War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 834

Under the relentless rain, a little blue smoke rose from the cabin door of the Devil bomber that had just fallen not long ago.

Inside the cabin, after a whole night of baking, all the clothes that everyone propped up with bamboo poles had been dried by the bonfire, and the four bundles of firewood they picked up in the rain were also dried together.

After a morning's rest, everyone not only drank camellia oleifera, but also filled their respective kettles with boiling water, and took an extra night's sleep by the way.

In the position of the bomber’s nose, Squad Leader Liang, who insisted on being the guard, waited for everyone to fall asleep, then carefully withdrew a bullet from his box cannon, and then used the pliers found in the cabin to unscrew the brass warhead little by little. The gunpowder inside was emptied again.

Looking up at Wei Ran and the others, he carefully opened the German lunch box, turned the ledger to the last page, and wrote a line with a brush dipped in ink.When the ink dries, it is immediately torn off, rolled into a roll and stuffed into the bullet case, and then the bullet is painted with paint, and carefully stuffed back.

After a little hesitation, Squad Leader Liang took out the double-headed oiler from his pocket and unscrewed it, stuffed the bullet into the oiler and tightened the lid.

After packing up the German lunch box, Squad Leader Liang rolled up his cuffs and glanced at the devil aviation watch that Tan Shouzheng had stuffed into him not long ago, then picked up the pliers and tapped the floor lightly, "Wake up, we can't delay any longer, it's raining There's no end to it, we must go."

"Shouzheng, come and do me a favor."

Wei Ran opened his eyes and stretched his waist, calling Tan Shouzheng, who was yawning, for help. Together, the two stuffed the hard-dried firewood into a one-piece flight suit that had been taken off the corpse in advance, and then Wrapped carefully with waterproof canvas on the outside.

While the two of them were busy, Zhou Guochang and the little monk also helped Squad Leader Liang wrap the pannier full of supplies with a tarpaulin, and then cleaned up the two donkeys who were resting under the shadow of the wing The leeches on his body were fed with coarse salt, and then the bamboo basket was hung up.

"Squad leader, take these two with you too."

Wei Ran pointed to the two heavy canvas bags containing life rafts and asked, "In this way, if we encounter a place where we need to wade in the next time, at least we don't have to worry about drowning the things in the back basket."

Hearing this, Squad Leader Liang looked at the two donkeys hesitantly, and asked, "Shouzheng, can you still pretend?"

"Take it with you"

Tan Shouzheng fixed the one-piece flight suit with firewood on the donkey's back and said, "We have thrown a lot of things along the way, and we have eaten a lot of rice, so we can hold it."

"Then take it with you"

Squad leader Liang finally agreed to Wei Ran's request, and helped to lift the two canvas bags to the back of a donkey, and carefully fixed them with the work belts removed from the engine room.

Everything was ready, everyone finally checked the weapons and waterproof raincoats in their hands, and at the strong request of Wei Ran, each took some cold pills as a precaution, then put on the hats, and left the plane in a line wreckage.

Following the marks left all the way last night and returning to the landing position, in just one night, the rising water has already eroded the suggested shacks left by the predecessors they had seen.

Pausing for a while, Wei Ran and Zhou Guochang, who were walking in front, sped up their pace a little along the road opened by the large army, and continued on their way home along the river.

After walking all day, the torrential rain above their heads did not even decrease, and they also saw traces left by a large number of expeditionary troops passing by along the way.

A small tree whose bark has been stripped off, a konjac that seems to have been bitten, a skeleton of a buffalo or a military horse that was killed, and even some who are obviously wearing the uniform of the expeditionary force and still holding weapons in their arms, but in this short In just a few days, a corpse that had turned to bones.

What made them even more worried was that in the next few days, the torrential rain would occasionally stop for half a day at most, and then began to thunder and lightning again, but more and more bones of expeditionary soldiers were found along the way.

