In the dark night, Oleg was lifted up to the second floor by the old electrician Sergey and the firefighter Valerito. After avoiding the grenade fixed at the other end of the rope, he immediately followed the only remaining path.
After climbing half the stairs to the third floor, he placed the sniper rifle in the corner of the broken wall and pointed it in the direction of the destination where Wei Ran and others were about to go.
On the first floor, Lieutenant Lev and Wei Yan, led by firefighters Gorsh and Valery, and old electrician Sergey, crawled in the dark to the ruins left after the collapse of another building in the distance.
ruins.
Under the cover of night, they were moving much faster than during the day, but even so, they needed to be extremely careful, because according to Gorsh, there would be German patrols from time to time nearby even at night.
So that by the time they arrived at their destination, at least an hour had passed.
"This is almost it," Gorsh said, pointing to a piece of red brick ruins. "This should be where the paint store was. It used to be a beautiful two-story brick building."
"Let's do it"
Before Lieutenant Lev finished speaking, he bent down and picked up a few bricks that were still stuck together, and moved them aside gently. When the others saw this, they immediately stepped forward to help, quietly cleaning up the bricks as if they were in graves.
Building debris.
As everyone was busy moving, a high-spirited gun barrel gradually emerged from the stacked bricks, followed by the front of the tank, and then the small half of the turret.
When the white light gradually appeared in the east, and when the rumbling sound of artillery came from the German artillery position a few hundred meters away and the direction of the Volga River further away, the concrete pillars pressing on the cockpit hatch were finally pushed away with difficulty by everyone.
Arrived to the side.
"The next step is to see if it can start." Lieutenant Lev opened the heavy hatch cover as he spoke.
"Hopefully we can survive"
Firefighter Gorsch pulled out a can of paint from under the tank chassis, pried it open, put his hand directly in and dipped it in, and then left a bright red fingerprint on the turret, "Comrade reporter, if we don't come back alive,
If you can survive, I hope you can find this tank after the war and let everyone know my name. Of course, it would be better if you can write us into Pravda."
“This method is good”
The old electrician Sergei also climbed onto the tank, dipped his hand in the paint can, and then slapped the turret. "Although I don't have to follow you, I also want to be in the newspaper."
"In this case, let's all leave our fingerprints."
While Lieutenant Lev was speaking, he and Fireman Valery slapped their paint-stained palms on the turret in no particular order.
On the other hand, Wei Ran was already frozen in place at this time. The four bright red palm prints on the turret of this T-34 tank gradually overlapped with the tank in his memory!
It turns out...it turns out to be like this!
"Victor, please leave a fingerprint too," Lieutenant Lev, who had already climbed into the tank turret, suggested while putting the radio earphone on his head.
"Oh! Okay!" Wei Ran came to his senses, dipped his hand in the paint can, and slapped it hard on the tank's turret!
"It's almost dawn, it's time for us to set off, Gorsh, start the tank." Lieutenant Lev said, holding on to the edge of the turret hatch.
"etc!"
Wei Ran casually wiped the paint on his pants and said, "Let me take a photo of you all! It won't take long."
"This is my first time taking pictures." Sergey, an old electrician, quickly climbed up the turret and held the gun barrel to stand upright.
Seeing Lieutenant Lev nodding, Wei Ran quickly took out his camera, and after some fiddling with it, he took a photo of everyone, and then took a group photo of the four of them with the tank.
"I will put you under the bell tower," Lieutenant Lev pointed to the end of the field of view and said, "You should be able to see us there. The command depends on you."
Before Lev finished speaking, the tank started smoothly. Driven by firefighter Gorsh, it drove out of the rubble that buried the rear half of the car almost roughly!
Amidst the squeaking of the tracks, the T-34 tank with five bright red handprints printed on the side of the turret bypassed the ruins of the building and drove straight towards the German artillery position! Halfway through, Wei Yan and the old electrician Sergey came from
He jumped off the tank and ran to the bottom of the half-remaining bell tower.
This is the only vantage point from which the German artillery positions can be seen, but at the same time, it is also within the direct sighting range of the German artillery. Even in this bell tower, there are five German soldiers stationed! It’s just a matter of calculation.
As soon as they opened the door, the old electrician Sergey used a submachine gun to send them all back to their hometown.
The two climbed up the spiral staircase to the highest point. Wei Ran handed over all the defense work and grenades to the old electrician, while he looked along the wall at the fast-moving tanks outside.
However, just when he was about to say something into the microphone, a particularly clear shutter sound reached his ears, and then a fierce white light occupied his entire field of vision!
When his vision returned to normal, Wei Ran looked blankly at the familiar studio, then sat down on the cold floor and let out a long sigh of relief.
There was a soft "clatter" sound, and a cowhide notebook quietly appeared, spread on the floor directly in front of it, and automatically opened to the second page.
On this page, the T-34 originally sketched with a metal quill pen has been turned into a black and white photo. Next to the photo, there is even an ordinary long paper bag.
