War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1764 Quiet Snowy Night

"Shh!"

Wei Ran made a gesture to Clemont, turned off the oil lamp, and flashed to the door of the room with the submachine gun he had just picked up.

He leaned out to take a look and thought to himself that something was not good. At this moment, there were six or seven National Army soldiers walking towards them outside. The two at the end were even pulling two female soldiers wearing the uniforms of the International Brigade.

Glancing at Clemont behind him, Wei Ran carefully bent down to pick up half a brick, then raised his gun again and aimed at the seven people who were walking in a slightly scattered manner.

"Ta-ta-ta! Ta-ta-ta!"

Just as these people were getting closer and closer to the campfire and the leader realized something was wrong and was about to raise his fist to warn, Wei Ran decisively pulled the trigger.

Amid the piercing gunshots that tore through the night, the man who gave the warning and a soldier beside him were shot one after another.

Wei Ran did not shrink back. Instead, he pulled the trigger again and fired a series of shots before the other party fell down. Finally, he killed one person and then threw the brick in his hand away.

Anything thrown over from the opposite side in this dark battlefield will first be treated as a grenade by the people on the battlefield.

Because of this, the remaining four men almost lay down subconsciously, but the two captured female soldiers not only did not run away, but instead worked together to snatch the weapon of one of the enemies.

"Ta-ta-ta! Ta-ta-ta!"

Wei Ran walked out of the room and pulled the trigger at the other two lying people.

"Get out of the way! Get out of the way! Get out of the way!"

Wei Ran switched between German, French and English and shouted the same command one after another. The two women, one on the enemy and the other on the enemy's weapon, immediately stood up.

"Da da da!"

Another series of bursts of fire killed the last enemy. Wei Ran immediately ran over, and the two female soldiers with their hands tied behind their backs immediately struggled to stand up.

"Thank you"

One of the female soldiers said it in French, while the other said the same thank you in Spanish.

"What do you call it?"

While Wei Ran was asking, he had already untied the belt that bound the French woman's hands behind her back.

Both young girls were wearing white nurse aprons, but the aprons were stained with blood and dirt.

"Armani"

The young girl answered in French, then turned and began to help her companion unbuckle the belt behind her back. "Her name is Hanika, and we are both nurses in the medical team."

"Nurses, you need to pick up your guns now," said Wei Ran, who had already squatted down, holding the gun and observing the surroundings.

“We are ready to fight at any time”

As Amani spoke, he had already picked up a submachine gun. A little later, Hanika also picked up a submachine gun.

"Da da da!"

Just at this moment, a string of bullets hit around the three of them. Wei Ran reacted quickly and pulled the two men down.

He ventured to look sideways, and saw another burst of bullets coming towards him. Wei Ran quickly lay down and moved to the side of one of the corpses. Wei Ran pulled a grenade from the corpse.

However, just by listening to the sound of the enemy's firing, we knew that he was not using a submachine gun but a machine gun. The firepower sustainability was naturally longer, and the distance between them was beyond the throwing range of grenades.

This is undoubtedly a huge and deadly trouble. With the sound of gunfire, the number of enemies here will only increase as time goes by.

No more enemies are even needed.

Wei Ran looked at the buildings near the gunshots. As long as someone from the opposite side climbed up to the second floor, the three of them would probably die here.

"Ta-ta-ta-ta!"

Just when Wei Ran was about to ask Armani and the other two to cover him and then take the risk to rush forward, the sound of submachine gun fire suddenly came from the same direction, and the sound of machine gun fire stopped.

"Don't shoot!"

Immediately afterwards, a French voice shouted from that direction, "I've dealt with the machine gunner! I'm running over right away!"

This sound.

Wei Ran was stunned for a moment, then shouted, "Yanlin?! Is that you? Yu Yanlin?!"

"Brother Wei?!"

The man who ran over with a submachine gun also recognized Wei Ran's voice. Sure enough, it was Yu Yanlin!

"Why are you here?!" Both of them asked the same question in the same language.

"Now is not the time! Follow me!" Wei Ran said as he quickly ran towards Yu Yanlin.

"Then why is there a postman's car?"

"Clermont"

Wei Ran didn't wait for Yu Yanlin to finish and quickened his pace to explain, "He's inside. He was captured and injured."

"Clemont?"

Yu Yanlin was stunned for a moment, then said, "We need to leave here quickly. There are many magic suckers stationed in the distance."

"Hurry up and collect the ammunition. Remember to bring the food with you."

As Wei Ran spoke, he had already entered the room. In just a short while, Clemont not only pulled out the forks that were stuck in his legs, but also crawled to the side of the two corpses and collected the weapons on their bodies.

