War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1969: Fighting to the Death but Not Dead
On the other side of the Great Wall, amidst the rumbling of cannons and the occasional collapse of bricks, Wei Ran repeatedly raised his camera and pressed the shutter, while also searching for Wen Laoga, who might have been brought here.

However, even as he passed through the crowd, ran back up the city wall to his original position, and the sounds of the Japanese cannons ceased and the shouts of battle reached his ears, he still could not find Wen Laoga, or Wen Laoga's body.

There was no time to care whether Wen Laoga lived or died.
Wei Ran put away his camera, grabbed his rifle, loaded it with bullets, and aimed at the grenade launcher gunners mixed in with the Japanese soldiers who had started charging again, as well as the machine gunners further away. Before they could load their grenades into the barrels, before the fire snakes spewed from the machine guns could take away more of his comrades' lives, he pulled the trigger again and again.

In this seemingly endless cycle of artillery bombardment, charges, sniping, and hand-to-hand combat, Wei Ran, along with the tireless soldiers around him, charged down the city wall time and time again, risking heavy casualties to keep the surging Japanese troops outside the Great Wall.

In these repeated brushes with death, Wei Ran had long since lost count of how many Japanese soldiers he had killed, but his broadsword was now covered in nicks and slits, just like his body, which was also covered in wounds of all sizes.

He could barely hold the knife anymore, and even firing the short, lightweight Type 44 rifle was uncontrollably shaky. As a result, he had no confidence in hitting any target 300 meters away and had to settle for aiming at the Japanese soldiers who were right next to him.

"Grenades! Throw grenades!" Just then, someone shouted the order from afar.

I didn't even think about it, or rather, I didn't need to think at all in this situation.

Covered in wounds, Wei Ran almost instinctively put down the Japanese cavalry rifle in his hand, reached into the wooden box next to him, picked up a grenade, pulled the fuse hard, and then swung his arm and threw it out.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The grenade explosions did not deter the approaching Japanese troops; on the contrary, several incredibly accurate grenade launchers struck the city walls, causing heavy casualties on the defending side.

"Gentlemen, young and old! We've arrived!"

The officer with the slanted belt who had just given the order to throw the grenades roared, "For our wives, children, and parents, let's fight those Japanese devils! Charge!"

"kill!"

Amidst the rising and falling responses, all the soldiers who could still stand and wield their knives followed the officer with the slanted belt and charged towards the breach breached by the artillery fire, towards the surging horde of Japanese soldiers.

"Pfft!"

Just then, as Wei Ran was about to take out his broadsword and stand up, he stumbled and fell to the ground. At the same time, the tattoo on the web of his left hand burned him hard.

As if struck by a sudden inspiration, Wei Ran stood up, supporting himself against the cratered Great Wall bricks, and retrieved the horse saddlebag from the metal notebook, which he had previously been unable to take out.

Unfortunately, besides the grenade launcher and a full 24 instant-explosive grenades, the saddlebag did not contain the poison gas grenades he had been longing for—even though he knew that it was not suitable to fire poison gas grenades in this kind of headwind weather.

"clang!"

Wei Ran, leaning against the south battlement, planted the grenade launcher on the city bricks and stepped on it to keep it in place. He then adjusted it to the minimum range, removed the safety pin from a high-explosive grenade, and inserted it into the grenade launcher.

"Tom!"

The first grenade had barely flown out when Wei Ran had already inserted the second one, and then, without even caring whether the muzzle was at a 45-degree angle to the ground, he pulled the trigger.

"Tom!"

As the first grenade exploded, his second grenade was already fired.

Wei Ran moved the cannon slightly to the side and inserted the third shot, firing it again.

In his rapid firing without any precise aiming, a total of 23 out of 24 instant-explosive rounds were fired at once.

"Tom!"

As the last grenade was fired amidst the ever-approaching shouts of the Japanese soldiers, Wei Ran's left hand already held a large, chipped, and dulled anti-Japanese broadsword.

"kill!"

He roared as he caught up with the soldiers rushing towards the breach, brandishing his now less sharp broadsword as he slashed at the Japanese soldiers who had made their way through.

"clang!"

Wei Ran, who was tall and strong compared to the Japanese soldiers, cleaved the bayonet thrust at him with a powerful slash, and then kicked the enemy in the face from above.

