War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1640: Fire on the other side of the river, light outside the encirclement

In the windy and snowy night, a horse team was walking towards the north in the dark in the primeval forest.

At the front of the team, Unakan listened attentively to the movements around her. Behind her, Zhao Jinyu, riding on horseback, would occasionally strike the stirrups with his saber to scare away the wolves and wild animals that were watching.

Behind him, the three brothers of the Qiu family, who were also riding on horseback, could not help but look back from time to time at Hu Bazhi and Wei Ran, who were riding mules and horses at the end.

As for Hu Bazhi, this experienced hunter and anti-Japanese fighter was distracted for once, and didn't care at all about the mules carrying straw men tied to the reins in his hands.

At the end of the team, Wei Ran squinted his eyes and looked at the mules and horses that seemed to appear and disappear in the wind and snow in front of him. From time to time, he would check the two arms of pine branches dragged by the biting horse and the mule next to it, to make sure that they stirred up the snow behind them to barely cover the horseshoe prints.

After two hours of long but slow progress, the surrounding vegetation gradually became sparse and the terrain gradually became flat, but at the same time, the wind and snow gradually subsided and the sky gradually brightened.

Amid the complex emotions of uneasiness, tension and vigilance, the coniferous forests on both sides were gradually left behind, and wherever the eyes could be seen, there were large areas of water blisters waiting to thaw in the spring of next year.

“Let’s run!”

Unakan said, pointing in a direction with the whip in his hand, "Keep running over there!"

"drive!"

Almost at the same time, everyone shouted at the mules and horses to speed up.

In the dim night, the biting cold wind that felt like a knife cutting their faces, and the snowflakes that hit them so hard that they could hardly open their eyes, made the sound of the horses' hooves hitting the frozen ground seem to be amplified countless times - even though they had wrapped the horses' hooves with animal skins before setting off.

Inevitably, everyone was worried about running into the Japanese troops at this critical moment. But even so, all they could do was to urge the mules and horses to run faster and faster!

On the bumpy horse's back, the three Qiu brothers bent down as much as possible, stepped on the stirrups tightly to hold the horse, and at the same time held on to the saddle, trying to reduce their windward surface to ensure that they would not be thrown off.

Also running with them were the mules led by Hu Bazhi and tied with straw men. Because they were not carrying any loads, these mules, which were not good at running, could barely catch up with the military horses.

They ran like this for about ten minutes. The forest behind them had already been covered by the night. All they could see was the endless wasteland with scattered large and small patches of forest from time to time.

"How far do we have to run?" Zhao Jinyu asked Unakan as he caught up with her.

"It's not far!"

Unakan pointed the whip in his hand straight ahead and said, "Keep running forward, and when you see a field, stop!"

Following Unakan's panicked warning, everyone immediately reined in their horses and the mules they were leading. At the same time, they also saw a group of horses with flashing oil lamps and flashlight beams suddenly running out from the other side of a forest in front of them on the right.

“Woof woof woof woof—!”

Almost at the moment when the three brothers of the Qiu family, who were a little slow to react, finally pulled their horses to a stop with great difficulty, the sound of dogs barking one after another came from the direction of the horse team, and beams of flashlights shone over there.

"Run! It's the devil's standing-eared dog!"

Unakan reacted very quickly, shouted, pulled the reins, turned the horse's head and ran to the side.

Almost subconsciously, the three brothers of the Qiu family anxiously urged their horses to follow.

In contrast, Wei Ran and Zhao Jinyu drew out their carbines at the same time, aimed in the direction of the light beam and pulled the trigger decisively!

"boom!"

After two almost overlapping gunshots, two glowing flashlights fell from the horses' backs, and the horse team in the distance immediately dispersed.

"Come on!"

Hu Bazhi shouted, reached out his hand to pull out a handful of meat lumps from the sack of the big white mule and scattered them around.

"drive!"

Wei Ran and Zhao Jinyu shouted at their horses almost at the same time and started running to the side, chasing Hu Bazhi and Unakan and others in front.

At the same time, Wei Ran also cut off the pine branches that were holding the biting horse and the mule he was leading. As he ran, Hu Bazhi was still throwing handfuls of meat behind him.