“A parcel, Victor, a parcel.” Clemont said anxiously, “My parcel.”

"Don't worry, don't worry."

As Wei Ran spoke, he picked up the rope that had tied him up and tied it around each of his legs.

"Why are you here?" asked Clemont, holding a pistol in each hand.

"Now is not the time to satisfy your curiosity," Wei Ran said as he carried him out of the room.

At the same time, Yu Yanlin collected the scattered and unburned letters around the enemy's corpses and pushed the postman's bicycle over.

"Get out of here first"

Wei Ran took the submachine gun and several spare magazines handed to him by Amani and said, "You two hold the cart and him."

"it is good"

As Amani spoke, she and her companion Hanika were already holding the handlebars, one holding Clemont who was riding on the back seat.

"Where are we going?" Amani asked.

"Go forward and turn right at the intersection." Yu Yanlin immediately pointed out the direction.

"Why are you here?"

Wei Ran walked behind the car holding a submachine gun, and asked while being vigilant about the dilapidated buildings on both sides.

"I'm a postman here," Yu Yanlin said, "and you?"

"Same"

Wei Ran paused and added, "But I was just assigned..."

Before he could finish his words, he pulled the trigger in the direction he had been staring at and pushed back the enemy that appeared.

"hurry up!"

Yu Yanlin changed to French and urged, "Get on it, ride it!"

Before he finished speaking, he had already opened fire skillfully, alternating between him and Wei Ran in suppressing the enemy. At the same time, Armani also got on a bicycle, and on the streets full of building debris, he let his companion Hanika help push the bike from behind, and they sped up their pace under the dim starlight.

After turning a corner at the intersection, Wei Ran discovered that the road was blocked by a collapsed building. Although people could pass, bicycles were out of the question.

"I'll carry Clemont on my back and pick up the mailbag."

As Yu Yanlin spoke, he handed the submachine gun in his hand to Wei Ran, and then skillfully carried Clemont on his shoulder.

Amani was stunned for a moment, then quickly took the mail bag off the bicycle frame, and caught up with Yu Yanlin with her companion Hanika.

After raising the bicycle's kickstand, Wei Ran stepped hard on the pedal to make the rear wheel turn. Then he pulled out the ring of a grenade and stuck it in the position where the front wheel touched the ground. Then he caught up with Yu Yanlin and others with a gun and went into an abandoned building on the side of the road.

They groped their way through the building in the dark, passing through rooms whose walls were pierced by various weapons. Behind them, they heard the sound of grenade explosions and a series of screams.

"stop"

Wei Ran suddenly whispered in French, "Go upstairs, I'll go ahead."

Hearing this, the two girls in front and Yu Yanlin who was carrying Clement on his back stopped. After Wei Ran walked in front of them, they followed him up a dilapidated staircase and carefully came to the second floor.

They didn't know why Wei Ran chose to go upstairs at this time, but they knew that now was not the time to ask.

At the stairs on the second floor, Wei Ran looked around the place in the starlight outside the window, then continued up and brought them to the third floor.

The condition of the third floor of the building is even worse. The ceiling above has collapsed and only bare walls are left around it.

Fortunately, although there were several bodies of civilians lying here, there were no living people.

While asking Yu Yanlin to put Clemont in the corner, Wei Ran came to the window and looked out.

At this moment, he could still see the pursuers who were injured by grenades and those who were climbing over the wreckage of buildings on the street.

Watching the pursuers go away, Wei Ran breathed a sigh of relief, turned around and walked to the stairs, quietly returned to the stairs connecting the first and second floors, and placed a grenade in the dark.

When he returned to the third floor, Amani and Hanika were already treating Clemont's leg wound.

"What's the situation?" Wei Ran asked in a low voice.

"Although the wound is not deep, it seems to have damaged a blood vessel. We need to get him out as soon as possible."

It was Hanika who answered the question, speaking Spanish, "After we were captured, there were only two rolls of gauze left on him. He needs to be taken to the hospital as soon as possible."

"Which medical station are you from?" Clemont asked abruptly in French, enduring the pain from his wound.

“The medical station next to the train station”

Armani replied, "Franco's troops occupied the area, and we were captured when we were evacuating it."

Hearing this, Clemont was stunned for a moment, and then after a full half minute of silence, he asked cautiously, "Do you...do you have a...a French girl named Estelle? She is..."

"She is our head nurse," Amani said immediately, "Do you know our head nurse? Are you French too?"

"Is she okay?" Clemont asked almost subconsciously.

However, after asking this question, Amani lowered his head and continued to bandage Clemont's wound. "Answer me quickly, she."

