War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1756 Request to Join

In the core area of ​​the battlefield in Madrid University City, Wei Ran and his two children, one big and one small, were struggling to advance among the ruins.

At this time, the sky had become much darker and the artillery fire from both sides had decreased a lot, but the sound of gunfire still rang out from everywhere from time to time.

On the second floor of a dilapidated building, the slightly hoarse cry of a baby seemed so inconspicuous and yet so natural amid the sound of gunfire, as if it was supposed to exist.

"There appears to be a child in that room"

In the corridor, a National Army soldier with a cigarette in his mouth raised his chin towards the room where the sound of a crying baby came from.

“Let them go”

Another middle-aged soldier holding a gun said, "Our enemies are not children."

“Where there are children, there must be women”

The soldier holding the cigarette in his mouth grabbed the belt buckle and pulled it up lustfully, "We can take a break now."

"We can go to another place to rest," the middle-aged soldier said with a frown.

"You may not meet a woman if you change places"

The third soldier had already thrown his gun over his shoulder while speaking. "We might be dead soon, old man. You are useless and don't plan to enjoy it. We are still young."

As he spoke, the soldier pushed the middle-aged soldier's shoulder and roughly pushed him aside.

"Papa Rios"

The fourth soldier lit a cigarette and said, "If you are not interested, why don't you help us keep watch outside?"

After saying this, the other two soldiers also laughed, but at the same time they rushed to the room where the crying baby came from.

Behind them, the middle-aged soldier known as "Papa Rios" frowned and subconsciously clenched the bayonet-equipped rifle in his hand.

But in the end, he sighed helplessly, "At least let me take the child out."

"Bang!"

Before he could finish his words, the door of the room was slammed shut by the soldier walking at the end. Then he heard even more arrogant and wanton laughter and ridicule coming from the door.

Looking down at a dirty rag doll discarded at the door of the room, Father Rios bent down, picked it up, patted it clean, and then pinned it on his outer belt.

Picking up the rifle again, Rios pulled the bolt to load a bullet into the chamber. Then he took a deep breath and pointed it at the door.

However, before the tip of the bayonet could pry open the half-open wooden door, a muffled groan and the sound of something breaking came from inside the door.

Just as he was hesitating whether to go in or leave and whether to shoot, the door that had just been closed by his companions was slowly pushed open from the inside.

Then he saw that the companion who had just pushed him away was holding a submachine gun and walking backwards step by step.

Subconsciously turning his head, the first person Father Rios saw was a black-haired young man with a gentle smile on his face.

He didn't even have a decent weapon in his hand, but at his feet were two corpses that looked extremely familiar to him.

Just at this moment, his companion who was retreating with his hands raised also used his back to block his bayonet, and inevitably shuddered with fear.

Fortunately, he did not pull the trigger. Rios finally opened the door and saw clearly that at the door leading to another room, there were two people holding cameras or submachine guns aiming at him and his companions in front of him.

One of them had blond hair and the other had black hair. One of them was carrying a bag with a baby crying hoarsely, while the other was carrying an injured little boy on his back.

"Dad, grenades, prepare the grenades quickly."

The soldier in front holding a submachine gun whispered in Spanish, "Hurry!"

"puff!"

The Nationalist soldier had not yet finished his words when Father Rios thrust his gun forward and stabbed him through the heart with his bayonet.

"I am fighting because I want Spain to be better and my children to live in a strong Spain."

Father Rios pulled out the bloody bayonet from the opponent's body and said to himself, "Fuck the National Army, fuck the Republican Army, whoever hurts the child is my enemy."

After saying that, the old soldier skillfully turned the butt of his gun and smashed it hard on the young soldier's temple, ending his life completely.

After doing all this, he threw the rifle in his hand casually, then turned around calmly, knelt on the ground with his back to Wei Ran and others in the room, crossed his hands behind his head, and then said in stumbling French, "Please shoot."

“I wanted to take a prisoner.”

Wei Ran spoke in Spanish while reaching out to help up Rios, who looked stunned.

