War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 49 Communication before the snowy night
"what happened?"

Wei Ran, who was hiding behind the pine tree, asked in a low voice, and at the same time listened to the movement around him. However, except for the cold wind blowing in front of him, he didn't hear any abnormal sounds at all.

"I just heard voices"

Jima held up his gun and continued to search the surrounding environment, while explaining in a low voice, "It's the sound of metal hitting, there should be other people nearby. In this ghost place, people and animals are both prey at gunpoint. "

"I didn't hear it." Wei Ran held up his binoculars and looked around blankly.

"Victor, we are here for hunting, not for vacation, so you'd better be more vigilant." After finishing speaking, Jima stood up slowly, "Let's go, let's go and have a look, and move on if there is no danger .”

Without waiting for Wei Ran's answer, Jima had already put the rifle under his arm again, then took out the old Makarov pistol from his pocket and hid it in his wide cuff, and took a step forward. He walked in the direction he had just aimed at.

Seeing this, Wei Ran quickly picked up his shotgun and followed in the footsteps of the opponent.

The two walked around the thick pine trees, and the terrain under their feet became lower and lower. After a while, Wei Ran finally heard the sound of metal knocking from time to time.

Finally, when they bypassed a huge boulder that was five or six meters high, two tents that were leaking everywhere and half buried by snow appeared quietly in their field of vision.On a pine tree not far from the two tents, a small stainless steel pot hanging on a branch, and a spoon of the same material collided with each other from time to time in the cold wind, making a crisp and pleasant knocking sound.

However, Jima did not relax his vigilance, but directly raised his pistol and began to search for possible dangers around this apparently long-abandoned camp.

After a long time, Ji Ma put away his gun, drew a small knife from his waist, and cut open one of the tents in two or three strokes.

"It seems that a bear has attacked here." Jima picked up a broken thigh bone from the tent and explained, "Only a bear can do such a strong bite force."

"Is this also a hunter?"

Faced with Wei Ran's question, Jima thought for a moment and shook his head, pointing to the frozen stream not far from the camp and said, "Even the most stupid hunter would not camp in this kind of place, I guess it should be A stranger who digs mammoth tusks."

As if to confirm his guess, Ji Ma cut open the second tent with a knife, and Wei Ran came up curiously, only to see that there were some dirty water pipes and water pants in this tent, and even a box in the corner There are also a few rusty shovels and various seasonings that have been overturned.

"Let's go." Jima frowned and turned around to leave, "Other people have already been here."

"How do you know?" Wei Ran followed Jima and asked with a blank face.

"People who dig mammoth ivory usually come in summer and leave in mid-September at the latest."

Jima stretched out his thumb and compared to the camp behind Bi, "And they usually use the high-pressure water from the pump to hit the river bed and wash the ivory out. But now that the people are dead, the ivory and the pump are gone. We found out here earlier and got a bargain."

"You know them well"

"Of course I understand"

Jima explained in a flat tone, "Those outsiders and local hunters are deadly enemies. The pumps they use to dig up mammoths will not only muddy the creek that this animal drinks water, but the noise of the pumps will also make it difficult for the animal to drink. The surrounding things are scared away. To be exaggerated, I would not be surprised that the unlucky ghost who died in the tent was shot and killed by some daring hunter."

The terrible reason that Ji Ma guessed with such a flat and even somewhat gloating tone also made Wei Ran more vigilant, even diluting the original thoughts of coming to see something new.

Excluding possible dangers, the two continued to move forward in the dense forest with guns in their hands. It was not until after three o'clock in the afternoon that the leader Jima stopped in a flat forest glade, "Okay , let's camp here today."

"How far are we?"

Wei Qi gasped and asked, although he usually works as a part-time tour guide in his aunt's travel agency, his physical strength is far inferior to that of a quarter horse who makes a living by hunting, especially when he is carrying a mountaineering bag weighing tens of kilograms Down.

"Let's go another day tomorrow. If there are no accidents, we will be able to reach our destination the morning after tomorrow."

While talking, Ji Ma took off his backpack and handed the ax to Wei Ran, "Go around and cut some fresh pine branches. If you find dead wood, make a note of the location first. When I set up the tent, go there and get some back together." as fuel."

Wei Ran, who was about to catch his breath, took the ax helplessly, found a few low pine trees nearby, chopped off the branches he could reach, and dragged them back to the camp bit by bit.

