In the brightly lit bedroom, Wei Ran looked at the photo on the tank for a long time, finally put it aside and continued to take things out of the camera bag.
In addition to the main body of the Robert II camera and the standard lens mounted on it, this bag also contains an additional wide-angle lens, a telephoto lens, and a super telephoto lens that can be called a spy-specific lens.
As briefly mentioned in the course at Hongqi Forestry Farm, this camera was used for military reconnaissance and espionage activities behind enemy lines during World War II. Even for a long time after World War II, it was the mainstream photography on the hidden front.
tool.
But in fact, it is not easy for Wei Ran to operate this outdated clockwork camera. It can even be said that in the film era, photography was a "technical job", but after entering the digital era, so
The technical requirements required are getting lower and lower.
“It seems that I need to find a place where I can systematically become proficient in operating various old-fashioned cameras in the future.”
Wei Ran, who was playing with the camera, muttered to himself. When he was still working as a part-time tour guide, he put in a lot of effort to learn how to use a Rolleiflex camera. Later, he got a metal notebook, although he also used it.
I have bought many film cameras, but I have always figured out how to use them on the spot.
On the other hand, in this digital age, even the Hongqi Forestry Farm, which is also "outdated", does not focus on teaching how to use various film cameras. At most, it only uses a simple film camera like the "Kiev 30" to experience it.
.Moreover, we mainly use the latest production of various pinhole shooting equipment.
As for where to study, he immediately had a goal. He thought that when he followed Dima to Kirov to complete the assessment mission, the one-armed veteran named Leva was running an old-fashioned film camera store.
Although we didn't have much communication with him at the time, we could still tell that the old guy, who was not in good health, was very knowledgeable about taking pictures. Keeping this in mind, Wei Ran picked up the camera again.
I played around with a small PPK pistol.
Even if we don’t mention the 007 who flirts with girls in the movie, even the mustache in the bunker is the account that was canceled using this weapon in the end. At the same time, for Wei Ran, this is already the third in the metal book
A pistol.
"Why can't we just show off to a T-34..."
Wei Ran complained dissatisfiedly, put the small pistol back into his camera bag, and took back the metal book.
After copying down the three sets of coordinates mentioned in the metal book as well as the medal numbers obtained by Vajim and others, Wei Ran began to think about a solution to this matter.
There is no doubt that Mrs. Valentina, who has terminal cancer, may not be able to wait long, but she must have a reasonable excuse. And most importantly, there must be some reliable people to help dig the soil.
The party needs to find Vajim's body and bring it back.
After thinking about it, Wei Ran first checked the medals awarded by the tank driver Vajim replaced through the number.
The medal that Vajim received contained detailed records of how he and Roman were lurking on the battlefield to repair tanks and risking their lives to attack German tanks to rescue the wounded. It even listed the approximate location of their burial. Moreover, he and Roman were chased
For the medal awarded, both the certifier and the applicant were political commissar Trosha.
Continuing to search according to the full name of Political Commissar Trosha mentioned in the medal file, Wei Ran also had a smile on his face.
The file on Political Commissar Trosha also records the details of the battle on the outskirts of Tomalovka. It even mentioned that Commissar Trosha submitted "regards to the 29th Tank Corps of the Fifth Guards Tank Army" many times.
, the application report and approval process for "Tank Driver Vajim's Identity Certificate".
And just like the record on the metal book, because the political commissar Trosha was killed in the battle and lacked crucial certification, the report ultimately failed to pass the review and approval.
"Same as Don Position 19"
Wei Ran sighed. He clearly remembered that the application report for Hero of the Soviet Union at Don Position 19 was also approved as "not approved" due to lack of witnesses. Even because of this, Mr. Nikolai did not apply for the Hero of the Soviet Union until his later years.
I finally let go of my worries and returned to "Stalingrad" which had been renamed.
After downloading the file and the application form separately, Weiran returned to the previous webpage and saved the medal file of Grigory, the tank driver Vadim replaced.
In addition, he searched for more than a dozen soldiers named "Vadjim" through the website's built-in search function. Then he closed the computer, got up and got into the bathroom.
