"So the only clues that can be provided are three photos and a story?" Wei Ran asked looking at Diane sitting opposite.
"Of course not, there is also this"
It was only then that Diane completely opened her briefcase and took out a tattered hard-cover notebook with mold spots and yellow hair, and a knife that was at most 20 centimeters long.
There is nothing special about this knife. More than half of its length is an antler handle with a one-piece keel structure. It is a typical Finnish knife shape. The mottled rust and remaining small holes on it really look like they were made of horseshoes.
As for the hard-cover notebook, just by looking at the stubby hair, you can tell that it is made of horsehide. It is the same material and craftsmanship as the waterproof horsehide jacket used by the Rollei camera in the metal notebook. It was also made in the early days of World War II.
, common processes and material selections for making military waterproof backpacks in Germany.
Under Wei Ran's gaze, Diane gently untied the leather strap of the hard-cover book, then opened the horse fur cover and pushed it to Wei Ran.
Inside this 32-karat notebook, a regular round hole is dug out on the page in the upper left corner. Inside the round hole, a small silver piece that is about the size of a beer bottle cap is tightly fixed.
pocket watch.
On the case of this pocket watch, the words "Army Engineer Second Lieutenant Toshiro Koyama" are clearly engraved in Japanese Chinese characters that are completely compatible with traditional Chinese characters.
Looking up at Diane, Wei Ran reached into his pocket and took out a pair of rubber gloves he carried with him and put them on, and then easily opened the silver watch case that was slightly higher than the page.
To his expectation, there was actually a compass inside the watch case. Not only did it have clear and complete directions, it also had a level that was about the thickness of a match head.
After trying to take out the pocket watch-style compass to no avail, Wei Ran simply turned to the last page and saw that the bracelet and back case of the pocket watch were made of an unknown material.
It was firmly stuck to the horsehide on the last page.
Turning back to the first page, and carefully wrapping the compass around the holes on each page, Wei Ran looked at the content on the page.
On the first page, there is a map that seems to be hand-drawn with a pen. Not only is the location of the logging camp and the Yenisei River clearly marked in German, but it also has some five-pointed stars or triangle marks. And on this map
At the bottom edge of the map, a horizontal winding line is drawn, and on the edge of this line, the words "Siberian Railway" are written in German.
The second page is still a hand-drawn map, but this map accurately depicts the layout of a lumber camp. The purpose of each building is clearly marked in German.
“This is where reindeer are kept in captivity”
Diane pointed at the drawn circle of fence, which was not much bigger than a fingernail, and introduced, "The wooden house next to it is the residence of Second Lieutenant Mesut, and it is also a maintenance station.
According to Yin Hall, whether it was horse shoeing or repairing some broken sleighs, they were all done in this wooden house.
Both the Soviets and prisoners of war recognized that Mesut's craftsmanship was very good and his work was very meticulous."
"This Second Lieutenant Mesut is really versatile," Wei Ran said pointedly.
"Mesut's hometown is located in Holzkirchen under the Alps, less than 30 kilometers away from Munich."
After a pause, Diane continued, "His family has been running a small factory producing ski equipment since before the First World War.
Although this factory had moved to Innsbruck, Austria before the 1964 Winter Olympics, it is still operating a high-end customization business for ski sports equipment."
A family craft?
Wei Ran turned to the third page while beeping, as if to confirm Diane's introduction just now, what was drawn on this page happened to be a structural diagram of what seemed to be a sled.
Different from the sleds Weiran has seen and used before, the hand-drawn sled in the picture is extremely slender according to the numbers marked on it.
With a length of 1.9 meters and a width of only 80 centimeters, such a slender body means that the speed of this sled is definitely not too slow, not to mention that there are three shafts extending from one end of the sled.
This undoubtedly implies that the sled was originally designed to be pulled by two or four animals, which also further increased its speed.
Continuing to turn back, the next four or five pages are almost all detailed drawings of various parts of the sled. Especially the three three and a half meter long shafts, which are marked on a separate page, and it seems that they can be removed.
Use as tent poles.
On the next two pages, there are designs for a pair of skis and matching ski poles.
Moving on to the next two pages, dark blue German pen writing finally appeared, but what was recorded was an extremely detailed list.
