War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1632 The Four Brothers of the Qiu Family

In the biting cold wind, two military horses and two sleds pulled by mules and reindeer respectively trampled the thick snow in the primeval forest, moving slowly against the snowflakes mixed in the wind and snow.

At this time, a night and half a day had passed since they separated from Tian Xiaohu and others, but according to Wei Ran's estimation, they had only run less than 40 kilometers at most.

"Take a break"

After Hu Bazhi climbed over another ridge, he said, "The animals can't move anymore."

"Brother Wei, is Shiyi really in danger?" Zhao Jinyu asked in a low voice with concern as he stopped his horse.

"If we can get there before that traitor sends his false message, we won't be in danger."

Wei Ran answered cautiously, "And I'm just guessing. It's still unclear whether the traitor will, or dares to, betray Shiyi."

"Then we have to be quick." Zhao Jinyu muttered to himself, then he got off the horse.

After a brief discussion, Zhao Jinyu swung his saber to chop off a branch at the bottom of a pine tree, while Hu Bazhi, with the help of Wei Ran, unfolded a bundle of canvas and built a tent around the pine tree that could at least block the wind and snow.

At the same time, Unakan also carried down a sack of hay to feed the people's livestock.

"Brother Wei, Jinyu, go find some firewood nearby. Find more. We need to burn it on the way."

Hu Bazhi said as he took out his bow and arrows, "I'll go see if there's any wild game nearby."

"I'll go too," Unakan said, already taking out his skis.

Hu Bazhi did not refuse. He stepped on his skis, carried his gun and quiver, chose a direction at random, and ran away with Una Kan.

"Brother Wei"

Zhao Jinyu asked as he chopped the dead branches with his saber, "Do you think we are deserters again?"

"Again?" Wei Ran, who was holding an axe in his hand, was stunned for a moment.

"We escaped from these white mountains and black waters last time."

  Zhao Jinyu suppressed the pain in his heart and said, "So when I followed my brother-in-law to join the cavalry, I thought I would never be a deserter again.

But I didn’t expect that we were the only two people who survived from our cavalry company and cavalry regiment. We just got here.”

"You are totally wrong to think so"

Wei Ran said while swinging his axe vigorously to chop the rough and dry branches, "We were all injured at the beginning, and staying here would be a burden."

"Squad leader Xiaohu was also injured," Zhao Jinyu stubbornly retorted, "but he..."

"Yes, he is injured, but if you stay, won't you be a burden? Or, can you fight the Japanese if you stay?"

"I'll recover from my injury."

"Did your going to Shanxi delay your fight against the Japanese?" Wei Ran's question again made Zhao Jinyu fall silent.

"Who told me that it doesn't matter where we fight the Japanese?"

Wei Ran dragged the chopped branch back and said, "Or do you want to be lazy and die in the Shaying River? It's easy to die, but it's hard to survive and continue to fight the enemy."

Seeing that Zhao Jinyu was still silent despite swinging his saber vigorously, Wei Ran continued, "And establishing a communication channel is not any different from fighting head-on."

"boom!"

Before Wei Ran could finish his words, a gunshot suddenly rang out from the direction where Hu Bazhi and Unakan had disappeared.

Almost subconsciously, Wei Ran looked at the sled left by the two of them, "Did they bring guns just now? Long guns!"

"Brother Hu brought a bow and arrow but not a spear. Unakan brought it!" While speaking, Zhao Jinyu had already pulled out the box gun from his waist.

"broken!"

Wei Ran dropped the axe in his hand before he finished speaking. However, before he could run to the biting horse to draw out the Japanese carbine, another gunshot was heard and a bullet accurately hit the trunk of the birch tree to which the horse was tied.

"Throw away the clapper in your hand!" a rough voice shouted from a distance.

"We've entered a bandit's lair." Zhao Jinyu said in a low voice.

"Throw it away first and see where it comes from." Wei Ran responded in a low voice, and happily pulled out the box gun and threw it at his feet.

"Pick it up!" Another shout came from a distance.

"What is Dingtian?" Wei Ran asked in a low voice subconsciously.

"hat"

While Zhao Jinyu was speaking, he had already taken off his hat and hung it directly on the branch beside him.

"Turn around!" someone shouted again from behind a tree in the distance.

Hearing this, Wei Ran and Zhao Jinyu looked at each other and turned around. A moment later, two men with guns walked over from a distance.

Just looking at the attire of the two men, Wei Ran couldn't help but be stunned. In the snow in the coldest days of winter, the clothes these two men were wearing were tattered and the cotton was exposed everywhere.

When he got closer, he even saw that the two men's hands and faces were covered with large and small patches of frostbite, and even the boots and skis on their feet were in tatters.

