War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1504 I hope you like this new world

"boom!"

The crisp sound of gunfire woke Wei Ran up, and he subconsciously turned over and looked around. Then he felt dizzy and stumbled to the ground, knocking over the pots, pans, and other items that were piled up together.

At this time, the oil lamps and horse oil candles in the tent had been extinguished. The damp and cold tent seemed extremely dark, and there was even a puddle of water under the feet.

Fortunately, although the light was dim, he could finally hear the relatively even breathing of the other three people.

"boom!"

  Just at this moment, another gunshot was heard from outside, and he finally realized that the sound just now was not from a dream, but someone really fired a gun!

Wei Ran suddenly realized something and picked up the little lama's box gun from the puddle. He then took out the 20-round magazine that he had casually put in his pocket last night and installed it on the box gun with a "click". He didn't care about the things he had knocked over, nor did he notice the two glass medicine bottles and the iron-footed horse that fell into the puddle at the door of the tent. He stumbled out of the tent, aimed at his head and pulled the trigger!

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

After three consecutive gunshots, Wei Ran, who could barely stand, finally had time to look around.

He saw the dawn in the sky, the morning star in the sky, and even saw a winding fire dragon in the direction they were supposed to be heading! Those were torches!

"Main force! Main force! We found the main force!"

After being stunned for a moment, Wei Ran fell into ecstasy and shouted at the tent behind him at the top of his lungs.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!" Just at this moment, three gunshots came from the direction of the long dragon of torches!

"Bang! Bang!"

Wei Ran fired two more shots, then stumbled into the tent and shouted to the three people who were awakened by the gunshots, "Main force! We've caught up with the main force!"

After being stunned for a moment, Li Zhuang and Nurse Ji's faces became lively. The little lama seemed to have noticed something, almost crawled out of the tent, and cheered after a while.

"Oil lamp, we have to light the oil lamp!"

As Wei Ran spoke, he picked up the oil lamp and shook it. Fortunately, there was still kerosene in it. It went out only because the wick had burned out.

"Matches."

Nurse Ji pointed to the cloth bag hanging on the oil lamp and said, "There are matches in it."

Hearing this, Wei Ran immediately opened the cloth bag and took out the small glass medicine bottle inside.

Unscrew it with force, and there are only two matches and a small ball of white cotton inside.

Wei Ran picked up a match with trembling hands, took out the kettle from his arms, and slid it hard on the fire.

"laugh!"

The match successfully ignited a yellow flame.

However, before Wei Ran could put it close to the wick of the oil lamp, the wind blowing in from outside blew out the match as if as a mischief.

Wei Ran gritted his teeth and picked up the last match, wishing he could blow the sky up. Nurse Ji and Li Zhuang also crawled over with difficulty and used their bodies to help him build a windbreak.

"laugh!"

The second match was lit successfully. Wei Ran held it in his hand and carefully moved it to the side of the oil lamp, lighting the wick inside.

After exchanging a glance with the tearful Li Zhuang and Nurse Ji, Wei Ran adjusted the oil lamp to the maximum brightness and said, "Let's go out and take a look."

"it is good!"

Li Zhuang responded to Wei Ran's suggestion in the loudest voice, pulled over a rifle to lean on, stood up with difficulty, and together with Wei Ran helped Nurse Ji to stand up, and walked out of the tent with a staggering step.

He handed the oil lamp to the little lama, who immediately picked it up with a wooden stick. Wei Ran also returned the box gun with a few bullets left to the other party, and then pointed to the top of his head.

After taking the pistol, the little lama gave Wei Ran a familiar and bright smile, and raised the box gun to aim at the morning star above his head.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

"Cooking squad! Roll call!"

Li Zhuang, who was supporting Nurse Ji, tried to stand up straight after the gunshots and shouted out names one by one, "Liu Youxiang!"

"Yes!" Wei Ran and Nurse Ji responded.

"Zhang Erwa!"

"Have!"

"Jiang Yu!"

"Have!"

"Ji Chunlan!"

"Yes," the weak Nurse Ji tried hard to respond to the roll call.

"Jianpa Kelsang!"

"Have"

"Wei Ran!"

"Have!"

While Wei Ran responded, he also quietly stepped back and raised the adjusted camera.

He used the viewfinder to circle Li Zhuang and Nurse Ji who were supporting each other, the little lama who was waving an oil lamp in one hand and a box gun in the other, and the long dragon of torches that was moving towards them in the distance.

"Captain, I took them out of the grass."

Before Li Zhuang could finish his words, his legs went weak and he fell to the ground along with Nurse Ji, who he was supporting. Wei Ran even saw that the pipe and the pipe holder that originally belonged to Squad Leader Liu were thrown out of his pocket.

