War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1642 Hot Blood
In the deep primeval forest of Greater Khingan Range in late autumn, the Qiu brothers rode two black horses, one in front and one behind, running in the front with a distance of forty to fifty meters, responsible for exploring the way.

About thirty or forty meters away, Zhao Jinyu was driving the big white mule pulling the wounded on the sled and was extremely anxious.

At the end of the team, Wei Ran, who was riding on a biting horse, would stop from time to time, casually place a grenade and hide it in the fallen leaves, and then quickly ride his horse to catch up with the three people in front.

Soon, accompanied by explosions coming from the camp behind them, everyone became tense. They all knew that the Japanese had found them.

"I'm afraid I can't get rid of it if I run like this."

When Wei Ran caught up with the mule sled again, he said, "Jin Yu, let the wounded come to my horse. We have to run fast for a while, otherwise we might be surrounded."

"Can this wounded man ride a horse?" Zhao Jinyu asked subconsciously.

"It should be fine for a short time," Wei Ran said as he got off the horse again.

Seeing this, Zhao Jinyu immediately pulled the reins to stop the big white mule, and then helped Wei Ran to carry the unconscious wounded man onto the back of the biting horse.

After Wei Ran got on the horse and held the wounded steady, Zhao Jinyu immediately took out a chariot knife and cut the noose between the big white mule and the sled. Then he took out a Russian grenade from his saddle bag, pulled out the safety pin, and pressed it under the slide bar of the sled. Then he swiftly mounted the mule and ran away.

After throwing the sled, everyone's speed increased a lot, but the occasional explosions behind them reminded them that the Japanese were getting closer and closer!

"boom!"

"Da da da!"

Just at this moment, the sound of sudden gunfire was heard more than a hundred meters ahead!

"Go left!"

Zhao Jinyu reacted very quickly and shouted. Seeing this, Xiao Si'er, who was running in second place, immediately changed direction and started running to the left with Zhao Jinyu and Wei Ran behind him.

Not long after, Qiu Yongwu also caught up on horseback, holding a submachine gun in one hand.

"Are you hurt?" Wei Ran asked loudly.

"no!"

Qiu Yongwu responded loudly, "We have run into the Japanese who are searching the mountain. We have to run quickly!"

Before he finished speaking, accompanied by a few bangs, the Japanese grenade launchers began to show their power. Grenade after grenade hit the place where Wei Ran and others had just stayed behind and exploded. Immediately afterwards, there was the sound of intensive machine gun fire!

"Run forward! Climb over the beam ahead!"

Zhao Jinyu asked, "Yongwu, how did the devils on the opposite side come here?!"

"They are riding horses, leading dogs and sleds! There are quite a few of them!" Yongwu replied immediately, "and there are puppet soldiers following behind them!"

"Show the beams!" Zhao Jinyu urged, "Spread the news! Hurry up and spread the news!"

Before he finished speaking, Xiao Si'er and Yongwu reached into their saddle bags, each pulled out a handful of lumps of meat that looked very familiar to Wei Ran, and threw them behind them.

Not only that, even the wood frogs and fish that had not been cooked when they set up camp were directly poured out by Zhao Jinyu from the enamel pot hanging on the mule.

"After climbing up the beam, run north along the other side!"

Zhao Jinyu hung the pot on the mule again and said, "Let's take those bastards for a walk!"

As he finished saying this, there was another explosion at the location where Wei Ran had buried the mine. Immediately afterwards, the enemies blocking them in front also opened fire. It was obvious that they were about to complete the encirclement.

"Are there any Japanese soldiers on the beam ahead?" Wei Ran asked vigilantly.

"will not!"

Zhao Jinyu was already riding a mule and running in the front while speaking. "If the Japanese had been able to hide in the deep mountains and old forests in advance, we would have been unable to get through and would have been caught on the way here."

Hearing this, Wei Ran did not ask any more questions, but urged the biting horse to run faster.

Gradually, the Japanese behind them fired bullets and threw grenades in the direction they were running.

Fortunately, amidst the repeated explosions and the horrifying sounds of bullets crashing into tree trunks, everyone managed to ride up the ridge on horseback without any danger, hid in the blind spot on the other side of the ridge, and ran due north at a faster speed in an attempt to escape the encirclement of the Japanese mountain-searching team.

