War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1603 Lin Hai Night Battle

"boom!"

Once again, a gunshot was heard without warning in the snowy night. The moment the gunshot reached their ears, the puppet soldiers and bandits who had the courage to chase Wei Ran reacted very quickly and lay down on the ground, even blowing out the oil lamps they were carrying.

After a short wait, they also heard Japanese curses coming from the direction of the camp behind them.

  Risking a glance back, one of the bandits who was called to be a guide couldn't help but suck his teeth. The shot just now didn't hit them, but it killed a mule in the camp!

This is not a good thing.

The bandit lying behind the pine tree felt a chill on his back. There were so many of them, and if they lost the mule, it would take them a long time to get out. What would happen if the guy in the woods kept making such a fuss?

"boom!"

While he was muttering to himself, Wei Ran in the woods in the distance saw that no one was shooting at him, so he stopped, hid behind a tree and fired another bullet.

Looking at the bonfires still burning in the enemy camp far away and the mules and horses that he was able to hit successfully thanks to the bonfires, Wei Ran turned decisively and escaped into the night on his skis.

This time, he ran far enough, so far that the pursuers once again gave up for fear of being ambushed, and only then did he stop.

After resting for a while behind a pine tree, Wei Ran once again put a small piece of dried meat and a piece of Japanese candy into his mouth, then unbuttoned his collar to release the excess heat accumulated in his body.

If the bandit who guessed Wei Ran's intention could communicate with him calmly at this time, he would find out that killing all the mules and horses of the pursuers was indeed Wei Ran's intention, but it was not his only purpose.

Killing the mules and horses was only the first step. Compared to these, he had been waiting for the enemy to extinguish the bonfire that could bring warmth in order to avoid losses. Of course, before that, he had to let the tail behind him run more and sweat more.

After resting against the cold tree trunk for about half an hour, Wei Ran grabbed a handful of snow, rolled it into a ball, and stuffed it into his mouth, patiently waiting for it to completely melt into water and then be heated to a temperature close to body temperature before swallowing it bit by bit.

Standing up by holding onto the tree trunk, he pushed hard on his ski poles, changed direction and headed towards the Japanese camp again.

"This night combat capability is shit."

Wei Ran couldn't help muttering to himself as he looked at the bright campfire two or three hundred meters away. With the cover of the surrounding trees, he gradually narrowed the distance between the two sides, while looking for possible secret sentries.

After more than half an hour of waiting, the camp became quiet. Wei Ran, who was already within 200 meters of the enemy camp, hid behind a tree, slowly loaded the bullet into the gun, and placed the muzzle of the gun on the branch.

"boom!"

After the gunshots, an animal in the camp, not sure whether it was a mule or a horse, jumped, neighed miserably a few times, then fell to the ground, its body tilted and it became motionless.

After taking a quick look at the results of the battle, Wei Ran decisively turned around and left his original position. He quietly retreated and waited patiently amid the enemy's random fire.

But this time, both the Japanese and the puppet troops stayed in the camp and had no intention of going out.

He didn't know that when the last round of pursuit of him ended, several bandits had already slipped away while walking back.

Because of this, and the fact that he had previously shot the highest commander dead from a distance, this team, which had been chasing for most of the day but had gained nothing, was actually considering whether to withdraw overnight.

This is undoubtedly what Wei Ran wants to see. As long as they dare to retreat, the offensive and defensive relationship between the two sides will be completely reversed.

  I don't know whether they will continue to endure it stubbornly or withdraw as soon as possible.

While Wei Ran was muttering to himself, he changed direction and approached the enemy's camp again. He slowly set up his gun, aimed at a shadowy mule and pulled the trigger again!

"boom!"

  After the gunshot, the mule horse about 200 meters away fell straight to the ground.

"Tom!"

Almost at the same time that Wei Ran ran away on his skis, the Japanese grenade launchers in the direction of the camp also started firing, and rather belatedly fired a flare into the night sky.

