War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1682 The Last Line of Defense

In the strong white light, Wei Ran found that everything that had just happened began to replay before his eyes almost frame by frame.

Finally, when the gas lamp on the watchtower lit up again, he saw a thin shadow holding a rope and sliding towards the ground.

Before he hit the ground, the bullet broke the rope and the thin shadow lost its fulcrum.

A moment later, the white light faded, and he found himself riding on a branch at the top of a tree.

Subconsciously hugging the tree trunk, Wei Ran realized belatedly that the gun-type camera was still hanging on his shoulder, but his legs had lost feeling.

Turning his head to look at the artillery position in the distance, Wei Ran's heart was in his throat. The position was hit by an aerial bomb on the outside of the ice and snow bunker.

The crater created by the explosion showed the charred soil, but the sunlight reflected from the surrounding snow allowed him to clearly see that the rear half of the chassis of the artillery piece had been blown away, and the front half had also been overturned, leaving the barrel of the artillery sticking out in the snow.

Around the damaged artillery, there were still scattered broken limbs and a few flames. He knew that there was no chance that anyone in the assembled anti-aircraft artillery group was alive.

Just when he was about to do something, a cry was heard from under the tree.

It's Vasily! He's alive!

Wei Ran's heart skipped a beat, but after opening his mouth, he found that he couldn't make any sound.

After biting the tattoo on the base of his left hand, Wei Ran took a few deep breaths, raised his gun-style camera with trembling hands, leaned forward and aimed the telephoto lens at Vasily under the tree.

Against the backdrop of the white snow, he could clearly see that one of Vasily's legs seemed to be broken.

His body and face were scratched and damaged by the branches, and even his little face was covered in blood.

But after crying a few times, Vasily turned over with difficulty and crawled towards the cannon in the distance.

Wei Ran pulled the trigger subconsciously, but did not hear the sound of the film rewinding. He discovered in despair that the camera seemed to be broken and could only be used as a telescope.

After trying to take anything out of the metal book to no avail, Vasily slowly crawled to the side of the cannon that was overturned by the explosion of the aerial bomb while watching anxiously but helplessly. He held on to the remaining ice and snow shelter with difficulty and stood up on one leg shakily.

After a moment, he pulled out a small medicine bottle from his arms, took off his mittens with his teeth, then dipped his fingers in it and carefully drew four red five-pointed stars on the gun shield that was riddled with bullet holes.

Then, he dipped his brush in paint and shouted loudly while writing the nursery rhyme that was born in such a tragic and desperate war era:
A German walked out of the thick fog, pulled out a knife from his pocket, and he wanted to kill or shave you.

“I’m the only one left”

Vasily wiped away his tears while talking to himself, threw away the small medicine bottle in his hand, and while Wei Ran pulled the trigger again and again in vain trying to take a picture, he moved with difficulty to the side of a corpse whose owner could no longer be identified, and dragged it bit by bit, inch by inch towards the cemetery in the forest.

Finally, just as the thin shadow was about to move to the edge of the forest, he fell to the ground powerlessly and could never get up again.

Finally, when the white light rose again, Wei Ran, who had been pulling the trigger again and again, had no choice but to give up.

However, when the white light faded, he found himself sitting on the sled again!
"The island we are going to is in front of us."

Just as he was stunned, a man in a white woolen coat said, "Comrades, the last line of defense is ahead. We need to hurry! There are only militiamen on those three islands now."

"Ula!"

He was responded by the many soldiers behind him.

"Comrade reporter, do you need me to introduce you to the situation of the last line of defense?" asked the soldier with the rank of lieutenant, who seemed to be the political commissar of this unit.

"No, no need"

Wei Ran shook his head absentmindedly, staring blankly at the four Type 61K 37mm anti-aircraft guns in front of him that were being towed by tracked tractors.

“My brother is on that island.”

The soldier who was suspected to be the political commissar spoke proudly but with a hint of worry. "His name is Ruslan. He should have been a member of the Communist Party of China."

"What did you just say his name was?" Wei Ran turned around and asked.

"Ruslan, Ruslan Sakharov."

The soldier was startled by Wei Ran's cannibalistic gaze and tone, and responded almost subconsciously, "What...what's wrong? Do you know him?"

"No, no, I don't know him."

Wei Ran took a deep breath, letting the cold air like broken glass enter his lungs, taking away the pain like a knife cutting him. He muttered, "It's nothing. I... I made a mistake. When I escaped from Leningrad, I also knew a boy named Ruslan."

