On the night of March 4th, Wei Ran had no chance to rest at all, nor did he see Ke Na's roommate, so he started working under the urging of a girl who came over on skis for help and Ke Na's guidance.
.
Slightly clumsily, he used a blank shotgun and a small hammer to start the crawler-type bulldozer outside the tent. After some exploration, Weiran finally relied on the help of his grandfather driving a four-wheel tractor during the high school summer vacation and
I once had the experience of fighting in a tank as a mechanical and electrical engineer, and successfully maneuvered this open-top bulldozer.
Guided by the two red lights hung on the backs of Kona and another girl, Weiran drove the bulldozer rumbled forward on the snow-covered ice.
Naturally, the speed of this bulldozer was too high to catch up with the two girls on skis, but even so, the strong wind and snowflakes blowing in front of him forced Wei Ran to press his feet against the joystick, leaving his hands free to take out the metal book.
The goggles were fastened to his face.
After running after the two red lights for almost twenty minutes with the squeaking noise of the tracks and the roar of the engine, the two girls also stopped.
"Victor, on the road ahead of us on the left, there is a section of ice cracked in front of us. We have to go around in circles to the left to clear a new route."
Kona, who came up on her skis, took a breath and continued, "When you follow my red light, we have to clear a three-meter-wide road, and you need to shovel back and forth three or four times."
"clear!"
Wei Ran responded loudly, and after the opponent pulled away, he immediately put down the bulldozer, pushed the snow on the ice, and followed the opponent to draw an arc on the ice.
Although he couldn't see what was happening on the cracked ice, he could still see the flashing red light at the center of the circle dozens of meters away, the vaguely raised butt of the truck, and a crawler that seemed to be preparing to pull it up.
tractor.
After driving in a circle like this for a hundred meters, the ice road that had been lined up on the road just now appeared in front of the car.
Under the command of Kona, Weiran clumsily manipulated the bulldozer, which was not very powerful, to connect the road he had just driven with the road in front of him, and then turned around and followed his path.
The new road that had just been opened was pushed back and the road surface was widened.
When he connected the other end of the new road to the old road and turned around to clear the snow in the middle of the road, two sledges pulling a load of pine needles and reeds appeared behind him.
On the two sledges, there were several children who didn't seem to be much older than Kona. They used forks to spread the load on the newly opened road.
Behind the two sledges, there were two more sledges pulling buckets heated by fire, spraying water on the road as they walked.
With the help of the low temperature of -40 to 50 degrees below zero, the steaming water immediately froze together with the snow and turned into a sticky ice shell as soon as it was poured on the pine needles and weeds.
At this time, two more sledges followed, sprinkling a large amount of sawdust mixed with sand on the road. Behind them were trucks and sledges of various powers that were busy on their way.
Even if there is no need to explain, Wei Ran, who is driving the bulldozer at the front, can definitely guess it just by taking a look. The pine needles and weeds sprinkled on the first layer are like steel bars in concrete, and the warm water sprinkled next is like steel bars in concrete.
Such as adhesives, and the sawdust and sand are used to provide limited resistance to prevent the trucks walking on it from slipping, and at the same time, the resistance of the animal-drawn sledges will not be too great.
In less than half an hour, the blocked ice road was reopened to traffic, but the work of the Weifang did not end.
Under the command of Kona, he helped the tractor pull up the truck with most of its front end stuck in the ice hole.
As soon as he unhooked the trailer, several sledges ventured to park on the edge of the ice hole and threw various branches and weeds into the ice hole. Then, several militiamen waved shovels and threw them into the hole.
The snow was thrown into the ice cave one spade after another.
"Victor, your work is not over yet."
Kona once again stepped on her skis and approached Wei Ran, who was busy packing up the trailer cables. She pointed at the new road that had just been opened and said, "You need to roll out windshields of at least one meter high on both sides of that section of road.
That’s all.”
"no problem!"
Wei Ran happily agreed and threw the newly bundled steel cables into the basket welded with steel bars at the rear of the car. "I remember the way back. You don't need to be here anymore. Go back and rest first."
"I have to go on duty on a new road." Kena pointed in the direction of the ice cave. "A companion just fell in. There is one less person here."
Wei Ran was stunned for a moment, then nodded, and quickly climbed onto the bulldozer while saying, "Pay attention to safety!"
