In the den filled with screams, a kerosene gas lamp released a bright light. Under this dazzling light, a slender blonde girl was trying to feed a girl who was missing most of her calf and was tied to the bed.
young man completes hemostatic suturing.
Next to her, there was an old man who looked to be in his fifties, and his temperament and appearance were quite similar to the vanguard in "Trackers on the Volga".
The reason why he described it this way was because he was carrying a rope and exerting all his strength towards the wall. The other end of the rope was tied to the other side of the wooden bed that served as the operating table, and was smashed into the wooden stakes in the ground.
And in the middle of this rope, it was tightly strangling the broken leg of the young man on the hospital bed.
"Are you here to help?"
The old man grabbed the rope with both hands, turned his head with difficulty and asked Wei Ran, "Come here and help me pull it, I'm almost out of strength. Olga, are you okay yet?"
"Don't make any noise! This is not sewing buttons!"
The young girl who was trying to suture the blood vessels and wounds shouted anxiously, "I'm not even sure he can survive! If it doesn't work, I can only use a red-hot iron to stop the bleeding like before!"
"Aren't you a nurse?!" the old man holding the rope shouted dissatisfied.
"I have only been studying for nine months!" Olga, who was about to cry, shouted back even more irritably, "Anyway, shut up!"
Looking at the young man lying on the bed wailing, Wei Ran shook his head helplessly, took off his backpack and put it aside, then opened the wooden box containing the medicine and took a look.
After a moment's hesitation, he picked up a small piece of gauze, opened the only bottle of iodine, poured some iodine on the gauze, and wiped his hands as quickly as possible.
"Let me do it"
As Wei Ran spoke, he took away the needle holder and hemostatic forceps from the girl named Olga before she could react.
After suturing the main blood vessels three times, Wei Ran then signaled the old man to loosen the rope so that the wounded man and his wounds could be relieved.
"Don't you have any anesthetic?" Wei Ran took this opportunity to ask.
"A week ago we had a bottle of moonshine vodka," said Father Seryosha, smacking his lips, "but not anymore."
"I'm talking about anesthetics for pain relief."
"I'm also talking about anesthetics for pain relief," Seryosha replied dissatisfied.
"All right"
Wei Ran raised his chin towards the corner and said to the girl named Olga, "I have anesthetics in my bag. Give our wounded a drink."
"Why didn't you tell me earlier!"
The girl named Olga had the same bad temper. She stepped around Wei Ran, opened Wei Ran's backpack, and then let out an exclamation.
"What's wrong?" Jiao Niya, who brought Wei Ran in, asked quickly without caring to comfort the young man who fainted and woke up several times in pain.
"nothing!"
Before Olga finished speaking, she had already taken out a bottle of vodka, unscrewed it, picked up an enamel jar that had lost its porcelain, poured at most two mouthfuls into it, and then handed it to Jonia, "Hurry up and let him
Drinking it will always be of some use!"
Hearing this, Jiao Niya didn't hesitate to ask any more questions, took the enamel jar, brought it to the wounded man's mouth, and poured a small amount of wine into his mouth.
"here we go"
Before Wei Ran could finish his words, Seryosha had already tightened the rope again, and Wei Ran also started to perform sutures at the fastest speed, amidst the painful wails of the wounded, but the long-term pain was not as good as the short-term pain.
When the young man on the simple operating table passed out again, Wei Ran had already finished suturing the skin and flesh, and then started bandaging.
"Are you the doctor sent here?" Father Seryozha asked curiously until this moment.
"He is Victor, the reporter from the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper!" Zionya, the female militiaman who sent the guards in, answered the question first.
"You can also use me as a trauma doctor," Wei Ran added quickly before Father Seryosha was about to say something.
Still not giving Seryosha a chance to speak, Zionya followed up and said, "Also, our transporter Vanya died, and his body is outside."
"Vanya also died?"
Seryosha reacted immediately, and then finally asked the second question, "Where is the ammunition? Has the ammunition been delivered? Also, has the gun mantlet we asked for been delivered?"
"I haven't had time to go..."
