War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 832
On the edge of the winding river in the valley, Wei Ran and the others leaned on a bamboo pole with one hand and supported the cliff with the other, and they had already waded through the water for a whole morning.However, neither the river nor the cliffs on both banks have an end in sight.Even the river channel is deepening, and now it is almost waist deep.

"Also, how far is it?" Zhou Guochang, who took turns taking the lead with Wei Ran, said weakly, "My legs are going to cramp again."

"do not know"

Wei Ran, who was walking in the second place, wiped the sweat from his forehead and responded, "I didn't even find a place to climb the cliff along the way."

"keep going"

Tan Shouzheng picked up the water bottle and drank his saliva, urging, "Let's at least find a place where we can sit down and rest."

"Let me go ahead." Wei Ran bypassed Zhou Guochang while speaking, and walked around the bend of the river with the help of the rock wall.

However, there are still cliffs ahead, and there is not even a river beach or a resting point slightly above the water.

Suppressing the disappointment in their hearts, everyone forced their spirits to continue moving forward. Whenever they couldn't move anymore, they found a place that was not too deep, gathered the bamboo sticks in everyone's hands and tied them with ropes to make a bracket, and then Hang your respective panniers on it to avoid getting wet.As for people, naturally they can only sit directly on the riverbed full of gravel.

If I had known earlier, the rowboat would have been taken out in advance.
Wei Ran, who was still walking in the front, secretly regretted that if he knew that he would have to walk along this river for so long, he should have taken out the row boat and put it on the island in the middle of the river in advance, waiting for everyone to find out.

"There seems to be something in front!" Tan Shouzheng, who was walking in the third place, shouted in surprise, "It seems to be an island!"

Hearing this, everyone raised their heads and looked straight ahead. Sure enough, there seemed to be an island on the side of the river ahead!Subconsciously speeding up the pace, everyone almost trotted after him.

However, as the distance got closer, everyone could smell the stench of corpses again!
As if looking at each other, Wei Ran, who was walking in the front, slowed down and approached step by step against the stench of corpses. Gradually, he finally saw clearly that the river was full of mutilated corpses. !
Some of these corpses were expeditionary soldiers, some were swollen army horses covered in flies, and there was even a dead buffalo in the middle!

And the reason why these corpses are piled up here is also because of the large and small stones in the river that are barely even with the water!

"It was also bombed by the devil's plane." Wei Ran clenched his fists as he said this.

"These bastards!" Tan Shouzheng cursed over and over again with widened eyes.

"You go first"

Squad leader Liang greeted almost to himself, ignored the strong and pungent corpse smell, and carefully counted the rotting corpses that almost covered the riverbed.

"Go, go."

Wei Ran carefully pushed away the rotting corpses that almost filled the water, and walked forward step by step.

"crash"

Amidst the splashing water, the little monk Sehao slipped and fell into the river on his back.But immediately after, the river channel pushed away by him was completely covered by those dense corpses again.

"Master Sehao!"

Zhou Guochang was stunned for a moment, then quickly bent down and reached out to help the little monk who fell into the water.

"vomit--"

As soon as the little monk Sehao sat up, he couldn't help retching because of the dense corpses all around him, and then he vomited out all the food he ate before he set off before he could take off the anti-mosquito mask.

However, at this time, no one laughed at him, and no one blamed this kid who was only fifteen or sixteen years old. They just helped him stand up and carefully checked the water-soaked bamboo basket.

Fortunately, because the little monk is short and small, he has already transferred the rice and other supplies to the bamboo basket on the donkey. Except for a dark red cassock in his back basket, the rest are some things that are not afraid of blisters. Hatchet or something.

When the pale-faced little master calmed down, Wei Ran gently pushed away the corpse floating in front of him again, and said as he walked forward, "Stand still, Guochang, you and little master hold on to the reins of the donkey, Shouzheng, you too."

"Be careful too"

Tan Shouzheng pursed his lips, led the donkey who was blindfolded all the way, and followed closely behind Wei Ran.

It was extremely difficult to walk forward for a distance of more than [-] meters. When the group of them crossed a gravel beach that was almost at the same level as the river, the river in front finally returned to its original appearance.