"What are you talking about?!" Zhao Jinyu asked loudly, not worrying at all about the gunshots that sounded behind him.

Not to mention him, Wei Ran also didn't take the gunshots behind him seriously. Why did he and Zhao Jinyu just fire those two seemingly unnecessary shots? It was purely to entice those Japanese soldiers on horseback patrol to shoot!

  But stopping on horseback and shooting at a target running towards you with a flashlight in hand is different from shooting at a running target with a gun in hand while riding a running horse. Whether the latter can hit the target depends entirely on faith!

More importantly, Zhao Jinyu and Wei Ran, who had been cavalrymen, knew that when shooting on horseback, they would subconsciously slow down the horse to some extent, which was their purpose of shooting to seduce the opponent! Not only that, after those two shots, the flashlights of the pursuers behind them dared not stay on!

"A lump of meat mixed with chicken fat and rat poison!"

Hu Bazhi continued to throw the prepared poison bait while answering, "It was originally a vicious method prepared for the wolves in the mountains, and it is just right for killing the devil's dogs."

"Brother Wei! Brother Hu! Listen to me!"

Zhao Jinyu rode up on his horse and shouted, "You two take Qiu with you."

"We don't know Zhao Jinshan!"

Hu Bazhi didn't give Zhao Jinyu a chance to speak, he raised his head and shouted, "Sister, you..."

"Shut up! Follow closely!"

Una Kan also did not give Hu Bazhi a chance to finish his words. She did not care what plans Hu Bazhi, Zhao Jinyu or even Wei Ran had. She wanted to get all of them across the river safely!

"Follow me!"

Unakan's voice was carried by the wind to the ears of everyone behind him, "Run into the woods ahead, I can get rid of them! Run faster!"

Hearing this, the six people following behind whipped their horses' buttocks hard and ran for their lives towards the woods that they could not even see.

However, just when the outline of the forest could finally be vaguely seen in the wind and snow ahead, a series of flashlight beams appeared at the edge of the forest!

  The terrible thing was that not only did some of the flashlight beams head towards them, but some also headed towards the north, obviously preventing them from crossing the river!

"Bang bang bang!"

  A burst of gunfire was heard from the direction of the cavalry running towards them. Boss Qiu let out a scream and fell off his horse!

Before he could stop rolling in the snow, Zhao Jinyu had already galloped over, reached out and grabbed him, and pulled him back onto the horse's back!

"Run south!"

At the critical moment, Hu Bazhi shouted loudly, "Unakan! Run south!"

"Back to the woods, right?" Unakan shouted as he pulled the reins and turned the direction.

"Yes!" Hu Bazhi responded loudly, "Boss Qiu was shot!"

"Arm! Brother Wei! Come and take a look!"

As soon as Zhao Jinyu finished speaking, Wei Ran ran over and touched Boss Qiu's shoulder. Then, amid his screams, he shouted, "The bullet broke the bone in his right arm! Tie it up with a rope first!"

Hearing this, Zhao Jinyu immediately pulled out a rope from his saddle bag and, under Wei Ran's guidance, tied up the wound on Boss Qiu's arm to stop the bleeding.

Amid the shouting, screaming, gunfire and bustle, everyone had no choice but to run in the direction they came from.

"Everybody listen to me!"

Hu Bazhi said, "Unakan! Jinyu! Take the Qiu brothers into the forest ahead!"

"What about you!" Zhao Jinyu and Unakan asked in unison.

"Even if you die, you must complete the mission!"

Hu Bazhi shouted irrelevantly, "You must send the letter back, don't let Xiaohu and the others miss it! Also, remember to light a fire after crossing the river so that we can see it! Brother Wei! Let's go!"

Before Hu Bazhi finished his words, Wei Ran had already increased his speed and rushed over. Ignoring Unakan and Zhao Jinyu's shouts, he followed Hu Bazhi and the mules he was leading and ran towards the southwest!

When the two sides had distanced themselves from each other, the two men pulled off the lampshades of the oil lamps on the mules one by one, then took out their box guns and casually pulled the trigger at the pursuers behind them to attract their attention.

"Come on!"

Unakan shouted anxiously, urging Zhao Jinyu and the Qiu brothers to follow her, and ran along the horseshoe prints left on the way to a forest that they had just passed by not far away.

