In the dark night, Oleg was lifted up to the second floor by the old electrician Sergei and the firefighter Valerito. After avoiding the grenade fixed at the other end of the rope, he immediately walked along the only path. Climbing up the remaining half of the stairs to the third floor, he placed the sniper rifle in the corner of the broken wall and pointed it in the direction of the destination where Wei Ran and others were about to go.
On the first floor, Lieutenant Lev and Weiyan, led by firefighters Gorsh and Valery, and old electrician Sergey, crawled in the dark to another building in the distance. Ruins left behind after the collapse of a building.
Under the cover of night, they were moving much faster than during the day, but even so, they needed to be extremely careful, because according to Gorsh, there would be people nearby even at night. German patrols passed by from time to time. So by the time they arrived at their destination, at least an hour had passed.
"This is almost it," Gorsh said, pointing to a piece of red brick ruins. "This should be the location of the paint store. It used to be a beautiful two-story brick building."
p>"Let's do it"
Before Lieutenant Lev finished speaking, he bent down and picked up a few bricks that were still stuck together, and moved them aside gently. Upon seeing this, the others immediately stepped forward to help, quietly cleaning up the remains of the building that looked like grave mounds.
As everyone was busy moving, a high-spirited gun barrel gradually emerged from the stacked bricks, followed by the front of the tank, and then the small half of the turret.
When the east gradually turns white, and when the rumble of gunfire comes from the German artillery position a few hundred meters away and the Volga River beyond, the concrete pillars pressing on the cockpit cover He was finally pushed aside with difficulty by everyone.
"The next step is to see if it can start." Lieutenant Lev opened the heavy hatch cover as he spoke.
"I hope we can survive"
Fireman Gorsch pulled out a can of paint from under the tank chassis, pried it open, put his hand directly in, dipped it in, and then used force A bright red handprint was left on the turret, "Comrade reporter, if we fail to come back alive, if you can survive, I hope you can find this tank after the war is over and let everyone know my name. Of course, It would be better if we could be included in Pravda."
"This is a good method"
The old electrician Sergey also climbed onto the tank and dipped his hand in the paint can. Zhan, then slapped the turret, "Although I don't have to follow you there, I also want to be in the newspaper."
"In this case, everyone should leave a fingerprint"
< p>While Lieutenant Lev was speaking, he and Firefighter Valery slapped their paint-stained palms on the turret in no particular order.On the other hand, Wei Ran was already stunned in place at this time. The four bright red palm prints on the turret of this T-34 tank had gradually overlapped with the tank in his memory!
It turns out...it turns out to be like this!
"Victor, please leave a fingerprint too," Lieutenant Lev, who had already climbed into the tank turret, suggested while putting the radio earphone on his head.
"Oh! Okay!" Wei Ran came to his senses, dipped his hand in the paint can, and slapped it hard on the tank's turret!
"It's almost dawn, and it's time for us to set off. Gorsh, start the tank." Lieutenant Lev said, holding on to the edge of the turret hatch.
“Wait!”
Wei Ran wiped the paint on his pants haphazardly, “Let me take a photo of you all! It won’t take long. ”
“This is my first time taking pictures.” Sergey, an old electrician, quickly climbed up the turret and held the gun barrel to stand upright.
Seeing Lieutenant Lev nod, Wei Ran quickly took out his camera, and after some fiddling with it, he took a photo of everyone, and then took a group photo of the four of them with the tank.
"I will put you under the bell tower," Lieutenant Lev pointed to the end of the field of view and said, "You should be able to see us there, and the command depends on you."
Before Lev finished speaking, the tank started smoothly. Driven by firefighter Gorsh, it drove out of the rubble that buried the rear half of the car almost roughly!
Amidst the squeaking of the tracks, the T-34 tank with five bright red handprints printed on the side of the turret bypassed the ruins of the building and drove straight towards the German artillery position! Halfway through, Wei Yan and the old electrician Sergey jumped off the tank and ran to the half-remaining bell tower.
This is the only vantage point from which the German artillery positions can be seen, but at the same time, it is also within the direct sighting range of the German artillery. There are even five German soldiers stationed in this bell tower! However, due to mental calculations and unintentional calculations, as soon as they opened the door, the old electrician Sergei used a submachine gun to send them all back to their hometown.
The two climbed up the spiral staircase to the highest point. Weiran handed over all the defense work and grenades to the old electrician, while he himself looked along the wall at the fast-moving tanks outside.
However, just when he was about to say something into the microphone, a particularly clear shutter sound came into his ears, and then a fierce white light occupied his entire field of vision!
When his vision returned to normal, Wei Ran looked blankly at the familiar studio, then sat down on the cold floor and let out a long sigh of relief.
There was a soft "clatter" sound, and a leather notebook quietly appeared, spread on the floor in front of him, and automatically opened to the second page.
On this page, the T-34 originally sketched with a metal quill has been turned into a black and white photo. Next to this photo, there is even an ordinary Long paper bag.