Accompanied by the cracking sound of bones breaking, which was drowned out by the shouts of battle, Wei Ran's knife struck the temple of a Japanese soldier next to him. At the same time, another Japanese soldier had his bayonet knocked away by a soldier.

Unfortunately, before Wei Ran could even regain his footing and kick out, the soldier who came to his rescue was stabbed through the stomach by another Japanese soldier.

"I'll fight you to the death!"

The soldier, whose mouth was starting to bleed, ripped the fuse off the grenade in his chest, then grabbed the belt of the Japanese soldier who was about to fight Wei Ran. After taking one last look at Wei Ran, who had just regained his footing, he lunged at the Japanese soldier who had stabbed him amidst the swirling smoke, and together with the two of them, they rolled and fell into the pile of Japanese soldiers below the Great Wall.

"boom!"

In the midst of the explosion, Wei Ran swung his broadsword with all his might, cleaving aside another bayonet thrusting at him.

But by this time, he was surrounded by Japanese soldiers who outnumbered him ten to one.

Seeing this, Wei Ran took a few steps back, then pulled out a grenade from his waist and pulled off the fuse before the bayonets reflecting the sunlight could stab him.

"Ta-ta-ta-ta!"

Just then, an officer carrying a hand-held musket ran up from behind him and fired a burst of shots at the Japanese soldiers in front of him.

Seeing the group of Japanese soldiers being shot one after another, Wei Ran reacted quickly and threw out a smoking grenade.

"boom!"

As the grenade exploded upon impact, taking away a group of Japanese soldiers, the officer, who looked to be around 30 years old, rushed to his side.

"Brothers! Charge!"

The officer didn't even glance at Wei Ran, but simply waved his arms, shouted, and charged ahead towards the other side of the Great Wall breach. "Kill!"

Behind Wei Ran, more and more soldiers he had never seen before, as well as civilians he had only briefly seen before, rushed forward, some wielding guns, some wielding broadswords, and some even wielding kitchen knives and wood-chopping knives. They surged forward like a tide from both sides towards the Japanese soldiers outside the Great Wall who mistakenly believed they had victory in their grasp.

"Clang!"

Wei Ran's large, chipped sword crashed onto the broken bricks of the Great Wall, also smashing a piece of dry bone mixed in with the rammed earth of the Great Wall.

But at this moment, he frantically pulled his blood-stained camera out of the sea, took out the lens, and aimed it at the backs of the soldiers and ordinary people, at the broadswords, rifles, and even kitchen knives, ladles, and hoes they raised, pressing the shutter again and again.

Finally, after the film in the camera was used up, Wei Ran put it into his pocket after rewinding the film, bent down to pick up the anti-Japanese broadsword covered in frozen blood and with a nick, wrapped it around his hand with a blood-soaked wiping cloth, and then took a step forward, joining the growing number of soldiers around him to charge at the Japanese soldiers who were right in front of him.

It would be wonderful if everyone had a hand-operated jacquard machine.
As Wei Ran watched the soldiers and civilians in front of him being stabbed through the body by bayonets, he futilely fantasized while increasing the angle of his movements.

They slashed with knives, kicked with their feet, and even smashed with stones.

Covered in wounds, Wei Ran used every means at his disposal to keep up with the officer who had fired the shot to his rescue not long ago. He clung tightly to the Japanese soldier who had been pushed back, fighting his way towards the Japanese position.

This change was clearly unexpected by the Japanese, especially the soldiers and civilians who kept pouring out of the gaps in the Great Wall that they had blasted open with their own cannons.

But soon, the Japanese artillery and grenade launchers bypassed the two sides in the battle and slammed into the area around the soldiers and civilians who were rushing up behind them.

Even so, the unprepared counterattack did not stop. The wounded soldiers stopped, but the uninjured civilians bent down to pick up their weapons and continued to chase after them, and even charged into the Japanese positions.

"puff!"

Having already discarded his broadsword, Wei Ran used a Type 38 rifle bayonet he had picked up to stab a Japanese soldier through the neck. Then, the instant he pulled out the bayonet, he turned the gun around and stabbed another Japanese soldier in the stomach.

"I've avenged you!"

On the chaotic battlefield, a burly man who looked to be in his twenties roared as he repeatedly stabbed a Japanese soldier in the belly with a butcher's knife.

At the same time, another old man, who looked to be over fifty, ignored the bayonet that had just been pulled from his ribs, took a few steps and pounced on the Japanese soldier, opening his mouth and biting his neck hard.