"You too!" After Kona finished speaking, she already held up her ski poles with both hands and slid out lightly.
Driving the bulldozer to the side of the road that he had pushed out by himself, Wei Ran repeated the boring work of pushing the surrounding snow to the roadside over and over again.
This job was far more troublesome than before. Not only did he have to retreat and move forward over and over again, but he also had to create a fork in the road for evacuation every once in a while.
And whenever the anti-aircraft searchlights lit up in the distant night sky, and others could go to the fork he drove and run away from the road, he could only continue to work in fear - he was driving a bulldozer that was so slow that even skis could not catch up.
, you can't run away even if you want to.
Since you can't run away, you can only choose to trust the air defense positions in the distance and continue working as if nothing happened.
In his busy schedule, a one-meter-high windshield wall was finally built on both sides of this 100-meter-long arc-shaped temporary road. But before he could take a break, there was a man who looked about fifteen or sixteen years old.
A 20-year-old boy came up to him on skis and anxiously asked him to help him pull up a truck that was lying on the road more than 200 meters away in the direction of Cobona.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! That night, Weiran almost never got off the bulldozer, and the bulldozer was almost never idle.
Build roads, tow trucks, build wind walls, clear snow and slush on the road, even bury militiamen and transport team members who died suddenly or were killed in bombings, and drag oil drums to refuel trucks.
It was dawn, and Wei Ran finally finished all his work. Shivering, he drove the bulldozer and followed Kona, who was riding skis in front of him, back to the white tent.
Shivering, Wei Ran patted away the snow that had almost frozen into ice shells on his body. When Wei Ran followed Ke Na into the tent, one of the two beds was still empty, and on the other bed, there was still a man lying watching.
There was a girl about the same age as Ke Na, who was wrapped in a blanket and sleeping soundly.
"That's Ekaterina," Kona introduced in a low voice, and at the same time poured a glass of hot water for Wei Ran.
"I said hello to her when I came here." Wei Ran took the cup and held it in his hand, and then trembled involuntarily.
"She has been working on the ice for several months," Kona said in a low voice. "Strictly speaking, she is responsible for commanding this technical service point."
"Where are the others?" Wei Ran asked in a low voice.
"There are two girls, they have probably gone to work now."
As she spoke, Ke Na had already taken off the red lantern hanging from her waist, extinguished it and handed it to Wei Ran. She then took out a few pieces of letter paper and a pen from the box beside the bed, and used a volume of "Resurrection" to pad it.
Under the letter, he sat on the lid of the airdrop box and said, "Help me add some oil to the signal light. Then you can go to sleep for a while. I will wake you up later during the meal. Now I want to help my brothers and sisters."
I wrote a reply."
"You should also go to bed early." Wei Ran yawned as he took the signal light, turned around and left the small cubicle.
When he came to the next door, he lit the kerosene lamp first. He took off his ice-crusted clothes and hung them on the hook hanging above his head. Then he found the oil barrel and funnel, removed the oil can of the signal lamp and filled it with kerosene.
After finishing the last bit of work, Wei Ran took off his frozen felt boots and outer trousers, and lay down on the narrow camp bed, absorbing the warmth from the stove next door through the thin canvas partition, and listening attentively.
Listen to the rustling sound when the pen tip rubs against the letter paper.
After an unknown amount of time, Kona finally finished writing the reply and stood up with a yawn.
Contrary to Wei Ran's expectation, the girl did not wake him up. Instead, she quietly slipped into the cubicle where he was sleeping. She first helped extinguish the kerosene lamp on the table, then picked up the filled signal lamp and stepped on it.
The skis left the warm tent.
Naturally, Wei Ran would not chase after the girl, so he simply closed his eyes and wrapped himself tightly in the blanket, and soon fell into a dream.
When he was woken up by the clear and loud sound of the alarm clock, Kona's call came to his ears, "Victor, come over and have something to eat. By the way, bring the radio and generator."
"Right away!" Wei Ran rubbed his face and sat up while responding to the other party.
Carrying the radio in one hand and the not-so-big pedal-type generator in the other, when Weiran rushed to the next door, there were already a few pieces of black bread and a steaming meal on the lid of the airdrop box next to the stove.
Red cabbage soup.
At this time, Kona and the girl named Ekaterina were sitting on their knees by the fire, each holding a piece of bread in one hand and red cabbage soup in the other, eating and talking about something.
