War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1588 Friendly Forces Across the River

"go!"

Wei Ran greeted him, then holding the hot water bottle, bent over and stepped on the thick snow to go back to the back of the Temple of the God of Wealth.

At this time, the Japanese soldiers were busy firing at the front to suppress the enemy, but no one paid attention to this place.

Amid the piercing noise of grenade launchers and machine gun fire, Wei Ran clung to the low courtyard wall and went around to the side of the outer wall of the Temple of the God of Wealth. He pulled out the grenade safety pin, took out a box gun, aimed it at the fuse and smashed it. After counting to three silently, he held the hot water bottle in both hands and threw it into the courtyard wall behind him like a slam dunk.

Without waiting for the hot water bottle to fall to the ground, he had already crouched down and ran back for his life. At the same time, Hu Bazhi and Zhao Jinyu had already thrown out the grenades with the fuse knocked out.

"boom!"

As the first explosion sounded, Wei Ran dived into the thick snow and rolled over so that his whole body was covered with the soft and cold snow.

In the yard behind him, the shrapnel and shock waves easily tore apart the copper hot water bottle and exploded the gasoline inside into mist.

"boom!"

Before the grenades thrown by Hu Bazhi and the other man could even explode, the mist of gasoline was ignited by the flaming ruins of the God of Wealth Temple. The almost visible fireball immediately engulfed the space in the front yard of the God of Wealth Temple.

"Boom! Boom!"

There were two more explosions that happened immediately after each other, and the rising fireballs easily ignited everything that was splashed with gasoline - including the Japs who were busy firing!

For a moment, the sound of machine gun fire stopped, and the sound of rifle fire became sporadic, but the pleasant screams became a constant.

  Without any discussion, Wei Ran who climbed out of the snow, Hu Bazhi who pulled out the box gun from his waist, and Zhao Jinyu who was holding the Type 38 rifle, the three of them nimbly climbed over the low earthen guns, and tacitly rushed from the other side of the Temple of the God of Wealth, crouching down towards the remaining enemies who were not affected too much by the explosion just now!

"Pah, pah, pah—!"

Wei Ran switched the box gun to full-automatic mode, held the gun horizontally and pulled the trigger, using the muzzle to fire a fan-shaped sound, easily killing the eight-man grenade launcher group.

"Crack! Crack!"

Although the firing rate of Hu Bazhi's Type 38 machine gun was slower, it was a good match for the other machines and he accurately killed two Japanese soldiers who were operating machine guns behind the wall.

"boom!"

Zhao Jinyu also fired a bullet from the Type 38 rifle in his hand, hitting a Japanese soldier who had already turned around.

"Pah, pah, pah—!"

In less than half a second, Wei Ran turned the box gun in his hand 180 degrees, pulled the trigger again to empty the magazine, and fired another fan-shaped bullet, easily covering the remaining few Japanese soldiers who were squatting against the wall and had turned their guns around.

After this sudden and desperate attack, the only ones left alive in the courtyard of the God of Wealth Temple were those ghostly figures covered in flames.

Even those who were still alive by the wall after being shot by Wei Ran were basically all shot and injured, and became the dead ghosts of Hu Bazhi and Zhao Jinyu's guns one after another.

"You two take care of the rest!"

  As Wei Ran spoke, he had already pounced behind a Type 99 light machine gun, lifted it onto the side of the rifle, aimed at the Japanese who were escaping from the "minefield" into the woods and moving towards this side under the cover of the woods, and pulled the trigger!

"Ta-ta-ta-ta!"

Under this unexpected blow, several Japanese soldiers were knocked down.

The people on the other side of the ditch seemed to have noticed the changes here. They tacitly let go of the puppet soldiers who were struggling to charge towards them in the almost waist-deep snow, and shifted their firepower to the twenty or so Japanese soldiers remaining in the woods.

Under the two-pronged attack at a 90-degree angle, most of the Japanese soldiers in the forest were immediately wiped out. Only the last five or six were left. They were still relying on the cover of the trees, fighting back in vain like a chained immortal.

