War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 976 Moose DD-557

Near noon, the torrential rain that raged all night and all morning finally died down.After the wind and rain, the sugar maple forest outside the window is also washed clean, revealing intoxicating greenery and moist and fresh air.

Opening the door and opening the window, four young girls with Indian paintings on their faces also walked to the corridor at the door one after another. While taking a deep breath, they moved their shoulders that were slightly stiff because they had been doing handwork all the time.

By the way, including Wei Ran who walked out the door last, they were all watching with great interest the unknown little birds chirping and jumping around on the grass at the door.

"That's the North American Robin"

Also stretching himself, Tantu introduced with a smile, "They are the most common birds. In some Indian traditions, these monogamous little guys are also a symbol of love."

Before she finished speaking, she didn't know whether she was agreeing with her introduction or refuting her statement. From the direction of the redwood forest in the distance, there was an extremely miserable and low-pitched roar, "Ah~ oh——!"

"Forehead"

Tantu scratched his head in distress, looked at the direction of the sound, and guessed in a positive tone with a particularly headache, "It's a moose, and listening to the sound, it seems to be angry."

"Ah~oh!" Just as Tantu finished speaking, another long-pitched scream came from the redwood forest in the distance.

"How about." Sui Sui was quite excited, but asked cautiously, "Let's go and see?"

Seeing Tan Tu looking at her, Kou Kou waited for Anfeya to translate Sui Sui's proposal, and immediately nodded, "I only heard that this kind of deer is very big, but I haven't seen it with my own eyes."

"Bigger Than You Know"

Tantu gritted his teeth, and finally said in a scream, "Take the shotgun and let's go on foot to have a look. The sound of the motorcycle will startle it. I don't want to provoke such a monster."

Hearing this, everyone returned to the wooden house in a swarm, and each took the weapons they got from the trunk of Tantu's car when they entered the farm.

"Are you sure you want to bring this thing?"

Sui Sui looked at the American-style hunting bow and quiver in Wei Ran's hand, and there was a question on that little face with beautiful paint left, "Brother, are you here to be funny?"

"Anyway, there is Sister Tantu, so what are you afraid of?"

While Wei Ran was speaking, he sharply bent his bow and set his arrow to aim at the sugar maple tree in the distance with the imprint of the ax remaining, and let go of the fully drawn bowstring with a sound of "Boom!"

Under the watchful eyes of the four girls and an Indian elder sister, the feathered arrow passed by about half a meter away from the sugar maple tree with a diameter of half a meter at breast height, "Dang! ’ with a firm poke on a stainless steel bucket used to collect sugar maple sap.

"Cough cough!"

Wei Ran cleared his throat in embarrassment, "Well, I was aiming at that steel drum, do you believe it?"

"believe"

Tantu smiled helplessly, took off the cowhide holster around his waist, handed it to Wei Ran together with the revolver inside, and teased in a gentle tone, "But if you plan to shoot a moose, you'd better aim at it. The nearest sugar maple tree, I believe, you will be able to give that big man a fatal blow by then."

After saying this, not only the moose in the distance uttered another scream, but even the four girls couldn't hold back their laughter.

Although he became the object of ridicule, Wei Ran naturally didn't mind. He took the holster and hung it on his waist, followed Tantu and walked in the front, passing through the wet bushes, and carrying behind him who was protected by the Katenka sisters. The two girls, with one foot deep and the other shallow, cautiously approached the screaming moose.

Of course, compared to the moose, the first to appear in everyone's sight, apart from the sugar maple trees that can be seen everywhere, are naturally those giant redwood trees.

"The most conspicuous one you can see is about 100 meters high."

Tan Tu pointed to the most conspicuous tree in front of him and introduced in a low voice, "Its base has a circumference of more than ten meters, and it is the largest North American redwood within a radius of 50 kilometers."

Seeing that everyone stopped and raised their necks, Tantu simply followed suit, raised his necks together, looked at the tall redwood tree from a distance and said, "Aboriginal legends, gods live in that It is also the place where you can get closest to the dead."

"When did you bring the binoculars?" Sui Sui looked strangely at Wei Ran who was standing beside him holding up the binoculars.

“Bring it when you come”

Wei Ran handed the heavy binoculars to Suisui while speaking, "Look under those redwood trees, I found that reindeer."

"Where is it? Let me see!" Sui Sui took over the binoculars and looked at the redwood forest in the distance.

"On the right hand side of the tallest redwood tree, there is a fallen sugar maple tree. Look into its canopy." Wei Ran pointed out.

"I am searching"

Sui Sui moved the binoculars she held in both hands, and then said excitedly, "I saw it! It seems to be trapped?"

"Let me see." After Anfisa finished translating, Kou Kou eagerly extended her small hand towards Sui Sui.