And directly below the photo, the metal quill left a line of horizontal and vertical Chinese characters in the faint sound of "swish, swish, swish":
High and low Tragedy
Lieutenant Lev, Firefighter Vasily, Firefighter GorshAfter completing the mission, they were captured by the Germans because the tank tracks broke and were shot dead in the early morning of September 29, 1942. After the Battle of Stalingrad, the three were posthumously awarded the Medal for the Defense of Stalingrad and the Second Class Patriotic War Medal.
Electrician Sergey used radio to direct the tanks to destroy and destroy two German tanks, a tank destroyer, and seven artillery pieces. He killed 9 German soldiers and committed suicide by detonating a grenade after running out of ammunition. After the Battle of Stalingrad, he was posthumously awarded the Partisan Medal of the First Class Patriotic War.
Sniper Oleg killed 14 Germans. By the end of the battle, he had rescued 21 Stalingrad orphans and 8 wounded. After the Battle of Stalingrad, he was awarded the Patriotic War Partisan Medal 2nd Class. On October 20, 1943, he died in the unknown wilderness during the Battle of Kiev.
The T-34 tank was repaired and sent to the battlefield at the end of the Battle of Stalingrad. On March 9, 1943, it was abandoned in the unknown woodland on the banks of the Don River due to gearbox failure.
Writing this, the metal quill pen started a new line, listing in detail the medals and medal certificate numbers that each person had received.
While he was waiting, the metal quill started another line again and continued to write: When the photographer picked up the gun, his camera may still have the last memory. Justice and kindness. But what is recorded on film will always be the most brutal moments of war.
Just when Wei Ran read the last word, the page with photos and words written on it automatically turned to another page. What made his hair stand on end in horror was that there was a slowly rotating blood-red vortex on the back of this pale yellow page! And in the center of this whirlpool, there is something floating unsteadily!
And the metal quill that had been suspended continued to write below the blood-red vortex as if no one was watching: Camera or bayonet, there is always a photographer's weapon, the former records the most real war, The latter produces the bloodiest carnage.
With a "clang", the metal quill, which seemed to have entered the sage's time, hit the floor heavily and stopped moving.
After hesitating for a moment, Wei Ran took a deep breath, slowly reached out to the blood-red vortex on the page that occupied half of the page, and slowly pulled out a slender Mauser from it. bayonet. What is quite special is that on the gauntlet of this bayonet, there is also an extra thick oval-shaped World War II German soldier badge.
Taking the nearly 40 cm long bayonet and looking at it carefully, Wei Ran accidentally tried to send it back to the slowly rotating blood-red vortex. The next scene made his eyes widen again. The bayonet could actually be put back!
Putting the page up carefully, Wei Ran looked back and forth between the front and back. He really couldn't figure out how this thin piece of paper could be so long. The bayonet was put in. Even when he tried to close the notebook, it was not affected at all!
Are you afraid that Soviet black technology really does exist?
After coming back to his senses, Wei Ran suddenly remembered something, and quickly ran to the workbench against the wall, and turned on the studio monitoring from the desktop computer in the corner.
The replayed surveillance footage made him slightly relieved. The surveillance footage only recorded that after he finished calling Professor Alexey, his phone slipped and hit his big toe, and then he sat down on his ass. In the scene on the floor, as for the cowhide notebook, it never appeared in the shot at all.
And the most important thing is that less than a minute passed from the time he finished making the call to checking the surveillance, and most of the time in the picture was him sitting on the floor in a daze!
However, to be cautious, he deleted the whole day's monitoring records and unplugged the power supply. Anyway, he was the only one watching this thing. Professor Alexei not only didn't care at all, he even called up the monitoring There is no password.
After cleaning up the last bit of suspicious evidence, Wei Ran picked up the notebook still lying on the floor. After turning to the second page, he first looked at the blood-red vortex on the back to make sure it was still there. , then turned it back to the front, and took out several developed negatives from the paper bag next to the black and white T-34 photo.
He turned on the copy board again and put the negatives on it. Wei Ran held up a magnifying glass and carefully observed each one. These negatives were taken by him personally. There was Oleg in the ruins. There are photos of family photos and sniper rifles in their homes. There are photos of the old man sitting on a chair with a crippled leg and playing the piano. There are also photos of Lieutenant Lev and others taken alone after they dug out the tank. And take photos.
What was recorded in the last negative was the scene he saw at the last moment, when he was standing at the highest point of the ruined bell tower, preparing to use the radio to direct the tank into battle.
In the shot captured on this negative, most of the city has been turned into ruins. At the corner, the Volga River with floating corpses and ferries reflects the sparkling water that has just risen above the horizon. sun. In the center of the photo, the T-34 tank, like the protagonist, rushes towards the artillery position directly ahead. Between the artillery and the tank, there are two German tanks approaching in the opposite direction.
Around them, German soldiers holding guns were frozen in the moment of running, and some artillerymen rushed towards the howitzers with their barrels raised high.
"Papa" Wei Ran turned off the power of the copy board, threw the magnifying glass aside, leaned on the back of the chair tiredly and closed his eyes.
Although less than ten minutes had passed in the world that belonged to him, in the world that did not belong to him seventy or eighty years ago, that difficult day was longer than a century.