War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1930 From the Basement to the Castle

After returning to the vicinity of the hotel in the van driven by Hela, Wei Ran and Ji Ma, still holding cameras in their hands, got out of the car and resumed their casual conversation.

"What are you worried about?" Jima asked.

"You know about the conflict between me and Wartachi."

Wei Ran crouched down and snapped a photo of a Sarajevo rose blooming on the road, then continued to explain, "There are quite a few wealthy people hiding here, so I need to be careful."

“You shouldn’t have come here,” Jima said, glancing around as he did so.

"Don't worry, they won't dare to lay a hand on me here," Wei Ran said confidently.

“It better be this way”

Exhausted, Jima pressed the pistol hidden in the holster under his arm through his leather jacket. He finally understood why Victor had kindly invited him this time.

"Let's go back"

As Wei Ran spoke, he stood up, took a picture of their hotel, and then walked into the hotel with Ji Ma, taking the elevator back to their respective suites.

At 2 p.m. that afternoon, shortly after Wei Ran and his group had lunch at the hospitality of the German Milos, Miguel's family arrived in Sarajevo, having traveled a long way.

This time, not only Miguel's wife Antonia and his brother-in-law Giuliano came, but also Giuliano's wife and all the children from both families.

After getting acquainted, Milos led everyone onto a bus.

"It's about 300 kilometers from here to the mill in the Kozala Mountains."

Milos explained, "We'll get there before dark."

"Uncle Milos, is that...that mill still there?" Giuliano asked somewhat nervously.

This time, they brought directly the ashes of their grandfather, a sniper also named Milos, and their grandmother Florica.

"That mill is long gone."

The German, Milos, shook his head. “However, we rebuilt that church in 1996. Your grandfather, Mr. Constantine, described the mill in detail in a letter to my father, and we rebuilt it according to his description.”

“Thank you, thank you for doing all this,” Giuliano said gratefully.

"It's nothing."

The German, Milos, gently reassured them, "We also rebuilt that church, based on the documents and pictures left by the local church."

As they chatted, the bus gradually left the city.

Throughout the journey, Wei Ran, who was sitting in the back, deliberately avoided participating in those topics, while Ji Ma and the three families became complete friends.

Before sunset, the bus arrived at a beautiful small town.

From a distance, the German Milos pointed to a retro-style building not far away and said, "That's the mill we rebuilt. Since its reconstruction, it has been providing free grain milling services to this town."

As he explained, everyone saw a beautiful red-roofed stone building.

As the bus slowly came to a stop, a group of women who looked to be around forty years old and dressed in beautiful ethnic costumes warmly surrounded them and presented everyone, including Wei Ran and Ji Ma, with a bouquet of flowers.

Surrounded by these people, Giuliano and Antonia, with their respective families and children, and carrying Milos's ashes, entered the beautiful and tidy mill.

Inside the mill, several young men were working together to push the wheeled stone mill, grinding the still-unformed flour amidst laughter and chatter.

"This is considered a tourist town."

German Miloš concluded, "Many tourists take the flour they grind themselves here as a souvenir, and of course, we can also help bake it into bread."

"very nice."

After touring the mill inside and out, Giuliano touched the urn he was holding and looked somewhat bewilderedly at his sister Antonia, who was also holding an urn of ashes, and his brother-in-law Miguel, asking for help, "Where should we bury our grandparents?"

"Why don't we ask Mr. Milos for some advice?"

Miguel turned to Milos, the German who had brought them there, and made the suggestion.

"Why not bury him in that church?"

The German, Milos, suggested, "There is a cemetery there, and Mr. Constantine's parents' graves are also there."

“Very well, then let him be buried there.” Giuliano agreed after exchanging a glance with his sister Antonia.

They had never been here before, and everything around them was unfamiliar. Moreover, it seemed inappropriate to place the ashes in this mill.

After circling the mill one last time, everyone boarded the bus again.

This time, the car only drove for about ten minutes before entering a vineyard.

In the middle of this plantation stands a church that is not very large. To one side of the church is a cemetery.

Many people are buried in that cemetery.

After the German Milos and everyone else got off the bus, he led them over there while saying, "People who died there before World War II, people who were massacred next to that church during World War II, and many Yugoslav partisans."

Besides them, when Mr. Milos Constantine returned here after the war, he also reburied his parents and Mr. Dragan here.

He came back here too?
Wei Ran subconsciously looked towards the cemetery surrounded by a wooden fence covered with grapevines, searching for the new address of his two former companions.

"After the Bosnian War, many more people were buried here."

