War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1636 Sixteen or Seventeen Years Old

"If you dare to make a sound, I'll kill you"

Wei Ran persuaded him gently, then took off the box gun slung across the man's shoulder and dragged him step by step back to the shack where they were originally imprisoned.

"You ask"

As Wei Ran spoke, he handed the box gun to Hu Bazhi, then pulled out the red rope belt from the bandit's waist and tied his hands and one foot to the bars of a cage.

After finishing all this, Wei Ran sneaked out of the shack again in the dark, followed the footprints left by the bandits on the snow, and found the lighted shack.

Glancing through the ventilation window, I saw two tables on a large earth pit in the shack, and two tables for eight people on the ground. On each table, a pine oil candle as thick as a wrist was lit.

At this time, these bandits were either eating and drinking around the table, or drinking and playing mahjong.

After a rough count, I found that there were 17 bandits in this shack alone. Some of them were wearing Kowloon belts and there were box guns on the table.

More bandits used spears, and almost all of these spears were placed in a wicker basket in the corner of the wall.

Without rushing to do anything, Wei Ran crouched down and went around to take a look at the other two dugouts where the lights were not on.

Although there was no light in the other dugout next to it, there was a clay stove burning.

It was with the help of this faint red light that he could vaguely see that there was also a wicker basket in the shack, with a few guns sticking out of the basket, but there was no one in this dugout.

After observing the surroundings for a while, Wei Ran went into the shack, held up the lit lighter and walked to the bamboo basket to observe it.

The guns in this frame are really varied, there are all kinds of guns, including the Russian dragoon rifle and Berdan Type II gunpowder rifle, the Japanese gold hook rifle and Type 38 rifle and even Type 38 cavalry rifle, as well as the domestically produced Liao-13 and Hanyang old sleeves, and the imported Ma Sihuan.

He even found a flat double-barreled shotgun that seemed to have strayed from the Russians. The gun had a shotgun belt with Tsarist Russian carvings on it and 10 copper-shelled shotgun shells were fixed on it.

After a little thought, he first pulled out the double-barreled shotgun, then picked out three Type 38 cavalry rifles, and carefully checked to make sure that each gun had bullets. Then he threw them all over his shoulders, extinguished his lighter and left the dugout.

After cautiously taking a few steps towards the last dugout, Wei Ran listened for a moment and then carefully pushed open a crack in the door.

There was no clay stove lit in the shack. He took out his lighter and lit it again. He was able to barely see that there was also an earthen kang that occupied half of the area of ​​the shack, but on the kang were piles of animal skins.

In addition, there were several ropes hanging from the beams, with strings of animal traps of different sizes hanging from them.

He even saw a row of water tanks against the wall in the shack, but he didn't know what was in the tanks.

After a slight hesitation, Wei Ran did not intend to go in and take a look. He extinguished the lighter, took back the metal notebook, then carefully closed the door of the shack and followed the footprints back to the entrance of the dugout where they had been imprisoned.

After a short while, Hu Bazhi had finished the interrogation and was waiting for him at the entrance of the dugout.

"I have asked clearly"

Hu Bazhi whispered in his ear, "Including the ones we caught, there are 20 bandits here, two of whom are keeping watch in the cave at the foot of the mountain.

This group of bandits used to be stinking and grave robbers. They don’t want to be in the human circle, so they hibernate here.”

At this point, Hu Bazhi paused and continued, "In addition, this was also a dugout that was dug by the nearby villages to help the Anti-Japanese United Army. One of the bandits in this den even helped dig it himself.

Later, the Anti-Japanese Allied Forces moved away, and the people in the nearby villages were driven into human pens by the Japanese. They secretly occupied this place to hibernate, hunting openly and robbing people secretly, especially robbing hunters, a business with no profit. "

"Do you know why they arrested us?" Wei Ran asked in a low voice.

