War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 430 The All Beings in the Tent

Carrying the water bottles of the three of them and leaving the tent, Wei Ran hid in the shadows and eavesdropped on Tom and Randy's advice to Marshall for a while, and then walked to the back of the wreckage of a bulldozer in the distance.

After looking around and seeing that no one noticed him, he took out the oil drum filled with cold beer in the metal book, and then turned on the flashlight.

Feeling the cold temperature of the oil drum, Wei Ran unscrewed the lids of the three kettles as quickly as possible, then took off a cup that was set on the lid, took a full glass of beer and carefully poured it into the kettle inside.

Carefully filling up the four jugs, Wei Ran immediately turned off the flashlight and put away the oil drum.

Picking up the jug full of beer, he was not in a hurry to go back. Instead, he was looking for the camp of the colored troops.

However, after walking around in a circle, except for being stopped several times by the guarding sentries, he did not find the company where Will was stationed.

Walking back to the tent with a little disappointment, after such a short time, several open cans were already placed on the ammunition box in the center of the tent.

The dishes in these cans are quite rich. In addition to three cans of beef stew with beans smelling like tomato sauce, there are also three cans of meat stew with vegetables, a few sausages, a plate of turkey and two sliced ​​apples.

And in the helmet in the center, there are still several packs of nine packs of cigarettes.As for the ingredients that the later Han Bangzi used to cook the army hot pot, it was not surprising that they appeared in a wooden box for garbage at the feet.

"Did you really get the beer?" Marshall sniffled as he spoke. "I can smell the beer! Where did you get it?!"

"It doesn't matter where you get it from"

While speaking, Wei Ran distributed three heavy water bottles to the three of them, and then put his own water bottle on the wooden box.

"It's still ice!"

Pastor Tom exclaimed after taking the kettle, and immediately lowered his voice, "Randy! Hurry up and fasten the tent door! Hang two more cans on it!"

"Right now! Immediately!"

Randy, who was about to unscrew the lid of the kettle, stopped immediately, took out two empty cans from the wooden box containing the garbage, and ran to the door familiarly, after fastening the tent door, put the iron sheet in his hand The box stuck on it.

As for Marshall, he dug out a glass jar from under the bed, put a flashlight in it, and put a helmet on it.

This ingenious little arrangement immediately lowered the brightness in the tent, only a faint light appeared in the gap between the helmet supported by the glass jar and the ammunition box used as a table, but it was just enough to be used for lighting. The four in the tent could see the cans that had been heated and the people sitting around them.

"Come and sit down!"

Pastor Tom greeted everyone impatiently, but he himself had already unscrewed the lid of the kettle, and skillfully used the cup he took out in advance to catch the foam gushing from the mouth of the kettle.

"God bless! Where did all this beer come from? It's so full of gas?!"

"Tom, this good thing has nothing to do with God!" Randy rushed over and patted Wei Ran on the shoulder and said, "We have to thank Victor!"

“Thank you Victor indeed”

After the bastard Marshall unscrewed his kettle, he rudely sucked the gushing foam and teased in a low voice, "If Mr. God can bring us beer, he should be able to help us take down the highland opposite. But in fact, he can’t do anything, only let me confess to him, what should I confess? Is it that he was not nailed firmly enough?”

"Shut your stinky mouth!"

Pastor Tom said angrily, "Marshall! You bastard should be burned to death! Now keep your promise and apologize to Victor!"

Marshall was stunned, stood up awkwardly, and was about to say something, but found that Wei Ran, who was sitting opposite him, waved his hand first, holding up a half-filled metal cup and said, "It's fine to apologize, how about having a drink together?" ?”

"I'm starting to like you bastard"

Marshall grinned, unscrewed the lid completely, filled the matching metal cup half full, and happily touched the cup in Wei Ran's hand.

"Wait, there's me!" Randy, the stretcher bearer, hurriedly poured half a glass of beer and got up.

"And me!" Pastor Tom also raised his glass.

"Won't your god join us for a drink?" Marshall continued teasing.

"I'm off work." Pastor Tom smiled, "I don't want to drink with my boss during the break."

"I thought you were as religious as me." Randy looked at Tom opposite in disbelief, and it was hard to imagine that those words just came out of the mouth of the chaplain.

"Of course I'm religious, but not fanatical."

