War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 688

In the night sky, the gorgeous aurora surges like unrestrained clouds, bringing a never-to-be-repeated magnificent landscape to this land that has entered winter in advance.

On the ice of the Lower Tunguska River frozen under the aurora, four square-headed six-wheel all-terrain trucks, led by Dmitry, were galloping in the direction of Yukta.

I have to admit that this kind of off-road vehicle with low-pressure tires is really interesting to drive. Not only the bumps on the ground are effectively buffered, but also good vision, and occasionally the body tilts due to a tire crushing the ice layer. Feeling, the people in the car couldn't help exclaiming again and again.

After such a risk-free all-night raid, when Sui Sui finally yawned and handed over the steering wheel to Wei Ran, outside the left car window, he could just see the river mouth next to Yeika and the ice-covered river. Headlights flickering on the river.

"Dmitry, what is there going north from this tributary?" Wei Ran asked while holding the walkie-talkie, "What are those cars transporting?"

"Trucks heading north are mostly groceries"

On the radio channel, Dmitry explained familiarly, "There are some nomads here, and they will drive reindeer to the villages in the gathering area to overwinter in winter. One or two hundred kilometers to the north."

"Where are the cars coming from the south?" Jima asked curiously on the radio channel.

"Fur traders, logs, or some smuggled minerals."

Dmitry thought for a while and continued, "There are also mammoth ivory fished out of the water in summer, and even gold collected secretly. As long as you can stop their car, you can always find the expected one inside." something outside."

"Don't the police care?" one of the Katenka sisters asked with a little naivety and childishness.

"Take care, of course."

Dmitry said solemnly, "All cars that have not paid enough protection fees can only drive under the ice."

Just say Shenhe!
Wei Ran muttered, but he was not surprised at all, this ghost place is different from Inta.In any case, it is on the west side of the Ural Mountains, but here it is located directly north of Lake Baikal.

In a nicer way, this place is called Tiangaodidiyuan.

If it is more explicit, even if the bear rider is here, there may not be a middle-level and high-level person randomly picked up from the Tunguska Coalfield in this place to speak.

As for which faction this Dmitry belongs to, Wei Ran doesn't know, and he doesn't even want to be curious.If he didn't want to see how the anonymous Apolly was doing now, he wouldn't even come to this icy and snowy ghost place.

After driving the last dozens of kilometers before dawn, Wei Ran's attention was attracted by several islands in the middle of the river less than five kilometers away from Yuketa.

Although the visibility was not too high at this time, he still vaguely felt that this place seemed to be the place where Apoli and him discarded the scrapped tracked artillery tractor together!
"Yukta is ahead"

On the radio channel, Dmitry introduced in detail, "It's on the south side of the river. Except that the airport here has been abandoned more than ten years ago, the rest is no different from the small town of Tula."

"Dmitry, let's drive back." Wei Ran picked up the walkie-talkie and said.

"Aren't you going to see that train station?"

Dmitry responded subconsciously, but found that their convoy of four vehicles had already started to turn when Wei Ran said that he was going to drive back, and he was the only one who was still moving forward open it.

"Why are young people from these big cities so impolite?"

Dmitry threw the walkie-talkie aside, turned the steering wheel and circled on the ice, speeded up to catch up with the other three cars that had already begun to return, picked up the walkie-talkie again and asked again, "Victor, don't you want to go?" Have you seen that train station?"

"no need"

Wei Ran paused, then pressed the launch button again and explained, "We will disembark near the river intersection we just passed, and find a place in the forest to rest for an hour and have something to eat, and then we will go to the No. 58 forest farm."

"Where is Forest Farm No. 58?" Dmitry said with a trace of confusion in his tone.

"Follow us and you'll find out"

Wei Ran made a vague and perfunctory sentence, seemingly casual, but in fact, he tried his best to follow the direction he remembered, and drove the car away from the river and into the coniferous forest on the bank.

Unfortunately, I don't know if he remembered the wrong location, or too long time has passed, the artillery tractor that was abandoned here has been moved, or it has been completely swallowed by the thawing permafrost.In short, he did not find what he wanted to see in this taiga.

The four off-road vehicles were loosely parked at a distance of about ten meters from each other. Wei Ran casually dug out a few cans and heated them with the gas stove in the car.

When he finished heating the milk, Sui Sui, who had been struggling to sleep just now, also took a bath and sat at the dining table.

"This place is nice," Sui Sui said endlessly while eating breakfast.

"What?" Wei Ran blankly looked at the girl sitting opposite.

“I say this place is good”

Sui Sui put down the cup, "It's only an hour's flight from Irkutsk, and I asked Dmitri, whether it's 20 or 60 people, they can fly over with a cargo plane."

"And then?" Wei Ran looked at the other party and asked.

"Then land in the small town of Tula, rent the car we drove, and drive west along the Lower Tunguska River to Tuluhanks."

Sui Sui said more and more energetically, "I have calculated that the whole journey is 900 kilometers in total, and there are more than a dozen gathering areas along the way. The distance between the two farthest gathering areas is no more than [-] kilometers."

