War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 405 Past Plans and Concealment

When the patrol set off again, the girl named Kolya finally sat on the sledge under Slava's consolation.During the following patrol itinerary, the girl kept calling her separated younger siblings and the wife named Zhenia in a low voice after getting permission.And the guerrillas, including Wei Ran, searched more and more seriously for all the places that seemed to hide people along the way.

However, when they searched to the edge of the forest again, the string of corpses hanging from the barrel of a T-34 tank made Kolya stunned.

"That's...that's Madame Genia and her son"

Kolya struggled to jump off the sledge and was about to run out of the forest. Immediately afterwards, she was grabbed by two guerrillas.

"My younger siblings! Those two children are my younger siblings!" Koria knelt on the ground weakly, staring fixedly at the two young corpses hanging at the front of the gun barrel.

Slava sighed, and waved to the guerrillas behind him, who immediately pulled Kolya back to the sledge, then turned around and walked towards the camp.

Until Kolya’s desperate cries could no longer be heard, Slava tremblingly took out a pipe from his bosom, stuffed some shredded tobacco into it tremblingly, and struck a match with great difficulty. Click it.

In the steaming light blue smoke, Slava looked at the tank that was only a dozen meters away outside the forest and did not speak for a long time.Wei Ran, who stood behind him from the beginning to the end, silently raised the camera, and included the farmland outside the forest that was dyed golden by the setting sun, the tank with the corpse hanging there, and Slava who was silent with his back turned to him. viewfinder frame.

When the shutter sounded, Slava shivered subconsciously, and then asked in a hoarse voice, "What's the use of taking pictures?"

Wei Ran put down the camera and said hard-heartedly, "Always let people in the future know what happened here and what the Germans did here."

"Ah"

Slava snorted noncommittally, and said abruptly after a while, "Last summer, Shura and I were both crew members of that tank."

"That one?"

Wei Ran couldn't help looking at the tank with four corpses hanging from its gun barrel. On the turret of this tank, the propaganda slogan "For the Soviet" can still be vaguely seen, but now this sentence is written in red paint The slogan has been covered with a conspicuous black swastika.

"I was the driver of that tank, and Shula was its electromechanic."

Slava sat down slowly leaning against a thick pine tree, "We failed in the early stages of the Minsk campaign.

When we retreated here with the large army, there was a problem with the gearbox of the tank, and the engine could not be started later. "

After a pause, Slava continued, "Our Comrade Commander ordered me to take Shura and escort the wounded into the forest. But he and the loader stayed behind, and they caught up with the tank. The enemy bought us time to escape into the forest. But we also got separated from most of them, and this guerrilla came later.”

"them."

"Still in that tank, at least you don't have to worry about being eaten by crows or wild dogs, right?"

Slava showed a bleak smile when he said this, "I would rather stay with them at that time, even if I didn't do anything, just die with them, it's better than being a deserter, better than experiencing these things alive many."

"So living is more painful and difficult than dying. At least you didn't choose to escape but continued to fight, didn't you? So from this point of view, you are as much a hero as the people in the tank."

Slava shook his head with a wry smile, "Are all journalists so good at comforting people?"

"Maybe it's just that I've seen too many tragedies."

Wei Ran took out the jug in the metal book and unscrewed it, took a sip of the gin that had been packed in advance, and then handed it to Slava, "Take a sip, this is my own stock."

"It seems that you are a damn rich man." Slava looked at the gold nugget on the lid of the jug, and raised his neck to take a sip.

After receiving the jug from Slava, Wei Ran took one last look at the corpses hanging on the gun barrel, changed the subject and asked, "Tell me about the freight station you are going to take down."

Slava also took a last look at the very familiar tank outside the forest, turned around and walked back while explaining, "The freight station is less than ten kilometers away from here. It used to be just a small village. Because it is far from the railway line Close enough that the Germans turned it into a cargo terminal.

