War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 1987 Advancing amidst enemy fire.

As the white light faded, Wei Ran stared blankly at everything before him.

At this moment, he was sitting on a mule cart, wearing a blue cloth long gown and a black top hat. When he lifted the hem of the long gown, he was wearing coarse cloth trousers and cloth shoes with many layers of soles.

Even at the calf level, there were two box cannons, each contained in a wooden box, secured with leg wraps.

He could also sense that a nine-dragon belt was tied around his waist inside the long robe.

Carefully remove the top hat from your head; hidden inside is a loaded pistol.

After putting his hat back on, Wei Ran looked at the driver and discovered that it was Dong Weixin.

I subconsciously looked around. The mountain road was muddy and the grass and trees by the roadside were still covered with water droplets, obviously it had just rained.

At this moment, there was no one else on this road except for their mule cart.

Looking at the mule cart again, there was an extra layer of damp straw mat on top of the thick wheat straw, but between these two soft layers, he could vaguely feel something hidden.

In addition, there was a bulging bundle and a dark iron kettle placed nearby.

"Nankou is just ahead; we'll be there soon."

Just then, Dong Weixin, who was driving the carriage, spoke up, "This journey has been really difficult; we've been robbed four or five times."

"In chaotic times, there's nothing we can do," Wei Ran replied, continuing the conversation.

Before the other person could speak, he naturally steered the conversation to the issue he cared about: "We've been out here for so long, I wonder how Guo Guanggun is doing."

"We're almost at Nankou, so he should be getting to Baoding soon too."

Dong Weixin said, "I just don't know if his health allows him to make it to Mount Wutai to find his sister-in-law."

"Should be able to."

After learning that Guo Guanggun had already set off for Wutai Mountain, Wei Ran breathed a slight sigh of relief and then continued to probe, "It would be great if we could send Shouxian to Wutai Mountain this time as well."

"Who says it isn't?"

As Dong Weixin spoke, he pulled out a group photo taken in Wanping City and pointed to Zhao Shouxian in it, saying, "Is this brother Zhao Shouxian?"

"it's him"

Wei Ran leaned forward, glanced at the screen, and gave a confident answer.

He had realized that he was not injured in the previous battle in Nanyuan in this timeline, which was why he was able to come here with Dong Weixin.

“He and this little girl are quite a good match,” Dong Weixin said, pointing to Zhao Shouxian and Wang Yimo in the photo.

"And you? Do you have someone who's a good match for you?" Wei Ran asked abruptly.

"Have"

Dong Weixin answered with remarkable composure, “She died. After the young master of the Zhang family handed over Fengtian to others, the female classmate I admired didn’t want to be taken by the Japanese to be a concubine, so she hanged herself.”

"I'm sorry," Wei Ran quickly apologized after realizing he had rubbed salt into the other person's wound.

"Nothing, nothing."

With his back to Wei Ran, Dong Weixin blew his nose twice. "It's all in the past. I've avenged him. The traitors and collaborators who wanted to tie her up were tied up by my dad and me and frozen in a water bubble."

At this point, Dong Weixin paused for about half a minute, then gritted his teeth and said, "No matter what, we have to make sure this perfect couple can live together."

"Yes, we have to let them live," Wei Ran sighed.

He had no way of knowing how Guo Guanggun had asked Dong Weixin for help in finding Zhao Shouxian on his behalf, but he already knew why Dong Weixin had agreed to it.

"I wonder if Wang Bingchu, whom Brother Guo asked us to find, survived."

Dong Weixin asked, "Brother Wei, do you know Wang Bingchu?"

"Yes, of course I know him."

Wei Ran paused for a moment, "But I'm not actually very familiar with him. Back then... I just happened to save him from the battlefield."

"Did you guard Xifengkou together?" Dong Weixin pressed.

"Yes, we've been through it together, we've been through it together."

Wei Ran sighed, "We met when we were guarding Xifeng Pass."

"I've heard Brother Guo mention Wen Laoga before."

Dong Weixin said, "I heard about him."

"boom!"

Before Dong Weixin could verify what he had heard with Wei Ran, a cannon suddenly rang out from ahead.

"broken!"

Dong Weixin let out a cry of surprise, then shook the reins hard, urging the mule pulling the cart to run. At the same time, he subconsciously shouted out the slang commonly used by bandits, "Brother Wei! Quickly get the sniper rifle out!"

"What's the date today?!"