Almost at the same time when the snow was illuminated, machine guns, rifles, and more grenade launchers poured down on the place where Wei Ran had just been, chasing his shadow and extending out.

Almost at the same time, the puppet troops and a group of Japanese soldiers on skis also rushed out of the camp.

Wei Ran narrowly avoided the enemy's fierce firepower and ran out of the range of the grenade launcher. Then he took off his dog-skin hat that seemed to have been grazed by a bullet just now. He first touched the top of his head which was intact, then patted off the dog hair broken by the bullet on the hat and put it back on.

Turning his head to look at the shadowy pursuers behind him, he continued to run for a distance on his skis, then decisively circled and hid behind a pine tree, re-set up his cavalry rifle and got ready.

"boom!"

A moment later, with a gunshot, a Japanese soldier on skis screamed and then fell to the ground, covering his leg.

"Crack!"

Wei Ran ignored the pursuers who were firing indiscriminately. He loaded the bullet, aimed at another ghost figure on skis and holding a flashlight, and pulled the trigger.

"boom!"

After the gunshot, the other party screamed and the flashlight in his hand fell to the ground.

It was only two or three seconds, and along with the Japanese shouting, the others turned off their flashlights or kerosene lamps one after another when Wei Ran pulled the trigger for the third time.

"boom!"

  At this last moment, the bullet he fired hit one of the oil lamps whose lampshade had just been raised but had not yet been blown out!

"Oh!"

The air pressure generated when the bullet hit the oil storage tank tore open the thin iron sheet and turned the kerosene inside into mist.

"call!"

Almost at the same time as the rolling bullet hit the face of the puppet soldier holding the oil lamp, the misty kerosene also exploded, instantly covering the puppet soldier and the two devils beside him.

Amidst the shrill screams, Wei Ran quickly and decisively loaded the last bullet into the magazine, aimed at a figure illuminated by the fire, and pulled the trigger again!

"boom!"

After the shot, the Japanese soldier who was hit in the shoulder also screamed.

Just at this moment, the direction of the Japanese camp thoughtfully fired new flares over everyone's heads.

He quickly hid behind the tree trunk, not paying any attention to the enemies who were firing and pulling the wounded. He waited patiently for the flares to fall and lengthen the shadows of the trees, then he extended the box gun and pulled the trigger!

"Ta-ta-ta-ta!"

The intensive sound of strafing immediately suppressed the enemy back into various shelters. Wei Ran also took the opportunity to leave his original position and circled around to the side of these people.

"Tom!"

Just at this moment, another flare rose into the air. Wei Ran immediately lay down, crawled into the shadow of a tree, aimed at the small group of pursuers chasing him, and decisively pulled the trigger!

"boom!"

After the gunshots, a Japanese soldier who was directing the puppet army to drag the wounded was shot in the back and fell to the ground screaming.

After the shot, the remaining puppet soldiers immediately gave up the wounded Japanese soldiers and lay on the ground, and did not get up even though the Japanese soldiers who were hiding shouted at them.

"My dear men! These bastards are treating us like donkeys! Let's fight and find a way out!"

  In the night illuminated by flares, someone shouted, followed by a burst of gunfire, and the remaining Japanese soldiers were shot one after another and lay on the ground!

"The Anti-Japanese Allied Forces' top-ranking musicians, we have defeated the Japs, how about giving them a chance to live!" The puppet soldiers who were hiding in the flying snow asked while controlling the volume.

"Light up the lights! Xiangzi, stay here and step on the Japanese's fast horses to get out!" Wei Ran shouted at the top of his voice, which was the jargon he had learned these days.

"If the mountains don't move, the water will move! See you later!"

Someone from the puppet army on the opposite side said a few polite words, then lit an oil lamp and hung it on the branch of a birch tree. Those who were more capable of riding the road surrendered their guns one by one, stepped on their skis, and disappeared into the night.

After waiting patiently for a moment, Wei Ran saw that the Japanese camp had stopped firing flares, so he stood up cautiously, walked around the Japanese corpses, and then raised his gun to extinguish the oil lamp hanging on the tree.