"Did he survive?" the soldier asked.

"no"

Wei Ran didn't want to continue to weave this lie that was about to be exposed, so he changed the subject and asked, "Comrade, can you introduce yourself again? I... I'm afraid that the name and position I recorded are not accurate."

"sure"

The soldier replied, "I am Lieutenant Alexander Sakharov, the political commissar of this anti-aircraft company, comrade journalist."

“It seems I remembered correctly.”

Wei Ran responded absentmindedly, his attention focused on the familiar island more than a hundred meters away.

As if realizing that Wei Ran didn't want to chat, the political commissar didn't say much, but just urged the soldiers to speed up.

When the convoy reached the edge of the island, Wei Ran immediately stumbled onto the island and ran straight to the artillery position.

"Be careful! There are a lot of bombs on this island!"

Before Political Commissar Alexander finished his words, people had already run over.

But soon, he and Wei Ran both stopped. They both saw the destroyed anti-aircraft gun, the red five-pointed star on the gun shield and the nursery rhyme.

He also saw the frozen corpses all over the ground, as well as Vasily not far away, and the half corpse he was dragging - the body of gunner Ruslan.

"I found my brother"

Political Commissar Alexander stared at Ruslan's half-body in a daze, and took a few steps forward muttering to himself.

But soon, he stopped again, turned around firmly and shouted, "Comrades! Set up artillery positions as quickly as possible! Behind us is the lifeline of Leningrad! We are the last line of defense of this life!"

"Ula!"

The Soviet Red Army soldiers who were working together to pull the artillery towards the shore responded in unison, just like... just like those who had once lived on this island.

"Let me take one last picture of you."

Wei Ran knelt on one knee beside Vasily with a sigh, took out the Rollei twin-lens reflex camera, framed Vasily and Ruslan, who was being held by his little hand, and pressed the shutter for the last time in the gradually rising white light.

When the white light disappeared, he returned to the world he was familiar with, back to the tent that had no warmth but blocked the wind and snow.

In front of him, the metal feather pen also wrote lines of brief obituary:
The last line of defense

On February 1942, 2, all the anti-aircraft militiamen of Zelenets Island were killed in the battle against the French invasion.

On February 2 of the same year, the position was jointly defended by the Soviet Red Army Air Defense Unit led by Political Commissar Alexander Sakharov.

同年3月11日，该连全建制死于德军轰炸。1942年3月24日，原防空民兵米哈伊尔因营养不良去世。

Even the first wounded soldier sent out didn't survive?
Wei Ran sighed. He didn't expect that he would be able to come back in just a few days. He didn't expect that those once lively people would only leave such a few short words on the metal notebook.

As he sighed in disappointment, the metal feather pen wrote down the slogan that everyone had shouted at the time: Everything for victory! Everything for the front! Protect Leningrad to the death!

Ugh.
Wei Ran took a tired look at the sticky note on his arm, took out a lighter, lit it, and then crushed the ashes into soil.

At this moment, the pale yellow page also turned to the back, and the feather pen also left a regret under the slowly rotating red vortex: I really want to take a photo with everyone in Leningrad without war.
Unfortunately, the war is gone, and Leningrad is gone too.

Wei Ran shook his head dejectedly, took out the thing in the red vortex and took a look at it - it was the gun-type camera.

After opening the small suitcase and taking a quick look through it, he put it away, and impatiently left the tent, walked into the cemetery in the woods, and finally stopped at the foot of the forked birch tree.

Looking up at the thick fork, Wei Ran hesitated for a moment, then climbed up the much thicker trunk with difficulty.

Nearly a hundred years had passed, and the mailbox that was once made of an ammunition box had long been wrapped by the tree trunk bit by bit, so that when he opened a magpie's nest that was much larger than a washbasin, he could only see a little bit of the almost rusted edge of the metal ammunition box.

Fortunately, through the rusty gaps, he could clearly see the glass jar and the German gas mask jar still inside.

"Fortunately, these things are still there."

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

Wei Ran breathed a sigh of relief, but did not rush to dismantle the almost rusted metal ammunition box and take out the things inside. Instead, he covered it with the magpie's nest again, turned around and walked out of the forest, and walked towards the fishing boat parked at the temporary dock.

"Are you done filming?" Sui Sui, who was waiting on the deck in the cold wind, asked first.

“Filming is finished”

Wei Ran nodded, then looked at Daria who followed him out.