The time spent entering the battlefield this time was less than 24 hours, but behind that short combat experience, Mrs. Valentina had waited a whole life.
After taking a scalding hot bath, Wei Ran came out again. After hesitating for a moment, he took out his cell phone and called Teacher Dalia.
"Have you found it?" As soon as the call was connected, Teacher Dalia asked directly.
“It’s not that simple”
Wei Ran denied it in a calm tone, and then said, "Teacher Dalia, I plan to go to Egypt later. I don't know if it will affect Culp and his team's filming work."
"It won't affect you," Teacher Dalia immediately replied, "How long do you need? I'll help you change your flight ticket."
After thinking for a moment, Weiran decided to allow a week for this matter, "If possible, I will go to Egypt again on July 5th."
"Then No. 5," Dalia agreed happily, "Do you need me to do anything else?"
"It's not needed now," Wei Ran said simply, "If I find anything in the past few days, I will contact you in time."
Before he finished speaking, Teacher Dalia on the other end of the phone simply hung up the phone.
After weighing his cell phone, Wei Ran lay on the bed again and bought a plane ticket. Then he continued to think about when to go to Kirov and visit the one-armed veteran Leva again to see if he could get some help from him.
Here I learned some outdated knowledge about film cameras.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! In the blink of an eye, the next morning, Wei Ran said goodbye to his aunt who was thinking about planting something in the yard, and drove Teacher Dalia’s car out of the house.
Go straight to the airport and take the earliest flight to Kursk.
Such a highly purposeful itinerary was naturally made for Teacher Daria. Even after he arrived, he didn't even go to the hotel, but took a taxi directly to the local Kursk Battle Military History Exhibition Hall.
This city is less than 500 kilometers away from Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, in a straight line. However, in 1943, in order to regain the land seized by the French, the tragic Battle of Cusco broke out here.
In comparison, the Battle of Belgorod may only be regarded as a continuation and offshoot of the Battle of Kursk. That battle may not be as good as the latter in terms of scale, popularity and even tragedy.
But the Soviet Red Army soldiers who died in that battle were actually just ordinary people with flesh and blood like the heroes in the Battle of Cusco. The difference may be just... nameless.
It took a whole day to carefully visit this exhibition hall, which is not too big. Just when Weiran was about to find a hotel to take a rest and then rushed to Belgorod, Katenka, who was on vacation, suddenly noticed
An email came.
After carefully checking the hotel room, Wei Ran took out the food box from the metal book while covered with a quilt, found the authenticator inside and linked it to the computer.
After a while, a text document appeared on the desktop, followed by a download page.
"What is this?" Wei Ran put on the wired headset connected to the computer and asked, "If it's convenient, just communicate via voice. I'm a little busy right now."
“Good boss”
Katenka's voice immediately came from the earphones, "I am currently in Lille, France. I have already been to the address you asked me to investigate."
It's quite fast...
Wei Ran glanced at the time in the lower right corner of the computer screen. This was only the third day he informed the other party of the holiday.
"Did you find anything?" Wei Ran asked with a normal expression.
"That address is a furniture store."
Katenka, who was also wearing headphones, walked to the bedside, hid most of her body behind the heavy curtains, held a telescope in one hand and looked out the window at the furniture store across the street. After a moment of pause, she said, "The size of this store is
It’s not too big, but the location is very good. The owner is an old man named Dorian, he looks very old, he should be around ninety years old by visual inspection.”
Closing his eyes, he let his memory return to the French prisoners of war on the Finnish battlefield. Wei Ran matched the name Katenka mentioned with the young French prisoner, and then asked, "What else is there?"
Did you find it?"
"When I went to this store, the old man named Dorian was writing his memoirs. Through the way of dictation, there were many children around who were not too old. Not surprisingly, they should all be his great-grandchildren.
.”
Katenka put down the telescope, sat back on the sofa in the hotel room and continued, "It should be his grandson who helped him type the contents of his memoirs into the computer. I managed to hack into his computer. The one who just copied it into your computer is
Contents of Memoirs.