"The ammunition has been delivered"
Wei Ran answered the question, "But there is no gun shield. At least I didn't see anything on the sledge that could be used as a gun shield."
Hearing this, Father Seryozha was not disappointed, but he breathed a sigh of relief, "It's good that the ammunition has been delivered."
"There's also a barrel of kerosene and a few letters."
Wei Ran said, taking out a few triangular letters from the wooden box at hand and handing them to the other party.
After taking these letters and looking at them, Father Seryozha threw some of them back into the wooden box containing the medicines, and at the same time explained, "These have been
Sacrificed, where is Vanya’s body?”
“Just outside”
Wei Ran pointed to the door and said at the same time, "In addition, I also brought some gifts."
"Gift?"
"A small bag of flour, a bag of candy, a jar of coarse salt and two bottles of vodka."
Wei Ran pointed to the canvas bag in the corner, "Father Seryosha, it's up to you to decide how to distribute these gifts, including my work, and I will also obey your command."
Hearing this, Father Seryozha looked at Wei Ran carefully, and then finally stretched out his hand across the operating table, "Welcome to join us, Comrade Victor."
"My pleasure, comrade." Wei Ran shook hands with the other party.
"Let's bury Vanya first, and then we'll talk about you." Seryosha said, letting go of Wei Ran's hand and hurried out of the cave.
After just lifting up the cloak and taking a look, Father Seryosha said, "Send him to the cemetery."
"Can I participate?" Wei Ran asked.
"Of course, let's come together."
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! As Seryosha said, he had already sat on the sledge and shouted to the horse to go deep into the forest. At the same time, he also reminded, "Comrade Victor, this forest
There are a lot of cans in there, but they are all bombs dropped by the Germans, so no matter how hungry you are, don't pick up those cans and open them."
“Vanya reminded me before she was alive.”
Wei Ran paused and said, "He also said that there was an informant..."
"He didn't lie to you"
Seryosha said, "That idiot was killed the next day and he was buried in our cemetery."
"We will all be buried in that cemetery," Jiao Niya, who followed over, couldn't help but said.
"I am the only person responsible for competing with cemeteries for business."
Olga, a female nurse who also came with me, said, "With Comrade Stalin's blessing, I finally have one more person to help me grab business."
"Are there many casualties here?" Wei Ran asked after a moment of silence.
"In fact, there were not many injured, but every time a German plane flew over, someone would be killed."
Olga explained, "We are missing an artillery shield. It would be great if there was an artillery shield."
"There will be artillery shields, there will definitely be them." Father Seryosha assured.
Before Wei Ran could ask any more questions, the horse-drawn sledge had stopped, and Wei Ran saw two rows of simple graves.
Some of these tombs have been covered tightly by snow, and in some others stacked stones can still be seen.
At the edge of the cemetery, under a birch tree with branches that had lost all its leaves, there were piles of large and small stones.
On the trunk of this tree, 25 mm caliber artillery shells were hung with ropes or wires. When the biting cold wind blew into the cemetery, those shell shells were also pushed by the wind.
They collided with each other and made a nice crashing sound.
It wasn't until he was standing here that Wei Ran noticed that there were three other burrows in the other three directions. Their relative positions to the one that had just served as the operating room just formed the four points of a square.
And this cemetery is located in the middle of this square.
"Just bury it here."
As Father Seryosha said, he had already picked up Vanya's body and placed it in the empty space in the second row of graves.
There was no pause, no condolences, and even before all the militiamen at the position arrived, Jonia and Olga each picked up pieces from under the birch tree with forked branches.
Stones were placed around Vanya's body, covering it up bit by bit.
At the same time, Father Seryosha also took off a cannon shell, then pulled out a Finnish hunting knife from his waist, roughly carved Vanya's full name on the shell, and then stuffed it in
below the neck of the corpse.
After reacting, Wei Ran also picked up pieces of cold stones and helped bury the body of the transporter Vanya.
"clang--"
Father Seryosha pulled out a Nagant revolver and tapped the cartridge case hanging on the tree trunk with the handle of the gun.