She didn't tell anyone that during the last break, Hu Bazhi had talked to her about the plan while the others were sleeping, just as she hadn't told anyone about the plan that Zhao Jinyu had talked to her about.

For this young girl, all she had to do was to pick a difficult plan and put it into action.

  But at the moment, it is obvious that Hu Bazhi's plan is more in line with the current situation!

Taking advantage of the shadow of the forest ahead and the horseshoe prints they had left behind, Unakan urged Zhao Jinyu and the Qiu brothers to run into the forest and hide.

As they watched, the Japs gradually surrounded the mule team equipped with lanterns and led by Wei Ran and Hu Bazhi.

Or rather, they led the pursuers back into the deep mountains and forests.

"go!"

Zhao Jinyu gritted his teeth and growled, then hugged the injured Boss Qiu and was the first to ride his horse out of the woods. He once again followed the horse hoof prints they had just left, and with Unakan, Xiao Si'er and Yongwu who kept looking back behind him, he once again ran towards the direction of Heilongjiang River amid the increasingly distant gunshots!

At the same time, Wei Ran and Hu Bazhi, who had already run into the woods with their mules and horses, had already distanced themselves from the mules and horses carrying straw men, and pulled the trigger again and again, trying hard to attract the attention of the pursuers behind them.

"Do you think they have crossed the river?" Hu Bazhi asked loudly.

“Probably not yet”

Wei Ran, who was almost flat on the horse's back, answered loudly, "It shouldn't be that fast."

“I don’t know if there will be more difficulties along the river.”

Hu Bazhi muttered something incoherently and urged the big white mule to run faster.

"Where are we running?" Wei Ran asked.

"Run further in!"

Hu Bazhi raised his head and glanced at the mule in front of him that was attracting fire. "We need to make the mule run faster! We can't let the enemy find out it's fake!"

"It would be ok if the devils could run slower!"

As Wei Ran was talking, he had already taken out a Soviet lemon grenade from his bag that smelled of corpse and burnt. He had taken this grenade from Cui Da Huzi's body not long ago.

At this time, the grenade was still tightly wrapped with several strips of cloth soaked in kerosene, and at the end of the cloth strips, there was an additional thick hemp rope more than one meter long.

After pulling out the safety pin and lighting the cloth strip tied to the grenade with great effort, Wei Ran glanced in the direction of the pursuers behind him, swung the hemp rope hard, and threw the grenade behind him.

In the dark night, the burning grenade flew back in a parabola like a conspicuous meteor, and then hooked on the branch of a pine tree, turning into an increasingly conspicuous fireball. Almost subconsciously, a sharp-eyed Japanese soldier rode up to it. However, in just a short while, as the grenade burned, the cloth strips wrapped around it disintegrated one after another, the safety grip was successfully opened, and the oval body of the grenade also emitted green smoke that was difficult to detect in the wind and snow, bumping against the tree trunk and branches and continuing to fall, and finally hitting the thick snow.

"boom!"

  Almost at the same time as the grenade exploded, two Japanese cavalrymen and a military dog ​​that had just secretly picked up a few lumps of meat ran into the best killing range!

In the dull explosion, no one was spared, including the people, horses and dogs. Their bodies turned into smelly fuel, dyeing the surrounding flying snowflakes and the snow on the ground red.

This sudden explosion undoubtedly made the people chasing behind him subconsciously slow down a little, and subconsciously avoid the fireballs thrown out by the people in front.

However, until the fireballs were extinguished one after another, no more explosions occurred!

By the time they realized they were being tricked, Wei Ran and Hu Bazhi, as well as the mules they were driving, had already run farther away. Apart from the faint glow of the fire, the Japanese soldiers behind them could hardly see their outlines in the wind and snow.

"We should separate from the mule! The Japs must have started to outflank us!"

"Let's run west!"

Before Hu Bazhi finished his words, he had already raised his whip and whipped the last mule carrying the straw man hard on the butt.

When the mule subconsciously sped up, the two men grabbed the reins and left the mule team, went diagonally into the woods, and ran towards the west.

