War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1748 Postman's Helmet Pasta and Serenade

In the building facing the street, Wei Ran and his three companions bent down and squatted from time to time, avoiding the windows whose fillings had collapsed in the recent artillery attack, quietly closing the distance between them and the enemies outside.

These enemies would naturally not squat in the middle of the street and take bullets foolishly. After being suddenly attacked, they rushed into the buildings on both sides of the street at the cost of huge casualties.

"Stand apart a little bit, keep some distance, but don't get separated."

Wei Ran, who was walking in front, had not yet finished his words when there was an explosion with a loud "boom!" and a big hole was blown in the wall of the room in front.

Almost subconsciously, he and Viola pulled each other to the sides and left the door of the room.

"Da da da!"

Immediately afterwards, a submachine gun stretched out from a hole in the wall and began firing indiscriminately, creating a cloud of smoke at the feet of Clement and Viola.

Before the two men could stand firm, a smoking grenade was thrown in and the submachine gun was retracted.

"boom!"

There was another dull explosion. Wei Ran and Viola simultaneously grabbed Clemont and Yu Yanlin who were about to rush in, and made a gesture of silence in unison.

Bending down carefully to pick up a cup, Wei Ran gently tapped the submachine gun in Yu Yanlin's hand with his finger, and then glanced at Viola opposite him.

After the latter and Yu Yanlin nodded together, Wei Ran put away his revolver under the cover of his clothes, held the cup in one hand and started counting down 321 with gestures with the other.

When all three fingers were clenched into a fist, Wei Ran threw the cup in his hand into the room and shouted "Get down" in Spanish!

Caught off guard, the soldiers who were helping their companions to pass through the hole in the wall did not have time to see what was flying towards them, and they all covered their heads and prepared to lie down.

"Da da da!"

Viola and Yu Yanlin fired their submachine guns one after another, easily eliminating the four enemies who had just entered the room.

Before the last bullet shell from the submachine guns in their hands fell to the ground, Wei Ran had already rushed into the room and hid sideways in the hole in the wall.

Almost at the same time, a smoking grenade was thrown in by the enemy outside.

Wei Ran, who had been prepared for this move, caught the grenade without hesitation and threw it back, then immediately gave up his position.

"boom!"

Amid the deafening explosion, the hole in the wall that originally required people to bend over to get through became a little more spacious, and the screams coming from outside became a little clearer.

He poked his head out to take a quick look and immediately retracted it. Wei Ran looked around, reached out his hand to pull two defensive grenades from the waist of an enemy corpse, tore off the pull ring, waited for a second or two, and then threw them into the alley outside the hole in the wall.

"boom!"

After two almost overlapping explosions, Wei Ran immediately rushed out with his back crouched. At the same time, Viola also stuck most of his body out with a submachine gun.

Compared with this female militia, Clement and Yu Yanlin were much more amateur. They obviously had not received any relevant training and even seemed quite at a loss.

With Viola's cooperation, they dealt with the remaining three or two enemies hiding in the alley. Wei Ran bent down to pick up a few grenades and a Spanish box gun, and then took the three people behind him into another building.

"grass!"

As soon as he entered the room, Wei Ran saw the enemy running out from the door of another room. Almost subconsciously, he raised the box gun he had picked up and pulled the trigger!

"Bang! Bang!"

Two consecutive shots killed the two enemies running in the front. Before they fell to the ground, Viola and Yu Yanlin behind them each held up their submachine guns and started shooting.

This sudden encounter undoubtedly scared Wei Ran and others, but the opponent's slightly slow reaction also allowed him to verify the accuracy of historical records.

These nationalist troops were indeed not good at street fighting, and the various Mauser rifles with bayonets used by most of them were not suitable for street fighting at all.

While the three men were firing, Clemont took out a grenade he had just picked up, pulled the safety and threw it in. With an explosion, the only things left in the room were the dust awakened by the shock wave and the screams of the surviving enemies.

"Walk"

Wei Ran, who had already taken the commander's position invisibly, issued orders and continued to move inside the building with the three of them.