"she died"

Hanika said with difficulty in her not-so-fluent French, "Head Nurse Estelle is dead. She was killed in a plane bombing while trying to protect the wounded."

"You and the head nurse?" Amani, who had already shed tears, asked cautiously.

"She's my fiancée"

Clemont banged his head against the broken wall behind him and said with tears streaming down his face, "My fiancée, Estelle is my fiancée. I..."

"Keep Quiet"

Wei Ran reminded softly, and he came to the window again, looking at the street outside with Yu Yanlin who was guarding here.

"Why are you here?" Wei Ran asked in a low voice in his native language.

"I'm in charge of the bullring not far from here"

Yu Yanlin replied in a low voice, "That place was also captured. I got separated from everyone during the retreat, and then I heard the gunshots here."

A bullring? A train station?

Wei Ran was stunned for a moment, and looked up to feel the coldness in the night sky that seemed to have just fallen on his face. It seemed to be snowflakes.

He already knew where this place was and even the exact time.

This is the Battle of Teruel, the bloodiest battle of the Spanish Civil War, and it is also, most likely, the last day of 1937.

In other words, Yu Yanlin actually lasted more than a year in the Spanish Civil War! He was already a veteran, an experienced veteran!

This is undoubtedly good news, but it is also an awkward timing. Clement's injury came at a very inappropriate time.

According to historical records, there will be a four-day blizzard.

If they couldn't escape tonight, they would be trapped here and might even freeze to death.

But if they had not fled, eight days later, the Republicans would have briefly recaptured Teruel and achieved a temporary victory.

But at this time, Clermont would bleed to death in 8 hours, not to mention 8 days, in the absence of medical care and medicine.

"We need to leave here as soon as possible," whispered Amani after finishing the bandage.

“You guys go,” Clemont whispered, “Take the mailbag with you and let me stay here.”

'We can't do it'

Wei Ran said as he took out the still hot lunch box from the mailbag, "I believe that if Louis or I were injured, you would not abandon us."

“But we can’t eat here either.”

"Don't worry"

Wei Ran opened the lunch box and took a look. He used the spoon stuck inside to scoop some rice-like food from the lid and handed it to Amani, "Have you eaten? Eat something first."

"Sir, his condition"

"I know"

Wei Ran didn't wait for Hanika to finish and explained, "We have to wait a while. They are searching for us now. It's too easy to be discovered if we go out now. We have to wait for at least half an hour before we can be safe. Hanika, Amani, can he hold on for another half an hour?"

"It's not a big deal," Amani replied, "but we..."

"How far is this place from the next medical station? A safe medical station." Wei Ran asked Yu Yanlin.

"It will take at least half an hour to walk," Yu Yanlin replied.

"Then there's still time. You should eat something too."

Wei Ran said as he opened the second and third lunch boxes and distributed them one by one. "We'll set off once we're full. Let's go faster."

Hearing this, everyone looked at each other and could only pick up the lunch boxes and use the spoons inside to fill their mouths with the food as quickly as possible.

This meal was necessary, not only because Wei Ran was so hungry that he was dizzy, not only because there were many pursuers outside, but also because the weather was too cold and they needed to warm up their bodies first.

In the dark, everyone emptied their lunch boxes. Wei Ran searched the third floor and made a simple stretcher using two bamboo poles that seemed to be used for drying clothes.

Then he rummaged through the canvas mail bag again and saw that there were only a few letters left in it, so he took them out and stuffed them all into the horsehair bag he was carrying.

"Amani, Hanika, you will be responsible for carrying Clemont from now on."

Wei Ran whispered, "Louis and I will walk in front and behind the team to protect you."

"No problem," the two girls, who looked no more than 20 years old, nodded firmly.

"I'm leaving."

"You go behind"

Wei Ran said without question, "Try to stay quiet and don't shoot."

"Okay," Yu Yanlin agreed, and at the same time tightened the strap of his backpack.

After going downstairs again and clearing the grenades that had been placed on the first floor as a warning, Wei Ran and the people behind him continued to move carefully among the ruins of the building.

In such a short while, the snowflakes floating down from the night sky overhead had become larger and larger, and the wind had become stronger and stronger, so that from time to time broken bricks would be blown down from the roof, hitting everywhere and making huge and abrupt noises.

This was actually good news, as the howling cold wind and falling bricks masked the occasional noise they made as they moved forward in the dark. The only thing they had to do was be careful about being hit by falling heavy objects.

After such a dangerous journey, they stopped in the ruins of a building next to a slightly spacious intersection.

“We have to keep moving forward”

Yu Yanlin came up from behind and whispered, "We have to pass two intersections in a row."

