War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1502 But He Is an Ordinary Man

"Snapped!"

A bean-sized hailstone hit Wei Ran's butt less than 20 centimeters away. In the violent collision of hailstones, the ice lump hit his ear like a ricochet, bringing a piercing pain with a chill.

Wei Ran rubbed his shoulders with his neck shrunk, and almost squatted in the water, carefully moving his already numb feet.

According to his estimation, almost 20 minutes had passed since they finished talking about ice cream, but the deadly hail did not stop. Instead, it fell even more frequently. The only thing to be thankful for was that the hailstones were much smaller in size.

But compared to this change, a thick layer of ice lumps have accumulated around them, especially under their feet. Even the little lama squeezed in the middle has a layer of ice floating around him.

Because of the existence of these hailstones, everyone had to keep their buttocks facing outwards and their faces inwards, surrounding the little lama who was sitting cross-legged in the ice water with an oil lamp in his hand.

"Ah!"

Nurse Ji buried her head in her arms and sneezed, but she didn't dare to let go of the oilcloth and bamboo basket in her hands.

"How long will this hail continue?" Li Zhuang muttered as he shivered. His lower body was almost numb from the cold.

"The hailstorms I encountered before only lasted for a quarter of an hour at most."

While Wei Ran was speaking, he tried to move his body forward. Just now, a few hailstones hit his back. Even through the thatched vest, the force still made him feel too painful.

"I never sneezed before I joined the army! I've never even encountered hail." Nurse Ji also leaned forward and shivered at the same time.

"We'll set off as soon as the hail stops."

Li Zhuang sniffed the clear snot that was about to cross the river, "No matter what, we must find a place that can get away from the water and build a fire to warm ourselves up, otherwise something bad will happen."

“We are running low on firewood”

After Nurse Ji finished speaking, she sneezed uncontrollably again. Seeing this, the little lama moved the kerosene lamp in his hand, which emitted a little warmth, closer to her.

"Burn it first, and then talk about it after it's all burned."

Li Zhuang paused and said, "Nurse Ji, when we set off later, give everyone another piece of jerky."

"Still sending?"

"hair"

Li Zhuang said firmly, "You can only go far if you have food in your stomach. Let's survive tonight before considering other things."

Nurse Ji gritted her teeth and finally agreed, "Okay, then give everyone another one."

"Nurse Ji, how much food do we have left?" Wei Ran asked.

“There is only one pot of fish soup left.”

Nurse Ji answered without thinking, "They are all in your bamboo basket. There are also a few pieces of leather that squad leader Liu secretly hid to save his life and a dozen grains of barley. I guess they are all saved by him."

After sneezing twice in a row, Nurse Ji sniffed and continued, "There are only two red peppers left, and a finger-sized piece of ginger. The salt is running low, so use it sparingly.

Then there are the dried meats. There is quite a lot of them, about four pounds. Not only is my lunch box full, but I also had quite a lot in my bag. I put all the meat in my bag after I cleared out the lunch box I found in the afternoon. It is completely full, and there is definitely enough for us to get out of the grassland."

"Where is the medicine?" Li Zhuang asked.

"Only half a bottle of medicine buns (horse manure buns) and a small tallow candle," Nurse Ji replied, "and a lot of charcoal."

What kind of medicine is this? Wei Ran sighed secretly.

"Enough! Enough!" Li Zhuang was full of confidence, "We can definitely get out!"

As if they were waiting for him to say this, as soon as Li Zhuang finished speaking, the crackling hail that was hitting the roof of his head stopped without any warning.

As they looked at each other, Wei Ran struggled to move his sore, numb and cold legs backwards, and then he shivered uncontrollably.

He slowly stood up holding on to the bamboo basket. His legs were numb and aching as if his nerves were being gnawed by ten thousand ants.

After looking at Li Zhuang and Nurse Ji, who were also grimacing in pain, Wei Ran gritted his teeth and stood up straight. Then, tremblingly, he unscrewed the lid of the kettle, reached out and grabbed a handful of ice lumps that were piled up like small hills on the cover, and poured them into his own kettle with a clinking sound.

After the little lama finally crawled out with difficulty, everyone carefully took out the kettle and copper ladle from the basket and filled them with clean white ice lumps - this was a rare source of clean water.

The four of them filled all the containers. Wei Ran picked up the shoulder pole again, and Li Zhuang took the oil lamp again and turned up the brightness. After Nurse Ji gave everyone a piece of dried meat, they started walking again.

At this time, because the ground was covered with a layer of white ice and the dark clouds above their heads had dissipated, the visibility was much better than before. But even so, they could not find any slightly higher terrain that would allow them to temporarily leave the mixture of ice, water and mud under their feet.

