War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1590: Coming at the wrong time, coming at the right time

At the gate of the collapsed Temple of the God of Wealth, the young Anti-Japanese Allied Forces fighters, who had tried their best to tidy themselves up, lined up under the guidance of the Zhao brothers and took turns putting on the Kowloon Belts they had just seized, putting on their rifles and box guns, and temporarily putting on the dog-skin coats and hats lent to them by Zhao Jinyu, Hu Bazhi and even Wei Ran.

After wearing outfits that would reassure their families, these young men stood beside the beautiful white mule and in front of the trophies, with bright smiles on their faces as dazzling as the snow reflecting the sunlight, looking at the camera in Wei Ran's hand and letting the latter press the shutter towards them.

Until the end, when they finished taking photos of Hu Bazhi and Old Zhang, Zhao Jinge and Zhao Jinyu, who had changed their clothes, stood side by side, "Brother Wei, take a photo of us two brothers."

"it is good"

Wei Ran nodded in agreement, waited for the two brothers to be ready, and then pressed the shutter button seriously.

"Okay, we've taken all the photos we need to take, and it's time for us to leave."

As Zhao Jinge spoke, he took off his dog-skin coat and handed it to Wei Ran along with the fur on his head.

"You keep it." Wei Ran waved his hand, "I'm not cold."

"What did you say!"

Zhao Jinge put the dog fur on Wei Ran's head without saying anything, and then forced the dog fur coat on him, "This mountain is not like home, the wind is very cold, if you catch a cold it can be fatal."

Wei Ran opened his mouth but didn't insist. He put on the fur coat Hu Bazhi had given him, stuffed the camera into his arms and asked, "Where are we going now?"

"Get in the car!"

Zhao Jinge just greeted him with a smile, but was cautious not to explain.

Seeing this, Wei Ran knew what to do and stopped asking questions. He took the initiative to sit on the sled pulled by the white mule that Hu Bazhi was calling, and followed the sled convoy across the wooden bridge across the ditch and headed towards the direction of the ambush set by Zhao Jinge and others.

In addition to Wei Ran and his companions, the white mule sled also carried the 50 Japanese backpacks that were captured, as well as the grenade launchers and shells that Wei Ran had packed up. Of course, there was also the "luggage" of him, Hu Bazhi, and Zhao Jinyu.

"Does this mean we are soldiers of the Anti-Japanese Allied Forces?" Hu Bazhi asked in a low voice. At this time, he also had a fancy "Nine Dragon Belt" around his waist.

"Yes," Wei Ran nodded, raised his camera and pressed the shutter towards the mule sled convoy in front.

“They’ve had a really hard time.”

Hu Bazhi whispered, "Look at the rags they are wearing. They are worse than the ones I took off the dead."

"Are you scared?" Wei Ran asked deliberately.

"afraid?"

Hu Bazhi spat, "As long as I can beat the Japanese, I'm not afraid of freezing to death with my bare bottom."

"You don't have to fight the Japanese with your bare buttocks. That will happen 70 or 80 years later."

Wei Ran muttered something that Hu Bazhi couldn't possibly understand, then lowered his voice and said, "How about a negotiation?"

"Brother Wei is so polite," Hu Bazhi said carelessly, "Just tell me what you want to say!"

"When you have time later, could you please work hard and make a few dog-skin hats out of the dog-skin coat you gave me?"

Wei Ran raised his chin towards the convoy in front of him and said, "Look at them, their ears and faces are all covered with frostbite. If..."

"Brother Wei, stop talking."

Hu Bazhi waved his hand before Wei Ran finished speaking, "I'll start when we get there, and I'll make sure everyone gets one!"

At this point, Hu Bazhi paused, made some estimates, and said, "If you don't care about style but just want warmth, I think those two wolfskin blankets will be enough."

"I'll drive the car, how about you start now?" Wei Ran asked.

"You can't even tell the difference between a mule and a horse, how can you drive a cart?" Hu Bazhi asked suspiciously.

