War Photographer's Notebook

As dusk approached, seeing the water level of the river rising higher and higher, Wei Ran, who was going upstream, had to move towards the top of the mountain again and again to avoid being washed away by the rising river.

Fortunately, just when he was hesitant to find a place to rest because the sky was getting darker, a flickering light was faintly lit up in front of him.Seeing this, he immediately quickened his pace while shouting.

"Brother Wei, is that you, Brother Wei?" Zhou Guochang shouted at the top of his voice.

"It's me! It's me!"

Wei Ran wiped the rainwater off his face, dragged the shriveled life raft with great effort to speed up his pace, and met Zhou Guochang and the little monk Sehao who were walking up quickly.

"Finally found you!" Zhou Guochang said and wanted to help take off the pannier on Wei Ran's shoulders.

"No, I'll carry it myself"

Wei Ran subconsciously rejected the other party, and then handed over the life raft with his hand, "Put this on the donkey, this thing is heavier."

"well!"

Zhou Guochang hastily agreed, called the little monk to help, and randomly folded the life raft and put it on the donkey's back.

"Where are your baskets?" Wei Ran asked as he followed the other party back.

"It has been sent to the cave, and your pannier has also been sent in."

Zhou Guochang paused, "Brother Wei Wei, Squad Leader Liang"

"I know." Wei Ran sighed, silently tightened the pannier on his shoulders, and followed Zhou Guochang, who was carrying an oil lamp, to continue walking back.

"Did you kill him too?" Zhou Guochang asked abruptly, "It's like killing Mr. Luke."

"Yes" Wei Ran nodded expressionlessly.

"Thank you"

Zhou Guochang said a word of thanks in an incoherent manner, and then fell silent again.And the little monk Sehao, who obviously couldn't understand Chinese, also recited a scripture that Wei Ran couldn't understand without any warning.

A group of three people and a donkey walked along the foot of the mountain until it was completely dark, and then returned to the place where they crossed the river, and then climbed non-stop to the entrance of the cave.

This cave is much larger than the caves that everyone stayed in before. Not only is the ceiling as high as two or three floors, but even the end of the cave is so dark that you can't see the bottom.

When the three of them rushed back, Tan Shouzheng didn't light a bonfire, or even light an oil lamp. He just mechanically swung the pickaxe and tapped the slightly damp ground in the middle of the cave. Little by little, the shallow pit was expanding.

"Justice"

Before Wei Ran finished speaking, Tan Shouzheng's body trembled, and then he swung the pickaxe harder and hit it hard on the rocky ground.

Sighing secretly, Wei Ran took off the pannier that he had been carrying all the way and was reluctant to put it down and put it on the side, then found the pannier he was originally carrying, took off the oil lamp hanging on the side of the pannier and lit it, and then, from Tan Shouzheng took off the American kettle used to hold kerosene from the side of the pannier.

Under the puzzled gaze of Zhou Guochang and the young monk Sehao, Wei Ran opened the one-piece flight suit containing the firewood, took out a bundle of dry firewood inside, and threw it into the grave that Tan Shouzheng was trying to dig out. …

"You want to beat Sima!" Tan Shouzheng subconsciously said a dialect full of anger.

"Dig the grave with you"

Before Wei Ran finished speaking, he had already unscrewed the US military kettle and dumped the kerosene inside on the firewood.

"On" Wei Ran said indisputably.

Tan Shouzheng stared at Wei Ran, turned around and picked up the lighter that Luke gave Squad Leader Liang from the stone beside him, and lit the firewood.

With a soft "huh", steaming flames rose from the ground, instantly sweeping the firewood spread in the tomb.

"Go and chop some firewood, these are not enough." Wei Ran emptied his back basket while speaking, and walked out of the cave with a machete in his hand.

"Brother Wei"

"There is a kettle in the pannier I brought back, let's boil some hot water for everyone, and check out the supplies by the way."

Wei Ran greeted Tan Shouzheng without looking back, and said to Tan Shouzheng, "Let's go together. When I came up just now, I saw two dead trees."

Taking a few breaths, Tan Shou was trying to wipe away the tears that were gushing out, took the back basket and machete, and left the cave with Wei Ran.

Zhou Guochang and the young monk looked at each other, the latter shook his head lightly, also emptied the basket, carried the hatchet, and led the donkey to chase after him.

Only in his own cave, Zhou Guochang saw that Squad Leader Liang was dead, silently opened the bamboo basket that Wei Ran carried back, took out an enamel kettle from it, filled it with rainwater, and placed it in the tomb pit where the bonfire was burning above.

When he filled everyone's water pots and finished counting all the supplies, the three of Wei Ran also returned to the cave with a basket full of firewood on their backs. Behind the donkey was dragging a three-meter-high A damp, dead tree with thick legs.