Wei Ran bit off a thumb-sized piece of the dried meat allocated to him with difficulty and temporarily stuffed the rest into his jacket pocket. While chewing, he followed Li Zhuang who was walking in front of him.

Compared to the former's optimism before departure, Wei Ran was secretly alert. They had no shortage of food or water for the time being. But the hailstorm that lasted for half an hour just now made everyone sneeze from time to time.

  If I can't warm up when I find a campsite later, I'm afraid.

Just as he thought of this, a flash of lightning appeared in the distance.

But even with the help of this bright lightning, he couldn't see any higher terrain in the distance.

In just three or four seconds, the rumbling sound of thunder reached everyone's ears from afar, forcing them to speed up their pace again.

Wei Ran, who was carrying a shoulder pole, was still thinking. One side of the pole was loaded with oilcloth and blankets, and the other side was loaded with some pots and pans, three anti-Japanese swords, two homemade guns, and four horsetail grenades.

The other three people each had an old rifle sleeve on their shoulders with a leg strap, and the little lama had an extra box gun on his waist, which was particularly magical.

In addition to the last bit of firewood she carried in a bamboo basket, Nurse Ji also had a shoulder bag, which contained two glass medicine bottles left by Squad Leader Liu, a copper lunch box left by Nurse Wang Zhen, and a large glass bottle filled with bags of horse manure.

Not to mention that in the afternoon she took the imitation German lunch box away, put the dried meat that was originally in her shoulder bag into it and carried it herself.

Is this a problem? Of course it is, a big problem - their loads are too heavy, not to mention that everyone is carrying a water bottle full of ice lumps.

  You have to lose weight.

Wei Ran was worriedly thinking to himself, how can I lose weight?

According to his own thinking, the three anti-Japanese swords must be thrown away. The four horsetail grenades, each weighing more than one pound, and even the two homemade rifles from nurse Wang Zhen and squad leader Liu were not worth carrying with them.

  But. But if he thinks so, do Li Zhuang and Nurse Ji think so too?

They would definitely not abandon these weapons that they did not even think highly of and that Nurse Wang Zhen had protected with her life.

After changing the shoulder of the carrying pole, Wei Ran looked at the dark clouds that were getting closer and closer in the night sky, and felt more and more uneasy.

Call it intuition, or call it the alertness given by surviving so many battlefields, he always felt that if they didn't move faster, there would be great trouble and danger waiting for them.

  Can.

Wei Ran looked at the cold mud that had once again submerged his knees. In such conditions, how fast could they walk even without so much weight?

"Wow!"

Just as he was distracted, he suddenly heard the sound of water splashing behind him and the little lama exclaimed, "Zhuoma!"

Thanks to the language taught by the metal book, he knew clearly that the little lama's subconscious exclamation meant "goddess".

  Something happened to Nurse Ji!

Wei Ranke didn't bother to think about how the little lama addressed Nurse Ji. He immediately put down his carrying pole and turned to look over.

With the light provided by the oil lamp held by Li Zhuang behind him, he clearly saw that Nurse Ji had fallen into the mud, and the little lama was trying to help her up in panic.

But looking at Nurse Ji, she seems to be unconscious?

When he thought of this, Wei Ran had already run over and helped Nurse Ji up from the other side. "Nurse Ji? Nurse Ji? Comrade Ji Chunlan?"

"What's wrong with her?" Li Zhuang, who had also run back through the mud, asked anxiously.

Without bothering to answer the other party's question, Wei Ran reached out his hand to feel the other party's breath.

No?

Wei Ran's heart sank, and then he realized that his hands were numb from the low temperature.

Thinking of this, he directly put his ears, which were also frozen red, close to Nurse Ji's mouth and nose.

Fortunately, although the breath exhaled by the other party was weak, it was enough to make his ears feel particularly itchy.

After breathing a sigh of relief, Wei Ran subconsciously reached out to touch Nurse Ji's forehead again, but he immediately reacted, rolled up his sleeves, and placed the inside of his arm, which was relatively more sensitive and at least not numb from the cold, against the other person's forehead.

Sure enough, he felt the scorching temperature almost instantly.

Just at this moment, Nurse Ji reached out and grabbed his clothes tightly, her mouth opening and closing as if she was saying something.

Bending down again to the other person's ear, he only heard Nurse Ji say, "Don't worry about me, just go on your own."

“She has a fever.”

Wei Ran didn't listen to what Nurse Ji continued to say. He straightened up and said, "Captain Li, we need to find a dry place to build a fire as soon as possible. She must have caught a cold."

"I carry the load!"