“I found something”

Wei Ran pointed behind him and said, "Maybe we need a professional to take them out."

"A professional?"

Daria's question made Wei Ran immediately realize that the other party probably thought of other aspects.

“It shouldn’t be anything dangerous.”

Wei Ran cleared his throat and explained, "It's on the forked birch tree at the edge of the cemetery. There is a magpie's nest at the fork. Those things are under the magpie's nest. There may be some clues in there, so I hope that there can be official staff present to take out those things to ensure the authority."

"I'll arrange it for you. Let's go to Yu Island first." Daria greeted gently, and Wei Ran got on the boat and personally drove the fishing boat towards Yu Island.

"Are you OK?"

In the noisy cab, Sui Sui asked.

"It's okay, what's wrong?" Wei Ran looked at the other person in confusion, while also trying hard to recall if he had forgotten something.

"It's okay, I just see that you don't seem to be in a good mood." Sui Sui thought for a moment and asked again, "Is it difficult to investigate?"

"will not"

Wei Ran waved his hands. This time he had made all kinds of worst-case plans, but it only took three or four days to send the vegetation back, and he also had a rare full meal.

But, but, watching those militiamen die one by one in front of his own camera, he still felt powerless and uncomfortable as if there was something stuck in his throat.

Seeing this, Sui Sui looked in the direction of the island, but ultimately did not ask any more questions.

After returning to Yudao by boat, Wei Ran found an excuse to go back to his room alone and took out all the negatives from the paper bag on the latest page of the metal notebook.

Looking through the pictures one by one, Wei Ran discovered that this time the metal book was exceptionally generous. None of the negatives were cut. Even some of the negatives that captured anti-aircraft artillery and enemy planes looked exceptionally clear.

just
There are still no images of myself in so many negatives.

After taking a deep breath, Wei Ran put away all the negatives, took out the guqin Yaoguang after a long time, and gently plucked the strings in the room that was lent to him and Sui Sui.

"What's up with him?"

On the first floor of the wooden house, Olena pointed above her head and asked curiously to Sui Sui beside her.

"Maybe I saw something very cruel on that island."

Sui Sui said confidently, but then she felt a little regretful and said to herself, "Victor is a sentimental and very kind person. I wonder if it was too impulsive to let him investigate those things this time."

Is your boss sentimental?

Is the boss kind?

In the room, the Kajianka sisters looked at each other and saw surprise and amusement in each other's eyes.

When the two sisters couldn't help but look at Daria at the same time, the latter had already covered the strange expression on her face by drinking coffee.

"Are all historians like this?" Olena couldn't help but ask.

"No, he's the only one like that." Sui Sui answered proudly.

"All right"

Olena spread her hands and looked at Dahlia. "So when are we going to visit that island again?"

"Early tomorrow morning"

Dahlia put down her coffee cup and replied gently, "Early tomorrow morning, the Road of Life Museum and Red Star TV will send people to the island. We will follow them then, but we will only watch from afar outside the camera."

"Aunt Daria, have they agreed to my conditions?" Su Su asked.

"Yes, there is no reason for them not to agree."

Dahlia said gently, “No matter what the investigation reveals, your Victor will become an honorary consultant for the Life Road Museum.

In addition, in recognition of his excavation of Leningrad history and Soviet anti-French historical materials, he will be awarded the Friendship Medal on Victory Day next year. How is it? Are you satisfied? "

"Mmmmmmm!"

Sui Sui immediately nodded like a little chicken pecking at rice, and said sweetly, "Thank you Aunt Dalia~"

Wei Ran was naturally unaware of Sui Sui's arrangements, and both Sui Sui and Daria seemed to have tacitly decided to keep it a secret from him and were not prepared to tell him these little surprises.

The next day came in a blink of an eye. Wei Ran changed into a formal suit early and once again personally drove the smoky fishing boat, carrying Sui Sui and Teacher Daria back to the island.

When he stopped the fishing boat, he noticed that there were many more people on the island holding metal detectors and wearing bomb disposal suits, and he also saw reporters from Red Star TV.

"go"

Sui Sui helped Wei Ran adjust his tie and said, "This is your stage, we won't go up there."

"Thanks a lot"

Wei Ran hugged Sui Sui gently, turned around and jumped onto the makeshift pier, while muttering a promise in his heart, "I said I would put you in the newspapers. I will tell the people of St. Petersburg the story of Leningrad. Even though... you may not remember me at all."