Under the dim light, a bitterness appeared on Tom's face, "Although the bastard Marshall's words are hard to hear, I have to admit that on the battlefield, the only people God can help are those who are dying, and he is not even as good as Victor The morphine provided is powerful."

"If you want to talk about God's work, then I'll drink it first." Wei Ran changed the subject with the same teasing tone.

"Come together!" The bitterness on Pastor Tom's face disappeared, "May we all live until the end of the war!"

"Cheers!" After Marshall finished speaking, he couldn't wait to bring the cup to his mouth and take a big gulp.

"cheers!"

The three of Wei Ran looked at each other and smiled, and then poured a big gulp of cold and mellow beer into their mouths.

"The taste of these beers is really good!" Marshall admired, "It tastes like the beer brewed by me at home."

"Are you from Texas?" Wei Ran patted his arm while speaking, indicating that he saw Marshall's tattoo.

"Mississippi"

Marshall gave a very different answer, "When I was 20 years old, I had to move to Mississippi because I shot a black man, but I was really a Texan until I was 20 years old. Now my grandfather still lives on a farm in Texas. .”

"How can you say such a thing so frankly?" Randy shook his head dumbfounded, "But I'm also from Texas."

"You too?" Wei Ran looked at Randy in surprise. Just now he thought that Marshall was the one who brought back the human skull, but he didn't expect that Randy also came from Texas.

"I grew up in Texas"

Randy said proudly, "Many warships of the Navy are built in Houston, and my father works in the shipyard. So, the warship we are on is probably built by my father."

"Okay, how about we raise a glass again for Texas, for our father who built our warships?" Marshall suggested.

"Cheers!" Randy responded immediately, and everyone followed suit and poured a big gulp of cold beer into their mouths.

"Tom, what about you?" Wei Ran picked up an apple and stuffed it into his mouth, and joked with a smile, "Don't tell me you're from Texas, too."

"I'm from Hawaii"

Tom said while pouring his own wine, "Before the war started, I worked in my father's weapons store, which was less than two streets away from Pearl Harbor."

"The store across from the strip bar?" Randy asked with wide-eyed eyes.

"It's there"

Tom pulls out his 1911 and puts it on the table. "Of course, I'm a priest at the same time. But since those bastards bombed Pearl Harbor and canceled my family's store by the way and took my father, I decided to join the army." , Speaking of it, this is my first time on the battlefield."

"The Enviable Rich Man"

Marshall picked up the pistol on the table greedily, "I went to your store before the war, and I took a fancy to this gorgeous pistol that didn't look like a weapon, but it was too expensive, and I spent all my money on it." On those strippers, you can't afford it."

"It's the last pistol left in my father's arms shop," sighed Tom. "The rest were blown up by the Japanese plane that fell."

"Feel sorry"

The other three people sitting around sighed one after another, and Marshall finally managed to be smart. After putting down Tom's pistol, he changed the subject and asked, "Victor, what about you? Where are you from? Texas?"

"I'm not from Texas." Wei Ran hesitated for a moment and said, "I'm from Alaska."

"Hearing that name makes me feel cold," Randy said exaggeratedly, obviously trying to liven up the atmosphere, trying to help Pastor Tom forget about the sad things.

"I heard that there are many gold mines in Alaska?"

Marshall widened his eyes and asked, "If it weren't for this war, I might have become a gold digger. You won't believe it, I once picked up a natural gold nugget the size of a hand grenade in a tributary of the Mississippi River!" "

"Really? As big as a grenade?!" Randy looked at Marshall suspiciously, and even Pastor Tom looked up.

"Of course it's true!" Marshall said vowedly, followed by another sentence, "It's a pity."

"What's the pity?" Randy and Tom asked in unison, but Wei Ran's suspicious expression became more and more obvious.

"Unfortunately when I woke up I was sleeping in a hotel bed and my wallet had been taken by a pretty girl I met the night before."

"You bastard!"

Pastor Tom was the first to react, and angrily threw the box of matches he had just picked up on Marshall.

"I almost wanted to pan for gold with you after the war," Randy complained disappointedly.

"If I can find a gold mine, I won't be bored and join the army."

Marshall grinned wantonly, raised his glass, and drank the remaining beer on his own, then continued to pour cold beer into it.

