War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 538 The Hypothesis Behind the Jeep (Two in One)

Under the leadership of Saleh, the three vehicles circled around the stone mountain that was only 50 meters high in front of the field of vision.

When the car was parked in the shadow on the northwest side of this stone mountain, as far as the eye could see, apart from a few trees of unknown species, there were also a lot of desert plants and a small area of ​​artificial vegetation sparsely growing on the ground. Planted watermelons.

Near the foot of the mountain, the most conspicuous things are some simple stone houses, a herd of goats and camels, and he even saw a few fennec foxes that were apparently kept as pets circling the tall and thin Salukis have fun.

And, of course, there is a well in the middle of these houses, and around it, nomads in gray robes with AKs and even bazookas in their hands.

Under Wei Ranlue's nervous gaze, Saleh was the first to push open the door of the off-road vehicle, took off his hat and sunglasses, and enthusiastically waved to the Berbers who were on guard.

Obviously, both sides are very familiar with each other. After seeing Saleh, those Berbers immediately raised their weapons and cheered.

"Soliman, do all the Berbers in the desert have a weapon?" Wei Ran, who had also opened the car door, asked the young man who had just jumped out of the truck.

"of course not"

Soliman called Wei Ran to help unload a plastic basket full of Coke and two large boxes of bullets from the cargo bed of the truck, and then moved down five or six bags of flour. Then he explained with a smile, "This tribe is Special case."

"Tell me in detail?"

"sure"

Soliman yelled a short word in Arabic that Wei Ran could not understand, and then two Berbers in robes ran over with AK rifles on their backs, and happily took over the chair they had just moved down. supplies.

Until this time, Soliman explained, "This is very close to the border. When my father and I were doing smuggling business, we always brought goods here, and these Berber camels were used to transport them to Libya. Of course , this place is occasionally used as a warehouse by us."

"Rely on them?"

Wei Ran looked at those happy Berbers again. These Berbers seemed to have less than 50 people at most, but there were at least sixty or seventy camels.

"Don't underestimate them." Soliman said seriously, "They are the real masters of this desert."

"These people have been living here?" Wei Ran asked as he followed the other party to the center of the tribe.

"of course not"

Soliman only answered the question superficially, but did not intend to explain it in depth. Obviously, this should be the "commercial secret" of their smuggling business.

Seeing this, Wei Ran stopped asking questions in this regard, and while helping Mr. Edward get off the off-road vehicle, he also changed the subject, "Where's the jeep you mentioned just now?"

"Don't worry, you'll see it soon."

Soliman gave it away with a smile, and led Wei Ran and Edward with a novel face to catch up with Saleh who was walking in the front.

Surrounded by those Berbers, the crowd walked into an open space surrounded by muslin cloth.

Obviously, this is the "reception room" of this tribe. Although there is still soft sand under the feet, the surrounding tulle and the sky above the head block the fine sand blown by the wind.

Due to the shelter of the mountain, it is obviously cooler here, but the Berbers around are more enthusiastic than the sun in the sky.

Soon, several young Berbers brought the slaughtered watermelons on stainless steel trays, and outside the gauze wall, which could not block the view at all, several Berbers had already started killing sheep.

Although I couldn't understand what Saleh was talking about with the Berber tribal leader, it didn't delay Wei Ran and Edward from eating watermelon, let alone a few cute fennec foxes with big ears. The wet nose leaned over, waiting to eat the watermelon rind.

Taking a bite of the watermelon flesh that was so sweet that it almost choked his throat, Wei Ran spat it in his palm, and tried to pass it to a more courageous fennec fox, but he didn't think that this little thing smaller than a cat didn't know it was the eyes. No, I still have a good appetite, so I bit his shoelace and began to pull it waggingly.

After feeding the watermelon pulp in his palm to another fennec fox that looked smarter, Wei Ran turned to Soliman, who was also teasing the small animals beside him, and asked, "Why don't we go and see that jeep?"

Soliman looked up and looked around, picked up a corner of watermelon and stood up, "Okay, I'll take you to have a look."

"Mr. Edward, do you want to go and have a look together? There is a jeep from World War II here."

"During World War II?"

Edward immediately dropped the watermelon rind in his hand, "Of course! Victor, is this the investigation clue you found?"

"Maybe so"

Wei Ran gave an ambiguous answer, got up and followed Soliman out of the drafty "reception room".

Led by Soliman, the group of three walked to the well in the middle of the stone houses.