The Type 38 rifles they held were all in tatters, with the butt of one of them even missing half. What was even more worrying was that these two men looked to be only about 17 or 18 years old!

"Which hilltop are you from?"

One of them asked, while the other one picked up the box gun dropped by Wei Ran and the other, and began to search impatiently on Hu Bazhi's sled.

Before Wei Ran or Zhao Jinyu could answer the question, the young man flipping the sled exclaimed, "Leaves of the stunner!"

"We are not bandits, nor are we devils," Zhao Jinyu said.

"You are neither bandits nor devils. Could you be members of the Anti-Japanese United Army?" The young man holding the gun sneered as he took the box gun handed to him by his companion.

"Why can't we be members of the Anti-Japanese United Army?" Zhao Jinyu couldn't help but say.

After a while, Wei Ran also noticed that two young men of similar age came over with the same tattered rifles, escorting Hu Bazhi and Unakan, who looked helpless.

"I told them that we are from the Anti-Japanese United Army, but they didn't believe me." Hu Bazhi said from a distance, feeling both amused and helpless.

"I just said it, but they still don't believe it." Zhao Jinyu spread his hands helplessly and asked, "Are you from the Anti-Japanese United Army?"

"Of course we are the Anti-Japanese United Army!" the young man holding the gun responded without thinking.

"Whose soldiers are you?" Wei Ran asked, and at the same time, he couldn't help but look at the two guys who were pointing guns at Hu Bazhi and the other man.

Their situation was not much better, with broken guns, tattered coats and leather hats without fur. One of them had no ears, replaced by a large area of ​​frostbite.

"we are"

"Shut up, little Si'er!"

The young man who pointed the gun at Wei Ran and the other man shouted at his companion, "You said you are also members of the Anti-Japanese United Army, but whose soldiers are you?"

"Zhao Jinge's First Guerrilla Team," said Zhao Jinyu.

"Bullshit!" the young man who pointed the gun at Unakan yelled, "Stop lying to us!"

"Do you know Tian Xiaohu?" Hu Bazhi asked.

"Brother, who is Tian Xiaohu?" the man who was busy picking up the gun and turning over the sled asked in a low voice.

"Never heard of it," the young man who pointed a gun at Wei Ran and the other man responded in a low voice, and at the same time he couldn't help but shiver in the cold wind blowing in his face.

"Have you met Zhao Jinge?" Zhao Jinyu asked patiently.

"Why haven't I seen them before!" The young man called Xiao Si'er shouted, "We even fought ghosts with them before."

"Shut up, little Si'er!"

The leader shouted again, "Search!"

Upon hearing this, Xiao Sier immediately stepped forward, searched Zhao Jinyu and took away his Nine-Dragon Belt and the box gun hidden in his arms from the Li brothers. Then he walked to Wei Ran, untied his Nine-Dragon Belt and said in confusion, "Brother, I think this guy must be a fucking Japanese. Why is his belt not buttoned up?"

"Little brother, you can't curse so dirty."

Wei Ran said helplessly, "You can say I'm a shit-eating dog, but how can you say I'm a devil?"

After saying this, not only did Unakan, who was being pointed at by a gun, couldn't help but burst out laughing, but even the two guys who were pointing at her and Hu Bazhi couldn't help but laugh.

"Stop smiling so playfully!"

The leader pointed his gun directly at Wei Ran and said, "Tear off the leaves on you!"

Hearing this, Wei Ran slowly unzipped his one-piece flight suit and allowed the young man named Xiao Sier to check it out.

"No bang"

After Xiao Si'er finished speaking, he walked to Hu Bazhi's side, took off his Nine Dragon Belt, and opened his dog-skin coat to check it out.

"Brother, what should we do with that woman?" Xiao Si'er said in embarrassment.

"I will do it myself"

Unakan shook his head helplessly, and without caring whether the young men agreed or not, he unbuttoned the collar of his leather robe to show the leather vest he was wearing underneath.

"Tell me, are you bandits or traitors? Where did you come from and where are you going?" the leading young man asked.

"What if we are really the Anti-Japanese United Army?" Zhao Jinyu asked patiently.

"We have never seen the Anti-Japanese Allied Forces dressed so well," the young man with only one ear could not help but say.

"How do you guys prove that you are members of the Anti-Japanese United Army?" Hu Bazhi suddenly asked.

"Why aren't we the Anti-Japanese United Army?" Xiao Si'er said immediately with dissatisfaction.

"Why aren't we the Anti-Japanese United Army?" Hu Bazhi's counter-question successfully led the other party into a dead end.

"Why are you talking like me?" Xiao Si complained impatiently, but for a moment he didn't know how to refute.

"Shut up, Xiao Si'er!" the other three young men shouted almost in unison.