I have probably read it. It is divided into two volumes. The first half is about Dorian’s experience as a prisoner of war when he was young. It has been written. The final editing time was in April this year. He is currently dictating what he should
It’s the second volume, it’s not over yet, the content is basically about various things after the end of World War II.”
At this point, Katenko paused, opened her mouth to take the grape that a girl put into her mouth, and then continued to ask, "Boss, do you need me to translate or summarize the contents of these two memoirs? They are both
Written in French.”
"No need, I will leave this matter to others."
Wei Ran thought for a while and continued, "If it's convenient, help me keep an eye on the unfinished memoir. Remember to send me a copy when it's finished."
"No problem." Katenka ate the second grape and continued to ask, "Is there anything else to do?"
"Have a good vacation, this is enough." After saying that, Weiran unplugged the authenticator.
"Didn't you tell the boss?" asked the girl holding a bunch of grapes in the hotel room.
"What I was about to say, the link on his end has been disconnected." Katenka spread his hands and said with a relaxed look, "It's not my fault."
"Then let's find another opportunity in the future."
The girl carrying grapes spread out on the soft sofa, "Where should we go to play next?"
"Let's go back to Paris!"
Kajianka took out a bank card, shook it, and asked expectantly, "How about we spend all the bonus the boss gave us last time?"
"I have no opinion!"
The girl eating grapes said enthusiastically, "But before that, let's visit all the amusement parks in Paris!"
"You can also go to this place. There is bungee jumping here." Katenka shook the screen of her phone and came up with a new idea.
At the same time, in a hotel room in Kursk, Wei Ran disconnected the Internet connection from his laptop and opened the memoirs sent by Katenka.
In the memoirs of the first volume, French prisoner of war Dorian described in detail his experience of helping rich people clean chimneys and doing petty theft as a child, and also interspersed with an introduction to his parents' participation in the French guerrillas.
After a relatively happy childhood, Dorian was sent to Finland by the Germans. In his subsequent memories, everything that happened in the polar night in northern Finland also appeared in Wei Ran's mind again.
The descriptions of freezing hands and feet, the stinky bear den, the gradually improving underground shelter, and the increasingly unappetizing bear meat were not very different from Wei Ran's memory.
It took him more than two hours to read this memoir. When he turned to the last page, it finally recorded the tragedy of the shoemaker Kantan who committed suicide by drowning in the river after the war.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Wei Ran pinched his brows and opened the unfinished second half of the volume. This half of the memoir records Dorian’s postwar experience, from returning to his hometown to
His parents reunited, and with the help of Gail and Quentin, he ran a fur business, and even met a beautiful girl.
When the experiences recorded in this half-volume of unfinished memoirs reached 1958, Wei Ran finally knew what exactly happened at that time.
This year, Quentin, a Jewish chef who settled in Finland, killed his two main competitors and their families in order to seize more market share!
It was precisely because of this incident that Dorian and Gale terminated their cooperation with Quentin, and the friendship between the three of them for more than ten years immediately fell apart.
In the following time, Gale switched to restaurant management, and Dorian also gave up the fur business and started to operate furniture.
Continuing to turn back, this half-volume of memoirs has not yet had time to write about the avalanche that Quentin's family of three encountered, but the memories and regrets about the friendship between the three people in the lines are sad.
Wei Ran was no longer interested in what happened next. After sighing, he even deleted the two memoirs that almost recorded Dorian's life.
Compared with the unknown warriors like Vajim who used their lives to fill the battlefield and regain their homeland in the Battle of Belgorod. People like Quentin who were lucky enough to survive after the war had the feeling of being a young man who slayed dragons and finally became a man.
The absurdity of the dragon.
Is there anything wrong?
Perhaps there is nothing wrong with it. In order to pursue the right to survive, the space for survival, and the resources for survival, war and conspiracy seem to be eternal topics.
From the conflicts of interests between a few fur traders to the differences in race and belief between countries, the essence is nothing more than living and living better.
But there are always some people who stick to their inner beliefs until death, even if they are forgotten by future generations.
Similarly, there are always some people who will eventually forget the scars on their bodies, even if they abandon more precious friendships, and even if their former friends write down their evil deeds in their memoirs without reservation, they will not hesitate.