It was only at this time that Wei Ran noticed that there was a Willys Jeep chassis frame at a 45-degree angle on the edge of the well with a diameter of nearly two meters!
And beside the well, there is still half a 200-liter oil drum obviously used to fetch water.But what is even more exaggerated is that after the wire rope tied to the oil drum passed through the tow hook ring on the front of the chassis, the other end was tied to a dirty camel not far away.

On the edge of the well, there is even a sink hewn out of stone with a volume comparable to a bathtub.

"Want to take a bath?" Soliman asked abruptly.

Before Wei Ran could respond, he had already thrown the half oil barrel into the well.

Accompanied by a "crash", amidst the splashing water at the bottom of the well, the camel that was lying on the sand also stood up, spitting and cursing.

Soliman swayed the wire rope hanging in the well from side to side, and when the rusty oil barrel at the bottom of the well was filled with water, he immediately slapped the camel's butt lightly.

Under the tug of the camel, the wire rope gradually straightened, and then the oil drum filled with water at the bottom of the well was easily lifted up.

With a sound of "crash", the cool well water flowed accurately into the stone tank beside the well as Soliman shook the wire rope again.The camel also walked back with a "slap-pat-pat".

After feeding the camel the watermelon rind in his hand, Soliman washed his hands in the stone trough before asking, "Do you see it?"

"The chassis frame of Willys Jeep." Wei Ran shook his head helplessly, then asked, "What about the other things?"

"over there"

Soliman wiped his hands on the shorts indiscriminately, led Wei Ran and Edward to continue walking, and finally stopped under a date palm tree.

Under the shadow of this tree, Wei Ran finally saw the hull of the Willys Jeep.Although the hood of this car is gone, and the paint on the body is already mottled, but even so, it still has something to attract attention.

Behind the middle of the driver and co-pilot, on the rusty car bracket, there is still a dual-mounted Vickers K-type machine gun, and even the 100-round capacity magazines on these two machine guns are still there.

When the three of them arrived here, there were a few children playing simulated driving and firing machine guns in the car shell.

Although this children's game is too childish in the eyes of the three "from the big city" adults, one can tell from their skillful disassembly and assembly of the flippers that this "entertainment facility" probably existed with them when they grew up .

Compared with this eye-catching World War II weapon, Wei Ran squatted at the front of the car, reached out and dug up the yellow sand that almost buried the front radiator grille.

As expected, three radiator grilles on the left side of the front of the car have been removed. Although the right side is intact, there are a pair of metal brackets on the edge.

There is no doubt that this bracket is used to install an external water cooler, but after such a long time, the water cooler has undoubtedly been removed and used for other purposes.

Turning around the car shell, Wei Ran even took down one of the children wearing a light blue robe, and carefully inspected the two Vickers K-type machine guns.

"Victor, what are you looking for?" Edward, who was standing aside, asked curiously.

"Production Date"

Wei Ran scratched the branding on the machine gun with his fingernails, "The gun is a product from 1940, but unfortunately this jeep has been dismantled too much, otherwise we might be able to find more valuable clues."

"You think it has something to do with my grandfather?" Edward pressed.

"Who knows?"

Wei Ran reloaded the empty magazines on the two machine guns, stepped away from the car shell half-buried in the yellow sand, and put the kid under the armpit of the boy just now, and put him back to the machine gunner just now. Then he explained slowly and casually, "This is not close to the front line of the Mediterranean battlefield, but this car is undoubtedly the equipment of the British army at that time, so it is hard to say whether it has anything to do with your grandfather's matter. However, this car The presence of the Jeep itself here speaks volumes."

"What's the problem?" Edward continued to ask, and at the same time, he took out a metal tube from his pocket, took out the cigar inside, and then took out a cigar cutter.

"At that time, this was not the main battlefield, which meant that the main British troops would not come here."

Wei Ran waved his hand and politely rejected the cigar offered by the other party, standing under the shade of the tree and continued, "The only ones I can think of who can be sent here are the British L team."

"Team L?" Edward put his cigar in his mouth and asked suspiciously, "What is Team L?"

"Have you heard of SAS?" Wei Ran asked Edward.

"Of course I have"

Edward said nonchalantly while lighting the cypress stick in his hand with a lighter, "Mr. Matt who is always by Charlotte's side once served in that army."

"Mr. Matt is from SAS?" Wei Ran asked in surprise.

"Once upon a time, only once."

Edward corrected while lighting his cigar, "He retired a few years ago due to rheumatism, and has been working for Mr. Charlotte since then. Victor, go ahead and talk about your guess."

Does Charlotte still need bodyguards?His worth seems to be.
Wei Ran suppressed the doubts in his heart, and continued the train of thought just now, "Whether it's the L team or the SAS, they couldn't have come here for vacation on the North African battlefield at that time, right?"