"This big mule has been following the front, do I need to drive it?" Wei Ran asked righteously.

"also"

Hu Bazhi was quite straightforward and simply moved aside to make room for Wei Ran. He then pulled over his sack and took out a leather cutter from it. After shaking open the wolfskin blanket, he cut off a corner of the blanket with a "swish", cutting off a piece of leather that was slightly larger than the red scarf of later generations and was nearly a triangle in shape.

This wolfskin blanket is very solidly made. The outer side is made of wolfskin, and a layer of soft rabbit skin is sewn inside.

He pinched the two short sides of the triangular leather together and put it on his head to try it out. Then Hu Bazhi took out a needle and thread bobbin made of birch bark from the sack, took out a sharp and shiny awl, and took out a roll of the thinnest leather rope, and began to sew.

It took less than ten minutes to complete a hat that was somewhat similar to a lama's monk's hat.

Although the craftsmanship is simple and anyone can make it, it is just as warm and can cover the ears. The only drawback is that it is not as stable to wear as a genuine dog-skin hat.

This was not a problem for Hu Bazhi. He picked up the leather cutter again and cut a palm-wide slit from the corner of the blanket to make a slit on the hat. After some calculations, he cut it in the middle, punched holes on both sides, threaded a leather rope through it, and handed it to Wei Ran again.

He put on the hat and used the palm-sized piece of leather to cover his chin. After Wei Ran tied the leather rope, he gave Hu Bazhi a thumbs up. With this piece of leather, not only would the hat not be blown away by the wind, but it also protected his face.

"I'll sew with you"

As Wei Ran spoke, he took an awl from the other person's sewing machine.

"Why don't we let Brother Zhao come over and lend a hand?" Hu Bazhi asked in a low voice.

Looking at Zhao Jinyu, who was sitting on the sled at the front of the convoy and chatting with Zhao Jinge, Wei Ran shook his head and said, "Forget it, let the two brothers reminisce about the past."

Hearing this, Hu Bazhi nodded, cut out two more triangular pieces of leather, handed one of them to Wei Ran, and the two began sewing.

"What are you two doing, brothers?"

Before Wei Ran finished sewing the first hat in his hand, the squad leader called "Old Zhang" came up and sat on the other side of the sled and asked curiously.

"Uncle Zhang is here just in time. Let's try it on."

As Hu Bazhi spoke, he handed over the first hat he had made.

After taking the hat, which was not very good-looking, and looking at it, Old Zhang, who was only wearing a piece of rag to protect his head from the cold, happily put it on his head, tied the leather string carefully, tried it out, and exclaimed happily, "This leather hat is really well made!"

"It's just a random stitch, so just make do with it."

Hu Bazhi responded a little shyly, and had already made the second hat while speaking.

At the same time, Old Zhang took off his hat and asked curiously, "From what you said, you want to give one to each of us?"

"One person must have one cap"

Hu Bazhi looked at the other party in confusion, "Why did we miss a few?"

"I heard from Jin Yu that you are a hunter?"

"Yeah!" Hu Bazhi nodded. While speaking, he had already cut another piece of leather and picked up the awl again.

"Are you willing to give up such a big piece of good fur?" Old Zhang asked curiously as he picked up the wolfskin blanket that the former had just put down.

"What the hell are you talking about, uncle!"

Hu Bazhi was not happy and shouted in a loud voice, "How can I be reluctant to part with a piece of skin? Forget about that. If I can kill all the Japanese and skin me alive, I won't even frown!"

As soon as these words came out, the soldiers on the sleds in front turned their heads to look over. The smile on Old Zhang's face was even brighter than when he put on the fur hat.

"Good! Well said!"

Old Zhang smiled and patted Hu Bazhi's shoulder, "With a good guy like you, we can definitely drive away all the Japanese devils!"

"We have to kill them all, kill them all!" Hu Bazhi muttered incoherently, and he used much more force with the awl in his hand as he pierced the leather.

"Old squad leader"

Wei Ran made the invitation at the right time and changed the subject, "Why don't we get a few people to help? This way it will be faster. Maybe everyone can wear a fur hat before we get there."

