War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 597 Act Three, Crossing the River
"Crack!"

With the crisp shutter sound, the images of Zhao Shengli and others holding American carbines were frozen on the silver salt film.

Before Wei Ran could leave the viewfinder frame of the Rollei SLR, his vision was already filled with intense white light.

"There must be a third act."

As Wei Ran muttered to himself, the white light gradually faded, and the surrounding scene turned into a hotel room.

Subconsciously looking at the metal notebook, as expected, the metal quill had already hung on the page, leaving a few lines of blood-red writing:
Act Three

Character identity: Assault Platoon Squad [-] soldier Wei Ran

Returning Mission: Capture the Enemy Command Post
Skill task: Survive to cross the river successfully

Language task: kill at least three enemy soldiers with cold weapons
Capture the enemy command post?And skills and language tasks?

Wei Ran regained his spirit immediately and let the white light that appeared again sweep over.Immediately afterwards, a few pitiful items flew past in front of my eyes.

"Mauser bayonet, flagon, bearskin mittens I got from working with French POWs in Finland last time? That's it?"

Amid Wei Ran's dissatisfied murmurs, he only felt that the surrounding temperature was getting lower and lower, and the howling of the cold wind in his ears became more and more clear.

When the field of vision returned to normal, Wei Ran couldn't help taking a deep breath.

As far as the eye could see, it was covered with white snow, and at most about 500 meters in front of it was a river that seemed to be unfrozen and where it would flow.

"Is that the river that can't cross?"

Wei Ran swallowed hard, and then shivered involuntarily.Although it is a little far away, it can still be seen clearly. The river surface with a little white mist is tens of meters wide. Although the exposed river embankment can roughly guess that it is in a dry season, the water should not It would be too deep, but if you look around, there is no bridge in sight!

Looking left and right, there are volunteer soldiers lying on the ice and snow on the cold snow, wearing padded jackets backwards, with a white cloth strip tied to their right arm, and white sheets on their bodies.Some of them had gray-yellow scarves around their faces, some were kneading fried noodles and snow into balls and stuffing them into their mouths, and some were cleaning the snow and ice from their weapons.

He himself is no different from the people around him, with a white cloth strip tied on his right arm for identifying friend or foe, an American M1 carbine lying across his chest, white cloth strips wrapped around his front body, and a pair of slightly revealing white cloth strips on his hands. Cotton hand gloves, except that they are made of cotton and cotton cloth, are no different from the pair of animal skin mittens in the metal book. They also separate the right index finger to meet the needs of pulling the trigger.

Just as he was about to see if he had any other equipment on him, the roar of an engine came from the sky.

"Hidden!" In the direction behind him, an unknown person yelled softly.

In an instant, no matter whether they were eating or cleaning weapons, they all put their faces on the thick and cold snow, trying to blend in with the surrounding environment as much as possible.

A moment later, three U.S. military planes slid past at low altitude with the utmost arrogance.Wei Ran, who turned his face slightly, could even see the figure in the cockpit of the plane at that moment.

Once, twice, three times, the U.S. military planes above the head flew around like flies in heat, and from time to time, they even shot randomly towards the sides of the river a few times.

After tossing about ten minutes, the three planes finally left at an elevated angle, and finally disappeared completely within the range of sight and hearing.

It wasn't until this time that Wei Ran looked to the left and right. On his right was a soldier whose eyebrows and eyelashes were covered with frost.

The soldier was wrapped in a thick scarf, only showing a pair of eyes looking straight ahead vigilantly.In his left hand, he tightly held a bugle wrapped in white cloth strips, and the words "Xia Chuan" were written on the side of his hand.

But his right hand is stuffy, just like Wei Ran's, the cotton has been exposed, and even Wei Ran can see his knuckles clearly through the cotton.

After hesitating for a moment, Wei Ran took off the mitten on his right hand, pretended to put his hand inside the cotton-padded jacket as a cover, took out the pair of bearskin mittens from the metal book, and handed it over silently.

The soldier suspected to be called "Xia Chuan" turned his head and looked at the mittens handed over by Wei Ran, his face was already full of surprise.

"Take it and use it," Wei Ran said in a low voice, "I wear it a bit small, and it's a burden to keep it."

Hearing this, the soldier nodded, took the thick bearskin gloves and put them on his hands, trembling and whispering, "It's really warm!"

"Give it to you, you have to blow the bright spot when you charge." Wei Ran said in a low voice.

"Specify loud!" The little soldier involuntarily buried his face in his handbags while speaking, and then covered his ears with these thick handbags.