"You're not going to kill me?" Father Rios couldn't help but ask.

"We come to Spain to fight to make Spain a better place," Wei Ran said seriously, "our enemy is Faxus."

“Don’t I count?” Rios asked.

"It doesn't count from the beginning," Wei Ran said, pointing to the body not far away, "What do you call it?"

"Rios"

The old soldier glanced at the red scarf on Wei Ran’s neck, then rubbed his beard hard and said, “I didn’t say I wanted to join you.”

"I don't intend to force you to join us."

Wei Ran picked up the submachine gun of the soldier killed by the other party and handed it to the other party to express his sincerity, "How about at least doing us a favor for the sake of the child?"

"What trouble are you in?" Rios asked as he took the submachine gun and threw it over his shoulder.

'He kept crying'

Wei Ran said with a little helplessness, this was also the reason why they stopped here to think about countermeasures.

On the way after meeting up with Aaron, the child kept crying like a tireless air raid siren, and unsurprisingly, this attracted the attention of many enemies.

Unfortunately, although each of them has a girlfriend, they don't have children, so naturally they have no idea how to appease this energetic little guy.

They wanted to find a prisoner and also wanted to see if they could find a loophole in the enemy's attack so that the three of them could leave the battlefield with the air defense alarm.

"Can you show him to me?"

As Rios said this, he had already taken off the submachine gun that he had just thrown over his shoulder and handed it to Wei Ran.

"Show him the air raid alarm, maybe he can help us." Wei Ran said immediately.

Hearing this, Aaron, who had been holding the camera, immediately took off his backpack, but as he handed it over, he hesitated. Obviously, he did not trust this veteran who was an enemy just now.

After a slight hesitation, Aaron pulled out his 1911 pistol, pulled the slide and loaded the bullet, then handed the backpack containing the baby to Rios.

Rios seemed not to notice Aaron and Yu Yanlin's vigilance towards him. He took the backpack and walked into the room. After sitting down in the corner, he took the baby out of the bag and examined it carefully.

"No pee or poop. How long has she not eaten?" Rios asked as he wrapped the baby back in the curtain cloth.

This question stumped Wei Ran and the other two, as they had no idea when the little guy last ate.

Or maybe, they had actually thought about this problem, but this was a battlefield where human brains fought against dog brains. It was not a baby supermarket or a cattle farm. Even if they guessed that she might be hungry, they had no way to do anything.

"noon"

Just at this moment, the little boy lying on Yu Yanlin's back said weakly in Spanish, "At noon, a nurse gave her some milk." "I don't have any milk," said Father Rios helplessly.

"Don't look at me, I don't have it either." Wei Ran spread his hands and said.

"I know" Rios shook his head unhappily, he was not a fool.

"What are you talking about?" Aaron asked.

'She's hungry'

Wei Ran translated the conversation into French, and the two of them said something stupid in unison, "I don't have milk either."

"What a coincidence," Wei Ran muttered with a twitching mouth.

"I know a place where I might be able to find something for this kid to eat, and it's pretty close to here."

Rios said, handing the backpack to Aaron, "There must be something there that can fill her stomach, but it will take some risk."

"Where? What risk?" Wei Ran asked immediately.

“In that direction”

Rios said, "There is a three-story building there. In a room on the second floor, several nationalist soldiers were preparing to rest. We just happened to see them heating milk when we passed by."

Seeing that Wei Ran didn't say anything, Leo paused and said, "If you are willing to believe me, I can get enough milk for the child to fill his stomach."

"Hold on"

Wei Ran switched to French and repeated Rios' proposal, then asked, "What do you think?"

"I think it's ok"

Aaron was the first to speak, "We don't have any other options now, and he was ready to be killed by us just now."

"What about you?" Wei Ran looked at Yu Yanlin.

“Let’s give it a try”

Yu Yanlin said, "We don't know if the little girl will calm down after drinking milk, but at least she won't be hungry."

