War Photographer's Notebook

In the dark night, only the sound of insects and thick fog remained in the sultry and humid jungle.

In the jungle less than [-] meters away from the mountain road, Tan Shouzheng and Zhou Guochang each carried a heavy bamboo basket.In the hand of the former, he held a Browning Hi-Power pistol ready to fire at any time, while in the hand of the latter, he held an Enfield rifle.

And in the middle of the two of them, besides his own backpack, the British businessman Luke was also carrying a fellow Enfield rifle.

In his hands, he held a luminous compass in the style of a silver pocket watch and his Browning Hi-Power pistol.

A hundred meters away, on a forest mountain road less than two meters wide, a donkey was walking slowly with two large black pots on its back. On the left and right two wooden frames used to fix the black pots, there was also a clean pot hanging on each of them. Clean kerosene lamps.

Behind the buttocks of the donkey that was just not illuminated by the light, squad leader Liang with a bamboo hat made of banana leaves on his head and a tarpaulin over his shoulders was holding the extended rein in one hand, and the other was hiding in the shadow of the black pot In his hand, he always holds a box gun that can be fired at any time.

And at a distance of only 30 meters behind him, the bare-handed Wei Ran also hunched over the weeds on the side of the road, silently following the two hazy yellow lights in front of him.

When the donkey walked slowly to the intersection point of the fork in the road, the mountain col that swallowed the road ahead was pitch black, like a huge monster waiting for its prey with its mouth open.

After a short pause, Squad Leader Liang took a deep breath, bent down to pick up a stone, and knocked it gently on the edge of the big iron pot.

"clang--!"

The low humming sounded for a long distance on this quiet upper road, and the birds that had been resting in the tree canopy by the roadside also flew up in a large swath.

"clang--!"

With the second knock, the chirping of insects on the side of the road also stopped.The dark barren mountains also seemed more and more dead.

"clang--!"

After the third knocking sound was completely absorbed by the vegetation around the mountain road, Squad Leader Liang decisively threw away the stone in his hand, patted the donkey's butt lightly, and yelled at it to speed up a little.

However, before he could go far, there was a clear sound of horseshoes directly in front of him.As the sound got closer, two beams of light from flashlights also shone on the faces of Squad Leader Liang and the donkey.

However, the men on the two horses had not yet come down.Suddenly, a series of crisp gunshots rang out from the jungle by the roadside!
Under the not-so-intensive gunshots, one of the horses fell down in response, and the horse under his buttocks was also frightened by being shot in the buttocks, neighing and ran away, and by the way, killed its owner Shake it off, and discard it mercilessly in the mud.

This was not planned, and the gunshots still did not stop. The man on the second horse was about to raise the weapon in his hand, when Squad Leader Liang, who had been on guard for a long time, shot him in the chest with the box gun in his hand.At the same time, the bullets fired from the jungle by the road also swarmed on the horse under his buttocks.

In contrast, Wei Ran, who followed at the end from the beginning to the end, did not fire. Not only did he not fire, he even took a few steps back while taking advantage of the confusion. …

"Stop fighting! Stop fighting!"

Squad leader Liang yelled a few times angrily, and when the gunfire stopped, he also blew out the oil lamp on the donkey with a sullen face, and led it to the side of the road and tied it to a tree.

"Who told you to shoot!"

Squad leader Liang stooped into the jungle on the side of the road and asked with a sullen face.

"It's him!" Tan Shouzheng and Zhou Guochang pointed out in unison that the British businessman Luke was the first to shoot.

"I was worried that those two bastards would hurt you before I shot"

Luke explained in badly out-of-key Chinese, but no matter how sincere his tone was, and no matter how sincere his tone was, and no matter the monitor Liang, the younger Tan Shouzheng, or even Zhou Guochang, they all knew very well that this old British man was just doing a deal, a deal of 1 for 2 business!
In other words, he didn't care about Squad Leader Liang's life or death at all!Because everyone knew that there were four people chasing him and Zhou Guochang back then!

Just now or even now, as long as the remaining two people are around, with just one shot, Squad Leader Liang will definitely die!Because, only he is like a protagonist, shrouded in the light of two kerosene lamps and two flashlights!

But this British businessman is completely fearless, because he clearly knows what these people want most!
"I'm very sorry"

Luke's tone became more sincere, "I'm really worried that they will hurt you. When we get to Mansi, I will ask the commander of the British army to send you some extra quinine as compensation?"

Before he finished speaking, Tan Shouzheng raised the pistol he borrowed from Zhou Guochang, and aimed the gun at Luke's head.

"Put down the gun!" Squad Leader Liang raised his hand and pressed down the weapon that Tan Shouzheng had just raised, took a deep breath, pointed at the other party's backpack and said, "At least two boxes."

