War Photographer's Notebook

In the cold and dark waterway, as the distance to the mill gradually narrowed, Wei Ran also took light steps.

Listening for a moment, Wei Ran tried to hide his body in the shadow of the waterway, and said in English, "Mr. Barker, a US Army soldier outside, can you hear me?"

A moment later, a wary voice came from above the floor asking, "Who are you?"

"It doesn't matter who I am. Captain Timov is now our prisoner. He told us about your situation."

Wei Ran paused, and continued, "We have decided to carry out humanitarian rescue for you, so Mr. Barker, please put your weapon above the entrance."

"What if I say no?" asked Buck, sprawled on the mill floor.

"If you refuse, I can only kill you to prevent us from being exposed."

Wei Ran paused for a moment and continued, "If you shoot me and get injured or die here, the companions behind me will also kill you, and Captain Timov by the way. Well, soldier Buck, it's up to you We have made a decision and we don't have much time."

There was a crisp sound of "clang", and a G43 rifle with a scope was placed directly above the entrance of the waterway by Buck with the butt facing forward.

Immediately afterwards, Wei Ran heard the sound of unloading the magazine and the sound of releasing the sleeve.

"Plop! Plop!"

In the continuous and gradual spray, a magazine full of bullets and a 1911 pistol with no magazine were thrown into the waterway one after another.

"Do you still have a grenade in your hand?" Wei Ran, who was holding a grenade in his hand, asked Buck, who was also holding a grenade.

"Shall I drop it?" asked Buck of the mill grimly.

"Just throw it away, it's too scary." Wei Ran, who was hiding in the waterway, said with a smile, "Please hand it over."

"You are so cautious"

Before Buck could finish his sentence, Wei Ran heard the rubbing sound of the other party crawling on the floor.

After waiting for a while, Buck put one hand into the entrance of the waterway, holding two grenades in the palm of this hand.

"Please pass me that rifle by the way." Wei Ran, who was still hiding in the shadows, said while putting the grenade in his hand into his pocket.

"Are you a sewer rat?" Buck cursed. "Why are you so timid?"

"Are you an American female soldier? Why are you talking so much?"

Holding the pistol, Wei Ran retorted, first took the two grenades held by the opponent and put them into his pocket, and at the same time pressed the muzzle of the pistol against the opponent's chin, and then took the gun held by the opponent. The g43 rifle that came in from the tube was thrown on the shoulder.

"Did you Germans occupy France with your mouth?" Buck sarcastically ignored the weapon in Wei Ran's hand.

"Occupying France doesn't even need a mouth"

Wei Ran pushed the opponent back a certain distance with the muzzle of the gun, looked around vigilantly, then leaned out and climbed up the mill and continued, "Why?"

Buck, who could only lie on the floor because of being shot in the butt, raised his head with difficulty and looked at Wei Ran who had crawled out and asked in confusion.

Wei Ran grinned, squatting in front of Buck and explained solemnly, "Of course it's because the French are happy to raise their hands to dry their sexy armpit hair when the weather is good."…

"Ha! What a novel way!" After Buck finished speaking, a smile appeared on his face.

"Okay, soldier, I'm going to check you for a weapon now. After making sure you won't hurt me, I'll send you to the other side of the waterway and heal your wound."

"Is Timov still alive?" Buck asked abruptly.

Wei Ran froze for a moment, nodded seriously, put the pistol back into his waist holster and buttoned it, "Don't worry, he's still alive, and he wasn't injured in any way other than being hit by a beast trap on one leg. We It's not a German armed group, so you don't have to worry about it."

"Not an armed organization?"

Buck muttered, and let Wei Ran search his whole body

And from his boots, he took out a 225q logistical combat knife that was also inserted in a leather scabbard, and a pair of hawk-beaked pliers fixed at his waist, specially used to cut barbed wire.

Interestingly speaking, this eagle-billed pliers was not a product issued by American engineers, but was seized from the Germans.

Seeing Wei Ran looking at the pliers, Buck explained in a flat tone, "It's a trophy I captured, take it if you like, it's yours anyway."

"So you're a sapper?"

Wei Ran threw the pliers aside, and said to himself, "No, engineers don't come here, so you are a scout?"

"Don't try to ask me anything out of my mouth," said Buck lying on the ground with a cold face, "I refuse to answer any questions."

