War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1741 Serenade

In the bunker filled with the aroma of coffee and the dim light of oil lamps, Yu Yanlin saw Wei Ran's stunned expression, so he simply reached into his bag at the side, took out two seals tied together with a red rope, and handed them over to show off, "The one with the missing corner is the one I took from the Japanese soldier I killed myself."

After taking the missing corner seal that he had seen in the future and looking at it, Wei Ran returned it to the other party, "It really is a Japs' stamp. What did you use to kill it?"

“Put the kettle on!”

Yu Yanlin took the two seals tied together and explained with a silly smile, "At that time, my brother had just killed one with a rifle and was about to reload the bullet, and the other one was about to shoot him.

I threw the kettle of boiling water I was carrying at the time onto his damn face, and he screamed and dropped his gun because of the burns."

"Then you killed him?" Wei Ran continued to ask.

"I'll beat him to death with a door bar!"

When Yu Yanlin said this, his tone did not conceal his excitement at all, "That was a strong blow! His brains were smashed out by that bastard!"

Before he could say anything, Yu Yanlin sighed again, "What a pity, I still couldn't drive those bastards out.

After that incident, my father was afraid that my brother and I would be retaliated by the Japanese, so he sent my brother to join the army and sent me to study abroad as well. "

“We’ll drive them out sooner or later.”

Wei Ran comforted him, and then changed the subject, "Yanlin, at your age, you should be married, right?"

"No, not yet."

Yu Yanlin smiled and said, "There is an adopted daughter-in-law at home. My mother picked her up from the riverbank a few years ago. I was going to marry her when I returned after completing my studies."

"But why did you come here?" Wei Ran asked.

"The journey of the great road means that the world is for the common good."

Yu Yanlin sighed, "If we can unite here and eliminate the Faxusi, then we can also eliminate those Faxusi who invaded China. If we can eliminate all the Faxusi, what does it matter if we die here?"

"This is really the most romantic thing," Wei Ran sighed.

"Comrades, I don't know what you are talking about, but maybe you can try the coffee I brought from Italy." Clemont said as he took out a bunch of small silver cups stacked together from his bag.

Each of these small cups is only half the size of a goose egg shell, and all have foldable butterfly handles. They are indeed exquisite, but carrying such a "burden" to the battlefield still seems a bit out of place.

"I really can't get used to drinking this Western Chinese medicine soup."

Yu Yanlin first muttered something in Chinese, and then asked the question that Wei Ran also wanted to ask while taking his own cup, "Clemont, why are you carrying these things on the battlefield?"

“My mom runs a coffee brewing and coffee business”

“She knew there were a lot of Italians in the International Brigade, and like I said, I couldn’t carry enough pasta to feed everyone,” Clermont explained.

But at least I can bring coffee with me and give it to my fellow Italians and all my friends.”

"It's like a wine that brings back homesickness," Wei Ran said in Chinese.

"Speaking of this, I miss home too."

Yu Yanlin sighed, "I haven't been back since 1934, the second year of the Republic of China. I don't know how my family is doing now."

"Home."

Wei Ran paused, and finally said, "I haven't been back for a long time. I don't know, and I don't have any wine to make me miss my hometown."

"Then use this foreigner's bitter medicine soup to make a bar"

As Yu Yanlin spoke, he picked up the exquisite silver eggshell cup and clinked it with the cup in Wei Ran's hand. Then the two of them tacitly clinked their cups with Clement who also held up a cup. In the end, they drank the coffee in the cup in three different ways: drinking wine, drinking Chinese medicine, and drinking Italian coffee.

After taking the cups handed back by Wei Ran and Yu Yanlin and simply rinsing them with water from the kettle, Clemont put the coffee cups and the coffee extractor with the kerosene heating base turned off back into his backpack and said in French, "Victor, you just said that you hope we can follow you when the battle begins?"

"I can at least try my best to ensure that you survive," Wei Ran said.

