War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 587 The First Notch

"If Lao Tzu's anti-tank gun is here, even the bunker will be pulled out for you!"

Inside the trench, Wei Ran resentfully withdrew the Mosin Nagant rifle in his hand, but finally did not fire the unsure bullet.

Compared to a hasty shot to try, this temporarily concealed position is more precious.Therefore, if you are not sure enough, not shooting is the best choice, and this is also one of the most important things he learned in the firearms course at Hongqi Forest Farm.

Obviously, this hidden location is not like the place where Chen Qi met just now, because it is less than 200 meters away from the Americans, it has attracted too much attention.

But if he returns to the position just now, even if he is sure to hit the enemy within 200 meters with the machine sight, he is not sure that he can achieve the requirement of 20 kills before being killed by the Americans.

Holding the gun and leaning against the trench, Wei Ran slowly sat down, thinking secretly about how to complete the return mission.

It is obviously unrealistic to cram to practice marksmanship temporarily. The broken book gave me a total of 15 days, and there were only 35 rounds of bullets in the ammunition bag on my body.Even Baobuqi included a prisoner capture operation. If I really had to practice my marksmanship, I am afraid that the signing at the door shop had already ended.

"Since the enemy from 300 meters away can't be hit, let's hit 200 meters away, and if you can't hit 200 meters, hit 100 meters away!" Wei Ran gritted his teeth and made his own decision.

Looking up at the setting sun that was about to be completely blocked, he first used soil and stones to block the shooting holes he just dug, and then took off his shirt and put it on again.

The cat stooped and observed carefully along the trench, and Wei Ran had a general understanding of the current situation.

To put it simply, the two sides each occupy a small highland, which is not considered prominent, and are in a stalemate stage with a straight-line distance of about 300 meters between them.The Americans wanted to take positions on the Volunteer side and vice versa.But no matter what the terrain, neither side can do anything to the other.

Of course, the U.S. military is frequently bombarded by planes, artillery and tanks, but at the same time it has also restrained a large number of troops.And the cold guns of the volunteers rang out every now and then, and their lethality seemed to be no less than that of the aircraft cannons.

In addition, he also noticed some valuable clues. At the foot of the mountain in the other direction, less than 200 meters away from the American position, there were a few Pershing or Shermans scattered here and there. The wreckage of the tank, and less than 50 meters behind those wreckages, is the barbed wire fence arranged by the US military, and a hundred meters behind the barbed wire fence is the American position.

In other words, if he can touch the wreckage of those tanks, he may have a chance to complete the return mission of killing 20 people.

But correspondingly, once the Americans find themselves hiding there, they may immediately be attacked by artillery or even aircraft.

He even had no doubt that in the small squares in the hands of the artillery observers on both sides, those tank wreckages might have already been marked with detailed coordinate data.

However, as the saying goes, if you want to complete the return mission, the vicinity of the wreckage is obviously the best hiding place, and it is currently his only choice.

Returning to the place where he just met Chen Qi, Wei Ran picked up two tattered pieces of sacks and a piece of wire about two fingers thick and thick as a toothpick after searching for a while, got up and walked towards the back.

Finding a piece of wild grass that no one cares about, Wei Ran pulled out some dead branches, shrubs and weeds under the dark sky, and used the wire as a crochet hook, pinning them irregularly on the two sides that were cut by the bayonet. on a sack sheet.

Roughly got two auspicious suits that looked good, and Wei Ran, who had already made up his mind, returned to the position where he planned to shoot not long ago in the dark alone, and sat there The engineer shoveled it up, took out the compass and watch from the metal book, stared at the pointer that was beating at a constant speed, and waited patiently.

A full three and a half hours had passed, and it was not until the night sky filled with stars appeared that he put away his fluorescent compass and wristwatch, grabbed his engineering shovel and carefully climbed out of the trench.

Under the scanning of the flares and high-power searchlights that rose from the opponent's position from time to time, Wei Ran carefully climbed forward for a distance of [-] meters under the cover of bushes, and finally stopped behind a mound the size of a grave bag.

He ventured to look at the US military position on the opposite side. After a short pause, he turned his direction, continued to climb diagonally, and finally stopped at the edge of the barbed wire.

