Chapter 538 The Hypothesis Behind the Jeep 2 in 1

Led by Saleh, the three vehicles circled around the stone mountain in front of them, which was only forty to fifty meters high.

When the car parked in the shadow on the northwest side of this stone mountain, everywhere you looked, in addition to a few trees of unknown species, there were also many sparsely growing trees on the surface. desert plants and a small patch of apparently artificially grown watermelons.

Near the foot of the mountain, the most conspicuous things were some simple stone houses, as well as a group of goats and camels. He even saw a few fennec foxes that were obviously kept as pets. Running around the tall, skinny Saluki.

Of course, there is also a well located in the center of these houses, and around the well, there are nomads wearing gray robes with AK rifles and even rocket launchers in their hands.

Under the somewhat nervous gaze of Wei Ran, Saleh was the first to open the door of the off-road vehicle, took off his hat and sunglasses, and enthusiastically greeted the alert Berbers. The man waved.

Obviously, both sides were very familiar with each other. After seeing Saleh, the Berbers immediately raised their weapons and cheered.

"Soliman, do all the Berbers in the desert have a weapon?" Wei Ran, who had also opened the door, asked the young man who had just jumped out of the truck.

"Of course not"

Soliman called on Weiran to help unload a plastic basket full of Coke and two large boxes of bullets from the cargo bed of the truck, and then moved it Five or six bags of flour came down, and then he explained with a smile, "This tribe is a special situation."

"Tell me more about it"

"Of course"

It was only then that Soliman explained, "This place is very close to the border. When my father and I were doing smuggling business, we always sent our cargo here. It was transported to Libya by the camels of these Berbers. Of course, we occasionally used it as a warehouse."

"By them"

Wei Ran looked at those people again. Happy Berbers. There seemed to be less than 50 of these Berbers at most, but there seemed to be at least sixty or seventy camels.

"Don't underestimate them," Soliman said very seriously, "They are the real owners of this desert."

"These people have always lived here" Wei Ran He asked while following the other person towards the center of the tribe.

"Of course not"

Soliman simply answered this question superficially, but did not mean to explain it in depth. Obviously, this should be about their smuggling business." Trade Confidential”.

Seeing this, Wei Ran stopped asking further questions in this regard. While helping Mr. Edward get off the off-road vehicle, he also changed the topic."Where's the jeep you just mentioned?"

"Don't worry, you'll see it soon."

Soliman showed off with a smile, and took the guard with him Ran and Edward, who looked novel, caught up with Saleh who was walking in the front.

Surrounded by the Berbers, everyone walked into an open space surrounded by gauze cloth.

Obviously, this is the "reception room" of this tribe. Although there is still soft sand under the feet, the surrounding tulle and the canopy above block the fine sand blown by the wind.

Due to the shielding of the mountains, it is obviously much cooler here, but the Berber people around are even more enthusiastic than the sun in the sky.

Soon, several young Berbers brought the slaughtered watermelon on stainless steel trays, and outside the gauze wall that could not block the view, several Berbers had already started Kill the sheep.

Although I couldn’t understand what Saleh and the Berber tribe leader were talking about

but it didn’t delay Wei Ran and Edward from eating watermelon, let alone A few cute fennec foxes raised their big ears and put their wet noses close to them, waiting to eat the watermelon rind.

After taking a bite of the watermelon pulp, which was so sweet that it almost hit his throat, Wei Ran spit it out into the palm of his hand and tried to hand it to a bolder fennec fox, but he didn’t expect that this one was smaller than a cat. The little thing didn't know whether it was because of bad eyesight or a good appetite, but it actually bit his shoelace and started to pull it while shaking its head.

Smoothly feeding the watermelon pulp in his palm to another fennec fox that looked smarter, Wei Ran turned to Soliman who was also teasing the small animal next to him and asked, "How about we go and see Look at that jeep."

Soliman looked up and looked around, picked up a piece of watermelon and stood up, "Okay, I'll take you to see it."

"Mr. Edward. , do you want to go take a look, there is a jeep here from World War II."

"From World War II"

Edward immediately threw away the watermelon rind in his hand, "Of course Victor. , is this the investigation clue you found?"

"Maybe so."

Wei Ran gave an ambiguous answer, got up and followed Soliman out of the airy "meeting hall" guest room".

Under the leadership of Soliman, a group of three people strolled to the well located in the center of the stone houses.

It was only then that Wei Ran noticed that there was a Willys Jeep chassis frame set up at a 45-degree angle on the edge of the well, which was nearly two meters in diameter.

