War Photographer's Notes Volume Chapter 1121 In the mine that suffered heavy losses, Ihor lit up all the kerosene lamps and placed them everywhere, waiting for the "living room" of the mine to be illuminated
At that time, Mesut and Weiran also drove in the last reindeer.
Although sharing such a cave with a dozen reindeer is inevitably a bit crowded, these reindeer are the key to everyone's escape, so they must be taken good care of.
After cutting enough pine branches to calm the animals, the three of them worked together to build a snow wall outside the cave entrance to block wind and light and reinforced it with canvas for tents. Only then did they dare to collect firewood.
A vital bonfire was lit in the mine.
Contrary to the expectations of the three of them, the smoke from the bonfire did not float outside the cave. Instead, it stuck to the blackened stone wall above their heads and was drawn into the mouth of one of the mines deep in the cave.
Based on this small detail alone, the three of them had already guessed that there might be other entrances and exits to this mine.
"I think we should leave everything we brought from the labor camp, including our personal belongings, here."
Mesut said, "Since we are going to disguise ourselves as Soviet hunters, we will inevitably come into contact with other people. If we are interrogated by Soviet soldiers and find our things, we will definitely be exposed. And look at this
Mines, what better place to hide things than here?"
"That's right." Ihor nodded subconsciously, and then asked, "Where's the gun? Also keep the gun stolen from the store warehouse?"
"Stay"
Ihor said, placing the dragoon rifle on the sleigh on the stone platform beside the campfire, then took out the horse-skin notebook, opened it, and pointed at the pocket watch compass and other accessories embedded in it.
The pen on top said, "Sorry, Victor, Ihor, I'm going to keep the birthday gift and this escape note you gave me."
"Stay here"
Ihor pointed to the compass hanging around his neck and said first, "We found a new compass in the hunter's cabin. It will help us escape."
"It's just a pen" Wei Ran expressed his attitude by spreading his hands.
After hearing this, Mesut tied the notebook with a leather cord and put it together with the rifle. Then he took out the aluminum barrel and pot he bought before escaping from prison and put it on it. At the same time, he did not forget to say, "We brought
The oil drums and kerosene lamps that came here also need to be kept, but fortunately there are many 20-liter oil drums and kerosene lamps here for us to use."
“I don’t have many personal belongings.”
As Wei Ran spoke, he first took off the Soviet kettle containing kerosene from his waist and placed it in the pile of things. Then he took out the bottle of bear oil that Panin gave him as a birthday gift from the sleigh and placed it in the pile of things.
He asked jokingly, "Should we change our deerskin robes and boots?"
"There is no need for these. Unless we are caught by Sergei or Panin, no one can recognize us through these common clothes. If we are caught by them, it will be useless even if we put on the clothes of Soviet soldiers."
Mesut said, taking off the goggles hanging around his neck and throwing them to the ground. Seeing this, Wei Ran also took off his goggles and threw them to the ground, while also hiding the pair of goggles still in his pocket.
If you want to throw it away, you have to hide it from Ihor, otherwise this little devil may not know what to think.
When the two people who had thrown away their things looked at Ihor, the latter hesitated for a moment, then rolled up his sleeves and took out a ladies Soviet watch!
"Where did you get the watch?" Mesut asked in surprise.
“In the cashier drawer of the store”
Ihor said nonchalantly, "It was a gift from the political commissar to Marina. I found it in the cashier drawer when Victor went to steal something in the warehouse.
Marina didn't dare take this watch home, she always hid it in the cashier drawer, and I saw it several times."
As he said that, Ihor put the watch in the pile of things, but he didn't notice the frowns of Mesut and Wei Ran at all.
"Let's find a place to put these things up"
While Mesut was talking, he took out the metal box containing the detonator, turned the detonator aside, put various small items including notepads in it, and wrapped the lid with two pairs of discarded goggles.
Finally, it was put into the aluminum bucket pot together with the bottle of bear oil and the lid was closed.
