War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 732 The captains of the No. 52 mine firing squad
When I woke up, it was still groggy outside the window, but the brightness of the kerosene lamp on the table had been turned up a lot.

Sitting up and looking around, Mikita and Paulid had gone to nowhere, and the young Selsey had already got into a sleeping bag and was sound asleep.

Sitting up yawning, Wei Ran climbed out of the warm sleeping bag, leaned over to the stove and took a look, saw that the charcoal fire inside had turned dark red, and quickly poured all the remaining coal from the tin bucket next to it.

Wearing neatly and taking his own weapon, Wei Ran gently pushed open the door, casually asked about the aroma of the food, and followed the smell to find the next door, where Mikita and Baolid had already set up iron bars in the former ward. The barrel lit the fire.

At this time, Mikita was holding a spoon, patiently cooking a large pot of kasha porridge with a lot of ingredients, and around the enamel pot on the iron bucket, there were several pieces of sliced ​​Daleba , and some leftovers from last night.

Baolid was not idle either, he was half kneeling on the edge of the hospital bed next to the fire, using a Mongolian-style knife to cut a large piece of Russian-style jelly on the chopping board.

"You finally woke up"

While Mikita was speaking, he picked up a piece of toasted and crispy bread, tore half of it and handed it to Wei Ran, then stuffed the other half into his mouth, and said while chewing, "Victor, take care of Se I'll leave things to you about Elsie."

"Don't worry." Wei Ran took a bite of the bread, "I won't let him have an accident."

"The most dangerous thing here is only the wolves." While Baolid was speaking, he had already brought the sliced ​​jelly to the table.

After the two finished breakfast, the three of them went downstairs together, and Paulid got into the truck that the Pontiac nurse had prepared for them.

Amidst the roar of the engine, Wei Ran was the first to drive the car they drove to leave the first floor of the abandoned hospital. Immediately afterwards, Bao Lide also drove out, and waited until Mikita used the rope prepared in advance to pull The gate on the first floor was tied tightly, and the two cars parted ways.

Mikita and Baolid are going to visit the mine, and Wei Ran needs to store enough firewood for everyone, and build a fireplace that is warm enough by the way.

Driving in a random direction, Wei Ran stepped on the brakes at a distance of about 50 meters from a waist-thick pine tree, and then found a greasy motorcycle saw from the trunk to start logging.

However, before he could cut down a tree, there were sudden and continuous gunshots from the direction of the mine!
"It's broken, won't we meet so soon?"

Wei Ran's heart sank, and without thinking, he turned off the motorcycle saw and threw it away, got into the cab of the truck, stepped on the accelerator and drove over.

At this time, the gunfire continued, but compared to just now, it was no longer a suppressive shooting, but a continuous burst of shooting.

This is good news, at least it shows that they are not at a disadvantage at this time, and after so long, Wei Ran has not heard any different gunshots, so he is naturally relieved.

When he drove to the entrance of the mine, he was completely relieved.Because whether it was Mikita or Baolid, the two never got out of the car at all, and as for their enemies, they were just a pack of unarmed wolves.

It's just that the number of wolves is quite a lot. As far as I can see, there are no less than a dozen of them alive, and there are even more corpses around them.

Before Wei Ran lowered the car window and fired, the group of wolves, who had suffered a lot, turned around and backed away with a miserable howl, and ran to the forest in the distance.

But both Wei Ran and the two people in the other car could see clearly that the pack of wolves didn't go far, and there was even a brave one who squatted on a rock and watched them from a distance.

"This mine should be their den," Baoled shouted loudly, "I guess there may be wolf cubs or their food in it."

"Just go in and have a look." Mikita said while pointing at the wolf that was peeping in the distance and pulled the trigger again.

After the clear gunshot, the wolf fell down in the thick snow, and immediately after it, there was another chaotic snowflake behind it.

It wasn't until the wolves with a broken organization and nearly wiped out ran away that Mikita continued to say loudly, "For safety's sake, we'd better wipe out this wolves completely. I don't want to meet them in the mine."

"I brought a lot of animal traps"

Bao Lide pushed open the car door while talking, and said while walking in the direction of Wei Ran, "In this car, we can make some traps first."

Before he finished speaking, he had already circled to the rear of the car, found a box from inside, picked up animal traps one after another, and threw them out.

"Leave it to us here"

Mikita said to Wei Ran, "Wait until you continue to do your work, it's just a few wolves, we can handle it."

