War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 719 VIP shack?

In the No. 52 mine prisoner-of-war camp, after more than two hours of careful searching, four short knives made of pickaxes and more than a dozen small knives made of scrap steel brazing were all placed in the only prisoner of war who was tortured. On the snow in front of you.Of course, the number of prisoners of war watching and watching the torture has also risen to more than two hundred.

At the same time, with the help of the soldiers who came to support, the nurses carefully checked the sanitation of all the shacks.

As the nurses supported the frightened big-breasted nurse Irene, they walked away quickly around Wei Ran's position. Soon after, the female nurse Zhuoya also spoke in Japanese from the speaker on the top of the sentry tower. broadcast.

When the broadcast ended, the prisoners of war in each shack also took action one after another, neatly sorting out their living environments.

Outside the shack, Wei Ran, who stopped the execution, not only failed to kill the prisoner whose hands and feet were burnt with quicklime, but even took out a scalpel and gauze, and personally cut off the rotten flesh of the prisoner who was tortured madly by him. The rotten eye was removed, and the wound was carefully bandaged.

However, his bandaging was uncharacteristically amateurish. Not only did he not inject anesthesia at all, but he also didn't use dressings at all. He just wrapped it with gauze directly, and he even forgot to reset his dislocated limb joints and jaw.

Of course, out of the professional ethics of a veterinarian, and in order to prevent the prisoner from dying, he also kindly helped inject two large needles full of antibiotics, and then kicked him back into the pile of prisoners of war.

"What are you going to do with the remaining prisoners of war?"

Mikita asked Chaowei Ran with a hint of anxiety, "Commander Krech only gave us 50 places, and there is no way to kill them all."

"It seems that you already have a solution?" Wei Ran asked back with a smile.

"There's nothing I can do"

Mikita spread his hands and said slowly, "Wait for Zhuoya to come back, maybe we can throw the trouble to these two-legged animals."

Seeing this, Wei Ran nodded wisely, took a sip from his hip flask, and stood obediently behind Mikita.

Less than 20 minutes before and after, Zhuoya walked back to Mikita's side with a cigarette in her mouth, and said in a low voice, rather gloating, "Just now, Comrade Political Commissar and Comrade Head Nurse decided to jointly recommend Comrade Irene to go to No. 501 It is said that there are many prisoners who are building railways and need such a good angel."

"That kind of place really needs such an angel"

Mikita's tone was full of undisguised mockery, "In the several times I participated in the suppression of riots, the most dangerous prisoners of war and Trotskyists, as well as criminals and regular prisoners were said to have been sent to the No. 501 construction site. "

"She asked for it herself. No matter how stupid an angel is, she won't go to hell to find a job."

Wei Ran expressed his opinion in a flat tone, but as for the No. 501 construction site they were talking about, he didn't have any curiosity at all.Because he knew that, even if he asked, Mikita and Zhuoya, even Commissar Kreich, might not know where the No. 501 construction site was.All they can know is perhaps only a verbal order - to send the most unmanageable thorns to the No. 501 construction site to build the railway!

On the contrary, Wei Ran, who came from later generations, knew better than them where the No. 501 construction site was and what it was used for.

In the declassified documents that later generations came into contact with, the No. 501 construction site is the name used in the official documents, and its more familiar name is the Stalin Railway.

To put it simply, it was a great project with a design length of nearly 1300 kilometers, which started construction at the beginning of 1949 and was abandoned in 1953 when Khrushchev came to power waving corn cobs.

Because, if this railway line is built, it will likely be one of the closest to the North Pole.The purpose of building it is also related to the fact that the Soviet Union was besieged by Murmansk during World War II and trapped at the sea.

It's just that the loving father's plan for a rainy day and repairing a dead sheep are obviously not favored by Khrushchev, who likes corn and leather shoes. Therefore, this railway line, which cost the lives of many prisoners when it was built, was not long after the latter came to power. A permanent stop, those painstakingly built railway sections, and the frozen corpses under the railway line, were also forever forgotten in the icy and snowy wilderness.

While he was secretly recalling the declassified materials he saw when he was in school, Mikita put his arms around the slender waist of the female nurse Zhuoya, and said with a smile, "Talk to these animals, give them two days , Hand over the prisoner who organized the weapon manufacturing and its 49 accomplices, otherwise, on the third day, I will organize all members of the firing squad to learn some torture techniques from the deputy captain, Comrade Victor."

"I am happy to pass on my experience to everyone," Wei Ran said with a smile.

"no problem"

Zhuo Ya first agreed, and then pointed to the tortured prisoner, "Comrade head nurse wants you to send him to the hospital."