Not only that, even the little lama who subconsciously wanted to support them fell down and slipped down the slope.

"Hey! Be careful."

Wei Ran only had time to give a warning, but he also felt dizzy and sat down on the tent. Then his eyes went dark and he lost consciousness.

When he woke up again, he found himself lying on a stretcher. Next to him was Li Zhuang, who was also lying on a stretcher.

"Comrade."

Wei Ran weakly asked the young Red Army soldier carrying the stretcher, "Where is Nurse Ji? And where is the little lama?"

"They are on the stretchers in front," the little soldier smiled and raised his chin towards the front.

"You guys." Wei Ran thought for a moment and asked, "Are you a large group?"

"We came back specifically to look for the sick class."

The young soldier explained, "Last night, we heard a gunshot and concluded that the sick squad must be nearby, so we set out before dawn, but we didn't expect..."

  It turned out that the little lama's gunshot brought reinforcements.

Wei Ran looked at the two stretchers in front of him with difficulty, then looked at Li Zhuang who was still unconscious on the stretcher beside him, and asked the young soldier again, "Did you take our things with you?" "Yes, we took everything."

The young soldier replied, "Take your weapons, blankets, oilcloths, lunch boxes, water bottles, medicine bottles and oil lamps."

"Did you take the two small glass bottles with you?" Wei Ran asked hurriedly, "One is brown, and the other is blue."

"A small glass bottle?"

The young soldier looked bewildered. "Maybe, I'll help you look for it during our break."

"Thanks."

Before Wei Ran could finish his words, everything he could see was swallowed up by the thick white light.

In this white light, he vaguely saw the high ground where he lived last night.

I saw two glass bottles and a pair of iron-legged horses in a small puddle, reflecting the dazzling sunlight.

"As expected, you fell behind. But you must all survive." Wei Ran sighed regretfully and let the white light occupy his entire vision.

When the white light faded, the surrounding environment had turned into a hotel room. Wei Ran, who had been feeling dizzy and hungry just a second ago, once again felt the long-lost physical feeling of fullness.

Wei Ran couldn't help but shiver and looked at the metal notebook in front of him.

  Perhaps it was waiting for him. Until this moment, the metal feather pen slowly began to write lines of golden words:

Long March

Liu Youxiang, the squad leader of the kitchen team, died while collecting food during the crossing of the grassland in July 1936.

Cook Zhang Erwa died in July 1936 when he stepped into a quagmire while exploring the way across the grassland.

Li Zhuang, acting squad leader of the kitchen squad, joined the party gloriously after leading the team out of the grassland in August 1936. In November of the same year, he died heroically in the Battle of Shanchengbao.

"How could he die?" Wei Ran was stunned, and even breathing became extremely difficult. "Didn't he walk out alive? How..."

  While he was distracted, the metal feather pen did not stop, and continued to write the rest of the story:

The little lama (Jiangba Gesang) followed the footsteps of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army into the grassland to join the army in July 1936.

After leaving the grassland in August of the same year, he officially joined the army under the pseudonym "Jiang Yu", and applied to join the party in November of the same year. He was gloriously admitted to the party in 8 and participated in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation.

During the Battle of Chamdo in 1950, Jiang Yu (Jiangba Gesang) was wounded and disabled and retired.

In the autumn of 1952, he took the initiative to apply for a transfer to Ganzi to serve as a rural teacher.

He died of natural causes on a rainy night in the summer of 1980.

Nurse Ji Chunlan joined the Party gloriously after leaving the grassland in August 1936. She participated in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the War of Liberation, and the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Chaozhou.

In the autumn of 1952, Ji Chunlan was killed in a bombing by the US military while protecting the wounded.

When Wei Ran subconsciously clenched his fists, the feather pen did not stop at all and continued to write lines of golden words.

In the winter of 1940, Jiang Yu (Jiang Bagesang) and Ji Chunlan became revolutionary partners.

In October 1945, the couple gave birth to a son and named him Jiang Ji.

In November 1949, after searching for a long time, the two found Zhu Hongjun, the orphan of Comrade Zhao Wanya, through the tiger-head shoes and adopted her as their daughter.

In the autumn of 1952, after Ji Chunlan died, Jiang Yu (Jiangbagesang) took his young son Jiang Ji and adopted daughter Zhu Hongjun to Jingchu. After half a year, he finally found Liu Youxiang's widow and children and began to establish correspondence.

In the summer of 1980, after Jiang Yu (Jiangbagesang) passed away, his son Jiang Ji and adopted daughter Zhu Hongjun respected their father's will and sent his body to the Songpan grassland for sky burial.

Having written here, the metal feather pen started a new line and wrote down a detailed address in Hongyuan County, as well as the name "Jiang Xiangyang" and a mobile phone number.