Except for the Jews who were killed by the Germans and the survivors who escaped from there, the rest became slaves working for the freight station.In addition, there were probably more than a hundred Germans and an armored train there. "

"Where did Kolia escape from?" Wei Ran subconsciously asked.

"She must have escaped from the village across the railway line, where the Germans were also stationed."

Slava paused, and continued, "But Ivan and his elder brother, the guy who was sent to Alisa's plane when you first came here, and the little guy named Sergey, All three of them are from the village where the freight station is."

Hearing this, Wei Ran wisely didn't continue to ask, just look at the collapsed Kolya, the situation of Ivan and his brother at that time may not be much better than her.

Silently followed Slava back to the camp, and the whole day of patrol work also came to an end.But what puzzled him was that until the sun set and those old people began to distribute dinner, he didn't see Kolya who was sent back one step earlier, but Shura, who hadn't seen him all day, brought two A middle-aged man in the uniform of the Soviet Red Army walked into the shack where Slava lived.

It also puzzled him more than these. When he woke up early the next morning, Ivan and his little friend Sergey were waiting for him at the door with a Mosin Nagant rifle on their backs. Even the boat cap was put on Ivan's head again.

"Victor, do you have any bullets?" Ivan asked in a low voice while showing off his Mosin Nagant rifle, "Five, no, two, just two bullets!"

"Where did you get the rifle?" Wei Ran asked in surprise.

"Ms. Jaina sent it to us this morning"

While explaining, Sergey also made a gesture of raising his gun to aim, and at the same time made a sound of "pop" in his mouth.

"Ms. Jaina sent it to you?"

Wei Ran looked around subconsciously, but found that not only Ivan and Sergey, but even those old people picking wild fruits and mushrooms in the forest or women who were washing clothes had rifles on their shoulders or in their hands.

"Jianna, what's going on here?"

Wei Ran ignored Ivan who was pestering him for bullets, trotted to Jaina who was packing up and asked, "Are you planning to let these children, women and old people go to the German freight station together?"

"how is this possible"

Jaina shook her head and signaled Wei Ran to sit on the side, and then explained, "Tonight we are going to take down the German freight station. During this period, the camp can only rely on these women and children, so at least Let them have weapons for self-defense."

"Tonight?" Wei Ran was stunned, "In such a hurry?"

Jaina opened her mouth and explained after a moment of hesitation, "It's really urgent. We need to take down that freight station as soon as possible, so that we can not only replenish the three guerrillas with enough supplies, but also get the medicine we urgently need."

"When exactly are you leaving?" Wei Ran asked, suppressing the anxiety in his heart.

"after dinner"

Jaina gave a relatively accurate time, "You can take a good rest during the day today."

"Have they set out to patrol?" Wei Ran asked again.

"Shura has already set off with some people." Jaina pointed to the distance, "but Uncle Slava is still there, you can go to his shack and ask."

"Then I'll ask him." After Wei Ran finished speaking, he walked towards the shack where Slava lived.

When he knocked on the door to explain his purpose, Uncle Slava let him into the warm shack and explained with a smile, "Victor, don't worry, we just need to be responsible for blocking the armored train tonight. No need to participate in the operation at the cargo terminal."

"Is it convenient to talk about it in detail?" Wei Ran asked tentatively, "Of course, if you need to keep it secret, just pretend that I didn't ask."

"Nothing to keep secret"

Uncle Slava picked up a handful of pine nuts, laid out a meandering curve on the table, and then piled up three points with pine nuts on this curve, and then pointed to the middle point and explained, " Our task tonight is to wait for the armored train to support the train stopped by another guerrilla, and then cut off the railway going back."

"that is it?"

“It’s also not an easy job”

Uncle Slava used a few pine nuts to pile up a point on the other side of the meandering curve, "This is the village Kolya escaped from yesterday. After we cut off the railway line, the Germans here are the most What we have to do is to buy as much time as possible for the battle between the two sides under their offensive."

"What about these two points?" Wei Ran pointed to the points piled up with pine nuts at both ends of the curve and asked.