"Those puppet soldiers are running back!" Zhao Jinyu reminded as he brought the second Type 99 light machine gun to Wei Ran's side.

“Don’t worry about them”

Wei Ran said as he loaded bullets into the machine gun, "Continue to suppress the remaining ones in the woods. Don't use up all the bullets at once."

“I’ve cleaned this up too.”

At this moment, Hu Bazhi came over with a Type 38 rifle with a bayonet on it, crouching down and asking, "What should I do?"

"Practice your shooting skills. Brother Zhao will help you suppress them. Be careful, the two of you. The Japs' accuracy is terrifying!"

After Wei Ran finished speaking, he looked around, crouched down and touched the body of the grenade launcher team that he had killed first.

This grenade launcher team consists of eight people in total, with two Type 89 grenade launchers and a pile of matching Type 89 grenades spread out on the ground.

"You can also use this thing?" Hu Bazhi asked Wei Ran curiously as he squatted down and loaded the bullet into the chamber.

“This is not simple yet”

As Wei Ran spoke, he had already picked up a grenade launcher and stuck it into the frozen snow. He half-knelt down and propped one foot against the hoe blade, holding the grenade launcher with one hand, staring at the level fixed on the barrel. By the way, he also roughly estimated the distance between him and the puppet soldiers in the ditch, and turned the adjusting bolt to make adjustments.

Of course he knew how to use this thing. He had used it quite a lot with his own hands in the jungles of Papua New Guinea. And although this thing required a lot of training, it was actually just that simple. As long as the distance was estimated accurately, it would not be difficult to use it to scare the puppet army.

After everything was ready, he picked up a small Type 89 shell and stuffed it into the muzzle of the gun, then pulled the trigger.

"Tom!"

The shell flew out of the barrel smoothly, drew a parabola and hit the snow less than 20 meters away from the puppet troops and exploded!

With just one shot, the puppet soldiers who were caught in a dilemma in the ditch fell to the ground. It was obvious from their expressions that they were not going to get up anytime soon.

  Again, they are already puppet soldiers, do you expect them to fight? Are the puppet soldiers still asleep or are you still asleep?

After temporarily eliminating the danger from the puppet army, Wei Ran moved to the location where the hot water bottle had just exploded, kicked away a burnt Japanese corpse, and aimed at the general direction of the remaining Japanese soldiers through the low courtyard wall.

After estimating the approximate distance and direction, Wei Ran simply stuffed a grenade into the target and fired it out. However, he didn't care whether this small shell could hit the target or not - he only needed to drive those devils out, or at least let them know that there were people here who could use a grenade launcher.

"boom!"

As expected, after the grenade flew out, it drew a parabolic trajectory and avoided the trees around the Temple of the God of Wealth. However, it inevitably hit the crown of the pine tree where the remaining Japanese soldiers were hiding and exploded.

Even so, the noise was far greater than that of a grenade explosion, and it successfully blew off the crown of a pine tree. The powerful shock wave also successfully caused the snow on a large area of ​​surrounding trees to fall down, completely enveloping the Japanese.

For a moment, the place where the Japanese were hiding seemed to have been thrown a different kind of smoke bomb.

Just at this moment, gunshots were heard again from the other side of the ditch, but the bullets did not go towards the Japs, but instead went towards the forty or fifty puppet soldiers in the ditch.

Wei Ran couldn't help but laugh when he took a look. In just a short while, those puppet soldiers had raised their weapons above their heads with both hands - and were pointing them in their direction.

"Listen up, puppet soldiers in the ditch!"

Wei Ran hid behind the earth wall and shouted at the top of his lungs, "If you want to survive, immediately open fire at where the Japanese are hiding! You can survive if all the Japanese are killed! Both of you shout together!"

At Wei Ran's final call, Hu Bazhi and Zhao Jinyu also began to shout from behind the earth wall, "Listen, puppet soldiers in the ditch! If you want to survive, immediately open fire at the location where the Japanese are hiding! You can survive if all the Japanese are killed!"