At the same time, the pursuers behind them gradually discovered that the military dogs they brought to search for targets were whimpering miserably. Some of them had begun to roll on the ground, and a few even began to frantically bite the surrounding horse hooves.

During this small chaos, Wei Ran jumped off his horse and quickly took out the last two grenades and pulled two trip mines horizontally that were less than 20 centimeters higher than the snow.

Mounting on their horses again, the two men sped up and started running westward for their lives. However, what was in the west was not known to Wei Ran, and even Hu Bazhi, who came here for the first time, did not know.

What they didn't know was that Zhao Jinyu and others had already run to the riverside under their cover, and were running towards the Russian territory on the frozen river surface covered with snow.

"Captain Zhao and Zhao Jinshan don't trust Manager Yang!"

When they reached the center of the river, Unakan suddenly spoke loudly.

"Is this the time to talk about this?" Zhao Jinyu shouted in response.

"Especially after what happened to the bearded uncle, I'm afraid Captain Zhao will distrust Manager Yang even less!"

Unakan remained unmoved and continued to speak loudly, "Brother Jinyu! You have to find Captain Zhao and explain the situation clearly to prove Shopkeeper Yang's innocence! You also have to save Shopkeeper Yang!"

"What are you doing!" Zhao Jinyu shouted when he realized something was wrong.

"After crossing the river, run east!"

Unakan pointed in a direction with the whip in his hand, "Remember to light the fire! I'll go save those two idiots! You go save Shopkeeper Yang!"

  After saying that, Unakan suddenly turned his horse's head and started running back without waiting for Zhao Jinyu's response!

"Come back! Come back here!" Zhao Jinyu roared, "I order you to come back!"

"drive!"

Unakan was unmoved, instead he whipped the horse hard on its buttocks and disappeared into the windy and snowy night in the blink of an eye.

In the middle of the frozen river, Zhao Jinyu, riding on horseback, looked desperately in the direction where Unakan disappeared, then lowered his head to look at Boss Qiu who seemed to be about to faint due to excessive blood loss, and even at Xiao Si'er and Yongwu who stopped a step later.

"Brother Zhao, what should we do?" Yongwu asked hesitantly.

"Run! Run! Let's cross the river!" Zhao Jinyu gritted his teeth and gave the order, shouting at the warhorse to run again.

On the south bank of the river, in a primeval forest not far from the river, Wei Ran and Hu Bazhi ran faster and faster as they heard two grenade explosions behind them.

After the two men rode their horses over a ridge, Hu Bazhi turned his horse around again and ran towards the southwest.

At this time, the sky had gradually become brighter, and even the wind and snow had a tendency to weaken. This was not a good thing, on the contrary, it would undoubtedly make it easier for the pursuers behind them to find them.

"Brother Wei, I'm afraid we will have to sacrifice the livestock in order to survive!" Hu Bazhi said suddenly.

"Where to hide?" Wei Ran asked bluntly.

"On the Tree"

Hu Ba pointed to the top of his head and said, "Find a tree, step on the animal and hide inside, and let the animal continue to run."

"The Japanese have dogs with them," Wei Ran reminded.

"do not be afraid"

Hu Bazhi said confidently, "The meat lumps I spread were mixed with spring dog urine. Even if the Japanese wolfhounds didn't eat them, they would at least lick them. They must have been poisoned to death after running all the way just now."

"If we can't avoid it, neither of us will survive." Wei Ran reminded.

"Take a risk and gamble!"

Hu Bazhi took a breath and said, "I was shot."

"What did you say!"

Wei Ran's heart sank, and he quickly moved closer, "Where are you hurt?"

"thigh"

Hu Bazhi gritted his teeth and replied, "Hide in the tree quickly, I..."

"Don't you fart!"

While Wei Ran was speaking, he had already stopped the big white mule that the other party was riding by pulling the reins. After feeling behind him, the lieutenant breathed a sigh of relief. The bullet had grazed Hu Bazhi's thigh near his hipbone.

Although the bullet left a bloody groove on his leg, the amount of bleeding showed that no bones or blood vessels were damaged.

"Can't die"

Wei Ran looked around and pointed to a tall pine tree in the distance and said, "I'll take you up there. You hide inside, bandage yourself, and then climb to the top of the tree. Keep an eye on the other side of the river to see if there's any fire."