From tents, canvas, animal skins, clothes, to food, medicine, tools, even cooking utensils, etc., there are all kinds of items listed on the front and back of two pieces of paper, and there is a check mark behind each entry.
Seeing that Wei Ran was deep in thought, Diane put down the coffee cup and added, "When Mesut's wife was alive, she confirmed that this was her husband's handwriting, and it was also in line with her husband's rigorous work habits."
Wei Ran nodded noncommittally and continued to flip through the pages. The following pages described an escape plan in a few concise German words.
“Yenisei River—Siberian Railway—Leningrad—Finland—Port of Narvik—Captain Kaler”
"Who is Captain Kaler?" Wei Ran raised his head and asked.
"Not sure"
Diane shook her head, "Neither Mesut's son, wife, nor the recruitment survivor Yin Hoer, they know who this Captain Kaler is, but according to the files that can be found, Mesut
He was actually stationed in Finland for a while."
He nodded and continued to turn back, but the next few pages were blank, and it looked like the middle pages had been torn out.
"I have a few questions." Wei Ran pushed the notebook to the middle of the table, took off his gloves, and looked up at Diane.
"Please speak," Diane said, picking up the coffee cup again and taking a leisurely sip.
"First question," Wei Ran asked, waiting for the other party to put down his cup. "Let me briefly introduce Mesut's wife and son."
"Mesut's wife was from Innsbruck and passed away in 1975. After the end of World War II, she had been running the Gotze family's small factory. It was also under her leadership that this small factory was on the verge of bankruptcy.
He moved to Innsbruck smoothly and made his first fortune with the 1964 Winter Olympics."
Diane paused and continued, "Mesut's son is called Little Mesut. He was born in 1943. He took over the factory in 1970 and began to search for his missing father on his mother's behalf.
Although he has not found Second Lieutenant Mesut for so many years, and the factory has not developed or grown in his hands, the reputation of his factory and his person has always been very good, especially in the 1990s, there were many
Skiers have come to him to customize their ski equipment.”
"second question"
Wei Ran pointed at the notebook between the two of them, "According to common sense, since you have already started running away, why would you leave such an important notebook behind? Especially this pocket watch compass, which is obviously used to attract nuclear power and attract silk.
Equipment, how was it brought to the labor camp?”
"According to Yinhor, Mesut had already found the Yenisei River before he separated from him. Next, he planned to go south along the Yenisei River. He no longer needed these things, so he kept this notebook
Gave it to him in exchange for the ID that Yin Hool snatched from the guard and a pistol that the hunter snatched."
Diane spread her hands, "Yin Hoer had already lost several of his toes from the cold and could no longer run. He exchanged this notebook in the hope that it would be used when he escapes next time."
"What about this?" Wei Ran pointed to the pocket watch compass.
"Yin Hoer said that it was preserved after he hid it in his body when he was captured. It was precisely because he had a compass that Mesut was willing to cooperate with him."
"In the body?" Wei Ran was stunned and subconsciously glanced at the rubber gloves he had just taken off.
"Just like you thought"
After Diane finished speaking, she gestured with both hands, "Although the behavior is disgusting, in order to survive, it makes sense. Of course, all this was said by Yin Hoer. Not only the authenticity needs to be verified, but also Yin Hoer said
Hall is dead."
"last question"
Wei Ran asked a seemingly insignificant question, "What did Yin Hoer do for a living during his lifetime, where did he live, and does he still have any family members alive?"
“It’s not a problem”
Diane reminded Wei Ran in a joking tone, and then answered one by one, "Before Mesut's wife passed away, Yin Hall made a living by selling ski equipment imported at low prices from their factory.
He is from Hokkaido, and his store at that time was in Sapporo.
After Mesut's wife passed away, little Mesut immediately stopped this kind of preferential treatment. Because there was no low-price supply of goods, Yihor's store closed down soon and became a residence. In the following years, it has been relying on intermittent sales.
Lieutenant Mesut's memories and half-truths and half-truths were used to extort some money from Mr. Mesut.
In addition, Yin Hoer once had a son alive, but he passed away due to an accident in the last century. His only living granddaughter also got married a few years ago, and he has no valuable information at all.