Next to the well, there was half a 200-liter oil drum obviously used to fetch water. But what is even more exaggerated is that after the steel wire rope tied to the oil drum passed through the trailer hook eye on the front of the chassis, the other end was tied to a dirty camel not far away.

On the edge of the well, there is even a sink carved out of stone with a capacity comparable to a bathtub.

"Want to take a bath?" Soliman asked abruptly

.

Before Wei Ran could respond, he had already thrown the half oil drum into the well.

With the sound of "crash", in the splashing water at the bottom of the well, the camel that was originally lying on the sand stood up, spitting and cursing.

Soliman swayed the wire rope hanging in the well from side to side. When the rusty oil drum at the bottom of the well was filled with water, he immediately slapped the camel lightly on the butt.

Under the tug of the camel, the wire rope gradually became straightened, and then the oil drum filled with water from the bottom of the well was easily lifted up.

With a "swish" sound, the cool well water flowed accurately into the stone tank beside the well as Soliman shook the wire rope again. The camel also came back with a patter.

Feeding the watermelon rind in his hand to the camel, Soliman washed his hands in the stone trough and then asked, "Did you see it?"

"Powerful "The chassis and frame of the Lis Jeep" Wei Ran shook his head helplessly and asked, "Where are the other things?"

"Over there"

Soliman was confused Wiping his hands on his shorts, he continued walking forward with Wei Ran and Edward, and finally stopped under a date palm tree.

Under the shadow of this tree, Wei Ran finally saw the body of the Willys Jeep. Although the hood of this car body is gone and the paint on the body is already mottled, but even so, it still attracts attention.

Between the driver and the co-pilot, on a rusty vehicle mount, there is still a twin Vickers K-type machine gun, and even the 100-round capacity magazine on the two machine guns. All are there.

When the three of them arrived, there were several children playing simulation driving and machine gun firing games in the car shell.

Although this child's game is too childish in the eyes of three adults "from big cities", looking at their skillful actions of disassembling and assembling bomb discs, it is clear that this "entertainment device" >

Shi" is probably an existence that accompanies them when they grow up.

Compared with this eye-catching World War II weapon, Weiran squatted at the front of the car and dug out the yellow sand that almost buried the radiator grille on the front of the car.

As expected, three radiator grilles on the left side of the front of the car were removed. Although the right side is intact, it has a pair of metal brackets on the edge.

There is no doubt that this bracket is used to install an external water cooler, but after such a long time, the water cooler has undoubtedly been removed and used for other purposes.

Walking around the car shell, Wei Ran even picked up one of the children in a light blue robe and carefully inspected the two Vickers K-type machine guns.

"Victor, what are you looking for?" Edward standing aside asked curiously.

"Date of production"

Weiran scratched the brand on the machine gun with his fingernails, "The gun was produced in 1940. It's a pity that the jeep was too broken, otherwise Maybe stillFind more valuable clues. "

"Do you think this has anything to do with my grandfather?" Edward asked.

"Who knows?"

Weiran reloaded the two machine guns separately. With such an empty bullet tray, he stepped away from the car shell that was half buried in the yellow sand. He smoothly and playfully held the kid under his armpits and put him back in the machine gunner position. Then he explained slowly and casually. , "This is not close to the front line of the Mediterranean battlefield, but this car was undoubtedly the equipment of the British team at that time, so it is difficult to say whether it has anything to do with your grandfather's incident. But the fact that the Jeep itself is here speaks volumes. "

"What's the problem?" Edward continued to ask, and at the same time, he took out a metal tube from his pocket, took out the cigar inside, and then took out a cigar cutter.

" At that time, this was not a main battlefield, which meant that the main British troops would not come here. "

Wei Ran waved his hand and declined the cigar offered by the other party. He stood under the shade of a tree and continued, "The only ones I can think of who can be sent here are the British team. "

"Team" Edward put the cigar in his mouth and asked doubtfully, "What is team"

"Have you always heard of sas?" Wei Ran asked Edward .

"Of course I have heard of it"

Edward said nonchalantly while lighting the cypress stick in his hand with a lighter, "The Matt who is always with Charlotte. My husband once served in that army. "

"Mr. Matt is from SAS," Wei Ran asked in surprise.

"Once, that's all. "

Edward corrected him while lighting his cigar, "He retired due to rheumatism a few years ago, and has been working for Mr. Charlotte since then. Victor, let's continue with your speculation. "

Does Charlotte still need bodyguards? His worth seems to be

Wei Ran suppressed the doubts in his heart and continued his train of thought, "Whether it was the team or SAS, at that time On the battlefield in North Africa, they can't come here for a vacation, right?"