Rubbing his face vigorously, Wei Ran waited for a moment, and the metal feather pen wrote another line of golden words: "Little comrade, this is the new world we built. It may not be perfect, and it may still have some flaws.

But I still hope you like this new world. The future long march depends on you. I hope you can make it better and better."

  Leave it to us.

As Wei Ran sighed softly, he turned the pale yellow paper to the back with confidence. Under the golden vortex, the metal feather pen wrote apologetically, "Sorry, comrade, we really don't have anything to leave for you."

After reading this sentence, Wei Ran knew without any instruction or as if he had suddenly gained enlightenment that in the golden vortex there were two bamboo baskets carried on a shoulder pole, and there was nothing in the bamboo baskets.

Those revolutionary predecessors said they gave him nothing, but in fact they gave him everything they could.

Wei Ran wiped his face roughly and was about to turn to the previous page to see if the 24 photos he had taken were there, when the pages of the metal notebook began to flip forward and finally stopped at the first page.

As Wei Ran’s nerves suddenly tensed up, the “Captain” in the “Military Rank” column also changed to the blood-red “Major”.

Before he could show any joy on his face, the metal notebook began to turn pages again, showing him the countdown jumping on the vortex containing the Rollei twin-lens reflex camera and the anti-Japanese sword.

  Why did it take so long?

Wei Ran raised his eyebrows. Both countdowns started at 1000 hours, which was about one and a half months.

Seeing that the feather pen that had finished its work had returned to the cover, Wei Ran couldn't wait to turn to the latest page, took out the negatives in the paper bag next to the black-and-white photo, and counted them carefully.

Only after confirming that there was not one more and not one less than the 24 negatives did he finally breathe a sigh of relief, then he took out his cell phone, opened the map function, and entered the address provided in the metal notebook.

“Not too far, not too close.”

Wei Ran muttered something to himself, picked up the medicine bottles and other items on the bath towel one by one, and locked them in the safe in the hotel room.

Sitting on the sofa and recalling what happened before entering the historical fragment, he picked up the car keys and left the hotel room. While going downstairs, he sent a message to Xia Shushi who was still receiving oxygen in the hospital, and drove again to the small hill where the medicine bottle and other items were found.

Before leaving Songpan County, he went to a small supermarket to buy ice cream of various flavors, and then went to a small restaurant to pack up some delicious dishes and a large bowl of white rice.

  He knew very well that "there are spirits in heaven" was just self-consolation for the living, but how could he make himself look rationally at everything he had experienced?

After more than an hour's drive, when he returned here, there was heavy snow and cold wind outside the car window.

Wei Ran, who was sitting in the car with the heater on, shivered involuntarily. Then he looked down at his windbreaker and the down vest underneath.

He really couldn't imagine how those people had persevered - even though he had followed them for a small part of the journey.

Taking a deep breath, Wei Ran pushed open the car door, carrying the food and drinks he had bought, and walked towards the small hill again.

Returning to the place where they had camped before, he placed the food and drinks he had bought on the grass. Then he picked up an orange-flavored ice cream, tore it open, sat cross-legged on the ground, and bit off a piece of it, chewing it in big mouthfuls in the snowy and windy weather.

“Your wish has come true”

Wei Ran, chewing an ice cream in his mouth, reported to the comrades in a vague voice, "Now you can eat as much white rice as you want. You see, apart from the rice, the rest I brought are meat and vegetables. The prices are very cheap and every family can afford it.

You can also eat as much ice cream as you want, there are all kinds of flavors.

I also brought vanilla, chocolate, and cantaloupe flavors for you to try.”

Having said that, Wei Ran wiped his eyes and said, “In this new world you have created, no Ram will be treated as a slave anymore.

No one can wantonly chop off other people's hands and feet or dig out other people's eyes. No one is born to be someone else's mount. No one can use other people's skin to make thangkas or use skulls to make wine bowls.

Your wishes have all come true. Although some people still feel that this new world is not perfect or fair enough, and that there are still some flaws and dissatisfactions, leave the rest to us."

As he spoke, he took out an oil barrel from the metal book and filled the porcelain bowls with boiling hot butter tea with a large amount of sugar.

In the mist, he could clearly see the young Red Army soldiers, each holding an ice cream, happily eating it and sharing it with each other. Their eternally young faces were filled with satisfaction and relief.

  I hope this prosperity is as you wish.

Wei Ran came back to his senses and murmured dejectedly. He put away the oil drum and carefully picked up the packaging bags around it, leaving only the porcelain bowls and plates filled with hot dishes and butter tea, and a plate full of ice creams of various flavors, colors and shapes with the packaging torn open.