"I'll go first"

Wei Ran whispered, "If there is a firefight, don't move. I will lead the enemy away."

After a brief silence, Yu Yanlin nodded and said, "Okay."

Without wasting any time, Wei Ran stepped out of the shadow of the building. He even walked through the garbage-filled street in a rather swaggering manner, and finally walked into the shadow of the ruins of a mobile building across the road.

A moment later, Amani and Hanika also ran over carrying a stretcher, escorted by Yu Yanlin.

After successfully crossing the first intersection, everyone did not dare to rest. Under the leadership of Wei Ran, they continued to move carefully through the ruins in the dark.

God knows how fierce this battle was. Along the way, Wei Ran didn't even see an intact room or even a complete door or window.

On the contrary, frozen corpses could be seen almost everywhere. He even saw an old man who was hanged on a door frame, not sure whether he was hanged by himself or someone else.

When the draft blew through the hall, the old corpse would sway with it, unconsciously and irregularly knocking on the broken door which was also swaying back and forth in the wind.

Carefully passing through this special corpse, Wei Ran continued to move forward with the people behind him.

However, before all of them left the room, an inconspicuous spark fell from the broken window, carried by the wind, and finally fell into the room.

Signaling to stop behind him, Wei Ran carefully walked to the spark that was still glowing red, bent down and picked it up.

This is the butt of a cigar. The unlit end is still damp and has obvious teeth marks on it.

Obviously, there was someone above their heads, and it could only be Franco's men, otherwise they would not have to walk so carefully.

Throwing away the cigarette butt and looking around, Wei Ran walked to the stairs not far away, pulled out the pull ring of a grenade, and stuck it on the steps with an inconspicuous wooden board.

Waving his hand to signal them to move on, Wei Ran led them to the next room and then another room.

However, before they could leave the dilapidated building, they had to stop again.

At this time, there was a bonfire in the next room, and they could even hear loud snoring coming from inside.

Carefully lifting a gap in the tattered quilt hanging on the door frame leading to the next room, Wei Ran could clearly see that in the next room, there was a fireplace with a bonfire burning diagonally.

Although the windows facing the street had been sealed with sandbags and wooden boards, a firing hole was left, behind which was a Maxim machine gun.

At this moment, there were three people sleeping on the floor beside the fireplace. In addition, there was another person sitting on a not-so-big stool, warming himself by the fire while reading a book seriously.

There was even a submachine gun at his feet.

Shifting his gaze to the other end of the room, where most of the gap was blocked by bed boards and wooden poles, Wei Ran quietly put down his submachine gun, and then looked at Yu Yanlin and others who were waiting in the room across from him.

Wei Ran dodged to the side of the door frame, squatted down carefully, grabbed the corner of the torn quilt that served as a door curtain, and waited patiently.

"call!"

When another gust of wind blew over, Wei Ran also lifted the torn quilt that was pressed down by the bricks, and then dodged to hide by the wall.

Soon, the person who was reading in the room closed the book while cursing to himself, stood up and walked over.

Grabbing the corner of the quilt that was blown by the wind, the squatting soldier had no time to touch the brick before a hand rushed in from the gap between the quilt and the door frame.

"laugh"

Amid the cutting sound covered by the cold wind, the bayonet in Wei Ran's hand pierced directly through the clavicle of the night duty soldier and went all the way into the chest cavity, swinging vigorously from side to side.

At the same time, Wei Ran covered the soldier's mouth with his other hand through the quilt.

In just a few seconds, Wei Ran released his bayonet, grabbed the other person's collar, stood up, pulled him out and put him against the wall, then pulled out his bayonet and wiped it on the other person's clothes, then he swaggered open the curtain and got in, and used bricks to press down the torn quilt that served as a curtain.

He stood up again and walked towards the fireplace. He even took the time to glance at the book "My Struggle" on the small stool and the backpack on the table next to it, and then walked to the three soldiers sleeping on the floor.

"puff!"

After simply stabbing the bayonet into the first man's chest, Wei Ran stood up and kicked the second man in the temple with his kick.

"Crack!"

With a dull sound similar to a watermelon being kicked and split, the second soldier's temple suddenly sank, and his eyes even bulged out a little from his closed eyelids.

The third enemy was obviously a veteran. He had woken up to the noise so close to him and reacted very quickly by reaching under the backpack that served as a pillow.

However, before he could reach the weapon hidden underneath, a sharp and sturdy engineer shovel had already poked his neck.

"puff"

The splashing dark red blood dyed the shovel red, and also drowned out the scream that had not yet come out of his throat.

This quiet snowy night was finally not disturbed by any unnecessary noise.

(End of this chapter)