"Okay, okay, pretend I didn't ask anything"

Wei Ran glanced at Sophie who was poking her head out of the waterway cautiously, and saw that the other party had changed into a set of labor group clothes, so he asked, "Is Qiqi all right?"

"fine"

Sophie quickly replied, "I'm worried that you may have an accident, so I came here to see what I can do to help you, and I'm also afraid that the person I want to see will come at this time."

"It's just in time." Wei Ran said, he grabbed Buck's armpit with both hands, and shoved him into the waterway.

When Buck stood firm against the wall, Wei Ran pulled Sophie up again, pointed to the half-track motorcycle outside and said, "Where is this car hidden?"

"I have a solution." After Sophie finished speaking, she looked at Buck who was standing against the wall in the water channel with a sense of consciousness.

"Don't worry about him for now"

After Wei Ran finished speaking, he switched to English again, "Mr. Buck, if you are in a hurry, you can hold on to the wall and continue walking in. We will catch up with the car you drove after hiding."

After finishing speaking, Wei Ran didn't care whether the other party agreed or not, and took advantage of the situation to pull a dried mushroom into the water channel and fasten it to the floor.

Following Sophie out of the mill, the latter stepped directly onto the half-tracked motorcycle. After Wei Ran got into the car, he skillfully started the engine and drove the half-tracked motorcycle with a trailer down the stream. After driving for more than ten meters, and then rolling over a gravel beach, he drove behind a lying pine tree in the distance, beckoned Wei Ran to lift off the piled pine branches, and backed up the car to hide it.

"You are really familiar with this place." Wei Ran couldn't help sighing.

"This land was originally my family's property"

Sophie explained as a matter of course, "I used to go hunting here with my dad when I was young, so I am very familiar with every tree here. Well, let's just leave it at that, no one will find out."…

Following the other party back a few steps, Wei Ran looked around vigilantly, and asked in a low voice, "Where did you meet that person?"

"It's at the gate of the mill." Sophie explained in a low voice, "Victor, can you just hide in the waterway later?"

"Yes, of course." Wei Ran readily agreed.

Hearing this, Sophie immediately breathed a sigh of relief, greeted Wei Ran and ran back to the direction of the mill.

Taking advantage of the absence of the person Sophie wanted to see, Wei Ran seized the time to help the injured Buck to the other end of the waterway, and handed him over to Qiqi, Horst, Okan and others who were holding weapons, and seriously After asking them to take good care of the two, they quickly walked back to the mill along the waterway.

Almost back and forth, when he walked to the entrance hidden under the floor, he immediately heard the roar of the engine from a distance, as well as the characteristic noise of the half-track motorcycle's tracks turning rapidly.

Seeing this, Wei Ran, who was about to climb up, immediately retracted into the waterway, and Sophie, who was standing by the millstone, immediately blocked the entrance with her body.

After a while, a young man in the uniform of the Labor Corps walked into the mill. What Wei Ran couldn't help laughing was that the young man was holding a bunch of pink heather that he didn't know where to pick. .

This young man was really interested in finding such a bouquet of flowers that were still blooming in this winter, but it was obvious that Sophie wanted to hear about her father more from the other party than flowers.

"Sophie!"

The young man gently hugged Sophie who was surprised and a little overwhelmed, and waited until the latter tried to struggle, then quickly let go and handed over the flowers in his hand, "This is me from the fortress." brought it to you.”

"Thank...thank you"

Somewhat at a loss, Sophie hesitated for a while and accepted the flowers in the other party's hand, "Tony, you know, I took the risk to come here to meet you because I wanted to..."

"I already asked"

The boy named Tony quickly replied without waiting for Sophie to finish speaking, "I asked, Mr. Letts and Mr. Jens went to our artillery position yesterday."

"An artillery position?"

"An artillery position?"

"It's the highest mountain in this forest, the one that can be seen from the village of Hurtgen." Tony explained in detail.

"What are they doing there?" Sophie asked puzzled.

"do not know"

The young man named Tony hesitated for a moment, and finally gritted his teeth and said, "But according to my friends, after they delivered the things and people, they came back directly according to the order, whether it was the two damn leash dogs, or Lay Captain Tess, they all stayed there."

After a short pause, the young man lowered his voice and continued, "My friend also said that he peeked at the contents of the box, and there were some valuable trophies inside, as well as valuable things like Pervitin."

