War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1545 11 and 20

In the night illuminated by the flares that were launched one after another, a hot air balloon dressed like the Long Gun Gang was moving in a swaggering but not slow manner, carrying the captured weapons.

Behind him, Wei Ran, with a square scarf wrapped around his head, stuffed the Uzi submachine gun magazine with all the bullets taken out into his sleeve, then took out the magazine of the pistol in the metal notebook and filled it with bullets.

Wei Ran put the remaining bullets into his pocket, put away his pistol, and picked up the folding stock AKM rifle hanging on his shoulder, and checked it skillfully as he walked.

"Dongfeng, were you really a medic before?"

The sewing machine walking behind him asked in a strange whisper, "No, let me ask it another way. How long have you been in the army?"

"It wasn't long. What happened?" Wei Ran answered the question vaguely.

"No, it's nothing."

The sewing machine wisely did not ask any more questions, but the hot air balloon in front of it subconsciously followed suit and said, "The most experienced veterans I have ever seen can't do it as well as you... Let me think about it, so smooth? Yes, it is indeed smooth."

"Is that a compliment?"

Wei Ran asked casually, while at the same time using the bayonet to leave seven scratches of varying depths on the handguard of the Soviet rifle.

“I think it’s a compliment.”

The sewing machine, which had no intention of continuing this topic, couldn't help but agree, "To be honest, you seem to be more accustomed to this kind of environment instead of the operating room. It was more like work to you then, but now it's more like your life."

"The seam is wrong. What wind was it? The south wind? Yes, the south wind is right."

The hot air balloon also echoed, "That's what I just wanted to say."

"It's West."

"Shh-"

Wei Ran deftly stuffed the bayonet back into the magazine of the Uzi submachine gun in his sleeve, and at the same time loaded the bullet into the chamber extremely quickly, pointing the muzzle of the gun at an alley on the side of the road where a flashlight beam was swaying. The beam seemed to be getting closer and closer.

After receiving the prompt, Hot Air Balloon immediately turned off the flashlight, but soon, at Wei Ran's signal, he turned the flashlight on again and walked straight towards the alley.

"Ask them about their harvest," Wei Ran whispered in French, "and whether they need any support."

The hot air balloon nodded, leaned against the corner of the alley, shone the flashlight over, and shouted in Arabic the questions that Wei Ran wanted to ask.

Almost at the same time as the other party responded, Wei Ran had already squatted down and leaned out half of his body. Holding the gun with both hands, he repeatedly pulled the trigger of the pistol with a silencer at the other party!

Amid the faint sound of gunfire, the flashlights of several people on the opposite side were first extinguished. They were also exposed under the flashlight beam of the hot air balloon, and were shot and fell one after another.

"Go quickly"

Wei Ran said this without any hesitation, he didn't even have the intention of going up to fire another shot.

Upon hearing this, the hot air balloon immediately turned off the flashlight. The three of them ran forward quickly for about a hundred meters until they turned a corner again, and then they turned on the flashlight again at Wei Ran's signal.

"How many people did you just kill?"

The sewing machine asked curiously. Of course he was curious. While he was hiding in the corner waiting to ambush the enemy, Wei Ran had already "brutally" ended the battle.

"Only three," Wei Ran said, once again removing the pistol magazine and refilling it with bullets, "How far do we have to go?"

"Very armored car!"

The hot air balloon gave a reminder before they even finished their words, and then the three of them saw an M113 armored vehicle turning at the intersection directly in front of them. The dazzling headlights of the armored vehicle immediately enveloped the three of them.

“Don’t run”

Wei Ran, who was walking in the second place, waved enthusiastically towards the armored vehicle and said, "Remember to say hello actively later."

"it is good"

The hot air balloon in front responded, and belatedly imitated Wei Ran's waving his arms, while the latter had already taken out a pack of confiscated cigarettes and was ready.

Amid the rumbling noise of the engine and the vibration of the tracks rolling over the ground, the armored vehicle drove towards them, and the hot air balloon also enthusiastically greeted the soldier operating the machine gun on it in Arabic.

"Hey!"

Wei Ran shouted to the driver, and when the other party looked over, he shook the cigarette in his hand and then gently threw it to him.

The latter took the cigarette and enthusiastically gave a loose salute to Wei Ran, who also raised his hand randomly as a response.

After avoiding the armored vehicle so easily, the sewing machine said in fear, "I almost peed myself just now."

