War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 813 Reasons for Joining the Army

On the muddy field road, a gray donkey walked unhurriedly with two 20-print big black pots on its back.

Right in front of the donkey, where the muzzle of the Enfield rifle that Tan Shou was carrying on his back, were tied with three bananas picked up by the roadside.

Perhaps it was also because of the lure of the three bananas that the donkey walked happily. Not only did Wei Ran, who was in charge of pulling the reins, not have to bother at all, he and Squad Leader Liang, who was walking on the other side of the donkey, could still fight with this hard-working idiot. The donkey borrowed some strength to make it easier for him to walk.

And during this unhurried rush, Wei Ran also learned from the chat between Squad Leader Liang and Tan Shouzheng that both of them seemed to be members of the cooking squad of a certain company under the newly formed 22nd Division.

In the previous battle, more than half of their company was killed and half was injured, and they all followed the Fifth Army headquarters and retreated in cars first.As for Squad Leader Liang, Qin Shouzheng, and of course the extra Wei Ran, the three of them were separated from the main force due to the battle situation, so they had to retreat with the 96th Regiment of the 288th Division.

After inquiring along the way, Tan Shouzheng finally learned from a fellow villager who was a communications soldier that the wounded soldiers were now stationed in Mo's village, and this was the scene where the three of them left the 288th regiment and rushed on their way ahead of time.

Of course, Wei Ran asked more than that. He also learned from the chat that Liang Squad Leader and Tan Shouzheng were not only fellows from the city where later generations of Guangxi Province relied on snail noodles for their circles, but also that before enlisting in the army, Liang The class monitor was actually Tan Shou's primary school teacher.

It's just that, although the teacher and the student are both educated people, in Tan Shouzheng's mouth, Squad Leader Liang's handwriting is good, but his shooting accuracy is really not very good. It is precisely for this reason that he was rejected Arranged in the cooking class.

According to Squad Leader Liang, Tan Shouzheng, who joined the army a few years later than him, was not very smart when he was studying, but he had a lot of strength and was good at animals. The student was selected into the cooking class he was in charge of.

The two teachers and students got free calls from China, and because the doggy British sold their teammates and ran away and cut off their retreat, they had to retreat back to China. Naturally, they were embarrassed.

"Let me tell you, my grandfather is a serious scholar!"

On the sultry and humid mountain trails, Squad Leader Liang with a beard on his face was smoking a pipe and pot, puffing and puffing on the old days, "During the Republic of China, the old man was still the accountant in a big tea shop in Beiping."

"Then why did he come back to our Liucheng?" Tan Shouzheng asked curiously.

"My grandpa, he spoke with such a strong accent that the Yankees couldn't understand, and said he had a reed in his mouth!"

Squad leader Liang tapped his cigarette pipe and pot, "For this, my grandfather was often laughed at."

"Squad Leader Liang speaks Mandarin very well," Wei Ran complimented him indifferently.

"My grandma is from the north, and came to Liucheng with my grandpa."

Squad leader Liang explained in a flat tone, then tapped the big black pot on the donkey's back with a cigarette pot, pointed to the front and said, "Shouzheng, it seems that there is a fork in the road ahead, let's rest on the big rock under the banyan tree." Take a break, these new shoes are biting your heels."

"I've long wanted to change to straw sandals"

As Tan Shouzheng said, he took two quick steps, sat down on a wet big blue stone by the side of the road, reached out and took off the three blue-green bananas hanging from the muzzle of his gun and put them aside, then began to untie his shoes. bring.

At the same time, Squad Leader Liang also grabbed the donkey with its thick lips and tied him to the air root of the banyan tree beside the stone.

After such a short time, Tan Shouzheng also ran over barefoot, and together with Wei Ran, they worked together to untie the big black pots on both sides of the donkey's body and the cloth bag on its back.

It wasn't until this time that Wei Ran noticed that on the wooden frame used to carry the pot on the donkey's body, there was a bamboo basket on each side of the donkey's body that was originally held by two large black pots.

On the outside of the back basket, there were several pairs of straw sandals tied with straw rope or rags. In addition, there were several wet British army kettles hanging on the wooden shelf that fixed the cauldron and the back basket.

I went around to the other side of the donkey and saw that in addition to the bamboo basket with a few pairs of straw sandals tied to it, there were also two German lunch boxes tied with cloth strips, a poop-green devil lunch box, and two lamps protected by a wooden frame. A burning kerosene lamp and a greasy American kettle.

"Squad leader, where did this American kettle come from?" Wei Ran asked curiously.

"Which one?"

Tan Shouzheng, who was about to open the back basket, glanced at the kettle that Wei Ran was pointing at, and before Squad Leader Liang could speak, he rushed to explain, "I picked it up, and the lid of the kettle has a screw to prevent water leakage, which is better than the British ones." The kettle is good, it’s just used to hold kerosene. This damn place is as damp as a sister’s crotch seam, if you don’t dip it in kerosene, you won’t even be able to light a fire when you’re cooking.”

this broken metaphor
Wei Ran grinned, and was about to pick up the two German lunch boxes hanging on the wooden shelf to ask, but he didn't want Squad Leader Liang to grab his wrist, "You can't touch these two treasures."