While the Japanese were busy rushing to the ridge, Wei Ran and others urged the mules and horses to speed up and try to increase the distance between the two sides.

When the Japanese behind him had already climbed up the ridge, Zhao Jinyu took out a Russian lemon grenade, tied a knot with his leg strap to hold the grip, pulled out the safety pin, and swung the leg strap tied to the grenade in an extremely dangerous way. At the same time, he shouted at the mule to climb to the top of the ridge.

After swinging around like this for a few circles, the grenade flew out of Zhao Jinyu's hand in a parabola and flew to the east side of the ridge at an extremely fast speed.

"boom!"

A few seconds later, the grenade exploded in the dense forest on the east side of the ridge. The Japanese soldiers who had just rushed up the ridge on horseback were immediately attracted by the explosion of the grenade. At least half of them separated and rushed down the ridge on horseback.

However, at this moment, Zhao Jinyu had already led everyone down the ridge from the other side, ran quickly to the west, and started rushing up the second ridge more than a hundred meters away.

"Once we cross this ridge, we will probably be able to escape from the Japanese encirclement."

Zhao Jinyu, riding a big white mule, climbed up the mountain ridge while shouting, "Run north when the time comes. As long as we hurry up, we will definitely be able to..."

"boom!"

Zhao Jinyu, who was about to climb to the top of the ridge, had just said half of his words when a sharp gunshot suddenly came from the direction of another ridge behind him.

But the echo of the gunshot had not yet dissipated, and Wei Ran, who was walking at the end with the wounded in his arms, saw a ball of blood mist explode in front of Zhao Jinyu's chest!
"Gold and jade!"

Wei Ran's heart trembled, and he subconsciously urged the biting horse to run over. He grabbed Zhao Jinyu's collar with one hand and kicked the white mule in the ribs at the same time, urging it to walk faster.

"Run! Both of you run!"

Wei Ran, holding the wounded in one hand and pulling Zhao Jinyu in the other, roared a second time at the top of his lungs. He relied entirely on his legs to control the biting horse and the big white mule to run to the top of the ridge, and hid behind a tall and lush pine tree as quickly as possible.

"boom!"

After the second gunshot, the horse that Wei Ran was riding was hit in the neck by a bullet before it could even utter a cry. It only had time to struggle twice before it fell to the ground with Wei Ran, the wounded man he was holding, and even Zhao Jinyu on the big white mule.

"I'll fuck your grandma!"

Xiao Si'er let out an angry roar, pulled out the horse rifle from his mount and jumped off. He crouched and ran to a distant birch tree that had not yet lost all its leaves. He took aim and pulled the trigger!

At the same time, Qiu Yongwu jumped off the horse very quickly, took out the tin box containing life-saving medicine from his arms, and ran towards Wei Ran and the other two.

"Cough cough."

Amid the sound of gunfire, Zhao Jinyu glanced at Wei Ran, who suddenly had a metal medicine box in his hand, and then struggled to pull out the box gun that belonged to the Li brothers from his waist, and threw it with all his strength to Wei Ran, whose leg was still pressed under the corpse of the biting horse.

"pat"

Along with a slight sound, Wei Ran also trembled and looked at Zhao Jinyu in panic.

"Cough cough."

Zhao Jinyu, whose lungs were pierced by a bullet, showed a blood-stained smile, pointed with difficulty at the big white mule not far away, and then silently said "Saber"

"Saber! Valor! Sabre! Bring me the saber!"

Before Wei Ran finished his words, he had already taken out an epinephrine and a morphine from the medicine box and injected them into Zhao Jinyu's body in an extremely brutal manner.

He knew that he could not save Zhao Jinyu. The bullet had already shattered at least half of his lung.
"The saber is here!" Before Yongwu finished his words, he had already pulled Zhao Jinyu's saber out of the mule's saddle strap and stuffed it into Zhao Jinyu's hand.

Looking at the saber in his hand with regret, Zhao Jinyu handed it to Wei Ran with difficulty, and then looked at the box gun.

"I understand. Send it to Sui. Send it to Wangchuan, right?" Wei Ran held Zhao Jinyu's hand tightly and asked quickly.

