War Photographer's Notebook

On the second floor of the bamboo and wooden stilted building, Wei Ran, who was only wearing a pair of British army shorts, sat on a bamboo and wooden stool at the door, guarding the bonfire in the brazier, carefully examining the wounds on his body.

Beside him, the child whose name he didn't know put a fish on a bamboo stick and patiently grilled it. Even the little panda, which looked harmless, was lying on the side with its legs up in the air. , sticking out his tongue and looking eagerly at the grilled fish in the little boy's hand.

In a slightly larger thatched hut a little farther away, a young monk Sehao in a monk's robe is sitting at the main seat, speaking to these local people in Burmese without delay, and those aborigines are also Under the leadership of the old man in the chieftain's official uniform, he sat cross-legged and listened carefully. From time to time, he would put his hands together and chant a few words.

Take a look at this village hidden on the mountainside. There are only dozens of households in total. What you can see around you are mostly bamboo forests and cassava that can be seen everywhere, as well as leisurely wandering buffaloes and a few big ones that are mixed with buffaloes. elephant.

Just as he was fascinated by the scenery outside the door, the little boy lightly poked Wei Ran's knee with his finger, and when he looked over, he immediately put the smelling grilled fish and A cut plantain leaf was handed over, completely forgetting who kidnapped him and his father not long ago.

Reaching out to take the grilled fish, Wei Ran held it on a banana leaf and lightly took a bite.Immediately, the sour aroma of lemon, the fragrance of chili pepper, and bamboo and wood, mixed with a slight salty smell, rushed to the face, and the little panda who was waiting for a meal also turned over stupidly, holding the big furry The tail leaned over, and unceremoniously laid its fat and short paws on Wei Ran's swollen and festered legs.

However, before the little guy got closer to smell it, the little boy grabbed his tail with one hand and the collar of his neck with the other, picked him up and hugged him in his arms.

Seeing this, Wei Ran tore off a small piece of fish and handed it to the little thing who was still struggling. Attracted by the scent, the little guy immediately calmed down, lay on his back on the little boy's knee, ate it and delivered it to his mouth Seeing the fish on the side, the little boy also showed a bright and carefree smile.

While eating grilled fish, Wei Ran was secretly worried. It had been almost four or five hours since he woke up, but both Tan Shouzheng and Zhou Guochang were still unconscious in the stilted building not far away.

Unfortunately, although he could find a lot of things belonging to the expeditionary army in this room, he couldn't find any medical supplies at all. He didn't even know where their bamboo baskets, weapons, and the donkey belonging to the young monk went.

Taking out the compass from the metal book again, Wei Ran shook his head helplessly, even the compass couldn't work normally in this damn place.Now even if someone told him that these people were actually savages from the savage mountain, he would still believe it.

During the somewhat boring wait, as the sky was getting darker, a woman in her twenties walked into the room with a bamboo and wooden bowl, first chatted with Wei Ran, and then ignored her. Did he understand, so he used a piece of bamboo to carefully scrape off the dried herbal medicine on the wound, then unscrewed the bamboo tube in his hand, grabbed a lump of green lake with his hand and reapplied it on the wound superior. …

Apart from the slight tingling at the beginning, Wei Ran couldn't help but heave a sigh of relief with the ensuing coolness and a little numbness.

Along the way, his body was already full of scars, especially the ulcers on his feet were the most serious.Although I don't know if these unknown herbs are useful, but at least it doesn't hurt like this all the time.

After the woman applied herbal medicine to the wound on his hand, Wei Ran clasped his hands together to thank him, and then made a gesture of carrying a bamboo basket.

The woman thought for a while, followed by a sudden realization expression on her face, then said something with a smile, turned her head and said something to the child, then got up and left the room.

Before the woman came downstairs, the child who had been with Wei Ran also ran away in a flash.

In less than five minutes, the little monk Sehao also walked into the room with fish soup and rice served on banana leaves in a clay pot.

"Little Master Sehao"

Wei Ran quickly sat up, and asked with gestures, "Where's the backpack? Our backpack, as well as kerosene lamps, disinfection, disinfection things!"

Seeing Wei Ran gesturing to smear the wound with a cotton ball between tweezers, little master Sehao put down the things in his hands, waved his hands gently, and after putting down the things in his hands, he turned around and took the child out of the room.

Seeing this, Wei Ran could only suppress the doubts in his heart, and honestly ate the rice on the banana leaf with the fish soup.

By the time the child took away the leftover fish soup and replaced it with a bamboo tube filled with water, the sky outside the door was completely dark, but there was no fire in this small village.

Even, he could vaguely hear the loud grunting sound amidst the pattering rain, as well as some noises due to the coefficient of friction during the initial process of creating human beings.

Shaking his head helplessly, Wei Ran could only lie down and close his eyes in the end, waiting patiently for the situation to progress.

