"We can arrive at eight o'clock in the evening and set up camp." Chen Xiaoxiang said simply,
"The engineers' horses have poor leg power. A horse carries people and a box weighing 200 kilograms. It can walk seven or eight kilometers per hour. It is quite good. Camping in a strange environment after dark? Isn't it appropriate." Shen Rusong questioned.
Chen Xiaoxiang glanced at him and said expressionlessly: "Your class should go slowly. My horse is fast, so we can choose a place to camp in advance."
"I'm going to climb the mountain tomorrow. I'll save energy by climbing the mountain early in the morning." Zhao Haiqiang agreed.
Shen Rusong asked in his heart what the reason was. It's not like I can't see that you are interested in others, so why wouldn't you agree to it like this? The instructions for setting up camp before dark clearly stated that this was not an attack. It would be beneficial to climb the mountain if you had enough sleep and had enough strength.
So Shen Rusong raised his hand and retorted: "No, we will start setting up camp when it gets dark, wherever we go."
"It's all flat ground all the way. It's only six hours. How tiring can it be?" Zhao Haiqiang insisted.
"It's not a matter of whether you're tired or not, it's a matter of rules." Shen Rusong also insisted.
Seeing the stalemate between the two, Chen Xiaoxiang folded his hands and said calmly: "You can go ahead, I will send half of them as patrols to protect you."
Shen Rusong wanted to say more, but the company commander's order came over the walkie-talkie, instructing the cavalry squad to be the vanguard to set off, so Chen Xiaoxiang raised her lips and smiled, pinched her fingers and blew a loud whistle, and a horse neighed. The gray horse galloped over.
Chen Xiaoxiang jumped onto the saddle lightly, held the bridle in his hand and clamped the horse's belly, and Xunka immediately stepped forward.
She took out the silver wine flask and took a sip, waving her hand without looking back: "You guys build the tent foundations yourself!" Then she galloped to the cavalry squad, shouting "Yo~~~~hoo!" , slapped the horse's neck and shouted: "Cavalry squad, follow me!"
Eight handsome war horses of different colors immediately raised their hooves to follow. The eight cavalry followed their squad leader and left with a long voice and a trembling throat sound.
Shen Rusong rubbed his chin wordlessly, punched Zhao Haiqiang's chest again, and said half mockingly, half seriously: "Don't get stuck, kid."
"I'll wipe it." Zhao Haiqiang dodged and slapped him on the shoulder, saying in the same tone: "Did your eyes fall off yesterday? No wonder you are so weak today."
"It's up to you." Shen Rusong didn't want to accept the move. "Only if you can catch up."
Shen Rusong pointed to the group of engineers' horses and ignored Zhao Haiqiang. Instead, he went to say hello and farewell to several fellow cadets who were assigned to other platoons in the battalion.
There were many classmates of Shen Rusong in the division, and there were also several from the Yanqi regiment, and among them was one whom Shao Gang hated so much.
"I'll buy you a drink when I go back! Yongzi!"
"Okay!"
She said hello to Guo Yong, who was nicknamed "pot sticker". Shen Rusong and Guo Yong did not get along, but it was better for enemies to be reconciled than to become enemies. It would be good to pave the way for reconciliation between Shao Gang and Guo Yong.
"Old things from the past." Shen Rusong muttered, then rode his horse to catch up with the troops.
Shen Rusong told platoon leader Xu Bowen about Chen Xiaoxiang's request to arrive at the foot of the mountain before setting up camp. The platoon leader thought it was nothing. The Qianshan Mountains had been repeatedly cleared after the Yanqi base was established, and the mutant beasts were completely wiped out. So what if we had to walk for two extra hours on flat ground?
The platoon commander and company commander discussed it and both spoke. Shen Rusong had nothing to say and just rode silently. The short packhorse under his crotch worked hard, carrying a person weighing more than 170 kilograms. There was also an ordnance box weighing 100 kilograms on each side, filled with rations, engineering equipment, mountaineering equipment and ammunition.