"Victor, take these wolf corpses away."

Bao Lide came around from the rear of the car, pointed to the corpses all over the ground and said, "Leaving them here will attract more beasts."

"Leave it to me, and I'll take them back."

While speaking, Wei Ran pushed open the door of the cab, grabbed a wolf by its hind legs, dragged it to the rear of the car and threw it into the cargo bed.

After he cleaned up the corpses all over the ground with the help of Mikita, Baoled also set up a trap at the entrance of the mine.

After confirming again that the two people don't need help, Wei Ran drove the truck back along the rutted road and continued the logging work he had just started.

Other than being careful when bringing the tree down, the job is nothing short of time-consuming and labor-intensive.

The felled pine trees are directly cut into half-meter wooden piers with a motorcycle saw, and then all four petals are thrown into the cargo bucket. The remaining branches and branches are directly tied to the trailer hook at the rear of the car with ropes and taken away at one time. In addition to paying attention to the whole process Don't be attacked by wolves and beasts that may exist, it's a no-brainer at all.

Pulling over a dozen wolf carcasses, a dozen wooden stakes, and an oversized broom-like pine treetop, when Wei Ran drove the car back to the door of the abandoned building, he found Selsey holding his hand from a distance. Waiting behind a window on the first floor with a gun.

"What happened just now?" Sercy asked loudly.

"It's just a few wolves, they've all been dealt with."

Wei Ran responded loudly, calming the young man temporarily, then pushed the door and got out of the car, untied the treetops at the rear of the car, and untied the rope on the door on the first floor. The car drove in.

"It's true that no one was injured?" Sercy waited until Wei Ran turned off the engine, and immediately leaned over to confirm again.

"Of course not." Wei Ran jumped out of the cab and pointed to the rear of the car, "The wolves that were killed are still inside."

"I'll help you unload them!" After Selsey finished speaking, he had already placed the rifle in his hand in the corner.

"Aren't you going to sleep for a while?" Wei Ran looked at the energetic young man and asked.

"No, I was already awake when you set off." Selsey quickly climbed into the cargo box as she spoke, throwing out the firewood that still smelled of pine resin indiscriminately.

If someone is willing to help, Wei Ran will naturally have no objection, so he simply took the motorcycle saw, pushed the door and went outside, trimmed the treetops he brought back, and sawed it into a size suitable for burning fire.

Leaving all the handling work to Selsey, Wei Ran cautiously walked towards the building where the truck was found with a gun in his hand.

He clearly remembered that when the No. 52 mine was still in operation, this building seemed to be the dormitory for the nurses in the hospital. Although he had never entered it at that time, at least he knew that the nurses including Zhuoya and the staff of the No. 52 mine Some of the female staff lived in the building at the time.

Silently opened the safety of the rifle in his hand, Wei Ran moved up cautiously.However, looking inside through the crack of the door, the inside is empty. There are neither cars discovered by later generations nor any traces of wild animals entering.

He took a look at the chain and lock wrapped around the doorknob, but he frowned.Both the iron chain and the padlock looked too new, not only could there be no trace of rust on them, there was even a little sludge left on the chain.

Obviously, they could not have been forgotten here for more than a decade, like the building itself.

He lowered his head and searched around the gate. Finally, when he kicked away a piece of snow, he found a rusty chain and a padlock still locked on it.

Patiently looking around, Wei Ran finally picked up half of the chain steel ring that was cut short by Lanyao.

Scratching lightly on the iron-covered door with the still-sharp stubble, Wei Ran sneered and threw the pieces back to their original places, and brought snow from a distance, and buried them under the ground again .

Returning to the abandoned hospital with a gun in hand, Wei Ran calmly found two thin steel wires from the cab, returned to the locked building, pried the padlock with ease, and carefully pushed open the door.

Compared with the abandoned hospital they were stationed in yesterday, the lobby on the first floor of this building looked much cleaner, at least there wasn't much litter on the ground.

Rather than attribute the reason to the fact that this place used to be a girls' dormitory, Wei Ran is obviously more willing to believe that the reason why this place looks clean is because someone cleaned it carefully not long ago.

Carefully inspecting the rooms on the first floor, Wei Ran once again saw all kinds of Soviet landmines piled up in a certain room.It's just that unlike later generations, these mines are still packed in crates one by one, and even covered with an extra thick canvas.

In addition, there are things such as shovels, pickaxes and even metal detectors and mine probes in this room.