The only thing left is Yin Hall's house in Sapporo. Before his death, that house was sold to Mr. Mesut Jr. in an almost begging manner. But as far as I know, there is nothing of value in that house.
clues."
Having said this, Diane tore off a piece of paper from her own notebook and pushed it to Wei Ran, "The coordinates above are the specific location of the labor camp site, which was completely abandoned soon after Mr. Khrushchev came to power.
Already.
The address below is the address of the store in Sapporo just mentioned. It is also in a semi-abandoned state now.
Mr. Victor, as long as you are willing to help find Second Lieutenant Mesut, no matter which address you want to visit, Mr. Mesut will be willing to bear the round-trip travel expenses."
"Mr. Mesut is really kind," Wei Ran complimented casually.
"In fact"
Diane hesitated for a few seconds, and finally said, "In fact, because of Yin Hall's influence, Mr. Mesut has no good impression of all people with yellow skin and black hair. Well... maybe I should say
It's filled with irreparable resentment.
Frankly speaking, after you investigated the Liuban Forest Guerrillas, I recommended you to him, but after learning that you were Asian, he simply refused."
After a short pause and seeing that Wei Ran's expression did not change, Diane continued, "If your attack hadn't been on the news this time, I'm afraid Mr. Mesut would still be unwilling to cooperate with you.
And even if he is now willing to offer a high commission of 150,000 euros, he does not want to meet and communicate with you directly. He said..."
Diane, who seemed to have spilled the beans, stopped the car in time, with an expression of apology on her face.
"It's okay." Wei Ran smiled, "I'm very curious about what he said."
"He said..."
Diane's voice lowered a little, and she said apologetically, "He has physical discomfort with people with yellow skin and black hair. I'm sorry, Mr. Victor, it's my fault..."
"It really doesn't matter." Wei Ran waved his hand, "Let's get back to business. Does Mr. Mesut have time to request it?"
"No"
Diane breathed a sigh of relief, "He has also been searching. As long as Lieutenant Mesut's body is found before him, he will pay a commission, but the only additional cost he can bear is the cost of a round trip to the old labor camp site.
And the cost of a round trip to the store in Sapporo.”
"In this case, can I keep this notebook and this knife?"
"certainly"
Diane nodded, took out a German agreement and pushed it to Weiran, "But if it is lost or damaged, you need to compensate for the fee equal to the commission."
“What a serious German man”
Wei Ran joked with a smile. After reading carefully and seeing that there were no loopholes, he reached into his pocket as a cover, took out a pen from the metal book, and signed the name "Victor" in Russian like a fool.
"In that case, I leave this matter to you."
Diane stood up as she spoke, stretched out her hand towards Wei Ran and said, "Thank you again for your help. The filming of that guerrilla film was very successful, which is of great significance to the Edelweiss organization."
"Looking forward to the release of this movie." Wei Ran gently held the other person's hand, "Thank you for introducing me to this job."
After reaching an agreement, Diane let go of Wei Ran's hand and asked, "Victor, when do you plan to start the investigation?"
"It's already started"
Wei Ran smiled and said, "For the sake of 150,000 euros, I will give Mr. Mesut a satisfactory answer as soon as possible. In addition, if I decide to go to Sapporo or that labor camp, I will contact him in time."
You contacted."
"Then it's settled"
Diane said, having put the agreement Wei Ran had just signed into her briefcase, she refused Wei Ran's offer to stay and chose to leave.
After sending the fat woman away in a hurry, Wei Ran took out a pair of gloves, put the horse fur notebook on the table into a sealed bag, and then put it aside temporarily.
The 150,000 euros was undoubtedly the main reason why he was willing to take over this business. In addition, another reason was that he could take this opportunity to conduct a recruitment process in a reasonable, legal and public manner.
After all, I haven’t visited the house in Kobe that Tori Sakurada asked about at the beginning. If the negatives of the burnt photos in the album can be found from that house, then Mr. Simpson’s house will undoubtedly count.
There is an explanation.
But right now...
Wei Ran glanced at the notebook placed in a sealed bag on the table, found his laptop, and entered the coordinates of the labor camp provided by Diane into the satellite map.
Thanks to this set of coordinates being accurate enough, when the page was loaded, he immediately used the satellite map to see a house located on the bank of the river, surrounded by forest, and the name of which was not shown on the map at all.