"I'll just watch"

"If you see the slits in your eyes, you won't be able to get out." Squad Leader Liang said with a smile, "The idea of ​​not hitting these brown sugars is for wounded soldiers."

"If you don't look at it, don't look at it" Wei Ran simply took a step back and moved to the side of the two baskets. Naturally, he didn't lack the gum, he was just curious about what was in those kettles.

Seeing this, Squad Leader Liang didn't care, he untied the tether on the lid of one of the panniers, and then took out a neatly stacked oilcloth.

Only at this time did Wei Ran see clearly that besides a small chopping board, kitchen utensils such as kitchen knives and frying spoons, and an enamel kettle, there were also an engineering shovel, an engineering pick, and a Ax and a hatchet.In the remaining space, there is a canvas bucket, and there seems to be a damp fishing net in the bucket.

And in another bamboo basket that Tan Shouzheng opened, in addition to a neatly folded tarpaulin, there was also a small bundle of sugar cane from nowhere and four sticks of up to half a meter long. Long, bamboo tube wrapped in strips of cloth.

On the top of these bamboo tubes, the words "tobacco leaves", "tea leaves", "salt" and "pepper" are clearly written with a white brush.In the remaining space of the back basket, there are two cloth bags stacked on top of each other.

This is a small kitchen.
While Wei Ran was muttering to himself, Squad Leader Liang had already taken out a kitchen knife, and said with some regret, "I've been running all the way, and the only things left for cooking are these things."

"At least these foods are not lost." Tan Shouzheng took out three sugar cane that were the size of a child's wrist and handed them over while speaking.

After receiving the sugarcane, Squad Leader Liang cut off the red and moldy spots on both sides of the sugarcane with a kitchen knife, and handed it out to Wei Ran and Tan Shouzheng, and he inserted the kitchen knife back into the wooden knife case in the back basket.

The three of them found seats on the big rocks under the tree and sat down, but Tan Shouzheng was not in a hurry to eat sugarcane, but first distributed the three bananas that had been hanging on the muzzle of the gun to Wei Ran and Squad Leader Liang, and then picked them again. He dropped his backpack and used it as a pillow to lie on the boulder, took out a small pouch from his pocket, rolled a cigarette leisurely and put it in his mouth.

"Shouzheng, after eating the sugar cane, go across the road and cast two nets to see if you can catch a few fish."

"I'll go after I finish smoking this cigarette," Qin Shouzheng responded with narrowed eyes.

Hearing this, Squad Leader Liang didn't say anything else. Like Tan Shouzheng, he took off his new boots, lay on the boulder with his backpack on his head, and slowly chewed the sugar cane.

Wei Ran also put down the Enfield rifle and backpack that he had been carrying all the time. By the way, he also took off the British army water bottle that was slung across his body, and took off his muddy boots.

He pulled the bolt to check the chamber, but he couldn't help shaking his head. Although the magazine capacity of this weapon has reached an excellent 10 rounds, there are only four bullets in this gun. As for his body However, what was stuffed in the ammunition bag was a can of leech-proof 666 powder and a bottle of anti-mosquito oil.

Unwilling to give up, he opened the backpack and looked through it. In addition to a mosquito net and two mosquito masks, the rest of the space is only two quinine pills and a box of Rendan produced by devils, plus shoes before departure. Three pairs of socks came with me, along with shoe polish, beeswax, and small brushes in the socks.

On the outside of the backpack, there are also two pairs of yellow straw sandals and a small enamel cup.After thinking for a while, Wei Ran put on straw sandals on his bare feet, walked to the edge of the pond across the road and sat down, washed his feet carefully and wiped them clean with his socks.

It wasn't over yet, he also carefully cleaned the mud on his boots, and then he pulled the straw sandals and walked back to the opposite side of the big rock and sat down.

Using a sock to carefully wipe off the water stains on the boots, Wei Ran dipped a small brush in some shoe polish and wiped the boots carefully. After drying, he carefully applied a layer of beeswax.

By the time he put on a new pair of socks and put on his waxed boots again, both Squad Leader Liang and Tan Shouzheng had finished eating sugar cane and put on straw sandals.And the donkey, whose load had been temporarily unloaded, came over slowly, eating the bagasse and banana peels all over the floor bit by bit.

"What's the use of polishing it so brightly?" Tan Shouzheng, who was standing by the pond arranging fishing nets, asked jokingly, "The wild mountains and wild mountains here are not in the city, and there are no women to look at us at all."

"Oil and waterproof"

Wei Ran, who was still wearing straw sandals on his feet, leaned over to the pond, explained, and carefully cleaned the pair of socks that had not been worn for a long time.

“Where are straw sandals comfortable”

While Tan Shouzheng was speaking, he had already thrown the fishing net, and successfully shook it into a circle on the water.