As Li Zhuang was speaking, he had already handed the oil lamp in his hand to the bewildered little lama, "Wei Ran, carry Nurse Ji on your back, let's go quickly."

"it is good!"

As Wei Ran spoke, he handed the bamboo basket, water bottle, shoulder bag, weapons and the bamboo hat that Nurse Ji was carrying to the little lama.

Seeing this, the little lama immediately put it on his back and then raised the oil lamp which had been adjusted to the highest brightness.

At the same time, with the help of Li Zhuang, Wei Ran used two leg straps to carry Nurse Ji, who was as thin as if she had no weight, and allowed Li Zhuang to drape a damp blanket on Nurse Ji.

Pinching the corners of the blanket tightly with his hands, Wei Ran walked at the end, leaning on a wooden stick.

"Put me down," said Nurse Ji, who had almost lost consciousness, weakly.

Wei Ran ignored the other party. Instead, as he walked, he poured an ice lump from the kettle and stuffed it into Nurse Ji's mouth to help her cool down.

Amid increasingly frequent lightning and muffled thunder, the night sky, which had been clear for less than two hours, was once again shrouded in dark clouds, and then heavy, cold rain began to pour down.

Fortunately, before the rain got really heavy, they finally found a slightly higher grassland.

Although there is still some mud here when you step on it, at least you won’t get soaked in water.

They set up the tent with oilcloth as quickly as possible, and then the three of them emptied the bamboo baskets, turned them upside down on the ground, and spread a torn blanket on top, and then let Nurse Ji lie on it.

"What should we do? What should we do?" Li Zhuang muttered in panic.

"Don't panic"

While Wei Ran was speaking, he had already found his own canvas water bottle cover, put some ice lumps into it, and placed it on Nurse Ji's forehead.

"Let's make a fire"

Wei Ran pointed at the copper ladle and said, "Make a fire in that copper ladle and boil ginger soup and chili water for her to drink. Be quick."

Hearing this, Li Zhuang poured the ice lumps in the copper ladle out of the tent without thinking, pulled out two anti-Japanese swords, put one underneath, and used the other to split the only five remaining firewood one by one, and poured some kerosene on them.

There was no need to gesture at all. The little lama, who had been prepared, immediately used the flint to strike the flint and ignited the firewood in the copper ladle.

Without waiting for the fire to be fully lit, Wei Ran had already taken out the last kettle of fish soup and poured it into a cup and placed it on a copper ladle. Li Zhuang also found the only remaining piece of ginger, cut it and threw it in, then tore the last two peppers with his hands and threw them in.

"Salt," Wei Ran reminded, "Add some salt."

"it is good!"

After Li Zhuang finished speaking, he immediately dug out squad leader Liu's glass medicine bottle, unscrewed it, and knocked out a pinch of salt to show Wei Ran. After the other party nodded, he immediately sprinkled it into the cup.

"Don't just stand there"

Wei Ran waited for the other party to tighten the bottle cap and immediately urged, "Turn out the enamel pot, pour the fish soup into it and place it around the copper ladle to heat it. Nurse Ji has caught a cold, and the three of us won't be far away."

Li Zhuang shuddered, and immediately found an enamel pot from a pile of supplies, filled it with fish soup and placed it next to the copper ladle. Then, he also placed everyone's kettles around, and called the little lama to help, and put a blanket at the entrance of the tent to block the cold wind from outside. As the firewood burned, the fish soup in the cup gradually became boiling hot.

Without even waiting for it to boil, he immediately handed it to the little lama, and then pointed to Nurse Ji who was lying on the bamboo basket.

"she"

"I do not know"

Wei Ran gave an answer before Li Zhuang finished speaking, "We...we don't have any antipyretic medicine. She can only...can only rely on herself."

Hearing this, Li Zhuang couldn't help but shudder, and for a moment he didn't know what to say or do.

Shaking his head, Wei Ran thought for a moment and said, "No matter what, we have to get through tonight first. When it gets light, we will immediately find a place with high enough terrain to stop, and then think of other ways."

"That's all we can do."

Li Zhuang responded hesitantly, obviously at a loss. He...he was just a child after all.

In fact, let alone him, even Wei Ran, who had been through many battles, could not see any hope at this moment.

He clearly remembered that Xia Shushi caught a cold at the place where those things were found, and all he could do was to send him to the hospital and put him in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber.

But at this moment, where can he find a hyperbaric oxygen chamber and oxygen cylinders?

Just when he was secretly worried, the little lama called out "Comrade".

Turning around, he found that the little lama handed the unfinished fish soup and a spoon to Wei Ran, and then he picked up the oil lamp hanging on the hook of the shoulder pole, picked up the straw hat and wooden stick in one hand, bent down and got out of the tent!

