War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 406 Ambush ([-]-in-[-] update)

When night began to fall, there were fifteen more guerrillas in the guerrilla camp that Wei Ran had never seen before, and a horse-drawn sledge loaded with various tools.

"The camp will be handed over to you"

Uncle Slava patted Ivan on the shoulder lightly before setting off and said, "Before we come back, listen to Teacher Jaina's command and protect everyone and yourself."

"Don't worry!" Ivan patted his chest and assured, "We will definitely protect everyone!"

"I believe in you!"

Slava glanced at Jaina after finishing speaking, and waved his hand after the latter nodded, "Let's go too!"

Following an order, the 15 guerrillas Wei Ran had never seen before and some young and strong women lined up and left the camp with the sledge.

When their backs were blocked by the dense forest, Teacher Jaina turned around and said, "Okay, let's go too, Ivan, you and Sergey will lead the way, unless necessary, don't shoot lightly."

"understand!"

Ivan responded with his chest raised, and Sergey and Sergey each carried a rifle and walked in the front.

Behind the two young men, the old people either carried a few belongings on their shoulders, or led the children who were not yet tall enough to follow silently.

And in the end, the one-armed shepherd boy flicked his whip lightly, driving the sheep that were tied up with all kinds of food and clothing to serve as a transport team.In less than half an hour, the camp fell into dead silence.

If it wasn't for the staves left on the board nailed to the pine tree in the open-air classroom, if it weren't for the open space in the forest where the sun can be exposed to the sun during the day, the potato seedlings surrounded by the fence are still luxuriant. In the tent that was deliberately left behind, a grenade was set up by Slava himself as an early warning.

If it weren't for these traces left intentionally or unintentionally, perhaps no one would have realized that there were still many people living here before dark.

In the primeval forest that covered the sky and the sun, the guerrillas led by Slava kept as quiet as possible, but their speed was not affected at all.Even occasionally, in order to take care of the speed of the horse-drawn sledge, they have to hold out for a short while.

Uncle Slava, who was walking in the front, took out a pocket watch from his pocket and checked the time on it.

As for Wei Ran, who has been silently following beside him, he doesn't feel much. The environment here is not much different from the surroundings of Hongqi Forest Farm, but at least his only burden is only one bottle of vodka and two boxes of film. It’s just a shoulder bag and a Bobosa submachine gun on your shoulders all the time, which is far easier than walking your dog with a backpack with dumbbells on it.

In just an hour or so, the guerrillas led by Slava assembled Shura, who had set off on patrol in the morning, and the guerrillas he led.

"How's the situation?" Slava asked in a low voice.

Shula returned a small notebook to the former, and at the same time responded, "Compared to what you recorded before, there is no change except that there is an extra train after two o'clock in the afternoon."

"Since this is the case, everyone should set up an ambush first. Let's wait for the train passing here at 23:[-] in the evening."

After Slava finished speaking, the fighters of the two guerrillas immediately sat down around the two sledges, or untied the water bottles around their waists, or took out a piece of bread from the dry food bag and slowly chewed to replenish their energy.In addition, there was another guerrilla who climbed up a tall pine tree with the help of his teammates. Seeing him like that, it was obvious that he was not ready to come down for a while.

Slava and Shula were also not idle. The former focused on the railway line outside the forest, while the latter looked at the night sky outside the forest.

While everyone waited patiently, time passed slowly, and from time to time, a train would slowly pass by the railroad tracks outside the forest.

At around [-]:[-] in the middle of the night, the guerrillas who had been hiding in the trees reminded in a low voice, "Here we come!"

Hearing this, Wei Ran immediately raised his head and looked out of the forest, however, the farmland was quiet, instead, there seemed to be a flickering red light in the night sky.

Seeming to see Wei Ran's doubts, Slava explained softly, "That's Alisa's plane, and her appearance here means that the guerrillas at the cargo terminal are ready."

