War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 411 Will someone remember them?

In the pouring rain, the messy battlefield was cleaned up by many guerrillas, and the surviving wounded and the bodies of those guerrillas who failed to survive were sent to the sledge.And at the edge of the well, Uncle Slava was carving something on the edge of the well with a Mosin Nagant four-edged bayonet.

Beside him, Wei Ran, who was using his cloak to help keep out the rain, finally saw the familiar sentence again, "In the future, this village may become full of vitality again, but what you do is like this mouth that was caught by you." Like a polluted well, it can never be washed clean."

"Uncle Slava, was this a village before?" Wei Ran waited until the other party covered the mouth of the well with a stone slab before asking.

Slava stood up unsteadily, and explained in a desolate manner, "Before the war started, there were many loggers living here, and this place was also called the loggers' village. Then the Germans came in, and the loggers here all went to He left the front line and never came back.”

Speaking of this, Slava raised his finger and pointed to the female pilot Alisa who was standing in a daze under a pine tree in the distance, "Her father was a lumberjack here. When we decided to build a hospital, it was still She brought us here. She said that when her father came back from the front, she would know as soon as possible, but alas."

Wei Ran was startled, and was about to say something, but the bearded Aufjay came over, sat down on the edge of the well covered with stone slabs, took out a flagon from his arms, unscrewed it, took a sip, and then Handed it to Slava, "Old friend, take your people to our camp."

"Going to your place?" Slava asked back, then took a sip from the jug, and handed it to Wei Ran.

"The hospital is gone"

Ofjay reminded, "But we got a lot of good things from that train, didn't we? And I heard that the old bastard in Antip also successfully bombed the freight station and brought back a lot of supplies and manpower.

You were stationed nearby to protect the hospital. Although the hospital is gone now, with the supplies we got, we still have a chance to rebuild a hospital, right? "

Ofjay paused here, seeing that Slava did not refute, and then continued, "Before this operation started, Antip and I discussed that if we can successfully blow up the freight station and the train And grab the supplies, and move to your neighborhood to guard the hospital together.

But now that the Germans have come here, I think your camp may not be safe anymore.So why not switch to a safer location?Also, all the people in the village across the railway were rescued by you, so there is no need to stay any longer. "

"Antip moved there too?" Slava looked at the other party and asked.

Aufjay took the flagon from Wei Ran, nodded sincerely and said, "Before we were too scattered, if we can merge together, at least such a thing will not happen again."

"I need to think about this matter carefully." Slava shook his head wearily, "give me some time."

"No problem." Ofjay looked around, "Okay, we should leave too." After finishing speaking, the bearded man simply stood up and watched, directing everyone to retreat.

"Let's go too." Slava also stood up and walked towards the half-track motorcycle not far away.

Wei Ran finally looked back at the battlefield that had been carefully cleaned up, and the scrapped vehicles that had been pushed into the swamp, and limped after Uncle Slava.

This time, Slava changed from a passenger to the driver of the motorcycle, and Wei Ran also sat on the back seat as a passenger, holding a submachine gun in his arms.

As they watched, fully loaded sledges lined up to leave the scorched battlefield, while Ofjay stayed at the end, and under the light provided by a guerrilla with a flashlight, he buried the ground with his own hands. A landmine that Wei Ran is extremely familiar with.

Watching Offjay get on a sledge, Slava waved to the pilot Alisa who was still standing under the tree, "Good boy, get in the car, let's go back."

Alisa, who was leaning on a crutch with one hand, took a deep breath, limped to the side of the motorcycle, threw the crutch in her hand to Wei Ran, and hopped and sat beside him.

Amidst the roar of the engine, the motorcycle driven by Slava followed the sledge, leaving the sad battlefield behind, and on the sledge in front of them, the two little guys, Ivan and Sergey, were dancing Bragging about their exploits to the wounded in the same car.

Vaguely, Wei Ran could still hear Ivan's secondary descriptions such as "I almost threw a grenade into the German's mouth and strangled him to death" from Ivan's mouth.

Perhaps for these young children who don't know their worries, and don't know that their teacher Jaina has died, war is more like an exciting game for them, but for those guerrillas with tired faces, for those To the wounded who had survived the catastrophe, this seemingly endless battle was like a flash of lightning in the night sky, bringing them instant light and throwing them into the cold darkness in the blink of an eye.

As the motorcycle tracks creaked and turned, the mud mixed with withered grass was thrown everywhere, and by the way, two ruts were left behind, but soon, these ruts were walked on the last sledge Covered by sprinkled pine needles and leaves, then the last incongruity is smoothed out by drops of water shaking from the canopy, as if they were supposed to be there.

But the bloody smell and gunpowder smoke permeating the forest lingered for a long time in this rainy night, and even intensified.

"Comrade reporter, how did your leg get hurt?" Alysa, who was sitting beside her, asked abruptly. While speaking, she took out a piece of slightly melted sugar cube from her pocket and handed it to Wei Ran.

