no personality > Notes from a war photographer > Chapter 49 Communication before the snowy night

Chapter 49 Communication before the snowy night

"What's wrong?"

Wei Ran, who was hiding behind the pine tree, asked in a low voice, while listening to the movement around him. However, except for the cold wind coming out in front of him, he didn't hear anything at all. Any unusual sounds.

“I just heard a sound.”

Ji Ma raised his gun and continued to search the surrounding environment. There are other people. In this ghost place, people and animals are prey at gunpoint." "I didn't hear it." Wei Ran looked around blankly with his binoculars. environment.

"Victor, we are here to hunt, not on vacation, so you'd better be more vigilant." After Jima finished speaking, he stood up slowly, "Let's go and take a look. , If there is no danger, continue moving forward."

Without waiting for Wei Ran's reply, Jima had already put the rifle under his arm again, and then took out the old Makarov pistol from his arms. Hiding it in the wide cuffs, he walked towards the direction he had just aimed with one step deeper and one shallower.

When Wei Ran saw this, he quickly picked up his shotgun and followed the opponent's footsteps.

The two of them walked around the thick pine trees, and the terrain under their feet became lower and lower. After a while, Wei Ran finally heard the sound of metal knocking from time to time.

Finally, when they rounded a boulder that was five or six meters high, two tents that were leaking in all directions and mostly buried in snow quietly appeared in their field of vision. On a pine tree not far from the two tents, a small stainless steel pot hanging on a branch and a spoon of the same material hit each other from time to time in the cold wind, making a crisp and sweet knocking sound.

Jima did not relax his vigilance, but directly raised his pistol and began to search for possible dangers around this apparently abandoned camp.

After a long time, Ji Ma put away his gun, pulled out a knife from his waist, and slashed open one of the tents in two or two strokes.

“It seems that a bear attacked here,” Jima picked up a broken thigh bone from the tent and explained, “Only a bear can achieve such a large bite force.”

"Is this also a hunter?"

Facing Wei Ran's question, Jima thought for a moment and shook his head, pointing to the frozen stream not far from the camp and said, "No matter how stupid you are, No hunter would camp in such a place. I guess they are foreigners digging mammoth tusks." As if to confirm his guess, Jima opened the second tent with a knife. Wei Ran came over curiously and saw that there were indeed some dirty water pipes and water pants in the tent. There were even a few rusty shovels and various spilled seasonings in the box in the corner. .

"Let's go." Ji Ma frowned and turned around, "Someone else has already been here."

"How do you know?" Still looking confused Wei Ran followed Ji Ma and asked.

“People who dig mammoth tusks usually come in summer, at the latestI left in mid-September. "

Ji Ma stretched out his thumb and gestured to the camp behind him, "And they usually use the high-pressure water pumped by the water pump to hit the river bed and flush out the ivory. But now that the people are dead, the ivory and the water pump are gone, it's obvious that someone discovered this place earlier than us and took advantage. "

"You know them quite well"

"Of course you do"

Jima explained in a calm tone, "Those foreigners and local hunters But the sworn enemy, the water pump they use to excavate the mammoth will not only make the creek where the animal drinks water muddy, but the noise of the water pump will also scare away the surrounding things. To exaggerate, I would not be surprised if the unlucky guy who died in the tent was shot to death by a brave hunter. ”

The terrible reason Ji Ma guessed in such a plain and even gloating tone made Wei Ran more and more vigilant, and even the original intention of coming to see what was new was diluted a lot.

p>

After eliminating the possible danger, the two men continued to move forward in the dense forest with guns in hand. It was not until about three o'clock that afternoon that Ji Ma, who was leading the way, stopped in a flat forest clearing. Footsteps, “Okay, let’s camp here today. ”

“How far are we? "

Wei Qi asked pantingly. Although he usually works part-time as a tour guide in his aunt's travel agency, his physical strength is far inferior to Ji Ma, who makes a living by hunting, especially when carrying a heavy load on his back. Under the premise of carrying dozens of kilograms of hiking bags.