When the splattered blood stained the old man's face and neck, Wei Ran, who had originally intended to finish him off, chose to give up with a silent sigh and strode towards the next Japanese soldier.

As Wei Ran's breathing grew increasingly labored and his fighting became increasingly erratic, he was finally stabbed in the thigh by a bayonet.

"puff!"

With his last bit of strength, Wei Ran plunged his bayonet into the enemy's heart. He then fell to the ground along with the Japanese soldier, the bayonet still lodged in his leg, and tumbled onto the cold snow.

After several unsuccessful attempts to get up, Wei Ran finally crawled with difficulty to the side of a Japanese soldier, using the corpse as cover. Trembling, he took out his camera, changed the spare film, and pressed the shutter again and again towards the Japanese soldiers' gradually collapsing battle line.

"Quick! There's someone still alive here!"

Even before the battle had ended, several simply dressed women rushed over carrying a stretcher and discovered Wei Ran, whose thigh was still pierced by a bayonet.

"I can still..."

Before Wei Ran could finish speaking, one of the women, who was holding a Japanese cavalry saber, skillfully removed the bayonet that was piercing his thigh from the Type 38 rifle, but did not pull it out for him.

Based on this alone, Wei Ran could be certain that these women had probably undergone some training.

"Quick! Carry him away, he can still be saved!"

After the woman finished speaking, she called on the other women to help, and together they lifted Wei Ran, who was covered in wounds, onto a stretcher.

Before the stretcher could be lifted, the woman had already led the rest of the stretcher team to the front. Under the watchful eye of Wei Ran's camera lens, she even used her cavalry saber, which she had picked up from who-knows-where, to finish off a wounded but not dead Japanese soldier as they passed by.

Just as Wei Ran took this photo of the other person's back as he delivered the finishing blow, the stretcher was also lifted up and quickly carried towards the dilapidated Great Wall line through the slippery and dirty snow.

Gradually, the distant gunfire from the Japanese soldiers ceased, and Wei Ran's consciousness grew increasingly blurred until finally, everything went black and he lost consciousness completely.

When he was awakened by the pain, he found himself lying in what appeared to be a "hole" in the inner wall of the Great Wall.

There were only three plank beds made of door panels and bricks from the city wall inside the hole in the wall. At that moment, I was lying on the middle plank bed.

With difficulty, Wei Ran used his aching arms to support himself on the bed board covered with wheat straw and corn stalks, and sat up, but he couldn't help but be stunned.

It seemed that it was already dark outside, and the only things used for warmth in this "cave" were two mud braziers.

It was with the help of the light emitted by the brazier that he could clearly see that on the bed to his left, lying was none other than Wen Laoga, whom he thought had died in battle!

He subconsciously glanced to his right, where another soldier was lying on the bed, but he...
Wei Ran sighed. The soldier had lost a leg, obviously from an artillery shell. Compared to losing a leg, it was uncertain whether the soldier would survive.

There was no other reason than the smell of Chinese herbs permeating the cramped, cave-like space, which told them that their only hope was to "leave it to fate."

Looking at himself in the distant firelight, he saw that his tattered military uniform had been stripped off and all his wounds, big and small, had been bandaged. He brought the uniform to his nose and smelled it; it had the distinctive medicinal fragrance of Chinese herbs.

Trying to turn around, Wei Ran also saw what was in the ammunition box between him and Wen Laoga.

Inside were two 20-gun side-opening Mauser pistols belonging to Wen Laoga, as well as the wine gourd he kept as a memento, and the five-emperor coins on the gourd.

Inside were Wei Ran's camera, the three pistols he inherited from the company commander, his military cap, and even Wei Ran's own Mauser pistol.

With difficulty, Wei Ran got out of bed and went to Wen Laoga's side. He reached out and checked Wen Laoga's breathing. Fortunately, he was still alive and breathing evenly.

However, he also noticed that there were still some egg yolk residues around the other person's mouth, which was not good news. Instead, it suggested that the other person had not woken up since losing consciousness due to blood loss.

Just as he was secretly worried about the other party, the bundle of corn stalks used to ward off the cold at the door of the room that could barely be called a cave dwelling was moved aside. Then, a lame man and the woman who had once led people to rescue Wei Ran each carried a pot for boiling medicine and walked in.