War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 159 Abandoned Military Base
Early in the morning on the fourth day when everyone came to Inta, Sui Sui, who woke up from a hangover, first looked at the top of her head and surroundings, and then lifted the quilt to look at the clothes she was still wearing and the shoes that had been taken off And cotton-padded clothes, after trying to figure out what happened last night, they got up heartlessly, put on cotton-padded clothes and got out of the tent with a kerosene lamp in hand, greeted the classmates who had also woken up, and ran to the hot spring not far away .

And in Ji Ma's tent next door, Wei Ran was still snoring on the folding bed, and as for Ji Ma, he was snoring with the backpack that served as a pillow on the ground covered with bearskin.

At [-]:[-] in the morning, the sky above the head was completely bright, and the people who had enough food and drink locked the tents and the weapons that were not used for hunting in the mineral processing workshop, and then took the plane back to Inta.

In the next day and a half, the girls headed by Sui Sui, under the leadership of Misha and Alili, visited all the old buildings left over from the Soviet era in Inta, and at the same time bought a lot of buildings with the imprint of the Soviet era. I also took photos of old antique souvenirs, and ate all kinds of delicacies in this small city on the polar circle.

At noon on the fifth day, after lunch, the girls who had harvested a lot followed Misha and boarded the plane to Kazan.

On the contrary, Sui Sui stayed behind with a proud face, showing off his mobile phone, "My mother agreed, let me go back with you."

Wei Ran shook his head helplessly, but Alili and Jima were exceptionally tolerant. This girl is the daughter of their benefactor, let alone stay and watch the fun, she can play with her for a few more days.

"Since Aurora is willing to stay, come and have a look with us!"

Ji Ma pointed at a cloud and said, "But it's best to leave now. The weather forecast may have a snowstorm in the near future. We'd better come back before the snowstorm comes."

"Then let's go!" Wei Ran nodded and looked at Alili, who waved his hand happily, leading them back into the An-2 plane parked not far away.

With the roar of the propeller, the old plane took off again, and took the four of them to the direction of the Ural Mountains.

After more than an hour of slow flight, Alili controlled the plane to circle and lower the altitude, and finally landed steadily on a forest glade next to the foot of the Eastern Ural.

Because of the snow cover, it was not obvious from the sky, but after the plane landed, Wei Ran could clearly see that, just near the foot of the mountain, two reinforced concrete buildings with only five floors looked like birthdays. Like a candle on a cake, most of his body was stuck in the rock formation at the foot of the mountain.

And there is a hemispherical man-made building on the top of the mountain not far from the two buildings.As for the front of the two buildings, there is an irregularly shaped open space, and further away, it is completely surrounded by dense coniferous forests and barbed wire fences covered with snow.

That's not to mention, in the corner of this open space, apart from the wreckage of a Mi-8 helicopter with only the main frame left, there is actually an An-2 with the Soviet Air Force logo remaining, and Several trucks were nearly buried by snow.In addition, on the other side of the barbed wire, there are still several chest targets with only outlines and bullet holes left.

"It's here"

Alili pushed open the cabin door and signaled everyone to put on their snowshoes. Then he and Jima jumped off in no particular order. He was busy using wire ropes to fix the plane to the bumpers of the scrapped trucks around him from different directions while shouting loudly. He explained, "The one on the top of the mountain seems to be an astronomical observatory, and there is a quite large telescope inside. The two buildings below and the one on the left are all power generation equipment, and there is nothing valuable in it. All the interesting things are in the On the right, but this place is not usually visited by people, so there are more wild animals, you two had better bring guns."

Hearing this, Sui Sui, who was about to jump off, immediately turned around, took out an AK rifle with a folding stock from the travel bag between the two rows of seats, put it on his shoulder, and took out a Marcarol Cardiff pistol, pulling the slide to load the cartridge.

"What weapon do you want?" While Sui Sui was speaking, she pulled out an AK rifle again and handed it to Wei Ran who had already jumped out of the hatch.

"That's enough, come down quickly." Wei Ran took the rifle, seeing that Sui Sui had to pick up a few more magazines, he immediately urged angrily.

Sui Sui shrugged, put the two magazines into the pockets of the cotton coat, and quickly jumped out of the cabin.

After such a short time, Alili and Jima had already pulled the wire rope to fix the plane.Seeing that Wei Ran and Sui Sui were each carrying an AK rifle used by the patrol, they were naturally happy and relaxed. They just took out their respective pistols and loaded them with bullets.Then he took Wei Ran and Sui Sui to the two buildings not far away where even the windows were sealed with cement.

"Alili, how did you find this place?" Wei Ran asked the lazy Jima, throwing the rifle in his hand, and then took the rifle from Sui Sui's hand.

"That was two years ago"

Aliri said as he walked forward, "At that time, when our air patrol team was assisting a nearby gold mine to catch illegal gold diggers, we encountered a blizzard and accidentally discovered it when we made an emergency landing at this place."

Having said that, Alili turned on the headlights and led the crowd into the building on the left.Although it was extraordinarily dark because the windows were sealed with concrete, the space inside was more spacious than Wei Ran expected.

