War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1752: Orders after the Toast

In the dilapidated room that served as a post office, Aaron, a photographer from the United States, was enjoying the lunch shared with him by Wei Ran and the other two while being interviewed by him.

According to Sergi's autobiography, he had several Spanish companions working for the post office, but after yesterday's battle, Sergi was the only one who survived.

Correspondingly, Wei Ran, who was interviewed, earnestly talked about the short, German-speaking unknown soldier who saved him, the old soldier named Dylan, the postman Clement whom he and Yu Yanlin met together, Clement's coffee and his fiancée, and even his father-in-law Gerard.

Yu Yanlin also spoke very frankly about the fellow villager named Zhang he met, and about Chuncai, the child bride who might come to find him but had no idea that he had come from France to Madrid, Spain.

They also talked about the deceased postwoman Viola and her husband Bruno, the tricolor flag preserved by Clermont, and the three-pointed stars pinned on the flag.

"I would like to meet Comrade Clermont if I have a chance."

Aaron fiddled with his Leica camera and said, "I want to see the flag, take a picture of it, and pin my star on it. Can anyone take me to him?"

“You’ll have a chance.”

Yu Yanlin said, "But we just got here and we have to deliver a letter later, so I'm afraid we don't have time to take you to find Clermont."

"Or you can go find him yourself," Wei Ran said, "He's at the position over in the forest park."

“I’ll be there”

Aaron said, "But my interview here is not over yet. Victor, Louis, and Sergey, do you mind if I follow you as a mailman for a few days?"

“Of course I don’t mind.”

Wei Ran smiled and said, "It would be even better if you could take on some of the postman's work."

"I'd love to play a role here," Aaron said immediately.

“It looks like we have a new helper.”

Yu Yanlin said happily, "In this case, should we go deliver the letter?"

"It's time to set off," Wei Ran said, "You guys pick first, and I'll leave the rest."

Upon hearing this, Yu Yanlin took away the stack of letters and a package with addresses written in German, while Serge took away the stack of letters written in French.

Seeing this, Aaron took away the letters and several packages with addresses written in English.

He gathered the rest together and looked at them. Some were written in Italian, some in Russian, and some in languages ​​he didn't even recognize.

Fortunately, although I couldn't understand the addresses on these few letters, I could still guess the approximate affiliation through the numbers and some figures on them.

Without much delay, Wei Ran followed everyone out of the post office, put the mail bags assigned to him into the messenger bag on the bicycle frame, and rode in a general direction under the guidance of Sergey.

The job of delivering the letter was not difficult. All one had to do was find a barricade where soldiers were stationed, ask where the company they wanted to find was, which company it was, and then see if there were any packages or letters from them.

After running to several barricades near crossroads, Wei Ran had delivered most of the letters in his hand.

Among these letters, a considerable number of recipients had already died in battle, and their letters were handed over to their comrades for collection. As for the remaining ones that were not delivered, their recipients had already been sent to field hospitals.

Turning the bike around, Wei Ran pedaled hard and rode towards the field hospital.

"Hi! Victor!" Halfway through the journey, a voice called him in Russian.

"Joseph?"

Wei Ran recognized the man before he stepped on the brakes, "Are you going back to the hospital?"

"That's right"

Joseph said, already riding on the back rack of the bicycle, "How about giving me a ride?"

“I just happened to be going to the hospital.”

Wei Ran said as he stepped on the pedals again, carrying Joseph towards the hospital while asking, "How is the situation over there?"

"There are so many injured and not enough doctors."

Joseph said worriedly, "And many people have not received adequate training."

“Most of the volunteers who come here are not professional soldiers”

Wei Ran paused here, "Joseph, have you participated in the World War?"

“Participated”

Joseph said with lingering fear, "I almost died in the German poison gas. I hope we won't be covered by the poisonous fog here again."

"probably not"

Wei Ran answered ambiguously that poison gas bombs would indeed not be used, but this slight "restraint" did not make the war less cruel.

"Victor, are you a postman?" Joseph asked, changing the subject. "I just saw you distributing letters and parcels to everyone."