"That old woman from Pontiac doesn't really think she's an angel?" Mikita subconsciously asked in a low voice.

Zhuo Ya rolled her eyes when she heard the words, and said reluctantly, "After what happened to Irene, some new nurses also secretly sympathized with those prisoners of war, and the head nurse even heard about it.

So in order to avoid things like Irene happening again, Comrade Head Nurse organized us to practice wound dressing with it, and we had to do it every two hours until we found the murderer. "

"I'll send someone to deliver it to you later." Mikita had already supported Zoya to the top of the log pile while speaking.

Clearing her throat, Zhuo Ya loudly translated Mikita's request in Japanese. Afterwards, those prisoners who thought they were about to be tortured were driven back to their respective huts by the surrounding soldiers with gun butts to clean up.

Although he was lucky enough to escape this time, Wei Ran could tell that Mikita was deliberately whetting his appetite.

Simply put, the fear of being tortured is not the same as the fear of witnessing it while waiting to be punished.If we use the words of our ancestors to describe it, this is called "killing chickens for monkeys to see". Those who were driven back to the shack unscathed are those monkeys, and the one whose head was tortured and crippled by Wei Ran is obviously that chicken.

And don't forget, those prisoners just now have to find out the prisoner who made the weapon and find out its 49 companions in two days.Otherwise, they will become the next batch of chickens to kill chickens for monkeys to see.

But the first of these two requirements is okay, but the latter 49 companions are too bad, because no matter who the prisoners of war who belonged to different shacks gathered up 49 people through climbing and biting, the final result will turn them into [-] people. Into a plate of loose sand.

As for the truth, who cares what the truth is?The only truth may be as the big-breasted nurse said, even if they have those short knives, there is no way to escape from here.

Watching all the prisoners of war return to the shack, Mikita waited for the soldiers to take away the homemade knives gathered together, and then arranged for two soldiers to drag the blind soldier covered in scars to follow Zhuoya away. He cleared his throat and said, "Baolide, take someone to patrol the lumberyard."

"Yes!" The bearded soldier saluted solemnly, greeted the team members behind him, turned around and walked back.

"Let's go, it's time for us to start today's business." After Mikita finished speaking, he went straight to a shack in the corner of the prisoner-of-war camp. , and raised the hammer.

Before entering the shack, Wei Ran really didn't see any difference between this place and what he saw before.

But when Mikita, who was walking in front, lightly knocked on the wooden door nailed with animal skins with the handle of his revolver, Wei Ran immediately realized something was wrong.Since yesterday, he has seen clearly Mikita's attitude towards those prisoners of war, otherwise, he would not have abused that prisoner of war so recklessly.

But now, Mikita did not forget to knock on the door before entering, which clearly showed that he and the people in this shack were not treated like two-legged animals.

After waiting for a while, someone inside the door responded with a hoarse voice in Russian: "Please come in."

Until this time, Mikita pushed open the door, bent over while holding the hat on his head, and got in.When Wei Ran also came in and closed the door to block the cold outside, he finally saw the situation inside clearly.

To his surprise, the floor of this extraordinarily warm shack was covered with a layer of wooden planks, which was a treatment that was not available in those shacks he had seen before.

Not only that, but there are even a few light bulbs hanging above the head that are enough to illuminate the inside of the shack.It's just that Wei Ran didn't see the beds under the light, but the beds next to each other.

"Siberian tatami?"

Wei Ran muttered to himself, and at the same time counted the floor mats without any trace.What surprised him was that there were no more than 40 people living in this small shack, which was half less than other shacks.

There is even a low table between every two floors. These low tables are generally equipped with a set of enamel kettles, two pairs of chopsticks, and some things such as wooden bowls and dinner plates. Some neatly stacked clothes can be seen.

Looking at those fireplaces, there are also piles of firewood around them, and there are even a lot of dried fish and meat hanging on ropes above their heads.

Even on the side of the entrance, there is a bookshelf made of wooden boards, which is not only filled with various Japanese and Russian books, but also has a separate set of tables and chairs next to it.

There were pens and ink on the table, and a stack of letter paper in a wooden box and a stack of kraft paper envelopes also in a wooden box were placed on the side.

When Wei Ran came in with Mikita, a young prisoner of war who looked definitely under 30 years old happened to be sitting on the chair by the table. He was holding a pen and seriously writing something on the letter paper.

Wei Ran found that this prisoner of war was wearing obviously homemade Japanese clogs, the lower body was wearing shorts modified from a Soviet uniform, and the upper body was wearing a clean white shirt. .Even, there is no strange smell in this shack, but only the unique aroma of burning pine wood.