From time to time, they would pull the trigger at the enemies outside the window, and they would encounter men, women, young and old holding rifles, pistols, shotguns, and even slingshots and stones.

Under this concerted resistance, almost all the enemies who rushed into this area were dragged into the quagmire of street fighting and could not extricate themselves.

Wei Ran and others who were also traveling on the battlefield followed Viola and finally arrived at her husband's position after finding three battlefield mailboxes that she had set up herself.

“That’s also where the fourth mailbox is located.”

Viola did not hide her selfishness at all, "I can also see him every day while collecting letters."

"What's his name?" Clemont asked.

"Bruno," Viola said, "he's a company commander, in charge of the barricade at the intersection ahead."

At this point, she raised her hand and pointed straight ahead, "You see the mailbox tied to the lamppost."

Viola stopped halfway through her words and then ran like mad towards the lamppost that Wei Ran and the other two had just noticed.

On this lamppost, there is a tricolor flag representing the International Brigades, and at waist height, there is a wooden ammunition box tied to it - just like the simple mailbox that Yu Yanlin had made.

But at this moment, next to the lamppost, there was a man lying. He was wearing a gray tweed windbreaker and a Soviet-style SSH36 helmet on his head.

One side of the helmet was painted with a white hammer and sickle, one side was painted with three colors of paint, and the other side had a red three-pointed star.

Looking at Viola, who hurriedly dropped the submachine gun in her hand and held the broken body in her arms, Wei Ran and the other two looked at each other and finally stopped and did not go up to her.

But soon, Viola wiped away her tears, reached out to take off the helmet on her husband Bruno's head and put it on her own head. She ignored Wei Ran and Clement who subconsciously raised their cameras towards her, and lowered her head to gently kiss Bruno's bloody lips.

Carefully laying his body flat again, Viola picked up the submachine gun again.

Seeing her looking at him, Wei Ran sighed, put down the camera hanging around his neck, and said, "Let's go over there."

Clemont and Yu Yanlin nodded and followed Wei Ran.

"Victor, Clement, Louis."

As Viola spoke, she opened the simple mailbox tied to the lamppost with wire, took out the letters inside, sorted them quickly, and handed them over. "This is the last letter in the mailbox. Please take these back to the post office. Also, please return my backpack to me."

"you want."

"I have completed half of my job as a postman. Now I have to stay and fight."

Viola adjusted the slightly oversized helmet on her head. "I'll leave the job of delivering these letters to the post office to be mailed to you, okay?"

"us."

"We will complete the postman's job," Clemont promised earnestly as he took the stack of letters. "I will also complete the postman's job," Viola said, taking the long horsehair bag handed to her by Wei Ran.

"That being said"

Wei Ran said as he picked up Bruno's body and walked towards an abandoned building on the side of the road, "But the war here is not over yet. I'm afraid we can't leave now, and..."

Wei Ran glanced at Clemont, "At least treat our friend and comrade Viola to a cup of coffee and a shared pasta meal, when it's convenient, I mean."

"certainly"

Clemont nodded in agreement and put the stack of letters from the battlefield that he needed to take to the post office into his bag.

"thank you all"

Viola took a last look at the body held by Wei Ran, then holding a submachine gun, walked towards the barricade not far away, following the trail of blood left by her husband on the street.

After sending Bruno's body into a room that looked fairly sturdy and covered it with a blanket, Wei Ran and the other three joined the battle on the street.

This is undoubtedly the front line and the most stressful place in the entire battlefield.

On this battlefield filled with buildings, soldiers from the International Brigade, the Republican Army, the National Army, and residents of this community fought almost room by room around each barricade.

Wei Ran and the other two tacitly stayed in the building next to the barricade, relying on the shooting holes in the wall to eliminate any enemies who tried to cross.

"boom!"

Towards the afternoon, intensive artillery bombardment once again enveloped the area.

However, this time, under the cover of artillery fire, the remaining enemies began to retreat in a hurry after leaving behind corpses and wounded soldiers on the ground.

