War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 250 For the sake of gold, try to live until the end of the war

At the bottom of the well, after Carlo dug out all the wet yellow sand in the central pit at the bottom of the well, the three of them, who had hardly rested all night, stood by and waited for half an hour, but the bowl-sized stone pit There is only a thin layer of water in the water, which may indeed be enough for one person to struggle to survive here, but it is definitely not enough for the seven of them to survive, let alone support them to follow the simple hand-drawn map to guide them back to their respective places. camp.As for holding a birthday party, let alone think about it.

Sending all the things left by the last British pilot who died here out of the well, Carlo tried to pry the large stones at the bottom of the well with a bayonet, but even if his bayonet was pried off, the stones But still motionless.

Throwing away the bayonet, Carlo said a little irritably, "If we want to get enough water, we have to dig up these stones."

"Our steel helmets are not enough to dig away these stones."

Wei Ran tapped the wet rock under his feet with his helmet, "We need a big enough hammer and steel drill, and we need enough time."

"Or enough dynamite"

Carlo figured, "We still have a few grenades, and they should be able to blow up these rocks, but it's hard to guarantee that they won't blow up the side of the shaft."

"Maybe it's not that much trouble." Reporter Pell raised his head. "How about that anti-aircraft gun? We can use that anti-aircraft gun to smash these rocks."

"Use it?" Carlo looked at the former, "How?"

"Let's go up first." Pell raised his head and shouted after finishing speaking, "Panetone, please pull us up!"

"No problem!" Panetong, who was guarding the mouth of the well, immediately started the three-wheeled motorcycle, pulled the rope, and dragged Wei Ran and others out of the well one by one.

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, Pell directly started the truck and drove to the edge of the wellhead, then called everyone including Harry to help, and moved the anti-aircraft gun he insisted on taking out from the carriage and installed it on the tripod .

"What are you going to do next?" Carlo asked, helping to move down the only two boxes of ammunition.

"Help me put it next to the well," Pell said while putting down the anti-aircraft gun mounted on the tripod, and suspended the entire gun body inside the wellhead.

"Paneton, use the wheels of the truck to hold down the tripod." With the help of Carlo and Wei Ran, Pell, who was struggling to prevent the anti-aircraft gun from falling into the well, shouted.

Hearing this, Panetone quickly jumped into the truck that hadn't turned off at all, drove the car, and carefully pressed down the downed tripod with the front tire on the side of the cab.

Trying to loosen the anti-aircraft gun that was tightly held, Pell said with a sigh of relief, "Then we need to use the rope to pull the anti-aircraft gun in the other two directions of the well to prevent it from shaking when it fires."

"How did you come up with this idea?" Carlo asked in surprise.

"This is not what I came up with"

Reporter Pell explained with a smile, "I once interviewed an engineering force. They did this when digging tunnels because they didn't have enough blasting charges, but the caliber of the artillery they used was slightly larger."

"88 mm?" Wei Ran couldn't help asking.

"How is that possible! It will definitely collapse!" Pell quickly shook his head and explained, "It's a 37mm guy. Although it's a waste of ammunition, the digging speed is really fast. Okay, let's try it now!"

As he said that, Per had already thrown one of the ropes to Wei Ran, and he tied the other rope to the tricycle not far away.

When everything was ready, Pyle signaled Wei Ran and Carlo to tighten the rope, while he himself hid in the cargo compartment of the truck and pulled the thin rope tied to the trigger.

For a while, the fine sound of the anti-aircraft guns was amplified by the well, which deafened everyone's ears, and the blue gunpowder smoke from the well mouth also evaporated in the morning sun.

In an instant, a 12-round ammo was emptied. While rubbing his buzzing ears with excitement, Per quickly took out the second ammo from the box and replaced it, and shouted at the same time. Said, "Maybe I should go to the air defense company to be a soldier, this thing is much more exciting to use than a camera!"

"Yes! At that time, you can use this thing to dig a well for the air defense company!" Carlo laughed dumbfoundingly.

"When I have a chance in the future, I must try the 88mm big guy! Tighten it!" Pell hadn't finished speaking, and had already pulled the string tied to the trigger again. Suddenly, the rumbling sound broke into every individual ears.

It wasn't until the entire box of ammunition was emptied that Pell, who had had enough of his addiction, signaled Panetone to drive the truck away, and then everyone pulled the heavy anti-aircraft gun aside.

Waiting patiently for the smoke in the well to dissipate, Wei Ran and the others immediately descended to the bottom of the well along the rope tied to the truck bed.

