While Wei Ran waited patiently, the white light in his field of vision dissipated, and the surrounding area turned into a familiar studio.
On page 16 of the metal book, the pattern drawn by the quill pen has turned into a black and white photo. In this photo, the originally blurry face of the soldier lying on the stretcher has become much clearer, and it can be vaguely seen that it is Nurse Lano.
Under the photo, a metal quill wrote lines of text.
"The hard bone stuck in the meat grinder"
On October 3, 1942, the company led by company commander Valentin and political commissar Sergey was attacked by German artillery. Everyone sacrificed.
Pasha, the doctor at the first aid station, led the field medical workers and the wounded to supplement the frontline positions to block the attack. No one surrendered and no one survived.
Postman Revry, nurse Llano and sniper Danila encountered a German patrol that day. In order to cover the artillery observer Andre, they died one after another. Their bodies were cut down by the forest ranger Gioia. They were snatched back by workers and buried together in a pine forest outside Rzhev.
After completing the artillery guidance mission that day, artillery observer Andrei received a new mission to continue lurking deep in the pine forest. A week later, he was unfortunately hit by a mine on his way back to the Soviet position and died.
Forest ranger Gioya, after the Battle of Rzhev, married Yuna and survived until the end of World War II. He searched for the bones of artillery observer Andrei for a long time until he gave up after the collapse of the Soviet Union and moved to Moscow to live. .
Ivan, a soldier of the Soviet Red Army, retired due to injury at the end of September 1942. He returned to his hometown of Tyumen and worked in the library of Tyumen State University in charge of cleaning. He passed away in the summer of 1997.
At the end of September 1942, artist Tonya, a Soviet Red Army soldier, retired from the army due to injury and returned to his hometown of Moscow. After the war, he became a photographer and had a son. His son Sergey briefly worked for the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the father and son collaborated to run a photo studio. In the winter of 2001, Tonya passed away in his sleep.
At this point, the metal quill started on a new line and wrote a detailed address in Moscow, as well as a name called Sergey and a series of phone numbers. In addition, this quill pen also provides an additional set of detailed coordinates.
After a brief pause, it continued on another line, "Those forgotten names were once unknown heroes on the forgotten battlefield. What they worked hard for may just be for Let the living no longer have to experience the pain they have experienced."
Amidst the clatter of turning pages, the metal quill continued to write under the slowly rotating red vortex, "My dear comrade, thank you. You witnessed our wedding. My dear comrade, thank you for pressing the shutter for us. My dear comrade, thank you for the gift of vodka."
With a crisp sound, it was completed. The metal quill he was working on fell onto the hard solid wood table.
Wei Ran rubbed his face vigorously, took a deep breath, reached into the red vortex, and took out the contents.Come and put it on the table.
What I got this time, in addition to a Soviet cloak and a pair of leather marching boots commonly equipped by the German army in World War II, was a pair of well-polished long leather boots with a thick piece stuffed in each. Foot wrap.
And among the iconic clothing and equipment belonging to the two camps but stacked together, there is a large book that looks very dated, with the words "Komsomolskaya Pravda" stamped on it. .
Gently opening the plastic leather book, which was larger than an A4 paper, Wei Ran discovered that, except for the handwriting on the first page, "The 31st Group Army of the Soviet Red Army, the 673rd Regiment of the 220th Infantry Division" In addition to the words, there are four individual photos of Soviet Red Army soldiers fixed on each subsequent page. Under these single photos, there are also addresses written in dark blue pen. And under these four In the middle of the photo is a paper bag the size of a cigarette box, which contains the negatives corresponding to the four photos.
As he flipped through the pages, there were too many familiar or unfamiliar people appearing in this photo album. Some of them once sat around the stove with him, baking footcloths while listening to the artist. Among the soldiers Tonya sang about were the veteran who once told himself that his home was in Stalingrad and that his son worked at the Stalingrad Tractor Factory, the soldier who gave him boots in the first place, and even Captain Valentin. , political commissar Sergei, and Boris, the soldier who was almost chosen to become Danila's deputy.
Turning to the last page of this thick photo album, Wei Ran found that there were only photos of the soldiers in the trenches, but not a single one of the subsequent photos.
Wei Ran turned the metal book that was still aside and turned a page forward. He took out the thick stack of negatives in the paper bag next to the black and white photo and stuck them one by one in the backlight. On the board, when he turned on the power of the backlight board, he breathed a sigh of relief. All the photos that did not appear in the album were here.
After carefully putting away the negatives, Wei Ran first picked up the long marching boots still on the table and looked at them. These boots, like the cloak next to them, seemed to have been restored by the metal book. "Factory status" is displayed, and neither the size nor the production date nor the manufacturer's code can be found on it.
But the soles of these boots are slightly thicker, and even the cleats embedded in the soles look more sturdy and wear-resistant.
Not bad...
Wei Ran muttered to himself, put it aside, and then unfolded the thick cloak and put it on his body.