Not only that, on the wall of this room, there is also a hand-painted floor plan, which not only draws the distribution of the shacks in No. 52 POW Camp in detail, but even numbers them.

In addition, on most of the shacks, an X was marked with red chalk, and only the few that were farthest away remained without any markings on them.

Looking back at the metal detector in the crate, Wei Ran had a little understanding in his heart, turned around and left the room, and walked up the stairs to the second floor.

Soon, when he walked into a room where he could see the statue outside and the ruins of the shack at a glance, he immediately saw a row of mud-covered buildings against the wall of the room. A simple stove transformed from a tin barrel.

On top of these stoves, there is also a small aluminum alloy pot or an enamel kettle.On the iron frame bed next to the wall, stacks of enamel dinner plates and even enamel jars were neatly placed, and even when he lifted the towel covering a large enamel plate, he found a lot Chopsticks on top!
Gently counting the number of chopsticks under the towel, and then counting the number of enamel plates and cups, Wei Ran found that these things are just enough for 12 people.

After thinking for a moment, he restored the contents inside to their original state, then cleaned up the footprints left by him, and even blew a layer of dust up again, before walking into the next room.

"Is it really a ghost?"

Wei Ran frowned involuntarily, there were only ten iron canopy beds in this room.Each bed was also covered with a thick pale green cotton cloth.

Gently lift off this layer of dusty canvas, not only is the bed covered with a fairly thick bedding, but there is also a pillow at the head of the bed.Next to the white pillow, there was a tin flashlight and a box of bullets.

Not only that, when Wei Ran lifted the neatly laid quilt, he unexpectedly discovered that there was a long strip of cloth hidden under the quilt!
He didn't need to disassemble it at all, he could be sure that what was inside was definitely a rifle!
Not in a hurry to move the gun, Wei Ran checked the remaining beds one by one.As expected, there are bullets and flashlights next to the pillows of each bed, and there is also a long strip of cloth under the cups.

Randomly unpacking a cloth roll, what was placed inside was an SKS semi-automatic rifle with a bayonet.

After a little thought, Wei Ran restored the gun to its original shape, put it back in its original position, and restored the rest of the guns he had touched before exiting the room.

Walking into the third room next to each other, there are only two iron canopy beds joined together. Not only that, but there is also an extra table in this room, which is covered with a thin layer. On the dusty table, there are still a lamp of kerosene, a radio, and a box full of unopened batteries.

In the corner of this room, several kerosene lamps and a large enough medical backpack were placed in several neatly arranged wooden boxes.

Finally walking to the side of the double bed side by side, Wei Ran bent over and squatted at the foot of the bed, looking at the used elf on the floor with great interest.At the same time, in his heart, he already had a rough judgment on the people who came here.

Simply put, this is likely to be a team of 12 people. If the sexual orientation of these 12 people is normal, then there must be at least one woman among them.

Thinking of this, Wei Ran gently lifted the cotton cloth covering the two beds, and carefully lifted the blanket.However, apart from the flashlights on the two beds, there were no weapons.

"These two men and women are either the logistics or the leaders of the 12-person team!" Wei Ran made a judgment in an instant.

Restored all the things that had been moved and left the room. In the next few rooms, except for a few empty 200-liter oil drums, Wei Ran found nothing of value.

Keeping the situation here secretly in mind, after leaving the building, he re-wound the door with a chain but did not lock it, and walked slowly back to the abandoned hospital with a weapon in his hand.

In such a short time, the industrious Selsey had already moved all the firewood and wolf carcass to the second floor. When Wei Ran came in, he just came out of a room on the first floor with two flower pots in his arms.

"What are you doing?" Wei Ran asked puzzled.

"Uncle Mikita said yesterday that we should build a fireplace for heating, do you remember?"

Selsey patted the flowerpot in his arms, "There are many flowerpots in these rooms, and there is soil in them, which can just be used to build a fireplace."

"How do you have such experience with this kind of thing?"

Wei Ran picked up a large flower pot in the corner of the lobby on the first floor and asked, he remembered clearly that there was a white birch tree that was said to be brought from Moscow in this flower pot, and now it seems that the tree was obviously Did not survive.

"Uncle Mikita taught me"

Selsey gave a natural answer, "He and I go hunting in the forest every winter, and we built a hunter's cabin together in the forest last year."