"Yes, old squad leader Zhang, please find a few comrades who can play the piano and come to help."

Hu Bazhi first followed Wei Ran's example and used the title "old squad leader". At the same time, he couldn't help but change the respectful title for "brother" in the jargon to "comrade".

Hearing this, Old Zhang smiled, glanced at the three remaining needles in the syringe, and said loudly, "Jin Ge, ask your brother to come over and help. Xiao Hu, you are a handy boy, come and help too."

"coming!"

Zhao Jinyu was the first to respond, but the young soldier named Xiaohu jumped off a sled in front and ran forward to salute.

"Come, learn how to do it from Comrade Hu Bazhi."

Old Zhang said as he sat down and gave his seat to the young man named Xiaohu.

"This is easy!"

The young soldier named Xiaohu just took a look and picked up a big needle at the same time Zhao Jinyu arrived.

"What are you going to do?" Zhao Jinyu had already jumped onto the sled while speaking.

"Needlework" Wei Ran raised his chin towards Hu Bazhi.

Zhao Jinyu also just glanced at the finished product and the work that Wei Ran and Hu Bazhi were busy with, then reached out and picked up the last big needle in the syringe.

Along the way, as hats were sewn one by one and passed to the soldiers in front, Wei Ran also got some scattered information from the old squad leader sitting next to him and the young soldier named Xiaohu. The most important information was that Zhao Jinyu's second brother Zhao Jinshan had sent him a letter in the summer and left the team for the Russians soon after. He also learned that the Japanese had been encircling and suppressing them since last month, and they had lost almost a squad of comrades in the past month.

Not only that, there are now two wounded people in their camp, and most importantly, they have been out of food for four days.

"To be honest, you three came at a bad time."

Old Zhang took Hu Bazhi's tobacco pouch, scooped a bowl of dry tobacco leaves from his pipe, lit it, took a deep puff, and said worriedly, "Since the beginning of autumn, the Japanese have been besieging us like crazy. I'm afraid we will have a hard time this winter."

"Old squad leader, I don't like what you said."

Hu Bazhi retorted dissatisfiedly, "When is the right time for us to come? When the enemy is done fighting? By then, we won't even be able to eat hot shit."

"I think what Brother Hu said is right!"

Zhao Jinyu echoed, "We joined the Anti-Japanese United Army to fight the Japanese. Why choose a time? The more difficult the time, the more we should come. I think the three of us came at the right time!"

"You're right!"

The one who agreed with them was not the silent Wei Ran, but Xiaohu, the youngest soldier in the Anti-Japanese Allied Forces.

Through the self-introductions during the conversation just now, Wei Ran and the other two all knew that this young soldier named Tian Xiaohu was only 16 years old, but he was already a veteran of the Anti-Japanese Allied Forces who had been in the army for four years.

This enlistment does need to be put in quotation marks. In the beginning, he was just an orphan adopted by the anti-Japanese fighters. Usually he just helped to run errands, at most helping to keep watch or transmit information.

However, ever since the Japanese began to encircle and suppress the Anti-Japanese United Army, Tian Xiaohu, who was unwilling to leave, finally got the weapons as he wished. In the past few months, he has killed six Japanese.

In the slightly shaking carriage, Wei Ran, who was busy sewing the last few leather hats, did not join the conversation and just smiled. The old squad leader, who was also sewing a hat, did not express his opinion either.

Instead, Hu Bazhi, Zhao Jinyu, and Tian Xiaohu, who was younger than them, took this opportunity to talk about fighting the Japanese invaders, the Japanese invaders they had killed, and the "stories" between them and the Japanese invaders.

There is no joy in a story like that; it's just everyone's own sorrow and the same hatred.

In these stories filled with blood and hatred, this sled team, pulled by mules, slowly went into the depths of the forest and snow, crossed one ridge after another with difficulty, and finally stopped on the top of a high ground deep in a mixed coniferous forest.