"That's right"

Wei Ran nodded. "I was just transferred here, about an hour earlier than you."

"Are you going to the hospital to deliver a letter?" Joseph continued.

"That's right"

Wei Ran nodded again, "Many people have been sent to the hospital. I will deliver the letter."

"Where is your mailbox?" Joseph asked. "Can I send a letter through you?"

"certainly"

Wei Ran nodded as a matter of course, raised his hand and pointed in a direction, saying, "Go along that intersection, there is a half-collapsed two-story building. There is a field post office written in Russian on its outer wall, you can find it easily."

After a brief chat, he rode his bike to the door of the field hospital.

"I'll go deliver the letter first."

Wei Ran took out a stack of letter paper and an envelope from the mail bag and handed them to the other party, "If you want to send a letter, you can write it now and give it to me later."

"Thank you"

Upon hearing this, Joseph immediately took the letter paper and envelope and walked quickly to a table next to the door.

Seeing this, Wei Ran took out the letters that had not been sent yet and the only two remaining packages, shouted the names on the envelopes, and delivered them to the wounded one by one.

After a tour of the field hospital, Wei Ran still had a few letters left in his hands. The recipients of these letters all died.

After much effort, he stuffed the letters into the arms of the corresponding corpses one by one. Wei Ran let out a long sigh, raised his camera and took a few photos to prove that they had signed for the letters, then collected the letters and stuffed them into his bag.

Leaving the room where the bodies were stored and returning to the church which served as a treatment room, Wei Ran easily found Joseph who was performing surgery on the wounded.

The two just looked at each other, and Wei Ran nodded. He raised his camera to take a work photo of the other person, and then simply turned around and left the church that served as a hospital.

He rode his bike back to the shabby house assigned to him and Yu Yanlin. At this time, neither Sergey, Yu Yanlin nor the American photographer Aaron had returned. However, a basket of oranges appeared on the table at some point.

Picking one up at random, Wei Ran sat on the sofa by the fireplace, peeled it open and put a few petals into his mouth. Then he took off Viola's horsehide backpack from his shoulder, opened it and examined it carefully.

In the waterproof pocket inside the flap of the backpack, he found a photo of Viola and Bruno and his wife, as well as a letter.

In this intact photo protected by a wooden frame and glass, the couple each holds a cat and took the photo with the snow-capped mountains in the distance as the background.

Before he could take a closer look, American photographer Aaron once again came in through the damaged area.

"Aaron, can't you just go through the front door?" Wei Ran asked with a helpless smile as he put away the photo frame.

“I just came back from here.”

Aaron came in and said, "Victor, I got an update."

"What's the latest news?" Wei Ran asked. "The newly formed 12th International Brigade is coming soon."

Aaron said excitedly, "I just heard from a friend of Sergey's. He's responsible for driving a truck to transport supplies. He saw them outside the city."

"Are you going to the 12th Brigade?" Wei Ran asked as he re-tied his backpack.

“I do plan to go check it out.”

Aaron made an invitation at this time, "Victor, can you be my translator? I only know English and French, but I heard that the commander of the 12th Brigade is a Soviet, and..."

“I’m a postman”

Wei Ran didn't even give the other party a chance to finish his words before making his attitude clear, "Delivering letters is my job."

"All right"

Aaron ended the topic very decisively, and took out a few letters from his bag and handed them over. "These were not sent out. They were all killed in the battle."

After a slight hesitation, Wei Ran finally reached out, took the letters and stuffed them back into his bag.

“Where in America are you from?”

Wei Ran took out a cigarette box, gave the other person one and asked.

"Washington"

Aaron lit up his cigarette and said, "Have you ever been to Washington?"

“Never been there,” Wei Ran shook his head.

"After the war, if you have the opportunity to go to the United States, you can visit my house." Aaron extended the invitation.

"Okay, I'll go if I have the chance." Wei Ran nodded happily.

Before Aaron could say anything else, Sergey and Yu Yanlin came in one after another. They all had several letters that had not been delivered in their hands. Especially Yu Yanlin, he had a package that had not been delivered in his hand.