He waited for a moment with great patience before he reached over, picked up the flashlight that was almost buried in the snow, turned it off, and slowly approached the Japanese soldier.

At this time, all the Japanese soldiers here, whether they had been shot before or not, were killed by the defecting puppet troops. The bodies of one or two of them even showed signs of being turned over.

Wei Ran didn't care about it and turned over the bodies one by one in the dark.

These devils naturally did not carry their small backpacks. All that could be found on them, apart from the Type 38 rifle and a single tortoise box, was not even a single grenade.

Fortunately, they had quite a few bullets in their ammunition packs.

In addition, he found a hot water bottle with a rabbit fur sheath on the back waist of a soldier wearing an outdated sleeveless fur-lined winter coat.

Wei Ran casually stuffed the hot water bottle, which was still releasing warmth, into his arms. After searching for a while, he tore off the identity cards of the soldiers and threw them away. Then he stripped off their clothes. This was not the end yet, as he took out an anti-Japanese sword.

"puff!"

With a sudden movement of his knife, he chopped off a Japanese soldier's head, and then Wei Ran chopped off the second, third, and fourth heads.

After chopping off the last Japanese head, Wei Ran shook off the blood on the knife and took back the metal notebook. Then he tore off a Japanese soldier's pants, stuffed the severed heads into them one by one, tied them to a pair of skis with a rope, and dragged them away from the spot.

Wei Ran took great pains to circle around and reach the other side of the Japanese camp. He climbed up the ridge silently, then took out the oil lamp that he had extinguished with his gun and poured all the remaining kerosene in it onto the pair of pants with the human head on it.

"call!"

Almost at the same time as the lighter was brought closer, the pants tied to the ski board also caught fire, which was extremely conspicuous in the night.

"Go away!"

When Wei Ran put away the lighter, he kicked his pants hard, and the latter used the force of the kick to slide down the snow slope along the ridge.

Soon, as this flaming late-night gift got closer, the remaining Japs and puppet soldiers opened fire amid shouting and easily covered the flaming pants.

On the ridge, Wei Ran smiled silently, brushed off the snow on his body, turned around and slid towards the direction where the horse was tied.

Of course, his counterattack and harassment were not over yet. This was just a bedtime greeting, and the night was still long. However, when he followed his memory and found the black horse, he was stunned.

  At this time, the horse was still there, and there was another black horse beside it! In particular, there was a person on the back of the horse who was almost buried in the snow!

Coming to his senses, Wei Ran ran over quickly, and after clearing the snow, he immediately saw Zhao Jinyu who was already unconscious!

"Why are you here!"

Wei Ran's heart sank involuntarily. He quickly untied him and placed him on the canvas for a careful inspection.

After this inspection, his heart sank to the bottom.

There were three wounds on Zhao Jinyu's body, with bullets leaving blood grooves on his shoulder and thigh. Although he had wrapped these two wounds with his torn camp blanket, the blood that flowed out had frozen into ice near the wounds along with his cotton-padded jacket.

Compared to these two, the wound on his stomach was even more horrific.

This was also caused by a stray bullet. The horizontal wound was almost ten centimeters long and was right next to the belly button.

Fortunately, although the wound cut open the abdominal cavity, it only cut a strip less than two centimeters in the middle of the wound.

Because of this, compared to these three wounds, the biggest threat to Zhao Jinyu at this time is blood loss and hypothermia.

Without rushing to treat it, Wei Ran walked to the black horse that brought him here and helped check it out.

The horse's buttocks also had a wound from a bullet, a foot long wound that exposed bright red flesh. Not only that, near the wound, there seemed to be fresh wounds caused by wild beasts.

I think it must have encountered many dangers along the way before it found this place, and looking at the way it and the other black horse are rubbing against each other, you can tell that these two big animals have a very good relationship.

"troubled you."

Wei Ran gently helped the horse clean the snow off its body, and gave them some extra concentrated feed and salt grains. Then he took out the sailor bag, opened the parachute cloth canopy on the spot, and built a shelter from the wind around the pine tree next to it.