"I would have liked to work in a shipyard"

Randy sighed, "But my friend Adam also said that he wanted to join the army. I didn't know what I thought at the time, so I went with him to the place where the conscription was registered. Now I don't even think about it. Adam's parents said he had died."

"I did it to avenge my father," Tom said bitterly, "but my job is to be a priest, and I don't even have the guts to shoot at the enemy."

"Killing is easy"

Marshall said indifferently, "However, I really envy your job as a pastor. Not only is your military rank higher than ours, but you can also live in such a big tent by yourself."

"This Is the Benefit of Working for God"

Pastor Tom spread his hands, "If you don't mind, you can also live here. I have already said hello in advance."

"Speaking of which, how did the three of you get together?" Wei Ran, who had been listening just now, asked.

"Originally I just invited Randy to come and live with me"

Pastor Tom held up his glass and said, "After all, Adam was not long ago, and I carried the stretcher with him for several hours."

"Where's Marshall?" Wei Ran asked curiously.

"The bastard got into a fight with someone else"

Pastor Tom said helplessly, "I just didn't want to see him sent to a military court after beating someone to death, so I brought him here."

"This bastard thing can really cause trouble"

Wei Ran grinned and muttered to himself, he was pointed at by Marshall once when he entered this battlefield. This guy had killed people before he joined the army, and he almost killed others just now.Such misdeeds almost completely deserve the title of "scumbag".

"I just don't want to keep driving bulldozers"

Marshall spread his hands, lowered his voice and said excitedly, "My friends, I saw the fire-breathing tank landed this afternoon."

"So?" Wei Ran looked at him suspiciously.

"Driving a bulldozer is not as exciting as driving a fire-breathing tank!"

Marshall raised his glass and touched the three of them, "The only reason I had a conflict with that bastard was because I wanted to drive a flame-breathing tank."

Randy shook his head helplessly, "It's no wonder you can drive a flame-breathing tank like this."

"Of course!" Marshall said confidently, but obviously he didn't intend to continue explaining.

Although he didn't explain, Pastor Tom seemed to have seen something, just shook his head helplessly and reminded, "Marshall, you'd better calm your mind down, you are sending yourself to death."

"That's more interesting than driving a bulldozer. I can't wait until I leave the battlefield. When those lonely women ask me how many people I killed on the battlefield, I tell them that I have been driving a bulldozer, right?"

Marshall took a sip of beer, hiccupped and continued, "And do you know how I got the rank of sergeant? I used a bulldozer to kill a dozen enemies in Saipan."

"Wait! You are that desperate Marshall?!"

Randy's eyes widened, "I've heard of you, you're the desperate Marshall, right!"

"What does the desperate Marshall mean?" Wei Ran asked suspiciously.

Randy glanced at Marshall, whose face was full of indifference, and said, "I heard a sailor on the boat say that a crazy engineer in Saipan drove a bulldozer and killed a dozen Japanese. I heard that several were buried alive, Marshall, are they talking about you?"

"it's me"

Marshall spread his hands, "Those Japanese charged towards our position like idiots. At that time, I happened to be pushing the bunker with an armored bulldozer, so I rushed over directly."

"Buried alive? Is it true that buried alive?" Randy asked with a pale face.

"My officer says no prisoners are needed, not a single one."

Marshall explained innocently, "At that time, I only had a pistol with me, and I didn't even have extra bullets, and it was raining heavily that day, and I didn't want to leave the cab to find bullets, so I had to bury them."

"You are a devil!" Pastor Tom paused, raised his glass and said, "But it sounds really fun!"

"I thought you were going to judge me for God again"

Marshall smirked and raised his glass to touch the other party. After taking a sip, he asked, "Victor, what about you? Why did you join the army?"

"For world peace," Wei Ran replied in a natural tone.

"That's a good reason"

Pastor Tom nodded in agreement, "As long as those lunatics who started the war are killed, the world will definitely usher in peace."

Marshall nodded likewise, adding, "It would certainly be more peaceful if there were no blacks."

"Shut your stinking mouth!" Pastor Tom said angrily, "Black people are children of God too."

"OK, black people are children of God"

It was Marshall who spread his hands, "You are all God's children, only I am not, okay?"

"Sooner or later you're going to need God's forgiveness," Randy said with a sigh. "When will I get the rank of sergeant?"

Marshall grinned widely, "I can lend you my bulldozer if you want."