Zhao Jinyu nodded with difficulty and pointed to her arms with her last bit of strength.

Seeing this, Wei Ran immediately reached into Zhao Jinyu's arms, and after some searching, he took out an envelope that was mostly stained with blood and had three colorful feathers stuck on it, as well as half a rhino horn paperweight wrapped in layers of red cloth.

At Zhao Jinyu's suggestion, Wei Ran turned over the half piece of paperweight with a lot of scratches, only to find two names engraved on it that he had never heard of: Zhao Guangfu and Zhao Youhua.

Seeing Zhao Jinyu's eyes full of tenderness and relief, Wei Ran suppressed his trembling and put his ear close to her mouth. He listened for a moment amid the interweaving gunshots, then asked tentatively, "Is this the name you gave to your unborn child? You want me to give this paperweight to Shiyi?"

Zhao Jinyu, whose face had turned red due to suffocation, nodded as if relieved, and then looked at Qiu Yongwu and the wounded man who were beside them and looked panicked.

"I see"

Wei Ran sighed, picked up the saber and the box gun, as well as the rhino horn paperweight and the feather letter and handed them to Qiu Yongwu. Then he pulled out his leg with difficulty, reset the dislocated knee joint with a "click", and then said while enduring the pain, "Qiu Yongwu, you and Xiao Si'er immediately take Zhao Jinyu's relics and the wounded and retreat. I will cover you."

"I won't! We'll stay! You"

"Go! This is an order!"

As Wei Ran spoke, he handed the medical kit he had just taken out to the other party, "Go and complete your mission. Go quickly. Time is running out."

"Boom!" Almost as he finished saying this, the grenade fired by the Japanese on the opposite ridge also hit the ravine behind them.

"Come on!"

As Wei Ran spoke, he had already pulled out the saddlebag containing the grenade and the Japanese cavalry rifle from the corpse of the biting horse, and shouted again, "Go!"

Gritting his teeth, Qiu Yongwu called Xiao Si'er to come over, and the two of them worked together to help the wounded man onto the back of the big white mule. After tying him up with leg straps, they took a last look at Wei Ran who was stuffing grenades under Zhao Jinyu's body. Amid the increasingly frequent grenade explosions, they rode on the two black horses and dragged the big white mule carrying the wounded man down the ridge.

Behind them, Wei Ran took out his camera and pressed the shutter first at the brothers' backs, and then at Zhao Jinyu's body.

Contentedly putting away the camera, Wei Ran leaned against the trunk of the pine tree where he was hiding, loaded the cavalry rifle in his hand with bullets with a "click", and after waiting patiently for a moment, he leaned forward and pulled the trigger towards the approaching Japanese search team!
"boom!"

After the gunshot, a cloud of blood exploded from the back of a Japanese soldier riding a horse. Those Japanese soldiers who had already started charging immediately lay down and began to suppress the fire again.

After trying to move his dislocated leg, Wei Ran took a last look at Zhao Jinyu who had stopped breathing. He gritted his teeth and ran down the ridge before the Japanese grenade came again. He then limped up the next ridge, while also putting on the Soviet cloak that could provide some camouflage.

"boom!"

Almost at the same time he climbed to the top of the ridge, a grenade explosion was heard from the direction of Zhao Jinyu behind him.

In the explosion that buried his comrades, Wei Ran, who had a disabled leg, rolled over and hid behind a pine tree. He took out a PPSh submachine gun from a metal notebook, aimed at the Japanese soldiers who had just crawled up around Zhao Jinyu's body, and pulled the trigger!
“Da da da da da—!”

Amid the dense gunfire, some of the Japanese soldiers on the opposite ridge were hit by bullets and fell to the ground or even rolled down the hillside, but more of them subconsciously hid on the other side of the ridge.

Having no intention of confronting them, Wei Ran put away his submachine gun, crouched down and limped to the other side of the ridge. After quickly moving horizontally for a distance, he once again raised the Japanese cavalry gun he had been carrying and waited patiently.

After firing more than a dozen grenades in the direction he had just been, he finally saw the Japanese soldier poking his head out.

"boom!"

