang also helped Nurse Ji take off the bamboo basket on her back, took out the things inside and placed them on the oilcloth.

Wei Ran deliberately hung the camera on three rifles put together, picked up a bamboo basket, and followed Zhang Erwa and Li Zhuang, hurriedly walking towards the river again.

Walking through the mud back to the river, the three men tied the bamboo basket to a wooden stake on the river bank, then pressed the basket into the mud, keeping the edge of the basket just a finger lower than the surrounding mud, and pulled some grass to cover the basket.

After rinsing their hands in the cold river water, the three of them untied their belts tacitly and each chose a bamboo basket to urinate in. At the moment, they had nothing to use as bait, so they could only urinate to "borrow the smell".

"Go back quickly"

As Zhang Erwa fastened his belt, he looked up at the sky and said, "I think it might rain heavily tonight.

"I don't know if the main force has walked out of the grassland." Li Zhuang muttered worriedly.

“It’s definitely out.”

Zhang Erwa pulled his legs out of the mud with difficulty and took a step. "Who knows, maybe we can get out tomorrow."

"That's good."

Li Zhuang smacked his lips. "Even if I can't get out tomorrow, it would be fine if I can catch a big fish tomorrow."

“Go back quickly.”

Zhang Erwa took a last look at the comrades on the other side of the river who were like monuments, and urged Wei Ran and Li Zhuang to speed up.

No matter how hard they hurried, the heavy rain still poured down when they were still twenty or thirty meters away from the small hill.

Fortunately, although the rain was quite heavy, it was able to wash away the mud on the three people's bodies. Zhang Erwa, who was already a squad leader, even tried to have fun while rubbing the mud all over his body as he walked, calling it taking a bath.

Having said that, when the three of them walked up to the small hilltop on the slippery grass with difficulty, they all shivered.

"Come into the tent quickly"

Nurse Ji hurriedly called out. At the same time, the little lama picked up the flint and struck the flint, easily lighting the tinder, then lit the kerosene lamp, and then used the oil lamp to light the chopped firewood.

After blowing out the oil lamp, everyone immediately sat around the campfire. Nurse Ji also picked up an enamel spoon and evenly divided the fish in the lunch box into five equal portions and scooped them into their respective bowls. By the way, she also put a small piece of wild vegetables into each person's bowl.

Wei Ran extended the cup containing fish meat to the edge of the tent to collect the half-full rain water, and placed it next to the campfire.

While waiting for the breakfast that was late for a whole day to be heated up, everyone was not idle at all. Some took off their dirty coats and washed them simply in the rain, while others laid out various containers and waited for them to be filled with rain water.

“This is the last bit of firewood.”

Nurse Ji pointed at the firewood placed beside the campfire and said, "Once they burn out, we will really have nothing to burn."

“I don’t know how long this rain will last tonight.”

Li Zhuang said worriedly, "This firewood is not enough to last until the second half of the night."

"If all else fails, burn the butts of the guns."

"no!"

Before Wei Ran could finish his words, the other three people except the little lama rejected him in unison.

"Comrade Wei Ran, you are so bold. If the guns are burned, what can we use to start a revolution?"

Zhang Erwa criticized in a serious tone, "You can burn anything but the gun!"

"That's right!" Li Zhuang followed up, "At worst we'll just freeze."

"I"

“We can boil more water.”

Nurse Ji poured the water that the copper ladle had just filled into the kettle and said, "Just like last night, everyone holds a pot of boiling water and endures it all night long and it will pass."

Hearing this, Wei Ran only felt more bitter. Those homemade rifles and those old and worn-out barrels were weapons more precious than life to these Red Army soldiers.

Even if he were there himself, he could hardly imagine how much these revolutionary predecessors had to pay to defeat one enemy after another and win battle after battle with such simple weapons.

Seeing Wei Ran's guilty look, Zhang Erwa was the first to change the subject and said, "The gun must not be burned. Come on! Don't waste the firewood. Boil water quickly and fill everyone's kettle with boiling fish soup!"