After admiring the mirror in the distance, Wei Ran simply put on his boots and took out the SVT40 semi-automatic sniper rifle from the wooden box on the table. Silently, he studied the notches on the butt of the gun and the two rows of five-pointed stars.
Gently flicking the two rings pierced through the ring on the charging handle, he murmured and sighed amidst the crisp impact, "Unfortunately, there will never be a chance on it again." It's engraved with 100 German lives. Fortunately, there are more on it.There is no chance to engrave the lives of 100 Germans. "
With a final sigh, Wei Ran put the rifle in his hand back into the wooden box, then took off the outfit he was wearing, folded it, and put it back together with the photo album. In the red vortex.
Copying down all the addresses and coordinates recorded in the metal book, Wei Ran closed his eyes and leaned on the back of the chair in a daze for a long time. Finally, he opened his eyes again and moved away.
After a while, the melodious and simple music of the piano began to echo in the warm studio, and Wei Ran closed his door again. Eyes.
After finishing the Guangling song, Wei Ran, who felt much calmer, slowly put away his guqin, rubbed his face again, and then took out the notebook that Katenka had given him not long ago. The computer recorded what happened on the Rzhev battlefield in an almost serial form, and then connected it to a scanner to compare the negatives in the metal book and the photo album with the Red Army soldiers in each photo. The names and home addresses of the soldiers were all typed into the same document.
As for whether these things would be seen by Katenka, he was not worried. These information, which were almost investigation records, were quickly produced. It will be made public. As long as I don't record anything involving the metal book, no one can say anything after reading it.
It took nearly two hours to complete this detailed but detailed work. But it was so boring that there were not many readable records. Wei Ran started to think about the next arrangements while flexing his wrist.
There is still almost a week left before returning to Hongqi Forest Farm. According to the schedule at the end of last year. Experience, after completing this course, I may get more than two months of vacation.
Whether it is to return to China or take a complete vacation, I will definitely not have the time or opportunity to continue to follow up. Regarding what happened on the Rzhev battlefield
With this in mind, Wei Ran entered the set of coordinates provided by the metal book into the computer. After some comparison, he finally determined that this location was in Rzhev. In a forest on the outskirts of the country.
After finally planning his time, he simply bought a ticket to fly to Moscow early the next morning, planning to go to that forest before returning to the Hongqi Forest Farm. Let's take a look inside.
After making arrangements for the next few days, Wei Ran packed up the things on the table and walked to the bedroom on the second floor with a yawn. After a good sleep, early the next morning, before the sun had jumped over the horizon, he had already left the studio in an off-road vehicle and headed straight to the airport, and soon boarded a flight to Moscow.
After the plane landed smoothly, Wei Ran found a car rental company that often cooperated with his aunt's travel agency and borrowed an off-road vehicle and went straight to Rzhev, which is more than 150 kilometers away.
As Moscow residents often complain, leaving the Moscow Grand Ring Road is like arriving in another country.
This complaint is not an exaggeration. In addition to the rapidly shrinking houses around it, the dilapidated infrastructure is also the main reason. But fortunately, it was almost the coldest time of the year, and the road was paved all the way, so it was not difficult to walk. The only thing he needed to be careful about was that something might suddenly jump out along the way. Just a wild deer or a drunkard.
We arrived at Rzhev on a starry night. Wei Ran randomly found a hotel that looked pretty good and rested for one night. The next day, he bought a few bottles of vodka and a large bunch of vodka. The sunflower was blooming, and then he drove the borrowed car towards the destination pointed by the set of coordinates.
As the car crossed the bridge across the Volga River and left the city, the scenery outside the window turned into cultivated land and scattered factory buildings after the forest was cleared. As for the traces left by the massive destruction by the German army during World War II, all he could find now were the few monuments he saw before leaving the city.
Perhaps just like what is written in the metal book, those forgotten names were once unknown heroes on the forgotten battlefield. What they are working for may just be to prevent living people from experiencing the pain they have experienced.
From the perspective of a bystander, or from the perspective of a bystander who was born and raised in China, let alone Rzhev who is drifting away behind him, even if it is nearly two hundred kilometers away Moscow, in his eyes, was just like that.
Even Wei Ran can objectively, confidently and proudly say that even though Moscow is the capital of a country, it may not be as comfortable, convenient, safe, etc. as the small county town in his hometown. , and even if necessary, he can list all kinds of evidence to prove that he is not boasting, day and night without repeating the same thing.
But from the perspective of an eyewitness who briefly experienced that war, today’s Rzhev is very different to the artillery observer Andrei, to the sniper Danila and the field nurse Rano, and to that The young postman Revry may have been an earth-shaking change that was unimaginable to the soldiers commanded by Captain Valentin to hold the position.
As for the fact that the regime that once guided them to fight has long since fallen, maybe they don't actually care, because at least their families and children finally don't have to experience the pain they experienced.
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