After just one round of shouting, the puppet soldiers seemed to have gained a backbone. They raised their guns and began to concentrate their fire on the few remaining Japanese devils in the woods.

"Brother Zhao, please take the trouble to go and get all our things."

Wei Ran called out, "Brother Hu, take advantage of this opportunity to quickly collect the spoils."

"Ah? Now? The devils are not all here yet."

"After all the devils are killed, do you think Cao Da, the shopkeeper on the other side of the ditch, will let us go?"

Wei Ran asked bluntly, and at the same time he had already stripped a canvas grenade launcher carrying case from the corpse of a Japanese soldier, stuffed the grenade launcher into it, and put it directly on his shoulder.

He still has at least 20 kilograms of captured goods to be seized, and the best things to take with him right now are the grenade launcher and the grenade launcher.

"That makes sense!"

Hu Bazhi looked around, then took the risk of dragging back the corpse of the man riding the white horse in front of the entrance of the God of Wealth Temple.

"Hide away! You're risking your life!" Wei Ran was frightened.

"I saw a treasure!"

As Hu Bazhi was speaking, he had already dragged the corpse into the yard. He then whistled a few times and easily "lured" the white horse into the yard.

“I just fell in love with this!”

As Hu Bazhi spoke, he had already taken out a wooden box containing a box gun from the corpse dressed as a Japanese soldier. He happily opened the lid of the wooden gun box and pulled out the box gun inside.

"It's bigger than the one I'm using!" said Hu Bazhi.

"The one that can fire bursts is better than yours."

Wei Ran, who was busy cleaning up the spoils, looked up and said, after all, he had always been thinking about getting a box gun, so naturally he did a lot of research on it.

Because of this, he recognized the box gun by its unique capsule-shaped rate of fire. It was a Mauser M30, which was known as the "short eight-point rate of fire" in this era. It was the predecessor model of the box gun he used.

However, Hu Bazhi didn't seem to care much about this box gun. He just glanced at it casually and put it aside. He went to the side of the white horse that was called over by the whistle and untied a "Nine Dragon Belt" bullet bag from the horse's back.

"What a fucking stingy guy!"

Hu Bazhi couldn't help but mutter after doubling the bullet bag. This leather bullet belt had a total of 12 ammunition bags, but he only found 30 spare bullets in total.

The remaining bullet bags contained either a few silver dollars, a roll of Japanese banknotes, or simply a pack of cigarettes, a box of matches and other miscellaneous items.

Seeing that there was no extra gain, Hu Bazhi carefully touched the man dressed as a Japanese soldier again and found some valuable items. He immediately turned his attention to the cowhide Zhaowu backpacks that were placed on the platform to one side of the entrance of the God of Wealth Temple.

While he was busy, Wei Ran was not idle either. In addition to carrying a grenade launcher, he also emptied two cowhide Zhaowu backpacks that he had picked up at random, and placed all the grenades he had looted into them one by one.

After the consumption by the Japanese and Wei Ran just now, there were 53 Type grenade launchers left, including two signal flares, four smoke bombs, and six flares.

All these things added up definitely weighed more than 20 kilograms. Even so, he greedily took another grenade launcher - these could be given as gifts to the Anti-Japanese Allied Forces soldiers.

In addition to completing the weapons seizure mission, he would occasionally use his not-so-useful machine gun to fire a burst of bullets at the few remaining Japanese soldiers in the woods outside the wall.

With the cooperation of the "three parties", the remaining Japanese devils did not hold out for long before they were all killed. The puppet troops on both sides of the ditch and in the middle of the ditch also gradually calmed down.

After a while, Zhao Jinyu also climbed over the wall and came back carrying Wei Ran and Hu Bazhi's things.

"Brother Zhao, this is for you!"

As Hu Bazhi spoke, he handed over the box gun he had just seized, along with its wooden gun case and 10 bullets.

"Wow! Two German-made short eight-point speed machine guns! This is a good thing! It's no worse than the one used by Brother Wei." Zhao Jinyu recognized the box gun as soon as he took it.