"Since we can't prove that we are members of the Anti-Japanese United Army, I think we should just sit down and discuss it." "Why can't we prove it?"

The leading young man said, "We are the Anti-Japanese United Army! It's you guys..."

“We are also members of the Anti-Japanese United Army”

This time it was Zhao Jinyu who spoke, "You guys have surrendered my guns. If you are not a coward, let me show you something."

"What do you want to take?" the leading young man asked vigilantly.

"My Sabre"

Zhao Jinyu pointed at the saber poking at a distance and said, "You don't even dare to do that? Are you not good at shooting accurately?"

"You are nonsense."

"Shut up, Xiao Si'er!" The leading young man did not give Xiao Si'er a chance to speak, "Step back and stay away from them."

Hearing this, Xiao Si'er was particularly obedient and stepped back a distance. The leader said to Zhao Jinyu, "Take it. We want to see what you can do."

Hearing this, Zhao Jinyu smiled, bent down, picked up the saber, untied the leather rope wrapped around the handle, and then unfolded the rag wrapped around it.

Seeing this, not only did the guys with guns look over subconsciously, but even Wei Ran was attracted.

When the outermost layer of rags was unfolded, a hint of red appeared on the handle of the knife.

Carefully unfolding the red cloth, Zhao Jinyu held it up and asked, "Since you and Zhao Jinge have fought against the Japanese before, you should recognize this flag, right?"

"I know you. I know you!"

The leading young man had just finished speaking when his nose felt sore and tears came down. The guns they were holding dropped down and slipped from their hands onto the thick snow.

"You guys are finally back."

The young man with only one ear left wiped the tears from his chilblained face with his chilblained hands and said with guilt, "We are sorry for you. We didn't take good care of the wounded. They... They are all dead."

"What's going on? What's going on?"

"Jin Yu, let them go to the tent to warm up first." Wei Ran said, "Also, let's give them the cotton-padded clothes we seized from the Japanese."

"Yeah!"

Zhao Jinyu reacted quickly, stuffed the flag in his hand into his arms, and quickly called the young men to go into the tent, where a brazier was lit.

But how big could the tent be? How could it possibly accommodate so many people?

The leading young man seemed to have noticed this, and hurriedly bent down to pick up their broken guns, and wiped his tears, "If you trust us, come and rest with us."

"Alright"

Hu Bazhi was the first to say, "Can you return Xiangzi to us?"

"Yes, of course we can." The leading young man responded with a silly smile and scratched the back of his head.

Everyone took back their weapons and equipment. Unakan asked the four guys to change into the Japanese clothes they had seized earlier, while Wei Ran and the other two dismantled and rolled up the tent that they had just set up, and loaded the brazier and the firewood they had just chopped back onto the sled.

"Come on the sled!"

Hu Bazhi asked the young man who had just put on his clothes to get on the sled, "How do we get there?"

"That direction!"

The young man in the lead raised his hand and pointed in a direction, "Go straight ahead, cross a ridge, then go east and you'll arrive."

"Is there anyone else there?" Wei Ran asked as he climbed onto his horse.

"No more, there are only four of us left." The leader clenched his fists as he said this.

Everyone looked at each other, tacitly suppressed their curiosity and did not continue asking.

They galloped along in silence, and when the young man in the lead asked them to stop, a pine tree so thick that two people could hug it was lying next to them.

While the leading young man was instructing Wei Ran and others to tie the animals to the branches of the pine tree, the other three young men had already worked together to lift up a door panel near the root of the trunk that was almost completely buried in the snow, revealing a dirt step less than one meter wide that extended diagonally downward.

"Come in and warm up," the leading young man greeted warmly.

Hearing this, everyone followed the other person and bent down to get in.

Although the entrance is not very big, the inside is quite large, especially the large earth pit that occupies half of the space. It can easily accommodate at least ten people.

And in the remaining half of the space, the innermost half was filled with chopped firewood.

Next to the firewood, there were two large water tanks against the wall. One of the tanks was filled with ice and snow that was almost cut, while the other one was filled with strings of dried mushrooms strung together with hemp ropes.

Looking at the clay stove connected to the earthen kang, there was a broken pot on it. In the pot there was a stewed boneless pheasant and a few wild mushrooms that had become particularly round because they had absorbed the soup.

"Come on to the kang. It's warm there."

The leading young man greeted everyone while picking up the kettle leaning against the clay stove, and then took out a pile of coarse porcelain bowls from the pile of firewood and poured a bowl of hot water for each person.

"Do you usually live here?" Wei Ran asked, touching the thick layer of pine needles and Ula grass on the kang.

"Yes, this is the dugout our village helped the Anti-Japanese United Army dig several years ago."

As the one-eared boy spoke, he lit the pine oil candle lamp hanging on the only two wooden pillars in the dugout.