"Did my dad and the others come back this morning?" Sophie asked worriedly.

"No"

Tony shook his head, "I went to the munitions office early this morning, and there was no one there. And the Americans are very close to us, Sophie, I would like to drive a car here, you drive this car Hurry up and get out of here, you can leave the forest by heading north, you... "...

"No, I can't go."

Sophie shook her head, "Tony, thank you, if you want to escape, you should go, I will stay and wait for my father."

"But……"

Halfway through Tony's speech, seeing Sophie shaking his head seriously, he finally swallowed the second half of the sentence, took out a bottle of Pervitin from his pocket, unscrewed it, poured out one, stuffed it into his mouth and said, Said with the slightest hope of being affirmed, "I'm not going to run away, Sophie, you know? I've killed 6 damn Americans these days, we'll get those scum out sooner or later !"

"I"

Sophie gritted her teeth, and said with a trace of helplessness, "I believe in you, I believe you will definitely be able to drive them out."

"We will!"

Tony's speech and demeanor carried a morbid self-confidence, and he even straightened his right hand. In this mill where only the girl he liked existed, he yelled full of "Hi! Suck!"

"Hey, suck..." Sophie responded weakly, and also straightened her right hand.

Seemingly very satisfied with Sophie's response, the young man named Tony hugged Sophie into his arms again in a slightly rude manner, "Sophie, get out of here as soon as possible, we will drive the Americans away, you don't need them here Women come to fight."

"well."

Sophie nodded absent-mindedly, "I'll leave later, Tony, later I will go back with the sisters from the Women's League who came to pick me up, but if they find out, I will sneak out to meet you, not only You and I and my dad will definitely be in trouble."

"This"

Tony reluctantly let go of Sophie, who was struggling again, and asked with great anticipation, "Then, will we have a chance to meet again?"

"Have"

Sophie was more serious this time, "Tony, wait until the war is over. After the war is over, if you are still alive, we will definitely meet again."

"After the war? Good! Then after the war!"

Tony pointed behind while speaking, "That car

Leave the car to you, didn't you say that you walked for a long time to get here last time?It will definitely be faster to drive back. "

"no need"

Sophie quickly waved her hand, "We have our own car, if you keep the car, I can't explain it."

"That's right." Tony looked behind him, and said with some reluctance, "Then I'll..."

"Yeah!" Sophie nodded, "We will definitely meet again after the war is over."

"When the time comes." Tony looked at Sophie nervously, "It's okay then. Can we go to the movies together?"

"Yes." Sophie nodded again.

"Then you pay attention to safety, war... See you after the war is over, goodbye, Sophie."

After finishing speaking, Tony left the mill with a look of reluctance, drove the half-track motorcycle that had not been turned off, and walked away from the mill step by step.

"Plop"

Sophie collapsed directly on the floor, letting the bunch of pink heather flowers she was holding in her hand fall to the floor, letting those pink petals fall into the water channel along the gap, and also fell on Wei Ran's incomplete body. He touched the palm of a finger, and then fell into the water along the gap between the fingers, and was rushed into the cold, dark, and icy waterway by the rushing water.

It wasn't until those petals completely floated away that Wei Ran slowly pushed the cover on the top of the head, looked at the girl sitting on the ground with tears streaming down her face, and sighed, "Sophie, we should go back."

"well!"

Sophie quickly wiped the teardrops off her face, hurriedly picked up all the heather and threw them into the waterway and let them float away, and then, together with Wei Ran, carefully cleaned up the water stains on the floor with a towel, and then jumped The cover of the water inlet was locked, and they ran to the other side where there was no war by stepping on the cold river water.

"Victor, my dad"

In the depths of the pitch-black waterway, Sophie, who was walking in front holding a square flashlight, stopped and asked hesitantly, "Did he be arrested?"

"uncertain"

Wei Ran took out the cigarette case, stuffed a cigarette in the other person's mouth, lit another one himself, and then said, "If your father was really arrested, I'm afraid those chain dogs would have been on the chain long ago." Suidao came and arrested us too.”

"But."

"Maybe those chain dogs have other purposes in taking him and Uncle Jens away"

Wei Ran glanced at the direction behind him, gently pushed Sophie's shoulders and continued to move forward while comforting, "And this is not necessarily a bad thing, at least, the Americans are about to hit here, but Uncle Letts and the others are already here." You left the front line, didn't you?"

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