"Should I start working after I finish eating?" Wei Ran said as he put the radio at the end of the bed.
"You still have five hours to rest."
Kona had already taken the generator while she was talking, and sat skillfully on the side of the boat, glaring at the generator while adjusting the channel, "Eat quickly, I just gave the reply to Kelai Luo, he knows you are here
I’m working, and I even brought you a gift.”
"What gift?" Wei Ran sat down curiously and asked.
"In your cabbage soup." The girl named Ekaterina pointed to the wooden soup bowl placed on the lid of the box.
Curiously, he picked up the spoon and picked up the soup bowl, and just fished it out casually. Wei Ran was stunned. There was actually a peeled hard-boiled egg in the thick beetroot soup!
"It was brought by Kelailuo"
Kona pointed to an extra bag on the table by the door, "He got five boiled eggs in total. I asked him to bring the other four to his younger brothers and sisters. The remaining one..."
"You two can eat the remaining one."
As he spoke, Wei Ran had already divided the hard-boiled eggs in the bowl into two halves, and while forcefully giving them to the two thin girls, he lied, "It would be fine if it was meat, but I am very allergic to eggs, and I don't want to
I was sent to the hospital on my first day here.”
"When did you become allergic to eggs?" Ke Na looked at Wei Ran suspiciously.
"I've been allergic to eggs for as long as I can remember"
Wei Ran took a big mouthful of red cabbage soup as a matter of course, then tore open the black bread in his hand and threw it in.
Compared with the bread I had eaten in the basement before, I could finally taste the unique aroma of flour in this piece of bread, and there was nothing that I couldn't chew.
"You must not lie to me"
As Kona said, she started turning on the generator again, and the radio also started to play intermittent music after a tingling noise.
"This song..." Kena was stunned for a moment, then sped up the movements of her feet.
After some adjustments, the music from the speakers became clearer and clearer, so much so that even Wei Ran, who had finished his beetroot soup and finished his bread slices, could tell that this piece of music happened to be the Leningrad Symphony!
However, the song was already coming to an end at this time. So before Kona could stop pedaling the generator, the sound of drums symbolizing the end came from the speaker.
"If my dad is playing, he's the drummer who plays the last beat."
Kona said subconsciously, and then said in an unusually positive tone, "This is Uncle Shostakovich's...comrade's Symphony No. 7 in C major, right?"
"Can you hear it?" Wei Ran asked in surprise. After hearing this, Ke Na just smiled and then stopped generating electricity.
"Have you found your parents?" After a moment of silence, Wei Ran asked a question he had always wanted to ask.
"No"
Kona sighed, "I have no idea where they work, or even if they are still alive."
"You will definitely find them." Wei Ran and the girl named Ekaterina gave the same blessing in unison.
"Why do you always look at me?" After Yekaterina finished speaking, she looked at Wei Ran and added.
"Nothing," Wei Ran said uncertainly, "I just feel like I've seen you somewhere."
"I'm also from Leningrad. Maybe I've seen him somewhere."
Ekaterina, who had finished eating half a boiled egg, stood up and took off the red signal light hanging on the handle of the airdrop box and hung it around her waist. She said, "I'm going to work. You guys can chat slowly."
.”
"Wait a moment"
Wei Ran called out to the other party, "Let me take a group photo for you. How about you also help take a group photo for me and Ke Na?"
"Where to shoot?" Ekaterina asked very happily.
"Do you have any suggestions?" Wei Ran looked at Ke Na.
"Just go outside the tent."
Kona responded absently, subconsciously picked up the bedside signal lamp and hung it on her waist.
After both girls put on their cotton hats and gloves, Wei Ran went next door on the pretext of getting his camera. He didn't just change the subject. He did have a vague feeling that he had seen the one who was as thin as Ke Na somewhere.
girl.
Temporarily suppressing his doubts, he put on his coat as quickly as possible, took out the Rolleiflex camera from the metal notebook and got out of the tent.
In just a short time, the two girls had already put on their snowboards and put on their cold-proof masks, gloves and goggles. However, their fully-armed outfits also made their faces completely obscured.
Obviously, rather than adapting, it is better to say that the two girls have become accustomed to the work and life style here.