Before he had even finished his words, everyone started to get busy. The area around the bonfire, which was not very big to begin with, was gradually filled with various containers. Nurse Ji even took out the dried horse meat they had in stock and re-roasted it to prevent it from getting moldy.

Under the licking of the charcoal fire, the fish soup in the jar boiled first. Everyone picked up the jar one after another, drank the fish soup in a very tacit understanding, and refilled the jar with fish head soup.

As everyone poured cup after cup of fish soup into their stomachs, sweat broke out on their foreheads and bodies to dispel the cold. The copper ladles, lunch boxes, and kettles were also filled with the increasingly diluted fish head soup.

After drinking another full jar of fish soup, Wei Ran also ate the last piece of fish meat in the cup.

At this time, the sky outside the tent had completely darkened, and the heavy rain was pouring down on the tarpaulin, turning the edge of the tarpaulin into a disturbing waterfall.

Zhang Erwa said as he had tied up the last five pieces of firewood, each as thick as his arm, with his leggings and hung them on the pole that supported the tent. "Take a nap while your body is warm. When you can't stand the cold anymore, we'll light the lamp and set out."

Hearing this, Wei Ran picked up his own water bottle and put it into the cup, then put on a canvas cover and stuffed it into his arms.

The kettle was filled with boiling fish head soup, and it was the last thing that could provide him with warmth besides the pile of embers and the comrades around him.

The rest of the people also picked up a kettle, wrapped it in rags and stuffed it into their arms.

Without any discussion at all, the four people stood back to back and surrounded Nurse Ji, the kettle wrapped in a blanket, the lunch box, and two extra kettles also filled with fish head soup.

Finally, wrapped in the damp and tattered blanket, everyone sat on their own bamboo hats, hoping that the rain would stop soon, that the sky would brighten soon, and that they would catch a few big fish tomorrow and find enough firewood to burn for several days.

Before he knew it, Wei Ran, exhausted both physically and mentally, fell asleep. He dreamed that he was back in freezing Leningrad.

When he woke up from this nightmare, he almost fell down with his head tilted back.

Subconsciously, he used his hand to poke the damp ground to steady himself. Only then did he notice that the sky outside the tent had already brightened, the rain had stopped, and even the kettle in his arms had long since lost its temperature.

But the most important thing is that Zhang Erwa and Li Zhuang were not in the tent! At this moment, he also heard the movement outside the tent.

Gently lifting the blanket, Wei Ran crouched down and crawled out of the tent. Then he saw Zhang Erwa and Li Zhuang walking towards the higher ground. They were all wet, and each of them had a wet bamboo basket on their backs. Both of them were lifting a bamboo basket with their hands together.

"Did you catch any fish?" Wei Ran asked while squatting on the edge of the high ground.

"No, nothing was caught."

Zhang Erwa said helplessly, "The river has risen, and all three baskets are submerged. Even if we catch fish, they will run away."

"It's okay, we still have a lot of dried meat." Wei Ran comforted them while pulling the two to the higher ground.

After a while, Nurse Ji and the little lama woke up and came out of the tent. In their hands, they were holding kettles and lunch boxes also filled with fish soup.

"Let's have breakfast first while the fish soup is still warm."

Nurse Ji guessed something after just one glance at the empty bamboo basket. Without waiting for anyone to respond, she laid out everyone's enamel pots in a row, urged Wei Ran to take out the kettle and cup, and took the opportunity to add some coarse salt to the fish soup in the kettle.

A full cup of fish soup was poured for each person, but everyone looked at Zhang Erwa.

The latter also took roll call as usual, and then gave the order to eat.

Each person emptied the kettle and lunch box with two large cups of fish soup, and shared the fish heads and bones that had been cooked in the kettle until they were soft according to the plan discussed last night.

  The fish soup is becoming more and more bland.

Wei Ran muttered secretly and drank the last mouthful of fish soup.

At this point, apart from the fish soup in their respective kettles and the fish soup in the two extra kettles, their only food was the dried horse meat and a few dozen grains of barley in the medicine bottle.

Taking advantage of the fact that they had filled their stomachs with water, everyone hurriedly packed up their luggage and weapons and left the camp under the leadership of Zhang Erwa and Li Zhuang.