"That's it"
After speaking, Father Seryosha asked Wei Ran to get on the sledge, raised his hand and pointed to the pit that was almost diagonal to the pit that served as the operating room, and said, "Comrade Victor, you can
Live in that shack, the journalist comrade we just talked about also lived here before, and many of his things are still there, maybe you can use them."
"Okay" Wei Ran nodded and agreed to the other party's arrangement.
"Olga, go and bring Comrade Victor's backpack. Jonia, go and bring some firewood and help Comrade Victor light the fireplace."
"yes!"
Olga and Jonya responded simply, turned around and ran in different directions. At the same time, Seryosha also shouted at the horse to run, leading Wei Ran around the cemetery and to the shack.
's doorway.
This shack is not really big, it is a semi-underground structure, and the only window is the size of two instant noodles.
Through the faint skylight reflected from the snow outside, you can vaguely see that on the side of the entrance is a fireplace made of earth. Except for this area, the surrounding walls are all reinforced with wood, and even the ground is covered with a layer of wooden boards.
Next to the fireplace, there is a single bed made of wooden boards. In the remaining half of the space, which is almost as big as the single bed, there is also a simple log table.
"This was originally where we stored ammunition and oil."
Seryosha explained, “But we are seriously short of both ammunition and fuel, so this place has been idle.
Comrade Victor, you can live here, this shack is far enough away from the position and safe enough."
As he spoke, he pulled out an ammunition box from under the bed, dug out an iron oil lamp with green paint and lit it. "These are all things left by the last reporter. You may be able to use them."
"Father Seryosha, can I ask about the basic situation of this position?" Wei Ran asked.
"Slowly you will understand"
Father Seryozha said, "Now I have to elect a new transporter."
"Can I follow along and take a look?"
"It's up to you." Before Father Seryozha could finish his words, he had already turned around and got out of the hole.
Seeing this, Wei Ran quickly followed him out of the hole again.
Before he had gone far, Father Seryozha took out a whistle and put it in his mouth to blow. Soon, people came running towards the other two shacks and in the direction of the position one after another.
Soon, a total of only 14 people stood in a row beside the cemetery, including Olga, who was carrying Wei Ran's backpack, and Jonia, who was holding an armful of firewood.
"Send Comrade Victor's things in first."
Seryozha waved his hand and said, "Let me introduce you, this is Comrade Victor, a reporter from Komsomolskaya Pravda."
After saying this, the remaining 12 people in the row began to chatter among themselves.
But what kind of group of people are they...
Wei Ran couldn't help but sigh. Even though these people in tattered clothes tried their best to wrap themselves up tightly, even in the dark sky, he could still barely see clearly. There was an old man who was about the same age as Father Seryozha.
An old woman with a stooped figure, and the remaining children number 7 or 8 are all children no older than 16 or 17. Among them, the one at the bottom is probably only about ten years old judging from her height.
"Quiet, be quiet!"
Seryosha waited until Olga and Zonya returned to the team before he received, "Our transporter Vanya died, and the gunner Mikhail was also injured.
Now we need to select a new transporter to send Mikhail to the rear, and at the same time, we need to bring back the ammunition we urgently need, and continue to apply for artillery shields."
After a short pause, Seryosha said, "We first select the transporters, and now the gun crew members will come out."
As the order was given, a young man and two girls, including Zionia, took a step forward, then ran to the sledge and lifted the kerosene and four ammunition boxes from the car.
"Vasily, it's your job."
Before he finished speaking, Seryozha had already walked into the queue and stood at the head of the queue. Immediately afterwards, the smallest militiaman at the end of the queue came out of the queue, stretched out a finger, and started one by one starting from Seryozha at the head of the queue.
Click on it, and at the same time said the nursery rhyme in the unique drake voice of the voice changing stage, "A German walked out of the thick fog, and pulled out a knife from his pocket. It's you who wants to kill or scratch."
When the short nursery rhyme stopped, his finger also fell on a young boy.
"Sergey, you will be the transporter from now on." Seryosha, who was at the head of the queue, said, "Let's set off now."
"yes!"
Sergey stepped out of the queue, saluted everyone, and walked towards the horse-drawn sledge not far away.