"What about you?" Hu Bazhi asked.

"If the devil wants to catch me, I still have a lot of practice to do."

Wei Ran answered confidently, "I will lead them to a far place and hide them there. You must hide well. If anything happens to you, I won't be able to explain to everyone."

"Okay," Hu Bazhi responded after a moment of silence.

"Listen to me"

Wei Ran, who was riding on horseback, pulled the reins of the big white mule and continued to run towards the pine tree in front, while reminding, "If you dare to do anything stupid, I will surrender to the devils."

"you"

"Then I will take the devils with me to kill Zhao Jinyu and the others."

Wei Ran reminded him seriously, "So you better hide well and don't make any noise. Wait for me to lead the devils away, and then I'll come back to pick you up."

At this point, Wei Ran had already led the mule to the pine tree he had chosen and stopped. "Can you go up by yourself?"

"can"

Hu Bazhi glanced at Wei Ran, gritted his teeth and endured the pain, then stood on the big white mule with difficulty, holding onto the tree trunk and clinging to the branches, climbing up little by little.

Waiting until the other party hid in the tree canopy, Wei Ran pulled out his carbine, turned the butt of the gun and smashed it hard on the tree trunk.

With a slight "dong" sound, the snow on the treetops fell down, easily burying the extra horseshoe prints and sporadic bloodstains under the tree.

"drive!"

Wei Ran shook the reins hard, and shouted at the biting horse and the big white mule whose reins he was pulling, and they started running again.

As he occasionally fired his gun to lure them, the pursuers behind him gradually gathered around him, but no one noticed Hu Bazhi hiding in the tree.

Of course, neither Wei Ran who was about to be surrounded nor the Japanese soldiers who were about to surround Wei Ran knew that outside the encirclement, there was a brave young girl riding a horse alone, running into the woods following the sound of gunfire and increasingly obvious horse hoof prints.

At the same time, Wei Ran also ran to the highest point of a ridge, hooked a branch of a pine tree with one hand, and then used the whip in the other hand to whip the biting horse on the butt.

Stimulated by the severe pain, the biting horse ran deeper into the forest with the big white mule with the reins tied to the saddle on its back.

Turning over and climbing up to the treetops, Wei Ran sat on a branch and hit the trunk hard with the butt of his gun again.

Amid the falling snow, he had already climbed to the highest point of the tree canopy that could bear his weight and hide his figure, and took out the oversized telescope with satisfaction.

Looking around with the help of the telescope, he could clearly see the entire encirclement of the Japanese in the rising sun.

He also saw that in several directions outside the encirclement, there were sleds, mules and horses carrying armed warriors rushing towards the back of the Japanese.

He also vaguely saw that in the far distance to the north, on the other side of the frozen Heilongjiang River, a dead tree seemed to have been set on fire, and a large ball of fire was ignited that was conspicuous enough in the field of view of the telescope.

"It looks like we have successfully crossed the river."

Wei Ran breathed a sigh of relief and turned to look in the direction of Hu Bazhi. To his surprise, he saw Unakan running back on a horse, and also saw Hu Bazhi coming down from the tree with the help of Unakan.

But he did not feel happy at all because Hu Bazhi was rescued, because he also saw that behind Unakan, more Japanese soldiers were rushing into the forest on horses or sleds.

"grass!"

Wei Ran realized that something was wrong and no longer cared about his own life. He put away the telescope and picked up the carbine on his shoulder. After loading the bullet into the chamber, he aimed at a Japanese soldier on horseback who was surrounding him and pulled the trigger!

"boom!"

Amid the clear sound of gunfire, Wei Ran clearly saw the Japanese soldier more than a hundred meters away suddenly throw his head back and fall off his horse. But before he could fire the second bullet, a strong white light swept in, covering everything around in the blink of an eye.

"finished."

Wei Ran then let go of the carbine in his hand, pulled out the box gun from his waist with his right hand, took out the box gun from the metal book with his left hand and pulled the trigger at the same time, hoping to attract more attention of the Japs, and also hoping that Hu Bazhi and Unakan could escape alive.

He also hopes that these people who are struggling in despair can survive until the end of the war.