Not only this prisoner of war, but also the remaining 20 prisoners of war in this VIP shack. At this time, they were either lying on the bunk chatting with the people next to them, or kneeling and sitting on the edge of the low table. Under the fairly bright light, I concentrate on reading Japanese or Russian books.The only thing these people have in common is that the left earlobe is missing.

"Could it be a model project?"

Wei Ran used a flashlight to shine a light on the thick leather boots placed on the side of the nearest floor, and couldn't help but began to doubt the meaning of the existence of this shack.

However, before he could find the answer, a middle-aged prisoner of war had already blew his whistle.Amidst the sharp and short whistles, the prisoners who were still writing letters, reading books or chatting just now stopped their work immediately, took out a set of worn clothes from under the low table in unison and quickly put them on.

About 5 minutes later, under the command of a middle-aged prisoner of war, a total of 20 young and strong prisoners of war lined up in two rows in front of Wei Ran and Mikita, each carrying a painted lunch box in order of height. List.

"Report! We are ready!" shouted the middle-aged prisoner wearing glasses.

"Then let's go." After Mikita finished speaking, he winked at Wei Ran, who immediately opened the door and pulled out the revolver on his waist.

Under Wei Ran's gaze, Mikita led the two teams of selected prisoners out of the shack, and the middle-aged prisoner wearing glasses also called out 21 prisoners from another shack opposite.

With more than forty prisoners of war lined up in two teams, Mikita stepped on the soft snow and creaked towards the row of brightly lit and extremely busy mines not far away.

As the distance got closer, Wei Ran also noticed that the entrances of the mines they passed were marked with conspicuous wooden signs and bilingual Japanese and Russian. Russian can understand.

In addition to marking words such as "No. 52 Mine Cave of No. 1 Mine and No. 52 Mine Cave of No. 2 Mine", the signs also read some warnings such as "It is forbidden to bring mining tools back to the camp."

It was precisely as the distance got closer that he became more and more sure that there was really an extra mine here compared with later generations, and the sign on the entrance of that mine was clearly "No. 52 Mine No. 5 Mine Hole."

Mikita, who was at the front, also took the prisoners of war and Wei Ran, who was at the end, all the way to the entrance of "No. 52 Mine No. 5 Mine", and stepped into a monkey who was about to go into the mine. The car followed closely behind, and those prisoners of war who were also familiar with the road and Mikita kept a distance of two monkey cars and sat on it one by one.

After hesitating for a while, Wei Ran quickly stepped onto the monkey cart and let the brightly lit entrance of the mine swallow them up one by one amidst the rhythmic clanging and shaking.

The entrance of this mine is extraordinarily spacious. There are a row of wooden shelves against the walls on both sides, on which are hung miner's lamps and various human mining tools. There is even a wooden house on the side of the entrance. Not only is there a chimney extending all the way to the outside of the mine, but in the large glass window, you can also see two Soviet soldiers sitting on chairs on duty.

But Mikita didn't intend to get off the car at all, but just took the monkey car all the way down, entering one branch after another under the dim miner's lamp.

Along the way, all Wei Ran could see were prisoners of war wearing loincloths and miner's lamps on their heads.With their backs bent, they carried ores collected entirely by manpower from branch mines one after another and loaded them into mine carts, and when they had gathered enough for a cart, they pushed them onto the narrow rails and hung them on the winch.

He even saw a few prisoners of war who were naked and covered in stolen goods, wearing shackles on their feet, and the shackles were nailed to the cracks in the rock by iron chains.When Mikita passed by them, he even threw a bag of boiled potatoes in salted water in his hand like feeding a dog.

Resisting the curiosity in his heart, Wei Ran remembered these beast-like prisoners of war in his heart, and patiently followed Mikita into one fork after another, and finally stopped at the entrance of a mine next to the water pool.

The entrance and exit of this mine can only accommodate a mine cart at most, but Wei Ran found something strange immediately after entering with his waist down.

Among other things, at least the lighting here is much better than outside, and the warmth is much warmer, and even the height is high enough for people to stand up straight, and there is still no need to worry about bumping their heads against the net cover of the miner's lamp.

Look at the miner's lamp hanging on the wall on the left, and then look at the row of wooden cabinets with numbers on the wall on the right.When Wei Ran was about to say something, Mikita at the front also blew his whistle.

"beep--!"