Under the illumination of the lights, the first floor of this building occupies most of the space are oil tanks painted with red paint, as well as Soviet flags and various propaganda slogans on the surrounding walls.Other than that, the rest of the corners are scattered with some animal bones.

Follow the rusty stairs to the second floor, where a group of large fuel generators are placed.These large-scale equipment that seem to have been installed at the beginning of the building's construction are exceptionally well preserved. Not only are the various facilities and equipment covered with thick plastic sheets, they are even placed in a desk drawer next to the stairs. A thick maintenance manual and an incomparably detailed inspection log.

Pick up this inspection log and turn to the last page, the time displayed on it is July 1972, 7!And on the next page, on the yellowed paper, there is only one sentence "Thank you for burning yourself for your selfless dedication!"

He carefully flipped through every page, but unfortunately, this maintenance log is full of technical terms and boring data that he doesn't understand very well, and it is of no value at all.

Wei Ran, who found nothing, put it back in the drawer, and led by Alili, he climbed to the third floor. Half of the rooms on this floor are warehouses with various signs, and the shelves in each warehouse are divided into categories. There are wooden boxes full of various parts.

The space on the other side of the corridor is mostly filled with outdated firefighting equipment and gadgets such as gas masks.

Continuing to go up, there are some offices and rooms such as the reading room, gym and even the cafeteria on the fourth floor.But without exception, these rooms were all cleaned up. Except for the tables, chairs and benches with traces of time, there was no valuable thing at all, let alone any records with written information.

Unbelievers continued to go upstairs. The rooms on this floor were all empty bed boards and simple furniture. Except for the animal feces in the corridor and a steel plank road leading to the hemispherical building on the top of the mountain, there was still nothing. What valuable information.

"Go to the top of the mountain first or go to the building on the right first?" Alili asked at the end of the plank road.

"Can this plank road be walked?" Before Wei Ran could speak, Ji Ma asked first. It was also his first time here, and he had only heard Alili say it before.

"Should be able to walk." While speaking, Alili had already stepped on the snow-covered steps, walked up calmly and jumped vigorously.

The dull voice and the sour crunch made Wei Ran and Suisui take a step back, and as for Ji Ma, he even retreated directly to the corridor.

Aliri shook his head helplessly, "Then go to another building to have a look!"

The three people in the corridor glanced at each other, and then they all breathed a sigh of relief.Obediently followed Alili downstairs, stepped on the thick snow and walked to the door of the building on the right.

Different from the previous building, the first floor of this building actually installed a welded crude iron door, and there were even four or five padlocks on the iron door alone.

Patiently waiting for Alili to unlock all the locks, when the iron door was pulled open by Ji Ma with great effort, the scene inside immediately made Wei Ran's eyes widen.

The first floor here is empty, only two side-by-side car repair trenches, and signs such as oil depot and spare parts depot are hung on the surrounding doors.

But just looking at Alili's lack of interest, you can tell that there should be nothing valuable here.

Follow the other party to the second floor. Although the windows on this floor are also tightly sealed with cement, they are much cleaner than the downstairs. Rooms such as dormitories and cafeterias are neatly distributed.

Aliri opened one of the locked rooms with great interest, pointed to the weapons and ammunition boxes full of weapons and said, "The weapons we used to experience shooting before were all obtained from here."

Wei Ran picked up an AK rifle and looked at it, and then picked up an SVD with a scope, but there was a puzzled expression on his face.

"What's wrong?" Sui Sui, who had been following behind Wei Ran, asked.

Wei Ran put down his dusty sniper rifle, "After reading the inspection log in the previous building, I thought this place was sealed up in 1972, but if it was 1972, it is impossible for so many left here Weapons, which looks more like a scenario that would have been possible with the collapse of the Soviet Union."

Seeing that the three people including Sui Sui were all looking at him, Wei Ran spread his hands and explained, "1972 was a period of serious corruption.

So if it was sealed up here at that time, not to mention these weapons, even the generator set in the building next door would probably be secretly sold, so that the highest officer of the garrison here at that time could send enough gifts to transfer to a more comfortable place. Location.

But since these weapons and the generator set in another building were left behind, then only when the Soviet Union disintegrated, there were similar abolished soldiers and military equipment everywhere, and no one would value these individual weapons , it is not worth taking away, and in the end, it can only be left here to fall into ashes. "

"Victor, we don't care when this place was abandoned"

Ji Ma pulled a box full of grenades out of the gap between the shelf and the floor, "Tell me, can this place be changed into a place where you can experience gun shooting."

"The weapons stored in this room may be enough, but the ammunition here may not be enough." Wei Ran shook his head, "And we'd better find out whether this place has been abandoned or forgotten, otherwise If it is not done well, it will cause big trouble.”

"You don't have to worry about the previous problem." Alili pointed to the door, "There are several such arsenals, and there are many more bullets than you imagined. But what does your last sentence mean?"

Wei Ran heard the words and said as he walked out, "Let's finish visiting this building first. As for that sentence, I may have an answer after I have seen the situation in the observatory on the top of the mountain."

(End of this chapter)