As Wei Ran lifted the straw curtain on the cart, he asked loudly, "What's the date in the Gregorian calendar?"

"Gregorian calendar? The 7th? The 8th? Or maybe the 9th!"

Dong Weixin responded loudly, "I knew it was almost the beginning of autumn! I just couldn't remember what the date was on the Gregorian calendar!"

"The Japanese have definitely started attacking Nankou."

As Wei Ran spoke, he pushed the straw curtain aside and pulled out two guns from the straw. They were clearly made in Tanggu and used straight magazines.

Besides the two flower-shaped ammunition machines, there were also thirty or forty coarse cloth strips filled with bullets, a dozen or so Mauser pistols of various models packed in a box, and two leather ammunition bags each containing four magazines of the flower-shaped ammunition machines.

"Nankou Village is just ahead!"

Before Dong Weixin could finish speaking, he yanked the reins hard again.

At the same time, Wei Ran also took off his top hat and coarse cloth robe and threw them aside, revealing the nine-dragon belt around his waist.

He stuffed the pistol that he had been hiding on his head into his clothes, then tied the submachine gun ammunition pouch to his chest, and then took the Mauser pistol off his leg and inserted it into the gap between the ammunition pouch and his chest and abdomen.

"I'll catch the carriage!"

As Wei Ran spoke, he sat down on the other side of the cart. Dong Weixin immediately climbed to the middle of the cart, took off his long gown and top hat, revealing an outfit almost identical to Wei Ran's—except for the lack of a flower-shaped pistol.

After he had put on his submachine gun ammunition pouch and put away his two Mauser pistols, a small village with a number of troops was already in sight directly in front of him.

"Stop! Who are you?"

"We came here to provide support and deliver ammunition on the side! We are serving in the 29th Army's student corps."

Before the sentry could finish speaking, Dong Weixin said, "We've acquired quite a lot of bullets, all donated by wealthy businessmen in Beijing. Quickly find someone to take us to the front lines."

"Come with me!"

Upon seeing the bullets, the sentry immediately helped them pull on the reins and run towards the foot of the mountain north of the village. Soon, several more soldiers arrived and, together with them, braved the incoming Japanese artillery fire to run up to the position.

At that very moment, the Japanese soldiers had finished their shelling and launched an attack on their positions.

"You're in charge of getting the ammunition to those who need it!"

Before Dong Weixin could finish speaking, he and Wei Ran, who hadn't even intended to say hello, ran to the front line, raised the flower traps they had brought, and got ready.

"Do you know a soldier named Zhao Shouxian? And a cook named Feng?"

As Dong Weixin lay down beside Wei Ran, he asked a soldier next to him.

"do not know!"

Before the soldier could finish speaking, he had already raised his rifle and pulled the trigger at the approaching Japanese soldiers.

"Fight the Japanese first!"

As Wei Ran spoke, he also raised his submachine gun and pulled the trigger.

However, he was unusually stingy; this submachine gun, which could have fired in bursts, was used to kill the charging Japanese soldiers in single-shot mode.

"Grenades! Grenades! Throw two!"

With the commander's roar, the soldiers on both sides of Wei Ran and Dong Weixin picked up grenades and threw them out.

Amidst the deafening explosions, soldiers on the battlefield roared as they raised their broadswords and picked up rifles, some with bayonets and some without, and charged out of the trenches.

"Survive!"

Wei Ran hurriedly gave Dong Weixin some instructions.

"The same to you!"

Before Dong Weixin could finish speaking, he also rushed out of the trench.

The two of them knew very well that they needed to split up and use the flower traps in their hands to cover more soldiers.

I don't know where Zhao Shouxian and Cook Feng are.
While Wei Ran was lost in thought, he bumped into the soldiers and Japanese soldiers around him.

"Da da da da da-"

Wei Ran and Dong Weixin pulled the trigger almost simultaneously, each firing a sweeping shot without sparing any ammunition, emptying their magazines instantly.

However, the two submachine guns in their hands were utterly ineffective on this battlefield.

In an instant, the two sides collided.

In an instant, shouts of killing, screams, gunshots, and curses mingled together.

After hastily changing the magazine, Wei Ran held his gun and pulled the trigger again and again, doing his best to cover his comrades who were engaged in hand-to-hand combat around him.

When he emptied his third magazine, the first hand-to-hand combat they had encountered upon their hasty arrival finally came to an end as the Japanese retreated and their artillery resumed its suppression.