It is only a maximum of a hundred meters away from the opposite trench. Occasionally, you can even hear some indistinct sounds and vague conversations from the Americans in the trench. Even the searchlights will come from your body from time to time. sweep.

Pausing for a while, and waiting for the searchlight to shine into the distance, Wei Ran continued to crawl sideways, patiently looking for the gaps in the barbed wire, and at the same time kept a distance of more than two meters from the barbed wire so as not to disturb the cans hanging on it.

Hard work paid off, and after nearly an hour of continuous crawling, he finally found the American observation post.

This slanted trench is less than 10 meters away from the barbed wire fence, and the wreckage of a tank is parked in front of it, and the barbed wire fence is also in front of the tank wreckage.But as long as he got close, he could hear the faint conversation behind the tank, and even smell the smoke wafting over.

Taking a more careful step back for a certain distance, Wei Ran walked around this hidden observation post and crawled back decisively.And finally stopped near the wreckage of a Pershing tank only about 100 meters away from the American observation post.

This Pershing tank seems to have been martyred by the ammunition rack. Not only was the turret blown off, but the load wheels on both sides were also short, and the interior was in a mess. The stench of corpses that have been there.

However, fortunately, the overall frame of this tank is still there, and the armor of the front of the vehicle remains intact. Most importantly, there seems to be a lot of space under its chassis.

"It's here"

Wei Ran muttered to himself, and carefully walked around to the front of the car, wielding his engineering shovel to dig up the soft soil that had been blown up, and took out a hole the size of a washbasin.

Difficult to get into the gap under the chassis, Wei Ran did not forget to restore the hole just dug to its original state, and then began to dig unscrupulously. While expanding the hiding space, he also piled the excavated soil on both sides Position near the road wheels for reinforcement and shelter.

During his busy work all night, the space under the chassis of the wrecked tank gradually increased, and outside, even in the middle of the night, the cold guns still did not stop. From time to time, there was a clear sound from the direction of the volunteer army's position On the other side of the US military position, either the searchlight was blown out, or the skull of a smoking idiot was lifted.

Even if nothing was hit, the unexpected gunshots would make the Americans nervously fire flares one after another, or seduce the conspicuous muzzle flames of the machine guns hiding in the bunkers, and then attract Come and hit the shooter's bullet.

When these harassing tactics were exhausted, at about four o'clock in the morning, Wei Ran even heard the loud and clear charge and the shouts like a mountain roar and a tsunami!

Just as he nervously poked his head out from the front of the tank facing the Volunteers, the American positions were like fireworks, firing one after another free flares, and even Before the flares landed, the American artillery was launched.

However, whether it was the Americans or Wei Ran, who was almost hiding in the middle of the battlefield, after they had waited for more than ten minutes, except for being dazzled by the flares, there was no movement at all on the volunteers' positions. The gunners all died down without firing a single bullet or shell.

"Why don't you have a nervous breakdown for a few days in a row?"

Realizing that he had been fooled, Wei Ran laughed dumbfoundingly at the American friends on the opposite side, silently retreated back under the tank chassis, and continued to wave the engineer shovel to quietly expand the space for hiding.

He stopped what he was doing when the sky turned white from the observation hole he had left on purpose. At this moment, even if he squatted up, there was still a punch between the top of his head and the chassis of the tank. distance.

Shaking his red hands, Wei Ran finally took a look outside, then took off the camouflage sack on his body and spread it near the shooting hole, then lay on it to take a breath, and groped to untie the sack hanging on his shoulders. dry food bag.

This long dry food bag contains fried noodles. Of course, this fried noodles is not the kind of paper box on the snack street in later generations. It costs five yuan or eight yuan a piece. It tastes pretty good. It is just flour. , It is not even wheat flour, but soybeans and sorghum are ground into flour, salt is added, and finally the pale yellow powdery dry food is heated and fried in a pan.

In future generations, this kind of thing feels similar to soy milk powder. If it is bought by Internet celebrities, add some sugar substitute and dried fruit, wash it with water and stir it, it may be a lot of beauty-loving girls. One of the alternative coarse grains for weight loss.

But in fact, after Wei Ran tried to squeeze out a ball and put it in his mouth, he found that the food was far less delicious than he thought.