Jima was also not idle. He took out a saw from his bag, chose three straight pine trees with thick wrists and cut them off, and then tied one end with a rope to prop up a tripod with a height of more than two meters. Skillfully hung a canvas Indian tent directly under the tripod.

Finally, he cut a few wooden nails with a knife to tighten the corners of the tent, and then pulled a few wind ropes. Only then was he contented to carry the pine needles sent back by Wei Ran into the tent, and carefully spread them on the thick on the snow.

After he compacted the surroundings of the tent with snow from the outside, Wei Ran also found a fallen pine tree not far away.As the saw was pulled back and forth, the thigh-thick logs were sent back to the camp by the two.

After finishing the work of setting up the camp, Jima picked up the gun again and put it on his shoulder, "I'll go around and see if I can catch any prey. You can start a fire in the tent."

"give it to me!"

Wei Ran waved his hand cheerfully. Usually, he often goes hunting and camping with Professor Alexei, so this work is naturally not difficult for him.

First he split the logs with an ax and sent them to the tent, then took out the burning platform from the mountaineering bag and put it in the center of the tent. There was also a crisp gunshot.

Not long after, Ji Ma came back from the forest with a gun on his shoulder and a rabbit that had been stripped clean and only the meat was left.

"It's a good luck. One rabbit should be enough for the two of us to eat." While talking, Jima had already bent down to pick up a pine branch. Looking at him, it was obvious that he was going to roast the rabbit.

"I'll come!"

Wei Ran, who was about to continue chopping firewood, exchanged the ax in his hand for the rabbit in the opponent's hand, "Although hunting is not as good as you, I will handle this rabbit, it will definitely taste better than roasting it."

Ji Ma took the ax indifferently, leaned the gun on his hiking bag and walked out, and at the same time said unwillingly, "As long as you don't use it to make soup, I tried it last time, it was too bad."

"Don't worry!" Wei Ran responded, turned around and found a bag of stew ingredients from his backpack.

When I was shopping for food and drink in Kazan, I went to a Chinese supermarket to buy it. I bought it together with the stew ingredients, as well as a small bag of rice and a small bag of brown sugar.

When he went hunting with Professor Alexey, he had already eaten all kinds of barbecue. This time, knowing that it was hunting again, in order to satisfy his appetite, he naturally had to make some preparations in advance as much as possible.

Using a knife to cut the rabbit meat into random pieces, Wei Ran took off the hanging pot and replaced it with a hanging pot, poured some water into it, and then took out a box of Salo meat cans from Jima's backpack, opened it, and put the The large piece of fat pork was cut up randomly and thrown in. He didn't rush to sprinkle in a small handful of brown sugar until the water vapor evaporated and boiled out the lard.

When the brown sugar melted and started to bubble, Wei Ran, who turned into a chef, was finally willing to throw all the rabbit meat into pieces.

Randomly pulled a few times with the knife in his hand so that all the pieces of meat were colored, and finally threw in a small bag of stew ingredients, sprinkled with a little salt, poured two cans of cold beer, and then he covered the pot with satisfaction. .

As the water vapor evaporated, a rich and unfamiliar scent drifted through the opening on the top of the tent, finally attracting the quarter horse who was chopping wood outside.At the same time, Wei Ran also used the lunch boxes of two people to cook the rice with the newly melted snow water.

"Victor, what delicious food are you doing?" Jima came in with a large bundle of firewood and sniffled curiously.

“Braised Rabbit Meat Rice Bowl”

A Chinese dish name popped out of Wei Ran's mouth, regardless of whether the other party understood it or not, he directly changed the subject and asked, "Ji Ma, can you teach me how to use the scope of your gun while the food is not cooked yet?" ? I have only used shotguns and sks rifles for hunting before, and I have never used such high-end products.”

"This is easy"

Before he could sit down, Jima simply turned around and rolled open the tent door, then sat down on the spread out non-slip mat, and then put the gun on the backpack and pointed it at the forest outside the tent until the magazine was pulled out and the chamber was emptied , This signaled Wei Ran to sit in the seat that originally belonged to him.

When Wei Ran closed one eye and looked out through the scope, Jima said while busy making coffee, "The zero of this gun is at 100 meters, that is to say, if you aim at the gun at 100 meters For the prey, when there is no wind, just use the front sight to catch the opponent and directly pull the trigger."