The terrain here is much higher than the surrounding areas. In the middle, there is a low but large-scale dugout covered with a thick layer of snow, which almost blends in with the surrounding area.

"Come on! Come in and warm up!"

Zhao Jinge and the old squad leader warmly invited the three new members, Wei Ran, to go into the dugout. The rest of the young soldiers, who were already wearing fur hats, were busy moving all the captured spoils off the sleds and sorting them into different categories.

At the same time, Wei Ran was looking around at this large dugout in the heat.

This dugout is about 10 meters long and - meters wide, with a corridor in the middle that is more than meter wide, and two earthen beds on each side. Next to the bed, there are thigh-thick pillars every three or four meters to support the roof.

The two large bunk beds were covered with pine needles, birch bark and tattered straw mats. On the kang near the stove, there lay a comatose anti-Japanese fighter.

"Comrade Wei Ran, my brother Jinshan left a letter saying that you know some medical skills. Please help take a look at them." Zhao Jinge said worriedly.

"What happened to them?"

As Wei Ran spoke, he lifted the tattered blanket from the pale-faced young soldier lying on the kang on his left.

"His toes were frozen off and the wounds became festered."

The old squad leader sighed and explained, "This kid is only 21, and he hasn't even talked about a wife yet."

Hearing this, Wei Ran completely lifted the blanket off the soldier, revealing his feet, and then frowned.

The soldier's 10 toes were frozen so that only the two big toes and the left second toe were left, and the rest had become smelly.

"How could it be so serious?" Wei Ran couldn't help but ask.

"It's been five or six days. We broke out and moved overnight to avoid the Japanese encirclement. When we were crossing the river, the ice cracked and he stepped into the water. He ran all night. When we stopped, his toes were frozen off."

After a long silence and an extra-careful inspection, Wei Ran walked silently to another soldier, gently lifted the blanket covering him and asked, "What's wrong with him?"

"Falled"

Zhao Jinge sighed helplessly and said, "I fell from the ridge when I was breaking out a few days ago, and broke my thigh and hand."

Gently pinching the red and swollen fracture, Wei Ran reached out and touched the soldier's slightly hot forehead. After a moment's hesitation, he looked up and said, "Brother Zhao, bring in all the captured Japanese backpacks and open them. I need to see if there is anything I can use."

"Xiao Hu, go and bring in all the Japanese backpacks and open them on the kang." Old Zhang gave the order without waiting for Zhao Jinge to speak.

"Yes!"

Xiaohu simply stood at attention and saluted, then turned around and ran out of the warm dugout.

"Brother Hu, and Brother Jinyu."

Wei Ran took off his dog-skin coat and hat and said, "Find the candy in the tin tube we found earlier."

Although they didn't know what Wei Ran was going to do, Hu Bazhi and Zhao Jinyu immediately opened their sacks together and found the tube of Japanese candy.

"Brother Hu, you can't help me here, so why don't you take some time off now and take Brother Jin Yu with you to get some food for everyone!" Wei Ran said.

"Yes! Look at me! I almost forgot!" Hu Bazhi slapped his forehead and immediately called out to Zhao Jinyu who wanted to say something and ran out of the dugout.

Almost at the same time, Xiaohu also brought a few anti-Japanese fighters and carried all the forty or fifty Japanese backpacks into the dugout. They opened them one by one and placed them on the earthen kang.

Although there were a lot of things in the Japanese backpacks, the contents were basically the same. However, there were quite a few personal belongings in the Taro bags.

After some picking and choosing, Wei Ran not only picked out a few first aid kits, but also finally found a glass bottle of assault ingots, some condoms, and a thin-bladed knife with a bamboo handle and a bamboo sheath.

After removing the wooden linings from the two backpacks, Wei Ran made some preparations, opened the iron tube, knocked out a handful of candy and said, "Squad Leader Zhao, arrange for a few stronger soldiers to come in and help."

"Just a few of them."

Zhao Jinge rolled up his sleeves as he spoke, "Which one do you want us to hold down?"

"Two candies per person, eat them before helping."

