War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 2005 People Who Refuse to Be Slaves
People who refuse to be slaves
Fu Wenyao, an anti-Japanese fighter, committed suicide due to serious injuries sustained during the Battle of Lengkou.

In September 1950, Xu Zhiqi's ashes were moved and buried on the back mountain of Wuliang Temple.

Following his last wishes, senior brother He Wenxin did not erect a tombstone or build a grave, but instead planted a pine tree in his memory.

Wen Laoga (Wen Tieshan), an anti-Japanese fighter, sacrificed his life in the Battle of Lugou Bridge.

In September 1950, his ashes were moved by his adopted son Zhao Shouxian and daughter-in-law Wang Yimo to a hillside on the side of Xifengkou, with a Great Wall brick as a tombstone.

Lü Li, a civilian laborer who fought against the Japanese, perished with the enemy in the Battle of Lugou Bridge, and his remains were never recovered.

Feng Huotou (Feng Baoquan), an anti-Japanese fighter, committed suicide outside Juyongguan after being seriously wounded during the Battle of Nankou.

In September 1950, his ashes were moved by his adopted son Zhao Shouxian and daughter-in-law Wang Yimo to a hillside on the side of Xifengkou, with a Great Wall brick as a tombstone.

Wang Bingchu was an anti-Japanese fighter who fought to the death in the Battle of Linyi, perishing alongside the enemy.

In August 1950, her ashes were moved to the Wang family ancestral cemetery in Jizhou by her niece Wang Yimo and her nephew-in-law Zhao Shouxian.

Liu Paotou (Liu Wenshan), a member of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army, shot and killed 11 Soviet soldiers in 1945 after being angered by the looting and violence committed by Soviet Red Army soldiers in Xidu City. He was then surrounded and killed by the Soviet army. He was later identified by the Soviet army as a Japanese expatriate who caused trouble.

In May of the same year, Dong Weixin secretly buried the remains at the Dongjiazhaizi site.

Gao Liangqian, a guerrilla fighter, died in 1943 along with his family of three during the Weihe germ warfare.

In September 1950, Zhao Shouxian and Wang Yimo moved his ashes to a hillside on the side of Xifengkou and used bricks from the Great Wall as a tombstone.

Mr. Huo (Huo Wenqi), a guerrilla intelligence officer, died in 1942 during the Japanese May Day sweep. He was tortured and killed, and his remains were never found.

Guo Guanggun'er (Guo Xiuqi) and his wife Xu Zhixia, both Communist Party members, died in battle in Nanjing in 1937. The couple killed a total of 12 enemy soldiers, and their remains were never recovered.

Dong Weixin, an underground member of the Communist Party, was recognized by the war criminal Saburo Otogaya, who had escaped trial, in December 1946. He was arrested and severely tortured in October of the following year and died in Xidu. His remains were never recovered. He left behind a daughter, Dong Changchun.

Dong Aimei, a Soviet soldier and wife of Dong Weixin, returned to Warsaw after retiring in 1950 and opened the "Ilenka Photo Studio" to make a living.

In 1963, Dong Aimei committed suicide after getting drunk, leaving behind a daughter, Dong Changchun.

In 2017, Dong Changchun passed away peacefully, leaving behind a daughter, Dong Chunxi.

Zhao Shouxian and Wang Yimo, both Communist Party members and military doctors in the Chinese People's Volunteer Army, officially became revolutionary partners on October 8, 1949.

In the same year, Zhao and Wang, a married couple, participated in the campaign to suppress bandits.

Zhao Shouxian went to Chaozhou to fight in 1951, and retired in 1953 due to injuries.

On September 18, 2000, Zhao Shouxian passed away peacefully in his sleep. On October 1 of the same year, Wang Yimo also passed away.

The couple had two sons, Wen Shaotong and Gao Yuanchao, and two daughters, Feng Wanping and Wang Linyi.

Xu Zhiqi, a survivor of the Nanjing Massacre, joined the First Column of the Northeast Democratic Allied Army after his failed assassination attempt on war criminal Saburo Otogaya in Xidu in the winter of 1946.

In 1950, following the will of his brother-in-law Guo Xiuqi, he went to Chaozhou to fight after relocating Fu Wenyao's grave, during which he made several meritorious contributions.

He retired due to injury in 1953 and passed away in 1955 due to a recurrence of his old injury.

In accordance with his will, his friend Sun Xianhe scattered his ashes into the Yangtze River at Yanziji Wharf in Nanjing.

Xu Zhiqi left behind a son, Xu Wentian, who passed away in 1956 due to his widow's grief. His friend Sun Xianhe took him back to Wuliang Temple and accepted him as a disciple.

In 1979, Xu Wentian participated in the Sino-Vietnamese War.