“We haven’t already”

"I thought what Mr. Dongfeng threw over was a grenade. That's what I'm afraid of." The sewing machine explained unhappily.

“That’s too much noise.”

Wei Ran explained nonchalantly. He would never admit that he had such thoughts just now. "So how far do we have to go?"

“It’s almost here”

The hot air balloon pointed the beam of its flashlight forward, "There's an alley right there, on the other side of the alley."

"Then hurry up," Wei Ran urged in a low voice.

Upon hearing this, the hot air balloon immediately quickened its pace, took the two of them into the alley, and ran to the other side a few dozen meters away.

Then, before they walked out of the alley, the three of them heard the crying of children and an old voice that seemed to be begging for something through the courtyard wall that was less than two meters high.

The hot air balloon was stunned for a moment, and then quickly quickened its pace. When they walked out of the alley, they saw the open gate next to the alley entrance. Inside the gate, there were mixed sounds of children crying, old people begging and screaming, and wanton laughter.

Because of the flares rising overhead from time to time, Wei Ran saw at a glance that there was an armed man in the yard punching and kicking an old man who was kneeling on the ground holding his legs.

Next to him, there was another person looking after a few children who were huddled under the vines against the wall.

In the two-story building at the other end of the yard, there was another swaying flashlight beam.

"Sewing machine, you are responsible for closing the door."

Wei Ran grabbed the hot air balloon that was about to rush in and whispered, "Hot air balloon, take care of the one guarding the child, don't make any noise."

"Okay," the two of them whispered in response to Wei Ran's arrangement, and Hot Air Balloon took out a multifunctional Swiss knife from his pocket and unfolded the blade.

"Use this." Wei Ran helplessly pulled out the bayonet and handed it to the other party.

The former was quite straightforward. He simply put away the knife that was used as a joke and took the slender bayonet that Wei Ran handed over. It was covered in blood and felt sticky when he held it.

Without wasting too much time, Wei Ran was the first to step into the yard and rushed straight towards the militant who was committing violence.

Almost at the same time when he grabbed the militant's head and twisted it hard with a crisp sound, the hot air balloon had already stabbed the bayonet into the lower back of the soldier guarding the child, easily piercing the kidney. The sewing machine that came in last turned around and closed the iron door with confidence.

Without even letting go of the limp, warm body in his hands, Wei Ran had already taken out a pistol with a silencer, aimed at the beam of light coming out from the first floor of the small building, and pulled the trigger repeatedly.

While suppressing the opponent, he quickly walked over to close the distance between the two sides, and took out a flashlight and emitted a beam of light.

Almost when there was only one bullet left in the pistol magazine, Wei Ran had already walked to the window, aimed at the elbow of the man hiding in the corner of the fireplace and pulled the trigger for the last time.

"Snapped!"

"what--"

The elbow of the hiding militant was shattered by a bullet, and he also let out a shrill scream.

"boom!"

Wei Ran, who had changed into AKM one step ahead, aimed at the opponent's leg that was accidentally exposed due to severe pain and fired another bullet, which unsurprisingly brought a new round of screams.

There was no rush to walk into the room. Wei Ran was like a venomous snake patiently waiting for its prey to bleed to death. He placed the muzzle of his gun on the windowsill and pressed the notched handguard with the flashlight in his other hand, waiting for the other party to counterattack and for his companions behind him to come for support.

It took less than 20 seconds, and the hot air balloon came over. It also put the muzzle of the gun on the windowsill and said, "The good news is that there are only three enemies. The bad news is that the old guy was shot in the thigh and the fingers of one hand were cut off. The sewing machine is helping."

"How are the children?"

As Wei Ran spoke, he pulled the trigger again, preparing to hit the other party's gun muzzle that had just been extended.

"There are a few more children hiding on the first floor, in the chimney of the fireplace." Hot Air Balloon whispered into Wei Ran's ear.

"Keep an eye on him"

While speaking, Wei Ran took the bayonet that the other party had returned to him, and finally walked towards the door with his back bent. He moved to the side of another window, carefully stuck his head out, aimed at the curled up Falangist militant, and pulled the trigger for the last time.

"Bang!" After the crisp gunshot, a hot bullet shell hit the ground at his feet, and the enemy's body went limp and he became motionless.

Pushing open the door, Wei Ran walked into the messy room, intending to drag the corpse out first.