"It's not as comfortable as straw sandals"

Wei Ran wrung out his socks and agreed with a smile. In this environment, this kind of exquisite cannonball boots are indeed not as comfortable as straw sandals, or even as comfortable as the pair of German-style boots on his feet that he didn’t know how long he wore before departure—at least the pair Boots with open mouth are breathable enough.

But for him, wearing straw sandals to travel in this barren mountains and mountains, his feet are not only inferior to Zhao Shengli on the recruiting battlefield, but also inferior to these two in front of him.

It is almost foreseeable that once the sole of his foot is injured, the next trip, even if he has received KGB training, will become a complete burden.

Because of this, wearing boots, a pair of boots that are sufficiently waterproof, has become the only choice for Wei Ran.

"You skinny and tender, why do you look like a recruit?" While Tan Shouzheng was speaking, he had already started to collect the net.

"I'm not a recruit"

Wei Ran put the washed socks on a rock on the shore and didn't rush to get up, but asked curiously, "How long have you been a soldier?"

"not long"

Tan Shouzheng pointed to Squad Leader Liang on the opposite side of the road, "I am a recruit from the 22nd Division before going abroad, and my gun hasn't been fired since I picked it up."

"Pick it back?" Wei Ran raised his eyebrows.

"It's not just picking it up"

Tan Shouzheng reached out and picked a small fish from the fishing net and threw it on the shore, "Don't you remember? We even picked up the British gun in your hand from the British warehouse. Unfortunately, it's just bullets. A little less, but it's still better than the old sockets I used to use."

He is really a new soldier. Wei Ran muttered to himself, then asked curiously, "Shouzheng, why do you want to join the army?"

"I didn't think much"

Tan Shouzheng threw out the fishing net again, and said as a matter of course, "My father went out to fight with General Li Zongren when I was a child, and he didn't come back when I joined the army.

When Squad Leader Liang was still a gentleman, he said that if he wanted to save Huaxia, he first wanted to drive away the little devils. When he went to join the army, we even sent him away. "

"Then you joined the army?"

"Yes!" Tan Shouzheng replied with an accent, both for granted and undisguised pride.

"What about you?" Tan Shouzheng asked while pulling the net, "Why are you? Seeing that your shoes are so shiny, you must belong to a rich family."

"me."

Wei Ran shook his head, got up and walked towards the big rock across the road and said, "I don't know either."

"Our company commander said so too!"

Tan Shouzheng replied without turning his head, "He said he didn't understand, and he also said that it's not important to understand, the important thing is to drive away the little devils first, and then you can think about it slowly Oh!"

"That's right!" Wei Ran waved his hands without turning his head, "Think slowly after the little devil is driven away!"

"The company commander has died"

Squad leader Liang on the other side of the road took up the topic in a flat tone, "He died a month ago, and the corpses were not found, so they were buried in a broken oil drum. He, he has some time to think about it slowly!"

Hearing this, Wei Ran's body trembled subconsciously. After a brief daze, he silently tied the washed socks to his backpack, put on his boots again, and then peeled off his own banana. into the stomach.

Throwing the banana peel to the hard-working donkey, just as he was about to bite his mouth on his own section of sugar cane, Tan Shouzheng, who was standing by the pond, called out vigilantly, "Hidden!"

Before the words finished, Squad Leader Liang, who was lying on his back smoking on the stone a second ago, turned over in a hurry and hid behind the stone. He leaned over to the side of the donkey, softly yelled at it to lie down on its side, and at the same time From the wooden gun box at his waist, he pulled out a box gun in a panic.

At the same time, Tan Shouzheng, who was on the opposite side, was lying on his stomach in the grass by the pond, raising his Enfield rifle that hadn't been fired yet.

Wei Ran, who was also hiding, replaced the sugar cane he had just picked up with a rifle, and then cautiously looked towards the direction of the fork in front of him.

Although there was a distance of more than a hundred meters between the two parties, he still clearly saw that two people jumped off their horses in the distance, and then each slapped the horse's buttocks they were riding With a whip, they let them scream and run towards the direction where Wei Ran and the others were going to rest their feet and move on.

But the two people who got off the horse supported each other, bent down and got into the jungle by the roadside.Wei Ran can even see that the one walking behind seems to be carefully cleaning up the traces they left on the road.

"Are those two from us?" Tan Shouzheng asked in a low voice in the grass across the road.

"It doesn't look like it, wait a minute." Squad leader Liang also responded with a suppressed voice, "They are running so fast, there must be someone behind them."

As if to test Squad Leader Liang's judgment, within five minutes, another four horses supported the man and chased them from the direction the two men had come from.

The four horses stopped at the Y-shaped intersection for a while, and then ran out in the same direction in which the two horses in front disappeared.

However, what Wei Ran and others did not expect was that just as the four horses had just disappeared from sight, the two people who got into the jungle by the side of the road actually returned to the road, and they were so dead. These two people even chose the opposite direction to the two horses they let go, and ran towards Wei Ran and the others!

　Sorry for the change of business trip
　　
　
(End of this chapter)