"Take a break"

Wei Ran sat on a pebble less than half a meter above the water surface, tried his best to ignore the strong smell of corpses, rolled up the legs of his shorts, and cleaned up the disgusting leeches hanging on his thighs.

"I don't know how long it will take to get out"

While talking, Tan Shouzheng took out the cigarette tube from the back basket, distributed a cigarette to Zhou Guochang and Wei Ran, and then said worriedly.

"Let's go, we have to go on."

Wei Ran lifted up his anti-mosquito mask, took a sharp puff of cigarettes to dispel the smell of corpses filling his nose, and then used cigarette butts to burn off the leeches falling on his legs one by one, and then the four of them checked each other Then, he cleaned up the leeches that had crawled all over his body.

When the second cigarette that Wei Ran begged from Tan Shouzheng burned out, Squad Leader Liang also walked over in silence, found a random rock out of the water and sat down, took off his helmet again, and muttered to himself With words that everyone couldn't hear clearly, blood-red orthographic characters were added one after another on the helmet.

"Go, keep going."

Trembling, Squad Leader Liang put away the double-ended gun oiler and the tiny writing brush filled with paint, and put on the helmet with a strong smell of paint.

However, before he could stand up completely, he turned around and supported the stone he had just sat on, and spat out with a "wow".

Under these rounds of stimulation, Zhou Guochang couldn't bear it at first, lifted his mosquito mask and turned around to vomit, followed by the little monk Sehao who had finally recovered, and Tan Shouzheng who had been patient all the time also poured out the energy in his stomach Spit it all out.

Vigorously shaking his Adam's apple to suppress Yu Wang's vomiting, Wei Ran took out the camera with a pale face, put all the floating corpses that blocked the river into the viewfinder frame, and pressed the shutter with gritted teeth.

After a long time, Squad Leader Liang and the others finally couldn't vomit, and then they either turned sallow, or straightened up with flushed faces, and continued to walk downstream behind Wei Ran.

However, even though the floating corpses behind them had disappeared from view completely because of the winding river, even though it had been an hour since they left the floating corpses, it was not known whether it was because of the river water washing over the corpses, or because For psychological reasons, everyone feels that they can still smell a strong, unignorable corpse stench!
Fortunately, when they were exhausted and approached dusk, the cliffs on both sides finally became lower and lower, and finally turned into a river only a few meters above the river surface. At the same time, the gravel riverbed under their feet also It is mixed with more and more soil, which makes it extremely difficult for them to lift their legs every time.Even the straw sandals on the feet of the three other than Wei Ran and Zhou Guochang were left in the deepest part of the mud forever by lifting their legs again and again.

"Over there, look over there!"

Zhou Guochang pointed to the river bank on his left and spoke incoherently, but he didn't speak a complete sentence at all.

But everyone knew what he wanted to express, and they all saw what he wanted everyone to see—it was a shack, a shack built with banana leaves and bamboo slices!

"Big troop! It's definitely left behind by the big troop in front!" Before Tan Shouzheng finished speaking, he had already stumbled ashore with his donkey.

Seeing this, Wei Ran and the others followed one after another, stepped on the smelly mud to the shore covered with towering trees, and sat down on the fairly firm ground.

Looking at the soaked and wrinkled legs and the leeches again, Wei Ran just took off the heavy pannier wearily, and looked at the surrounding environment at the same time.

This is also a jungle, but as far as the eye can see, under almost every big tree, there are shacks made of banana leaves or various materials.

Although most of these shacks have collapsed, the banana leaves still maintain a little greenness, which also shows that they are not too far away from the main force.

But besides that, near the remains of the bonfire not far away, those skeletons that seemed to be military horses, as well as the surrounding excavated ground and even the bark of the small trees that were torn off, seemed to imply that the big one in front The troops are already running out of food.

"Finally, finally came up."

While Wei Ran was secretly analyzing the current situation, Zhou Guochang was lying on his back on the wet ground with a look of rejoicing, completely unaware that they had just crossed the threshold of Savage Mountain.

Just at this time, a strong light flashed in the fragmented sky above the head cut by the canopy of the jungle, followed by a deafening thunder, and the torrential rain that suddenly started like a switch!

(End of this chapter)