Without waiting for Wei Ran to translate, Sui Sui handed the binoculars to Kou Kou, and Wei Ran helped guide the direction again.

"It seems to be really trapped," Kou Kou frowned and muttered in French.

"Can I have a look?" Tan Tu also asked in French.

Hearing this, Kou Kou looked at Wei Ran subconsciously, and after he nodded, he immediately handed the telescope in his hand to Tan Tu.

Holding up the binoculars for just a glance, Tantu returned the binoculars to Wei Ran, "It's really trapped, you guys wait here for me, I'll go and have a look by myself."

"I'll go with you," Wei Ran said, and handed the binoculars to Suisui.

"Pay attention to safety." Sui Sui took over the binoculars, and at the same time handed the lever rifle that had been carried on his shoulder to Wei Ran.

"You also pay attention to safety." Wei Ran took the rifle and loaded the bullet with a "click".

Under the gaze of Sui Sui holding up the binoculars, Wei Ran and Tan Tu carefully walked towards the moose that kept screaming at a distance of five or six meters.

As the distance got closer, the two also saw the huge creature trapped in the canopy struggling to stand up.

It was indeed a colossus, although its antlers seemed to be stuck together with the fallen sugar maple branch, but even so, it was at least two meters high at the shoulders.

Of course, in addition to the huge size, Wei Ran and Tan Tu also noticed that a maple tree branch that was as thick as a cucumber and dripping blood was inserted obliquely in the abdomen of this moose.

Looking at each other, Tantu sighed amidst the moose's constant wailing, and while loading the civilian shotgun with a scope in his hand, he said, "This is an adult male moose, with such injuries It just won't survive."

"This is Miss Kou Kou's farm," Wei Ran kindly reminded.

Hearing this, Tantu froze for a moment, then nodded, "That's right, I really should ask the owner of this piece of land what he wants."

"I didn't say anything." Wei Ran spread his hands and picked himself clean.

"Thank you." Tantu put the shotgun on his shoulder, turned around and walked back quickly.

Soon, the woman came back again, asked Wei Ran for her revolver, aimed at the moose's ear, and pulled the trigger.

Before the gunshots reverberating in the forest subsided completely, Kou Kou and others walked over quickly, and the tall moose that was shot in the head also fell heavily on the wet grass with a "Boom!" superior.

"I'll go back to get the saw and the car first, otherwise there's no way I can bring back such a big prey."

Tan Tu said, and handed the revolver in his hand to Wei Ran, "The safety of the girls is in your hands. I can trust you, right? Mr. Victor?"

"Of course, don't worry!" Wei Ran made a promise while taking the pistol.

As soon as she left, Sui Sui and the others also ran over, approaching the huge corpse still trapped in the canopy and took out their mobile phones.

"I don't know how much it can be slaughtered for such a big animal."

Kou Kou said quite emotionally, "The closest body shape I have disassembled is Charolais beef cattle, but the muscle fibers of that kind of cattle are relatively rough, and the tenderness is not good enough. Simply put, it is not delicious."

"Want to try?"

Sui Sui waited for Wei Ran to help translate and immediately suggested, "I've always been curious about your butchering skills."

"And there are no policemen or extreme vegetarians here," Wei Ran joked after helping translate Chinese into French.

Hearing this, Kou Kou pulled out the two hunting knives hanging from her waist and looked at them, and twirled the two hunting knives around her palm in a particularly fancy way, saying, "I need a sharpening stick and a knife."

Having said that, the rich butcher looked up, "I still need a winch to pull it up."

Hearing this, Wei Ran immediately took out the satellite phone and dialed it to Tan Tu, and told him Kou Kou's request.

In less than 10 minutes, a small but expensive Unimog U20 truck also rolled over the low bushes in the forest and slowly drove over from a distance.

However, before Tantu, who was driving, stepped on the brakes, Anfeiya, who had been looking around with Wei Ran's binoculars just now, said abruptly, "Boss, there seems to be something on the tallest redwood tree. "

"Something?"

Wei Ran subconsciously looked at the tallest redwood dozens of meters away, while Sui Sui took the telescope from Anfeiya first.

This time, without Anfeya's guidance, Sui Sui yelled, "There is really something! I saw it too, it's hanging on the tree trunk, it looks like a helmet?"

"Let me see." Wei Ran took the telescope handed over by the other party, and looked in the direction pointed by her finger.

Moving up along the thick trunk, he soon noticed that there seemed to be something really fixed on the trunk at a position about 20 meters above the ground.

Turn the focus wheel, and as the field of vision becomes clearer, Wei Ran finally sees clearly that it seems to be an American steel helmet from World War II, and a slender cylinder directly under the helmet.

At this moment, Tan Tu also turned off the engine and pushed open the door.

"Tan Tu, what's that on there?" Wei Ran put down the binoculars, raised his finger and asked curiously, pointing at the tallest redwood tree.

