Notes of a War Photographer Chapter 1177 The Hidden Basement "This is a signed photo of a star!"
At the door of the small foreign-style building, Wei Ran's second uncle seemed to have discovered some rare treasure. He stared at the photo posted on the small mirror with bright eyes, "Grand nephew, this photo is not worth it. No, this wooden box radio station
Could it be this Shang Xiaoyun?"
"impossible"
Wei Ran shook his head decisively.
Just kidding, if this small building once housed such a famous celebrity, how could it be Wei Ran's turn to come here to pick up rags? I'm afraid it has long been protected by the title of "Shang Xiaoyun's Former Residence".
"Why is it impossible?" The second uncle asked subconsciously.
"Which celebrity would put his autographed photo in his own wooden box?" Wei Ran asked, "How stinky is that?"
"That fat boy of yours can definitely do something like this." The second uncle reacted and said jokingly.
"Pretend I didn't say anything"
Wei Ran grinned, "But this Shang Xiaoyun is definitely not as coquettish as Ji Ma, and he is definitely not the earliest owner of this small building. The person who lived here was a woman, not a man."
After saying this, Wei Ran finally remembered the question he had wanted to ask Suisui's grandfather yesterday but couldn't remember.
However, the answer to this question has been found through the results of the search on the mobile phone - Wang Zhaojun, the Sword and Horse Dancing Role in Peking Opera, is actually sung by a man!
When he thought of this, he immediately thought of another problem - the Zhaojun skin he brought back yesterday. Oh no, that Zhaojun costume couldn't be that of the famous actor Shang Xiaoyun, could it?!
Thinking of this, Wei Ran didn't even bother to explain to his second uncle. He closed the wooden box with a "pop!" and asked faster, "Second uncle, what work has not been done in this small building?
"
"Running out"
Speaking of business, Weiran's second uncle, who is cousins with his mother, was also unambiguous, "Early this morning we found out the leaking spots on the roof, and removed all the water and electricity lines that could be removed.
The broken dormer windows have also been temporarily sealed with waterproof materials and wooden boards.
Now all that's left is to board up the demolished windows and clear out the demolished construction debris.
But we have to clean up the garbage after dark. Cars can’t come in during the day, so I guess I can finish it tonight.”
Having said this, the second uncle leaned into Wei Ran's ear and lowered his voice and said, "I took your cousin to seal the basement window that you dug out yesterday to ensure that no one can get in."
"This second uncle can handle it"
Wei Ran muttered to himself, and while using WeChat to transfer money to the other party, he said, "Second uncle, I will take this radio station to find someone to ask about the situation. You will be busy with the masters for another day, and I will ask my dad to come from
The travel agency will book a hotel for everyone and prepare two tables of food. When the work is done, you and the chefs will have a good meal tonight and then rest.
In addition, I just transferred 20,000 yuan to you, and you can use one point as hush money for everyone. This is in addition to wages."
"No need, you."
"Listen to me, uncle." Wei Ran stopped the other party and lowered his voice to remind him, "These discoveries must make everyone keep their mouths shut."
Seeing that Wei Ran was not joking, and that the mobile phone in his hand had indeed received the money transferred from Wei Ran, his second uncle, who had already paid the workers in advance, also became serious, patted his chest and promised, "Big
Nephew, just be careful, if anyone tells you, I will ask your cousin to beat the shit out of him!"
"That's it, I'll take this and leave first."
As Wei Ran spoke, he picked up the wooden box, turned around, got into the car, and drove out of this scenic street.
It wasn't until the small building was completely blocked by the surrounding street trees and buildings that he found a parking space on the side of the road, parked the car in a hurry and called Suisui.
"What's wrong?" After the call was connected, Suisui on the other end asked sleepily, "Have you had breakfast?"
“Almost lunch time”
Wei Ran reminded him in a dumbfounded voice that this girl played ranked games with the Katenka sisters and Lu Xinda for most of the night last night. It would be strange to wake up at this time.
"I'll sleep a little longer." Suisui said vaguely.
"I'm afraid you won't be able to sleep." Wei Ran cleared his throat and explained what he had just discovered.
It was only then that Suisui realized that he was not in the room next door at all.
"Anyway, you should take good care of the outfit we brought back yesterday."
Wei Ran reminded the other party before he could speak, "That outfit might really belong to that famous actor, but be sure not to damage it."
"I'll move it to your room and lock it up!" Suisui, who was completely sleepy, had already turned over and got out of bed as she spoke.
"Let me remind you, grandma and grandma," Wei Ran finally warned, "otherwise, our house will become a tourist attraction during this Chinese New Year."