Without any discussion, the three of them each carried a kerosene lamp brought from the labor camp, ducked into the narrow mine that served as a range hood, and drilled deeper along the narrow and low opening.
After a distance of about ten meters, the dragoon rifle with the empty bullets was stuck diagonally on the gap in the wall of the mine. Then the three-liter oil drums brought from the labor camp were placed against the wall, and the aluminum with lid was placed.
The bucket pot was placed on the stacked oil drums.
Without wasting too much time, the three of them put down their belongings and immediately returned to the "living room" at the entrance of the mine.
"It's time for us to shave, and we'd better shave off our hair by the way."
Mesut said as he dug out an old-fashioned razor and a piece of soap as big as half a brick from a wooden box. "I found this in the hunter's house. We can even take a bath."
"The last time I took a bath was in autumn."
As Ihor said, he had already picked up a few iron buckets stacked together, "You guys make the bonfire a little brighter, and I'll prepare the water."
Before he finished speaking, the devil carried the iron bucket and left the cave. Wei Ran and Mesut looked at each other, each picked up the firewood they had chopped recently and placed it on the bonfire pit.
After a relatively long period of preparation, six consecutive piles of snow found in the mines or in iron buckets brought by the hunter's family finally melted completely and became scalding hot.
Even the stewed venison with carrots and onions in the iron pot hung over the campfire emitted a rich aroma.
This chapter is not over yet, please click the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Before starting to eat, Mesut used the old-fashioned razor to help Wei Ran and Ihor shave off their messy beards and messy hair.
After that, they took a simple bath with the hard-heated hot water and the soap that was chopped into three pieces with an axe. By the way, they also washed their respective foot wraps cleanly.
With this little encouragement, the three of them not only felt much more relaxed, but also looked much more energetic - at least they didn't look like fugitive labor reform prisoners.
After each finished lunch with a large glass of vodka, Mesut handed over the task of cleaning the kerosene lamps found in the cave to Ihor, and handed over the task of cleaning the kitchen utensils and tableware to Wei Ran. Obviously, he was rigorous and serious.
Mesut is a German who likes to be clean.
Compared with those kerosene lamps covered with thick sludge and dust, these kitchen utensils and tableware are simple and trouble-free. After all, there are only three large, three small and six enamel jars in total, plus an enamel kettle, two pots and a few buckets, not to mention
These things themselves are not dirty at all.
If the work of the two of them is a little dirty, then Mesut's work is much cleaner. He is going to bake some white bread that has literally "not been eaten in years" and take the raw venison that everyone brought with them.
Bake the meat into jerky, which not only can be stored longer, but also reduces the weight, and can be eaten at any time as long as you are hungry.
Regardless of whether it was dirty or clean, Wei Ran didn't want to help with the work. After completing his work, he turned over the three sleighs and started the waxing work leisurely, while also thinking about it.
Depends on the next development of events.
The third day of the escape is now only November 14th when converted into a date. There is still quite a long time before Christmas.
This was indeed a long time, but Wei Ran didn't know that for Panin, who had been chasing behind them, the past three days had been even longer.
At this time, he had already left the river and entered the vast forest further south, but he had no idea that just behind him, less than a hundred meters to the north from where he left the river, was where the three of Wei Ran turned east yesterday.
Enter the key location in the forest on the north bank of the river.
He didn't even know that while he was busy searching for the missing prisoners of war and reindeer in the heavy snow, in the labor camp more than 40 kilometers away in a straight line behind him, Sher, who had received the news after the blizzard stopped, hurried back.
Father Gai has also assembled a hunting team from the labor camp to look for the missing four people.
Late that night, Mesut ate white bread that was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside as he wished, and the kerosene lamps were wiped clean by Ihor and filled with kerosene.
On one side of the bonfire, an emptied iron bucket was filled with sliced venison, and the bottom of the bucket was covered with a layer of steaming charcoal.
Amid the undeniable aroma of meat, Mesut and Ihor almost devoured their dinner - especially the freshly baked white bread.