Zooming out on the map, he gradually discovered that moving along the river next to the house, the river eventually merged into the Yenisei River, and the place name displayed at the intersection of the rivers was called Sukhaya Tunguska.
After some measurements, the straight-line distance between the unnamed building over there and Tuluhansk is really a hundred kilometers.
After thinking for a moment, Wei Ran closed his notebook and called Suisui.
"Are you feeling better?" Suisui on the other end asked as soon as the call was connected.
"It's completely healed," Wei Ran asked with a smile, "Where are you? When do you plan to come back?"
“I just returned to the town of Tula two hours ago.”
On the phone, Suisui couldn't hide her tiredness and said, "Let's rest for half a day. We will take a transport plane back to Kazan tomorrow morning."
"Are you going to be busy when you come back?" Wei Ran asked.
"What do you want to say?" Suisui immediately heard something from Wei Ran's tone, "I can be busy or not."
"I just took over a business, which may be related to Japanese prisoners of war." Wei Ran deliberately paused for a moment before continuing, "so I may go to Turukhansk."
"not busy!"
Suisui immediately said, "The transport plane will stop at Tuluhansk early tomorrow morning. We can go there in advance and wait for you."
"Then it's settled," Wei Ran thought for a while and said, "Also, help prepare a car."
"Don't worry, don't worry," Suisui agreed, patting her chest, "Leave these to me! Remember to bring Beria here, so that you don't have to be on duty at night."
"I will take it with me," Wei Ran promised.
After some small talk, he hung up the phone and immediately called the chatty captain Dmitry. After learning that there was a plan to fly to Turukhansk tonight, Weiyan immediately picked up the sealed
He took the notebook in his bag and ran back to the villa next door.
It is not necessary to go to the old site of the labor camp, but as the saying goes, even for the sake of the 150,000 euros, it is worthwhile to go there, not to mention if you don’t go to the relatively nearby labor camp.
Going directly to Sapporo seems a bit too deliberate.
After some preparations, that evening, Weiran drove an armored pickup truck alone and rushed to the airport with his dog Beria, and boarded a transport plane to fly to Turukhansk overnight.
In real terms, the latitude of this place is higher than Inta, but not much different from the latitude of Vorkuta. Correspondingly, the temperature here is also lower.
According to the news sent by Suisui, she found a hotel that cooperated with her and took her dog Beria to stay for free. After carefully checking the room, Wei Ran then checked the things he brought this time.
luggage.
After all, he was going to the wilderness, and he had been attacked at least not long ago, so in addition to bringing over the three-barrelled survival shotgun that he pretended to be, he also stopped by the Hongqi Forest Farm to borrow two that looked particularly beautiful.
, and brought the AK12 with the gun number removed.
Although he knew that there was a high probability that these two weapons would not be used, he had no intention of returning them. In any case, this was much better than the legally sold gelt guns that could only fire blank ammunition.
What's more, even if this thing is not used, it can be placed in the bedroom or the basement of the library just in case, and it will not be wasted.
After putting an extra PSS silent pistol and two spare magazines into each of the two gun cases, he stacked the three gun cases together, took off his clothes and walked into the bathroom with a small sauna.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! In the blink of an eye, the next day came, and although it was still dark outside the window, when Wei Ran opened the banging door, it was a whole hour earlier than expected.
Suisui, who came over at a young age, also hung directly on him.
The dog Beria jumped out of the room. Suisui, who was still hanging on Wei Ran, immediately pushed the door open and asked Wei Ran in his ear, "Are you in a hurry to leave?"
"Of course there's no rush." Before Wei Ran finished speaking, he had already hugged the girl and turned towards the big bed, which was not very spacious.
After all, we haven't seen each other for more than half a month, so this little farewell will naturally consume a lot of energy and time. Obviously, the Katenka sisters, who deliberately walked a few steps slowly in the corridor, had long expected that this would happen.
matter.
So after the two sisters rolled their eyes in unison, they reached out their hands in a tacit understanding and played a game of dice. Then, Anfisa, the winner, happily pulled their luggage into the room, while the loser
Anfia fell, and she could only get into her room with her dog Beria who had nowhere to go.