Finding the engineer shovel and shoveling all the burning charcoal to the outside of the tomb, Wei Ran picked up the canvas bucket, took half of the bucket of cold rainwater and poured it on.

There was a soft "chi" sound, and the steaming mist filled the air, and everyone heard the crackling sound immediately after.

Throwing the canvas bucket aside, everyone worked together to clean up the cracked stones in the tomb with an engineer shovel, then pushed the charcoal fire in again, and put the wet firewood that had been carried back hard on top.

Until this time, the little monk Sehao came up with the medicine box that Wei Ran found in the wreckage of the plane, and while speaking in Burmese, he pointed to Wei Ran's wounded hands.

Before Zhou Guochang could translate, Wei Ran nodded and extended his hands to the other party.

Seeing this, the little monk immediately filled the iodine with tweezers and absorbent cotton, and carefully applied it to the wound on Wei Ran's hand. It was carefully bandaged with gauze.

"What are you going to do next?" Wei Ran waited patiently for the little monk to wrap up his wound, and then asked Tan Shouzheng who was sitting by the fire.

"Go down and get out of here alive." Tan Shouzheng took a sip of the camellia handed over by Zhou Guochang, "Wei Ran, you...do you know what's in that oil pot?"

"Know"

Wei Ran nodded, lowered his voice, and told the other party the information inside.

Seeing the other party murmuring the piece of information in a low voice, Wei Ran cleared his throat and said, "Let's stop for a day, we need a good rest, and treat the wounds on our bodies and the ulcers on our feet, otherwise we won't be able to I can’t get out of this savage mountain.”…

"Can you go out after a day's rest?" Tan Shouzheng asked angrily.

"Not necessarily." Wei Ran shook his head, "But at least we can go further, and we can also spend more time with Squad Leader Liang."

Tan Shouzheng was stunned for a moment, and finally lowered his head and took a big mouthful of boiling camellia, "Then stop for a day. Wei Ran"

"Ok?"

"Thank you," Tan Shouzheng murmured.

"Don't ask me to do it for the third time." Wei Ran also muttered in response, and reached out to take the camellia from Zhou Guochang.

In the humid but cool and spacious cave, the bonfire burned all night. In the water vapor that floated from time to time, everyone not only dried their clothes and wet blankets with the bonfire, but also dried them and got wet by the river. of rice.

But most importantly, they finally dug a grave enough for Squad Leader Liang to lie down in.

Early the next morning, Tan Shouzheng, who hadn't slept all night, lay down in the still hot tomb to test the size and depth, and then waited patiently for Wei Ran to take a posthumous photo for Squad Leader Liang before using the tarp She wrapped him carefully and carried him in.

However, contrary to Wei Ran's expectations, Tan Shouzheng took another tarp, carefully wrapped the box cannon that originally belonged to Squad Leader Liang, and placed it on Squad Leader Liang's chest.

This is not over yet, he then picked up the double-ended gun oil pot with information hidden, unscrewed the cap with the red paint on it and looked at Wei Ran.

Seeing the latter nodding towards him, Tan Shouzheng just poured some paint on the plantain leaves beside him and tightened the lid.Immediately afterwards, he unscrewed the lid of the cavity with white paint on the other side, took out two big gold teeth from his pocket and stuffed them in.

After tightening the lid again, Tan Shouzheng wrapped the oil can, the helmet, and the German army lunch box containing Squad Leader Liang’s personal belongings and account books in an oilcloth and put them at Squad Leader Liang’s feet, saying, “These things are here. Well, if you can't get out, it won't happen."

"You don't take it away?" Wei Ran asked in surprise.

"Stay here"

Tan Shouzheng pressed the corners of the tarpaulin with the stones prepared in advance and said, "If they don't believe the news, they can take Squad Leader Liang back here while they come here to verify."

"Put my stuff here too"

Before Zhou Guochang finished speaking, he had already taken out a kidney-shaped lunch box from his back basket.

Wei Ran clearly remembered that the lunch box contained not only camera film, but also valuables such as kyats, silver dollars, and gold bars.

"Why are you putting things here?" Tan Shouzheng asked puzzled.

"It's okay if we meet the expeditionary army"

Zhou Guochang said very frankly, "If you meet the British, these things will be snatched by them sooner or later. Instead of this, it's better to put them here. In case one of us survives, these things will be his money. It will be cheaper for outsiders."

Speaking of this, Zhou Guochang opened the lid deliberately, showed the contents inside, picked up the roll of burmese coins and randomly distributed them to everyone, and then gave each one a silver dollar.

"What are you doing?" Tan Shouzheng became more and more puzzled.

"With this money, if you encounter a village on the road or survive, you will be able to buy some food so that you won't starve to death."…

Before he finished speaking, Tan Shouzheng took out another film roll and handed it to Wei Ran, "Brother Wei, this is the last unused film, you can take it yourself."