Wei Ran quickly laid a layer of pine needles and the Japanese's waterproof canvas inside, dragged Zhao Jinyu in, then turned on the flashlight, clamped it around his neck, and carefully lifted the clothes on Zhao Jinyu's abdomen.

Compared to the frozen wounds on the legs and shoulders, these are the ones that need to be sutured as soon as possible.

Fortunately, it is winter now, not the hot summer or autumn season, and the incision in the abdominal cavity is not that big.

In other words, as long as the wound on his abdomen is sutured successfully, he has a high chance of surviving.

After a brief analysis, Wei Ran first placed the hot water bottle he had seized not long ago under the opponent's armpit. Then he calmed himself down, opened the medical kit, and began to clean the wound and suture alone under such extremely simple conditions.

Fortunately, although the bullet tore a small hole in Zhao Jinyu's abdomen, after careful examination, it seemed that the intestines inside were not damaged. This was undoubtedly the best news.

After carefully suturing the opponent's abdominal wound, he did not dare to delay at all, and immediately sewed up the blood grooves on the shoulder and thigh caused by bullets as quickly as possible.

Not only that, he even gave the wound on the horse's butt outside a basic clean and treated it to the best of his ability.

After everything was done, Zhao Jinyu not only did not wake up, but started to shiver.

With a weak sigh, Wei Ran took out a hand warmer from his arms and put it into the other's arms. Then he turned off the flashlight, got out of the tent and put on his skis again.

Nothing we say now is important. If we want to keep Zhao Jinyu alive, we need to light a bonfire and get some warm food as soon as possible.

But before that, he had to drive away the pursuers. Otherwise, as long as he lit a bonfire, the pursuers would probably catch up soon.

  As for taking Zhao Jinyu away from here under the cover of night

It's not that he hadn't thought about it, but after wandering around for most of the day, coupled with the wind and snow, he had already lost his way.

Not only that, given Zhao Jinyu's current condition, she probably couldn't withstand the long journey.

After carefully covering the tent door, Wei Ran picked up the submachine gun hanging on the tree and the Japanese uniform he had just stripped off, and returned to the vicinity of the Japanese camp on his skis.

At this time, more than an hour had passed since he left, leaving behind a head in his trouser pocket. Now, only a few bonfires, as well as the puppet soldiers and individual tents of the Japanese who were dozing around the bonfires were left in the Japanese camp.

After some observation, he decisively raised his cavalry gun, aimed at a mule and pulled the trigger.

"boom!"

When the sharp sound of gunfire once again pierced the darkness, one of the only two large animals left in the distance knelt down again.

"boom!"

Wei Ran fired another bullet before the other party could react and successfully killed another animal.

After firing these two shots, Wei Ran turned around and ran without any desire to fight.

Sure enough, less than 10 seconds later, the Japs fired flares again.

"That's not how you play with flares."

Wei Ran dove and hid in the shadow of a tree, muttered something silently, then slowly put the grenade launcher and the only remaining lethal bomb and two flares aside and waited patiently.

"Ta-ta-ta-ta!"

Shortly after the flares were launched, the Japanese machine guns began to fire tentatively towards the location where the gunshots had just been heard.

At the same time, Wei Ran also picked up a grenade and stuffed it into the grenade launcher, carefully adjusting the shooting distance.

Almost at the moment when the flare fell to the height of the treetops, Wei Ran decisively pulled the trigger.

"Tom!"

With a muffled sound like opening a can, the flare was fired into the night sky, illuminating the enemy camp brightly and attracting many enemy soldiers to subconsciously look up.

"Tom!"

Along with the second explosion, Wei Ran also fired the last lethal grenade he had left.

"boom!"

After the flare calibration, this lethal grenade hit the middle of the Japanese camp accurately - or rather, it hit next to the enemy's grenade launcher team.

After eliminating the biggest threat, Wei Ran immediately fired the last flare - aimed at the direction of the Japanese machine gun!