"What? There's something on it?"

Tantu subconsciously looked up at the tall tree pointed by Wei Ran and the others, then jumped down from the cab, handed a canvas bag containing various slaughtering tools to Koko, and then took out another milk bag. The white canvas apron was handed over to the other party, and then he looked in the direction of Wei Ran and others' fingers again.

Handing the binoculars to the other party, Tantu shook his head after some observation, returned the binoculars and replied, "I don't know what it is, although I grew up in this forest since I was a child, no matter whether my grandfather or My parents didn't allow me to climb that redwood, and I never noticed anything on it."

"Is it because of Indian beliefs that you are not allowed to climb that tree?" Koko asked subconsciously.

"Because it was too high, they were worried that I would fall and be in danger."

Tantu spread his hands helplessly, "Of course, if you want to know what's on it, I can climb up to have a look. It's just over 20 meters high, so it's not too difficult for me."

Looking at each other, Wei Ran took the initiative to pull a chainsaw from the cargo bed of the pickup truck, "Let's help Kou Kou get that moose out first."

Hearing this, Tan Tu nodded indifferently. After turning on the switch, he stretched out his hand and slowly pulled out the tow hook of the front winch, and then circled it around the trunk of a sugar maple tree in a familiar way.

While she was getting ready, Wei Ran also started the saw and cut off the branches around the reindeer.

Taking advantage of the cleaning time, he roughly guessed that maybe it was the heavy rain last night or even today's breakfast that broke the middle of this sugar maple tree that seemed to have been eaten by moths, and desperately killed it. The head of the hapless moose, sheltering under a tree, was stuck in place while a broken branch pierced its belly.

It can't be said that Wei Ran and others were lucky or the moose and the sugar maple tree were unlucky. Anyway, since this happened, they couldn't just throw it here and waste it.

In less than 10 minutes, with the help of several girls, the large and small branches were dragged aside. Tantu also tied the moose's two hind hooves with a rope, and used it to go around another branch. The dry tow hook slowly pulled it out, and let it hang a little bit at a height less than half a meter from the ground.

Under Wei Ran's suggestion, Kou Kou slashed the dead moose's throat and cut its carotid artery accurately.

Although there was not much blood flowing out because of the absence of a heartbeat, it was still better than nothing.

Just as the girls were watching Kou Kou, who was standing on the roof of the truck, skinning the huge monster, Tan Tu, who was carrying a crossbow gun and canvas bag in his hand, and a bundle of rope hanging from his shoulder, also moved towards Wei Ran. wink.

"Do you need me to go up and have a look?" Tan Tu led Wei Ran to the foot of the tall redwood tree, and asked with his neck raised.

Without waiting for Wei Ran's answer, the Indian woman pulled the trigger towards the crown of the redwood tree.

"Boom!" With a soft sound, the steel blunt-tipped crossbow arrow flew over a thick branch with a slender nylon rope.Gently tugging on the rope, the blunt crossbow also slowly fell with the rope.

Using this thin rope to pull up the bundle of thick ropes on his shoulders and go around the waist-thick branch, Tantu fixed the rope and pulled it hard, then took out a pair of tree-climbing ropes from his waist. Iron palm used.

"Let me do it." Wei Ran took it before the other party put the pair of iron palms on the shoes, and handed the other party the binoculars hanging around his neck by the way.

"You better not be doing this for the first time"

Tan Tu grabbed the rope and reminded, "At such a high height, even if you can survive after falling, I'm afraid Mr. Hawking won't need much freedom."

"Don't worry, it's certainly not the first time"

As Wei Ran said, he had already taken out a pair of safety insurance from the canvas bag at the opponent's feet and put it on quickly.

Seeing Wei Ran's proficient appearance, Tan Tu didn't stop him after hesitating for a while, but carefully checked all the locks for him.

After making some preparations, Wei Ran gripped the ascender tightly, and climbed up the rope little by little.

When he was more than five meters above the ground, he also noticed that on the trunk of this towering tree, there seemed to be steel handles for climbing up and down.

However, perhaps because of the passage of time, most of these steel bar handles are only exposed to the outside with less than five centimeters left, and the rest has been eaten into the tree trunk.

Even so, Wei Ran can still use his hands or feet to grasp or step on it to further accelerate his ascent.

A moment later, when he was riding on a branch wider than his body, he finally saw what was nailed to the trunk.

This is definitely an American steel helmet of World War II, an American steel helmet that is hung in the air by thick steel bars firmly nailed to the tree trunk.

And directly below the helmet is a brass cannon shell suspended by a rusty iron chain.

Or more precisely, a Type 127X680R (flange) case.As for why he is so clear, the reason is simple.

Because the artillery using this kind of shell casing was the most representative during World War II, it was the Mk12 127mm 38-caliber naval gun on the stupid US ship.