At Wei Ran's suggestion, he took off his mask and goggles. Wei Ran looked at the extremely dim sun on the horizon in the distance. After some hesitation, he used the viewfinder to cover these two thin people, as if a gust of wind could blow them over.
Girls with chilblains on their faces, and tents and tracked bulldozers behind them.
Of course, there are also ice roads further away connected by a series of red traffic lights.
Almost at the same time as he pressed the shutter, a series of tracer bullets pointing to targets in the air suddenly exploded in the sky behind the two girls.
When Wei Yan put down the camera that had only taken one picture and looked over, the denser smoke also dyed the distant sky into a black cloud.
When the two girls turned back subconsciously, they could already hear the unique roar of the plane!
The two girls looked at each other. There was no hesitation, no communication, and no pause. Instead, they each took out a lighter and lit the signal light slung around their waists in unison. Then they didn't even say hello.
While busy putting on their masks and goggles, they stepped on their skis and rushed towards the ice road a few hundred meters away that they had maintained with their lives.
"I hope you can all survive, I hope you can all return to Leningrad without war, I hope..."
Before Wei Ran could finish his words, everything he could see in his field of vision had been replaced by intense white light, but he also knew that it was not over yet. He had not sent the children on the boat yet.
Not to mention the premiere of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 in C major in Leningrad!
As the white light faded little by little, the roar of engines and the intensive sound of artillery that filled his ears just now also disappeared one after another. Before his vision could recover, he actually heard the singing of the night of the military port and the laughter of children.
Of course, there is also the sound of wind blowing in the face, with a hint of watery smell, and the pleasant tinkling of bells.
Waiting patiently to see everything around him clearly, Wei Ran couldn't help but smile.
At this time, he was sitting in the driver's seat of a fully loaded two-wheeled carriage. Next to him, there was the bayan that belonged to Kona.
On the cart behind him, in addition to a few children he knew or didn't know, headed by Alexander, there was also the baby Galina, who was held in Lahia's arms, and Ah Sitting on Olga's side.
Nastasia and Bogdan.
In front of this car, Keleluo was also driving a two-wheeled cart pulled by a mule. Sitting on that cart were some children he knew or didn't know, such as Andre, as well as those in charge.
Olga and Sasha look after these children.
Wei Ran subconsciously counted the colorful Budyonni hats on the two cars, and Wei Ran secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, among the total 35 children of all sizes, all of the 23 colorful hats were worn. Moreover, these children were obviously a little fatter and had a lot more smiles on their faces.
"Victor, can we see Sister Kena later?"
Alyosha sat down next to Wei Ran and asked, "Is she really waiting for us at the port?"
"You'll know when you get there," Wei Ran responded with a smile.
"We haven't gone to the zoo to watch Uncle Matvey's performance yet," Alexander said with great regret.
"The war is not over yet"
Wei Ran pushed the man's head back, "Don't get too close, or your face will be pressed against the mule's ass."
Amid the laughter of the children, Alexander pushed Alyosha beside him toward the rear of the car, sat down next to Wei Ran and asked hopefully, "If Uncle Matvey can also evacuate with us,
Just go to the rear area, and you, Sister Kena, and Brother Kelailuo, you can always evacuate with us, right?"
"Kena and I are no longer children." Wei Ran answered the other party's expectant question as tactfully as possible.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "I am not a child anymore," Alexander subconsciously retorted, "We..."
"Don't worry, Alexander!" Kelei Luo, who was in the car in front, turned around and loudly took over the topic, "We will evacuate soon!"
"Really?" the children in the two cars asked in surprise.
"of course it's true!"
The young Keleluo responded confidently, "But it's not today. There are still so many people in the air-raid shelter. We have to send them all away first, but we will definitely be able to meet you soon."
"You swear!" Lai Xia, who was holding the baby, shouted loudly, "Kellero, you have to swear!"
"Yes!" The children on the Kelailuo car echoed in unison.
"I swear"
Keleluo flicked his whip, "I swear we will definitely evacuate, and we will definitely meet on the other side of Lake Ladoga. After the war is over, I will go to the zoo with you to see Uncle Matvey.
As for my performance, you have mentioned it to me several times."
Seeing that the children's attention was diverted to Matvey's animal performance, Wei Ran sighed secretly, silently took out his camera, took a photo of the children beside him, and then looked towards the car in front of him.
The children in the car pressed the shutter.
