War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 404 Slava's Apology
In the forest shrouded in morning fog, while chatting with Slava, Wei Ran followed the sledge in front and the old and the young in front to the edge of the forest.

Along the way, although the two of them were chatting all the time, the other guerrillas were not idle. From time to time, they would pick out a hare or a pheasant caught by a trap from the bushes along the way. kind of prey.

But more often than not, these unlucky eggs caught by beast traps have already been preempted by other carnivores in the forest, leaving them with only some broken fur and blood all over the ground.

It can be seen that these guerrillas have long been used to this kind of thing.So even the mutilated prey carcasses were not let go, but were put into a sack, and when they changed positions, they were directly used as bait for relocated animal traps.

The hunting activities, like hugging grass and beating rabbits, stopped as everyone got closer and closer to the edge of the forest. weapons, even Slava stopped chatting with Wei Ran.

Creeping behind the bushes at the edge of the forest, Wei Ran took out the binoculars under the cover of his satchel.Perhaps because of the lack of shade from the trees, the fog outside the forest is relatively much lighter under the scorching sun that has completely jumped out of the horizon.

Correspondingly, it also allowed him to easily see the wheat seedlings and potato seedlings in the vast farmland outside the forest.And beyond that, the railway line that cuts through farmland and stretches as far as the eye can see.

But in addition to these, there are still many wrecks of T-34 tanks and even various trucks discarded on this farmland.Even on individual tank turrets, there were some corpses wearing Soviet Red Army uniforms, or only wearing coarse clothes, or even charred bodies.

Some of these corpses have long been rotten and exude a corpse odor that is enough for Wei Ran, who is a hundred meters away, to easily smell them, while some are so fresh that the corpses are covered with fat crows that don't even know it. Where did the fox come from or the wild dog.

But without exception, most of these corpses were broken and incomplete, and many of them had obviously been shot more than once, so that it was difficult for him to find a head that was still intact among so many corpses.

Putting down the binoculars, Wei Ran couldn't help looking at Slava beside him.

The latter seemed to know what he wanted to ask, and before Wei Ran could open his mouth, he explained, "The first batch of those corpses were the Red Army soldiers who died during the Battle of Liuban in the summer. The rest were basically captured by the Germans." Partisans who arrived, villagers who fled, or Jews who were executed by the Germans.”

"Just let them lie there all the time?" Wei Ran asked after considering his words.

"it's the only way"

Slava sighed, "We don't have enough people to bury them, and it's impossible for the living to carry them at the risk of triggering the explosives around the corpse."

Wei Ran opened his mouth, but before he could say anything else, Slava had already turned around, beckoning the guerrillas around to continue patrolling.Only this time, they kept moving in a wavy line almost parallel to the edge of the forest.

At the crest of this wavy line near the edge of the forest, all the guerrillas focused their attention on the outside of the forest, guarding against the Germans who might appear at any time.Occasionally, when a train passed by, Slava would take out a small notebook and carefully record the time and direction.

As for the trough area where the wavy line is away from the edge of the forest, the guerrillas focused all their attention on all the places that seemed to be able to hide people.From abandoned shacks and hunter's lodges, to naturally formed tree holes to bear holes or just suspicious looking bushes.

Even in many cases, even if they did not find the expected escapees from the other side of the farmland in these places, they would leave a small piece of precious bread inside.

At the same time, while the guerrillas were searching for the refugees, Slava also took the opportunity to tell Wei Ran that they planned to join forces with two guerrillas from China and abroad to take down the freight train station controlled by the Germans.

Regarding this, Wei Ran immediately expressed his desire to act together without even thinking about it. After all, his return mission included assisting the guerrillas to complete the ambush mission, so as long as he wants to go back alive, he must seize the opportunity.

At the same time, he secretly wondered whether there would be any necessary connection between the freight station at the mouth of Slava and the camp he visited before entering this era.

While he was thinking wildly, the time soon came to noon, and the guerrillas who had been wandering for a long time finally found a girl who was almost wearing only rags in the low growl of the hound.

This girl who looked at most seventeen or eighteen years old was covered with grass leaves, and her blond hair was already knotted. When everyone found him, she was kneeling on the ground, digging a plant of ghost ginger with her bare hands, but even Even in this posture, it is difficult to hide her bulging belly and the old and new scars on her body.

What made everyone even more worried was the numb expression on the girl's face, she didn't show any fear or joy because of seeing Wei Ran and others, and she didn't even show the slightest emotion when digging Jiang, the devil. pause.

Slava and Wei Ran, who had been by his side all the time, looked at each other, silently reached out to take a blanket from the sledge and put it on each other's body, then took off the water bottle at his waist, unscrewed it and handed it to her, gently He took the freshly dug devil ginger from her hand, which was covered with cigarette burns, and replaced it with a piece of bread.

The girl who looked like a walking corpse silently took the kettle and took a sip, followed by another big gulp, then stuffed the piece of bread in her hand tremblingly into her mouth and began to gobble it up.Gradually, there was a gleam of light in her eyes, and tears welled up in her eyes, and a little bit of expression appeared on her originally numb face.

"Well, you're safe, completely safe."

Uncle Slava gently hugged the girl's shoulders, and said almost to himself, "We will protect you, do you know Alisa? Alisa from Liuban, she and his brother used to drive The Alisa who sprayed everyone with pesticides from the plane. You must know her? At least you have seen the leaflets she dropped from the plane, right?"

Seeing the girl nodding, Slava took out a piece of bread from the basket and handed it over, "We are all her friends. My name is Slava. Last summer, my comrades and I drove a tank in Minsk. We fought the Germans. I'm sorry, we lost that battle, we didn't protect you well."

The girl who had been crying shook her head, and softly retorted in the same hoarse voice, "I don't blame you, I don't blame you."

Slava did not continue on this question, but wiped the tears and dust from the other party's face with his sleeve, and asked softly, "What's your name? Is there anyone else? Are there other people with you?" escape?"

"Coria"

The girl finally stopped suppressing the fear and crying in her heart, and said while sobbing, "We escaped early this morning, but my brother and sister and I got separated, and I don't know where they are."

"I will find your younger siblings, is there anyone else?" Slava asked more gently.

The girl named Kolya nodded and said while wiping away her tears, "And Mrs. Zhenya and her son who led us escaped, we should be the only ones here, and some of them were shot to death before crossing the railway. gone."

Uncle Slava was very gentle at this time, "Go and rest on the sledge for a while, and when we find others, we will send you to a safe place."

But she didn't want to, Kolia looked at the former with tears in her eyes, and begged in a crying voice, "I'm not tired, not at all. Please give me a gun. When I find my younger brothers and sisters, you send them to A safe place will do. I'm going to fight the Germans with you, I can use a gun, I can use a gun, my father was the best hunter in the village when he was alive, he taught me."

(End of this chapter)