“We are here to fight”

Clemont made his attitude clear with a smile, "Also, I have to inform you that from the beginning, you and Louis have been conscripted by me."

"Recruited by you? What does that mean?" Wei Ran asked.

"I need help, help that speaks multiple languages."

Clement explained, "You speak many languages, and Louis speaks German and French. You can all help me, so the next step is for you to follow my lead."

"What do you need us to do for you?" Yu Yanlin asked.

“We don’t have much work”

Clement continued, "We only need to set up a battlefield mailbox. When we are not fighting, people will send us letters. We need to sort the letters and then send them back to the rear when the time is right."

At this point, Clement paused and added, "Of course, we are also warriors and we also have to fight. But if I die, you will need to take over my job."

Hearing this, Wei Ran and Yu Yanlin looked at each other, then nodded solemnly.

"At least you guys stay close to me during the battle." Wei Ran said again, "There are three of us, just enough to form a combat team."

"No problem. How do you need us to cooperate with you?" Clemont asked simply.

"If it's a trench war, you just need to stand with me. I will teach you the details when the time comes."

Wei Ran simply reminded, "If you launch a charge, you need to follow behind me, keep at least three meters away from each other. If I stop, you stop. If I lie down, you also need to lie down immediately. If I run, you also need to run immediately. In short, I will give you commands."

"We listen to you," Clement and Yu Yanlin said in unison in French.

I hope it works, I hope you all survive

Wei Ran muttered something secretly, then still worriedly pulled out his bayonet and used it as a nail to fix the blanket hanging at the door of the bunker. He then took out the gun used by Yu Yanlin and checked it under the dim light.

"How many bullets do you have?"

Wei Ran asked with a frown. The condition of this gun was not very good. The rifling was badly worn and there was even some rust in the barrel. Most importantly, there was no bullet in the chamber at all.

"15"

Yu Yanlin answered in French, then opened the ammunition box at his waist and took out the only three bullets in it.

"Clemont, give me some of your kerosene."

As Wei Ran spoke, he took the small frying pan that he used as a lunch box and placed it between the three of them.

Clemont was straightforward. He opened the worn backpack again, took out the oil bottle of kerosene from it, and generously poured half of it into Wei Ran's plate.

"That's enough, that's enough."

As Wei Ran spoke, he had already taken out the gun cleaning tools and began to clean the old rifle himself.

"Brother Wei, have you really fought in a war?" Yu Yanlin asked curiously in Chinese, and then he immediately switched to French and asked again.

“I have participated in some”

Wei Ran, who was busy cleaning the rifle, still gave an ambiguous answer. Then, without waiting for Yu Yanlin to ask, he shifted the topic to Clemont, "Clemont, where did your backpack come from?"

“I got it in a small town on the French border”

Clermont replied, "My suitcase was broken at the time, and a veteran of World War I gave me this backpack. He said it was a trophy he got from a German soldier. Although they were defeated, he returned home before the end of the battle because of injuries, and took this backpack back with him."

At this point, Clemont also asked the same question, "Victor, you seem to be a veteran? You can't have participated in World War I, right? How old were you then?"

“I didn’t fight in World War I.”

Wei Ran continued to change the subject, "Where's your camera? Why did you bring it here?"

"This is my dad's camera, he's Spanish."

“But he hadn’t been back for a long time, and he wanted me to take some pictures of Spain and bring them back to him,” Clement explained.

"You brought a lot of film?" Wei Ran asked.

“Of course, I brought a lot.” Clemont said, patting the backpack in front of him. “I’ll take some photos for you after daybreak.”

As if seeing that Wei Ran didn't want to talk about his experience in participating in the war, Yu Yanlin also took the opportunity to chat with Clement on this topic. Wei Ran also used kerosene to help Yu Yanlin carefully clean the old Spanish Mauser, and then cleaned his own Mauser.

All in all, the condition of these two guns is not good, but at least they can be used.

