War Photographer's Notebook

In the waist-deep swamp, a donkey wearing a bamboo hat and blindfolded was walking hard forward.

Behind the donkey, there are four extra-secure panniers tied up on the life raft dragged by ropes. On the left and right sides of the life raft, the four of Wei Ran are walking feebly while holding on to the handrails on the life raft. with.

This is already the eighth or ninth day after leaving the cave where Squad Leader Liang was buried. For more than a week, lightning, heavy rain, bones along the way, and even leeches and festering wounds hanging all over the body, almost Always accompany Wei Ran and others on their way.

But the food in their baskets had already been eaten two days ago when they entered the swamp.

"crash"

Tan Shouzheng used a bamboo and wooden bowl to scoop up a bowl of accumulated rainwater in the depression of the rainproof cloth covered by the life raft, poured it into his mouth, and said weakly, "I, I, I will soon be unable to walk."

"Shouzheng." Wei Ran took a breath, resisting the dizziness caused by hunger, "Eat, eat gum, or find a place to rest, take a rest."

"Pfft!"

Before he could finish his words, the little monk Sehao on the opposite side of the raft felt his feet go limp, and then he fell down in the swamp with a cry of pain.

"Little Master Sehao"

Zhou Guochang was in a hurry to help the other person up, but he didn't want him to slip off his feet, and fell head-on into the smelly mud.

Seeing this, Wei Ran and Tan Shouzheng, who were walking behind, each reacted for about a second, then weakly pulled the reins tight to stop the donkey, and then hurriedly pulled the fallen two out of the mud.

"Are you okay?" Tan Shouzheng asked weakly.

"It's okay. Bah! It's okay"

Zhou Guochang spit out the mud that he accidentally ate in his mouth, and wiped it vigorously on his face. At the same time, he helped the little monk Sehao who looked like a mud monkey with his other hand, and asked in Burmese with concern. One sound.

"It's okay," the little monk Sehao responded with the Chinese words he learned these days, and then followed it with a sentence in Burmese.

"Rest. Take a break." Wei Ran felt dizzy when he said this, and he couldn't even stand still.

"Go over there, over there." Tan Shouzheng pointed with difficulty to a ball of floating grass not far away, and strenuously led the donkey over there step by step.

"Brother Wei, we, where are we?" Zhou Guochang asked while unblinding the donkey.

"do not know"

While Wei Ran was speaking, he had already lifted off the rainproof cloth covering the raft, took out a German lunch box containing brown sugar from the back basket, scooped out a spoonful of brown sugar and put it into the mouth of the little monk Sehao, and then dug out the brown sugar. The same second spoonful was sent into Zhou Guochang's mouth.

In the end, he gave Tan Shouzheng a spoonful of brown sugar, and Wei Ran dug out a spoonful of damp brown sugar and put it in his own mouth, then quickly fastened the lunch box and sent it back to the basket.

"When we go ashore, discuss with the little master, shall we kill this donkey?" Zhou Guochang said, swallowing his saliva.

"Let's talk about it after we finish eating the brown sugar"

While Tan Shouzheng was talking, he tried to climb up the stretches of floating grass, and lay on his back, letting the rain wash away the mud below his waist, exposing his swollen legs and the leeches hanging on them. …

"I don't know if I can get out of this muddy land alive." Zhou Guochang sighed, and imitated Tan Shouzheng to climb up the floating grass, lay down carefully on it, and covered his face with his pocket.

Even Wei Ran didn't dare to give a definite answer to his question. In the end, the hungry four could only carefully lie on the floating grass, letting the mud and festering wounds on their bodies be washed away by the heavy rain. Take a short break.

And the donkey also took advantage of this rare opportunity to eat the grass floating in the swamp and growing in clusters.

In less than half an hour, Wei Ran was the first to sit up and stand in the waist-deep mud again, "Okay, it's time to go, we'd better get out of here and find a place to go ashore before dark."

"What did the people in front think, and why did they choose such a path?" Zhou Guochang, who was already snoring, complained, and got up in no particular order with the little monk Sehao.

"The mountains on both sides are so steep, this swamp is the best way to go." When Wei Ran said this, he reached out and pulled Tan Shouzheng, but the other party didn't respond at all!

"broken!"

Wei Ran's heart trembled, and he quickly lifted the bamboo hat on Tan Shouzheng's head, stretched out his hand to try to breathe, and then moved to his chest to listen to his heartbeat.

Fortunately, both breathing and heartbeat are very normal.However, when he put his hand on Tan Shouzheng's forehead, he felt the scalding heat!

"Shouzheng has a fever." Wei Ran said worriedly, "Come here and give him a hand, and carry him to the boat."

Hearing this, Zhou Guochang immediately called the young monk to come over, and together they carried Tan Shouzheng, who passed out at some point, into the life raft.

"Is he all right?" Zhou Guochang asked with some fear, as if he was afraid that Wei Ran would say something bad.