Perhaps because of the heavy rain all night, since leaving that small hill, almost every step we took was submerged in cold mud and water above the knees, and even many of the meadows were underwater.

Fortunately, the wooden sticks that served as signposts had not been submerged, so with their guidance, we did not get lost.

  However, just as everyone was secretly rejoicing, when they were less than two hundred meters away from the high ground behind them, Zhang Erwa, who was walking in the front, was leaving a meadow and was about to step into a quagmire that he had just explored with a wooden stick, but he stepped into the quagmire that directly swallowed his chest!

"Second baby!"

Li Zhuang, who was walking in second place, reacted quickly and stretched out the wooden stick in his hand. Zhang Erwa also subconsciously reached out and grabbed the stick.

"Come and help!"

Wei Ran also reacted quickly by putting down the bamboo basket and hooking the iron hook at one end of the carrying pole onto Li Zhuang's belt. Almost at the same time, the little lama and Nurse Ji also grabbed the carrying pole.

For a moment, the five people were tied together by a carrying pole and a wooden stick, and Li Zhuang's sinking speed immediately slowed down.

However, Wei Ran and Zhang Erwa, who were closest to him, noticed that Li Zhuang's body was also sinking. In a short while, the mud and water had already submerged his hips!

  What’s even worse is that he is still sliding forward very slowly!

"Rope! Throw the rope over!"

Wei Ran shouted at the top of his lungs, and Nurse Ji immediately let go of the carrying pole, dug out the leg wrap from the bamboo basket, and threw one end to Zhang Erwa with all her strength. Then, she emptied her own bamboo basket, poured out the few remaining firewood inside, and threw this bamboo basket over as well.

"Hurry up and grab the rope! Grab the bamboo basket!"

  Li Zhuangzhuang shouted to warn, while at the same time pulling the wooden stick in his hands with both hands, and struggling to move his trapped feet, trying to take a step back - he also realized that he was about to sink!

After coming to his senses, Zhang Erwa, who had stepped into the mud, put on a big smile that made Wei Ran uneasy.

With one of his hands, he took off the whistle that belonged to Squad Leader Liu from his neck, threw it hard and accurately to Nurse Ji who was holding the rope.

"Comrade Li Zhuang, from now on you will be the acting squad leader of the kitchen squad."

As he spoke, Zhang Erwa calmly let go of the wooden stick in his hand. Wei Ran and the little lama were also caught off guard and easily dragged Li Zhuang back two steps. Then the three of them fell on their butts in waist-deep mud and almost choked on the water.

"I command you! Take all of them out alive! I command all of you, I command you to get out alive!"

"I don't accept your order! I don't want to be the squad leader! Hurry up and grab the rope! Grab the rope! I beg you to grab the rope!"

Li Zhuang got up in a panic and cried angrily, throwing the rope to Zhang Erwa again and again, even onto his head.

Zhang Erwa looked down at the mud that was about to cover his shoulders, then looked at Li Zhuang who was safe and not dragged into the mud by him. Contentedly, he took off his rifle and water bottle and threw them over one by one. Finally, he raised his hand to salute and shouted with a bright smile, "Comrades! Farewell! Long live the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army! Long live the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army!"

"Second baby! Second baby!"

Li Zhuang and Nurse Ji shouted at the top of their lungs. The little lama sat in the mud, staring blankly at Zhang Erwa who was gradually sinking, but he himself was already crying like rain.

"Long live the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army."

Wei Ran took out his camera while muttering to himself, and aimed it at Li Zhuang, who was crying and shouting in the mud and throwing out the rope again and again; at Nurse Ji, who was holding the whistle tightly in one hand and raising the other hand to return the greeting; and at Zhang Erwa, who was about to be completely swallowed up by the mud. He gritted his teeth and pressed the shutter, taking the 23rd despairing photo in this bright and glorious morning sun.

"Erwa——! Class monitor——! Class monitor"

Li Zhuang threw out the wet rope again while crying almost without a voice, but only a series of bubbles remained in the mud.

From now on, he is the class monitor.