"Have you used it?" Hu Bazhi asked curiously.

"My second brother uses this one. He said a gang member gave it to him. But his was made by Dagu Factory. It's not as good as this one!"

Zhao Jinyu looked at it lovingly, then returned it to Hu Bazhi, "Brother Hu, I'll give you this one. You give me yours..."

"Just take it if you give it to me!"

Hu Bazhi pressed his 10 bullets into the three empty gun boxes and said, "My accuracy is not as good as yours. It's still useful to shoot one by one, but firing continuously like Brother Wei is just a waste of bullets. Besides, this gun is small and convenient to carry."

As he spoke, he had already loaded the three boxes in his hands with bullets, and then handed the last 10 bullets to Wei Ran, and asked, "Brother Wei, what should we do next?"

"Who of you two speaks the best in jargon?" Wei Ran asked as he took down the two crooked-handled guns and put them together.

"That must be Brother Hu"

Zhao Jinyu said first, "My spring flower is half open and it won't be noticeable."

Wei Ran did not give Hu Bazhi a chance to be modest. While loading the crooked handle with bullets, he said, "Wait, you stand at the door and talk to the people on the other side of the ditch and ask them where they came from."

"Where are those puppet soldiers?" Hu Bazhi asked, seemingly not worried about his own safety.

“I’ll arrange them.”

As Wei Ran spoke, he had already placed a loaded Type 99 rifle on the wall, and then he loaded another rifle with ammunition while saying, "Brother Zhao, stay with the machine gun. Don't hold fire until I tell you to."

"it is good!"

Zhao Jinyu said, and quickly put the box gun on his belt, "This Nine Dragon Belt is also a good thing, Brother Wei, you take it."

"You keep it, I don't need it." As he said this, he picked up another crooked-handled rifle and placed it on the top of the wall.

"Listen up, puppet soldiers outside!"

While Wei Ran was loading the only 10 Mauser pistol bullets into the box gun, he shouted across the wall, "I'll give you 10! Put your guns together!"

"We have surrendered our guns. If you want to..."

"Da da da!"

Wei Ran did not give these traitors a chance to negotiate. He pulled the trigger of his crooked handle rifle, fired a burst of shots, then immediately retreated behind the wall and shouted, "Chinese people don't fight Chinese people! Unless you force me into a corner! You decide whether to live or die! I can use the devil's grenade launcher to blow away the ice under your feet."

"No! We surrender!"

Before he finished speaking, the puppet soldiers had simply put their weapons together, raised their hands high and distanced themselves from the weapons.

Seeing Wei Ran nodding at him, Hu Bazhi pulled up his belt, put the three boxes on his waist, straightened the dog-skin hat on his head, put on the dog-skin coat that Zhao Jinyu had just brought back, and then strode out of the gate of the God of Wealth Temple. Standing by the ditch, he also responded loudly, "I'm out in the world, what immortal is coming to visit me?"

Soon, a man came out of the woods opposite the ditch, stood by the ditch with a big horse and a golden sword, clasped his fist and raised it to his left shoulder, and answered loudly with full energy, "The northwest sky is full of clouds, and Paiqin is one of our own!"

"Shake it off!" Hu Bazhi said with a wave of his hand.

"Lantern vine!"

"It turns out to be Brother Zhao!"

Hu Bazhi clasped his fists and weighed them on his left shoulder from a distance, secretly breathed a sigh of relief and asked loudly, "I wonder which pavilion you are worshipping? You are a Taoist who is begging for money, so you shouldn't come to our Cao Da to take care of the dishes."

"Brother! Is that you?"

Before Hu Bazhi could finish his pretentious speech, Zhao Jinyu suddenly stood up and shouted at the top of his voice, "Brother! It's me! Jinyu!"

"Gold and jade!"

There was a cry of surprise from the other side, and no longer caring about the confusing jargon, he shouted, "Why are you here?"

"Where is my second brother?!" Zhao Jinyu did not answer, but just asked loudly.