"wait first"

Wei Ran took the film roll and put it in his pocket, turned around and walked to the corner, took out the gravity knife, cut off two sections of buoyancy bags from the shriveled and leaking life raft, tied one end of them tightly with a rope and returned them to the Next to the finished tomb.

Under the watchful eyes of Qin Shouzheng and others, Wei Ran took out a British military lunch box wrapped in a tarpaulin from his back basket, opened it and put it aside, then took a step back, picked up the camera and pressed the shutter on the unprepared crowd , recorded this moment with the last frame of the roll of film in the camera.

After some manipulations, he took out the finished film, Wei Ran took out a film canister from his pocket, put it in the pair of British army lunch boxes full of film canisters, wrapped it carefully with a waterproof cloth and stuffed it in into the floating sac that was just cut off.

It wasn't until this time that he said, "Put the things you want to keep in here too."

Hearing this, Zhou Guochang put his first lunch box in.Immediately afterwards, Tan Shouzheng also put Squad Leader Liang's lunch box, his gun, the steel helmet with orthographic characters written all over it, and the double-ended gun oil pot into it.

"Is there any more?" Wei Ran finally asked.

"wait for me"

Tan Shouzheng picked up the cigarette pouch that originally belonged to Squad Leader Liang and dug up a pot of shredded tobacco, then took out the zippo lighter, lit the pouch, took a big sip, and put it on a stone in front of the grave.

In the lingering light blue smoke, he picked up a writing brush from the banana leaf beside him, dipped it in the red paint that had been poured on the banana leaf in advance, and solemnly wrote "Menshi Yicheng" on a stone he had expected in advance. The tomb of Liang Yimin, 22nd Division of the Fifth Army".

Immediately afterwards, he picked up the lighter again, wrote "Liang Yimin" on one side, and wrote "Everyone is responsible" on the other side.

"Squad leader Liang is called Liang Yimin?" Wei Ran asked tentatively.

Tan Shouzheng gently placed the lighter and the writing brush dipped in red paint next to the cigarette pouch, and after a moment of silence explained, "When he was our husband, his name was Liang Yicheng, and his name was Le'an. Later, before he joined the army, he gave us On the last lesson.

In that class, he told us about the Eight-Power Allied Forces, the Sino-Japanese War, and the Marco Polo Bridge and the Nanjing Massacre in 1937. "

Speaking of this, Tan Shouzheng had already burst into tears, "Mr. Liang said that he is ignorant, and he can't guarantee that he will benefit the country, but he is willing to give up his life to do something that benefits the people.

He changed his name that day and joined the army.Before he left, he finally said that he didn't want to join the army and fight for glory, wealth, and official promotion. He only wanted to do something so that the common people could see a way to survive. "

"Mr. Liang Dayi"

Wei Ran sighed, he didn't know how many people like Squad Leader Liang died on the battlefield in Huaxia at this time, and he didn't know how many people like Mr. Liang were about to step on the battlefield.

But he knew that it was those Squad Leader Liang and Mr. Liang who threw their heads and blood, that he could stand upright in later generations.

In the lingering smoke, everyone waited patiently for a moment, until the bag of cigarettes went out, then Tan Shouzheng lightly knocked on a stone, put the cigarette bag and lighter into the rubber bag supported by Wei Ran inside. …

To his surprise, just as he was about to seal the waterproof bag with a rope, the little monk Sehao took out a small golden box inlaid with various precious stones from the bottom of his pannier, and put it in with a smile. Waterproof bag.

"What is this?" Wei Ran subconsciously asked Zhou Guochang.

Obviously, Zhou Guochang didn't know what was in the palm-sized box, so he asked this question in Burmese without thinking.But soon, following the little monk's explanation, a look of surprise appeared on his face.

"Guochang, what is that little box?"

Qin Shouzheng couldn't help but asked, but Wei Ran had already tied the bag tightly with a rope, and then put an extra layer of rubber floating bag on the outside to tie it up again, and then gently placed it at Squad Leader Qin's feet .

"Relic, the relic of the temple in Mansi Town."

After some communication, Zhou Guochang explained, "Master Sehao said, if we can't get out, let that relic guard Squad Leader Liang.

If he can get out alive, he will definitely come back to collect the relics. At that time, he will take Squad Leader Liang back to Mo's village for burial, and he will also bring our things back to Mo's village, and will wait for us there. "

"May we all survive"

Tan Shouzheng sighed, got up and took the bamboo slices that had been cut in advance and carefully spread them on the top of the grave pit, and then pressed stones one after another on top of it. With the help of Wei Ran and others, he piled up a piece of bamboo Not a big grave bag.

Putting the last stone on the highest point of the tomb, Tan Shouzheng picked up the hatchet, went outside the cave and chopped a few thin bamboos with leaves, carefully inserted them in the highest point of the tomb, while chatting nonstop. Explained, "This is the rule in our place, alas, there should be a few yellow papers."