War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 762 Professional Team
On the morning of the third day of the new year, two KAMAZ trucks drove up to Goronid Island with various excavating equipment, met Wei Ran and Professor Alexei who were waiting at the pier, and walked along the thick-covered The snowy potholed road drove into the depths of the small forest.

Ruslan, who jumped out of the car, shook hands with Wei Ran and Alexei, pointed to those who were unloading the car and said, "Just leave it to them, Yeager, how long is it expected to take to dig it out? "

"Soon, it will be dug out at noon at the latest." An old man who seemed to be at least five or six years older than Professor Alexei replied confidently.

Before he could finish speaking, a young man with a Lenin hat and a mustache had already got a greasy water pipe unloaded from the car.At the same time, several strong men also carried snow blowers used to remove snow and ice from the car in winter.

Amidst the roar of the engine, these strong men manipulated the snow blower and started the preliminary cleaning work around the wreckage of the tail, and the old man named Yeager also turned on the light fixed on the rear view mirror. The action camera, and then took out a document for Ruslan to sign.

The next thing to do is to wait. Under the watchful eyes of Wei Ran and others, the snow around the tail of the aircraft was quickly blown away by the strong hot wind, revealing the layer of fallen leaves under the ice and snow.It didn't take long before and after, even these fallen leaves with icy debris were blown aside by the strong wind, finally exposing the brown surface.

Just when Wei Ran thought that these people were about to start digging, the young man who had just thrown out a water pipe from the car threw down a large aluminum basin, and then called the strong men who had just put down the snow blower to help , Moved out of the car a large bag of cornstarch, half a bag of baking soda, and a bucket of white latex.

"What are you planning to do?" Professor Alexis asked in confusion.

"It should be made of refractory materials?" Wei Ran guessed uncertainly.

"Guess right"

The old man named Yeager had already directed his people to pour all three things into a plastic basin while speaking, and the young guy also pulled out a hand-held electric mixer pestle commonly used on construction sites from the car. Into the aluminum basin.

With the rotation of the mixer, the three raw materials in the basin are mixed together at an extremely fast speed.When the mixer stopped working, there was even a strong man in rain boots standing in the basin and started stomping.

Until the ball of white matter in the basin turned into something like dough, these people turned into masons again, each took a piece of "dough", and wrapped the half of the tail tightly with a thick layer.

After everything was done, a strong man jumped into the car and began to use a bicycle gas hose to inflate the connected oil drums. Yeager took the first water hose that was thrown down first, and poured some oil that smelled of diesel. But a liquid with a much higher viscosity was poured around the tail of the aircraft.

"Stay far away," the young man reminded carefully.

Seeing this, Wei Ran and the others immediately took a few steps back.Watching curiously, those people poured a layer of oil on the blown clean ground, then sprinkled a bag of dry sawdust powder, and then poured a second layer of oil.

After everything was done, these professionals also retreated a certain distance, and even the two trucks drove a certain distance away.

"Get the fire extinguisher ready!" Yeager yelled, holding up a broken horn.

"Ready!" Two strong men holding small trolley-type fire extinguishers responded loudly.

Hearing this, Yeager immediately took out a lighter and lit the plastic bag wrapped on the stick.

When the small torch was thrown parabolicly around the wreckage of the tail, everyone only heard a soft "huh", and the oiled sawdust was instantly ignited.

"Then just wait"

Yeager lit a cigarette and explained, "After half an hour, start digging, and it will be dug out soon."

"Did you pour diesel oil on it just now?" Professor Alexey asked with great interest in the incarnation of a curious old baby.

"Not at all"

Yeager explained, "Its ingredients are similar to Molotov cocktails, gasoline, diesel, waste motor oil, crushed car tires, and occasionally some recycled garbage cooking oil. In short, just burn long enough, anything can be added to it."

This seems to be no different from the method of the gypsy people.
Wei Ran muttered to himself, and at the same time, he became more and more curious about what these people Ruslan hired usually do, because they are too proficient in this way.

But Ruslan didn't explain in detail, so it's not easy for him to ask on this occasion.Simply, just keep your mouth shut and watch the excitement.

Watching the time go by for more than [-] minutes, those strong men did not put out the fire. Instead, they each put on a heat-resistant suit with a lot of repair marks, and just walked into the place where the flames were blazing. , waving the shovel in his hand, easily dug up the ground, and threw the still flaming mud all around.

While they were busy digging, Yeager and the young guy also used a tin bucket to pick up a half-full "Molotov cocktail", mixed it with a lot of sawdust, mixed it well, and used a large spoon to Dig it out and sprinkle it on the dug place, and by the way, avoid the mud around the wreckage of the tail wrapped in insulation material.

With such skilled cooperation of these people, these people have basically never stopped from the beginning of digging, and even the digging speed is getting faster and faster.

Before noon, the half of the tail was completely dug out.But what everyone didn't expect was that there was a 200-liter oil drum with green paint buried under the tail of the plane.

"Extinguishing!"

Following Jaeger's yell, the two strong men who had been guarding the fire extinguisher from the beginning to the end unscrewed the valve without hesitation.Immediately, a large amount of foam gushed out, and the fire that was about to burn out was easily controlled.

"Ruslan, do you want to dig it out?" Yeager asked as he pulled off his hood.

"Dig it out," Ruslan replied without thinking.

"continue"

Yeager waved his hand, and the burly men around him immediately took off their thermal insulation suits and handed them over to the young man, while they continued to wave their shovels and pickaxes, and started digging along the tin bucket.

Compared with the half of the tail that had already been dug out, the metal bucket that was originally covered by the tail didn't take too much work, and was soon dug out whole.