The sharp whistle echoed repeatedly in the mine, and the knocking sound in the depths of the mine came to an abrupt end. At the same time, the No. 40 prisoner of war who came in also found his own way familiarly at the same time as the whistle sounded. He took off his clothes and put them in the cabinet, and took a towel from the inside and put them around his neck.Wearing only a loincloth and a pair of Soviet boots, they lined up against the wall again.

Almost front and back, three or four groups of prisoners carrying pickaxes on their shoulders, loincloths around their waists, towels around their necks, and military boots on their feet came out with a tired look.

Without command at all, these obviously domesticated prisoners of war automatically lined up in a row, and through the mine cart filled with ore in the middle, they handed the pickaxes in their hands to the prisoners who came down with Wei Ran and Mikita.

And those prisoners of war who received the tools also entered the mine in silence without commanding. Not long after, the noisy knocking sound came again from the mine that had just quieted down.

At the same time, Mikita blew his whistle again, and the prisoners who had just handed over their duties immediately took off their shoes, lined up to get out of the mine, and jumped into the water pool outside the entrance of the cave like dumplings. Cleaning the dust and sweat off his body.

Instead, the last middle-aged prisoner of war stopped next to Mikita, took a small Bakelite tube the size of a toothpick holder from his neck, unscrewed it, and handed it to Mikita who was holding a flashlight.

Seeing this, Wei Ran went up to take a look without any trace, only to find that there were only two or three pea-sized pebbles poured out of the small tube.

"Why is the harvest so small today? Are you being lazy?"

Mikita asked in dissatisfaction, while speaking, he threw the small stones in his palm into the cowhide holster one by one.

"No, absolutely not, we've been working hard all day!"

The middle-aged prisoner of war replied nervously in Russian, "There is a fault in that vein, so please give us more time. After we dig out the fault and find the vein again, we will definitely restore the previous output."

"You guys used that excuse last week"

Mikita patted the holster on his waist, "I don't have much patience, but I'm still willing to give you three days, if the output after three days is still only so much, I will not only reduce your food supply half, and your right to communicate with your family members will be revoked.”

"I promise, we will hand in more harvest after three days!" The middle-aged prisoner of war hastily made a promise.

"I hope so"

While talking, Mikita took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and lit one, and then he didn't speak, just stood under the vent, smoking a cigarette one after another.

And the middle-aged prisoner of war didn't dare to leave at all, didn't even dare to raise his head, and just let Mikita spray mouthfuls of second-hand smoke on his face obediently.

In contrast, Wei Ran would not have so many scruples. Seeing that Mikita didn't seem to be planning to stop himself, he simply walked a few steps deeper into the mine.

Contrary to his expectations, this set of mines is not only extraordinarily spacious, but also at least hundreds of meters long.In some places, there are even new branches extending out.And those knocking sounds all came from one of the forked mines.

After taking a look, Wei Ran bent down and entered the fork, and at a glance, he saw the prisoner-of-war miners who were pounding hard on the rock wall, and behind them, several prisoners of war who were guarding the knocked ore and looking for something.

This method is too primitive
Wei Ran shook his head secretly, and returned to Mikita's side the same way.

After such a short period of time, the latter had already flicked the cigarette butts away, and the prisoners who had gone out to take a bath before came back with their buttocks naked and wet loincloths. After allowing Mikita to conduct a detailed inspection of them, he followed Wei Ran and rode a monkey cart and began to retreat to the surface.

It took more than an hour to go up and down, and the prisoners of war who came back were also divided into groups of 20 people, and they each worked hard to receive a piece of food at the back of the truck driven by the bearded soldier Baolid.

When all the prisoners of war returned to the shack, Wei Ran got into the cab of the truck under the urging of Mikita.

Almost at the moment when the door of the car was closed, the bearded Bao Lide stepped on the accelerator, drove the truck through the concrete wall on the trench and left the prisoner-of-war camp, and finally parked under the dormitory.

However, before the car was turned off, Wei Ran found that the head nurse was already standing at the door, waving at him from a distance.

"It seems that Comrade Stalin's angel, the head nurse of Pontiac, can't wait to have a drink with Vice Captain Victor." Mikita joked with a smile.

"If you want to drink, you can come over and have a drink." Wei Ran opened the car door while speaking.

"I'll forget it"

Mikita patted the holster on his waist, and reminded meaningfully, "Victor, you should drink less, Pontiac drinks more than me and Goosen."

"Don't worry, I'll be careful." Before Wei Ran finished speaking, he jumped out of the cab.

Of course he understood that Mikita was implying that he would keep the gems he had just obtained a secret, but this also brought up a new question, how many insiders are there in the mine that can produce ore?
(End of this chapter)