"Hey! What are you going to do?" Li Zhuang, who was busy boiling water, asked hurriedly.

However, before he and Wei Ran could chase after them, the little lama actually pulled out the box gun from his waist and aimed it at them!

"Don't follow me!"

The little lama shouted in Zang language, "I'm going to find medicine for Zhuoma. If I can't come back, forget it. You can't understand me anyway, so don't come out! Don't follow me!"

As he spoke, the little lama retreated, and finally disappeared into the rain holding the oil lamp.

"he"

Li Zhuang stared blankly at the direction where the little lama disappeared. "How could he point his gun at his own comrades?"

"Whether he will shoot or not is still a question."

Wei Ran said as he fed Nurse Ji some soup, "Besides, there are no bullets in that gun."

"Yes, yes!" Li Zhuang reacted belatedly, picked up his hat and was about to chase after him.

"Stop chasing me," Wei Ran stopped what he was doing and said seriously.

"How can you."

“He ran away”

Wei Ran pointed outside with his chin, "Without the oil lamp, we might fall into the mud after walking a few steps if we go to look for him. Now... now we can't hurt a third person."

"What are you talking about?" Li Zhuang frowned.

"If you chase them out, and either you or the little lama gets injured, I and the other uninjured person can carry the injured two and continue walking, but if both of you get injured..."

Hearing this, Li Zhuang couldn't help but shudder.

"I can't carry all three of them out by myself." Wei Ran said the second half of the sentence which was too cruel.

“But he’s an ordinary person!”

  Li Zhuang finished speaking and put on his hat. "Comrade Wei Ran, I order you to stay and take care of Comrade Ji Chunlan. Don't chase her out. If... if the little lama and I don't come back before dawn, you...

Just take Nurse Ji with you and walk out, taking away everything you can use and taking away, and leaving behind everything you can’t use and can’t take away.

If we can come back but are all injured, you will carry the little lama and walk out!"

After saying that, Li Zhuang didn't wait for Wei Ran to answer. He picked up a wooden stick and a blanket and rushed out of the low tent without hesitation.

"Why are you all like this? Why are you all like this?"

Wei Ran was shaking uncontrollably, and the fish soup he scooped up again and again dripped back into the cup as he shook.

"Don't bother me anymore"

Nurse Ji looked at Wei Ran, trying to force a smile, and said weakly, "Go and save the little lama."

“Let’s have some soup.”

Wei Ran wiped the rain off his face, helped Nurse Ji sit up, and put the cup to his mouth, "Drink it, I'll go save them after you finish it."

"I"

"Drink"

Wei Ran said almost pleadingly, "Drink it so I can go save the little lama. I beg you to drink it."

Shaking her head weakly, Nurse Ji turned to look at the heavy rain outside the tent, and finally opened her mouth and drank a few mouthfuls of fish soup.

"I'll leave the rest for you to drink," Nurse Ji said weakly, "You guys have caught a cold too."

"anything else"

Wei Ran pointed at the bonfire that was still burning behind him in panic, "Drink it quickly, drink it all, I'll go save them."

Nurse Ji smiled and shook her head. "I am a nurse, how can I take the medicine first? Wei Ran, you are a member of the Workers and Peasants Red Army.

When you put on this outfit, you must put the people before yourself, so go quickly."

Gritting his teeth, Wei Ran asked Nurse Ji to lie down on the bamboo basket again. He then picked up his water bottle from the campfire, wrapped it in a rag and stuffed it into Nurse Ji's hand. Then he put on a bamboo hat, picked up a wooden stick, bent down and rushed out of the tent.

After searching for a while, he walked towards the direction of the faint light, groping in the dark with the stick in his hand, taking one step at a time, falling down again and again, and getting up again and again, little by little shortening the distance to the oil lamp.

When he finally walked onto a meadow, he finally saw the little lama kneeling on the meadow, holding an oil lamp in one hand and searching for herbs one blade of grass at a time.

He also saw Li Zhuang standing beside him, holding up a torn blanket with his hands, trying to shield the little lama from the rain.

Li Zhuang smiled broadly after glancing at Wei Ran who had come up to him. He even saw "relief" on that young, haggard, and even immature face.

Without any conversation, Wei Ran casually put the stick in his hand aside, grabbed the two corners of the blanket in the other's hand, spread it out together, and blocked the little lama's head.

Looking up at the blanket that had shielded him from most of the rain, the little lama muttered something in the heavy rain, then lowered his head and continued searching one blade of grass at a time with the help of an oil lamp.