After having had enough wine and food, Mesut braved the heavy snowfall and arranged a circle of animal traps outside the entrance of the cave. Then he covered the wooden door at the entrance of the mine and blocked it with stones, and then lay down
On his sleigh.
With such a warm, strong and dry cave, coupled with the animal traps that have been arranged, there is no need to arrange for people to keep vigil at night. After the three of them worked together to add fodder and prepare drinking water for the reindeer, they each lay down on the animal bed.
On the leather sleigh, covered with a hastily sewn wolf skin blanket, he fell asleep.
It was a rare night of sleep until they woke up naturally. After their mental and physical strength had been completely restored, the three of them each put on thick warm clothes and applied some antifreeze grease on their faces before putting away the animal traps and traps arranged outside the door.
The canvas used to reinforce the snow wall was loaded onto the sleigh that was carried outside with the supplies to be taken away. Then the wooden door was locked and carefully buried with snow. The reindeer were shouted at and hurried towards the foot of the mountain with them.
The direction of escape was almost the opposite direction to the northeast.
After running in this direction for at least two hours, the three sleighs, led by Mesut, turned due east, spent more than half an hour crossing a frozen river, and entered the forest on the east bank of the river.
With the help of the compass, officially turn south.
Although they had gone in a big circle, the three of them had no complaints. Especially when the sky was bright and the snowflakes were no longer falling overhead, their three sledges had already crossed one of the upper tributaries of the Suhayatunguska River.
.
While the reindeer was pulling the sleigh, Wei Ran, who was wrapped in a wolfskin blanket, took out the map in his arms and made a rough estimate. At this time, although the straight-line distance between them and the labor camp was only about fifty or sixty kilometers,
There are not only dense forests but also mountains between the two.
In the east-west direction, they are almost in the middle of this vast forest between the Yenisey River and the Lower Tunguska River.
There is no doubt that even if the labor camps now send people to find them, the difficulty is no different than finding a needle in a haystack.
Perhaps also aware of this, Mesut, who was walking at the front, also slowed down, trying to keep the reindeer strong and able to walk a longer distance.
In this way, except for the person driving the car at the front, the people on the other two sleighs no longer have to hold on to the reins. These reindeer are far smarter than people think. This is a good weather with no wind or snow and no need to run.
, they will follow the sled tracks left by the car in front.
Putting away the map, Weiran once again took out the Kiev 30 camera that was originally tied to the handle of the kerosene gas lamp, and secretly took two photos of the two sledges in front.
Putting away the camera and retracting his hand into the warm wolfskin blanket, Wei Ran quietly took out the British army water bottle from the metal book, took a small sip of vodka to warm his body, and threw a strip of dried meat into his mouth.
It's extremely comfortable.
However, the good times did not last long. As the sky darkened again, just when they stopped temporarily and each lit a kerosene lamp and hung it on the handle at the rear of the sleigh, there was an incomparable sound from the dense forest.
Clear wolf howl!
"Ihor!" Mesut shouted immediately.
Before he finished speaking, Ihor had neatly taken off the only Winchester lever-action shotgun they had on his shoulder, and loaded the bullet with a "click".
"Let's keep going"
As Mesut spoke, he had already unscrewed a barrel of kerosene and poured some into a tin bucket.
In this iron bucket, there are also several torches wrapped in rags or animal skin scraps, which they made last night.
Soon, the three sleighs, dragged by the restless reindeer, continued to move due south in the dense forest. However, just as the saying goes, what worries you comes, in less than ten minutes, the surroundings of them were already swarming from time to time.
A pair of green eyes will appear.
"Oooh!"
Accompanied by a deep and unpleasant wolf howl, a circle of slowly approaching wolves appeared around the three sleighs.
"call!"
Mesut decisively lit the torch in the iron bucket. The sudden light also made the beasts subconsciously stop, but soon they began to shrink the encirclement again, and the reindeer became more and more anxious.
.
"boom!"