“We will walk another day tomorrow, and if nothing else happens, we will reach our destination the day after tomorrow. "

While Ji Ma was speaking, he had already taken off his backpack and handed the ax to Wei Ran, "Go and chop some fresh pine branches around. If you find dead wood, note the location first and wait for me. We set up the tent and went together to get some to use as fuel. ”

Wei Ran, who was about to take a breather, reluctantly took the axe, found a few low pine trees nearby, cut off the branches he could reach, and dragged them back to the camp bit by bit.

p>

Ji Ma was also not idle. He took out a saw from his bag, selected a straight pine tree with a thickness of three wrists and cut it, and then tied one end with a rope to prop up a tree that was more than two meters long. Using a tall tripod, he skillfully hung a canvas Indian tent directly below the tripod.

Finally, he used a knife to cut a few wooden nails to tighten the corners of the tent, and then pulled it. After pulling on a few wind ropes, he was content to carry the pine needles that Wei Ran kept sending back into the tent, and carefully spread them on the thick snow.

Waiting for him to use the snow from outside. The area around the tent was compacted, and Wei Ran also found a fallen pine tree not far away. As the saw pulled back and forth, the two men returned the thigh-thick log.

After finishing the work of setting up the camp, Jima picked up the gun and put it on his shoulder again, "I'll go around to see if I can catch any prey. You can light a fire in the tent." ”

"Leave it to me!"

Wei Ran waved his hand happily. He usually went hunting and camping with Professor Alexei, so this job was naturally not a problem for him.

First, he split the logs with an ax and brought them to the tent. Then he took out the burning platform from the mountaineering bag and set it up in the center of the tent. After he was sweating profusely, he lit the bonfire, set up the hanging pot and started to melt the snow and boil water. At that time, a clear gunshot sounded in the distant woods.

Not long after, Ji Ma walked back from the woods with a gun and a rabbit that had been cleaned and only the meat was left in one hand.

"I'm lucky. I caught a rabbit, which should be enough for the two of us." As Jima spoke, he bent down to pick up a pine branch. Looking at him, he was obviously planning to kill the rabbit. Roasted.

"I'll do it!"

Wei Ran, who was about to continue chopping firewood, exchanged the ax in his hand for the rabbit in his hand, "Although I can't match you in hunting, But if you leave this rabbit to me, it will definitely taste better than roasting it."

Ji Ma took the ax indifferently, leaned the gun on his hiking bag and walked out, while not giving up. "As long as you don't use it to make soup, it's fine. I tried it last time and it was too unpalatable."

"Don't worry!" Wei Ran responded, turned around and took out something from his backpack. A package of stew ingredients.

When I was shopping for food and drink in Kazan, I went to a Chinese supermarket to buy this. I bought it along with the stew ingredients, a small bag of rice and a small bag of brown sugar.

He had eaten enough barbecued meats when he went hunting with Professor Alexei. Knowing that he was hunting again this time, in order to satisfy his appetite, he naturally had to prepare as much as possible in advance.

Using a knife, he cut the rabbit's head into random pieces. Wei Ran took off the hanging pot and replaced it with a hanging pot. He poured some water into it and then took out a box of pizza from Jima's backpack. He opened the can of Luo Pork and randomly cut up the large pieces of fatty pork inside and threw it in until the water vapor evaporated to boil out the lard. Then he calmly sprinkled a handful of brown sugar into it.

When the brown sugar melted and started to bubble, Wei Ran, who turned into a chef, was finally willing to throw in all the rabbit meat cut into pieces.

He used the knife in his hand to pull a few times to let all the meat pieces show color. Finally, he threw in a small bag of stew ingredients, sprinkled a little salt and poured two cans of cold beer. Satisfied, he closed the lid of the pot.

As the water vapor evaporated, a rich and unfamiliar fragrance spread along the opening of the tent roof, eventually attracting Ji Ma who was chopping firewood outside. At the same time, Wei Ran also used two people's lunch boxes to cook rice with the newly melted snow water.

"Victor, what delicious food are you making?" Jima walked in with a large bundle of firewood and sniffed curiously.

"Braised Rabbit Meat Rice Bowl"

Wei Ran popped out a Chinese dish name, and regardless of whether the other party understood it, he directly changed the subject and asked, "Ji Ma, While the food is still not cooked, can you teach me how to aim your gun?mirror? I have only used shotguns and SKS rifles for hunting before, but I have never used such high-end products. ”

“This is simple”

Before he could sit down, Jima simply turned around and rolled open the tent door, then sat down on the spread anti-slip mat, and then put the gun rack He pointed his backpack at the forest outside the tent, unplugged the magazine and emptied the chamber, then motioned Wei Ran to sit where he originally belonged.