The first meadow, the second meadow, the third meadow. When the three of them reached the fifth meadow, the little lama finally cheered, put the oil lamp beside him, picked up a wooden stick and began to dig hard.

Taking a closer look, Wei Ran discovered that what the little lama had dug out was more like the roots of a grass. The upper part of the grass seemed to have been cut away, leaving only a bare stalk.

Because of this, he had no way of recognizing what kind of plant it was.

Fortunately, thanks to the extremely soft soil here, it took him less than a minute to dig out a bunch of black rhizomes with branches and twigs, which were definitely not ginseng.

He broke off a root and put it into his mouth to chew it. The little lama's eyebrows, eyes and nose almost shrank into a ball. Obviously, this thing didn't taste very good.

"Let's go back!"

The little lama spat out the root in his mouth, shouted hello in Zang language, then raised his hand and pointed in the direction he came from, and uttered the almighty "Comrade!"

"go!"

Li Zhuang signaled Wei Ran to loosen the blanket and drape it over the little lama. He then walked back, leaning on the stick with one hand and holding the little lama's cold hand with the other.

After a moment of confusion, Wei Ran quickly picked up the oil lamp and followed.

They returned to the tent safely. Fortunately, the fire in the copper ladle was still burning and Nurse Ji was not seriously injured.

Without even taking a break, the little lama once again pulled out the box gun from his waist and stuffed it into Li Zhuang's hand without hesitation. Then he found an anti-Japanese broadsword, cut half of the rhizome of the unknown herb he had dug up, chopped it up and threw it into Wei Ran's cup, then put it on the charcoal fire to boil.

"Do you know the herb he just cooked?"

Li Zhuang took the box gun that the little lama stuffed into his hands, looked at it, and asked Wei Ran in a low voice.

"I don't know him. Do you know him?" Wei Ran said and sneezed.

Li Zhuang shook his head, looked at Nurse Ji worriedly, and finally said nothing.

After waiting for about 20 minutes, the little lama took out four enamel bowls and poured half a bowl of fish soup with herbs into each one.

"Comrade!"

The little lama handed the first bowl to Li Zhuang, and the second bowl to Wei Ran. Then he picked up a bowl himself, pinched his nose, frowned, drank it down in one gulp, and then showed the bottom of the bowl.

Throwing away the enamel bowl in his hand, the little lama picked up the last bowl, walked to Nurse Ji's side, carefully scooped a spoonful of soup with a small spoon, blew on it, and brought it to Nurse Ji's mouth and fed it.

"Drink"

After Li Zhuang finished speaking, he poured the fish soup and some roots floating in the bowl into his mouth, and then frowned. But even so, he still chewed it with his teeth bared, and swallowed it down in one gulp.

"Is it that bad to drink?"

Wei Ran muttered something and also poured the fish soup into his mouth. Suddenly, the bitter and spicy taste mixed with the taste of fresh pepper hit him in the mouth.

After swallowing it with difficulty, Wei Ran and Li Zhuang looked at each other and swallowed their saliva. Neither of them could taste what kind of herb it was.

After a while, as the bitter and pungent fish soup poured into her mouth, Nurse Ji woke up again and coughed continuously due to the choking.

The little lama smiled, and continued to feed her the last bit of the medicine soup while speaking in Tibetan, "Drink it, it will make you better. When I caught a cold before, my mother always used it to make soup for me.

It's fine after drinking it, but it's bitter and spicy and not very tasty. Oh, it would be better if there was butter tea or yak milk."

“I don’t know what the little lama is saying.”

Li Zhuang smacked his lips and muttered, "If only I could speak Tibetan, I would have a good conversation with him for three days and three nights."

"There will be a chance"

Wei Ran paused, changed the subject and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't go with you to save the little lama at the beginning. I'm not afraid of death. I'm really not afraid of death. I'm..."

"I know, I know everything. Actually, you are right."

Li Zhuang patted Wei Ran on the shoulder and didn't give him a chance to continue. "But he is an ordinary citizen and you are a Red Army soldier, so we must go and save him."

"I promise"

"No, no need to promise anything."

Li Zhuang smiled and changed the subject, "Come on, sit down quickly, and warm your feet before the firewood is burned out."

"By the way, please warm Nurse Ji's feet as well," Wei Ran said as he picked up the copper ladle and walked to Nurse Ji's side.

"We can definitely get out," Li Zhuang said, blowing out the oil lamp.

"What did you say?" Wei Ran asked as he helped the little lama to lift Nurse Ji up. The sound of the rain was so loud that he couldn't hear clearly what the other person said just now.

"I say, we can definitely get out of this." Li Zhuang said firmly, his young, haggard face filled with a bright smile.