Sun Xianhe was originally a Taoist disciple at Wuliang Temple. In 1950, he joined the army with Xu Zhiqi and fought in Chaozhou.

After returning to China in 1954, he retired from the military and returned to Wuliang Temple to cultivate Taoism. In 1956, he accepted Xu Wentian as his disciple.

In 1964, he passed away due to a pre-existing illness. In accordance with his will, Xu Wentian buried his ashes on the back mountain of Wuliang Temple, without erecting a monument or building a grave, but planting a pine tree in his memory.

Under Wei Ran's quiet gaze, the metal quill pen wrote down an address in Xidu and a phone number on each new line. The contact person corresponding to this address and phone number was named Xu Wentian.

The second address was located in the capital of China, but to his surprise, the contact person corresponding to this address and phone number was named Dong Chunxi!
Has Dong Weixin's granddaughter returned?

When Wei Ran saw this, his heart skipped a beat.

In contrast, the quill pen remained unhurried.

This time, however, it wrote the complete lyrics of the national anthem, which is perhaps the only song that Wei Ran sang without being too off-key.

As he hummed softly as the pen moved, the pale yellow paper filled with writing turned to the other side, and the metal quill pen, under the quietly appearing red vortex, wrote a line of blood-red words: Go and build a new Great Wall!

Immediately following, the metal quill pen wrote "Mission Complete" below the final mission on the next page, and a red and blue vortex appeared on the back of this page.

"Clap!"

The quill pen, having completed its task, once again slammed onto the paper.

Before he could reach out, the metal notebook flipped to the first page with a clatter, and his rank changed from major to lieutenant colonel.

But this time, Wei Ran showed absolutely no surprise.

He didn't even know, or rather, he was afraid, whether this promotion in rank was related to the number of his comrades who had died in battle, after all...
After all, one general's success is built on the bones of ten thousand.
With a weary sigh, Wei Ran, who hadn't slept all night, turned to the latest page of the metal notebook and tried to reach his hand into the red vortex on the left.

The moment his hand went in, his eyes widened.

It's an empty vortex, but he can put anything in it!
Put that chemical warhead in!

Wei Ran almost subconsciously thought of this potentially fatal option.

But the next second, he gave up on the idea.

He still hasn't figured out what to put inside the long-distance carrying pole he used a long time ago, or even recently; this empty one would probably be even more difficult to decide.

After another unsuccessful attempt to reach into the red and blue vortex on the back of the final mission, he simply put away the metal notebook, lay down on the folding bed in the tent, and fell asleep immediately.

He slept from morning until the sky outside the tent was filled with stars again. He slept until Sui Sui lifted the tent door and crawled in, sitting on the edge of the bed and quietly watching him for a long time. He finally opened his eyes at some point.

"Our Sleeping Beauty scholar has finally woken up?" Sui Sui said with a beaming smile, then leaned over and kissed Wei Ran on the cheek.

"When did you get here?" Wei Ran sat up and stretched. "How long have I been sleeping?" "Not long."

Sui Sui stood up as well, happily linking her arm with Wei Ran's. "I haven't been here long, and you haven't slept for long either. Let's go home!"

"it is good"

Wei Ran nodded, reached out and picked up the briefcase on the table, followed Sui Sui out of the warm tent, and, with Belial, the dog who had just been rolling around on the ground, crawled into the civilian armored vehicle parked in the distance.

Until the car drove out of the forest, Sui Sui didn't ask any questions. Instead, she leaned against Wei Ran and fell asleep. She was just as busy and tired as Wei Ran.

Driven by Anfisa, the civilian armored vehicle, protected by several vehicles in front, behind, and on both sides, drove back to the shore of Lake Kaban in a somewhat exaggerated formation and went straight into the entrance of the underground air-raid shelter.

Amidst the subtle or overt eye-rolling antics of several girls around him, Wei Ran picked up Sui Sui, who was clearly awake but pretending to be asleep, and carried her home.

That night, Sui Sui and Wei Ran had a delicious late-night snack and then did a long post-meal workout before finally getting a good night's sleep until dawn.

Osaka, which is six or seven hours ahead of Kazan, saw the sunrise earlier. On that very morning, a woman who was only 1.7 meters tall but as strong as a bear followed a slender and alluring young female translator into the kitchen of a high-end Japanese restaurant.

Soon after, this bear-like woman picked up a kitchen knife and earnestly followed the chef to learn the various processes of making sashimi.

However, her habitual action of slicing and eating a piece at will made the beautiful translator standing behind her turn pale, as if she had thought of something particularly terrifying.

As the rising sun finally illuminated the Siberian land and awakened Kazan, the home of a renowned historian by Lake Kaban was, as always, filled with the vibrant energy of young women.