"Don't worry, don't worry!" Suisui agreed, then asked, "When will you come back?"
"I may not be able to go back today," Wei Ran said vaguely, "Let's wait until tonight to discuss the details."
"I have to go to the airport to pick up the rich woman tomorrow," Suisui reminded.
"I might rush over there and find a hotel to stay at tonight."
After discussing the next arrangements with Suisui in a few words, Wei Ran hung up the phone and immediately called Chen Luoxiang.
Using this cheap junior as a way to inquire with Mr. Chen Guangling and Mr. Liu respectively, Wei Ran was surprised to learn that Mr. Tao, who had passed away, was best at
Daomadan, and the one who is best at Daomadan is Wang Zhaojun in the child's play Concubine Han Ming!
After hanging up the phone, when he opened the wooden box in his hand again, his mind had gradually pieced together a fairly complete image based on the fragmented information he had obtained from various places these days.
The original owner of that small building was a woman. Not only was she Mr. Tao's aunt, but she was also a well-known "celebrity in the entertainment industry" at least in Tianjin at that time.
Not only does she have the money and background to afford living in such a mansion, but she must also be a woman like Wang Zhaojun in her heart. This can be seen from the engraving on the sleeve of the small pistol.
On the other hand, she is most likely a loyal fan of Shang Xiaoyun, a famous drama actor of her generation.
So she has a signed photo of Shang Xiaoyun, so the handle of the small pistol she uses for self-defense has the idol's silhouette engraved on it.
She even engraved her favorite line from one of the idol's best plays on the sleeve, and most likely obtained the costumes that the idol wore during the performance through her own means.
And all of this may be the real her, but it is only her on the surface.
In the shadows where the sun couldn't reach, this woman hid a radio station that was definitely dangerous at the time. She even went so bold as to hide a small printing shop in the basement of her home.
Perhaps what gave her motivation was the signed photo from her idol.
So whenever she sends and receives telegrams on this crudely assembled radio station, does she glance at herself in the mirror and then at the picture of her idol?
What kind of news did she send out through this simple radio station, and what kind of news did she receive? Was the person communicating with her through Morse code from Jinling, a mountain city, or Yan'an, the holy land of revolution?
Those printing presses and mimeograph machines that have been gathering dust for a long time in the basement, what kind of thoughts are conveyed by the articles that were once secretly printed on paper?
What made him even more curious was what role did the late Mr. Tao play in that mysterious history?
Driven by more and more curiosity, Wei Ran also gently lifted up the photo with only the top two corners glued to the mirror. Unfortunately, the back of the photo was
No words were written.
Seeing this, Wei Ran was not disappointed at all. He just slowly closed the lid and placed it in the passenger seat. Then with the help of the navigation system, he drove the car into the nearest building materials city.
After purchasing a truckload of things from one house to the next, he drove to a hotel not far from the small western-style building and got a room. After checking, he sent a few messages to his father and then made the reservation.
Fall asleep with the alarm clock on.
When he was woken up by the ringtone, it was already nine o'clock in the evening, and he also received a message from his father on WeChat that workers had been arranged to go to the hotel.
After replying a message to his father, Wei Ran checked out of the room, drove out and found a fly house to fill his stomach, and then hurried back to the small western-style building.
Compared with tourists or sightseeing carriages passing by the door from time to time during the day, this street is much quieter at night. There are occasionally a few small buildings with lights on along the way, which are either dining establishments that are still open, or they are really...
Rich people who live in those small buildings.
After opening the locked iron door, he drove the car in. Wei Ran locked the iron door of the small courtyard, then opened the locked wooden door, and separated the small courtyard and the small house that had been dismantled into a rough house.
I checked up and down the stairs.
It wasn't until he was sure that there was no one here that Wei Ran returned to the car and put on a fake camouflage uniform bought at the building materials market. He carried a rechargeable light also bought at the building materials market in one hand and a crowbar in the other.
When we arrived at the north side of the courtyard, we easily dismantled the brick wall blocking the window.
Taking advantage of the time to ventilate the basement, Wei Ran returned to the car and carried various purchased items to the basement window one by one.
First, a folding aluminum alloy ladder was sent in along the window. After Weiran jumped into the basement, he moved all kinds of things into the basement on the ladder.
Climbing out through the window again, he used two shovel poles to prop up a thick canvas he bought in advance on the wall to block the window. At the same time, he placed two electric fans by the window and used the plug wires that came out of the small building.
The board provides power.
Climbing into the basement again, and turning on two electric fans to ventilate the windows, Weiran placed various purchased magnetic rechargeable lighting lamps everywhere, covering this four to five hundred square meters
The semi-underground space is as bright as day.
