War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 825 Extra Orthographic

Early the next morning, everyone drank a bowl of thick rice porridge and each received a piece of dried horse meat the size of a finger. Under the leadership of the young monk Sehao, they embarked on a journey back home.

"Master Sehao said that he doesn't know the way back, he has only been here as far as he can. We can only follow the traces left by the large troops ahead."

Walking side by side with Wei Ran, Zhou Guochang, who was at the front of the team, waved a Gurkha scimitar to cut off the vines blocking the way, and at the same time translated the little monk's reminder in a vigorous manner.

"Squad leader, why don't you just ride a donkey and go after the big troops with the medicine first?" Tan Shouzheng, who was walking side by side with the little monk each leading a donkey, came up with a bad idea.

"Do you really think there are no tigers in this mountain?"

Squad leader Liang said angrily, "It's fine if I get picked up by the tiger. If those medicines are lost, it will be troublesome."

"More Than Tigers"

Zhou Guochang translated loudly again, "Little master said that the mosquitoes in this forest can eat people, everyone must wear mosquito masks, and absolutely don't drink raw water, let alone eat all kinds of wild fruits and vegetables."

"Everything is inseparable from 'little master said', you two should just get married." Tan Shouzheng teased, holding back his anger, "Maybe we can have a baby next year. Whoops!"

Before he could finish his wicked words, Squad Leader Liang gave him a big slap, "Shut your stinking mouth!"

"He doesn't understand," Tan Shouzheng defended, clutching the back of his head.

"Accumulate virtue with your mouth"

Squad Leader Liang, who was catching up from the end of the line, made another slap in the face in frustration, "Master Sehao doesn't have to follow us, but if he follows us, maybe he can save someone's life, you kid. Doorkeeper, I stuffed donkey dung into your mouth."

Tan Shouzheng grinned when he heard the words, but after all, he didn't dare to say anything more—even though the businessman Luke at the end of the line was already laughing, even though Wei Ran, the leader of the line, turned around and pointed at him when he was slapped on the ear. He pressed the camera shutter.

After the lesson was over for this man who didn't have a handle on his mouth, Squad Leader Liang took out his cigarette pouch and tapped it on the brim of the steel helmet above his head, lit another pouch of cigarettes, and continued to chat with Luke, who was also walking side by side with a pannier on his back, in a low voice. .

Near noon, the roar of the plane came again overhead, and everyone immediately hid in the woods by the roadside.

Who knows whether these flies flying all over the sky really found the target or dropped the bombs, but they could hear the deafening explosion clearly even if it was separated by a hill.As for what was in the bombed place, we had to wait until we got there to find out.

Waiting patiently for the plane overhead to get farther and farther away until there was no movement, the two young men, Tan Shouzheng and Zhou Guochang, spit at the same time.

"If those bastards flew lower, I would definitely be able to shoot them down!" Zhou Guochang said viciously.

"Stop being hysterical, let's go."

Tan Shouzheng led the donkey and said perfunctorily. Although he was just a cook, he was still much better than Zhou Guochang who had never been on the battlefield. He didn't think it was easy to shoot down the plane with a rifle.

After the episode, the team continued on the road, and the topic among the three young men also shifted to how long the barefoot monk Sehao could last.

"I used to climb up and often barefoot"

Tan Shouzheng was the first to say, "But this kind of ghost place, even wearing straw sandals will hurt you, so I don't dare to go barefoot."

"I've never walked barefoot," Zhou Guochang said second, "My father is very strict and never lets me walk barefoot like a Burmese."

"Wei Ran is the same as you, I guess he is also a rich young man." While talking, Tan Shouzheng pointed to the ammunition boots on Wei Ran's feet.

"I'm not some rich young man"

Wei Ran quickly waved his hand, "But I know a friend who can also climb mountains barefoot, and the speed is so fast that he can't catch up."

"Is it faster than little master Sehao?" Zhou Guochang asked curiously.

"That friend of mine."

Wei Ran smiled, "His fast machine gun can't catch up with him, I guess even these two donkeys can be killed by him."

"Nemo Egg General Boo!"

Tan Shouzheng subconsciously uttered a sentence in pure dialect, followed by a sigh, and asked almost certainly, "A poor man too?"

"Yes." Wei Ran raised his head and looked at the top of his head, "He is also a poor man."

"What's the difference between the poor and the rich?" Zhou Guochang sighed, "In this world, if you don't beat the little devils away, you will have no way out."

The suddenly heavy topic made the three young people lose interest in chatting, and in the dense forest, only the two donkeys neighed from time to time.

At about three o'clock in the afternoon, the exhausted people turned over a hill again, and squad leader Liang, who was walking at the end, was finally willing to let everyone rest again.

After being exhausted, they helped to unload the burden from the two donkeys. Everyone helped to clean up the blood-sucking locusts hanging on their bodies, and then re-sprinkled 666 powder to prevent leeches, and each found a place to sit down.

"Did you smell anything?" Tan Shouzheng asked, sniffling.

"What's the smell?" Zhou Guochang asked, sniffling, after taking the small dried fish distributed to him by Squad Leader Liang.

"Smelly smell..." Tan Shouzheng stood up while speaking, walked two steps curiously to the side, and used the bamboo pole in his hand as a walking stick to push aside the dense grass, looking around for the source of the stench.