Seeing this, Wei Ran looked to the right, less than one meter away, a soldier with thick brows and big eyes, a Chinese character face covered with frostbite sniffled, and slowly took off his thick hands, He patted the snow in front of him, poured out a small pile of fried noodles from the dry food bag, grabbed a handful of snow from his side as if playing a house, and carefully stirred it with the light yellow fried noodles, then squeezed it hard It became small groups with palm prints remaining.

And on his palm, there was also a name written in black handwriting——Shen Shen.

Seeing that Wei Ran was looking at him all the time, this soldier who seemed to be called Shen Shen handed the fried rice dough he had just grasped to Wei Ran, "Take a bite?"

"Thank you." Wei Ran quickly took off his handbags, took the fried dough handed by the other party and stuffed it into his mouth.

One bite, the coldness, dryness, and subsequent sticky texture gave him the illusion that he was mixing winter sand, cement, and cold water with his mouth.

After eating the fried noodles mixed with snow, Wei Ran didn't taste anything at all, but felt a cold air spreading from his mouth all the way to his stomach.

The soldier with the square face smiled, pulled off the frosted scarf, stuffed the two doughs he had just grasped into his mouth, and chewed silently, his piercing eyes also looked at The river in the distance.

Wei Ran looked around and knew that it was not time to talk too much, so he simply lay down obediently and waited patiently.

However, in less than 10 minutes, he felt the chill beneath his body had penetrated the not-so-thick padded clothes, and he couldn't help shivering.

But at this time, thumb-sized snowflakes floated above the head. The heavy snow fell to the ground one after another under the stirring of the cold wind, and rushed into the air again one after another.By the way, it also blocked the volunteer soldiers hiding here.

If you ignore the cold that invades the bone marrow, this is a good layer of camouflage. Let alone the planes passing low above your head, even if the enemy is standing by your side, I am afraid that if you don't pay attention, you will ignore their existence.

But this is just a hypothetical if. The coldness that cannot be ignored even made Wei Ran have the illusion that his legs no longer exist.

Looking up at the dim sky, Wei Ran resisted the urge to take out the wine jug and take a sip to warm himself up.There were only a few taels of white wine in the flagon. Obviously, compared to the current cold, perhaps after crossing the river, those wines would be life-saving treasures!

"Here you are" at this moment, the soldier with a square face next to him handed over a dusty coarse cloth bag.

Subconsciously taking the cloth bag, Wei Ran found that it was filled with dark red dried peppers.

Looking at the Chinese-character face next to him again, the latter took a bite of the dried chili in his hand, and then stuffed the rest into his hand.

Seeing this, Wei Ran also reached out and took out a finger-sized dried pepper from the cloth bag, and then handed the cloth bag to the soldier on the right hand holding the bugle.

Stuffing the pepper into his mouth and biting off a piece the size of a cigarette butt, the spicy taste made him feel like his mouth was on fire.

Heaving a sigh of relief, Wei Ran imitated the Chinese-character face, stuffed the remaining chili into his hands, frowned, and carefully chewed the small piece of dry and hard chili skin in his mouth, even if he was too hot to endure it. Can't stop hiccupping.

Not long after, he felt sweat on his forehead and back, but at the same time, he knew better that this operation was just like drinking to keep warm in a world of ice and snow, it was just a way to quench thirst by drinking poison.

But no matter what, this chili did warm him up somewhat, but his body was shivering from the cold, but there was no way to suppress it!

In this unbearable cold, the time passed by every minute and every second, the snowfall on the top of the head gradually stopped, and at the same time, the sky was completely dark, and only a few outlines of the surrounding terrain could be vaguely seen.

Just at this time, an order came from their side, "Get ready to cross the river! Assault platoon! Go!"

"Class one, go!"

The Chinese character face lying next to Wei Ran yelled, and was the first to jump out of the bunker and rush to the river one kilometer away with a Type 50 submachine gun in his hand.

Wei Ran looked around and saw that the soldiers hidden around had stood up, and immediately followed suit.

After hiding in the ice and snow for several hours, Wei Ran was already completely frozen, especially his feet, he didn't feel any feeling when he stepped on the ground.

He stumbled and ran for a while, and with the movement of his body, he finally felt a little warmth, and at the same time, the soles of his feet felt like pinpricks.

However, as the distance got closer, he finally saw clearly that there was a bridge on the meeting, but the middle of the wooden bridge had been completely blown up, leaving only two ends with barely remnant outlines. .

Before he could see more of the situation, the Chinese-character face at the head rushed directly into the river bed covered with a layer of snow without slowing down!
"Fuck!"