However, when he saw the body with a bullet in the forehead, he couldn't help but sigh. The man's beard was still in a fuzzy state, and he was probably no more than sixteen or seventeen years old.

  Is it the song beep?

Wei Ran uttered an incoherent curse, dragged the corpse out, expressionlessly stripped off the Falangist uniform on him and threw it aside, then performed another humiliating castration and cut off his scalp to cover his overly young face.

While he was dragging the body to the door and placing it outside the gate, Hot Air Balloon also walked into the room and called down several children hiding in the fireplace chimney. Obviously, these children all knew Hot Air Balloon.

When Wei Ran wiped the blood off his hands and returned to the yard, Sewing Machine had already stood up and said with guilt and helplessness, "I'm sorry, he's dying. He lost too much blood, but I don't even have a pair of hemostat."

"It's not your fault. It's not your fault."

Hot Air Balloon took off his scarf and carefully wiped the old man's face which was covered with blood and tears. He carried him to the vines beside the wall and whispered, "I took a family photo for them during the day. I also specially invited Rama to come and take a Polaroid photo for each of them."

As he spoke, he took out two Polaroid photos carefully wrapped in newspaper from the old man's coat pocket and showed them to Wei Ran and the sewing machine.

The first small photo is a group photo of the old man and 11 children. The second one is a solo photo of him holding a photo frame. In the photo frame is an old lady who looks very elegant.

Wrapping the two small photos in newspaper and putting them in his pocket, the hot air balloon said, "This gentleman is Ahmed Al Mustafa. Please remember his name. He is a qualified teacher who protects 11 children."

"let's go"

The sewing machine sighed and continued what he had just said, "We have 11 children now. How are we going to get out of here?"

"I'll continue to pretend to be a member of the Long Spear Party in the front," the hot air balloon said, "and you two will be responsible for protecting the children in the back."

"That's all we can do. Let's go," the sewing machine replied.

"Wait first"

Wei Ran stopped the two of them, pointed to the top of his head and said, "We noticed when we came here just now that all the Long Spear Party members are in teams of three or four people. There are three of us with 11 children. Isn't such a team a little too conspicuous?"

"You mean the one who's watching us from up high?"

As a former extralegal sniper, Hot Air Balloon immediately guessed what Wei Ran wanted to express, and he subconsciously looked in the direction of the Kuwaiti Embassy - whether intentionally or by coincidence, the wall that Wei Ran was leaning against just blocked the view from the direction of the seven-story building.

"Do you have any good ideas?" The hot air balloon simply threw the question.

'Two approaches'

Wei Ran hesitated for a moment and then replied, "Or, we can go a few more times and take the children to the hospital in batches.

Or, the three of us could split up, each taking three or four children, and go back in different directions, even taking different routes.”

"Is there no better way?" the sewing machine couldn't help asking.

"Yes, of course."

Wei Ran said the third option without hesitation, which was also his original idea, "Remember that armored vehicle?"

"You want to hijack that armored vehicle?"

Hot Air Balloon's eyes widened. He had to admit that he was attracted to the idea the moment he heard it. If they could hijack an armored vehicle, they could drive to the hospital openly, or even drive to the vicinity of the hospital.

But after the excitement, he calmed down. The risk was too great, so great that if he was not careful, it might bring a catastrophe to all the medical workers in the hospital, as well as the patients and the children they wanted to protect.

"No, no."

Sewing Machine was the first to regain his senses. "Hijacking an armored vehicle is too risky. This is the perfect excuse for the Falange to attack the hospital."

"We have 11 children, if we separate them"

"The two youngest children are only five years old, and the older one is only six years old."

The balloon said, "We can each carry one, and then we only need to carry the other eight children."

“Divide into three groups”

Wei Ran said, "Except for the child on your back and the hot air balloon, you take the two oldest children and walk in front. The sewing machine and I will each take the rest of the children and keep a distance from you."

"This is the only way," the hot air balloon said, and then switched to Arabic.

Before he finished speaking, a few of the oldest-looking children among the 11 children ran into the room and brought back some sheets, towels and other things.

Under the silent gaze of Wei Ran and the sewing machine, Hot Air Balloon used his multi-purpose Swiss knife to cut several towels. The children also took half a piece each, folded it carefully into a ball, and stuffed it into their mouths.

After a while, the three youngest children were chosen. Seeing this, Wei Ran and the other two squatted down and let the three children lie on them. Then they tied them to their backs with bed sheets.

“I can hug one more.”