"First, we plan to kidnap them and see if we can get some ransom money. If we can't, we will hand them over to the Japanese or the puppet army in exchange for some money." Hu Bazhi explained in a low voice angrily.

"The remaining 17 were eating and drinking in that shack."

Wei Ran gave a thumbs up to the lighted shack, then distributed the guns on his shoulders to the four brothers of the Qiu family, "We also found this gun in another shack."

"What should we do?" Boss Qiu asked in a low voice as he took the gun.

"Are there any other bandit dens around?"

While Wei Ran was speaking, he took out the box gun from the metal notebook under the cover of his one-piece flight suit.

"The nearest one is only two miles away."

Hu Bazhi replied in a low voice, "There are almost no large groups of fish in this forest, but there are small groups of fish nesting side by side."

"If that's the case, then let's not move our guns if we can." Having said that, Wei Ran still pressed down the large and small nose of the box gun.

  However, plans cannot keep up with changes. Before they could even make a careful plan, two crisp gunshots were suddenly heard in the distance!

After looking at each other, Wei Ran and Hu Bazhi ran towards the lighted dugout at the same time. Almost at the same time, the four brothers of the Qiu family also followed.

Before Wei Ran, who was running in the front, could stop, the wooden door of the dugout had been pushed half open from the inside, and a bandit wearing black clothes, black pants, a black cotton hat, and a red belt around his waist ran out cursing.

"boom!"

  With a gunshot, the bandit was shot in the face and fell back. Wei Ran, who pulled the trigger, didn't even wait for the bullet shell to fall to the ground. He and Hu Bazhi rushed to the door, put the box gun that was set to continuous fire through the ventilation window and pulled the trigger!

"Da da da--!"

After a series of rapid and intensive gunshots, the four brothers of the Qiu family finally arrived.

"Give me!"

Before Wei Ran finished his words, he had already pulled the double-barreled shotgun from Yong Wen's hand, and while poking the barrel into the ventilation window, he had already pressed down the left and right hammers.

"Bang! Bang!"

After two more dull gunshots, accompanied by the smoke rising from the black powder, a large amount of iron sand sprayed out by two copper-shelled shotgun shells also covered the dugout tightly.

After returning the double-barreled shotgun to Yongwen, Wei Ran and Hu Bazhi carefully hid on both sides of the door of the dugout and waited for a while, while reloading the box guns in their hands with bullets.

"I'll go in first"

Before Hu Bazhi finished his words, Wei Ran was the first to open the door and walk into the deserted dugout.

At this time, there were still some people alive in this dugout filled with a strong smell of blood, but without exception, they were all injured.

Those who were lucky had iron sand sprayed on their hands and cotton coats, leaving some minor injuries. Those who were unlucky were sprayed all over their faces, and not only did they lose their teeth and ears, but they also became blind.

"Boss Qiu, go check out other lairs." Hu Bazhi said as he kicked a bandit who had been shot in the neck, "Give them a quick death."

After a crisp "crack" sound of a broken bone, the bandit who was wailing a second ago was completely silent.

Seeing this, knowing that the other party had something to ask, Wei Ran raised his foot and kicked an injured bandit on the back of the neck as if to show off something.

After the crisp sound of bone fracture, Hu Bazhi couldn't help but ask curiously, "I learned this half-style poking kick from Hongxia. Whose master did you learn from?"

"My hometown is Cangzhou, Ji Province. Who do you think I learned this from?"

Wei Ran answered as a matter of course. No matter what, his hometown was a place known as "a place where martial arts can't be defeated". Especially in this chaotic era, knowing a few kung fu skills was acceptable in every way.

"You hid really well!" Hu Bazhi kicked another person to death before he finished speaking.

"How can your feet be as effective as a gun?" Wei Ran said as he kicked one person to death.

Amid the occasional sound of bones breaking, the two men killed the last few bandits who were still breathing, and successfully recovered their confiscated Kowloon belts and box guns.

“These stinky meals are damn good.”