Before he finished speaking, Shula tapped the tree trunk with the butt of his submachine gun.Upon receiving the signal, the guerrillas hiding in the tree immediately lit up the flashlight with a red filter and began to respond to Alisa who was flying the plane above her head.

In less than half a minute, two red lights flashed quickly in the night sky, and immediately after that, the plane circling in the night sky quietly disappeared without a shadow by relying on its excellent gliding ability.

"All ready"

Before Slava finished speaking, the guerrillas resting around the two sledges got up one after another, and each took tools such as engineering shovels and crowbars from the sledges.

From this moment on, time seemed to speed up a lot. Not long after, on the railway line outside the forest, a train with more than a dozen freight carriages began to move slowly, led by the steaming front of the car.

Seeing this, Wei Ran used the cover of his satchel to take out the binoculars in the metal book and looked over. In the dim field of vision, he could barely see that there seemed to be a few empty carriages pushing in front of the train. Flat compartment.

On the carriages behind the front of the car, it seems that there are also weapons and equipment such as searchlights protected by armor plates and anti-aircraft guns. In addition, other carriages are fixed on other carriages such as tanks, half-track armored vehicles and Or personnel transport wagons with armor plates and stuffy tank wagons specially used for cargo transportation.

Watching the train drive from the left side of the line of sight to the right side and finally disappearing from sight, Slava did not issue any new orders from the beginning to the end.And those guerrillas and the women who followed also waited patiently as if they were used to it.

After about half an hour more, an armored train with only two or three carriages clattered towards the direction of the previous train at a faster speed than before.

Until the train, which could be said to be armed to the teeth, also disappeared from sight, Shura and the patrol team led by him rushed out of the forest immediately!
"Follow the sledge mark" Slava reminded Wei Ran before setting off, and rushed out without saying a word.

Seeing this, Wei Ran, who had been waiting for several hours, didn't delay any longer, and rushed out of the forest.

Wrinkling their noses and passing through the stinking corpses and tank wreckage around them, the two guerrillas immediately separated under the leadership of Slava and Shura, and while widening the distance between the two teams, they drew closer at the same time. distance from the railway line.

And as the railway line in sight got closer and closer, everyone's figure became lower and lower.By the time they reached the edge of the rails, almost everyone was half-squatting.

From this moment on, the women who followed each occupied a favorable terrain, aiming all their weapons at the other side of the railway line.And those guerrillas began to dismantle the spikes and sleepers of the rails with the help of the tools they had already held in their hands.

Or simply dig open the meteorites under the sleepers, bury all the wooden boxes pulled by the sledge, and then skillfully use the grenade to make the detonating device.

It was not until this time that Wei Ran could clearly see the situation on the other side of the railway line. This side was also a piece of farmland, but at the end of the farmland, there was a building with occasional searchlights on.

It's just that because the distance is far enough, and the crops and trees around the railway line are covered, the two teams perfectly hide in the shadows that the lights can't reach.

In less than half an hour, the two railroad tracks, which were at least [-] meters apart, were dragged into the farmland by horses and guerrillas, and by the way, landmines the size of shoeboxes were suppressed underneath.

This is not over yet, after the two guerrillas each removed a rail, they immediately shifted a distance of nearly two kilometers in the direction where the armored vehicle disappeared.

But this time, the reunited guerrillas just worked together to pull out the spikes that fixed the rails one after another, and then used two bristle brushes with extension rods to smear a layer on the rails. Here comes the black lube.Slava took a few guerrillas and planted soil mines of various shapes in the farmland on the other side of the railway line.

"Hurry up! We have 5 minutes!"

Shura reminded in a low voice, and then the voice was passed on by many guerrillas who were busy.

Hearing this, Wei Ran, holding a crowbar in his hand, pressed down with all his strength, and with the help of the people around him, he managed to pry a spike off the sleeper with difficulty.Before he could withdraw the crowbar, two more guerrillas poked the crowbar in their hands into the gap dug under the rail, slightly lifted the section of rail, and another guerrilla took the crowbar that Wei Ran had just pried off. Spikes were wedged sideways into the gaps between the rails and the sleepers.