Wei Ran stretched out his hand and said without question, "If you don't want to eat, get out. Let someone who is willing to eat come in and help."

Zhao Jinge had no idea that Wei Ran was worried that they would suddenly lose their strength due to low blood sugar. He might not even have an idea of ​​what blood sugar was.

Of course, if Wei Ran could read minds, he would definitely roll his eyes. At this time, Zhao Jinge simply thought that Wei Ran was using candy to test whether they trusted him.

Because of this, Zhao Jinge took the candy without thinking, put it in his mouth, chewed it up and swallowed it.

Almost at the same time, the other five soldiers, including Xiaohu and the old squad leader, each took two pieces of candy, put them in their mouths, chewed them up, and swallowed them.

After distributing the candies, Wei Ran threw the Japanese knife into the kettle on the stove and let it slowly boil. Then he took off his cotton coat, threw it aside, and carefully rolled up his sleeves.

"Press Him First"

Wei Ran pointed at the one with a broken bone, and Zhao Jinge and others immediately surrounded him and held down the injured man with great skill.

He found his bear-skin machete and stuffed it into the soldier's mouth for him to bite. Then Wei Ran nodded to Zhao Jinge and others and began to correct his bones.

Before he could straighten the broken bones, the soldier was awakened by the pain and began to struggle uncontrollably.

"Xiao Shen, hold on, we'll find a doctor to set your bones!" Zhao Jinge said as he pressed the injured man's shoulders tightly against the kang.

After shaking his mind, the soldier gradually stopped struggling, but his nerves were inevitably tense because of the pain. His originally pale face turned red in a short time and beads of sweat appeared.

"Scream if it hurts"

As Wei Ran spoke, he increased the strength of his hands, and the soldier named Shen couldn't help but let out a muffled groan.

In less than ten minutes, he finally aligned the broken thigh bone through the heavily swollen skin, and the soldier fainted the moment he let go.

After carefully examining the red and swollen leg to make sure there was no external injury, he used the wooden board he took out of his backpack and the torn Japanese marching blanket to fix his broken thigh.

"Let him take his time and treat the other soldier's wound first."

Wei Ran said, turning around and walking to the injured man whose toes were frozen off. At present, there was a lack of medical care and medicine, and there was not even a decent scalpel. He was not sure if he could treat such a wound properly.

But the current situation left him with no choice but to go ahead.

Wei Ran took out an assault ingot and crushed it, then shook his head weakly, distractedly wondering whether there were these two wounded soldiers in the time and space without him, who treated them or even whether they were treated at all. At the same time, he took out the Japanese thin knife that had been boiled in boiling water for long enough, and gently cut a thin wound on the soldier's foot.

When the dark red blood slowly flowed out, he gently poured some Assault Tablet powder on it. This was the only way he could think of to relieve the pain.

After waiting patiently for a moment, he glanced at Zhao Jinge and others. The latter understood and immediately led the rest of the soldiers to hold down the soldier.

"All I can do is cut out his rotten flesh. I have no confidence whether I can cure him." Wei Ran said before cutting.

"Come on, it's better than just watching him. Let's take action!" Zhao Jinge said gritting his teeth.

Hearing this, Wei Ran nodded, squatted beside the kang, and cut off the rotten flesh on the young soldier's feet bit by bit. The warm dugout was gradually filled with a strong smell of blood.

However, I don’t know if it was the effect of the assault ingot powder, but from beginning to end, the soldier didn’t have any significant pain reaction. Wei Ran even doubted whether he had woken up from his coma.

In this "cooperation" that he was not sure whether was good or bad, but made him extremely uneasy, he shaved off all the rotten flesh on the soldier's feet with his still sharp knife, then sprinkled hemostatic powder on them and carefully bandaged them with clean gauze found in the Japanese's first aid kit.

Finally, he put an extra layer of condom on each of the two feet to isolate them from dust. Wei Ran didn't feel relieved at all. He just threw the dagger in his hand aside, turned around and said, "Come on, it's time to connect his broken arm."