"Please wait a moment," Wei Ran said, "Can you let me take a picture of you?"
"The last journalist comrade has already photographed me."
Sergey said that he had already sat on the sledge and handed the blood-stained cloak to Wei Ran, "Comrade reporter, instead of taking pictures, we need a transporter to deliver supplies here more than taking pictures."
After saying that, without waiting for Wei Ran to say anything, he shook the reins and shouted to the horse-drawn sledge and ran out of the forest without hesitation.
"Next we need to select the gunner, cook, and Olga to replace Mikhail." Seryosha ordered.
Hearing this, Olga and the old woman in the team also came out one after another and stood at the edge of the team.
"Vasily, go on," Seryosha said again.
Seeing this, Wei Ran was stunned for a moment and walked towards the team.
His sudden move made the little guy in charge of ordering troops feel confused and at a loss.
"Vasily, go ahead." Wei Ran urged gently.
After a moment of silence, Vasily started with the person next to Sergei and said again, "A German walked out of the thick fog. He pulled out a knife from his pocket. It's you who wants to kill or scratch him."
When his fingers stopped, a girl stepped out and automatically stood next to the three-person gun crew.
"Yulia serves as gunner"
Seryosha stepped out of the queue and said, "Comrades, we are the last line of defense on the ice highway. We can die and the island can be bombed, but if the planes break through our defense line, Leningrad will lose a lot of vitality."
Important bullets and food."
"Everything is for victory! Everything is for the front line! Defend Leningrad to the death!" Everyone present except Wei Ran shouted the same slogan in unison.
"Disband!" Seryosha said and blew the whistle again.
At the whistle, the artillery crew members who had replenished their numbers called a few people for help, carried the ammunition boxes and ran to the artillery position at the edge of the forest. The rest of the people were also busy with other tasks according to their division of labor. Even the person in charge
The little boy who was in charge of the troops pulled a wooden sledge to the edge of the island. Obviously, he also had a job.
"Father Seryozha, please arrange some work for me." Wei Ran said again.
"Aren't you here for an interview?" Seryosha asked.
"I have plenty of time, don't I?" Wei Ran asked back.
"Let me think"
Seryosha thought for a moment and said, "Well, Victor, if you are interested, you can go to the sentry tower. You can see our entire camp there. You can also talk to Yuri, who is in charge of the sentry tower.
Chat, he has a loud voice and a big mouth, and you can get answers to everything you want to know from him."
After saying that, Seryosha pointed to the chef who was walking away, "If you are willing, you can also help Aunt Vlada. Her legs and feet are not very convenient, but her kitchen is the warmest place.
Also, all the gifts you brought can be sent to her."
"Last question"
Wei Ran pointed to the other two shacks, "Can I go to those two shacks?"
"Of course, the boys' dormitory is on the left, and the female soldiers' dormitory is on the right, so remember to knock on the door before entering."
After Seryozha finished speaking, he picked up the bucket of kerosene and walked towards the male soldiers' dormitory.
After a moment's hesitation, Wei Ran returned to his shack with the blood-stained Soviet cloak. With the light of the oil lamp, he first lit the Russian-style fireplace made of soil and stones, and then lit the enamel milk can placed on it.
Filled with snow and placed on top.
After blowing out the oil lamp, Wei Ran closed the doors and windows, and used the firelight from the fireplace to take out the props that could be used this time and inspect them one by one.
Fortunately, the kerosene gas lamps, lighters, and heaters were full of oil, the pens and ink sacs were full of ink, and there were even 20 cigarettes in the cigarette case.
The most important thing is that the airdrop box holding the cast iron stove was not only filled with coal, but also the kerosene lamp and the kerosene in the German kettle, as well as the kerosene left by Kona when she entered the Leningrad battlefield last time.
His bottle of canned salou meat was not withheld!
Without any hesitation, Wei Ran took out the bottle of canned Salo meat and stuffed it into his backpack, then put away the airdrop box, and then dragged the box containing the last reporter's relics to the fireplace.