Wei Ran closed one eye and waited. While looking out through the scope, Jima was busy making coffee and said, "The zero point of this gun is 100 meters. That is to say, if you aim at a prey 100 meters away, and there is no wind, use the accurate Just trap the opponent and pull the trigger directly. "

"What if it's a hundred meters away? "Wei Ran asked, staring at the pine trees in the scope.

"This is where we need to learn."

Jima took out a burning log from the campfire. He lit the cigarette in his mouth and said in a puff of smoke, "The first thing you have to learn is how to use the differentiation board to determine the distance between you and the target. ”

Under Ji Ma’s explanation, Wei Ran gradually learned how to use the scope. Until the sky in his field of vision completely darkened, he returned the gun to Ji Ma and put it down. The curtain of the tent.

While Wei Ran put the stewed rabbit meat into their respective lunch boxes, which smelled of rice, Jima also opened a bottle of vodka and filled their glasses.

p>

“This is probably the most delicious dinner I have ever had while camping in the wild,” Jima muttered in praise as he scooped the rice into his mouth with a spoon, completely ignoring the thick soup and liquid staining the corner of his mouth. Rice grains.

“If you think it tastes good, I’ll teach you how to make it next time. It’s very simple. "As Wei Ran spoke, he took out a can of Laoganma from his pocket, spread a large spoonful on the rice.

"What is that? Give me some too! " Before Jima finished speaking, he had already snatched away the glass bottle that Wei Ran had just put down.

"Don't just eat, continue to talk about hunting. ”

“Actually, the troublesome thing about hunting is not shooting, but how to find the prey. "

Ji Ma, who had just put a big spoonful of Lao Gan Ma into his mouth, explained while grinning at the rice, "If you want to find the prey, another key point is to shoot before you Before, try not to let your prey spot you. This requires keeping enough quietness, and at the same time paying special attention to the surrounding environment. Animals are far more vigilant than humans, and the slightest abnormality will scare them away. ”

“So it’s much easier to hit people than animals?” "Wei Ran asked in a strange way.

"Of course! "

After Ji Ma subconsciously answered Wei Ran's question, he asked in surprise, "How could you have such a dangerous idea? "

Wei Ran quickly shook the spoon in his hand and explained, "I just thought of the snipers during World War II. Many of them were hunters before joining the war. ”

“Oh oh oh! ”

Ji Ma put half a spoonful of Lao Gan Ma into his mouth again, "That movie is "The Battle of the City", right? You are indeed right. In some aspects, hunting humans is much simpler than hunting animals. Humans We will ignore many things that we are accustomed to, such as the sound of metal knocking that you ignore at noon, but hunting humans will also face dangers that they will not encounter when hunting animals."

Wei Ran raised his glass and said. The other party touched it and said, "What about?"

"At least the animals won't shoot at you"

Jima finished speaking with a sigh, but did not dare to drink the cup. of vodka, but picked up the kettle on the side and drank a few sips of cold water, and then continued, "In addition, humans are not color blind like most animals, so although humans' sense of smell and hearing are not as good as those of animals, their vision is But you have an advantage, especially when using a telescope."

Before Wei Ran wanted to continue asking, Ji Ma stopped the topic in time, "Okay, I can't teach you this. "Dangerous things, besides, I'm just a hunter, not a heroic sniper in the movie."

The other party didn't want to say more, so Wei Ran naturally couldn't continue to ask. After the two of them finished eating the rabbit meat in the pot, they each poured a cup of brewed coffee, sat around the warm campfire, and changed the topic to other aspects.

When night fell completely, the wind outside the tent became more and more violent. At the same time, the snowflakes floating in through the opening of the tent above the head became larger and larger. However, before they landed, they were already on the bonfire. Under the scorching heat, it turned into water vapor and drifted away without a trace.

"Are you sure there won't be a snowstorm?" Wei Ran, who was about to get into his sleeping bag, asked worriedly.

"Probably not, but a heavy snowfall is probably inevitable."

Ji Ma, who was responsible for the first wave of night watch, continued to wipe it on his knees without raising his head. rifle, "Anyway, don't worry. Heavy snow is a good thing. At most, it will only make our trip slower tomorrow."

"I hope so" Wei Ran glanced at The bonfire was burning, but he finally chose to believe Jima, who looked calm.

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