As German Miloš opened the cemetery gate with his own hands, he continued, "Including my brother Dragan and his partner, and many children they couldn't protect."

At this point, he stopped and proudly pointed to a cross adorned with numerous rusty American soldier tags and rusty hair clips, saying, "This is the joint grave of my brother Dragan and his partner. These soldier tags are their spoils of war, 28 in total, but that's not all."

Those hair clips came from 44 children he and his partner rescued.

At this point, Milos sighed, pointed to the smaller crosses painted in various colors around him, and said, "Around here...around here are the children they couldn't save, a total of 39."

"Didn't they end the war?"

Antonia sighed and instinctively used the blanket she was wearing to cover the urn containing her grandmother Florica's ashes.

"They ended the war, but the war started again after they grew old."

As the German Milos spoke, he led them a few more steps deeper into the cemetery, finally stopping and pointing to an Orthodox cross, saying, "This is another Dragan, the Dragan who participated in World War II."

Wei Ran glanced at the rusty telescope hanging on the cross, sighed, picked up the Pentax camera he had been carrying, and took another picture of his companion.

"That is the joint tomb of Mr. Milos Constantine's parents."

The German, Milos, pointed to another Orthodox cross not far away and explained that this cross was fixed to a millstone, and was even made of the same material as the millstone.

“My father said that this unique tombstone was carved by Mr. Milos Constantine himself.”

German Milos said with a self-deprecating smile, "My father also helped out back then; he was in charge of chiseling stones in the concentration camp."

As he spoke, he pointed to the open space between Dragan's tombstone and the joint grave of Milos's parents, saying, "My father told me that Mr. Milos Constantine had long ago reserved a place for himself. He and his wife decided that they would be buried here to accompany Mr. Milos's parents and Mrs. Florica's brother."

“Then let him be buried here,” Giuliano said. “Please lend us a few shovels, we’ll dig the grave ourselves.”

"Please wait"

As the German Milos spoke, he nodded to a middle-aged woman who was with him.

Before long, two young men brought over tools for digging the grave in a wheelbarrow.

With Wei Ran, Di Ma, and Miguel watching, Giuliano and the others worked together to dig a large enough grave, while the German Milos had a European-style coffin, which had been prepared at some unknown time, carried out from the basement of a nearby church.

Witnessed by Wei Ran's repeated camera clicks, sniper Milos Constantine, who had been away from home for a long time, and his wife Florica were buried among their friends and family.

Milos Schäfer from Germany skillfully changed into his priest's attire and offered them a final Mass in Serbian. After the ceremony concluded, darkness fell completely. Wei Ran and Dima laid a bouquet of white roses at Milos's and his wife's graves, then followed the others into the beautiful country chapel.

There were no crosses or similar items on the first floor of the church.

But Wei Ran saw something familiar – a bright red Zundap sidecar motorcycle.

“My father brought it back from Bucharest after the unrest in Romania ended.”

"That's all he found," sighed the German, Milos.

"Mr. Victor helped us recover even more."

Giuliano said, "If you don't mind, you can put it here as well."

“Of course I don’t mind.”

Milos quickly replied, "You are welcome to come here anytime in the future. My father bought this place and that mill as a gift for your grandfather. Also, why don't you stay here tonight?"

"I will follow your arrangements."

"I'm fat," Giuliano said respectfully, and then gestured to his son to put the old LV trunk he had brought from the Kazan Veeran family into the sidecar of the Zundap.

"Is the church's crypt still there?"

Wei Ran asked, "I saw a record of the church's crypt in Mr. Milos Constantine's memoirs."

"Of course it's still here, please come with me."

The German, Milos, showed a momentary unease, but still led them out of the church's first-floor hall, personally lifted the wooden door on the outer wall, and led them into the church's basement.

Compared to back then, the basement is now much drier, cleaner, and brighter, and the two stone coffins remain unchanged.

However, it was in this basement that everyone saw several weapons hanging on one of the walls.

Among them was an SVD sniper rifle covered in East German raindrop camouflage strips, and two submachine guns that, upon closer examination, could be identified as "MP5SD6 models".

In addition to these, there is an EDF740 red-viewing binoculars, two Makarov PB pistols, and two Mod 3 water bottles issued to West Germany during the Cold War.

Without exception, all the weapons and equipment hanging on the wall bore numerous signs of use and dents, and some even had irreparable damage.

"These were all left behind by my brother Dragan and his partner."

After a moment of silence, the German, Milos, explained, "They dug these out after the war ended, from among the children they had rescued."