"it is finally over"

When the bombardment ended, Clermont sat down tiredly against the remains of the fireplace. Although they had not moved for most of the day, the fighting had hardly stopped.

"Is your backpack okay?"

As Wei Ran spoke, he picked up some crushed tables, chairs and benches and piled them next to the remaining fireplace.

"I almost forgot about that! We still have pasta!"

Clemont immediately sat up straight, unfastened the backpack behind him and opened it as quickly as possible.

"Louis, how about you invite Viola?" Clemont asked as he took out the things that had been put in earlier.

"I'll go right away"

Yu Yanlin, who was loading bullets into the empty magazine of a submachine gun, immediately stood up and walked away.

At the same time, Wei Ran also found a barely intact aluminum pot after some rummaging, and then ran to a blown-up water pipe in the distance to collect most of the pot of water.

When he came back, Viola had been invited over, and even the fire in the remains of the fireplace had been lit.

“Please take a seat.”

Clemont said this seriously, and took the water that Wei Ran brought back.

Naturally, there were no decent tables, chairs or benches in this room that had been bombarded, so the three of them simply sat on the floor by the fireplace. Clement quickly brewed a pot of coffee and served each person a small cup. Then he tore open the round paper tube his mother had sent him, and poured out a small glass bottle of olive oil, and then a handful of pasta.

"I killed 11 Fasces today," Clemont said as he worked. "How about you?"

"I didn't count," Yu Yanlin answered honestly, and then once again drank the small cup of coffee as if it were medicine.

“I haven’t counted them either.”

Viola said, holding her small coffee cup, her eyes still looking at the room across the street where her husband Bruno was.

"Do you regret it?" Wei Ran asked.

"Regret? Me?"

Viola's attention was drawn back. She drank the small amount of coffee in the cup and said, "Bruno and I were ready to sacrifice when we decided to come here, but... but..."

"I just didn't expect that all this would come so unexpectedly," Wei Ran sighed.

"Yeah." Viola sighed, "I will keep fighting."

"Let's Serenade Again"

Clemont, who was standing by the fireplace, said this, while he reached into his arms and took out his harmonica.

"OK."

Wei Ran responded, poured the coffee in the cup into his mouth, then took out the harmonica and played Haydn's Serenade in tacit harmony with Clement.

With a silent sigh, Viola, leaning against a pillar, took out a blood-stained letter from her arms, tore it open, pulled out a pale yellow envelope from it, and looked at the letter her husband Bruno left for her - they agreed to open the letter after the other was killed in battle.

As the harmonica music played in the letter, Yu Yanlin took out a palm-sized notebook from his arms, and took out a pen from his jacket pocket, and quickly wrote something on the notebook.

On this rare afternoon on the battlefield, Clement generously provided everyone with a portion of pasta, adding red sauce made by his mother and plenty of olive oil.

“Try it! This is the most authentic Italian food.”

As Clemont spoke, he had already picked up his portion, leaned against the corner, rolled up a piece of meat with his fork and put it into his mouth, and let out an exaggerated sigh of satisfaction.

"What were you writing just now?" Wei Ran sat next to Yu Yanlin with his own copy and asked in French, "Try it, it tastes very good."

"journal"

Yu Yanlin put the palm-sized notebook into his arms, picked up his copy, then took out a pair of chopsticks from his bag and wiped his armpits, picked up a piece of pasta and stuffed it into his mouth, and said vaguely while eating, "I want to record my experience in Spain, especially everyone I met.

If I have the chance to return to China alive in the future, I will definitely tell my family about my experience here and let my brothers and nephews join the fight against the French traitors. "

"Including my husband?" Viola, who had been absent-minded, asked abruptly.

"Of course including," Yu Yanlin gave an affirmative answer without thinking.

"Then Bruno and I coming here has meaning, and his sacrifice has meaning."

Viola let out a long sigh, picked up a fork, stirred a piece of pasta, put it into her mouth and ate it in big mouthfuls, but she couldn't stop the tears from running down her cheeks and hitting the plate. She lost the person she loved most.