Anyway, he is also a student brought out by Professor Alexei. Identifying weapons through bullets/shell casings is one of the most basic professional skills that historians like them need to master in order to support their families.

Of course, the simpler reason is that the model number is clearly written on the butt of the shell case.Not only that, but there is also something vaguely engraved on the waist of the copper shell casing that is densely covered with black oxide.

Carefully picking up the cannon shell casing and looking it around, Wei Ran, who was riding on the branch of a tree, subconsciously read the hand-carved handwriting on it.

"USS johnston DD-557 Ernest E. Evans"

Johnston? DD-557? DDD Destroyer?USS Johnston? !Ernest Evans?After Wei Ran translated the inscription to himself, his breath was stagnant.
Carefully turn this black shell casing, there is a second line of English engraved on it - this will be a battleship, she will fight a bloody way, those who are afraid had better leave as soon as possible.

Although he has not come to North America many times, he also knows that this sentence is the famous saying of John Paul Jones, the father of the US Navy.

As for the destroyer DD557 Johnston, when it comes to this warship, one has to mention the name engraved on the shell shell, Ernest Evans.Or, should he be called Captain Ernest Evans of the USS Johnston.

After carefully recalling the memory of the name of the person and the destroyer, Wei Ran showed surprise on his face.

Needless to say, Johnston's heroic performance in the last battle before the sinking of the battle, but Captain Ernest Evans not only has the nickname "The Great Chief", but he actually owns a quarter of the ship. Three Cherokee Indians of blood!
Most importantly, in the final battle of the sinking of the USS Johnston, the captain was finally listed as missing!
Subconsciously glanced at the Indian woman holding the binoculars under the tree, looking up at her neck, Wei Ran swallowed involuntarily, suppressing the guess about the blood relationship between the captain and the woman on the ground In the bottom of my heart.

Turning his gaze back to the cannon shell, Wei Ran carefully took out a thick glass tube sealed at both ends and a small canning bottle sealed with wax oil and gauze.

In that glass tube was sealed a wooden stick that was no more than half a meter long. This wooden stick was also engraved with patterns such as cobras, eagle heads, and Indians with feathers on their heads. At one end, there is also something that seems to be made of horn material.

In addition, there are three slender black feathers tied with leather ropes on this wooden stick, and a small metal pipe that looks a size bigger than chopsticks, and the whole body is embossed in Ukiyo-e style.

Although separated by a thick layer of glass tube, he can still roughly distinguish that this small metal pipe seems to be made of sterling silver, and the embossed gold embossment on it also reveals a sense of luxury from the inside out.

Carefully put the glass tube back into the shell casing, Wei Ran picked up the glass canning bottle that was almost tightly stuffed into the shell casing.

It was sealed inside, but it was half full, which seemed to be shredded tobacco, and buried in the shredded tobacco was an Indian pipe ax without the handle.

Indian pipe ax?Wei Ran subconsciously looked at the glass tube, and then realized belatedly that the wooden stick in the glass tube just now might be the missing ax handle.

Look at the pipe ax sealed in this canning bottle. There is a heart-shaped hollow on the surface of the ax that is about the size of a fingernail.A little above this hollow, there are protruding sea anchor outlines on both sides.The pipe pot at the other end of the ax is shaped like a life buoy, and there are even embossed outlines of ropes on it.

Obviously, such an exquisite ax is definitely a custom-made product, especially what Wei Ran cares about is that there is a silver sailor's whistle wrapped with a thin rope on this ax.

Looking back and forth at the contents of the canning jar, Wei Ran hesitated for a moment, then put it back into the cannon shell, then took out his cell phone and dialed the number of the Indian woman under the tree.

After describing his discovery, Wei Ran finally asked, "Tan Tu, the ax lying here may be a relic of a missing American destroyer captain in history. Considering that your grandfather was a US Navy soldier, these It is very likely that the things were put there by him, and it is not even ruled out that they are his personal belongings.

So it's up to you to decide whether to take these things down, or let them stay here, waiting to be completely swallowed by the growing trunk someday in the future. "

After this question was asked, Tantu, who had been holding up the binoculars, said without thinking, "Help me take it off! Victor, so my grandfather is actually the captain of a destroyer? How is this possible?" He's an Indian. Also, what rank is the captain? General?"

"The missing captain I just mentioned was three-quarters Indian"

After Wei Ran finished speaking, he added uncertainly, "I don't remember clearly. The missing Captain Ernest Evans seems to be a major or lieutenant colonel."

"Help take off the thing on it!" Tantu said again, "I can take it to ask my father, maybe he knows something."

Hearing this, Wei Ran put the mobile phone into his pocket, bent down and pulled the rope up, and then used this rope to carefully send down the cannonball casing suspended by the chain, and waited until Tan Tu caught it firmly. , and then skillfully rappelled back to the ground with the help of the buckle.

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