"Alright"

Wei Ran nodded and said in Spanish, "Uncle Rios, we are willing to trust you, but we won't wait here for too long."

"I'll be back soon"

Uncle Rios said this as he took the submachine gun handed to him by Wei Ran. He then bent down to search some valuables from his companion's body, then turned around and ran in the direction he came from.

"Do you think he is reliable?" Yu Yanlin asked Wei Ran in a low voice.

"When it's unreliable to handle"

Wei Ran said in Chinese, "You two take the children upstairs, and I'll go downstairs. I'll use two grenades as a signal. After you go upstairs, I'll place grenades in the stairwell. You must not come down then."

Hearing this, Yu Yanlin nodded after a slight hesitation, switched to French to greet Aaron, and ran to the third floor with the two children, one big and one small.

Wei Ran took out a grenade he had picked up on the way from his pocket, dragged a corpse over and laid it across the stairs, then used one of the corpse's arms to hold down the grenade with the pull ring removed.

After arranging all this, he picked up a submachine gun next to a corpse, walked to a corner farther away and hid there.

As he waited, time passed by, and the hoarse cry of the baby above his head became clearer as the sounds of gunfire around him became increasingly sparse.

But now they could do nothing, especially Aaron and Yu Yanlin. They couldn't even coax the poor little girl, lest her intermittent crying attract the attention of potential enemies around.

After waiting like this for about half an hour, when the sky was gradually darkening and the setting sun could only leave a palm-wide streak of sunset in the stairwell, a figure limped up to the dilapidated second floor.

"I am back"

Rios spoke weakly as he slowly sat down against the wall of the stairwell. The submachine gun he had been holding in his hand slipped down as he let go of it.

"Are you hurt?" Wei Ran ran over and asked.

“They don’t want to share a sip of milk”

Rios covered his stomach and smiled as warmly as the sunset glowing on his face. "I talked to them. About the truth."

As he said this, he reached out from his arms and took out an aluminum kettle. "It's still hot."

Wei Ran hurriedly pressed the shutter of the camera hanging around his neck, took the kettle and put it aside without even looking at the focusing screen, then looked at the place where the other person's hand was covering.

There was a bayonet there, a Mauser bayonet with only the handle sticking out.

"It took you a long time to get here, right?" Wei Ran asked in a hoarse voice.

"Wait till I die."

Rios gasped and said, "Remember to help me. Pull it out. It hurts."

"Okay, I'll help you pull it out." Wei Ran nodded seriously.

"you."

Rios relaxed his strength and said, "Can you really let the Spanish people live a good life?"

“Yes,” Wei Ran nodded vigorously, “As long as you drive away Faxusi, you will definitely live a good life!”

"let me."

Rios tried to open his eyes that were about to close. "Let me join you. Jan. Jandi, Jandi Rios, my name is Jandi Rios, I'm begging to join you for Spain."

"I accept your request. I agree to your joining us."

Wei Ran spoke hurriedly as he untied the red scarf around his neck and tied it around Rios' neck.

Rios raised his bloody hand with difficulty and touched the red scarf around his neck. On his old face, a last smile appeared again in the last rays of sunset.

"Rios?" Wei Ran called softly, "Rios?"

"He has died," Aaron's voice came from behind him, and he also put away the camera that had been hanging around his neck.

“He did sacrifice.”

As Wei Ran spoke, he took off a three-pointed star from his collar and pinned it on Rios' collar. He raised his camera and carefully took a photo of him, then took off the three-pointed star and put it in his pocket.

“Leave this one to him.”

After Aaron finished speaking, he waited for Wei Ran to turn around and threw a triangular star that he had taken from his collar to him.

Reaching out to catch the triangle star and pinning it on Rios' collar, Wei Ran grasped the bayonet on the opponent's abdomen and pulled it out. Then he wiped the blood off his sleeves and carefully pinned it on his lower back.

"Find a way to feed this milk to that little guy."

Wei Ran threw the kettle of hot milk to Aaron, then carried Rios' body and walked towards a room that looked the most complete and clean and had a bed.