After everything was done, even the remaining kerosene was not wasted. Instead, he filtered it with cloth and poured it back into the oil can.

Finally, a little soil was added to the pan with the remaining kerosene and ignited. The small shelter then became brighter and warmer.

"Do you want to write a letter home?"

As Clemont spoke, he took out two envelopes and two pens from the worn backpack, "Maybe the battle will begin tomorrow."

"Do you want to write?" Yu Yanlin said, but he had already taken the letter paper and pen handed to him by Clement.

"I'll forget it"

Wei Ran smiled, and when he saw Yu Yanlin looking at him, he was silent for a moment and then shook his head, "I don't know who to write to."

Hearing this, Yu Yanlin opened his mouth, lowered his head silently, took out the pan-shaped dinner plate hanging from his waist, turned it upside down on his knees, and said in Chinese while writing, "Before leaving France, I asked my classmate to take a letter back home."

"Really?" Wei Ran sighed. He didn't know how to ask next.

"I wrote a letter of divorce to my adopted daughter-in-law"

Yu Yanlin said amid the friction between the pen tip and the letter paper, "I told her that I already had a new lover and asked her not to wait for me anymore. I also asked my parents to find a good family for her."

"Don't you love her?" Wei Ran asked.

"Her name is Chuncai, and she is five years younger than me."

When Yu Yanlin said this name, a hint of smile appeared on his face under the light of the lamp. "She was only four years old when my mother picked her up and brought her home. She only knew that her name was Chuncai, and she didn't even know her last name."

After a short pause, Yu Yanlin continued to talk to himself, "Childhood sweethearts, that's pretty much what we are like."

"So you love her?" Wei Ran asked bluntly.

In this era, the relatively reserved Chinese people will not easily say the word "love".

"Love, of course I love her. If the future wasn't uncertain, I would have wanted to take her with me to study abroad."

Yu Yanlin said, "She can read and write beautifully, and she has also learned a lot of French from me."

"So you don't actually have any new love?" Wei Ran said, taking out a cigarette from his pocket and giving one to each of them.

Yu Yanlin smiled, lit up a cigarette and took a puff. "I'm afraid I'll die here, and I'm even more afraid that after I die she'll wait for me foolishly for the rest of her life. So I'll just leave her a letter of divorce to end my thoughts, and also end her thoughts."

"Aren't you guys not married yet?" Wei Ran said as he lit a cigarette.

"What difference does it make whether we get married or not?" Yu Yanlin said as he picked up the pen again.

"Are you talking about something I don't want to know?" Clemont said as he took out a harmonica from his jacket pocket.

"Talking about Louis' love," Wei Ran said bluntly.

"What a romantic topic," Clemont exclaimed.

"What about you? Do you have a girlfriend?" Wei Ran asked.

"Of course, she works as a nurse for the Medical Aid Committee." Clemont said, taking out a photo from his arms and placing it next to the oil lamp.

In this photo, he and a beautiful blonde girl were standing under the Eiffel Tower and hugging each other. The girl was even holding a French bulldog that was almost hanging by a leash.

"Is she French?" Wei Ran asked with a smile.

"Yes, she's French." Clement put away the photo and said, "She's also my classmate. Her name is Estelle."

"What about you?"

Wei Ran turned the topic back to Yu Yanlin.

As if knowing what Wei Ran wanted to see, Yu Yanlin smiled helplessly, took out a palm-sized leather notebook from his arms, pulled out a photo from it and placed it on the cover, then placed it under the oil lamp.

In this small photo, there is a short-haired girl wearing a cheongsam, a traditional Chinese dress, and with a very elegant look.

Perhaps because Yu Yanlin held her hand tightly when taking the photo, her smile looked particularly bright and happy.

"Where was this taken?" Wei Ran asked curiously.

"The entrance of Hanfenlou"

As Yu Yanlin said this, he put the photo back into the notebook and stuffed it into his arms. "That place has been burned by the devils."