Wei Ran's heart sank, and he wanted to stop subconsciously. In this season, at this temperature, and wearing cotton clothes, he jumped into the river that was about to freeze, even if the river was only waist-deep, he was definitely risking his life!Not to mention, the water surface must be tens of meters wide at least!

Just when he hesitated and slowed down involuntarily, the volunteer soldiers around him passed him silently one by one, and rushed into the icy cold water with the square-faced soldier!

Gritting his teeth, Wei Ran quickened his pace again, following the footsteps of his predecessors and rushed up.

Almost as soon as he stepped into the cool river with one leg, Wei Ran felt an unbearable chill instantly pour into his shoes, into his trouser legs, and then spread all the way up.

If you insist on making a comparison, bouncing back and forth with a dummy in the swimming pool of Hongqi Forest Farm in winter is as comfortable as taking a sauna!
Amidst the suppressed muffled sounds, the soldiers who had already jumped into the river held their weapons high in one hand, supported each other with the other hand, and continued to move towards the opposite bank under the leadership of the Chinese-character face. The water vapor even gathered a layer of white mist on the snow-covered water, which is still conspicuous even in the night!
Amidst the noise of the rushing water, the soldiers at the head supported each other and moved forward with difficulty towards the opposite bank. The further you walked towards the center, the deeper the river became, so that in the second half of the journey, Wei Ran was almost swimming forward. !

"Whoa!"

Among the splashing water, the square face was the first to go ashore.In the night, I saw him immediately raised the submachine gun in his hand, removed the magazine, pulled the bolt repeatedly until he was sure that it was not frozen, then reloaded the magazine and put the bullets on top, and the whole person leaned against the river embankment to go up After climbing a few steps and looking up, he immediately waved his hands behind him. Finally, he took off his gloves and took a big bite of the dried chilies used to keep out the cold.

Almost at the same time that he put on the glove again, Wei Ran also boarded the opposite bank of the river at the same time as the soldier who held the bugle high in his hand from beginning to end.

Before he could stand still, the familiar and disgusting feeling of brain shutdown that was completely indescribable in words came as promised.Immediately afterwards, he involuntarily sat down on the frozen ice by the river, and by the way, he also pulled the little soldier who was supporting each other to the ground.

I don't know if it's lucky or unlucky, but Wei Ran's ass sat on a small protruding rock.

Even through the water-soaked cotton trousers, the severe pain caused by the small stone hitting the tailbone made Wei Ran regain consciousness instantly, but at the same time, he involuntarily let go of his hand, and threw the carbine that had been held high into the ground. in the water.

"Wei Ran, are you okay?" The little soldier first reacted very quickly and hugged the bugle to prevent it from falling to the ground, and then asked in a low voice.

"it's okay no problem."

Wei Ran struggled to pick up the carbine as Yu Wang suppressed his vomiting, and rolled a few times in the snow on the river embankment, using the relatively dry snow to suck as much as possible before the cotton-padded clothes were completely frozen. At the same time, he did not forget to remove the magazine and pull the trigger.

However, in just such a short time, the water-soaked gunshots were completely frozen.However, this carbine cannot rely on the "kicking" method to solve the current problems like the AK rifle.

Seeing that there was no way to troubleshoot the weapon failure in a short period of time, Wei Ran simply didn't waste any more time, angrily reloaded the magazine and put it on his shoulders and climbed up.

After such a short time, the two following squads also went ashore one after another. In the silent night, Wei Ran could even hear the knocking sound of teeth colliding.

He squatted down and stood up a few times to make the cotton trousers softer. Wei Ran went to the side of the square-faced soldier who had already formed a defensive position, and took out the hip flask in his arms under the cover of his clothes and twisted it. Kai took a sip, then handed it to the other party, and whispered with a little tentativeness, "Squad Leader Shen, let everyone have a drink to keep warm."

The Chinese-character face looked at the jug handed over by Wei Ran in surprise, took a sip, and handed it to the person around him.

After the small wine jug, which contained less than half a catty of liquor, was passed around in the hands of the soldiers who landed, the soldiers of the other two squads also went ashore.

The soldier who issued the order before crossing the river also took a sip of liquor from the flagon, handed it to another soldier and ordered in a low voice, "Squad [-] and Squad [-] will deal with the sentries, and Squad [-] will tie the pockets."

"Class one, follow me!"

The squad leader named Shen Shen waved his hand, pulled out a bayonet from his waist, and crawled onto the river embankment. Under the cover of night and snow, he quietly rushed to the position less than [-] meters away from the river.