"This too"

"Yes, he was killed in action."

Yu Yanlin said, "He was killed in action last night. It is said that he was a Belgian from Brussels."

"Open it and take a look."

Wei Ran said that they might have a battle at any time, and the package might be damaged at any time. It is even more impossible for them to carry the package at all times or waste precious transportation capacity to send it back.

Open it and take a look, this is the most realistic way to deal with it.

Hearing this, Yu Yanlin, Sergey and Aaron looked at each other, then tore open the package covered with brown paper.

There aren't many things in here, just four rectangular aluminum lunch boxes.

"Open it and take a look."

Wei Ran said as he picked up one of them at random, untied the hemp rope tied to it, and then opened the lid.

The box contains tightly packed blocks of almond chocolate.

Looking at the other three people, the lunch box in Sergey's hand was filled with cheese, the lunch box in Aaron's hand was filled with butter, and the lunch box in Yu Yanlin's hand was filled with a piece of Ardennes ham that was stuffed tightly.

"We shouldn't keep these things to ourselves," Yu Yanlin said. "We should share them with everyone."

“You’re right”

Aaron had already closed the lid of the lunch box before he finished speaking.

"But how do we share? With whom?" said Sergey, closing the lid of his lunch box.

"Send them to the hospital, what do you think?" Yu Yanlin asked, "Those wounded may need these things more than we do."

"That's a good suggestion," Aaron agreed.

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a knock on the half-open door of the post office, and then Joseph, a doctor from the Soviet Union, pushed open the door.

"Victor, I hope I'm not disturbing you," said Joseph.

"Of course not. Please come in."

Wei Ran immediately greeted everyone warmly and then introduced everyone to each other.

“I’m here to mail a letter.”

Joseph said, pulling out an envelope and placing it on the table.

“You came at the right time”

Wei Ran pointed to the four lunch boxes on the table and said, "This is a package received by a soldier who died in battle. We opened it on his behalf. There is some food inside. You can take it to the hospital and distribute it to the wounded later."

Hearing this, Joseph, who had just taken the canned beef that Wei Ran had given him, stopped moving and said, "I wanted to return this can and share it with you."

"Let's send it to the wounded as well," Yu Yanlin said.

"Alright"

Joseph was straightforward. He put the cans he had just taken out back into his bag, and then put the four lunch boxes in.

But then he pulled out a bottle of vodka from his bag and said, "At least let us share this. The wounded don't need it."

“We really should have a drink”

Aaron was the first to say, "No one would refuse a drink at this time."

In comparison, Sergey and Yu Yanlin were more straightforward. They had picked up several upside-down enamel cups in the middle of the table and arranged them in a row.

Joseph was as generous as the Slavs. After unscrewing the bottle of vodka, he divided it into four equal parts. Then he sucked the bottle and threw it out of the broken wall. He picked up an enamel cup and said, "We have to have a toast."

"Fight for your freedom and our freedom!" Wei Ran and Yu Yanlin, even Aaron and Sergey said in unison.

"Then fight for your freedom and ours! Cheers!" said Joseph, and everyone clinked their glasses together.

Almost as the first sip of the spicy wine entered his mouth, another person came in from the half-open door.

“Is there anyone here who can speak English and French and Italian?” the soldier asked. “Some Russian would be a plus.”

As soon as he finished speaking, everyone looked at Wei Ran.

"What's wrong?" Wei Ran asked.

"We need to send a few translators to help the 12th Brigade," the soldier said. "You have some?"

"Have!"

The three people except Wei Ran spoke in unison and raised their fingers to point at Wei Ran.

"Okay, I can. I know all those languages ​​you just mentioned." Wei Ran said, tilting his head back and drinking the vodka in the enamel jar in one gulp.

"Please come with me"

“We’re going there now,” the soldier said.

"Can I tag along?"

Aaron asked, "I'm a photographer I mean, I'm a journalist and I speak English and French."

"Come on!" The soldier agreed to his request without thinking.