Ihor finally couldn't help but fire a bullet, but this crucial shot didn't hit any target at all. Instead, it aroused the wildness of the wolves, making them shrink the encirclement much faster!
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
After three more consecutive shots, a wolf was finally hit in the back and howled in pain. At the same time, Wei Ran also ignited the iron barrel with a torch hanging on the other side of the rear of the sleigh.
At this moment, Mesut cut all the ropes holding the canvas and feed on the body of the only male reindeer, as well as the ropes tied to his neck. At the same time, he stabbed the reindeer hard at the base of its tail with a knife.
one time.
Stimulated by the severe pain, the reindeer let out an unpleasant neigh, put aside its hooves and started running like crazy. Almost subconsciously, two wolves pounced on the male deer.
"Ihor! Leave the deer behind!"
Mesut shook the reins vigorously and rushed towards the south. At the same time, he did not forget to use the torch in his hand to give the reindeer of Ihor's sleigh a hard slap on the buttocks.
Almost at the same time, Wei Ran also shouted to Ihor, "Give me the gun!"
Before falling due to the sudden acceleration of the sled, Ihor threw the rifle and a canvas bag containing bullets to Wei Ran, and then kicked the underage reindeer off the sled. Then, it
He also fell on the sled, hurriedly grabbed the reins, and was the last one to light the torch in the iron bucket that was originally used for heating and lighting in emergencies.
On the other side, Wei Ran, who had caught the rifle and bullets, immediately pulled out a lit torch and slapped the reindeer's butt hard after sitting firmly, and then poked it into the snow.
"boom!"
Wei Ran decisively pulled the trigger at the wolf closest to Mesut. After hitting the target, he immediately loaded the last bullet with a click, lowered the muzzle of the gun, and fired at a wolf that was about to pounce on the reindeer behind him.
One shot.
He reached out from his pocket and took out a clip of bullets and pressed it into the magazine. Before Wei Ran could take out the clip, he had to swing the butt of his gun and hit it hard on the nose of a wolf that was rushing towards him. At the same time, that
The wolf also used his claws to prick Wei Ran's chest hard.
Although this move failed to cut through the reindeer's robe, the huge force almost caused Wei Ran to lose his balance.
Giving the wolf a rifle butt again, Wei Ran finally had time to close the magazine, aimed at the other wolf that had begun to bite the spare reindeer behind Ihor, and fired a shot. After knocking the opponent down, he immediately fired the gun.
The tone shifted to the other side of the sled.
Under his continuous fire, five bullets were quickly fired, but the wolves around him seemed to be there at all, running out from all over the forest.
What makes people even more desperate is that they don't know if the wolf pack that ambushed them did this intentionally. In just a short time, they have rushed out of the forest, and the exceptionally flat landscape in front of them also made the three of them realize that here
Looks like a frozen lake!
Although such an unobstructed and fenceless landscape is indeed conducive to fire shooting, the snow on the lake is far thicker than in the forest, so that the speed of the three reindeer sledges suddenly dropped by one knot!
But even so, the frightened reindeer still dragged the sled and moved desperately towards the center of the frozen lake-until they were bitten by the wolves on the neck!
"Ah——! Baga! You all go to hell!"
Ihor, who was forced to panic, suddenly let out a roar, took out something from his arms, and then lit it with the torch in his hand, waving the torch to prevent the surrounding wolves from approaching.
He threw what he was holding out.
Less than two seconds passed before and after. Wei Ran, who had empty his bullets again, only heard a muffled sound of "boom", and then saw the snow covered by the explosion, the torn wolf carcass, and the blasted wolf corpse.
The cold lake water gushes out of the ice!
"Crack!"
An extremely clear sound of the ice cracking made Wei Ran grab the reins and force the frightened reindeer to turn to the right, finally avoiding the blasted ice with difficulty.
But compared to the near miss on his side, the reindeer pulled by Ihor's sleigh lost traction because one of them was bitten through the neck. At the same time, the other deer had an unavoidable accident due to the brute force it burst out in fright.
