War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 496 The Helplessness of Bystanders
On the third day after deciding to build this shelter to help everyone survive the long winter night, under the command of Kang Tan, everyone tried their best to drag the crucial main beam to where it should go with a rope. Location.

Accompanied by a muffled bang, the two ends of the main beam were pushed into the depression cut in the center of the stone walls on the two short sides of the foundation.

After stepping hard to make sure it wouldn't shake, Wei Ran and Kang Tan each greeted Gail and Dorian on the edge of the opposite wall, and worked together to easily lift a sub-beam whose thickness was only a quarter of the size of a log.

After placing the two sub-beams in one go, everyone did not rest, but continued to put the thick wooden planks more than four meters long one by one on the three main beams and the long side walls at both ends of the foundation, leaving only There was a gap for them to come in and out.

"The next step is to disassemble the tent and spread it on it." Kan Tan looked at Gale, "I remember you found a lot of nails in the oil drum yesterday?"

"It's in the tent," Gail responded as he walked in the direction of the tent.

"When the time comes to nail the tent cloth to the wooden boards," Kang Tan said expectantly, "Leave this job to me. You go down and dig the accumulated soil and charcoal."

"At least let's spread the tent cloth together first." While Wei Ran was speaking, he had already taken out the Mauser bayonet in the metal book under the cover of the Soviet cloak on his body.

Roughly cut off the canvas on the two facades of the tent with a knife, everyone worked together to spread it on the wooden boards, and then pressed it with nails and some large and small stones, and finally covered it with a layer of cleaning. Litter of dead branches from a brown bear nest.

After all the work was done, everyone carried a bundle of dead branches or firewood each, and impatiently slipped in through the reserved gap.

"It's really short inside," Dorian bent over and commented, "and it's even darker than the outside."

Indeed, as he complained, after adding the wooden beams and boards above the head, in the basement that still has a lot of earth and charcoal, there is only less than 1.5 meters of room for them to move around.

As for the area, it is not much larger than the original bear cave.But fortunately, they finally don't have to worry about being buried alive in the snow.

"As long as we clean up the rubbish, it will be spacious soon."

While Gail was speaking, he had already thrown the dead branches in his hand into the oil drum found yesterday. As for the things found in the oil drum, they had already been cleaned out and placed in the sled drawer outside.

"I remember a few bottles of wine in that metal case in the trailer"

Taking advantage of Gail's time to light the bonfire, Wei Ran suggested, "And we also have a chef, so how about opening a bottle of wine to celebrate?"

Kang Tan, who also couldn't stand up straight, touched the wooden beam above his head, "It is indeed a moment worth celebrating."

"give it to me!"

Gale, who had already lit the bonfire, threw some thicker firewood into the barrel, "When the soil around this oil barrel melts, we'll move it to the corner and get you some delicious food."

"Before that, we at least have to clear out a place where we can stand upright."

Before Kang Tan could finish his sentence, he picked up a pickaxe and struck it hard on the frozen soil.

"I'll help you too." Dorian immediately picked up the second pickaxe and struck the soil in another area vigorously.

"Is this the third day?" Gail asked abruptly.

Kang Tan paused, swung the pickaxe again, and at the same time replied vaguely, "the fourth day."

"I don't know if Quentin escaped." Gail sighed and picked up a pickaxe.

Seeing this, Wei Ran sighed, but he didn't say anything after all, just picked up the pickaxe as well.

Amidst the sound of clanging and knocking, large and small pieces of frozen soil and charcoal were cut open, and when the accumulation was almost complete, they were carried outside in canvas bags to cover the canvas and dead branches that had been laid not long ago. .

After working for about an hour, Gail had already pulled out the oil drum from the frozen soil and moved it to the corner. Dorian also turned into a kitchen assistant and moved all the captured food and drink in.

Meanwhile, Wei Ran and Kang Tan were still beating hard on the frozen ground, trying to clear as much space as possible.

"I seem to have dug to the bottom"

While speaking, Wei Ran pulled away the caked frozen soil, exposing the charred wooden floor with ice balls on the bottom.

Dorian stretched his neck and took a look, "I'm getting more and more curious about what happened here in the first place."

"In the future, some people will be curious about what happened here," Wei Ran muttered to himself, changed his position and continued to swing his pickaxe.

At the same time, Gail had already put a large piece of bear fat on a leftover wooden board, cut it into small pieces, mixed it with a small piece of snowball, and threw it into the lunch box and placed it on the lid of the red-hot oil drum. superior.

"I think we still need to get a chimney," Gail said with a frown, "otherwise it would be too choking."

"After we clean up the rubbish, we can build a fireplace at the entrance and exit."