"Quick! Come and see!" Tan Shouzheng suddenly panicked and shouted, at the same time he staggered back a step, and sat down on the ground.

Hearing this, Wei Ran was the first to put down the kettle and rushed over.

When he followed the trembling bamboo pole in the opponent's hand, he couldn't help but tremble. It was a thigh that had been gnawed almost to the bone. leggings and tumbling maggots, and straw sandals still worn on the feet.

A little further away, on a big crooked tree, there was still half a broken corpse hanging.

Looking at Tan Shouzheng, Wei Ran immediately loaded the bullet and walked over cautiously.

As the distance got closer, the unique smell of corpse decay hit the face.In the grass along the way, there are also scattered large and small human bones.

When they got right under the big tree, Tan Shouzheng had already spat out with a wow, and at the same time frantically gestured to Squad Leader Liang and the others who were following behind, signaling them not to come over.

Soon, Zhou Guochang, who was overly curious, and Luke, a businessman who had a dried fish in his mouth, were among those who vomited.

But under the big tree, Wei Ran and Squad Leader Liang looked up in silence, at the half-emptied corpse, at the dilapidated expeditionary uniform on the corpse, And the British steel helmet still worn on the head.

Looking around at the surrounding environment, Wei Ran climbed up the big tree, and carefully carried the broken corpse down.

At the same time, Squad Leader Liang quickly walked back to the resting position, took out the engineering shovel from the back basket, dug a hole under the tree where the corpse was found, and together with Wei Ran, put the corpse together and put it away. go in.

"Where did this corpse come from?" Squad leader Liang asked to himself while searching around for stones to press on it.

"It shouldn't be far, I'll look around."

Before Wei Ran finished speaking, he stood up.It's a pity that the heavy rain yesterday has washed away almost all traces.

Looking left and right, Wei Ran simply followed the path left by the troops in front and continued to move forward, while distractedly observing the surrounding environment.

Before he could find anything unusual, Tan Shouzheng had already caught up, "I'll look for it with you."

"Are you okay?" Wei Ran asked without turning his head.

"No, it's fine." Tan Shouzheng replied with a pale face.

"Go watch Luke"

Wei Ran subconsciously wanted to pat the other person on the shoulder, but the latter also subconsciously took a step back, which reminded him that he had just lifted the severely decomposed corpse and hadn't washed his hands yet.

"Sorry, go and stare at him." Wei Ran withdrew his hand in time, turned around and quickened his pace, leaving only Tan Shouzheng standing there with a guilty expression on his face.

Not far along the road down the mountain, Wei Ran stopped. Not far ahead, a series of conspicuous bullet craters were evenly scattered on the road down the mountain. Among them, one or two bullet craters were carelessly fill up.

At this time, around the filled craters, there were still some small carnivores such as bobcats, busy digging out the bodies buried in the craters.

"Da da da!"

Wei Ran pulled the trigger expressionlessly, and the piercing gunshots left a few small animals that were not afraid of death.

"Da-da-da! Da-da-da!"

Wei Ran chased the fleeing small animals and shot one after another, either keeping them behind, or stopping until they disappeared completely.

"What's wrong?" When the gunfire stopped, Squad Leader Liang also chased after him.

"Where is it"

Wei Ran raised his finger and pointed to the cemetery in the distance, replaced the submachine gun with a magazine, walked over and said, "This place must have been bombed by a Devil plane, and many people died."

Walking to the edge of the first bomb crater that served as a tomb, a strong smell of corpses spread over the surface, and the bones dug out by various small animals were scattered all over the ground, so that the two of them could hardly find their feet The place.

Cautiously walked under a tree whose bark had been scraped off. The bark was clearly engraved with completely unfamiliar lives, as well as the numbers belonging to the new 22nd Division or 96th Division.

After a brief silence, Squad Leader Liang bent down silently, picked up a bloody patella, and then picked up another shoulder blade that belonged to whomever it belonged to, and staggered back to the shell crater that was only covered with a thin layer of soil. Nervously, he muttered in a dialect that Wei Ran didn't quite understand.

Looking back at Tan Shouzheng, who was kneeling not far away, Wei Ran let out a long breath, and bent down to help collect the bones scattered all over the floor.

A moment later, Tan Shouzheng, who was in tears, gritted his teeth and came to help. A little later, Zhou Guochang and the barefoot young monk Sehao also joined the ranks of collecting the bones.

In the end, even the businessman Luke, holding a sapper shovel, silently helped to bury the exposed bones.

In the end, when the originally slightly sunken crater turned into a slightly raised small tomb, Sehao sat cross-legged in front of the tomb, clasped his hands together, and recited scriptures that only Zhou Guochang might be able to understand. arts.

And under the tree engraved with the name of the deceased, squad leader Liang tremblingly took off the German lunch box hanging on the donkey, and took out a small writing brush and a double-ended gun oiler from it.

In the sound of chanting sutras that was neither in a hurry nor in a hurry and could not hear any emotion contained in it, Squad Leader Liang took off the helmet on his head, raised his head to read a name, and lowered his head to write down a stroke carefully. On the helmet, there was also another In a row, there appeared one after another the orthographic characters that carried too much pain.

(End of this chapter)