"I'm sorry, perhaps I shouldn't have suggested coming down and taking a look."

Wei Ran said apologetically, while subtly rubbing the tattoo on his tiger's mouth again.

He didn't know which of his words had touched a nerve with that living father again; it had just burned him once more.

"nothing"

Milos waved his hand, "He actually wanted to come here to see if he could find Mr. Milos Constantine, whom our father has been waiting for."

But before he could get there, he was killed in Sarajevo.

"Were there mercenaries involved in that war?" Dima, who had been silent until now, suddenly asked after listening to the translation.

"Yes, of course."

Wei Ran explained, "What has been revealed is that shortly after the start of the war, Deyang dispatched at least one full-strength combat platoon to blockade the Serbian border and snipe Bosnian Serbs."

It's almost fair to say that these people exist to incite conflict between the two sides.

At the beginning of the war, they also helped train the Croatian army. On August 4, 95, the Croatian army was able to capture Krajna almost entirely thanks to the help of Deyang's hyenas.

Moreover, all of what I just mentioned was actually instructed and supported by the US government.

"What does the Bosnian War have to do with the United States?" Dima was unusually interested in this period of history.

"Of course there's a connection."

Wei Ran explained, "After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia was too much of an eyesore for the Americans."

According to currently declassified and exposed documents, the United States deployed at least two thousand fully armed mercenaries to the battlefield during the entire Bosnian War.

These hyenas, undisciplined and without military discipline, committed numerous outrageous acts in this war that had nothing to do with them.

"Just like the mercenaries in Grozny?" Dima asked curiously.

"Neck and neck"

Wei Ran said, "Forced women and children to participate in the silver trade, smuggled weapons, sniper competitions, robbery, and even assisting the United States in testing new weapons. You can think of anything that can generate profit or bring fun, those hyenas have done it all."

"Sarajevo's underground economy is a continuation of that war."

Milos, a German who was also listening to the translation, added, "After that war, Yugoslavia was completely fragmented, becoming one insignificant little island after another, and was no longer able to challenge NATO's hegemony in the heart of Europe like it had been in the past."

“We are missing someone like Tito,” Giuliano sighed.

“In the current environment, Tito alone is not enough.”

Miguel then remarked, "I'm not implying that the Soviet Union was any better, but after its collapse, NATO became like a cancer cell that was expanding infinitely without any constraints."

"NATO's internal exploitative model is unlikely to stop."

After the translation was completed, Wei Ran and the others continued, "Just like the Ponzi scheme in Albania back then, if NATO wants to continue to exist and the United States wants to continue to leech off fragmented Europe, it must keep pushing eastward."

"So even Russia can't stop them?" Dima asked curiously, questions he would never have considered.

“You should say that Russia, having had enough of being played like a bear, has finally decided to begin resisting NATO,” Wei Ran corrected with a smile.

"Is there a difference?" Jima asked, puzzled.

"There are differences, of course there are differences."

Wei Ran said meaningfully, "A cool old gentleman finally gave up his illusions, hurriedly patted the dirt and phlegm off his knees and forehead, and picked up his rusty Cossack saber again."

Fortunately, it wasn't too late. The opponent's knife wasn't at his neck yet, but a red-tasseled spear was already pressed against his lower back. Now, he would block it if he could, and if he couldn't, he would block it with his life on the line.

I suspect you're making a veiled attack.

"That's right"

Wei Ran shrugged. "I was talking about the esteemed Mr. Gorbachev. If he had been more aware of things sooner, there might not have been so much trouble."

"Ideally, it would be the distinguished Mr. Gorbachev."

"Why don't you say we should have Aurora move to that beautiful palace sooner?" Jima teased, annoyed.

“You should have woken up sooner. No one’s palace is as comfortable as the castle you build yourself.” After Wei Ran finished speaking, the two brothers smiled in unison. They both believed that the other understood the other’s hidden meaning in those words.

"What are those two talking about?" Giuliano asked, increasingly bewildered after hearing the translator's blank retelling.

"nothing"

Miguel chuckled and patted his brother-in-law on the shoulder. "Get ready, we're going to build a castle with our friends, a beautiful and sturdy castle."

"What are you talking about now?" Giuliano was even more confused. "Are you taking advantage of my lack of education?"

"Giuliano, you don't have to understand everything."

Antonia reminded her brother, "Just do what Miguel says. He told you to build the castle, so just focus on building the castle."

"Hehe, I'll be good," Giuliano said, scratching the back of his head with a simple and honest expression.