  Can flares kill people?

Of course you can, provided you hit it.

  However, even if you miss, the "bang!" sound is scary enough!

Almost at the moment the flare flew out, the Japanese machine gun crew subconsciously lay down to avoid it.

At the same time, Wei Ran also let go of the grenade launcher in his hand. He didn't even pick up the cavalry rifle. Instead, he picked up a submachine gun, aimed at the Japanese camp illuminated by flares and started firing.

For a moment, the dense sound of gunfire resounded throughout the forest. The Japanese soldiers, who had lost sight of the surrounding forest due to the flares hitting the camp, not only subconsciously fought back in the direction of the gunfire, but also looked for cover.

"You are surrounded!"

Wei Ran hid behind a tree and shouted loudly in Japanese, "The Anti-Japanese Allied Forces treat prisoners well! If you don't want to freeze to death here, don't want your head chopped off! Put down your weapons and surrender immediately!"

Ignoring the incoming machine gun fire, Wei Ran switched to his native language and continued shouting, "The Anti-Japanese United Army has surrounded you! Our army commander said! Chinese people don't fight Chinese people! If any of you want to surrender, open fire on the devils! Just kill one devil and you can save your life!"

Wei Ran made the right bet. He bet that the Japanese brought a translator with them and that the translator was on the side of the Japanese.

As expected, before he finished speaking, the Japanese soldiers immediately pointed their guns at the surrounding puppet troops - even though they did not open fire, their attitude of distrust had been exposed.

"Did you see that? That dog translator is not on your side at all!"

Wei Ran shouted something even more heartbreaking, "Brothers who have gone astray! What are you waiting for while there is still light to identify people! When the fire is out, it's up to you whether to stay or run!"

  Before he could finish his words, Wei Ran had already thrust out the submachine gun with a new magazine and pulled the trigger!

"Da da da da da!"

Amid the dense and continuous gunfire, even though the bullets fired from the submachine guns could not reach the distant enemies, they were like a bowl of poisonous, rat-mixed aphrodisiac poured into the mouths of the puppet soldiers.

All of a sudden, a more violent counterattack came, and the bonfires were extinguished one after another by those who had evil intentions.

Someone even took advantage of the chaos to secretly pull out a pistol for self-defense, and while firing a box gun in the direction of Wei Ran, his other hand quietly passed through his armpit and pointed it behind his back, firing several shots at the domineering interpreter through his cotton coat.

As the number of bonfires in the other camp dwindled, the joy on Wei Ran's face grew stronger and stronger.

"Night battle, isn't this just beginning?"

Before he finished speaking, Wei Ran had already replaced the magazine of his submachine gun, and ventured out by crawling in the thick snow, using the cover of the surrounding trees to close the distance between him and the pursuers.

"Da da da da!" Soon, the sound of gunfire suddenly rang out from the side of the camp.

Without waiting for the counterattack fire to reach him, Wei Ran had already left at high speed on his skis.

  In the dark night, it was not only Wei Ran who left quietly, but also at least a dozen puppet soldiers and almost all the bandits who were sent to help!

So when the gunfire gradually died down, the Japanese soldiers realized something was wrong and fired another flare, only to be shocked to find that there was no "Chinese friend" around them except for the corpses!

After a brief silence, a Japanese soldier loudly issued an order to retreat!

"Ta-ta-ta-ta!"

Almost at the same time when this order reached Wei Ran's ears, he also pulled the rope in his hand.

Suddenly, the submachine gun that he had just tied to the pine tree more than ten meters away opened fire again, forcing the Japanese soldiers to leave their camp without even having time to clean up the camp. They even abandoned the wounded who were not dead yet and followed the footprints of the fleeing puppet soldiers.

"How could Zhao Jinyu survive without my time and space?" Wei Ran couldn't help but wonder as he pulled the rope and fired a series of bursts of shots.

He didn't know that the flares that had just been launched into the air had attracted the attention of another person several ridges away.

  one.

Young man riding a big white mule