Next, he picked out a large mop from the various things he brought down, and then took out two handheld metal detectors for security inspections.
After tying the two detectors to the crossbar of the T-shaped mop with straps, Weiran then carried the agricultural electric sprayer on his back.
Wearing a mask and dust-proof glasses, Weiran turned on the sprayer and sprayed a layer of dust-suppressing water mist into the dusty basement.
Immediately afterwards, he turned on the two metal detectors tied to the mop, pulled the mop with his hand, and circled it little by little against the wall. From time to time, he would even remove the two metal detectors.
Use a large plastic basin and the remaining water from the sprayer that you bought together to wash the mop head.
As he went back and forth, the dusty basement gradually became cleaner and cleaner. However, what disappointed him was that from beginning to end, the two metal detectors found nothing except those iron cabinets.
special reaction.
"It shouldn't be." Wei Ran frowned after mopping the entire basement like a big enemy.
According to his guess, since there are so many things hidden in this small building, it is very likely that there are other things hidden.
And the reason why he made this judgment was just one reason - the basement seemed to have blocked the surrounding windows, but it did not have any concealment at all.
Not to mention that he had studied at Hongqi Forest Farm. Even if Suisui came here, she would easily guess that this small building also had a basement if she took a look at the small western-style buildings around her.
Because of this, it is almost certain that the surrounding printing presses were definitely not placed here in the first place.
He pulled over a chair that had just been cleaned and sat down to take a breath. Weiran turned on the two high-power electric heating fans that he had just picked up. Then he picked up a rubber hammer and tied a PVC pipe to the handle of the hammer.
, once again walking in circles in the basement and tapping on the floor.
To his disappointment, after another lap, he still found nothing.
Could it be in the yard? It shouldn’t be
Wei Ran threw away the long-handled hammer in his hand, looked around, and focused on the iron cabinets.
Those around the load-bearing pillars were not considered, but the one next to the steps attracted Wei Ran's attention.
After careful observation, he first took out the two scary glass jars and the expired medicines and placed them on a table, and then carefully moved the iron cabinet away.
Unfortunately, there is still nothing abnormal under the iron cabinet.
"Is it really under the courtyard?" Wei Ran looked around, carefully looking for the place he had overlooked.
Soon, he once again had a new target. This time, he was eyeing the cement steps that were originally used to connect the first floor and the basement.
Taking out the wire cutters from the metal book, Wei Ran gently tapped the side of the cement step. The thick and dull sound also hinted that the inside was completely solid.
Unwilling to give up, I continued to walk forward while tapping lightly. When the tapping point was closer to the end of the steps and less than one meter away from the wall, the tapping sound suddenly became much hollower!
After knocking again, Wei Ran finally showed an expression on his face. Then he put away the wire cutters, ran back to the window, pulled out a slotted screwdriver, and then unhooked the rubber hammer.
pvc pipe.
Climbing back to his original position, Wei Ran knocked again to determine the approximate range, and then started tapping with a rubber hammer in one hand and a screwdriver in the other.
Soon, the cement wall was smashed open to reveal the red bricks inside. The red bricks and cement wall shell were violently demolished with a crowbar. Soon, a large wall with a height of only 1.2 meters and a width appeared on the wall.
It's only about 70 to 80 centimeters, a rectangular area enclosed by red bricks.
Use a crowbar to pry along the cracks of the bricks, and soon a brick begins to loosen. When you carefully pull out the brick, you will find that the other side is indeed empty!
With this breakthrough, Weiran was able to dismantle it faster and faster. It took less than half an hour to dismantle the small door.
The space inside this small sealed door is not very large, or to describe it more vividly, it is more like the mouth of a sewer well. The square hole, which can only accommodate one person, is dark and filled with a faint musty smell. There is also a hole on the wall.
A rusty climbing handrail.
He took out two small magnetic lights, which were not much bigger than mahjong pieces, tied them with ropes and hung them down a little. As the mouth of the well was illuminated, all Wei Ran could see was a horizontal line less than one meter wide.
The way out.
Is it really under the yard?
After Wei Ran identified the direction of this passage, he became even more curious about who built such a small building in the first place.
Suppressing the doubts in his heart, Wei Ran waited patiently for almost an hour, then put on his rubber work gloves, held up a strong flashlight, and a bag of small magnetic lights, and walked along the rusty road.
Climb down the handrail carefully.
Standing in this narrow passage that was less than one meter wide and less than two meters high, but seemed to be made of concrete, he immediately noticed something interesting.
First of all, on the left wall, there are many cast iron lamp stands installed. Not only are rusty kerosene lamps hung on them, but there are also two wires that were obviously added later. These two wires
Every other lamp stand has an incandescent lamp connected to it.