Most of the remains of these soldiers showed strange bones, and a few corpses that exuded a strong smell of corpses could be seen densely packed with maggots, as well as unknown birds that pecked at these maggots.

Even though Wei Ran and Zhou Guochang, who walked in the front, couldn't bear it, they had to admit that most of the time, these bones had become the main signposts to guide them.

Correspondingly, Squad Leader Liang stopped again and again, trembling, and wrote one blood-red orthographic character after another on the helmet.

On the other hand, along the way, it has become increasingly difficult for them to find banana leaves to build shelters. Even if they can find banana trees or even banana forests, most of them have been cut without leaves.Even some palm trees are felled and split open to remove the starchy heart.And all of this proves that there has been a serious problem with the food supply of the large troops ahead.

In fact, not only them, but Wei Ran and others have also eaten up the dried horse meat, dried fish, and dried bear meat that they had stored in the past few days, and even the rice they carried on their backs has long been exhausted. The donkey was left with the last sack of rice on it.

Except for the rice, everyone stepped on the muddy water in the heavy rain for several days. Not only did their legs get swollen, but they also had terrible trench feet. For the leeches desperately sucking blood, the ulcers on their bodies became more and more serious.

In the torrential rain of the smashed bamboo hats, Wei Ran looked at the green everywhere with a numb face, and mechanically waved the machete to chop open the vines blocking the road, and then skillfully cut the vines from the side holding the knife. A leech was torn from the back of one hand and squeezed hard.

He no longer remembered that this was the first few days after leaving the wreckage of the plane, but he clearly remembered that since that day, they have never found a dry environment where they could rest.Now it's not just them, even the two donkeys are already limping and can't bear it anymore.

"Over there, Wei Ran, look over there." Tan Shouzheng, who was walking in the second row, pointed to the hillside in front of him, "Is there a cave there?"

"The cave?"

Everyone raised their heads in unison, and then they saw that there was indeed a dark cave halfway up the mountain opposite them!

"Go there, go there and have a rest!" Squad Leader Liang said vigorously.

"Go..." Wei Ran gritted his teeth, swung the machete again, and headed towards the cave.

However, although the cave looked not far away, it was not easy to get there. The first thing they had to do was to go down the mountain and pass through the valley between the two mountains, and then climb up.

But because of the torrential rain for days, there is a surging river lying across the valley.

Before everyone went down the mountain, they heard the sound of rushing water, and followed closely, they saw green bamboo poles as thick as wrists hanging from the water surface less than half a meter high, which served as handrails. The two sides of the bamboo poles are respectively fixed on the towering trees on both sides of the river bank.

"I'll go first!" Zhou Guochang said first.

"Be careful"

Wei Ran reminded, just looking at the turbid color of the river and the overwhelmed but still luxuriant tree in the middle of the river, you can tell that this river is only a seasonal river in the rainy season.Although its flow rate is very fast, as long as the bamboo pole is held firmly, there will be no danger.

The facts were indeed as he had guessed. Although the 20 meters wide river looked scary, it was only as deep as Zhou Guochang's waist.

When Zhou Guochang went ashore smoothly, everyone also carried bamboo poles on their backs, and each chose a bamboo pole to grasp firmly and prepare to cross the river.

Under Zhou Guochang's encouragement, Wei Ran helped the little monk push the donkey to land first, followed by Tan Shouzheng, who was pulling the rein of the other donkey, and Zhou Guochang held hands together.

However, when he stepped on a stone on the bank with one leg, the donkey still in the water fell down with a miserable neighing as if it had been hit, and by the way, a donkey was exposed downstream. And the next log!
In just a split second, the donkey knocked down by the log overwhelmed Squad Leader Liang who was helping to support the bamboo basket downstream of it, and followed closely, the rein that was originally held tightly by Tan Shouzheng was also left in his palm After a scar, let go completely!
"Squad Leader Liang!"