As Hu Bazhi spoke, he picked up a large piece of bone and took a bite. However, before he could chew it twice, he covered his cheek, gritted his teeth and spat out a piece of iron sand as big as a match head.

"What does it mean to eat something stinky?" Wei Ran asked casually while examining the bodies of the bandits.

"The grave robber," Hu Bazhi threw away the big bone and meat in his hand, then explained while peeling things off the corpse, "In slang, it's called stinky eater."

Before he finished speaking, he pointed at a bandit's red cloth belt and said, "They all wear a red belt to ward off evil spirits, and this one, guess what it's for?"

Looking in the direction of the other person's finger, Hu Bazhi was pointing at the only bandit wearing a cotton robe and a melon-shaped hat. This bandit looked to be around fifty years old, but he had a piece of white cloth wrapped around his left arm.

"Did someone die in the family?" Wei Ran asked in confusion.

"No, this is called a flower tongue, they are specifically looking for ransom. These stinking eaters not only make money from the dead, but also kidnap the living to make money."

While Hu Bazhi was explaining, he was also completely certain that Wei Ran really didn't understand the rules of the underworld, and he still didn't understand them after all these years.

"Is there still one alive?" Wei Ran asked as he searched for spoils. "We need to go and ask where this place is."

"I'll go right away," Hu Bazhi said as he walked out.

"Let the four little brothers come in and look for something they can use."

As Wei Ran was talking, he also walked out of the dugout holding a pine oil candle. He was satisfied with just getting back his leather hat, box gun and Kowloon belt; he had no use for the rest of the things.

"We found quite a few of them!"

At this moment, the four brothers of the Qiu family also came out of another shack. Each of these young men had several guns on his shoulders.

“Let’s go in there and take a look.”

Wei Ran pointed behind him and said with a smile, "See if there is anything you like on those dead bodies."

"Do you have a box gun?"

Before Boss Qiu finished speaking, he ran in first without waiting for Wei Ran to answer.

"Go look for it yourself, maybe there is one."

Wei Ran smiled and said, of course we have box guns, and there are more than enough for each of these young men to have one.

Carrying the candle that was blown out by the cold wind, Wei Ran went into the dugout filled with animal skins, closed the door, relit the candle, looked around, then lit two kerosene lamps hanging on the load-bearing columns and adjusted them to maximum brightness.

With the light of the kerosene lamp, he was able to see clearly that there were quite a lot of animal skins here. He even saw more than one tiger skin, several bear skins, and even a blanket made of beautiful fox skins.

He also saw that in the corner of the earthen kang, there was a small pile of half-new boots and animal skins and hats that were taken from someone. He lifted up the water jars in the corner and looked at them. Wei Ran shook his head and sighed. Among these water jars, one was filled with half a jar of solidified white grease, and another was filled with frozen hard animal meat.

The remaining few large water vats contained either pickled cabbage, or pickled cabbage lumps that could be used as salt, or bundles of vermicelli, strings of dried mushrooms and dried chilies, and even corn flour, potatoes, sweet potatoes and other items that were almost level with the edges of the vats.

Compared to these "farmhouse dishes", in the large jar at the end were various medicinal herbs such as ginseng that Wei Ran knew or didn't know.

There is no need to think about it. Whether it is the animal skins or most of the things in the jar, even the wild boar babies in the cave where they were imprisoned, I am afraid that 99% of them were stolen from hunters.

Even among bandits, robbing poor people is definitely a shameless and shameful thing to do that cannot be talked about in public.

Having said that, it did not stop him from taking out the sleigh from the metal book, throwing a bear skin and the beautiful fiery red fox skin blanket on the sleigh, and not forgetting to fill the box with frozen animal meat and a few pickled radishes, and filling the gaps with cornmeal.

He even stuffed two ginsengs wrapped in birch bark and a bunch of red peppers into the second layer of the food box.

Seeing that he could fold up the sled smoothly, Wei Ran finally breathed a sigh of relief.