"Forget it!" Randy shook his head with a pale face, "Stop talking about the bulldozer, I almost have a picture in my mind."

"We really should change the subject"

Tom put away the pistol he had just taken out, "It doesn't matter whether the bastard Marshall will drive a flame-breathing tank, but I do know that Victor doesn't have to go to the front line tomorrow."

Seeing that the topic turned to himself again, Wei Ran put down his cold glass, "I don't need to go to the front line anymore? Why?"

"Why else?"

The stretcher soldier Randy spread his hands, "Even an idiot knows that it is a waste for a medical soldier who can perform surgery to go to the front line. You can save more people in the rear hospital."

"What about you?" Wei Ran asked worriedly.

"Of course I will continue to be a stretcher soldier," Randy said as a matter of course.

"I'll be a stretcher bearer with Randy"

Pastor Tom said firmly, "Before I landed in Guam, I thought my job was to listen to the soldiers' confessions in the rear, but my experience during the day made me realize that the soldiers who are about to die on the front line need me the most. That's the only way I can really help them."

"It seems that after the desperate bulldozer driver Marshall, there will be another desperate priest Tom in this tent."

Marshall said, picked up his glass and stood up, "However, let's use the last glass of wine and hope that we can all be reunited in this tent by this time tomorrow?"

"You drink so fast"

The stretcher soldier Randy muttered, and quickly poured all the remaining beer in the kettle into the cup, stood up and said, "As the bastard Marshall said, I hope we are all here tomorrow."

"And there's cold beer to drink," Reverend Tom joked and stood up.

Wei Ran also stood up and said, "You all try to come back safely, and I will try to bring back some beer when the time comes."

"cheers!"

"Cheers!" Amid deliberately suppressed cheers, everyone drank up the beer in their cups.

"It would be nice to have a cold beer every day, this place is hotter than the Texas desert in summer."

Marshall greedily shook the last drop of wine in the glass into his mouth. After hiccupping, he reached out and took out a pack of cigarettes from his helmet, tore it open, and took out a self-contained cigarette to light.

"It would be even better if there were a few more women." Randy also took out a cigarette and took a strong puff as he spoke.

"How did I know you two bastards"

Tom, who also lit a cigarette, handed the cigarette case and matches to Wei Ran. Seeing that the latter refused, he immediately said, "You should learn from Victor. He is a veritable battlefield angel."

"Tom, I have a religious question for you."

Marshall, who was already lying on the bed, asked while puffing, "Is the angel a man or a woman?"

"Shut your stinky mouth!"

Tom, who was ridiculed again, angrily threw the cigarettes and matches rejected by Wei Ran on Marshall's body, and then the four laughed tacitly.

"Marshall, what's the matter with your chest injury?" Wei Ran asked after lying down on the bed closest to the tent door.

"nothing"

Marshall replied indifferently, "When the hospital was shelled, a shard of glass flew into the cab of the bulldozer and cut a hole in my chest. I should have closed the armored door earlier." Yes, but it's so damn hot it's like an oven in there."

"It's unbelievable that God let a bastard like you survive," Randy couldn't help muttering.

Pastor Tom joked, "I guess maybe God and Satan don't want such bastards to pollute heaven and hell."

"Whether it's God or Satan, if they want to invite me, I hope to bring a bulldozer."

Marshall grinned and said, "I will definitely help them push out a beautiful bunker or a landing pier. Whoever accepts me at that time, I will help them fight another one. I have experience!"

"May there be no bulldozers and bastards named Marshall in heaven and hell," Wei Ran sighed solemnly.

"May heaven and earth be free of a stretcherman named Randy and a priest named Tom." Marshall agreed with a solemn sigh, "I mean it this time, no kidding."

"You bastard finally said a sincere blessing." Randy echoed with suppressed laughter.

Pastor Tom shook his head angrily, and said while turning off the flashlight that was used for lighting, "Although Randy is right, I still want to shoot you in the head."

Before he finished speaking, the not-so-big tent was filled to the brim with the laughter of the crowd and the occasional cannon fire from outside.

"Hopefully you can survive"

Wei Ran murmured something to himself, closed his tired eyes with a little drunkenness, and after a short while, like the other three, snored one after another.

　Two-in-one update, let me have a meal first, and there will be more later.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)