It was midnight, and when I dreamed of Squad Leader Liang and businessman Luke again that day, I was awakened by Peng Peng's knock on the door.

Subconsciously turning over and getting out of bed, when Wei Ran stood firm, there was already an extra pistol in his hand.

After calming down a little, Wei Ran opened the door cautiously, and then vaguely discerned that the father of the child who had been hijacked by him during the day was looking at him in surprise and talking loudly, and his hand was also pointing at The room where Tan Shouzheng and Zhou Guochang were.

Looking in the direction of his fingers, he could even see the faint lights on the second floor of the stilted building.

Seeing this, Wei Ran immediately took advantage of the darkness to put away his weapon, and ran over with his bare feet.

When he ran along the wet stone road to the bottom of the stilted building, there were already many people gathered here. When he ran up to the second floor, he found not only the little monk Sehao, but also the chieftain and the former helper. The woman who changed her own dressing was also there.

And on the floor in the center of the room, there were already two kerosene lamps that Wei Ran looked very familiar with.

Finally, looking at the bamboo bed surrounded by it, Zhou Guochang, who was still in a coma during the day, was already half-sitting on the bed, allowing the little monk Sehao to feed him thick fish soup spoonful by spoonful.Then look at Tan Shouzheng lying on the other bed, but there is still no sign of waking up. …

"Brother Wei, Brother Wei" Zhou Guochang greeted Wei Ran in pleasant surprise after he spotted Wei Ran running in.

"How do you feel?" Wei Ran asked beside the bed.

"I don't need any strength." Zhou Guochang grinned, "My head hurts like it exploded. What is this place?"

"I don't know either, but what kind of chieftain did the old man say he is?" Wei Ran looked at the old man while speaking, and the latter also said something immediately.

However, Zhou Guochang also looked blank, "He doesn't speak Burmese, I don't understand."

Before Wei Ran could speak, the little monk followed suit with the boss.

This time, Zhou Guochang immediately explained, "These people speak the Chin dialect, which my little master has learned for preaching, so he can understand it."

"You do not understand?"

Wei Ran asked curiously, "Ask that old man, what happened to his toast, and where did our things go? Besides, when I woke up, they tied him up alone, Yes, in the room where I lived, I saw a lot of weapons and equipment of the soldiers of the expeditionary force, let’s ask what’s going on together.”

"I don't understand the Chin language. You can hardly see the Chin people in the south. Wait a minute, I'll ask you one by one."

After finishing speaking, Zhou Guochang switched to Burmese again, and with the help of the young monk Sehao, he started communicating with the old man who was wearing a chieftain's official uniform during the day.

After chatting back and forth for almost an hour, Wei Ran and Zhou Guochang, who had just woken up, finally figured out what was going on.

First of all, the old man is indeed a toast.

Or to be more precise, the chieftain inherited from his grandparents.However, since his father's generation, the chieftain's official position has been cut off from the Daqing Dynasty. Because of the decline and British colonization, their family gradually hid in the deep mountains and old forests and cut off contact with the outside. As for them, they didn't even know that Qing Chao had already turned his braids completely.

What made Wei Ran and Zhou Guochang even more embarrassing was that the only thing passed down from this hereditary chieftain, other than the tattered official uniform, was the seriously out-of-key sentence "I am the chieftain appointed by Daqing Emperor".

Even, the chieftain didn't know what this sentence meant at all, he just chanted it as a spell similar to "Welcome".

After finding out the identity of the other party, Wei Ran's other doubts were also solved one by one.First of all, their things are not lost, they are all kept by the old chieftain himself.

Secondly, the reason why Wei Ran was tied up was because he almost killed the witch doctor who helped him heal his wound more than once when he was in a coma. The old chieftain had no choice but to ask someone to tie him up on the bed.

As for the last question, the old chieftain also explained how those expeditionary troops came from.

It turned out that there was only a mountain between their village and the route of the expeditionary army. Those things were picked up by children who usually herd cattle and adults who fished, and they were going to use them to make farm tools or use them for other purposes.

And they were rescued, in fact, thanks to the little monk who was awakened by Wei Ran's shot before he fell into a coma, and this small village's fairly devout belief in Buddhism.

After figuring out all the problems, Zhou Guochang also anxiously asked for their panniers back.

Fortunately, when the two of them opened the pannier, the waterproof bag inside was still bulging and there was no sign of taking it apart. Of course, the two boxes of quinine and the camera inside were not missing at all.

The crucial medicine was still there, and the two wounded people breathed a sigh of relief, and focused on Tan Shouzheng, who was still unconscious.

It's a pity that although his fever subsided, there was still no sign of him waking up.The two looked at each other in tacit understanding, and in the end they could only suppress the worries in their hearts, and let the little monk Sehao and the witch doctor reapply new herbal medicine Huhu on Tan Shouzheng's body.