Amidst the wailing and chaos, the "Sleepyhead Alliance," led by Sui Sui and including Luxinda and Lola, was easily dragged out of their warm beds by the "Anti-Sleepyhead Alliance," led by Marta and including Lyubov and many Hela girls. The anti-sleepyhead alliance then forcibly changed them into loose clothes suitable for morning exercise.

Just as these girls were voluntarily or involuntarily starting their morning exercises to wake up their bodies, the Kachenka sisters, as usual, personally drove to buy breakfast for everyone. This was their exclusive job—even though their family now had a large enough number of people that they needed a small canteen.

Of course, although there is no canteen, there is a canteen chef.

Because Her Majesty the Queen wanted to eat sesame cakes, Master Wei, who was supposed to take Belial for a jog, got up two hours early to start preparing.

On this noisy, peaceful, and exceptionally pleasing, vibrant, and sunny morning, as the Kajenka sisters brought out soy milk, tofu pudding, fried dough sticks, and pickled vegetables, Chef Wei also brought out a large basket full of crispy-on-the-outside, tender-on-the-inside sesame flatbreads and a pressure cooker full of stewed meat.

Finally, after finishing this sumptuous breakfast surrounded by a large number of beautiful women, Wei Ran, who had been somewhat depressed, finally looked like a normal person again.

Sui Sui, who had been secretly observing, finally breathed a sigh of relief at this moment. She then stood up energetically, clapped her hands, and said, "Our main job lately has been spending money! Spending money! Spending money like crazy! Once we've secured the investment, I'll take you guys out for a few days of fun!"

"Ula——!"

Amid cheers from the girls, Sui Sui kissed Wei Ran on the cheek as if asserting her dominance, then happily walked towards the office next door—her battlefield.

Meanwhile, Belial, who had also eaten and drunk his fill, ran to the oak tree in the yard, lifted his leg and peed to assert his sovereignty over the security of the yard. Then he trotted to the gate and lay down on the blanket that had been prepared for him to sunbathe.

In the quiet hall, Wei Ran slowly finished his lunch and then helped Liu Bofu clear the table.

"Do you have classes today?" Wei Ran asked deliberately in Russian.

"Language courses only"

Lyubov replied, "I'm going to learn Japanese with Marta today."

"Come with me"

As Wei Ran spoke, he walked into the staircase leading from the kitchen to the underground air-raid shelter, and continued to ask in Russian, "How much Japanese do you know?"

"I've only learned some simple everyday phrases so far," Liu Bofu, who was following behind Wei Ran, answered honestly.

Thanks to extensive and continuous high-intensity oral conversation practice, her Russian level has now surpassed that of Lu Xinda, who used to slack off every day, and she can now communicate effectively.

"In that case, introduce yourself in Japanese." Wei Ran abruptly switched to Japanese.

Liu Bofu paused for a moment, then quickly switched to her still somewhat fluent Japanese and began her self-introduction in a serious and methodical manner.

It was during her self-introduction that Wei Ran led her into the activity room located in the basement of the library, and then opened the suitcase she had brought back yesterday, taking out the photo albums.

"I taught you how to scan film before."

As Wei Ran spoke slowly in Japanese, he opened the first photo album. "Your job today is to help me scan these negatives into digital files."

"Okay, sir."

As she spoke, Lyubov added a Japanese-style bow, which was especially fitting.

"You are very talented."

Wei Ran praised her truthfully, saying that the girl was calm and rational enough, and at the same time seemed to have a natural liking for bloody things.

Whether it's abnormal or talented, objectively speaking, he is indeed a promising talent.

"Is it the talent to become a KGB member?" Lyubov switched to the more familiar Chaoxian language.

"Those outdated things are not worth longing for."

Wei Ran also switched to Chao Xianyu, saying, "There's no need to rush to define yourself, nor is it necessary to define yourself."

“I wish I could become Hela,” Lyubov said bluntly. “Boss, I want to become Hela too.”

"Hella is just a tool"

Wei Ran smiled and switched back to Japanese, saying, "I have higher expectations for you. Okay, start by helping me with the work. Be careful not to damage the photos and negatives, and don't mess up the order."

"Yes"

Lyubov once again adopted that serene demeanor befitting the linguistic context and calmly began her busy work.

Reassured, Wei Ran handed the job over to Liu Bofu, but then went into the next room and, after a routine check, took the suitcase out of the metal notebook.

Sure enough, there were several canvas bags inside, several canvas bags filled with sealed tubes of film.

Gently opening the canvas bag that Su Shengnan had given him, Wei Ran picked up a sealed tube and looked at the line of mixed Russian and Chinese writing on the medical tape attached to it—"In 1945, the Soviet Red Army celebrated the end of the war in Xidu in a Nazi manner."

I might take a day off tomorrow.