Everyone shouted in unison, but before any of them rushed over, the donkey and Squad Leader Liang had disappeared behind the rushing water.

"I'm going to chase them, open the inflatable raft and throw it down, you wait in the cave!"

Before Wei Ran finished speaking, he had already thrown off the pannier on his shoulders and the bamboo hat on his head, and jumped into the muddy river!

"Wei Ran!"

Tan Shouzheng yelled and wanted to jump down, but was pulled back by Zhou Guochang, "Don't be impulsive! Help open the inflatable raft!"

"Ugh!"

Tan Shouzheng slapped his thigh vigorously, and hurriedly helped Tan Shouzheng and the little monk unload the inflatable raft that Wei Ran insisted on carrying but never used a few days ago from the donkey.

Pulling the inflatable raft out in a hurry, Zhou Guochang was the first to find the compressed gas cylinder after some research, and unscrewed the inflation valve as quickly as possible!In just a few breaths, the inflatable valve, which is enough to seat three people, is fully inflated.

"You wait in the cave for three days. If you don't come back after three days, you can keep going!"

Before Qin Shouzheng could finish his sentence, he had already untied the basket, threw it aside, and pushed the inflatable raft into the river, and he himself jumped in!
Zhou Guochang stared blankly at Piaoyuan's raft, and then at the little monk Sehao beside him who also looked astonished. A look of panic gradually appeared on that young face.

At the same time, Wei Ran, who was the first to jump into the river, had already taken out the rowboat from the metal book.At this time, he was squatting on the boat, holding the oars with both hands, but his eyes were fixed on the ups and downs of the donkey, and Squad Leader Liang who seemed to be holding the donkey's neck!

While he waited anxiously, the distance between the two sides gradually narrowed, but the river turned an elbow in front of him!
"Master Fuck!"

Wei Ran let go of the oar with a yell, picked up the pole fixed on the side of the boat, and while clenching his hands tightly, he also stuck the other end on the wooden crosspiece that was originally used to fix the big lifting pole!

"Bang! Kacha!"

The dull impact and the sound of bamboo and wood propping and cracking sounded almost at the same time, but it was also because of the buffer of this prop that the row boat under Wei Ran's butt stopped for less than a second, and went smoothly. With the current, he made a turn around the river and ran in front of Squad Leader Liang and the donkey.But at the same time, Wei Ran's palm was also scratched with wounds by the cracked bamboo and wood pole - even though the bamboo and wood pole was wrapped with a layer of cloth.

Not caring about the pain in his hand, Wei Ran jumped into the water while closing the rowboat, grabbed Squad Leader Liang who had loosened from the donkey, and pulled him to the shore with all his might.

Before he could catch his breath, let alone check Squad Leader Liang's injuries, there was a bright orange color at the bend of the river. Immediately afterwards, he watched Tan Shou, who was sitting on the inflatable raft, turning over. After entering the water, he grabbed the edge of the inflatable raft and flipped over.

"Shouzheng! Shouzheng! Qin Shouzheng!" Wei Ran yelled at the top of his voice, and then simply took out the pistol in the metal book, threw it above his head and pulled the trigger again and again!

Amidst the repeated gunshots echoing in the mountains, Tan Shouzheng finally found Wei Ran and Squad Leader Liang on the shore, and immediately slid to the shore with the two paddles in his hands that looked like ping pong paddles.

With the help of Wei Ran, Tan Shouzheng climbed up to the shore with difficulty, but the rubber raft was rushed out by the current!

"How is the squad leader?" Qin Shouzheng asked, scrambling over without caring about anything else.

“Not so good”

Wei Ran put his ear on Squad Leader Liang's chest and listened, then immediately let him lie down, took off his helmet, straightened his head to open the airway, folded his hands on his chest while counting, and pressed his chest hard to perform cardiopulmonary exercises recovery.

Under his violent pressure, Squad Leader Liang gushed out streams of muddy sewage, followed by a difficult cough.