Deflected, and then the sleigh and the sled were knocked upside down on the blasted ice!
What made Wei Ran extremely regretful was that although Ihor also fell into the water, he firmly held on to the traction rope of the only living reindeer behind the sleigh, and the only living reindeer at the front of the sled also fell into the water.
It kept thrashing after that.
On the other hand, the explosion just now not only successfully broke through the ice, but also successfully scared off the wolf pack that had achieved great success.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
After Wei Ran stopped the sleigh with difficulty, he immediately raised his gun and pulled the trigger repeatedly at the wolves in the distance that had not yet run away.
He used more than ten rounds of bullets to finally drive away the wolves. On the other hand, Mesut also used a rope to pull Ihor out of the icy lake water and wrapped him up.
Put on a wolfskin blanket.
Immediately afterwards, he called for Wei Ran's help and pulled up the overturned sleigh and the two still alive reindeer.
Without going far at all, Mesut, with the help of Wei Ran, gathered the torches in the iron buckets of the two people together as quickly as possible and lit a bonfire to warm the frozen Ihor.
Holding it, he took off his soaked robe and all his clothes.
While the unfortunate guy was sitting on Mesut's car to keep warm and let the latter check its injuries, Wei Ran also hurriedly checked the damage of the three of them.
In this raid, they not only lost an adult male reindeer and the immature fawn that served as emergency food reserves, but also lost two reindeer responsible for pulling the cart and three backup reindeer.
As a result, there were only seven reindeer alive, but even these seven reindeer were all injured.
In addition to the heavy losses to the reindeer, they also lost two pieces of canvas for the tent and a bag of concentrate, not to mention that Ihor's sleigh was completely wet and would soon be covered with a layer of ice.
.
In particular, it is covered with a layer of animal skin to keep warm. If the animal skin is not dried, not to mention the extra weight, even if you want to continue using it, it can only be used for pulling goods and cannot sit on people.
Fortunately, although the sleigh and Ihor were soaked, there was not much loss to the supplies because they were tied securely before departure.
On the other hand, the explosion Ihor just made was obviously the result of the detonators and mine explosives found in the mine. It had not mentioned these things to Wei Yan and Mesut before setting off.
Temporarily suppressing these small thoughts, Wei Ran walked to Ihor's side with an oil lamp, and then discovered that the calf bone of the devil's right leg seemed to be fractured, and the veterinarian Mei who was frowning next to him seemed to have a fracture.
Suter was obviously at a loss what to do about this situation.
"We need to find a place to camp as soon as possible." Mesut paused, "Maybe we need to go to the hospital as soon as possible. I can't do anything about such an injury."
"Ihor, do you still have those explosives?" Wei Ran asked.
"have"
Ihor, who was shivering from the cold, stammered, "I brought a lot of them out in my boots. If it's not enough, there's more in the box."
Hearing this, Wei Ran immediately walked towards the pile of frozen clothes that the other party had just taken off, and sure enough, he poured out a total of 11 detonators and explosives that were already equipped with fuses from his two boots.
He took out a Finnish knife from his boots and cut off a piece of fuse as long as his finger and tried to light it. Seeing that it was not affected by the water immersion, he immediately took three and pinned them to his belt, and then put the remaining ones on his belt.
One by one they were planted on the snow.
"What are you going to do?" Mesut couldn't help but ask when he saw Wei Ran walking towards the sleigh.
"Get our tents and feed back"
Wei Ran shouted to the reindeer to turn around and explained, "Without a tent, the three of us will soon freeze to death."
After saying that, he shook the reins vigorously, shouted at the reindeer to return the same way, and ran towards the forest. From time to time, he would shoot a bullet at the wolves who were guarding the reindeer carcasses in the distance, waiting for their meal.
Under the temporary ceasefire agreement reached due to the recent explosion, Weiran finally found the disemboweled reindeer after a lot of troubles, and successfully took away the two tents stained red with blood.