"retreat!"

Following Slava's order, everyone threw the tools in their hands into the horse-drawn sledge, ran back to the forest a few hundred meters away, and then quickly ran to the direction they came from, sticking to the edge of the forest.

It wasn't until he stopped again that Wei Ran realized that there was a trench nearly [-] meters long and covered with logs and moss for camouflage!

Under his almost sluggish gaze, these guerrillas each lifted the logs covering the trenches and threw them directly into the tunnel, and then set up their few machine guns at a very fast speed!

"When was this prepared?" Seeing that Slava was already leaning against the wet wall and lighting his pipe, Wei Ran hurried over and asked.

“Dig it a month ago”

Slava explained quite proudly, "It was originally prepared for the German army stationed on the opposite side of the railway, and it just happened to be used this time. As soon as the Germans stationed in that village leave later, we will immediately rush to go in."

"Only by us?"

Wei Ran asked in disbelief, although Slava and the others had made so many preparations, they could not conceal the fact that their guerrilla team had less than 50 people even including those women with resolute faces.

Shura said confidently after hearing the words, "It would be difficult for us to act alone, but they will definitely go to support the freight station or the train later, but no matter where they go, as long as we are faster, we will definitely be able to take them away." Everything was cleaned up."

"Victor, do you still have any wine?" Uncle Slava asked abruptly, "I heard the sound of the wine bottle shaking just now, how about letting everyone have a drink?"

"You have really good ears"

Wei Ran shook his head helplessly, opened the satchel happily, took out the bottle of vodka from it, and handed it over.

"With this bottle of wine, we have greater confidence now!" Slava happily unscrewed the bottle cap and took a sip, then handed it to Shula beside him.

"Am I adding BUFF to you guys?"

Wei Ran muttered to himself, dumbfounded, and under the cover of his satchel, he took out the portable jug from the metal book, unscrewed it, and poured the last sip of gin in it into his mouth.

While they were sharing vodka, the cargo terminal more than ten kilometers away was also attacked without warning.

Accompanied by the searchlights that were hit by two cold shots, the dense barrage of machine guns enveloped the freight station next to the railway from three directions.

Immediately afterwards, the plane driven by Alisa roared past under the cover of night, and a guerrilla sitting in the cockpit behind her saw the timing and cut a rope fixed in the cabin, and fixed one on the landing gear. , The explosive package, which was the size of the largest suitcase, was accurately thrown on the roof of the control room of the freight station!
After a dull explosion that was enough to pierce eardrums, the guerrillas of No. [-] rushed into the cargo terminal from three directions under the cover of machine gun fire.

At the same time, the captives who worked as hard labor at the freight station also rose up, taking out the bricks and sticks hidden in advance as if they were prepared, or simply rushed towards the panicked German soldiers with bare hands.

While the battle at the freight station was in full swing, the guerrillas in charge of attacking the freight train were not in a good condition in the dense forest on the other side of the hiding place of Slava and others.

It can even be said that they are the most pressured party in this battle plan. These guerrilla fighters not only have to stop the freight train equipped with a large number of weapons, but also have to withstand the pressure of the armored train that came later.

And their weapons, apart from the two 45mm anti-tank artillery, the only thing that can be regarded as heavy firepower are only two mortars.

Fortunately, because of proper preparation, the freight train that was first stopped by them had derailed and turned over, and the German soldiers on it had suffered heavy casualties.

But the armored train that came after them suppressed them with ferocious firepower so that they didn't even dare to show their heads.

"Have all the wounded been evacuated?" A middle-aged man with a beard asked loudly.

"Withdraw!" In the night, a guerrilla shouted in response.

"Did the rails explode?" the bearded man continued to ask.

"It exploded!" A young guerrilla responded, "All the curved railroad tracks one kilometer away were blown up! It's not easy to repair those curved railroad tracks."

"Notify the people on the opposite side to retreat as planned!"