Right below the photo, the metal quill pen left rows of horizontal and vertical Chinese characters in a faint sound of "swish, swish, swish":
Tragedy in the Highlands and Underground
Lieutenant Lev, Firefighter Vasily, and Firefighter Gorsh were captured by the Germans after completing their missions because the tank track broke. They were shot dead in the early morning of September 29, 1942. After the Battle of Stalingrad, the three were awarded posthumously.
Medal for the Defense of Stalingrad, Order of the Patriotic War 2nd Class.
Electrician Sergei used radio to command tanks to destroy and destroy two German tanks, a tank destroyer, and seven artillery pieces, killing 9 German soldiers. After running out of ammunition, he detonated a grenade and committed suicide. After the Battle of Stalingrad, he was posthumously awarded the first-class award.
Patriotic War Partisan Medal.
Sniper Oleg killed 14 Germans and by the end of the battle, saved 21 Stalingrad orphans and 8 wounded. After the Battle of Stalingrad, he was awarded the Patriotic War Partisan Medal Level 2. October 1943
On the 20th, he died in the unknown wilderness during the Battle of Kiev.
The T-34 tank was repaired and sent to the battlefield at the end of the Battle of Stalingrad. On March 9, 1943, it was abandoned in an unknown forest on the bank of the Don River due to gearbox failure.
After writing this, the metal quill pen started a new line, listing in detail the medals each person had received and the certificate numbers of the medals.
While he was waiting, the metal quill started another line again and continued to write: When the photographer picked up the gun, his camera may still retain the last justice and kindness. But in the film
What is recorded will always be the most cruel moments of war.
Just when Wei Ran read the last word, the page of paper with photos and words on it automatically turned to another page. What made his hair stand on end in horror was that on the back of this light yellow paper,
There is a slowly rotating blood-red vortex! And in the center of this vortex, there is something floating unsteadily!
The metal quill that had been suspended continued to write below the blood-red vortex as if no one else was watching: Either the camera or the bayonet is always the photographer's weapon. The former records the most real war, and the latter creates the bloodiest killings.
.
With a "clang" sound, the metal quill, which seemed to have entered the time of the sage, hit the floor heavily and stopped moving.
After hesitating for a moment, Wei Ran took a deep breath, slowly reached out to the blood-red vortex on the page that occupied half of the page, and slowly pulled out a slender Mauser bayonet from it. What is quite special is that
, on the gauntlet of this bayonet, there is also an extra thick oval-shaped World War II German soldier badge.
Taking the nearly 40 centimeter long bayonet and looking at it carefully, Wei Ran accidentally tried to send it back to the slowly rotating blood-red vortex. The next scene made his eyes widen again.
The bayonet can actually be put back!
Carefully holding the page up, Wei Ran looked back and forth between the front and back. He really couldn't figure out how such a long bayonet could fit into this thin piece of paper. Even
Even when he tried to close the notebook, it was not affected at all!
Are you afraid that Soviet black technology really does exist?
After coming back to his senses, Wei Ran suddenly remembered something, quickly ran to the workbench against the wall, and turned on the studio monitor from the desktop computer in the corner.
The replayed surveillance footage made him slightly relieved. The surveillance footage only recorded the scene where after he finished calling Professor Alexei, his phone slipped and hit his big toe, and then he sat down on the floor. As for that,
A cowhide notebook never appeared in the camera from beginning to end.
And the most important thing is that less than a minute passed from the time he finished making the call to checking the surveillance, and most of the time in the picture was him sitting on the floor in a daze!
However, to be cautious, he deleted the whole day's monitoring records and unplugged the power supply. Anyway, he was the only one keeping an eye on this thing. Professor Alexei not only didn't care at all, he didn't even have the password to retrieve the monitoring.
After cleaning up the last bit of suspicious evidence, Wei Ran picked up the notebook that was still lying on the floor. After turning to the second page, he first looked at the blood-red vortex on the back. After confirming that it was still there, he turned back to the front.
From the paper bag next to the black and white T-34 photo, I took out several developed negatives.
Turning on the switch of the copy board again and putting these negatives on it, Wei Ran held up a magnifying glass and carefully observed each one. These negatives were taken by him personally. In them, Oleg was holding a family photo and a sniper rifle in his ruined home.
There were photos of the old man sitting on a chair with a lame leg playing the piano, as well as individual photos and group photos taken of Lieutenant Lev and others after they dug out the tank.
What was recorded in the last negative was the scene he saw at the last moment, when he was standing at the highest point of the dilapidated bell tower, preparing to use the radio to direct the tank into battle.
In the shot captured on this negative, most of the city has been turned into ruins. In the corner, the Volga River with floating corpses and ferries reflects the sun that has just risen above the horizon. In the center of the photo,
The T-34 tank, like the protagonist, rushed towards the artillery position directly ahead, and between the artillery and the tank, there were two German tanks heading in the opposite direction.
Around them, the German soldiers holding guns were frozen in the moment of running, and some artillerymen rushed towards the several howitzers with their barrels raised high.
"Click" Wei Ran turned off the power of the copy board, threw the magnifying glass aside, leaned on the back of the chair tiredly and closed his eyes.
Although less than ten minutes had passed in the world that belonged to him, in the world that did not belong to him seventy or eighty years ago, that difficult day was longer than a century.