When he parted with Tian Xiaohu and the unconscious Hongxia girl, he left behind all the supplies that could be kept on the sled.

He was naturally happy that he could now make up for the damage on the sled, but in his heart he couldn't help but secretly sneer at Metal Book's hypocritical generosity.

Sending charcoal in the dog days of summer, sending ice in the first month of the lunar year, and sending crucian carp soup right after an abortion can only be done by those living ancestors with no bottom line.

Carrying the kerosene lamp and leaving the dugout which served as a warehouse, Wei Ran couldn't help but start thinking about another thing as he walked back: who had just fired the shot from a distance.

  Could it be that Zhao Jinyu or Unakan came looking for him?

While Wei Ran was thinking secretly, Hu Bazhi also walked out of the shack and said, "I just asked, the local people around this place call it Hu Nao Gou, and it was a bandit den in the early Republic of China, so it got this name.

The river is about 20 miles to the southeast. There are several mountain ridges in between, and it is far from the main road. There is no need to worry about the Japanese getting close to it for a while."

"Who do you think just fired the gun?"

Wei Ran invited the other party to walk into the shack and asked, "Could it be Zhao Jinyu and Una Kan?"

In just a short while, the four brothers of the Qiu family had stripped all that could be taken from the bandits and were now busy carrying the bodies out.

"not sure"

Hu Bazhi said ambiguously, "Maybe it's true."

"How about we shout a few times and ask?"

Wei Ran suggested, "Take the four brothers and hide in the nearby shack. I'll stand in the open and shout. If they..."

“No need to bother”

Before Hu Bazhi finished speaking, he had already opened his mouth and shouted, "The sky is high and the wind is cold, the snow is heavy, which immortal is coming to visit?"

"Will this work?" Wei Ran asked in a low voice.

"it works"

Hu Bazhi said confidently, and then added, "Unless I meet a weirdo like you."

Hearing this, Wei Ran grinned and was about to say something when a little light appeared at the end of his sight.

"Is it Brother Wei and Brother Hu?" Zhao Jinyu asked loudly while hiding in the shadow where the firelight could not reach.

"Jin Yu! Come here quickly!" Wei Ran shouted, "I knew it must be you!"

As soon as he finished speaking, before Zhao Jinyu had time to respond, Unakan's screams and curses were heard from behind the fire.

Accompanied by a series of snorts, the big black horse came running over with Unakan's roe deer horn hat in its mouth, and affectionately put its big head into Wei Ran's arms.

"come on!"

Wei Ran grabbed the hat and shouted, "Unakan, your hat is in my hand."

This sentence was like a secret code to prove safety. Soon, Zhao Jinyu and Unakan came over on their horses and reindeer sleds. Behind them, there was even a mule sled that came from nowhere.

"Were you the ones who fired the gun just now?" The two groups asked the same question almost at the same time.

"We killed two people who were swimming, and also picked up a large animal." Zhao Jinyu asked as he dismounted, "What about you guys?"

"We have captured a bunch of stinky kidnappers," Hu Bazhi invited with a smile, "Come into the cave and warm up."

"Come to this dugout."

Wei Ran called them to the dugout where a clay stove was also lit, and at the same time he said, "Big Brother Qiu, you four brothers have worked hard. Bring two kang tables over here and some pine oil candles."

"immediately!"

Boss Qiu, who was carrying the corpse, responded readily and called on the other three brothers to drop the corpse they were carrying and crawl into the dugout.

"Go, go."

As Wei Ran spoke, he had already tied up the biting horse, pushed open the wooden door of the dugout, and was the first to walk in, carrying a kerosene lamp.

Inviting everyone to sit down on the extra-warm earthen kang, the two groups briefly discussed what had happened.

Unexpectedly, the first person to discover Hu Bazhi's trace was not Wei Ran or Zhao Jinyu, but Unakan, who had no idea about the gathering location.