“It was burning badly”

While speaking, Wei Ran left the rainproof cloth tightly tied up, "It's been walking in the mud for two days, we have to go ashore as soon as possible."

"Go, let's go!"

Zhou Guochang panicked, stumbled to the side of the donkey, reached out to help it put on the blindfold again.

Taking up the bamboo pole used as a cane again, the three of them, who were not in much better physical condition than Qin Shou, gritted their teeth and sped up their pace. In the almost never-ending torrential rain, they took the corpses of the expeditionary soldiers lying on the floating grass as road signs. , stop and go and continue to walk forward with difficulty.

A few hours later, the torrential rain stopped without warning, but the sky above was dull.

The three of them huddled together and lighted the only two oil lamps with difficulty, and hung them on the bamboo baskets on both sides of the donkey, which had almost nothing left.

Contrary to their expectations, this erratic light can even attract many small loaches and small miscellaneous fish living in the swamp.

Seeing this, Zhou Guochang immediately dug out a bamboo fence that belonged to Squad Leader Liang, and walked all the way trying to fish out something under the oil lamp.

Although most of the time this method catches only leeches that have long been numb, at least there will always be a few loach that are willing to sacrifice or catfish that have not yet bloomed and are lifted into the life raft, jumping around alive and kicking. …

It's a pity that Zhou Guochang lost his strength after fishing for a few times, and finally had no choice but to throw the fence into the bamboo basket on the donkey's back.

In anticipation of the fishes they caught, the three people who were still awake walked drowsily until midnight, but the little monk Sehao fell into the water again with a "plop".

This time, when Wei Ran and Zhou Guochang pulled him out with great effort, the little monk had already fallen into a coma.

The two looked at each other, and in the end they could only grit their teeth, and together they lifted him into the life raft to accompany Tan Shouzheng, who had a high fever.

"Brother Wei Wei"

Zhou Guochang paused, gritted his teeth and said, "I remember there seems to be a devil's marching pill in the medicine box."

"Do you know Xingjun Wan?" Wei Ran frowned, "No, that kind of thing"

"We can't live without it"

Zhou Guochang pulled out the bamboo basket containing the medicine box while speaking, "I saw it in the devil's newspaper before, and I saw it in Mr. Luke's house, and I know that it is as harmful as the smoke. "

"you"

"But you have to live"

Zhou Guochang didn't wait for Wei Ran to finish, he broke free from his hand, and said very seriously, "Brother Wei, I have to live, no matter what, I have to get out of this ghost place alive, I want to find my sister and brother alive, they , they are still waiting for me."

Sighing silently, Wei Ran slowly let go of Zhou Guochang's wrist, and let the other party find the tin tube, took out a pill from it and threw it into his mouth.

"Give me one too." Wei Ran gritted his teeth and said, "Let's walk out at once!"

"Go out in one breath!" Zhou Guochang repeated, and stretched out the tin bucket in front of Wei Ran.

Reaching out his hand, he took out a pill and threw it into his mouth. Wei Ran chewed it twice and swallowed it. Then he simply took out the German lunch box, dug out a spoonful of brown sugar and put it into Zhou Guochang's mouth.

"Take a bite too," Zhou Guochang urged, and at the same time, he picked up the wooden bowl, scooped a bowl of rainwater from the depression of the tarpaulin, and poured it into his stomach.

After taking a mouthful of brown sugar in silence, Wei Ran put away the lunch box and also poured a bowl of water, and grabbed the donkey's rein again.

In less than ten minutes, Wei Ran could clearly feel his heart beating, his exhaustion and wound pain had obviously disappeared, and even his mood improved a lot.

Zhou Guochang, who was walking on the other side of the life raft, obviously also felt the effects of the medicine, but what Wei Ran didn't expect was that he took out two extra pills and fed them to the donkey!
Under the blessing of this medicinal power, the forward speed also suddenly accelerated. When the sky gradually brightened, even the raging rainstorm stopped temporarily, revealing the pale golden morning sun.

"Brother Wei Wei. That. That. Plop!" Zhou Guochang, whose face was pale and trembling, pointed forward tremblingly. In the mud.

"Guochang."

Wei Ran yelled weakly, he wanted to stretch out his hand to pull him up, but he only felt that his eyes were dark, and his whole body trembled uncontrollably.

Holding on to look in the direction of Zhou Guochang's finger just now, in Mohu's field of vision, he first saw a buffalo in the swamp, and then saw a person lying on the buffalo.

Biting the back of his hand hard, Wei Ranqiang took out the pistol from the metal book with all his energy, aimed at the top of his head and pulled the trigger.

"boom!"

Amid the crisp gunshots, the cement head in the distance raised his head blankly and looked over, and the man lying on the back of the buffalo also sat up.

"save"

Withdrawing the pistol, before Wei Ran could yell out, just like Zhou Guochang, he fell down in the mud with a "plop" and lost consciousness.