It wasn't until the short daylight came outside the window that the energetic Wei Ran and the energetic Suisui slowly finished their sauna session. Then they woke up the Katenka sisters who were catching up on their sleep, carrying large and small luggage, and
The dog Beria, who looked aggrieved, went downstairs and walked into the parking lot.
"This time I prepared three cars."
Suisui pointed to the three six-wheeled bicycles parked in the special parking space, raised her chin and asked Wei Ran, "Should it be enough?"
“Definitely enough”
Wei Ran handed the two long gun cases containing AK12 to the Katenka sisters respectively, and then moved his and Suisui's luggage into a fluorescent car with "Tunguska Wilderness Free Travel Club" printed on it.
Chinese characters, and there are also a large number of fluorescent signatures in Chinese and Russian on the big bicycle.
Just like when I went to find Old Yin Wan, there was also a small trailer hanging on the rear of this big truck. In addition to four of the small trailers containing fuel, there was a ring of tires on the outside as a package.
In addition to the oil drum, there was also a slaughtered reindeer.
Looking at the trailers at the rear of the other two large trucks, they also contained fuel. The difference was that the food supplies were replaced by canvas bags with unknown contents.
“This is now standard equipment for self-driving cars here.”
Suisui took the lead and got into the car, and while beckoning Beria to jump in, he explained, "This way, even if there is an accident on the road, you don't have to worry about freezing to death and starving to death, and even if you don't use it, tourists will see it after seeing it."
You will feel at ease.”
"How is the development of your route going?" Weiyan got into the cab and asked.
“It’s almost done”
Suisui said happily, "Although we failed to connect to the Fiery Wilderness Rescue Station in the end, we connected more than a dozen gathering areas, and both the local aborigines and the mining areas were very satisfied. Along the way, we sent out tropical fruits alone.
Enough for four big trucks.”
Glancing at the proud girl, Wei Ran couldn't help but smile while starting the car. With the four cartloads of tropical fruits sent out, the girl might not know how much she would earn back from this hellish place in the world of ice and snow.
Where's the money?
Chatting along the route that Suisui had personally participated in developing during this period, the three large bicycles also left Turukhansk and headed south along the frozen Yenisei River. After driving for about 70 kilometers continuously,
The sky, which had only been bright outside the window for a short time, had darkened again, and the navigation map also showed that the fork of the river directly ahead was Suhaya Tunguska.
However, although this place has a place name and a triangular forest clearing with a side length of 500 meters on the river bank, in this clearing, in addition to a gas station, a vehicle and boat repair station, an emergency medical aid station and a resting point,
Apart from the wooden buildings that function as helipads and the flat open space covered with snow, there are no unnecessary buildings.
Even Weiyan suspected that there might be only staff and drivers running on the frozen river - just like a wildfire rescue station.
Without making too many stops, Wei Ran took a photo of this forest glade covered with ice and snow, then drove his big bicycle slowly to his destination along the tributary of the Yenisei River.
.
Different from the Yenisei River, although this frozen river can be visually estimated to be two to three hundred meters wide, there are no ruts at all, and the nearly half-meter-deep snow on the river does not look like it at all.
Like the Yenisei River, there are bulldozers dedicated to cleaning it.
Because of this, the speed of the three large bicycles also dropped to about 10 kilometers per hour. At this speed, they wanted to reach the abandoned labor camp surrounded by virgin forest more than 60 kilometers away, at least.
It takes seven or eight hours.
Since the speed couldn't be increased, Wei Ran simply took advantage of this period of time to briefly describe the business, and gave the girl a vaccination in advance, hinting overtly and covertly that she might have to go there next.
Recruitment.
"Did you just say that there were Japanese prisoners in that labor camp?!"
Suisui, who was still a little sleepy at first, not only became energetic instantly after listening to Wei Ran's introduction, but her big eyes seemed to glow green. However, her focus was not on Wei Ran's possible recruitment trip, but also on Wei Ran's possible recruitment trip.
Not above the 150,000 euros, this is an extremely rare situation for this little money lover.
Of course, just by looking at the little ancestor's eyes and the excited expression on his face, Wei Ran knew that after they arrived at the abandoned labor camp, he had better find some Japanese objects to use as targets, and in the end, he would
I'd better lend this girl that shotgun to play with.