"What if it's a hundred meters away?" Wei Ran stared at the pine tree in the scope and asked.

"This is where the learning takes place"

Jima took out a burning firewood from the bonfire and lit the cigarette in his mouth, puffing and saying, "The first thing you need to learn is how to use the differentiation board to determine the distance between you and the target."

Under Jima's explanation, Wei Ran learned how to use the scope little by little, until the sky in his field of vision completely darkened, and then he returned the gun to Jima, and lowered the curtain of the tent by the way.

While Wei Ran divided the stewed rabbit meat into their respective lunch boxes with the aroma of rice, Ji Ma also unscrewed a bottle of vodka and filled their respective cups.

"This is probably the most delicious dinner I've ever eaten when I was camping in the wild." Jima praised vaguely as he pulled the rice into his mouth with a spoon, completely ignoring the thick soup and rice grains on the corners of his mouth.

"If you think it's delicious, I'll teach you how to make it next time. It's very simple." While speaking, Wei Ran took out a can of Laoganma from his pocket, poured a large spoon full of it and spread it on the rice.

"What is that? Give me some too!" Before Ji Ma finished speaking, he had already snatched the glass bottle that Wei Ran had just put down.

"Don't focus on eating, and continue to talk about hunting."

"Actually, the trouble in hunting is not shooting, but how to find the prey."

Ji Ma, who had just delivered a big spoonful of Laoganma to his mouth, explained while pulling the rice with his teeth grinning, "Another key point to find the prey is to try not to let the prey find you before you shoot. .This requires keeping enough quiet, and at the same time paying special attention to the surrounding environment. Animals are far more vigilant than humans, and the slightest abnormality will scare them away."

"So beating people is much easier than beating animals?" Wei Ran asked strangely.

"Of course!"

After Ji Ma subconsciously answered Wei Ran's question, he asked back in surprise, "Why do you have such dangerous thoughts?"

Wei Ran quickly shook the spoon in his hand and explained, "I just thought of the snipers in World War II. Many of them were hunters before they joined the war."

"Oh oh oh!"

Ji Ma put half a spoonful of Laoganma in his mouth again, "The movie "Soldiers Under the City", right? You are indeed right. In some respects, hunting humans is much easier than hunting animals. People will ignore a lot of us. Things you take for granted, like the sound of metal tapping in the middle of the day that you ignore, but hunting humans also face dangers that they don’t encounter when hunting animals.”

Wei Ran raised his wine glass and touched the other party, "For example?"

"At least the animals don't shoot at you"

Jima gasped and finished speaking, but he didn't dare to drink the vodka in the cup. Instead, he took a few sips of cold water from the kettle on the side, and then continued, "Besides, humans are not color-blind like most animals. , so although human’s sense of smell and hearing are not as good as those of animals, their eyesight is more dominant, especially when using a telescope.”

Before Wei Ran wanted to continue asking questions, Jima stopped the topic in time, "Well, I can't teach you these dangerous things. Besides, I'm just a hunter, not a hero sniper in a movie."

The other party didn't want to say more, so Wei Ran naturally couldn't continue to ask.After the two shared the rabbit meat in the pot, they each poured a cup of brewed coffee, sat around the warm campfire and changed the topic to other aspects.

When the night fell completely, the wind outside the tent became more and more violent, and the snowflakes drifting in along the opening of the tent above the head became bigger and bigger, but before they landed, they had already turned into water vapor under the roasting of the bonfire Floating away without a trace.

"Are you sure there won't be a blizzard?" Wei Ran, who was about to get into his sleeping bag, asked worriedly.

"Probably not, but a heavy snow should be inevitable."

Quarter Horse, who was in charge of the first wave of night duty, continued to wipe the rifle on his lap without looking up, "Anyway, don't worry, it's a good thing that the snow is heavier, and at most it will only slow down our journey tomorrow. Some."

"I hope so." Wei Ran glanced at the burning bonfire, and finally chose to trust Ji Ma with a calm face.

　Thanks to Lonely Boat and Weng for rewarding 3000 points

　　Thank you for the reward of 2300 points

　　Thank you for sending 500 points under Mistletoe

　　Thank you for practicing in the world, flying hands, MR, and the national teacher for rewarding 100 points respectively

　　
　
(End of this chapter)