"I was blown up by a grenade when I was fighting the Germans with Slava"

Wei Ran took the sugar cube from the opponent's hand and threw it into his mouth, then pointed to the sole of the other's left foot, which was wrapped in several layers of gauze, and asked, "What about you? How did you get injured? Did you step on a nail while flying the plane? "

Wei Ran's ridicule immediately made this little girl laugh out loud, and it seemed that even her mood improved a bit, "When I was driving the plane to drop a bomb at the cargo terminal, a bullet went through the plane. Skin and floor, and then through the soles of my feet."

At this point, Alisa showed Wei Ran her cuff, "Did you see this small hole? The bullet flew up against my cuff and almost hit my chin."

Before Wei Ran could speak, Alisa took out another deformed bullet from her pocket, "Later it was attached to the wing, and I snapped it off with my own hands after landing."

"You are so lucky." Wei Ran said with emotion in disbelief.

“I feel lucky too”

Alisa stuffed the bullet back into her pocket, and said happily, "When I have time later, I will find a way to make a hole in it and wear it with a rope as a necklace."

"Alisa, who was the person who flew the plane and dropped the bomb just now?" Wei Ran pointed to the top of his head, "That bomb is very powerful."

"That's my brother and my sister-in-law"

There was a little worship in Alisa's tone, "That bomb must have been made by my sister-in-law. Before the war, my brother and I sprayed the pesticides and fertilizers on everyone's planes, and she was also the one who prepared them."

"It's amazing"

Wei Ran sighed with emotion, the bomb dropped from the sky not long ago played a decisive role, otherwise, this battle would not have been so easy to win.

"How did your interview at Uncle Slava's camp go?" Alisa asked with great interest.

"It's probably almost over." Wei Ran replied vaguely. It stands to reason that he should have completed all the missions of returning this time, but when he can go back, it is not up to him to decide.

Alisa turned her head and looked at Ivan and Sergey who were talking and laughing on the sledge in front of her. After a moment of hesitation, she asked in a low voice, "They don't know yet, do they?"

Wei Ran shook his head, "It looks like I don't know, but I don't think it will be long."

Alisa sighed when she heard the words, "Sister Jaina is a good person, and Brother Shula is also a good person. We have all been helped by them."

Wei Ran shook his head, took a sip from the portable flagon from the metal book under the cover of his satchel, and then handed it to Alisa beside him.

The latter took the hip flask and took a sip from the boss, and then he coughed again and again from the choking, and his little face with some scratches turned red from the suffocation.

"Drinking for the first time?" Wei Ran asked in surprise.

Alisa smiled shyly, took a small sip after she recovered her breath, and then returned the jug to Wei Ran, "It's not good at all."

“Really not good to drink”

Wei Ran put away the jug, looked at the retreating dense vegetation on both sides, but didn't know what to say for a while.Whether it is him, Alisa, or even the wounded and guerrilla fighters in other cars, everyone is tacitly looking for topics that can distract them, trying not to let the sadness on their faces show, and trying not to think about those things. Companions who have died, but obviously, this is not an easy task.

During the unbearable wait, the sledge on which Ivan and Sergey were riding and the wounded followed Ofjay to another direction, while the sledge carrying the corpse and some things that Wei Ran had seen and never seen The guerrillas returned to the camp where Wei Ran first lived.

In the increasingly heavy rain, the sledge full of dead bodies stopped under the tree where the open-air classroom was located, following the half-track motorcycle driven by Slava.On the wooden board nailed to the tree, the staves and notes drawn by Teacher Jaina are still clearly visible, but the teacher who used to lead the children to sing in class every day has already lay on the sledge and lost his breath.

"Let's get started." Slava waved his hand wearily, and slowly got off the motorcycle.

The surviving guerrillas heard the news, carefully carried the corpses on the sledges into the huts and closed the doors, then dug up the soil on both sides of the entrance to block the doors, and then silently drew out their bayonets. On the nearby tree trunk, the names and specific time of the dead were carefully carved.

Those without names are engraved with men and women, the time, and a powerful sentence: "These are destined to be forgotten, who gave their lives for the Soviet."

At the door of Teacher Jaina's shack, Uncle Slava refused everyone's help, and like an old father, he personally sent the broken bodies of Shula and Jaina inside.He helped them close the simple wooden door with his own hands, and dug up the soil to block the door with his own hands.

Finally, the silent and dull old man took out a pack of cigarettes and a box of matches from his pocket, and took out a cotton tank cap from his bag, and put them all on the branch of the oak tree at the door of the shack.

Until the old man carved the names of Jaina and Shula and the time of sacrifice on the trunk with a bayonet.Many guerrillas have also assembled under the open-air classroom.

"salute!"

Uncle Slava shouted in a hoarse voice, and silently raised his arms, while the guerrillas behind him, holding back their tears, pointed their rifles or submachine guns at the night sky and pulled the trigger.

After three clear gunshots, Slava, who seemed to be a teenager, turned his head and asked Chao Weiran with a little pleading, "Comrade Victor reporter, will anyone remember them? Will someone know?" Did they do anything?"

"Yes, for sure." Wei Ran resolutely made a promise, "No one will forget them, those who live in the future will remember them."

"That's fine, that's fine"

Slava turned around wearily, and staggered to the side of the halftrack motorcycle, "Let's go back, don't let those children know about Victor, Alisa, Jaina and Shula, they have enough Poor."

"I understand." Wei Ran and Alisa gave their promises in no particular order.

(End of this chapter)