"No problem, of course!" Luke promised with a smile.

"Squad leader, you."

"Shut up!" Squad Leader Liang lowered his voice slightly, "Where's Wei Ran?"

Naturally, Wei Ran was not interested in listening to their chats at this time. As early as Squad Leader Liang extinguished the kerosene lamp, he had already walked around the two dead bodies and picked up the two dead bodies as quickly as possible. The tin flashlight went out and quickly changed positions.

He was a little relieved until he was sure that no one shot at him twice, crawled to the side of a corpse, picked up his weapon in the dark and threw it on his shoulder, and took it out of the metal book A Mauser bayonet stabbed the corpse's neck.

Rolling to the side of the second enemy who was still panting, Wei Ran also stabbed it in the neck and stomach, and then got up, holding the weapon picked up from the first corpse, He quickly rushed towards the direction the two horses had come from.

It was only 200 meters before and after, and he saw that behind the stones on a hillside by the roadside, he could vaguely see some dim light of fire.

Touching it carefully, a simple shack has been built with banana leaves at this time. Not only are banana leaves covered in the shack, but a mosquito net is also hung, and even two pieces of rainproof canvas with mud A small hearth was surrounded by big rocks that came to hide.

At this time, not only were there two British army lunch boxes heating canned fish and two devil lunch boxes cooking rice on the stove, but there were also several British army enamel kettles hanging beside the stove. …

Even, in a canvas bucket under the mosquito net, there were some tropical fruits from unknown sources, and two multi-function knives that Wei Ran found familiar.And in the two tarp pockets that serve as pillows in this tent, each contains at least four or five catties of rice.

Not in a hurry to leave, Wei Ran took another look at the weapon he had just picked up by the light of the stove.

Just like what Zhou Guochang said at the beginning, what these people use are indeed flower traps, and they are indeed not flower traps. They can even be classified as high-quality goods in flower traps.

To be more precise, this submachine gun and the anti-tank gun in the metal book can still be regarded as relatives in a certain sense.

Because, this is a Steyr-Solothurn s1-100 submachine gun that was nicknamed "Rolls Royce in submachine guns" in later generations.

Whether this gun is the Rolls-Royce in the submachine gun, Wei Ran will not comment, but he knows that most of the weapons involved with the company Solothurn are high-end products that require labor and effort. Of course, they are expensive. And practicality, at least in light weapons, are often not equated.

Fortunately, this does not prevent it from being favored by Mustache and endowed with the new name of "mp34", which is a household name, and it does not prevent the devil from imitating himself. Using this gun as a prototype, he designed a hundred-style submachine gun that makes sows shake their heads when they see it. .

He pulled out the magazine and looked at it. As he knew, the submachine guns exported to China and Japan were all modified with 7.63x25mm Mauser pistol bullets.

"Could it be an elite? It should be impossible."

Wei Ran muttered to himself, reinserted the magazine for the submachine gun, then reached out and took out a piece of fruit peel from the canvas bucket, after thinking for a while, he added another firewood to the bonfire, and then got up to pick it up. With a flashlight, he walked in the direction he came from.

While calling the names of Squad Leader Liang and others softly, when he walked to the side of the killed horse again, Squad Leader Liang had already cut off a large piece of meat from the horse's corpse with a kitchen knife.

Meanwhile, the two young men, Tan Shouzheng and Zhou Guochang, were also busy stacking the plundered loot on a tarpaulin spread on the ground at this time, but British businessman Luke was helping Squad Leader Liang, using the collected plantains Ye, wrapped the pieces of fresh horse meat and hung them on the donkey one by one.

Resisting the urge to beat Luke to make him less careful, Wei Ran walked to the side of the first corpse and turned on the flashlight again for a careful observation.

This corpse wore a bamboo hat on its head, and a longi circle around its waist. If you only saw this, it was almost difficult to distinguish it from the similarly short, electric-free man.

But in addition to these camouflages, he was wearing British army boots on his feet, and he was wearing mosquito-proof gloves that were very characteristic of devils. Three spare submachine gun magazines.

Roughly tore off the corpse's clothes and inspected it carefully. Apart from the unique loincloth to determine the species, Wei Ran, who found nothing, finally just untied its ammunition bag and carried it in his hand. He turned and walked towards another corpse.

At this time, Zhou Guochang and Tan Shouzheng had stripped the corpse clean, and all the things were piled up on the tarp next to it, which made it a lot easier for him. …

Compared with the devil just now, it only has a telescope, a box of Rendan and a bottle of quinine on its body.

At this time, Tan Shouzheng and Zhou Guochang were thinking about how to distribute the loot they had just collected—especially the submachine gun.

"Stop arguing, both of you." Wei Ran had already handed over the submachine gun and ammunition bag in his hand, "One for each of you."