The bearded man greedily glanced at the derailed freight train and scattered all kinds of weapons and equipment as well as the supplies they urgently needed, and continued to issue orders, "You greet them from different directions every 10 minutes,"

"Captain Ofjay, what about the artillery?" A young guerrilla fighter asked.

"According to the plan!" After the bearded middle-aged man finished speaking, he stooped and ran into the dense forest behind him.

Seeing this, the young guerrillas following him immediately took out a flare gun captured from the Germans, pointed it at the night sky and pulled the trigger.

When the signal flare glowed red, the guerrillas ambushing on the other side of the railway line immediately gathered the only two anti-tank guns, twitched their whips vigorously, and urged the two horses to pull The artillery ran into the forest.

At the same time, Wei Ran and the others also spotted a dozen half-track trucks driving out of the small village opposite the railway from a distance.

Some of these trucks were full of heavily armed German soldiers, and some simply pulled a flak38 20mm anti-aircraft gun, and even three tanks followed behind the truck!

"Where did these tanks come from?" Slava asked in surprise. The appearance of these three tanks was far beyond his expectation.

"I asked Kolya who was running from the opposite side carefully, and she didn't mention that there are tanks over there." Shura said in confusion, "And I haven't met the other side with tanks before."

"Shura, arrange for someone to ride on horseback at once and tell Greedy Ofjay to watch out for German tanks."

Before Slava finished speaking, something unexpected happened again. Whether it was those half-track trucks or tanks, they didn't even go to the direction of the train station to support them. Instead, they rushed to the direction of the attacked train without hesitation!

Before everyone came back to their senses, the leading half-track armored vehicle was lucky enough to run over the mine they had planted before.

In a dull, almost suffocating explosion, the half-track truck was blown off the tire on the side of the cab.Even the driver in the car was sent straight up and down out of the cab as if he had jumped into a trampoline, and then fell into the cargo box like a ball of mud.

After the explosion, the half-track armored vehicles stopped immediately, and the small-caliber anti-aircraft gun carried by one of the trucks fired a fine barrage at the forest on Wei Ran's side.

It's a pity that these artillery pieces are at least two hundred meters away from their hiding place. Let alone hiding in the trenches, even if they are standing on the edge of the forest, as long as they are not discovered, they will not suffer any harm at all.

"Should we fight?" Shula asked in a low voice. "Ofjay won't be able to resist if we let them go."

"Don't fight first"

Slava held the already-drunk wine bottle under his nose, obsessively sniffed the residual alcohol in it, and then said with a smile, "Our target is not them, and their target is not us."

Sure enough, after the artillery on the half-track truck emptied a magazine, these German soldiers saw that no one fought back, and they didn't even have time to repair the demolished railway, so they went around to the other side of the railway very simply.

Only the half-track that had just opened fire and another truck full of soldiers were left, shaking the searchlights on the roof back and forth, looking for possible ambush.

As for the rest of the trucks and tanks, they continued to move forward just a little further away from the railroad track. Obviously, in their eyes, the train that was attacked was more important!

"Now I'm starting to wonder what kind of treasure was in the train that passed by before, so they didn't even care about the freight station."

Slava threw the empty wine bottle in his hand into the trench, "Since they still have two trucks left, we'll take them, Boris, where's Boris?"

"Here?" An old man holding a Mauser rifle with a scope slowly approached.

Wei Ran did have an impression of this person. When he was patrolling yesterday, he and a young guerrilla were the ones who walked in the front.

"Get ready, turn off the searchlights for them in 5 minutes." After Slava finished speaking, he handed the pocket watch he had been holding to the other party.

"My son can do it so close"

The old guy named Boris said confidently, "So just hand over the searchlight to him, and I'll hit the bastard on the cannon who is in charge of firing."

Slava smiled and nodded, "Others, get ready. After the searchlights go out, concentrate on hitting the anti-aircraft gun. The women hit the Germans in the other car!"

(End of this chapter)