Carefully holding a flashlight, he leaned over to the rusted damage on the metal bucket and looked in. After Yeager asked Ruslan, he immediately called for his men to bring a pair of scissors and cut along the damage. A hole the size of a washbasin.

"It's a corpse inside." While Yeager was speaking, he reached out and took out a maroon skull.

Without commanding at all, the young man dragged a thick canvas blanket from the car and spread it on the snow, and then spread a white sheet on it.

Soon, pieces of human bones passed from Yeager's hands to those strong men, and finally to the young man, who completed the "human bone puzzle".

However, the old man Yeager obviously didn't want to end his work just like that.

Under the sluggish gaze of Wei Ran and Alexei, he even ordered his subordinates to remove a sieve that seemed to be used for sifting stones on the construction site, and hung it on the bumpers of the front of the two trucks. , and then directed them to move up the iron bucket, dump the soil inside on the sieve, and pass it through the sieve carefully.

"That's all"

Yeager placed a mandible with remaining teeth, plus a few fallen teeth, on the corresponding position of the human bone puzzle, and then shook a gas mask jar issued by the German Army in World War II and asked again, "Would you like it?" open?"

Ruslan obviously trusted the old man very much, and nodded without thinking, "Open it, please."

Yeager smiled, pulled out an AK rifle bayonet from his waist, pried open the gas mask canister, and pulled out an oilcloth package tied with rusty wire.

Unscrewing the wire and opening the package, there was actually a layer of yellowed waste newspaper inside.When the newspapers were opened layer by layer, everyone found out dumbfoundingly that the innermost package turned out to be a red matryoshka doll that was slightly smaller than the tea bucket!
"How could there be such a thing?" Yeager frowned and muttered, opening the nesting doll layer by layer.

It's a pity that when the last matryoshka, which was only a circle bigger than the thumb, was opened, it was empty and contained nothing at all.

Glancing at the wreckage of the tail with the insulation layer removed, Ruslan turned his head to look at Wei Ran and Professor Alexei.

"Let's send the bones to the place where he should go first," Professor Alexey said proactively, "The rest should be transported to our garage, and we will find out what happened as soon as possible."

"Then trouble the two of you."

Ruslan nodded politely, Yeager immediately directed his men to take out a body bag from the car to contain the bones, and then put the rest of the finds into a plastic storage box, together with the half of the tail Loaded together into a truck.

Following the car driven by Wei Ran, he left the forest and rushed back to the garage. After Yeager and others unloaded the tail and the finds, they accepted the pies and caviar that Zhou Shujin gave them as a New Year gift, and drove the car to in the direction of the pier.

"Ruslan, what are the identities of those people?" Approaching the pier, Wei Ran finally couldn't help asking the question in his heart.

"Construction worker" Ruslan explained with a smile.

"Construction worker?" Wei Ran was stunned, and couldn't help muttering in Chinese, "Could it be the construction worker who built the yin house? This is too skilled."

Naturally, Ruslan didn't understand these words, but Professor Alexei, who was sitting in the back row, couldn't help laughing, and asked directly the doubts in his heart.

"They are really construction workers"

Ruslan explained with a smile, "Or they were originally construction workers. They helped to decorate and build many projects in our exhibition hall, especially many emergency construction projects in winter. Of course, it also includes the illegal excavation discovered in winter. It is also for them to help, and we have cooperated for many years."

"No wonder you are so proficient." Wei Ran and Professor Alexey muttered in unison, barely believing each other's explanation.

Ruslan smiled when he heard the words, and took out a thin file bag from the briefcase he had been carrying and handed it to Professor Alexei, "This is the file of the previous owners of your house through our investigation. Happening."

"Did you find anything?" Professor Alexey asked, taking the portfolio.

Hearing this, Ruslan shook his head, "I'm not too optimistic. The previous owner of that land was an ordinary farmer, born in 1940, and he died five years ago. Although his father participated in World War II, he was an infantryman. , and was killed in the first battle of Kyiv."

"What about the other relatives?" Alexey demanded.

"No more." Ruslan shook his head. "It's just a simple record in the resume of the deceased homeowner's father. His father was a fisherman. There is no more information."

Speaking of this, Ruslan asked rhetorically, "I remember that two front-line flight badges were found at that time. Is there no information on them?"

"no"

Professor Alexei frowned and explained, "The two flying medals are not from the same person, and one of them was even obtained on the Kursk battlefield."

"I also looked up the name Felix von Goethe"

Wei Ran took over the topic and said, "But there is no relevant record in German official information. I even asked the person in charge of an organization for the recovery of missing soldiers from World War II, and she didn't find any relevant information."

"normal"

Ruslan replied without surprise, "Many files at that time were destroyed by the war, not to mention that the Americans took a large part of them away."

"It appears that the investigation has reached an impasse."

Professor Alexey looked at the pier getting closer and closer to the front of the car, and his tone was full of helplessness. In fact, most of this kind of historical traceability work is like this.

After all, history books may record how cruel a battle was, how long it lasted, who won and who lost, how many casualties were suffered by both sides, and even the impact on the battle situation, or the performance of certain heroes.

But the number of casualties can never be accurate to a single digit. Often after the unit of thousands or tens of thousands, it becomes a decimal point that can be rounded up as needed—even if those numbers are omitted, each one represents a human life. .

"I believe that with the abilities of the two of you, there will be a satisfactory result soon." Ruslan smiled and complimented Wei Ran and Professor Alexei—anyway, beautiful words don't cost money.

"Let's do our best"

Wei Ran and Professor Alexei sighed in unison, and they looked very much like the state they had when they ran the studio together.

"I'm waiting for your good news"

As Ruslan said, Wei Ran also stepped on the brakes at the pier, and the former simply pushed open the car door, "Happy New Year, both of you."

(End of this chapter)