The man opposite immediately realized something and shouted, "Your second brother Jinshan has gone to the Russian territory! Where's your third sister?!"

"I'm in Shanxi for confinement!"

Zhao Jinyu responded loudly, and excitedly said to Wei Ran and Hu Bazhi, "The person over there is my big brother Zhao Jinge! It has just been confirmed that he has the final say over there! Do you want to meet him?"

"We go over there or you come over here!"

Before Wei Ran and Hu Bazhi could speak, Zhao Jinge on the opposite side also shouted, and at the same time, he had already run towards the wooden bridge over the ditch.

Wei Ran and Hu Bazhi looked at each other, and said as they took the crooked handle down, "Let them wait for a while, there are still puppet troops to be dealt with."

"Yes, yes, yes!" Zhao Jinyu slapped his forehead and shouted to his elder brother Zhao Jinge to wait a moment.

"Listen up, puppet soldiers in the ditch!"

Wei Ran shouted with full energy, "Come here with your hands raised if you want to live! Kneel down side by side with your backs to me and put your arms around the necks of the people next to you! Put the extra hands on the top of your heads!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the disarmed puppet soldiers ran back in a swarm without even a stutter, wading through waist-deep snow, and knelt in a row on the side, putting their hands on the necks of the people on both sides.

"Comrade Zhao Jinge! Bring your men here!" Wei Ran shouted.

Across the ditch, Zhao Jinge raised his eyebrows when he heard the word "comrade". After a moment's hesitation, he waved his hand behind him, "Lao Zhang! You take the people from Team 2 and stay here! Team 1! Come over here!"

"Can you trust your brother?"

The man called Lao Zhang asked cautiously. His beard and eyebrows were all covered with white frost, and his old face was also covered with frostbite.

"It's trustworthy. He should come here to join us and fight the Japanese." Zhao Jinge said.

"He came at the wrong time," said Lao Zhang with a sigh.

Zhao Jinge opened his mouth and finally gave an order, "Guerrilla Team One! Follow me!"

Before he finished speaking, warriors in tattered clothes but with determined expressions emerged from behind the surrounding trees.

Without any further communication, Zhao Jinge led them across the wooden bridge and walked step by step to the entrance of the Temple of the God of Wealth, following the sled marks.

"Brother! It's really you!"

The moment Zhao Jinyu saw Zhao Jinge, her eyes turned red and tears started to fall.

"What's wrong with you?"

Zhao Jinge immediately realized something and asked cautiously, "Dad and Mom."

"Dead, all dead!"

Zhao Jinyu was sobbing and wiping her tears while recounting her family's experiences with a sense of grievance.

Sighing silently, Wei Ran took out his camera and took a photo of the two brothers and the dozen or so anti-Japanese fighters behind them. Then he stuffed the camera back into his arms and, under the vigilant gaze of the anti-Japanese fighters, he held up the crooked-handled rifle and pointed it at the prisoners kneeling in a row, "Listen to me, take off your cotton coats, trousers and shoes now!"

"Boss! This won't work."

"boom!"

It was Hu Bazhi who fired the shot. Fortunately, he only aimed the shot at the sky above his head. "Why are you talking so much nonsense! Take off your clothes when I tell you to! I often hunt man-eating dogs in mass graves, and it is not uncommon for me to strip the clothes of the dead! Are you waiting for me to take off your clothes?"

Obviously, Hu Bazhi's threats, which were full of gangster spirit, were more effective.

For a moment, although these dozens of puppet soldiers were unwilling, they still reluctantly took off their cotton coats, cotton trousers and big cotton shoes.

"listen!"

Wei Ran, holding a crooked-handled rifle, shouted, "There are plenty of devils in the forest and in the God of Wealth Temple. Go and carry them out now. Whoever carries them out first can strip them of their clothes and wear them. If you are slow, you will have to run back naked!"

"Da da!"