"Alive! Alive!" Tan Shouzheng shouted in surprise, "Squad leader, are you okay? Where does it hurt?"

"Back." Squad Leader Liang hadn't finished his sentence, but the corner of his mouth overflowed with the sewage.

Seeing this, Wei Ran's heart trembled, and he immediately tore off Squad Leader Liang's shirt and examined it carefully.When he turned Squad Leader Liang over, he found that there was a puncture thicker than a finger on the upper part of his lower back. At the edge of the wound, residual sawdust, and Blood filled with a lot of air bubbles.

"Squad leader"

Tan Shouzheng looked at the frothy blood gushing out of the small wound with a pale face, and fear was already written all over his face.

"Keeping the Righteousness. Keeping the Righteousness"

Squad leader Liang cried out with difficulty while coughing up blood. At the same time, he reached into his arms and tremblingly took out a double-ended gun oil can tied around his neck with a rope.

"Medicines go. Go find, find those medicines. And. This."

Squad Leader Liang raised the gun oil pot in his hand with difficulty. However, before he could say anything, he coughed up a large ball of frothy blood again, and an abnormal expression appeared on his face. Flushed, his mouth opened and closed, but he could no longer make any sound.But his eyes were firmly open, staring at Wei Ran.

"Squad leader? Squad leader Liang? Mr. Liang! Mr. Liang!" Tan Shouzheng cried at the top of his lungs, but all Squad Leader Liang could do was put the oil pot in his palm and press it with all his strength.

"Shouzheng, Shouzheng" Wei Ran pushed Tan Shouzheng away, but there was already a matte pistol in his hand.

"What are you doing!" Tan Shouzheng roared angrily.

"Help him"

Wei Ran tried his best to keep calm, "Squad Leader Liang injured his lungs, and now the blood has flowed into his lungs, we don't have enough medical equipment and medicines to save him, he will eventually drown in his own blood, the process will be very painful .”

Having said that, he had already pressed the muzzle of the pistol to Squad Leader Liang's forehead, "Don't worry, I will tell him about the matter in the gun oil pot, and I will also lead them out of Savage Mountain alive."

Before he finished speaking, Squad Leader Liang finally slowly closed his wide eyes, and a relieved smile appeared on his flushed face.

"boom!"

The clear gunshot overwhelmed the sound of the turbulent river slapping the shore, overshadowed the sound of rain falling, and also made Tan Shouzheng let out a desperate roar, and shattered the last trace of reason in Wei Ran's heart.

Compared with killing the businessman Luke back then, even though he knew that the shot was helping Squad Leader Liang, the sadness in his heart still made him feel as uncomfortable as eating a bunch of mixed blades.

"We don't have time to delay." Suppressing his grief, Wei Ran rubbed his face vigorously and stood up, "You take Squad Leader Liang Shouzheng."

"What?" Tan Shouzheng raised his head and looked at Wei Ran helplessly.

"Keep that oil pot safe, there is an important piece of information in it, this is..." Wei Ran paused, and continued as he walked downstream, "This is Squad Leader Liang's last wish."

"What are you going to do?" Tan Shouzheng asked in a panic.

"I'm looking for those medicines." Wei Ran stopped and said before the other party could speak, "Your task is to take Squad Leader Liang back to that cave and wait for me there."

"When are you coming back?" Tan Shouzheng asked.

"Come back when you find it"

Wei Ran thought for a while, "Tomorrow night at the latest, if I haven't come back by then, don't wait for me, just move on."

After finishing speaking, Wei Ran ignored what Tan Shouzheng said, quickened his pace, and walked downstream along the jagged rocks on the river bank.

Tan Shouzheng was stunned, bent down and picked up the helmet with countless orthographic characters written on it and buckled it on his head, then carried Squad Leader Liang's body on his back, turned and walked upstream.

When the backs of him and Squad Leader Liang disappeared in the rain, Wei Ran took out the rowboat again and ventured into the turbulent river.