This clever Oroqen female hunter even witnessed Wei Ran being kidnapped, and she followed far behind and found the hilltop where the bandits were hiding.

At about the same time, the biting horse also followed the scent and found Zhao Jinyu who had just gotten rid of the Japanese.

Zhao Jinyu also fired from a distance, killing and wounding the bandits who were chasing Ma, and asked about the situation in the bandit's lair.

Needless to say, what happened next, after the two men met up, they wasted no time and successfully dealt with the bandits on guard while it was dark. However, that shot was necessary to kill the dog that pounced on them.

After they finished talking about the whole story and what they discovered in this bandit's den, Boss Qiu also brought his three brothers over with a kang table and pine oil candles.

"You guys have worked hard, continue to move those bandits to the forest to feed the wolves." Hu Bazhi continued to instruct the Qiu brothers at this time, "Remember to throw them far away."

Boss Qiu, who already had a box gun and a nine-dragon belt on his waist, did not suspect anything and simply asked the three brothers to leave the warm dugout and continue working.

"Have something to say?"

Wei Ran politely declined the other party's pipe, took out the cigarette box, took out a cigarette, put it in his mouth, lit it and asked.

"Yes, there are some words"

Hu Bazhi hesitated for a moment and said, "I think this bandit's den has plenty of food and drink. What do you think of letting the four Qiu brothers stay here?"

"Are you planning to make them become bandits?" Zhao Jinyu asked with a smile.

"When I went to pick up Boss Qiu and Xiao Si'er during the day, Boss Qiu said he wanted to follow us to fight the Japanese." Hu Bazhi said with a sigh.

Hearing this, Zhao Jinyu, who was originally planning to say something, opened his mouth but fell silent.

“They are only sixteen or seventeen.”

Hu Bazhi sighed and said, "It's not worth it to follow us to die."

"Or let them go find Squad Leader Xiaohu?" Wei Ran asked.

"Do you think I didn't tell them? They have to believe it!" Hu Bazhi sighed, "Captain Zhao is to blame for this."

"Blame my brother? Why?" Zhao Jinyu asked in surprise.

"When Captain Zhao went to their village, Boss Qiu and his friends wanted to join the Anti-Japanese United Army. At that time, wherever there was an Anti-Japanese United Army, the black soil would turn three feet red. Who wouldn't want to join the Anti-Japanese United Army?"

Hu Bazhi said helplessly, "But how old was he at the time? Captain Zhao lied to him and told them to help take care of the wounded first, and when they came back, they would be accepted into the Anti-Japanese United Army."

After these words were spoken, the dugout fell completely silent.

“This wait lasted three years.”

Hu Bazhi sighed, "These silly guys have been waiting for Captain Zhao to come back, waiting to take them to fight the Japanese.

Tell me, can they believe us and go to look for Tian Xiaohu, whom they have never met? Besides, it might be even more difficult to find Xiaohu."

"Brother Hu, if you ask them to stay, will they be willing to stay?" Unakan asked.

When this question was raised, everyone in the dugout fell silent again.

"Sixteen or seventeen is not young anymore"

Unakan threw a few pieces of firewood into the clay stove and continued, "If you stay here as a gangster at your age, you won't survive for more than a few days before being swallowed up by the surrounding mountains.

Joining the Anti-Japanese United Army is dangerous, but it is always a way to survive. If it really doesn’t work, we can take them to the Russian side.”

"Let me talk to Boss Qiu again."

Hu Bazhi sighed and changed the subject, "Looking at the weather, it will probably snow again in the second half of the night, so why not just rest here."

"There's a lot of food in that den over there," Wei Ran volunteered, "and a lot of animal skins."

"Let's go and take a look together." Hu Bazhi also stood up while speaking.

At the same time, Boss Qiu, who was hiding outside the door and eavesdropping, clenched his fists, turned around and ran into the dugout next to him where all the corpses had not yet been carried away.

(End of this chapter)