It is a little bit reluctant to say that this is a position. Apart from a few vaguely visible firepower points built with sandbags, there is a winding road leading to nowhere as far as the eye can see.

As the distance got closer and closer, Wei Ran simply put aside the cumbersome carbine, and even took off his handbag and wrapped it around his neck so as not to get in the way.

Soon, two barbed wire fences swaying in the cold wind appeared directly in front of them. The tin cans hanging on the barbed wire fences jingled with the wind, but completely lost their due warning function.

This was undoubtedly a good thing. Immediately, one of the soldiers in the two squads advancing side by side pulled out the pliers hanging from their waists, and easily cut through the barbed wire to open a passage.

Following closely behind the squad leader Shen Shen, Wei Ran was the first to climb over the barbed wire fence.It wasn't until this time that he saw that behind the two barbed wire fences, there was actually a small trench dug out, but it definitely cost a lot of money.

The front line of this trench is almost two meters deep, and even the sides and feet are reinforced with logs.On the side facing the river, not only a breast wall was built with sandbags, but also a shooting platform was built with wooden boards.

If this trench was placed in World War I, I am afraid that even if the Germans come, they can give a good score of more than 90 points.

But what didn't match this snow-covered trench was that Wei Ran didn't see a single figure at all in this arc-shaped trench that spread horizontally for a distance of [-] meters.

The soldiers of the assault squad who also followed into the trench looked at squad leader Shen. After the latter looked at the squad leader of the other squad, they immediately chose the opposite direction and led the soldiers of the two squads forward. .

After queuing up and passing through a traffic trench, Wei Ran immediately smelled the smell of tobacco, and at the same time heard the extremely high content of "Smecta" talking in the left direction.

He made a gesture with Squad Leader Shen, and after the latter nodded in agreement, Wei Ran immediately followed the conversation and touched it.He hadn't gone far at all before he saw a little light from a machine gun fire point.

Cautiously, he glanced at the probe, and there were two soldiers in hard-wearing military uniforms with their backs facing the entrance and exit of their firepower point, sitting around a simple stove modified from a metal bucket, smoking and chatting about something On the bonfire on the iron frame, two cans of spirit meat distributed by the US military in large quantities were filling the air with a strong aroma.

He gestured to the soldiers behind him, and Wei Ran strode forward to the machine gun fire point. When he wrapped his left hand around the neck of the enemy on the left, he took out the Mauser bayonet in the metal book and dragged it hard. hit the enemy on the right in the neck.

Immediately afterwards, he swept his hands towards the middle, and waited for the moment when the heads of the two hit each other, he dragged them back and gently put them down, and by the way, let the blood spurt out from the severed carotid artery on the left. It splashed on the machine gun less than half a meter away from them.

"puff!"

Wei Ran first patched the chest of the enemy on the left, and then followed the principle of fairness of rain and dew, and patched the chest on the right. By the way, he did not forget to stir left and right.

Gently laying down the corpse in his arms, Wei Ran pulled out the bayonet and shook it, then picked up the carbine on the right hand side against the wall, after a short inspection, got out of the machine gun bunker, and waved to the comrades waiting against the wall.

Deliberately separated from those soldiers, Wei Ran continued to walk forward in the trench with his waist down, and soon, he heard snoring one after another.At the same time, a little light was seen coming from a hole with a roof and a cotton curtain.

Looking behind him, Wei Ran carefully opened a corner of the cotton curtain and took a look inside.The space inside is not too big, and it can even be called a little low. Except for a stove with a chimney in the middle, there is a little fire, and there are five narrow and small wooden tables around it. Beds, among the five beds, only three of them were asleep.

Not in a hurry to get in, Wei Ran continued to walk forward, and soon, he saw a figure peeing into the corner shadow.Without hesitation at all, he rushed up quickly, wrapped his right hand around the opponent's neck, and at the same time stabbed the bayonet in his left hand from the back.

Holding the handle of the bayonet tightly and shaking it from side to side, Wei Ran waited for the man to stop struggling, then pushed him gently into the simple toilet dug out against the trench wall.

Before the still warm corpse fell into the frozen cesspit, Wei Ran leaned on the trench wall and sat down on the snow-covered shooting platform, gritted his teeth and endured the recurring brain failure Feeling, trying not to let myself spit out.

After a while, the awkward feeling dissipated, and Wei Ran heaved a sigh of relief like a rescued dead fish.