As he pulled the trigger, after the crisp sound of gunfire, a Japanese soldier who appeared on the opposite ridge suddenly threw his head back and rolled down, splattering blood and brains all the way.

Without any rush to change the bullet, he retracted his body and quickly moved sideways back to his previous position. While the Japanese on the opposite side were focusing their fire on the position where he had just been, he carefully observed the situation, calmly used a grenade to set a pressure-detonated mine, and ran away with his carbine in his arms.

He had no intention of escaping; instead, he was going to ambush the Japanese who were trying to outflank him.

However, he didn't know that further away, in the direction where Qiu Yongwu and Xiao Si fled, Xiao Si gave his black horse to the wounded, and he himself rode a relatively more conspicuous big white mule.

"Brother Yongwu, you have to survive."

Xiao Si'er pulled the reins and said, "Send the wounded back, deliver the letter, and I'll go save Brother Wei. If I can't save him, I'll help you lead the Japanese away."

As he said this, he took out a slingshot from his arms and threw it to Yongwu, "This was made for me by my father when he was alive. I have killed many rabbits and magpies with it.

Brother Yongwu, if I die, when you have time, bury the slingshot next to the boss's grave, so that I can have some paper money to burn for him in the underworld."

"I don't care about that. Go bury yourself if you want."

Yongwu wiped his eyes and at the same time clenched the broken slingshot that the other party had just thrown at him.

"Brother Yongwu, you must escape. Run as fast as you can. I will lead away the Japanese soldiers chasing us."

Before Xiao Si'er finished speaking, he shook the reins hard, urging the big white mule to circle towards Wei Ran.

"Come back alive"

Qiu Yongwu pleaded silently, wiped away his tears, shook the reins, and ran with the wounded tied to another black horse deeper into the primeval forest, running in the completely opposite direction of Xiao Si'er.

As the Japanese encirclement was gradually tightening, Wei Ran, who was hiding on the ridge, lay under a bush next to a pine tree. He quickly tied the box gun on his waist to the root of the bush, then tied the trigger with a spool of thin wire, and swung the other end of the thin wire over the tree branch, hanging the Soviet cloak he had just put on.

Seizing the opportunity, he pulled the trigger and shot the leading Japanese soldier who was about to encircle him in the distance. Then he rolled down the ridge without waiting for the enemy to retaliate.

Amid the rapid exchange of gunfire behind him, the cloak that was hit by bullets also prompted the box gun to fire back again and again.

But at the same time, Wei Ran had already circled to the path that the Japanese had to take. He first placed the last grenade here, then climbed up the crown of a pine tree that would not be affected by the explosion of the grenade, hugged the trunk tightly and waited patiently.

Not long after, as the only 20 bullets in the box gun were used up, the Japanese who were encircling the enemy finally stopped shooting. And as Wei Ran had expected, some of them began to charge towards the empty ridge, while the other part began to encircle the enemy from the side where Wei Ran was ambushing.

At the same time, the Japanese soldiers who were originally chasing Wei Ran also began to move here, preparing to complete the encirclement and capture alive the target they had been chasing all the way.

"boom!"

At the moment when the last grenade that Wei Ran had placed was detonated by the Japanese who were surrounding him, Wei Ran also hugged the tree trunk tightly, hoping that no fragments would hit him.

Fortunately, despite the screams not far from the tree, he did not feel any additional pain anywhere in his body.

After waiting for a while, the Japanese squad that had been ambushed climbed up in a panic. As Wei Ran had expected, they did not pay much attention to this place. They counted the uninjured soldiers and continued to encircle them. At the same time, they left behind two soldiers and a sled to take care of the two wounded soldiers who were injured in the explosion - they were exactly Wei Ran's targets!

Not long after, the Japanese soldiers in charge of bandaging joined up with the Japanese soldiers in charge of feint attack and pursuit in front.

At the same time, Wei Ran also quietly flipped down from the tree canopy, endured the pain in his knees, and holding the long-lost Mauser bayonet, he rushed towards the two Japanese soldiers who were carrying the wounded onto the sled!

"puff!"

With a slight sound and a familiar damping feeling, the slender and sharp bayonet successfully pierced the chest of an uninjured Japanese soldier.