Before these huddled puppet soldiers were ready to run, Wei Ran fired a burst of shots at the ditch and finally reminded them, "Pick up all the spoils for me. If anyone takes something they shouldn't, all 10 people around will die! Also, I'll count to 50! Anyone who hasn't come back after 50 will die! 1!"

As soon as the number was counted, the puppet soldiers immediately became chaotic. Some ran into the Temple of the God of Wealth, some ran to the distant woods, and some even pushed and kicked the people around them back into the ditch.

They were not stupid. Whether it was the explosion or the collapse of the God of Wealth Temple, there must not be enough clothes for the Japanese soldiers to share, so there must be some who didn't get any clothes. Since there was no way to increase the numerator, the only thing they could do was to reduce the denominator.

"They won't run away, will they?" Hu Bazhi asked in a low voice.

"I can't run away. Where can I run to?"

Wei Ran replied calmly, then skipped two numbers and continued counting slowly.

When he reached number 9, some puppet soldiers had already run out, dragging the corpses they had found from the Temple of the God of Wealth, nodding and bowing.

"The guns were on one sledge, and the rest of the stuff was on another sledge."

Wei Ran, who had his back to the Zhao brothers the entire time, said slowly and loudly, "Empty your pockets before putting on your clothes and shake them hard! 12! 13! 14"

The puppet soldiers glanced at the crooked-handled rifle in Wei Ran's hand with fear in their eyes, and without thinking, put away all the belongings of the devil except his clothes as required. Then they turned over all the pockets of their clothes and showed them to Hu Bazhi. Only after he nodded did they shake the clothes vigorously and put them on themselves.

“Change your clothes and go back to kneel!” Wei Ran, who had already counted to 39, waved his hand and continued counting slowly.

As he deliberately let them go, all the puppet soldiers ran back before the count to 50. The only difference was that a dozen of them did not get clothes - not only were there many Japanese buried in the Temple of the God of Wealth, but several were also burned in the yard.

"Those who didn't get any clothes, don't worry," Wei Ran said with a smile, "Just kneel down and bear with it!"

After that, he handed the crooked-handled machine gun to Hu Bazhi and slowly taught him how to shoot. Then he turned to Zhao Jinge, who had finished reminiscing about the past, and said, "Comrade Zhao Jinge, these clothes are a meeting gift. Let the brothers change into them quickly to keep warm."

"This"

“It’s OK not to wear it”

Wei Ran said with a smile, "If you don't wear them, I will shoot all these puppet soldiers."

"We beg you to put it on!"

Those puppet soldiers were not stupid and they immediately pleaded for mercy without any hints.

They could all hear that although Wei Ran spoke with a smile, he was actually a real madman, and what he said just now was definitely not just talk.

"You are here voluntarily, right?" Wei Ran asked with a smile.

"Yes! We all volunteer!"

The puppet soldiers assured in a confused manner, "We volunteered like a turtle eating a weight!"

After carefully examining Wei Ran, Zhao Jinge waved his hand and said, "Comrades, change your clothes!"

"Yes!"

The dozen or so soldiers behind Zhao Jinge responded in unison, but only half of them took off their tattered clothes and put on the thick cotton coats and cotton shoes taken from the puppet soldiers.

After this half of the people had changed their clothes, the other half of the soldiers with guns began to change their clothes.

But looking at the clothes they took off, Wei Ran couldn't help but sigh. What kind of clothes were those?

It is called a cotton-padded jacket, but it is less than a finger thick. Even though it is patched up with patches, the yellowed cotton is still visible in many places.

  As for the shoes

Where are the decent shoes?

Nail a piece of animal skin on a piece of wood and step on it, wrap the sole of the foot and tie it with a rope at the ankle. That's considered good.

  Most of them simply wrapped rags around their feet, and those rags had already frozen into ice lumps on their feet!

Coming back to his senses, Wei Ran looked at Zhao Jinge and asked seriously, "It's getting cold, let the comrades over there come over and change their clothes."

Zhao Jinge opened his mouth, hesitated for a moment, and finally nodded, then waved towards the other side.

(End of this chapter)