War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 197
After resting for a few hours in the only intact chapel in Muonio, when Wei Ran and others woke up, Markla had already yelled at the sleigh cart and pulled back a reindeer and A load of firewood.

Under the urging of Conon, Markla and his son carefully disassembled the reindeer into pieces and buried them in the snow outside the church. Then they bid farewell to the old pastor and followed the other party's guidance.

It wasn't until Muonio behind him was completely blocked by the coniferous forest that Markla said, "According to the old pastor, Muonio was burned before the two armored vehicles we were chasing arrived, but the two The armored vehicle did not enter Sweden, but drove to the northwest, and if nothing else, they probably wanted to enter Norway directly."

"There are two armored vehicles?" Wei Ran was the first to frown. With just the four of them, it would be difficult to deal with one of them.Now it has changed from one car to two, and the four of them may not be enough for each other's teeth.

"Two cars indeed"

Marka wrapped the bearskin blanket tightly around his body, "Judging from the old pastor's description, one of them should be a half-track armored vehicle carrying a quadruple anti-aircraft gun, and there is another half-track ambulance, which seems to have two wounded."

"How many of them are there?" Conon pressed.

"About nine people"

Marka counted with his fingers, "According to the old pastor, there is a doctor and four wounded among these people. There are two pilots, and there may only be two people who are really capable of fighting. Even if you add the two pilots and That doctor, there are only five people."

"Even if there are only five people, it is enough for them to operate the quadruple anti-aircraft guns."

Carl, who was in charge of driving, took over the conversation, "There is no armor on our sleigh, and our anti-tank guns are no match for their anti-aircraft guns."

The fast-moving sled vehicles fell silent for a while, and although the armored vehicles they were chasing had almost lost their fighting power, they could still easily crush their group of four.

"Dad, we have been chasing this rut ​​for at least a hundred kilometers since we surrounded and annihilated their retreating troops last time. If the opponent's car is really just some wounded, why don't we let them go?" Carl thought for a while and continued, "Anyway, Muonio wasn't burned by those wounded."

Markla was not in a hurry to answer his son's question, but turned to look at Conon who was sitting opposite.The latter pondered for a moment, then said stubbornly and resolutely, "At least we must destroy that self-propelled anti-aircraft gun before we can go back!"

Marka waved tiredly, "Let them run faster"

Karl glanced at Conon behind him, and finally said nothing, shook the rein vigorously, and yelled at the reindeer to speed up.

In the snow-capped coniferous forest, although the goose feather snow that stopped not long ago covered most of the traces, the ruts left by the half-track armored vehicles could still be vaguely seen. There are only a few of them, and it is not easy to lose them even if you want to.

However, when the reindeer ran until the sky became brighter and the aurora above the head completely disappeared, after the sled car turned a corner, an armored car suddenly appeared in front of it!

Karl, who was in charge of driving, reacted very quickly and yanked the reins hard, controlling the sled car to turn in a circle and stop in a way that almost drifted.Before that, Kenon, who was in charge of vigilance, also woke up Wei Ran and Markla.

"Quadruple anti-aircraft guns," Carl whispered while comforting the two reindeer, "There seems to be a fire near the front of the car, and they are probably inside the car."

Marka and Wei Ran each raised their binoculars, and then they saw a half-track armored vehicle slanting the forest path and parked in the middle of the road. On the other side blocked by the front of the vehicle, there were indeed still steaming flames. But they did not see the shadow of the person.

"Carl, turn around"

After Marka finished speaking, he lifted the anti-tank gun covered with the rabbit fur blanket, and Karl also led the two reindeer to move slowly, aiming the tail of the sleigh at the half-track in the distance.

"Turn a little bit, well, here it is."

When Markla, who was lying on the sled car and aiming at it, signaled, Karl immediately took out two wooden chisels from the sleigh car, which were as long as one meter in thickness of the wrist, and pierced through the iron rings at the tail of the sleigh car. Into the thick snow.

"Armor-piercing bullets," Markla continued in a low voice, while vigorously shaking the crank on the right side of the anti-tank gun to open the bolt.

With a soft "click", the ejection window cover automatically popped open, and Markla immediately took a huge magazine from Karl while shaking the crank on the right side of the anti-tank gun in reverse.

The moment the magazine was loaded into the chamber, the retracted thick barrel jumped forward slightly to complete the loading action.

However, after that, Markla did not shoot directly, but gave up the position to his son Karl, "I'll go to the armored vehicle to have a look first, you wait here."

"I'll go with you," Wei Ran said proactively.

"Let me go with Markla," Conon said, drawing his pistol from his waist.

"Let Conon follow me, his pistol is better than your rifle at close range."