Seeing this, Wei Ran didn't ask any more questions. Clement also put the harmonica to his lips and played Schubert's serenade.

Also leaning against the slightly cold earth wall, Wei Ran also took out his harmonica and played the melodious tune together with the other party.

"You play the harmonica really well. Where did you learn it from?" Clement asked curiously after the song ended.

"An African American friend taught me this," Wei Ran said with a smile. "He's a pastor."

"Do you believe in the crowing of roosters?" asked Yu Yanlin who was still writing a letter.

“He and I are just friends”

Wei Ran smiled and said, "Let's change to Haydn's Serenade. Maybe that song will make Louis less sad."

"no problem"

As Clemont spoke, he and Wei Ran each started playing another serenade on the harmonica.

"boom!"

This time, before the song was finished, a shell hit the trench some distance away from them and exploded.

The three of them looked at each other. Wei Ran put away his harmonica for the first time, picked up his rifle, and was the first to get out of the bunker.

Standing on the platform that had been dug out in advance and hiding in the observation hole to take a look outside, Wei Ran immediately realized that something was wrong. There seemed to be no one outside, so if the shot just now was not a harassment, then it could only be a calibration shot!

"Hide quickly! Be careful to avoid the cannonballs!"

Not far away, a man shouted a reminder in French at the same time as Wei Ran.

"how"

Before Clemont could finish his question, he was pushed by Wei Ran back into the bunker.

"Boom boom boom boom"

Amidst the dense artillery fire, shell after shell hit their position, and the makeshift bunkers that had not yet been reinforced also lost a lot of soil in the explosion.

"Open your mouth! Open your mouth! Don't cover your ears!" Wei Ran shouted at the top of his voice, and at the same time, he pulled away the hands of the two people who were subconsciously covering their ears.

Then he pulled out the bayonet he was using as a nail and stabbed it at his feet, then picked up the small oil lamp and blew it out. When he used mud to cover the lunch box that still had some flames left, the bunker was plunged into inconspicuous darkness.

"Get ready for battle!"

Wei Ran warned loudly in French, "The people on the other side may launch an attack later. Yanlin, you don't need to aim carefully, just shoot in the general direction! Remember to bend your knees when loading bullets!"

"Okay! I understand!" Yu Yanlin answered loudly.

"Clemont! Are there bullets in your pistol?!" Wei Ran continued to ask loudly in French.

"Have!"

"Don't rush to shoot before the enemy jumps into the trench!"

Before Wei Ran finished his words, the short artillery fire stopped. He immediately got out of the bunker, stepped on the platform and pointed the gun barrel outside.

"boom!"

He didn't care whether anyone was running towards him or not, and he didn't even take aim. He just put the muzzle of the gun roughly level with the ground and pulled the trigger.

After this blind shot, someone on the other side was smart enough to pull the trigger subconsciously - from more than a hundred meters away.

Shooting, especially at night, is a herd-like activity. Although there are certainly veterans in the opposing team, it is useless. Unless they are all veterans, the new recruits who launch a night raid will definitely follow suit once they hear people shooting around them.

When it comes to shooting, those who lack a little experience will subconsciously stand still and output. This is the same whether in games or in reality.

Similarly, when the new recruits in the trenches heard someone firing, they subconsciously followed suit and fired back.

This created a problem, as the people launching the attack were outside the bunker!

For a moment, there was a loud sound of gunfire. Wei Ran took the opportunity to aim at the approximate location of the flash and fired the remaining four bullets in the chamber. He didn't know whether he could hit the target or not.

But his goal had been achieved. As long as the people who launched the attack did not come over, it would be fine. In the darkness here, if the enemy really got to the front of the trench, just one round of grenades would cause huge casualties in the trench.

More importantly, he just noticed that not only him, but also Yu Yanlin and Clement had no grenades on them.