Wei Ran habitually let go of the bayonet, grabbed the neck of another uninjured Japanese soldier and twisted it hard. With a crisp "click" sound, he easily ended the other's life.

Without the support of these two Japanese soldiers, the other two Japanese soldiers whose legs and feet were injured by the explosion and who had only been simply bandaged to stop the bleeding also fell to the side of the sled.

However, before they could scream in surprise, Wei Ran had already used the poking kick he had learned in the previous scene.

"Crack!"

With the crisp sound of bones breaking, Wei Ran's first kick hit the first Japanese soldier's heart hard. The opponent's chest collapsed visibly, and a stream of dark red blood gushed out from the corner of his mouth.

"Crack!"

After another kick, the second wounded man lying on the ground had his neck broken before he could even touch the rifle on the sled.

This trick really works.
Wei Ran muttered something secretly, pulled out his bayonet and put it away, grabbed the Japanese soldier whose neck he had broken and began to strip off his clothes.

In less than five minutes, he changed into a set of Japanese uniform and obtained the detailed name and unit number from the identity card found on the corpse.

After hiding the three bodies in the grass nest, Wei Ran drove the mule sled slowly and caught up with the large Japanese army.

He was very clear about the return mission this time, so instead of running outside, it would be better to follow in, at least he could make sure whether Xiao Si'er and his two brothers had escaped.

However, the good times did not last long. Before he could catch up with the Japanese army and find a way to infiltrate the enemy, the sound of fierce gunfire suddenly came from the direction where Xiao Si'er and Yongwu were fleeing!
broken!

Wei Ran felt a chill in his heart and quickly sped up.

Soon, he caught up with the Japanese who also began to move faster, and allowed a grenade launcher team and a machine gun team to sit on his sled.

But what made him feel disappointed was that before he could find Xiao Si'er, the sound of gunfire stopped and deafening cheers of the Japanese soldiers came from a far distance.

Suppressing the panic in his heart, Wei Ran shook the reins, urging the animal to run faster.

A moment later, when he was pulling a cart of Japanese soldiers over a ridge, he saw the big white mule that had been killed, and he also saw Xiao Si'er, who was leaning against a pine tree with a bullet in the thigh and one of his hands seemed to have been chopped off.

Tightening the reins, Wei Ran didn't care whether he would be exposed or not. He walked over quickly and took out the camera under the cover of his clothes and held it in his hand.

Perhaps it was because of the camera in his hand and the words he deliberately shouted in Japanese, such as "Please let me pass", that the complacent Japanese soldiers around him did not doubt him.

When he walked in front of Xiao Si'er, the other party obviously recognized him, and a light appeared on his face.

"I swear to death that I will never be a slave of a conquered country! I ...!"

Xiao Si'er shouted happily, waving vigorously the arm without the palm, letting the wound that was strangled by the rope spurt out bits of bright red blood like a prairie fire!

Smiling at the other person, Wei Ran raised the camera in his hand with difficulty, framed the other person, the Japanese soldier holding a samurai sword not far away, and more Japanese soldiers around him into the viewfinder and pressed the shutter.

Until he stuffed the camera into his arms, Xiao Si'er raised the arm with the chopped-off palm towards Wei Ran, signaling him to stay away. Then he grabbed an inconspicuous hemp rope from his waist with his other hand and pulled it hard.

Amid the panicked shouts and retreats of many Japanese soldiers around him, and even the gunfire caused by subconsciously pulling the trigger to fire, a cloud of smoke emerged from Xiao Si'er's lower back, and the expression on his face revealed an incomparably brilliant smile in the camera lens that Wei Ran raised again!

Before the grenade exploded, the camera in Wei Ran's hand disappeared and was replaced by a box gun.

Almost at the moment when the box gun was handed from the left hand to the right hand, another PPSh appeared in the left hand.

“Da da da da da—!”

Amid the chaotic gunfire, Wei Ranping raised two weapons and pulled the triggers on both sides. At the same time, he responded to Xiao Si'er with an equally bright smile and a firm shout, "Don't worry! In the end, we won!"

"boom!"

Half a second before the deafening explosion, the two weapons in Wei Ran's hands that had run out of bullets disappeared one after another, and everything in front of him was swallowed up by the thick white light at the same time as the explosion sounded.