At the same time, the other young man guarding the door and the young man called Xiao Si'er fastened the door panel again, leaving only a palm-wide ventilation hole at the top.

"Your village."

Before Wei Ran finished speaking, the leading young man sighed, "Except for the four of us, the living ones have all been trapped. In fact, there are not many who survived. Almost all of them died."

"What's going on?" Zhao Jinyu couldn't help asking, "By the way, I haven't asked yet, what are your names, brothers?"

"We are all from the same village, our surname is Qiu, and our generation name is Yong."

The leading young man introduced himself, "My name is Qiu Yongyi, and the three of them call me Big Boss Qiu. The one with only one ear left is Qiu Yongwen, and the quiet one is Qiu Yongwu. They are brothers. The youngest one is Qiu Yongbiao, and you can just call him Little Four."

“Let me introduce myself.”

Zhao Jinyu cleared his throat and said, "My name is Zhao Jinyu, the younger brother of Zhao Jinge and Zhao Jinshan. This is Hu Bazhi, now the deputy captain of the first guerrilla team."

After Zhao Jinyu introduced everyone one by one, Hu Bazhi and Unakan stood up almost at the same time and said almost at the same time, "I have frostbite ointment on my sled. Let's go together."

After saying that, the two men walked towards the small door, untied the ropes that tied the door panel, and squeezed out one after the other.

"Boss Qiu, what's going on today?" Zhao Jinyu asked with a smile.

"This is... This is the flood that has washed away the Dragon King Temple."

Boss Qiu said with some embarrassment, "The snow has just subsided, so we brothers thought we could go out and see if we could pick up something or hunt something to eat.

We were heading towards the place where we set up traps before the snow fell, and we saw you from a distance.

We thought we were going into the mountains to capture General Zhao's gang again, and we saw you riding horses and pulling animals, so we thought if we could snatch them, we could at least have a few full meals. "

"We haven't had anything decent to eat for several days," said Xiao Si'er, who was sitting next to the clay stove.

"Shut up, Xiao Si'er!" The brothers Yongwen and Yongwu said in unison but with a hint of helplessness.

"My sister is lying." Xiao Si'er, who seemed to be too honest, couldn't help but mutter.

"Xiao Si'er is not wrong," said Boss Qiu, a little embarrassed, "We are."

Before he could finish his words, Hu Bazhi came in with a lot of things and placed them on the kang.

Among these things there was a deerskin blanket that seemed to belong to Unakan, a Japanese lunch box that belonged to someone unknown, as well as weapons, bullets, and even backpacks and braided boots that had been seized from those Japanese soldiers.

"Unakan was afraid that these little brothers would be embarrassed, so he went to look around and see if he could catch anything."

Hu Bazhi said as he opened the Japanese lunch box and called out, "Brother Wei, you and Jin Yu can look in the Japanese backpack to find something edible and useful. Boss Qiu, the rest of you take off your clothes so I can apply some frostbite cream on you."

“That’s good.”

As always, the open-minded Xiao Si'er was the first to agree. Without waiting for the other three to agree or refuse, he took off the Japanese cotton-padded jacket he had been wearing, and then took off the tattered coat underneath, revealing his not-so-clean, skinny body, with frostbite all over his body.

"Xiao Si'er, how old are you?"

Hu Bazhi asked before Qiu Lao Da and others tried to say anything, and at the same time he picked up a Japanese spoon from the lunch box tray. After opening the tray, he scooped two large spoonfuls of solidified grease from the bottom layer and threw it on the lunch box lid, then placed it on the edge of the clay stove and slowly heated it.

"16 years old"

Xiao Si'er answered while scratching the chilblains and red spots on his body that seemed to be caused by flea bites.

"How old are you guys?"

Hu Bazhi continued to ask, "Boss Qiu, tell me first, how old are you?"

"17, what's wrong?" asked Boss Qiu in confusion.

"We are both 17," replied Qiu Yongwen, who had already unbuttoned his cotton coat but didn't know whether he should take it off.

"They need to be given a bath, or at least a good wipe-down."

As Wei Ran spoke, he put aside a few Japanese towels he had found, "Also, there are fleas in this shack, so we have to kill them, too."

"We have to shave their heads. Those with long hair have all had their hair felted." Zhao Jinyu said as he took out an old-fashioned razor and a bar of soap from a Japanese soldier's backpack with satisfaction.

"Boil some water," Hu Bazhi said with a smile.

"What are you doing?" Boss Qiu subconsciously took a few steps back.

"You four should take a shower and change into new clothes."

Hu Bazhi patted the three-eight-cm-long hats on the kang and said, "As long as you take a bath, shave your head, and apply frostbite cream, these gongs will be yours."

"Really?! Then I'll wash it!" Xiao Si'er was the first to agree.