"You really want to bring someone over?" Wei Ran finally understood Sui Sui's plan belatedly.

"As long as Dmitry can find a way to prove that it is safe enough here"

Sui Sui held the cup and said with a smile, "Those who are willing to take risks by car are rich people. Such people won't waste their time going to places like Inta, but they certainly don't mind coming here."

"What will Inta do in the future?" Wei Ran asked as he took a bite of the slice of bread sandwiched with pickles and canned meat.

"If you don't know how to do business, don't worry about it."

Sui Sui said confidently, "Inta's tourist schedule has already reached New Year's Day, and those who can't make it can just be sent here. And here we have the only flight, this kind of fat that is delivered to your mouth I won't give up."

"Forget it, just pretend I didn't say it." Wei Ran took a bite again. The other party is far more professional than himself in this kind of thing, and he will only add to the chaos if he mixes it up.

"Let's go again at noon"

Sui Sui drank the warm milk in two sips, "Continue to let me drive at that time, I want to personally experience all kinds of problems that may be encountered in long-distance driving."

"Then it's noon." Wei Ran happily changed the itinerary and notified the other three cars.

Regarding this, neither the Katenka sisters nor Maya, nor Dmitri had any objection, but Jima was driven out of the car by Maya, and reluctantly got into Dmitri's car That's all.

After taking a comfortable hot bath, Wei Ran lay on the big bed made up with Sui Sui in his arms and slept comfortably.

It was already noon when they were woken up by the alarm clock. At this time, the river outside the coniferous forest became much more lively. Every now and then, there were trucks speeding past in all directions.

"How do we go next?" Sui Sui yelled after driving the off-road vehicle onto the ice again.

"Follow that tributary and go in"

Wei Ran raised his finger and pointed in a direction, "When this tributary meets another river, turn right and drive 20 kilometers at most to No. 58 Forest Farm."

Hearing this, Sui Sui immediately stepped on the accelerator and drove into the river guided by Wei Ran.

Compared with the time before dawn, this tributary is much quieter at this time, but the scrapped cars on the edge of the river will appear every now and then, reminding everyone to drive carefully with their own painful lessons.

It took almost three hours, when the river forked, Sui Sui also stepped on the brakes and woke up Wei Ran who was soundly asleep.

"What's wrong?" Wei Ran asked sleepily.

"See if it's turning here?" Sui Sui pointed out the window.

Subconsciously following Sui Sui's fingers and looking out the window, Wei Ran was stunned.

It is true that this tributary has a bifurcation almost directly in front of it, but on the bank facing the river, there is a big red container on two scrapped trucks.

There are two wind turbines fixed on the top of the container.At the same time, on the side facing the river, there is a constantly flashing red warning light.

Directly below the warning light, there is a line of safety reminder written in eye-catching white letters: You can enter the patrol area of ​​the Wild Fire Rescue Station, and if you are in danger, you can enter the container to call for help.

"Fire Field Rescue Station?"

Wei Ran picked up the binoculars and glanced at the container on the shore. After thinking for a while, he picked up the walkie-talkie and asked, "Dmitry, what's the matter with that signboard?"

"Some manned rescue stations will be established on the main freight route of the Tunguska coalfield in winter."

Dmitry explained on the radio channel, "This should be a rescue point set up by a nearby rescue station."

"Can I go in and have a look?" Wei Ran continued to ask.

"Of course," Dmitry replied happily.

Hearing this, Wei Ran dug out the Makorov pistol that he bought half-rented and half-bought from the glove box, opened the car door, aimed at the night sky and pulled the trigger.

When the cold wind carried the crisp gunshots to the distance, he jumped off the off-road vehicle and climbed onto the shore with both hands and feet.

"It can be seen that you are very familiar with the means of survival here."

Dmitri, who followed him down, praised, and then told a cruel fact in a flat tone, "Many drivers were ambushed by wolves on the edge of the river because they forgot to make enough noise when they got off the car." Bit off the neck."

"Jima is an experienced hunter." Wei Ran directly blamed Jima who was unwilling to get out of Maya's car, "He taught me a lot."

Dmitry shrugged, followed Wei Ran to the shore, climbed up to the wreckage of the two trucks that were almost completely swallowed by the permafrost that melted in summer, and offered to help open the door of the container.

When the temperatureless sunset shone into the container, Wei Ran raised his eyebrows involuntarily.

There are quite a lot of things in this container. There is a stove converted from a diesel barrel at the entrance, and there are firewood and coal piled in the two iron barrels next to it.

Going further in, on an iron table welded to the ground, there is a solid car radio protected by a wooden frame.Next to it, conspicuous red paint is used to indicate the steps to turn on the radio station, the channel that can be contacted when calling for help, and the radio call sign of the so-called wild fire rescue station.

Not only that, but he also saw a large piece of deer steak hanging here, some simple condiments, a small stainless steel pot also hanging on the wall, and two winter clothes.

But compared to these, the dilapidated radio next to the car radio was intermittently playing a long-forgotten song over and over again - "My Address is the Soviet Union".

(End of this chapter)