, and the bag of feed and the bundle of fodder.
Carrying these things all the way back, whenever he encountered a reindeer or wolf carcass, he would peel off the skin, take one or two deer legs, and leave the remaining carcass to the surviving wolf pack members.
With this little tacit understanding, he successfully left the forest and returned to the center of the lake.
In just a short time, Mesut had built a wind-blocking wall with his snow shovel, and also simply treated the bite wounds on the reindeer.
Walking to Ihor's side again, Wei Ran bent down and picked up the glove that the other man had taken off and handed it to his mouth, "Bite it, it will hurt later."
"What are you going to do?" Yihor looked at Wei Ran in horror.
"Help you heal your injuries." Before Wei Ran could finish his words, Mesut also turned to look over, obviously curious about what Wei Ran was going to do.
"Help me hold him down, don't let him move." Before Wei Ran finished speaking, he had already put the frozen glove Ihor's mouth again.
After hesitating for a moment, the pale-faced Ihor bit down on the cold gloves and allowed Mesut to hold his body down.
Wei Ran deliberately pinched the fractured area, and was extremely satisfied with Ihor's screams before he slowly began to set the bones.
After several rounds of careful corrections that were almost torturous, Ihor's broken calf bone was finally managed to be aligned by Wei Ran, leaving only a misalignment of less than half a centimeter due to the cold weather and inflexible hands.
A temporary plywood was installed.
After looking at Ihor, who fainted and woke up from the pain several times, Wei Ran clapped his hands and said confidently, "Don't worry, he won't die. If you have anti-inflammatory drugs, you can give him some."
Hearing this, Mesut rummaged through his sleigh and found a glass tube syringe with a thick needle. Then he found a small bottle of veterinary anti-inflammatory drugs and injected Ihor's butt.
After putting away the syringe, Mesut said in pain, "These damn wolves, our losses are too great. Half of the reindeer are missing. It will be very difficult for us to move forward."
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "Even so, we can't stay here for long."
Wei Ran reminded, "After the wolf pack has finished eating the corpse, it will soon target us again. Before that, we need to leave as soon as possible."
"Half an hour," Mesut said. "We will take half an hour to rest and then set off immediately."
Looking up at the surging aurora, Wei Ran nodded and handed the animal skin he had just peeled off to Mesut.
While he was re-harnessing two reindeer to each sleigh, Mesut also cut off the frozen hides from the sleigh that fell into the water as quickly as possible, and removed the sleigh that had just fallen into the water.
The skins peeled off from reindeer or wolves were nailed on, and then the thick ice shell that had just been frozen was beaten clean with an axe.
At Wei Ran's urging, the two moved the supplies from Mesut's car to Ihor's sleigh and assigned the only extra reindeer to this car. As for Ihor, he was
Mesut remained in his car.
Everything was ready. Wei Ran, who was walking at the front, immediately shook his reins and shouted to the surviving reindeer, before the wolves had finished digesting the prey and the fear attached to the loud noise of the explosion, and walked as quickly as possible.
The southern shore of this frozen lake can be more than 300 meters in diameter.
That night, both humans and reindeer were in great pain. In addition to worrying about the wolves behind them that had caused heavy losses to them, the three of them were also worried that the explosion that saved the three of them would attract the attention of the pursuing soldiers and the surrounding Soviets.
And those reindeer are also working extremely hard because they have no companions who can replace the work of pulling the cart.
After walking so hard all night, when the short daylight replaced the aurora all night long, the leading doe finally knelt on the snow - she could no longer walk.
Looking at the surrounding coniferous forest, Wei Ran dug out the animal trap he brought from the abandoned mine and said, "Let's camp here. How is the situation in Ihor?"
"Then let's go here"
Mesut called the reindeer to stop, turned to look at Ihor, shook his head and said, "He has a fever, he must have a cold."
"It's not my fault"
Wei Ran muttered something in Chinese that Mesut couldn't understand, but this time, there was no happy expression on his face - the real test might be coming soon.