Not long after walking along this gravel road in the forest, two carriages, led by Kelailuo, stopped at a busy dock.
Far away, Wei Ran saw Kona, who was wearing a uniform of a Soviet female soldier, with short hair that covered one side of her face, a boat cap on her head, and a pair of leather gloves on her hands.
Before the carriage came to a complete stop, the children wearing colorful Budyonny hats jumped out of the carriage, cheering and running towards Kona who opened her arms towards them, saying something to each other.
"Sister Ke Na is so popular," Kelailuo said with emotion.
"She's like a mother to the little ones."
Wei Ran also expressed his emotion, and at the same time he raised his camera and took a photo of the children and of Kona who was surrounded by everyone.
"Do you want to take a group photo?" Wei Ran shook the camera in his hand and asked, "Just like we did in the basement!"
"want!"
Both Kena and the children headed by Alexander subconsciously responded in the affirmative.
Soon, these children wearing hats of various colors surrounded Kona and got ready with their backs to the barge in the distance.
"Kailailuo, Victor, you guys come too!" Kena waved to Kailailuo, "And the children around you."
"Give me the camera and I will take pictures for you."
Following the sound, Wei Ran recognized at a glance that the person standing next to him, wearing the uniform of a female soldier of the Soviet Red Army and holding the rank of sergeant, was the person named who lived in the same tent as Kena.
Catherine's female soldiers.
Looking at the lush birch forest in the distance, Wei Ran didn't know how much time had passed, but this female soldier, who was as skinny as Ke Na at the beginning, is now plumper, and the look on her face is also filled with perseverance.
replace.
Subconsciously, he handed the Rolleiflex dual camera with the horse fur camera case to the other party. When Wei Ran accidentally caught a glimpse of the gold melee assault medal on the camera case, he was stunned at first, and then he
He showed a complex expression of sudden realization, astonishment and surprise.
"What's wrong?"
Ekaterina took the camera and glanced at the strange expression on Wei Ran's face, and urged nonchalantly, "Go, children, stand together, the barge is about to leave."
"good"
After coming back to his senses, Wei Ran quickly ran behind the children, and while taking pictures, he couldn't help but sigh that this world is really too small.
In the previous scene before the white light, he felt that the female soldier named Ekaterina looked familiar. Now he finally remembered that it was this female soldier who accepted them in Berlin and made him and Hans
Dad, Dr. Lodge, and those Jewish female nurses arranged to work in the field hospital!
Yes, he clearly remembers that the female soldier in Berlin was called Katya. Isn’t Katya the nickname of Ekaterina?=
But could it really be her? Such a coincidence made him even more uncertain - the probability was really too low.
Then, he was a little excited. If this female soldier was the female soldier in Berlin in 1945, does that mean that he would still have the opportunity to meet some people he thought he would never see again to make amends?
What about some regrets that he has always cared about and cannot let go of?
Before he could figure this out, the barge behind him, shrouded in the sunset, also sounded its whistle, and the female soldier named Ekaterina almost pressed the shutter.
After hurriedly returning the camera to Weiran, Ekaterina clapped her hands and urged, "Okay kids, time is running out, everyone, hurry up and get on the boat!"
"We just met Sister Kona," Olga said pitifully.
"Good girl, we will meet again soon, I promise." Kona hurriedly hugged Olga, and left a soft kiss on the forehead of the baby Galina, and then hurriedly urged, "
Alexander! Take your brothers and sisters on board!"
"yes!"
Alexander gave a decent military salute, and Kona and Ekaterina actually responded to an extra formal military salute in a decent manner.
In this brief encounter and silent farewell, Alexander took the children of the same age and his younger brothers and sisters, looking back three times at a time, and hurriedly boarded the small barge.
"Brother Victor," Ke Na looked at Wei Ran, "can you play that piece on the bayan?"
Wei Ran was stunned when he heard this, nodded quickly, picked up the bayangqin from the sledge truck and hung it on his chest, squeezing the bellows while playing the song.
And next to him, Ke Na also sang the song she wrote for the children with a beautiful voice.
In the singing, in the music, in the sound of the whistle, in the waving greetings of the children on the barge deck and the chorus of the same song, the barge also gradually opened up the distance between it and the dock under the setting sun.
distance.
Until the two sides could no longer see each other, Kona also stopped singing, which was almost like babble, followed by a tired sigh.