Edward couldn't help smiling, and joked, "Even if they want to take a vacation, they won't come to this kind of place."

Spreading his hands, Wei Ran said with almost certainty, "Therefore, there must be a military target worthy of their dispatch here, or near here."

"What military target?" Edward, who had already caught up with the train of thought, asked again like a shameless outreacher.

"do not know"

Wei Ran gave the obvious answer with an innocent face, "But at least it has been proved that there must be a WWII German military facility nearby that is worthy of their dispatch, isn't it?"

Speaking of this, Wei Ran raised his hand and pointed in a random direction, "Considering that there is only a straight-line distance of forty or fifty kilometers from the place where your grandfather was captured, we might as well make a few assumptions."

"What hypothesis?" Edward pressed.

"Before anything else, let's assume that the Jeep is directly related to your grandfather."

Wei Ran paused, and then continued, "The first hypothesis is that the British soldiers driving this jeep came here before your grandfather was captured. Mr. Edward, when was your grandfather captured?" captive?"

"September 1941, 9." Edward gave an accurate time without even thinking about it.

"Did you say which British army captured him?" Wei Ran asked, but Edward shook his head in return.

"It doesn't matter which army he was captured by"

Wei Ran kicked the shell of the jeep, "According to my knowledge, the first time that the British L team had a clear record of carrying out special operations missions seemed to be in November 1941.

But unfortunately, I don't know if it was because of Mr. Churchill's blessing, they actually encountered a severe storm in this desert in 30 years. Not only did the combat mission end in failure, they even lost two-thirds of the team at one time.

Although we can't tell whether it was Team L who drove this jeep at that time, we can at least judge from the time when Team L performed special operations missions for the first time. The probability that this jeep came here before your grandfather was captured is not not tall. "

"Since the probability is not high."

"Anyway, it proves that there is a high probability that this car came here after your grandfather was captured." Wei Ran gave a conclusion without waiting for Edward to finish speaking.

Hearing this, Edward shrugged indifferently, "What about other hypotheses?"

"Main premise unchanged"

Wei Ran said with a smile, "The second hypothesis is that this car was abandoned here on the way back to the station by the British soldiers who captured your grandfather."

"Victor, let's get straight to the conclusion." Edward urged.

"At least I haven't seen a description of this place in the work notes left by your grandfather, and obviously, it's also your first time here."

"I see." Edward exhaled a puff of smoke, "so the probability of this hypothesis is not high."

"It's easy to communicate with smart people"

Wei Ran complimented the other party in a perfunctory manner, and said in a relaxed tone, "After excluding the first two hypotheses, the probability that this jeep came here after your grandfather was captured is much higher. .”

"But what does that mean?"

"I remember when we first met, you told me that after being captured, your grandfather spent a year in prison in Cairo? Then suddenly he became an employee of BP?"

"That's true." Edward affirmed Wei Ran's memory.

"Then what price did he pay to leave the prison?" Wei Ran asked abruptly.

"At what price?" Edward was stunned for a moment, then immediately replied, "My grandfather never mentioned the price he paid."

The old thing is lying!

After making a judgment based on the other party's tone, facial expression and some small movements, Wei Ran patted the car shell beside him with a normal expression, "Perhaps this military car came for the price you paid for your grandfather. "

"Is this too coincidental?" Edward asked in astonishment.

"Is it a coincidence?"

Wei Ran asked back as he walked back, "Mr. Edward, this place is only [-] to [-] kilometers away from the place where your grandfather was captured. And don't forget, although we are now guests in the Berber tribe, But here is also deep in the desert, within a radius of [-] kilometers, maybe this is the only place where you can see some plants.

In other words if the price your grandfather paid to keep him out of jail and still get a job in the vicinity of where he was captured, the UK that is here for the price your grandfather paid Soldiers, there is a high probability that they will pass by here and stop here, right? "

"What if you assume that this place has nothing to do with what happened to my grandfather?" Edward asked abruptly.

Wei Ran was not in a hurry to answer Edward's question, but turned to look at Soliman who had been following him all the time, "Soliman, do you know when this jeep appeared here?"

"It's been here as long as the patriarch of this tribe can remember."

Soliman pointed to the children who were aiming at their backs with dual-mounted machine guns and continued to speak with a smile, "The guy in our store, Baha, once asked the patriarch who only spoke Berber According to the description of the patriarch, when he was the age of those children, there were still bullets in the machine guns in the car. At that time, they even used the two machine guns to resist the Bedouin who came to grab the territory people."

"How old is that patriarch?" Wei Ran asked.

"I guess it's at least 70 years old?" Soliman replied uncertainly.