Edward couldn't help but smile and joked, "Even if they wanted to go on vacation, they wouldn't come to a place like this. "

Wei Ran spread his hands and said with almost certainty, "So there must be military targets here or nearby that are worthy of their dispatch. "

"What military target?" Edward, who had already caught up with the train of thought, asked again like a shameless thief.

"I don't know"

Wei Ran With an innocent face, he gave the obvious answer, "But at least it has been proven that there must be World War II military facilities nearby that are worthy of their deployment, right?"

At this point, Weiran raised his hand and pointed casually. "Considering that this is only a straight line distance of forty or fifty kilometers from the location where your grandfather was captured, we might as well make a few assumptions. "

"What hypothesis?" Edward asked.

"Before all assumptions, let us first assume that the jeep is directly related to your grandfather."

Wei Ran paused for a moment before continuing, "The first hypothesis, at that time The British soldiers driving this jeep came here before your grandfather was captured. Mr. Edward, when was your grandfather captured?"

"September 27, 1941. "Edward gave an accurate time without thinking.

"Have you ever said which British army captured him?" Wei Ran asked, but Edward shook his head in return.

"No matter which army he was captured by"

Wei Ran kicked the jeep's shell, "According to my understanding, this is the first time that the British team has clearly recorded Yes, the special operations mission seemed to have been carried out in November 1941.

But unfortunately, I don’t know if it was because of Mr. Churchill’s blessing that they actually encountered a 30-year-old man in this desert. Not only did the combat mission end in failure due to a severe storm, we even lost two-thirds of the team members at once.

Although we cannot tell whether the team driving the jeep was at that time, we can at least rely on the team. Judging from the time of the first special operations mission, the probability that this jeep came here before your grandfather was captured is not high."

"Since the probability is not high"

"Anyway, it proves that this car most likely came here after your grandfather was captured." Wei Ran concluded before Edward could finish his words.

Hearing this, Edward shrugged indifferently, "What about the other assumptions?"

"The major premise remains unchanged"

Wei Ran said with a smile, " The second hypothesis is that this car was abandoned here when the British soldiers who captured your grandfather were on their way back to their base." "Victor, tell me the conclusion directly. Come on." Edward urged.

"At least I haven't seen a description of this place in the work notes left by your grandfather, and it's obviously your first time here."

"I know" Edward puffed out a cloud of smoke, "so the probability of this hypothesis is not high."

"It's easy to communicate with smart people"

Wei Ran's perfunctory attitude He complimented the other party and said in a relaxed tone, "After ruling out the first two hypotheses, the probability that this jeep came here after your grandfather was captured is much higher."

"But what does this mean?"

"I remember when we first met, you told me that your grandfather spent a year squatting in Cairo after being captured Prison then suddenly became a BP employee"

"That's true," Edward affirmed at Wei Ran's memory.

"Then what price did he pay to leave prison?" Wei Ran asked abruptly.

"Use"What price?" Edward was stunned, then replied, "My grandfather never mentioned the price he paid. ”

This old guy is lying

After Wei Ran made a judgment based on the other party’s tone, facial expressions and some small movements, he patted the car casing next to him as usual. , “Perhaps this military vehicle is for the price your grandfather paid. "

"Isn't this a coincidence?" Edward asked in astonishment.

"Is it a coincidence?"

Wei Ran asked as he walked back He said, "Mr. Edward, this is only forty or fifty kilometers away from the place where your grandfather was captured. And don’t forget, although we are now guests in a Berber tribe, this place is still deep in the desert, with a radius of 100 kilometers. Maybe this is the only place where you can see Go somewhere with some plants.

In other words, if the price your grandfather paid to avoid jail and still have a job was anywhere near where he was captured, those who are targeting your grandfather The British soldiers who paid the price to come here have a high probability that they will pass by and rest here, right?"

"What if we assume that this place has nothing to do with what happened to my grandfather?" Edward asked abruptly

Wei Ran did not rush to answer Edward's question, but turned to look at Soliman who had been following him, "Soliman, do you know when this jeep appeared here? "

"It has been here as long as the leader of this tribe can remember.

Soliman pointed at the children behind him who were aiming at their backs with twin machine guns and continued with a smile, "Baha, the guy in our store, once asked the boy According to the patriarch who only speaks Berber, when he was the age of those children, there were still bullets in the machine gun cartridges in the car. At that time, they even used those two machine guns to resist The Bedouin came over to seize the territory. "

"How old is the patriarch?" Wei Ran asked.