The closer we get to Qianshan, the closer we hear the rushing river. When the outline of the mountains appears, the Hailan Tuduo River also comes into Shen Rusong's field of vision. This section of the Hailan River has not yet cut through the mountains, and the river surface is like a bed of blue. A large quilt covered with colored cloth, ice cubes colliding, and the peaceful and white river surging.
Shen Rusong raised his head, and the river wind ruffled the messy hair on his temples. He stretched out his hand and muttered to himself: "The mountains where horses are racing..."
He took a deep breath of fresh air, followed by a long sigh.
Although the short draft horse is hard-working and docile, it is true that it has short and thick limbs and cannot increase its speed. Without waving the whip or urging the animals, the horse could only walk about five or six kilometers in an hour. This was still on a flat road. If it reached the mountains, the horse's speed would drop sharply.
As a result, the large troop of mules and horses arrived at five o'clock in the afternoon, and the cavalry squad began to turn back. The four cavalrymen raised a huge amount of smoke, pulled up the reins, and controlled the horses to stop with their hind legs sliding on the grass. The horse's hooves exerted force again, the front legs were raised, and the horse completed a 180-degree turn while making an emergency stop.
"Our team has scouted the location and is waiting for you to come."
The speaker was the deputy of the cavalry squad, Ma Yuanguo, a veteran who had served for five years. Shen Rusong saw it clearly. His armband had two stripes of wheat ears, which meant corporal.
The Renaissance Army basically followed the pre-war Wehrmacht system. There are almost no changes to the noncommissioned officer system, with only slight changes in the promotion years. It takes three years instead of four for each of corporal to become sergeant and staff sergeant. But regardless of whether before or after the war, cadets must serve for a minimum period before they can be demobilized. Before the war, it was usually six years, but now it is twelve years.
After serving, they are generally demobilized with the rank of sergeant. As for the soldier level, leaving aside uniformed workers such as infrastructure soldiers, volunteers and conscripts are awarded the rank of private and third class respectively when they join the army. The service life is eight years for the former and six years for the latter. As military ranks increase with military age, it takes two years each to advance from second class to first class and from first class to corporal. Then the combat soldier will have the rank of corporal in the fifth year of service.
Shen Rusong raised his hand and shook it to indicate that he had received it, and Ma Yuanguo called out "Hey, yo, yo, yo," and clamped the fat horse's belly, dispersed the cavalry, and guarded the team one after another.
Seeing Ma Yuanguo riding alone next to the team, this veteran with excellent equestrian skills had nothing to do, so he trained the new recruits. He faced the horse's head with a new recruit who was not skilled enough, and kept turning the horse's head to block the new recruit's progress. The new recruits had to go straight and turn around, but they were all easily stopped.
"A maned wolf is so big. If it charges head-on, you have to follow him! If you don't turn the horse away, any wolf can bite its neck open on the spot!" Seeing that none of the recruits succeeded in breaking through, Ma Yuanguo cursed angrily.
Shen Rusong watched as Ma Yuanguo whipped the recruit who failed the assessment twice, then turned around and said, "If you look at him like that, he will have a bad temper."
"The old horse is good at everything, but his temper is really bad." Qiu Tiejun laughed. He was used to riding mules and horses, and he enjoyed it quite a lot. He casually tried to take out a cigarette, but when he saw Shen Rusong, he looked away again. go.
"This old boy is famous for his bad temper. I heard that he had a fight with the platoon leader when he first joined the army. He did a lot of bad things. But he was really not afraid of death. In the summer of 1978, the last battle of Yanqi , the battle to completely regain the ruins of Yanqi was a miserable one. When he reached the core area of the ruins, he rode into a group of wolves on horseback, fired a gun and a machete, and killed them all, which was cheered by the whole camp. Ah, the division commanders on the helicopter were stunned."
Mentioning the past, Qiu Tiejun became energetic, spat out yellow saliva and continued to rub his hands:
"Later, the division commander summoned him, praised him profusely and promoted him to a military rank on the spot. When he asked Lao Ma what he wanted, Lao Ma said he wanted the division commander to have a cigarette. The division commander threw his gold cigarette case directly to him. After he returned, everyone To say that he is at a loss is to open his mouth. Isn’t he a second-class person?”