Secondly, on the concrete wall on the other side, a painting of "The Last Supper" is still vaguely visible.
Taking out the lighter from the metal book and lighting it, Wei Ran held the flashlight in one hand and the lighter in the other. While walking forward, he did not forget to turn on the small magnetic lights and place them on the ground.
When he came to the end of this narrow passage, there was a crucifix painted on the concrete wall directly in front of him. But on this crucifix, there was a sentence written in large, vermilion letters:
I vow to join the Anti-Japanese Killing Group with utmost sincerity. I am willing to work actively under the leadership of the organization, obey orders and keep secrets absolutely. If there is any violation, I am willing to accept the severest sanctions.
Anti-Japanese killing gang?
Wei Ran raised his eyebrows, and finally moved his gaze and flashlight beam to the wall on the left. There was a 1.5-meter-wide locked iron door. On the vermilion iron door, there was a piece of paper firmly attached to it.
Zhang's "Xinhua Daily" published on August 10, 1945, "Accepts the Potsdam Declaration and Japan's Unconditional Surrender"!
He raised his head and looked at the top of his head, which was within reach, and then looked at the distance between where he came down and his current location. After some estimation, Wei Ran became more and more certain that he was currently directly under the small courtyard.
After taking a final look at the lighter that was still burning stably, Wei Ran put it away, replaced it with wire cutters and easily opened the almost rusty padlock on the iron door.
Slowly opening the iron door to block the crucifix and the large red characters covering it, the beam of light from the flashlight in Wei Ran's hand also illuminated this underground space of less than 40 square meters but with a height of three meters.
Although this small space with remaining wallpaper is relatively dry, there are inevitably mold spots everywhere on the walls covered with picture frames.
The wire extending in the passage from the light stand also came to an end after connecting the two incandescent light bulbs on the wall.
Glancing at a round hole in the corner that seemed to be a ventilation hole, Wei Ran focused on the photo frames hanging on the wall that were more than seventy centimeters high and half a meter wide.
When the bright beam of light shines on them, even through the dirty glass of the photo frame, Wei Ran can still clearly see that most of the photo frames are posters featuring a beautiful woman.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! In these posters, the woman sometimes wears a cheongsam and holds a fan, sometimes wears a gorgeous dress with a sense of the times, and in other photos, she wears jodhpurs and a trousers.
Boots and a slim-fitting vest.
Among these photo posters of different styles, there are also several "fixed makeup photos" of the famous actor Shang Xiaoyun wearing Zhaojun costumes.
Looking through them one by one, Wei Ran gradually discovered that the photos that were suspected of being "Shang Xiaoyun's makeup photos" seemed to be taken in the semi-underground basement outside, and there was no text on the photos, or in other words,
That's just a big photo, not a poster.
On the various posters of that woman, it is still vaguely visible that most of them have words such as "Seventh Heaven" or "Miss Meixiang" written on them.
So the famous actor Shang Xiaoyun at that time actually often came to this small building? So who is this Miss Meixiang? Mr. Tao's aunt?
Amidst this random speculation, the beam of light from the flashlight in Wei Ran's hand finally landed on the camphor wood box placed on two long benches placed side by side at the end of the room.
This copper-wrapped box was not locked, and the lid was not even tightly closed. Because of this, when Wei Ran entered the door, he had actually noticed several different colors of money that were vaguely sticking out of the box.
Cloth roll.
Wei Ran's heart skipped a beat when he opened the dusty and mildew-stained lid with a "squeak" sound.
There are a lot of things in this box that is more than one meter long and half a meter square. In addition to the three long cloth rolls in red, white and green, there are also several porcelain bowls in the box, each containing some.
Bullets of different calibers and lengths.
In a wooden box next to the porcelain bowl, there were pistols.
Almost all of these pistols are various types of guns, and without exception, they are all small and easy to carry. They are not as bulky as box guns.
In addition to these, there are three wooden pallets stacked together in this box. This pallet is divided into elongated grids. In each grid, there are silver coins lying next to each other.
Taking out a pair of rubber gloves and putting them on, Wei Ran carefully took out one of the white cloth rolls. After gently untying the cloth strips on it and unfolding it, he saw amidst the vague smell of oil sludge.
A slightly rusty Enfield rifle!
After re-rolling the gun and putting it back in its original position, Wei Ran picked up the red cloth roll and opened it. What was inside was a medium-grade rifle.
He put it away again and pulled out the last green cloth roll. Wrapped inside was a Japanese Type 44 rifle.
How the hell can this be handled?
Wei Ran looked at the small pistols in the box again, and was confused for a moment.