"Stop fighting." Wei Ran put away his gun and called out to Yu Yanlin beside him.

"Fire another shot!" Yu Yanlin said as he pulled the trigger again towards the outside of the trench.

Shaking his head helplessly, Wei Ran waited for the other party to put away his gun before asking, "How many did you hit?"

"I don't know," Yu Yanlin said foolishly.

"Take off the bayonet. Why are you installing it so early?" Wei Ran reminded, "Be ready to hide in the bunker at any time."

"for"

Before Clemont could even utter his question, the sound of mortar whistles was heard in the night sky.

This time, there was no need to remind them at all. The two of them quickly got into the bunker and nervously shouted at Wei Ran to come in quickly.

Wei Ran was not panicked at all. Instead, he loaded the bullet again and prepared himself.

Hearing the direction from which the whistle disappeared, he knew that the mortar was fired from their position, so he naturally didn't need to hide.

Sure enough, a flare soon appeared in the night sky, and Wei Ran immediately aimed at an enemy who was half-crouching on the ground and decisively pulled the trigger.

"boom!"

Amid the crisp sound of gunfire, the enemy over a hundred meters away fell to the ground with his head raised. Seeing this, several enemy soldiers around him panicked and prepared to run back.

This action was really like seeking death by firing flares. For a moment, all kinds of bullets were fired at them, but among those people, only two unlucky ones fell to the ground screaming.

Shaking his head slightly helplessly, Wei Ran raised his gun again, aimed at an enemy soldier who was running towards his injured teammate, and pulled the trigger again at the moment he pulled his teammate and began to exert force.

"boom!"

After the shot, the kind-hearted man fell to the ground.

At this point, he has completely confirmed that Franco's troops on the opposite side are really losers, otherwise they probably would not have been forced to retreat at this time tomorrow by the insane General Kleber, who led an international brigade that had only been trained for about a week at most, and the Spanish troops originally stationed here.

Of course, tomorrow's tragic casualties also indicate that their international brigade, as well as the Spanish troops stationed further away, may also lack sufficient training.

After killing three enemies in a row, Wei Ran chose to stop, and then pushed Yu Yanlin and Clement, who were about to come out again when they realized something was wrong, back to hide.

"Put the blanket on yourself and open your mouth! Keep your back away from the wall!" Wei Ran said as he pulled the blankets of the three people in the dark and stuffed them into their arms.

Almost at the same time, artillery shells from the opposite side also hit, and the bunker once again began to shake off a lot of dirt in the explosion.

This time, the enemy's artillery bombardment also did not last long, but it was enough for those who were preparing for a night attack to withdraw.

When the bombardment ended, Wei Ran went out to take a look, then turned around and went back in. "Don't worry, there shouldn't be any fighting in the short term."

"I really have reason to suspect that you participated in World War I," Clemont exclaimed.

"You have the energy to doubt me, why not take advantage of this time and get some sleep."

Wei Ran was groping in the dark, pushing the slightly damp loose soil around him out of the shelter with his lunch box, and said, "This situation may happen several times tonight. Also, we can light the kerosene lamp."

Hearing this, Clemont immediately took out a kerosene lamp from his bag, lit it, and placed it between the three of them again.

Wei Ran was not idle either. He took out the engineering shovel before the other party lit the oil lamp. Then he used the oil lamp to dig an arc on the damp wall so that he could lean on it more comfortably. Then he sat on the inverted dinner plate to isolate himself from the moisture on the ground.

At the same time, Yu Yanlin also took out the letter paper and pen, put the lunch box underneath again and continued to write his letter.

"That coffee is starting to take effect. I can't sleep now."

As Clemont spoke, he also took out a few pieces of letter paper, put the dinner plate underneath and began to write furiously.

"In that case, I'll get some sleep first."

As Wei Ran spoke, he had already wrapped himself tightly in the blanket. He seemed to be unaffected by the cup of espresso and soon fell asleep.