But the battle was not over. With intense artillery fire, the hastily dug trenches were severely damaged.

"Dig trenches! Dig trenches now!"

The frontline commanders on this front shouted themselves hoarse amidst the thunderous artillery fire. The soldiers who were lucky enough to return to the trenches, including Wei Ran and Dong Weixin, also dug the trenches with their anti-Japanese broadswords or bayonets.

But this trench located on the hilltop was too difficult for these soldiers. Often, when they cut down, they couldn't dig out any soil at all, but instead found stones of all sizes lying side by side.

Before Wei Ran could dig a stone pit to hide in, the Japanese artillery fire stopped again. He immediately grabbed the firearm at hand and began firing rapid bursts at the charging Japanese soldiers.

As he emptied a magazine, the order to throw grenades reached everyone's ears.

Wei Ran didn't have any grenades, but at this moment he briefly put down his camera and switched to the Rolleiflex twin-lens reflex camera in his metal notebook. He pressed the shutter at an angle of about 50 degrees to the trench, taking pictures of the Japanese soldiers charging in the distance, the soldiers throwing grenades nearby, and grenades in the air.

"The wounded stay behind to dig trenches! The rest of you, charge!"

The frontline commander on this front issued another order and was the first to rush out with his gun raised.

After glancing around quickly, Wei Ran gave up on searching for Dong Weixin, who had disappeared and whose fate was unknown. He then grabbed the last full magazine of the Flower Machine and rushed out.

"Da! Da! Da! Da da da!"

With each burst of fire from Wei Ran, the last remaining magazine was emptied before the end of this round of close combat.

With a swing of his arm, he threw the empty gun back into the trench, bent down, grabbed a Type 38 rifle, loaded it with bullets, and charged toward the nearest Japanese soldier.

"boom!"

When the distance between the two sides was reduced to only one meter, Wei Ran pulled the trigger with a hip shot and then stabbed another unprepared Japanese soldier with his bayonet.

After successfully executing his shot and slash, an anti-Japanese broadsword suddenly appeared in his hand. Taking advantage of the moment when the last remaining Japanese soldier was stunned, he slit its throat with one stroke.

At this point, he still had enough bullets, but he had to conserve them, as the battle to defend Nankou would last for a full 18 days.

In other words, not to mention the little ammunition he had on him, even the ammunition he and Dong Weixin brought by mule cart was just a drop in the ocean.

Even so, even though he wanted to conserve ammunition, seeing the situation becoming increasingly critical and the number of soldiers falling in battle increasing, he finally pulled out his Mauser pistol and gave one of them to a soldier, who then pulled the trigger at the surrounding Japanese soldiers.

Once this short-sighted approach of drinking poison to quench thirst begins, there's simply no way to stop it.

Trading a bullet for a soldier's life was a question that Wei Ran didn't need to think about and couldn't hesitate over.

As a result, with each gunshot, the bullets in the Kowloon Belt were quickly depleted, so much so that the brief feeling of having enough ammunition was more like a wicked illusion for Wei Ran.

Fortunately, when he had used up all the Mauser pistols in his metal notebook, leaving only the last 10-round magazine, the hand-to-hand combat finally ended once again, and he returned alive to the trenches, which were still being worsened by the wounded soldiers.

"Listen up!"

Before he could even lie down, a second lieutenant covered in blood shouted in a hoarse voice, "We can't let the Japanese keep bombarding our positions!"

Just then, the Japanese artillery began firing again.

"Those who aren't afraid to die, follow me and charge!"

The officer suddenly roared, "As long as we charge into the Japanese ranks, their artillery will either fall silent or blow up the Japanese soldiers along with them! Are you in or not!"

"Done!"

The soldier closest to the enemy said, "For 33 years, we failed to hold Xifengkou. If we can't hold Nankou today, we might as well die!"

"That's right! Let's do it!"

"Follow me!"

Before the officer could finish speaking, he had already grabbed a large knife and charged out of the trench into the face of the Japanese artillery fire.

It turns out that every line in the national anthem is true.
Wei Ran paused for a moment, then ripped off the cumbersome nine-dragon belt and ammunition pouch, grabbed the anti-Japanese broadsword in one hand and the flower-shaped pistol in the other, and jumped out of the trench.

Next—advance, braving enemy fire.

My new book, Ruins Explorer, is asking for your collection, votes, tips, investments, and hopes to climb the charts. I also wish everyone a happy National Day and double your salary when you return.