"What about you?" Tan Shouzheng asked subconsciously, "He has never fought a war at all, so it would be a waste to give him such a good gun."

"I hit it right! I killed the first devil just now!" Zhou Guochang argued.

"Stop arguing"

Squad leader Liang, who had been busy just now, said, "Wei Ran and Shouzheng will use the flower mechanism. Guochang, since you can shoot accurately, use a long gun. It can hit farther than the flower mechanism. Let Shouzheng use it later." All the bullets in his gun will be given to you.

We've only dealt with half of the enemies, and there are still two devils left. By then, we'll all have tricks. "

"Okay"

Zhou Guochang looked at the submachine gun that he held in his arms with regret, and finally handed it to Tan Shouzheng.

Seeing this, Wei Ran put on the ammunition bag in his hand, and then put the submachine gun back on his back, and then briefly described the situation in the shack he just discovered.

Hearing that there was ready-cooked rice to eat, Zhou Guochang and Tan Shouzheng, who were a little awkward because of the loot a second ago, immediately became happy again. If Wei Ran hadn't stopped them, these little brothers would probably run over now .

A group of people helped Squad Leader Liang cut off enough meat from the horse's carcass to put it on the donkey's back. Then, under the leadership of Wei Ran, the group carefully touched the outside of the shed they had just discovered.

After checking that there was no danger, Squad Leader Liang urged Tan Shouzheng and Zhou Guochang to dig a stove pit without giving them any time to rest, and the reward was the two multifunctional knives found in the canvas bucket.

Wei Ran and Luke were arranged to get enough firewood nearby.As for Squad Leader Liang himself, he had already dug out the eucalyptus board from the back basket, and was busy cutting the horse meat into long strips.

Taking Luke a little further away from the shack, Wei Ran abruptly picked up his submachine gun and loaded it, and pointed the muzzle and the light of the flashlight at Luke.

"Soldier, are you going to kill me?"

There was undisguised contempt in Luke's tone, and he didn't even pull out the pistol at his waist from the beginning to the end, but just raised his hands perfunctorily, and pointed the light of the flashlight at Wei Ran's slightly squinted eyes, "Before you pull the trigger, you have to think about it. If you send me to Muncie alive, you will get five times the amount of quinine. This is what I just talked about with Mr. Liang while you were away." price. If you kill me"

"Peng!" Before Luke could finish his sentence, Wei Ran had already hit the opponent's stomach with the butt of his gun.

Before the British businessman could scream, Wei Ran had already punched his knee hard with the muzzle of his gun, then kicked him to the ground with his foot, and smashed the second butt of his gun on the ground where he was about to reach for the gun. set of hands. …

After easily capturing the other party's pistol, Wei Ran pressed his knee on Luke's neck, and asked with a smile while continuing to exert force, "Mr. Luke, there must be no mention of this in the terms you negotiated with Squad Leader Liang." Will you be beaten in the middle?"

Before he finished speaking, he swung the butt of the gun again and hit the bone of Luke's leg that was about to kick him.

After several times in a row, Luke, who was blushing because of his shortness of breath, finally endured the pain all over his body and gave up resisting. He just struggled hard, trying to break free from the heavy pressure on his neck, and tried hard to fight for himself. of oxygen.

Fortunately, just when he thought he was about to be suffocated, Wei Ran finally stood up with a submachine gun.

However, before he covered his neck and coughed, a slender and sharp bayonet had already entered his mouth, and at the same time, the beam of the flashlight also shone on his reddened face.

"Mr. Luke, how about we make a deal?" Wei Ran asked at the same time, and slightly let the tip of the knife penetrate into the opponent's mouth for a distance of one centimeter, seemingly touching his upper teeth. chamber.

Without waiting for the other party to respond and how to respond, Wei Ran has already slowly pulled the tip of the Mauser bayonet out of the other party's mouth, and wiped off the bloody saliva on the other party's face.

"What deal?" Luke asked with a cold face, and one of his hands also secretly grabbed a lump of mud.

However, Wei Ran took a step back before speaking, stretched out his hand and put on the bamboo hat that was taken from the devil's corpse, and then said in a low voice, "Don't play tricks on anyone, otherwise."

"Otherwise what?" Luke asked as he turned his head and looked at Wei Ran who was walking around to his side.

Hearing this, Wei Ran leaned close to the other party's ear on purpose, lowered his voice and said in English, "Otherwise, the information you want to send may not be able to reach the escaped British veterans at all."

With just one sentence, Luke, who had been extremely calm before, turned pale with fright, and asked after a moment of silence, "Are you the recruiter?"