Dorian, who was cutting potatoes on another board, said, "You can leave this kind of work to me. When I was in the country, I used to go to the city to help the rich people clean the fireplace."

"Have you ever done this kind of work?" Gail asked curiously.

"I've been doing this kind of work since I was 10 years old"

Dorian said somewhat proudly, "In our place, the work of cleaning the chimney of the fireplace is usually done by children, because their bodies are small enough that they won't get stuck in the chimney, and they don't have to worry about the chimney being too heavy. Bad."

"It sounds very hard." Gail frowned and said, he didn't dislike it, he was just choked.

"It's really hard work, but you can actually find a lot of interesting things."

Dorian said with a seasoned look, "Those rich people always put some inconspicuous but valuable little things around the fireplace, I just stole two silver wine glasses and a broken pocket watch, oh , and there seems to be a silver table knife. Besides, eggs and young birds are often found in chimneys, and those things can also be sold."

"Have you ever stolen something?" Gail asked in surprise.

"We only steal things that are dirty and obviously forgotten by the owner." Dorian spread his hands, "There must always be a way for the poor to survive, right?"

"It would be great if those Germans thought the same way," muttered Kang Tan, who had been digging hard.

"In their eyes, we probably don't even count as human beings. I really don't understand how Quentin, who had many friends who were German chefs before, suddenly became what he is now."

While Gail was speaking, he also began to use a spoon to turn over the bear fat grains in the lunch box, and patiently boiled out the fat. When the whole basement illuminated by the fire was filled with a tempting aroma, he threw in a handful of green bear fat. of pine needles.But for his previous doubts, the other three people in the underground shelter couldn't give a reasonable explanation.

In the silence of the crowd, the scent of pine trees was added to the fragrance. Gail carefully poured the hot bear oil in the lunch box into a tin tin box that had been cleaned with snow, and then put a canister full of it into it. The twigs of pine needles, "I boiled some bear fat, and after cooling down, everyone used it to smear the chilblains on their bodies. As long as they persisted for a week, they would get better soon. We used to do this in winter .”

"You should have gotten some of this sooner," Dorian said, blowing his nose.

"Before we were all outside, even if it was painted, it was useless."

While Gail was speaking, he had already placed several other lunch boxes on the burning red bucket lid. "When we get this cleaned up and it warms up, I can still make some bread out of that flour, for God's sake, just thinking about the smell of that baked bread makes my mouth water."

"If bread can be eaten here often, I think we don't even need to go to the Soviet Union." Dorian swallowed his saliva and expressed his inner thoughts. "Of course, the premise is that the Germans will not find this place."

"We don't have much flour." While Gail muttered, he had already thrown the chopped onions into the lunch box.

"What do you think?" Kang Tan asked Wei Ran, who had been silent all this time.

"I don't have any ideas." Wei Ran didn't stop his movements at all, "as long as you don't get caught by the Germans or Finns."

Kang Tan shook his head imperceptibly, but didn't say anything more, obviously he also had his own thoughts.After getting along these few days, Wei Ran gradually saw the difference between these three people.

Dorian is the youngest among them, but at the age of sixteen or seventeen, he has no opinions and no worries. It seems that as long as he has food and clothes, he will always look cheerful.

Kang Tan, who is nearly half a century old, is obviously more stable and assertive, but perhaps it is the maturity and a little sense of responsibility from the middle-aged people that make him take the survival of the others as his main and only goal .

As for Gail, this 25-year-old young man has the heaviest burden in his heart. Quentin who lured away the enemy, and the lying half-track, these guilt that he shouldn't have to bear have always made his heart Hiding a deep sense of guilt.

It was precisely because of that guilt that he couldn't feel at ease at all. He just wanted to do as much as possible. Whenever he was free, he was debating whether to get Quentin back.

Wei Ran, who is a bystander, can clearly feel these emotions and thoughts.But he also knew that these three people would eventually stay in this basement forever.

Will they get out of here if I tell them the truth?
Wei Ran was taken aback by the thought that popped into his head, but then he shook his head secretly.Not to mention whether the three of them will believe it, but even if they leave here, where can they go?

In this polar night, which lasts for an unknown amount of time, it is a blessing to find such an abandoned basement that can provide warmth, and the brown bear that is enough for them to eat for a long time. The warmth and comfort will be gone with the cold wind howling outside.

Sighing silently, Wei Ran dispelled the thoughts that just came out of his brain.The experience of so many wandering around the battlefields of World War II has already made him clearly know that he is only a bystander of historical events after all. No matter what he does, there is no way to change the history that has happened. What he can do is only He just wanted to record as many things as he could, but the small shelter and dim brightness made it impossible for him to even take a photo.

(End of this chapter)