Hearing this, Wei Ran didn't continue to ask, but just helped the young man move all the flowerpots he could find to the second floor, poured out the caked soil in the flowerpots and crushed them, and then mixed in enough Pine needles, eventually muddled in the room Selsey had chosen, built a reasonably handsome fireplace in the morning, using the oil drums he had cooked in that morning as a skeleton.

As if stepping on the spot, when they finished their work, Bao Lide also drove into the hall on the first floor, and then took out five wolf carcasses from the cargo box.

"How's the situation?" Wei Ran asked at the stairs with his hands covered in mud.

"Things are not too good."

Mikita held a wolf by its hind leg with one hand, and said as he walked upstairs, "The middle section of the No. 4 mine cave has collapsed, and we may need to blow it up. Personally, even if you are busy for half a month, it is possible."

“Fortunately, the winter here is long enough”

Baolid, who also dragged the two wolves upstairs, said, "And we have enough explosives."

"Not only do we have enough explosives, we may still have a big problem." Wei Ran helped pick up the last wolf carcass while speaking.

"What's the trouble?" Mikita and Baolid asked in unison.

It wasn't until this time that Wei Ran told the two of his findings, and then took them to see it again.

Baolid looked at the landmines in the corner room on the first floor in puzzlement, "Where did these mines come from? Why don't I remember that mines were buried in No. 52 mine?"

"I don't remember this incident either." Mikita frowned and glanced at the hand-painted map pasted on the wall, and finally said to Wei Ran, "Let's go upstairs first."

"Come with me" Wei Ran beckoned and led them upstairs, turning around the three rooms one by one.

"I dare to swear, these things are definitely left by those two-legged animals." Bao Lide made a judgment with an affirmative tone.

"What are they doing here?"

Mikita took out the rifle under the quilt and looked, "They can't come here to hunt, can they? And weren't they sent away ten years ago? Where did they come from?"

"That's what I'm going to ask you"

Baolid kicked the question to Mikita again, "Aren't those prisoners of war sent to the aluminum mine you are in charge of? When did you repatriate them? How many people were left at that time? How many people stayed? down?"

Seeing Wei Ran and Baolid looking at him, Mikita spread his hands and explained, "In 1954, when they were repatriated, I remember there were about 500 people left, but they all went back."

"so much?"

"so little?"

Wei Ran and Baolide gave completely different evaluations in no particular order.

Mikita shook his head dumbfoundingly, "There were two serious landslides in that aluminum mine, one of which was caught up with an earthquake, and almost half of the people were buried in it. The geological conditions there are completely different from here , the bottom of the surface is full of gravel-like dross, and it is not a mine, but a mine that goes straight up and down."

"Since they were all sent back, who left the things here?" Bao Lide muttered, frowning.

"Could it be the prisoners who carved Khrushchev's statue on the military base?" Wei Ran reminded.

"It's not impossible." Mikita nodded first.

"Indeed." Bao Lide also nodded, "Some of those prisoners of war have even joined the party, so it's not surprising that they are willing to stay."

"There is a woman in the problem"

Wei Ran led the two of them to the next room, pointing to the dust-covered elf on the floor, "You two, who do you think of first?"

"Irene?!" Mikita and Baoled called out the same name in unison.

"I think it's her too"

Wei Ran spread his hands, "Except for her, I really can't think of anyone else who would sleep on the same bed with a prisoner of war, and would come to such a ghostly place."

"Whether it's her or not, we are all the captains of the No. 52 Mine Squad"

While Baolid was speaking, he had already pulled out the Nagant revolver issued by the firing squad from the wolfskin holster on his waist, and began loading bullets into it one by one.

"Whoever comes, we really have to be prepared."

While Mikita was speaking, he had skillfully removed the firing pin from the SKS semi-automatic rifle he had been holding all the time, and waved towards Wei Ran and Baolid, "For example, we can help them disarm, and then ask these guests Would you like to help open up the collapsed mine tunnel?"

"As long as they're going to be here, I guess they'll be willing."

Bao Lide grinned and said, "I didn't expect that after so long, I would have the opportunity to herd those smart two-legged animals again."

"The biggest gem to bet on." Wei Ran cast his bet in an extremely positive tone, "They will definitely come, and they will definitely be encountered by us. Of course, they will definitely be willing to help us."

“It's a good bet”

Mikita and Baolid said in unison, and immediately afterward, the three former captains of the firing squad laughed tacitly, as if everything around them had returned to 1951, that boring and busy winter.

(End of this chapter)