"Chinese people"

Wei Ran switched back to his native language and explained in a low voice, "If you are just passing on information, I will even choose to help you, but if you attack them and want to kill them, then I don't mind completing the work of passing on information for you .”

"You?" Luke returned to his haughty look, and said in a pure London accent, "You're mistaken, I don't know anything about intelligence."

"up to you"

Wei Ran said indifferently, "By the way, I remember that there seems to be a "Yomiuri Shimbun" newspaper from a few days ago in your canvas bag? Why, Mr. Luke still understands Japanese?"

Such a subtle but obvious reminder finally made Luke unable to keep calm anymore, so that Wei Ran could clearly see the other party's childish hole shrank.

After a long time, Luke made a promise as if talking to himself, "I promise I won't create danger for them again."

"It's best like this." Wei Ran patted the other party's shoulder with a smile, "Hurry up and find firewood."

"Why did you appear here?" Luke asked curiously while busy collecting firewood that could be burned, "Could it be that you are..."…

"I'm just a soldier"

Wei Ran pretended to be mysterious and smiled and replied, "Don't worry, as long as you fulfill your promise, I will not only help you keep the secret, but also help you complete the task."

Hearing this, Luke fell into silence again, neither thanking nor refusing, as if he didn't notice what he just said.

However, Wei Ran was very satisfied with this. Luke did not refuse, but he also did not explicitly object, did he?
By the time he and the preoccupied Luke came back with a bundle of damp wood each, Squad Leader Liang had already moved the bonfire to a larger stove pit, and used the two mud-stained tarps to cover the fire. A cone formed around the fire.

Finally, a handful of grass was covered on the bonfire, and when the smoke covered the horse meat strips, Squad Leader Liang also took the two boxes of rice cooked by the devil and divided them into five equal portions, and then poured the canned food on the above.

But obviously, now is far from the time to eat.Under the command of the cooking squad leader, including Wei Ran and Luke who had just been warned, they honestly roasted the horse meat cut into strips on the bonfire, and then used the gun butt to make a fuss Beat it, then dip it in the prepared salt water, and finally dip it in some freshly cut chili powder, and then hang it into the conical simple smoke room surrounded by it.

Everyone worked together for about an hour, and as the last piece of horse meat was sent in for smoking, Squad Leader Liang immediately filled it with a handful of grass and sealed the surrounding tightly.

"With these cows. Maraba, with these Maraba, it is just enough to satisfy the greed of the brothers."

Squad leader Liang beamed and patted the two cloth pockets used as pillows, "And there are so many rice, we can make some rice wine by then, everyone can have a sip of it!"

"I'm starting to miss home," Tan Shouzheng said while sipping, "My mother's sweet wine is also delicious."

"Aren't you worried about the other two devils chasing us?"

Zhou Guochang asked while beating his sore shoulder. He did all the work of beating the dried horse meat just now.

"Zhou, don't worry"

Luke picked up the meal that was still heating by the campfire, "There are obviously only two traces left here, and I guess the other two must have gone to Muncie Town to wait for us."

"Then what should we do?" Zhou Guochang asked subconsciously.

"What else can we do? If we dare to come, we will kill them!" Tan Shouzheng said as a matter of course while picking up a lunch box from the British Army, while stuffing food into his mouth.

"Shouzheng is right this time"

Squad leader Liang, who was also holding a lunch box and pulling food into his mouth, agreed, "If there were only four people chasing you all the time, now our firepower is not weak at all, and there are more people than them. There are still people behind us." People from the 288th regiment are holding the line. If we can snatch their horses, maybe we can get to Muncie sooner.”

"Even without horses, we're not far from Muncie."

Luke secretly glanced at Wei Ran, and continued to eat while saying, "If we don't rest tonight, we will be able to walk to Mansi Town tomorrow morning."

“Evening is really a good time to drive”

Squad leader Liang continued, "When we see them tomorrow morning, maybe the maraba we made will still be hot!"

"And we still have those quinine pills!" Tan Shouzheng thought happily, "Maybe the company commander can give me a reward and transfer me out of the cooking class!"

"What's wrong with the cooking class!" Squad leader Liang said dissatisfied, "You bastard, why did my cooking class make you hungry?"

"You two, I think it's better to stop arguing." Luke stood up and pointed to the distance and said, "Why does there seem to be a light there?"

"Have the members of the 288th regiment arrived?" Tan Shouzheng stood up and said.

"The speed is too fast, and the direction is wrong. It came from another way."

Wei Ran picked up his engineering shovel while he was speaking, and dug a shovel of damp soil to cover the campfire, "Looks like they are riding a horse! And it looks like there must be more than a dozen people at least!"

Squad leader Liang immediately realized that something was wrong, he snapped the lunch box and stuffed it into the back basket and shouted in a low voice, "Quick! Pack your things!"