"So he should have been born in the years around the end of World War II."

After Wei Ran made a judgment, he translated the conversation between the two of them to Mr. Edward, and then said, "So the topic has come back again. On the whole, even if the person who drove this jeep to come here at that time Nothing to do with your grandfather, then there must have been German military installations nearby worthwhile for the British to send soldiers here."

"Isn't this conclusion already said at the earliest?" Edward reminded impatiently.

"It is true"

Wei Ran nodded, but asked abruptly, "Then Mr. Edward, do you think it is possible that your grandfather was captured on the way to the German military facility that could attract the British? Or, he himself Is it the staff in that military base?"

At the same time Wei Ran made this guess, Edward's eyebrows trembled visibly. Immediately afterwards, the old man concealed his inner activities by smoking a cigar, and continued to say in an impatient tone, "Okay Victor, I paid you to find out what happened to my grandfather and where his colleagues went. You just need to give me a satisfactory answer as soon as possible."

"Of course, I will give you an answer as soon as possible."

Watching Edward who quickened his pace, Wei Ran also had a gentle smile on his face. His assumption just now was not to fool Mr. Edward.

After all, there is only a straight-line distance of 40 kilometers.In his opinion, any World War II military equipment that appeared around here might be inextricably linked to Edward's grandfather.

With this in mind, Wei Ran turned to look at Soliman, and asked in Russian, "Soliman, are there any military facilities or military equipment abandoned during World War II nearby?"

"How much range are you talking about?" Soliman asked back.

"Let me think about it. One hundred. No, one hundred and fifty kilometers." Wei Ran looked at the hot sun above his head, pointed to the southwest direction and said, "West, south, and 150 kilometers between these two directions km area."

"I'm afraid we'll have to ask the chief of the tribe."

Soliman spread his hands, "Our smuggling business is as far as here. The rest of the road is basically completed by those Berber camels. They are more familiar with the surrounding environment than us."

"So Mr. Saleh didn't just come here to rest, did he?" Wei Ran asked abruptly.

Soliman smiled and nodded frankly, "Of course, we need a guide who is familiar with the surrounding desert."

No wonder.
Wei Ran nodded secretly. When he was on the road, he wondered why Saleh came here in a small circle, but now he can explain it clearly.

Changing the subject casually, Wei Ran and Soliman followed Edward, and slowly returned to the "reception room" surrounded by tulle walls in the shadow of the mountain.

Sitting again in the seat he had just sat in, Wei Ran picked up a particularly enthusiastic fennec fox, and while plucking its oversized ears, he chatted with Edward about topics that had nothing to do with his grandfather.

And Soliman also came to Saleh's side, whispered something close to his ear, and then walked back and sat on the other side of Wei Ran, and also picked up a fennec fox on his lap to help it relax. Gently scratching the soft belly.

During the somewhat boring wait, a few Berbers in black turbans brought roasted scorched mutton and a steaming pottery tajine pot, and then brought some flatbread-like pancakes. Pasta, and a few plates of things similar to hand-caught mutton rice were distributed to everyone.

“Eat whatever you want, authentic Berber food that you can’t find in Cairo.”

Saleh, who had been chatting with the tribal chief just now, greeted, "After filling our stomachs, we will simply rest here for a while before we start."

"Do you want to continue wasting time here?" Edward asked subconsciously.

“It's not a waste of time”

Wei Ran, who was wiping his hands with a wet tissue, answered the question for Saleh, "We can sleep here so that we can be more refreshed in the afternoon."

"Take a nap?" Edward was taken aback, "I don't have the habit of sleeping at noon."

"You can experience it"

While speaking, Wei Ran had already picked up a piece of grilled and burnt lamb chops and threw it to the little foxes running around to fight for it, and then he actually took out a pair of lamb chops from his own bag, which were packed in a bamboo wooden box. With chopsticks, he picked up the big plate of things that looked like hand-picked rice and pulled it into his mouth.

His operation of "urban people" directly stared at the Berbers around who were pinching rice with their hands and delivering it to their mouths, and Soliman who was also pinching barley rice balls with his hands and delivering them to his mouth .

"Lend me a spoon"

Soliman reacted quickly and sucked his greasy fingers, and unceremoniously picked up the small stainless steel spoon in the exquisite box beside Wei Ran.

"Can you lend me that fork?" Edward said as he took the last tableware left in the box.

"Isn't there a spoon in that pot?"

Wei Ran muttered something vaguely, stretched out his chopsticks and accurately picked up a large mouthful of fresh and tender mutton from the hot tajine pot and put it into his mouth.

　Try to see if you can add updates, no guarantees, don't wait.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)