It wasn't until this time that he felt the warmth around his nose and mouth. He pulled off the mask and wiped it. Only then did Wei Ran realize that he had a nosebleed!
"Don't give me a brain injury with that broken book"

Wei Ran muttered to himself, stretched out his hand to grab a handful of cold snow and paste it on his nose, after waiting for a while, he put on his frost mask again, leaned on the wall and returned to the dormitory he just discovered.

Lifting the thick cotton curtain again, Wei Ran squatted next to a Nanhan soldier who was still soundly asleep. After lightly lifting the quilt, he stabbed the bayonet into his lung cavity from the left rib, and then He drew out his bayonet and stabbed him in the chest.

Without getting up at all, Wei Ran moved to the side of the second bed with all his hands and feet, and repeated the same trick to kill the second sleeping Nanhan soldier.

"puff!"

When Wei Ran stabbed the bayonet into the chest of the last sleeping soldier, he didn't pull it out at all. Instead, he sat down on the ground and took off the rubber shoes that were frozen like a pair of iron shoes and the armor-like shoes with great effort. cotton trousers.

Going to the stove to warm up a bit, Wei Ran picked out a pair of gray-blue hard-to-cover field cotton trousers and a pair of suede boots that he was wearing that barely fit, and then refastened the white camouflage. sheet.Finally, after warming up a fire, he inspected the carbine just seized again by the way, and then he opened the curtain and got out.

After such a short period of time, there have been many volunteer soldiers in the trenches, and even outside the trenches, volunteer soldiers with guns have leaped past and pushed forward.

As the number of infiltrators increased, the first gunshot finally sounded in this position, but soon after several gunshots, shouts came from all over the position.

Until this time, Wei Ran was finally sure that the language task this time was indeed as expected, allowing him to learn Bangzihua.And the out-of-tune words shouted by those volunteer soldiers still read "Put down your weapons!"

Compared with the American soldiers encountered in the previous two scenes, Wei Ran really opened his eyes at this time. After the gunshot, it took less than 2 minutes before and after. easy to use.

In this dark and snowy day, the movements of the soldiers stationed in this position huffing and dropping their weapons made Wei Ran mistakenly think that he had just arrived in France, which was just occupied.

After a small number of Nan Hanrui soldiers who were about to take advantage of the chaos and run to the rear were blasted back by the third squad that had rushed over in advance, the platoon leader who had followed them all along shouted loudly, "Xia Chuan! Send signal!"

"Yes!"

Xia Chuan immediately pinned the cannon box in his hand to his waist, then pulled out a flashlight, ran to the edge of the barbed wire flickering and flickering a signal.

At the same time, the platoon leader called out one name after another familiarly, beckoning them to cut the barbed wire as quickly as possible.

After handing over the few difficult soldiers who had just been captured from another bunker used as a dormitory to the second squad for custody, Wei Ran moved to the side of the trumpeter Xia Chuan and looked in the direction of the other side of the river.

In the night, six No. 70 volunteer soldiers rushed down the river embankment in twos and twos carrying planks, stakes and even oil barrels prepared in advance.

As if they couldn't feel the temperature, these soldiers rushed into the icy river water without stopping, smashing down one after another wooden piles at the fastest speed, or simply put a few iron buckets that open at both ends , used to support the planks that act as bridge decks.

Before the last plank was laid, the first batch of volunteer soldiers rushed to the temporary wooden bridge.

After the first group of people crossed the river to help control the captives, the soldiers who had just taken over the position also took the cotton clothes and shoes handed over by the other party and changed on the spot.

"Assault platoon assemble!"

In the night, the platoon leader greeted in a low voice, and the people who had just changed into dry clothes immediately gathered around and stood behind their respective squad leaders.

"Wei Ran, your jug." While speaking deeply, the squad leader had already handed Wei Ran the jug stained with traces of blood.

Hastily took the flagon, and before Wei Ran could say anything, the platoon leader who didn't know his name said, "It's less than 12 hours before dawn, and we have to go to our American friends before dawn. Beside, strive to take down their command post in one fell swoop! Comrades, do you have confidence?!"

"Guaranteed to complete the task!" The soldiers of the three squads shouted in unison.

"Throw away unnecessary equipment and supplies!" Before the platoon leader finished speaking, many soldiers had already thrown unnecessary things on their bodies to their feet.

Glancing at the vanguard coming over the temporary wooden bridge, the platoon leader waved his hand, and the three assault squads that had just finished fighting immediately lined up and ran at the front, along the snow-covered road, head-on. Into this bone-chilling snowy night.

　[-] in [-] update
　　
　
(End of this chapter)