Driven by the current, his speed suddenly increased, but even so, it took him more than [-] minutes before he saw the conspicuous orange color in the river and the shadow blocked by the towering tree lying in the middle of the river. Pannier.

What made him even more frightened was that the other side of this big tree was less than ten meters away, and there was a waterfall with a drop of 60 meters!

I ventured to the edge and looked down. Although there is a pool under the waterfall, there is a big scary cave not far away. All of them flow into the cave that looks like the mouth of a giant beast and enter the dark river that never sees the sky.

Looking around, Wei Ran saw that the donkey could not be found, so he picked up the pannier hanging from the branch of the tree, and walked quickly to the distant river bank with the life raft that had begun to leak.

He didn't even care about the wounds on his hands scratched by the bamboo. He covered the leaky raft above his head to block the heavy rain, and hurriedly opened the rainproof cloth wrapped on the bamboo basket.

Put the rain cloth under the buttocks and press it down. The lower layer is the fishing net in the canvas bucket, and the lower part is the double-eared cast iron pot with upside down.

Untie the iron pot tied with the bamboo basket. In this back basket, apart from squad leader Liang’s set of kitchen utensils, bamboo tubes containing various seasonings, and the two German lunch boxes containing brown sugar and account books, there are also There was the enamel kettle that they used to drink camellia oleifera, and the enamel pot that was printed with "Anti-Japanese War to the End", and the enamel pot they picked up from Mo's village.

The only difference is that the enamel pot placed at the highest position inside the back basket is wrapped with an additional layer of tarpaulin, and several ropes are tightly wrapped around it.

Picking up the enamel pot and weighing it, Wei Ran untied the rope and lifted the lid after a little hesitation.

When he took off the tarpaulin under the cover, he saw at a glance that the devil officer's lunch box filled with quinine was placed in the center of the enamel pot, and the surrounding rice was filled as a buffer and desiccant.

Heaving a long breath, Wei Ran put the tarpaulin on again to cover the lid, then wrapped it carefully with the tarpaulin, tied it tightly with a rope, and put it back into the basket.

Looking at the towel hanging outside the pannier again, Wei Ran wiped the corners of his eyes vigorously, and carefully tied the cast iron pot upside down on the pannier, then put the canvas bucket with the fishing net on it, and finally tied it up The outermost waterproof cloth.

Lifting the completely shriveled life raft above his head, Wei Ran carried the extra-heavy pannier on his back. After a little hesitation, he dragged the completely shriveled life raft and walked upstream step by step.

At the same time, Tan Shouzheng also met Zhou Guochang, who was chasing down from the upper reaches, and Sehao, a young monk who followed behind with a donkey.

"How is Squad Leader Liang?" Zhou Guochang hurried up and asked, "Where's Brother Wei?"

Tan Shouzheng was stunned, and while wiping the rain and tears from his face, he shook his head vigorously, "Squad Leader Liang, it's gone. Wei Ran, he, he went to chase the quinine that rushed down."

Zhou Guochang turned pale when he noticed the bullet hole between Squad Leader Liang's eyebrows, and quickly said, "Quick, put Squad Leader Liang back on the donkey."

"Need not"

Tan Shouzheng stubbornly took a step back, "Why did you come after me? Where are our things?"

"We've been sent into that cave"

Zhou Guochang tried his best not to look at Squad Leader Liang who was lying on Tan Shouzheng's back, "We put our things there and then we caught up."

"You guys, go and chase Wei Ran."

Tan Shouzheng had already taken a step while speaking, "I will go back with the squad leader on my back, you go and pick him up."

"Can"

"Go!" Tan Shouzheng roared, and casually walked upstream without looking back.

Zhou Guochang opened his mouth, wiped the rain off his face vigorously, greeted the little monk Sehao, and quickly followed the foot of the mountain towards the downstream.

(End of this chapter)