As the sewing machine spoke, it picked up another little guy, let him hug its neck, and tied him to its body with an extra gray sheet.

Compared to him, Wei Ran and the hot air balloon did not do so. The hot air balloon did not even tie the child on its back.

Wei Ran knew that it was to make it easier for the child to come down and hide as quickly as possible so that he could deal with the enemy as a member of the Long Spear Party.

Without wasting too much time, the three men each led two or three children with their mouths blocked, out of the yard filled with the smell of blood, and walked along the alley that could barely block the view of the upper floors in the distance, returning to the direction of the hospital and walking cautiously.

"12 already, 8 more to go."

Wei Ran muttered secretly, and at the same time used the bayonet in his hand to make 5 more cuts on the handguard of the AKM.

In addition to being eight heads short of his KPI, he also had to keep an eye on the children he was responsible for.

On his back was a little girl who had her eyes closed the whole time and covered her ears tightly with her hands. Behind him were two siblings, about seven or eight years old, holding hands.

This was the information he got from the hot air balloon before departure, and it was the only information he knew. Because they still couldn't communicate in the same language, he couldn't even ask the three little guys what their names were.

Moving forward along the only shadow at the base of the wall, the three teams, which were 50 meters apart from each other, did not have a smooth journey, especially since they had no means of communication with each other. The only signal was the occasional flashlight from the hot air balloon.

After safely returning to the three bodies that Wei Ran had shot while saying hello in the hot air balloon, he took a look and found that in such a short while, all their weapons and ammunition were gone. This was undoubtedly good news.

Obviously, someone had taken their weapons, either to defend themselves or to resist. The sound of gunfire in the distance undoubtedly leaned more towards the latter possibility.

“Let’s take a different route”

The hot air balloon waved and took their three groups into another alley, avoiding the scene of a gunfight in the distance.

However, as the saying goes, what you fear will come true. Almost as soon as the hot air balloon walked out of the alley, a sudden exchange of gunfire broke out on the street.

What made the three of them even more helpless was that the Falange soldiers who were currently engaged in a firefight were right to their left - with their backs facing them.

The most important thing is that one of the Falangists who was hiding in a shop across the street from them, just across the street, had even discovered the hot air balloon and was now talking and gesturing, obviously signaling him to come over to help.

Seeing that the child on the hot air balloon and the other two older children were running towards him following the shadow of the wall, and that the hot air balloon had already squatted at the entrance of the alley and started shooting, Wei Ran quickly took the child off his back and moved forward with his gun in hand.

"There are four Falangists here"

After the hot air balloon lowered the muzzle and fired a series of meaningless bursts at the road in the distance, he continued in a hurried tone, "I don't know how many people are on the other side, but there are only two guns. If we don't deal with the people here quickly, I'm afraid that other spearmen will come to support us soon."

"Where are they?" Wei Ran quickly leaned over to take a look while speaking.

"There's one in the store across the street," the hot air balloon whispered, "and the other three are on this side of the road."

"Deal with the one on the other side first."

As Wei Ran spoke, he placed his AKM rifle against the corner of the wall. At the same time, he placed the pistol with a silencer in his left hand on the unfolded butt of the assault rifle and aimed at the "companion" who was looking diagonally opposite from him from time to time.

"Snapped!"

Almost at the moment when the Falange member diagonally opposite showed up, Wei Ran immediately pulled the trigger of his pistol, and at the moment the pistol shell was ejected, he and the hot air balloon pulled the trigger of their rifles at the same time, and fired a series of meaningless bursts at the same time.

The hot air balloon deliberately waited for the "enemy" to open fire and then shouted in Arabic, "It seems the guy across the road got shot! We'll cover you, you go check on him! Bring him over to us, and you come over too!"

"Okay!" The other three Long Spear Party members immediately responded.

At the same time, Wei Ran, who was already prepared, curled his lips. According to later historical records, only two people were killed or injured among the 150 Falange members sent in that night.

But he alone had killed almost 20 people. Obviously, the records of later generations were simply written with shit to fool people.

  After all, if the Falangists only suffered two casualties, how many more could they have killed?

While he was thinking about all sorts of things and firing to provide cover, the three Long Spearmen had no intention of going to the other side of the road to rescue their companions. Instead, they took advantage of their cover and ran straight towards him with their backs bent!

Seeing this, Wei Ran and Hot Air Balloon moved their guns in unison, covering the three good brothers in the dense barrage of bullets they fired.