"The dot on the left represents the cargo terminal ten kilometers away. At that time, another guerrilla group with far more people than us will be responsible for breaking through it. Their leader is called Antip."

Slava explained in detail, "The point on the right represents the position where the third guerrilla stopped the train. There are forests on both sides of the railway, and it is more than 30 kilometers away from the freight station. It is the most suitable place to do it. This The person in charge of a guerrilla group is called Ovjay, although they only have more than 45 people, they have two [-]mm anti-tank guns."

Speaking of this, Slava paused, "Everyone has a lot of appetite this time. We are going to take down the village opposite the railway and rescue all the people there. Antip and the others are going to take down the freight station. Ofje Yi is going to keep that train."

"But the dangers are great"

Wei Ran couldn't help reminding, "Three teams, three goals, if any one fails to achieve the set goal, the other two teams will probably be affected."

Slava nodded first, and then asked rhetorically, "Conversely, as long as any one of us completes the set goal, it will be considered a success, right?"

"It's not wrong to think so." Wei Ran hesitated for a moment, and finally did not express his inner guess.

Slava smiled, "Okay, Comrade Victor, if you want to act with us tonight, go and have a good rest now!"

Leaving Slava's shack with some doubts, Wei Ran was blocked by Ivan and Sergey again before he had gone far.

"Victor, can you help us find two bullets?" Ivan continued to plead.

Wei Ran asked knowingly, "Ms. Jaina didn't send you bullets?"

"Everyone hasn't posted yet." With a bitter face, Ivan gave an answer that Wei Ran already knew.

"Since everyone hasn't fired, why do you want bullets?"

"I just want two bullets"

Ivan scratched the back of his head, "I can't wait for the night, but we won't fight out, we just want to practice the speed of loading, Shura told us that a qualified guerrilla must not only shoot accurately, but also shoot fast, and"

Before he finished speaking, Wei Ran reminded with a smile, "Ivan, believe it or not, if I give you bullets, or even let Teacher Jaina know that you are looking for me for bullets, then not only will the military cap on your head It will be taken away again, even the gun in your hand will be taken away."

Ivan looked at Sergey with a pale face, and the two little brothers quickly waved their hands, "Then let's wait until night, wait until night!"

"Aren't you catching fish or digging shacks today?" Wei Ran saw that the two of them had no idea of ​​wanting bullets, so he also changed the subject.

"Ms. Jaina asked us to take a good rest during the day today." Sergey said with a bitter face, "but we couldn't sleep."

Hearing this, Wei Ran looked at Teacher Jaina in the distance, lowered his voice and asked, "Have you seen Kolya who was brought back by the guerrillas with a sledge yesterday afternoon? Do you know where she went?"

Ivan and Sergey were stunned for a while, followed by shaking their heads in unison, and gave two answers: "I haven't seen it" and "I don't know".

Although it was obvious at a glance that the two little guys were lying, Wei Ran didn't continue to ask, but walked towards his hut, "Let's go, since you can't sleep, go to my hut, although I can't help you." You have bullets, but it can help you clean your rifles."

Ivan and Sergey looked at each other, waved their hands together and said, "No need, no need."

Before the words were finished, the two little guys ran away with a rifle that was too long for them and disappeared.

Shaking his head dumbfounded, Wei Ran simply went back to his shack, disassembled the Bobosa submachine gun that Slava gave him yesterday, and carefully wiped it, while secretly analyzing his guess.

Obviously, there are secrets in this camp that he doesn't know, or that Slava and others don't want outsiders to know.And their eagerness to find trouble with the Germans is obviously related to the secret they deliberately hid.

But this brings up another question, what kind of secret is it that they need to hide even their nominal reporter?

On the other hand, where did the girl named Kolya who was rescued yesterday go?

Ivan and his partner Sergey chose to lie to themselves. Is it because Teacher Jaina said hello in advance and can't tell themselves, or can't tell anyone?

　Some historical data need to be reconfirmed, so I will update it today, please forgive me.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)