In addition to the broken shell casings and exploded warheads all over the ground, the rocks at the bottom of the well had already been torn apart. What surprised everyone was that when the three-wheeled motorcycle lights above their heads were turned on, obvious reflections could still be seen among the gravel. !
"I didn't expect this method to actually work!"

Carlo took off the steel helmet on top of his head, scooped up a mixture of gravel, shell casings, broken warheads, and sewage, and poured it into the tin bucket that had just hung over his head.

Soon, Wei Ran and Per, and Harry who came down later also joined the ranks of cleaning up the gravel.As buckets of stones were sent to the top of their heads, everyone was also surprised to find that there was actually a layer of sand under the stones that had absorbed water.

After everyone cleaned up the gravel and sand with their helmets, there were dots of yellow reflections at the bottom of the water illuminated by motorcycle lights!
Pell bent down and picked up a piece of reflective material from the bottom of the water full of yellow sand, wiped it on his clothes, and then said with a smile, "It seems that we have found a treasure, and those rocks just now should not be natural, I guess It should be deliberately thrown in by someone from the stone mountain next to it."

"Perhaps it would be more accurate to say the murder scene"

Carlo took out a rusty scimitar from the bottom of the water, and then picked up a broken mandible, "Some people died here because of these gold coins."

Wei Ran also took out a gold coin from under the cold well water that was about to submerge his feet, and later found that this thing was exactly the thing that the archaeologist named Herbert brought to him with the oil barrel, and used the video The gold coins shown.

So how did this thing come from?Wei Ran muttered to himself, and simply did not express his opinion, but quietly watched the development of the situation from the sidelines.

"Pick up all the gold coins!"

Pell threw the gold coins in his hand into the helmet, and then put the helmet on the stone beside him, "Compared to these gold coins, this water is the most precious thing. After we go up, we can divide these gold coins."

"Indeed, at least for now, the water is enough for us to drink, but we'd better clean up the bottom of the well. Mussolini's ass is disgusting enough. I don't want to drink soup made from ancient bones."

After finishing speaking, Carlo, Wei Ran and the captive Harry threw the gold coins in their hands into the helmet in no particular order.

The interrupted excavation and cleaning work continued. When the sand, gravel and gold coins at the bottom of the well were all cleaned up, a small spring hidden in the cracks in the corner stones was finally dug out.According to the speed of this spring, perhaps it only takes one night to fill most of the well.

Since water resources are so abundant, everyone no longer cherishes the dirty water that is mixed with a lot of sand, gravel, and possibly the bones of ancient people under their feet, and is trampled by everyone.He simply carried it out with a tin bucket in full swing, and cleaned the rock layer at the bottom of the well by the way.In the end, each of them drank enough at the small spring, and then filled their respective water bottles, and was dragged up by Panet's three-wheeled motorcycle at the mouth of the well along the rope.

Taking advantage of the slow accumulation of water at the bottom of the well, Carlo and Per called everyone, including Harry, into the cargo compartment of the truck.

Carlo glanced at the time on his watch. It was already past ten o'clock in the morning. It took everyone almost a whole day to dig this dry well filled with sand since yesterday. This speed is not bad, but At the same time, everyone was exhausted to the limit, and their palms had already been worn out.

He glanced at the exhausted crowd and the two wounded who were drinking water from a water bottle.Carlo grabbed a handful of gold coins from the helmet, let them jingle and fall into the helmet again, and said with a smile, "It's not bad, we not only found water, but also found some ancient gold coins. If everyone No problem, how about we divide the gold coins equally and hold a birthday party for Mr. Pierre and Mr. Pell?"

"No objection, of course we have no objection!" Panettone was the first to say.

"What about you?" Carlo looked around at everyone, including the prisoner Harry, and couldn't help but nodded slightly.

The German reporter Pell, who had been secretly staring at the captive Harry, frowned slightly, and then stretched it out again. As if nothing happened, he raised his camera and pointed at everyone and pressed the shutter.

Seeing that everyone had no objections, Carlo poured the gold coins in the helmet into a wooden box that was originally used to hold ammunition. Some gold nuggets with beautiful designs. Let me see that there are only 22 gold nuggets in total. It seems that no matter how we divide them, there will be one more gold coin and one more gold nugget. It just so happens that two people celebrate their birthdays today, why not just Give the extra as a present to Pierre and Monsieur Pell?"

"How about leaving the extra gold nuggets and coins in that well?"

Reporter Pell said abruptly, "If we are all still alive after the war, what if we come back here to decide who should get the gold nuggets and coins?"

"I have no objection." Pierre, who had recovered from his fever, joked weakly, "Even for that gold coin and that gold nugget, I will try my best to live until the end of the war."

(End of this chapter)