As Markla spoke, he loaded the submachine gun with bullets, covered each other with Conon, who was holding a pistol, and walked cautiously towards the half-track armored vehicle that was blocking the way more than a hundred meters away.

Under the gaze of Wei Ran's binoculars, the two of them were getting closer to the half-track armored vehicle. After they walked around the vehicle, Markla even put the submachine gun behind his back and faced He waved at them.Conon, who was beside him, also put away his pistol, picked up his camera and went around to the other side of the armored vehicle.

"Let's go there!" Wei Ran put away the binoculars and said.

When Karl heard this, he immediately removed the magazine of the anti-tank gun skillfully, pulled out the bullets in the chamber, and waited for Wei Ran to pull out the wooden drills on both sides of the tail of the sleigh, and immediately ran over to the reindeer.

However, seeing that the distance between the two sides was only 30 meters, there was a sudden explosion on the other side of the half-track armored vehicle!Immediately afterwards they heard Conon's screams!
"It's broken!" Wei Ran's heart sank, and when Carl yelled at the reindeer to stop, he immediately jumped off the sleigh and rushed over!
When he got around the half-track armored vehicle carrying the quadruple anti-aircraft guns, he saw Markla, who had run over a step earlier, hugged Conon, whose face was covered in blood!
"What's going on?" Wei Ran asked nervously.

Marka pointed to the opened right armored door of the half-track armored vehicle. In addition to a large amount of blood remaining in the driver's cab, there was also thick gunpowder smoke.The right tire under the door is still burning with flames, but on the inner side of this tire, just below the front of the car, the thick snow has been blasted into a big crater, leaking from the blown engine The lubricating oil had stained it black.

Turning his head and looking at Conon lying in Markla's arms, Wei Ran had already guessed that this half-track armored vehicle was probably hit by a landmine. After the engine and axle were damaged by the mine, the vehicle could only Abandoned, by the way, the German soldiers who abandoned it booby-trapped the cab.It is obvious that Conon is precisely the unlucky ghost who has been recruited after letting down his vigilance.

When he came back to his senses, Wei Ran quickly helped Kenon check his injuries. At this time, his face was covered with a lot of fine wounds. The most serious wound was undoubtedly his bleeding right eye.

Seeing this, Wei Ran frowned. If it was only the limbs, even if he was shot in the chest and abdomen, he would be sure to cure him, but the injury to the eyes was precisely the field he had not had time to study at the Hongqi Forest Farm!However, fortunately, I don't know if it was because of the resistance of the armored car door. At least for the time being, Conon still had the strength to scream in pain. Obviously, he shouldn't be able to die for a while.

"Do we have a first aid kit?" Wei Ran turned to Karl who was running over and asked.

"Yes! I'll get it!" Carl hurried back to the sleigh after hearing this, and retrieved a small bag that wasn't too big after a while.

"Press him!"

While Wei Ran was speaking, he took out a pair of tweezers from the first aid kit, and roughly cleaned off the copper fragments inlaid in the small wounds on Conon's face, but he didn't dare to touch his injured eye at all.Only temporarily wrapped with dressing and gauze.

"Markra, we must find a doctor who can treat the eye injury as soon as possible!"

Faced with Wei Ran's request, Markla frowned, "The nearest hospital is at least [-] or [-] kilometers away, and he might not be able to hold on for so long."

"Father, those Germans" Carl said without thinking, "Didn't the old pastor say that there is a doctor among them?"

"Looking for them?" Makera hesitated.

"No, we can't find them." Conon tremblingly rejected Carl's proposal.

But the latter didn't stop at all, and while helping Wei Ran carry him into the sleigh, he said, "Remember? I accidentally stepped on a beast trap last winter, and they helped me heal it. I believe they will still Willing to help us."

"It's better than watching Canon die in pain, isn't it?" Carl pointed to Canon who had passed out, "Or do you think he can persist until we rush back to the hospital?"

Marka glanced at her son, then at Wei Ran with a calm face, and finally gritted her teeth and sat at the front of the sleigh, shook the rein vigorously, and shouted loudly when the two reindeer ran up, "Sit down!" All right!"

With Markla yelling, two reindeer pulled the sleigh into the coniferous forest at the edge of the path, followed the track tracks not far away, and sped up to catch up.

In the sleigh, Wei Ran carefully took out the medical kit from the metal book under the cover of the wolf fur blanket wrapped around his body, took out a few sticks of morphine from it and put them into his pocket, and immediately put them back into the book .

Taking advantage of Karl who was sitting in front of him not paying attention, Wei Ran stuck one of the morphines on Conon's body to help him relieve the piercing pain caused by his eye injury.

(End of this chapter)