"I guess he is at least seventy years old," Soliman replied uncertainly.

“So he should have been born in the years before and after World War II. "

After Wei Ran made his judgment, he translated the conversation between the two of them to Mr. Edward, and then said, "So the topic has come back again. Taken together, even at that time The person driving this jeep here has nothing to do with your grandfather, so there must have been political facilities nearby that were worthy of the British sending soldiers here. "

"Isn't this conclusion already stated at the earliest?" Edward reminded impatiently.

"That's true"

Wei Ran nodded,

But he asked abruptly, "So Mr. Edward, do you think it's possible that your grandfather was captured on the way to that moral facility that could attract the British? Or, He is the military base itself"The staff here"

While Wei Ran said this guess, Edward's eyebrows trembled obviously, and immediately after, the old man used the action of smoking a cigar to cover up his inner activities. , continued in an impatient tone, "Okay Victor, what I'm paying you to find is what happened to my grandfather at that time, and where his colleagues went. Just give me a satisfactory answer as soon as possible. "

"Of course, I will reply to you as soon as possible. "

Watching Edward speeding up his pace, a gentle smile appeared on Wei Ran's face. The assumption he just made was not to deceive Mr. Edward.

After all, , only a straight line distance of 40 kilometers. In his opinion, any World War II military equipment appearing nearby may be inseparable from Edward's grandfather.

Thinking of this, Wei Ran turned to look at Soliman and asked in Russian, "Soliman, are there any military facilities or military equipment abandoned during World War II nearby?"

"How big is the neighborhood you are talking about?" "The range," Soliman asked.

"Let me think about a hundred, no, a hundred and fifty kilometers." "Wei Ran looked at the scorching sun above his head, pointed to the southwest and said, "To the west, south and the 150 kilometers between these two directions. "

"I'm afraid we have to ask the leader of this tribe."

Soliman spread his hands, "Our smuggling business only ends here, and the rest The road is basically completed by the camels of the Berbers, who are more familiar with the surrounding environment than we are. "

"So Mr. Saleh should not just come here to rest," Weiran asked abruptly.

Sori

Manxiao He smiled and nodded frankly, "Of course, we will need a guide who is familiar with the surrounding desert. ”

No wonder

Wei Ran nodded secretly. When he was on the road, he had wondered why Saleh had to make a small circle to come here, but now he can explain it clearly.

p>

Changing the topic at will, Wei Ran and Soliman followed Edward and slowly returned to the "reception room" surrounded by gauze walls in the shadow of the mountain.

And Soliman also came close to Saleh, whispered something into his ear, then walked back and sat on the other side of Wei Ran, also picked up a fennec fox and put it on On his legs, he gently scratched his soft belly.

While waiting a little boredly, several Berbers in black turbans brought roasted mutton and meat. A steaming pottery tagine pot was brought out, and then a few sheets of pasta similar to flatbreads and a few plates of something similar to hand-pulled mutton rice were given to everyone.

“Eat whatever you want.Well, this is authentic Berber food that you can’t even eat in Cairo. "

Salih, who had been chatting with the tribe leader just now, greeted, "After filling our stomachs, we will simply rest here for a while before setting off. "

"Do you want to continue wasting time here?" Edward asked subconsciously.

"This is not a waste of time."

He was wiping his hands with a wet tissue Wei Ran answered this question for Saleh, “We can take a nap here so that we can be more energetic in the afternoon. "

"Get some sleep" Edward was stunned, "I don't have the habit of sleeping at noon. ”

“You can experience it”

Wei Ran had already picked up a piece of grilled lamb chops while he was talking

and threw it to him running beside him. The little foxes were fighting for it, and then he took out a pair of chopsticks in a bamboo box from his bag, picked up the large plate of something that looked like finger food, and put it in his mouth. < /p>

His "city dweller" behavior made him stunned when he looked at the Berbers around him who were holding rice balls with their hands and putting them in their mouths, as well as those who were also holding barley rice balls with their hands and putting them in their mouths. Soliman gave it to me

" Lend me the spoon."

Soliman quickly sucked his greasy finger and picked it up unceremoniously.

"Can you lend me that fork?" As Edward spoke, he also took away the last piece of tableware left in the box.

"Isn't there a spoon in that pot?"

Wei Ran muttered vaguely, stretched out his chopsticks and accurately picked up a spoon from the hot tagine pot. A big mouthful of tender mutton went into your mouth, please remember:, free and fastest update, no anti-theft, no anti-theft