Although salt is added to this powdered dry food, it is only salt, and I don't know if it is because of the long-term hanging on the body, the slightly salty taste has a little earthy smell and the undeniable smell of sweat.Most importantly, because it is too dry, this thing sticks to the throat.

Difficult to soak the pinch of powder in his mouth with saliva, Wei Ran chewed a couple of mouthfuls, and finally had to unscrew the water bottle and take a sip of water before sending it down.

Sighing silently, he placed the dry food bag on the wet ground, hoping that after the moisture seeped in, the powdered dry food would not taste so sticky to the throat.But at the same time, he also knew that this slightly salty dry food was already considered good, at least much better than eating raw corn and raw potatoes.

After a short rest, Wei Ran turned around and lay down behind the fist-sized shooting hole, patiently looking at the US military's position.A little bit of memory of the terrain everywhere.Even after making sure that no one found him, he simply blocked the observation hole, closed his eyes and began to catch up on sleep with peace of mind.

He was waiting, when the bunker he dug out completely integrated with the surrounding environment over time, it was the time for him to start hunting.

Near noon, the sound of rumbling guns and the roar of planes sounded again. Wei Ran, who was awakened, curled up and carefully poked open an observation hole the size of a ping-pong ball with the wooden handle of an engineer shovel.

Until the gunfire stopped, until the gunfire sounded, and until the roar of the aircraft engine completely disappeared, an uncontrollable smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.Apparently, at least the Americans didn't catch their little tricks under their noses.

Blocking the observation hole again, during the long wait, night fell again, Wei Ran, who was still hiding in the bunker, patiently squeezed a ball of damp fried noodles into his mouth and took a bite.

The taste is still not delicious, and it is even more unpalatable because of the return of moisture, but at least it is not as sticky as eating dry flour, and the flour can be sprayed out when you take a breath.

Not daring to eat more, he poured a sip of water into his mouth miserly, took out the watch fixed with the compass in the metal book, then turned over carefully, and through the holes on the chassis above his head, Watching the starry night sky kill time.

When the time came to around one o'clock in the morning, a clear gunshot broke the silence, and the searchlights on the American positions suddenly exploded.

Immediately afterwards, noisy gunshots sounded from all over the trench line of the US military, and the eye-catching muzzle flames swayed unscrupulously left and right as if they were afraid that others would not know their position.

Within a few seconds, one flare after another rose into the night sky. However, there was still no movement in the position behind Wei Ran.Apparently, like last night, it's a clear no-holds-barred GI to get a good night's sleep.

After more than half an hour of quarreling, the American position finally quieted down, and the blind searchlights were turned on again, but not long after, with a gunshot, the searchlights went out again.

After going back and forth like this for most of the night, almost at dawn, the roar of aircraft engines came from behind the trenches of the US military positions.

Wei Ran, who had been awakened for a long time, carefully pulled out a fist-sized observation hole. As far as his eyes could see, there were many gunscopes, telescopes, and some other things that looked like snail tentacles in the trenches behind the barbed wire. A bold American soldier with his upper body sticking out.

"It's time to go to work"

While Wei Ran muttered to himself, he loaded the Mosin Nagant rifle with a "click".He has been waiting here for two days, and now waiting any longer is pure idle work.

Carefully placing the muzzle of the gun on the sack sheet a little inside the edge of the shooting hole, Wei Ran moved his body slowly, and finally caught a prey with a cigar in its mouth with the front sight.

Although the distance between the two sides is less than 200 meters, the prey will still be completely blocked by the front sight, but at this time the shells fired from behind the US military positions and the planes overhead provide him with additional cover, so even if he hits If not, there is a high probability that no one will notice him.

Holding his breath and concentrating, Wei Ran took a deep breath and let it out slowly. At the same time, the finger on the trigger also gradually increased the force.

"boom!"

After a gunshot that was almost completely covered by the sound of artillery, he immediately withdrew the rifle in his hand. At the same time, Wei Ran also saw that the man who was still smoking a cigar just now had fallen back into the trench on his back.

“Great opening, the first one”

Wei Ran took out the Mauser bayonet from the metal book, and made a notch on the butt of the gun.

(End of this chapter)