There are not many things in this box, a German individual kettle picked up or captured from unknown sources. A silver coffee pot about the size of an orange, obviously also obtained from the Germans. In this coffee pot
, and also contained several bags of substitute coffee also produced in Germany.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "Little Bourgeois..." Wei Ran snorted and continued to rummage through the box.
There was also a pair of sheepskin gloves and a wool blanket in the box. When he opened the wool blanket, he found that there was also a small long black leather suitcase with a rucksack hidden underneath.
"What kind of rare thing is this?"
As Wei Ran spoke, he opened the only two metal locks of the suitcase and opened it, then raised his eyebrows in surprise.
This is really a rare thing, something that he never expected to appear here - a Leica gun camera with one camera and two lenses!
After rummaging through the box, in addition to the camera, there were more than a dozen sealed film tubes.
However, just by looking at the labels on the sealed tubes, you can tell that most of these films have been photographed, and apart from the roll installed in the camera itself, there is only one unused film left.
However, it was also through the labels on these film seal tubes that he was able to know that it was probably the end of January or early February of 1942, which was almost the most difficult and severe time of the situation.
He also knew that at this very moment, in the city of Leningrad, Kona and the children were struggling against the cold and hunger.
After a moment's hesitation, he put the suitcase back into his backpack, and then carried it on his back. This thing was useful to him, and it was far more useful than the Rolleiflex double-lens camera in a metal notebook.
Carrying the gifts he had brought, Wei Ran stood up and left the shack, which was gradually getting warmer, and walked towards the direction where the chef Vlada disappeared just now.
There was no need to search deliberately, just following the path on the snow and the smell carried by the wind, he easily found a shack hidden on the other side of a lying pine tree.
This shack was low enough that he didn't even see it just now.
Stooping down and walking into the shack, Vlada, the cook, was sitting by the fireplace, chopping a frozen fish with an axe.
On the fireplace next to it, there are several enamel pots and several kettles.
"Comrade journalists are here"
The white-haired Vlada said hello to Wei Ran, but did not stop what she was doing.
"Aunt Vlada, this is the gift I brought."
While Wei Ran was talking, he took out everything from his backpack and glanced at the pots on the fireplace. There was just fish soup, and even the fish was not very big.
However, contrary to his expectation, Aunt Vlada was not very happy when she saw these precious foods. Instead, she said slightly dissatisfied, "These weights should be used to transport the ammunition we urgently need. Can we
Find ways to fill our stomachs, and we don’t need reporters, what we need is more artillery shells.”
After hearing this, Wei Ran was silent for a moment and asked, "Where is the fish? Where do the fish come from?"
"Beside the position, you can catch fish there."
Vlada said apologetically, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. I'm very grateful for the precious food you sent, especially the salt, but we really need ammunition here."
"No need to be sorry"
Wei Ran said quickly, "It's not you who should say sorry."
"Those Germans and Finns don't say sorry," Vlada sighed, "Sit down and pour yourself a glass of water to warm yourself up."
"Let me help you," Wei Ran said, "I can do these hard work."
"I'll do it"
Vlada refused Wei Ran's help, and then asked tentatively, "Comrade reporter, have you been to Leningrad? How is the situation there?"
"I...I have been"
Wei Ran sighed, "The situation is very serious. This winter is too cold. Many people in the city froze to death and starved to death."
"My son is in Leningrad"
"He's a firefighter and I haven't heard from him in months," Vlada said.
"You...how did you get here?" Wei Ran couldn't help but ask.
“I pulled out in November last year.”
Vlada murmured to herself, "We were evacuating from the city. We were bombed by German planes on the way. My husband fell into an ice cave and died. We hid in an emergency on another island.
I happened to hear that we needed help here, so we came here.”
"All of them?" Wei Ran asked in shock.
“All of them”
Vlada nodded, "There were 25 of us originally, but now we are the only ones left."
"Where are the militiamen who guarded this position before?"
"All dead"
Vlada said calmly, "Some froze to death, some starved to death, but most of them were killed by German planes. More than two months ago, the Germans dropped a bomb on the position.
Many people were killed at that time."
"You...how long do you plan to hold on?"
Vlada, who was over fifty years old, replied matter-of-factly, "Hold on until we all die here, or drive away the Germans."