The joy of victory was gone. Company Commander Xia reported the matter to the regiment headquarters. Because the death occurred during training, the evidence was conclusive and there was no more noise. The regiment headquarter will make a routine record first, and then return to the base for further processing. All that was left was for the cavalry platoon leader and Chen Xiaoxiang to write a notice respectively and send them back to their place of origin along with the deceased's personal belongings and ashes.
Shen Rusong saw that the company commander had hung up the field call. The matter seemed to have passed, but it was not. He looked at the distant plains outside the mountains and remained silent. He understood that every moment, there were people like him. people passed away.
The stopped team continued to set off. They were delayed for half a day. Those who felt sorry for the horses clamored to send people to return the horses. The cavalry who would rather walk remained silent. They had to pay more attention to their steps and walk closer to the mountain wall.
Today there is no more singing, no more laughter.
Setting up camp at night, Shen Rusong told the soldiers in the team to lay a solid foundation and not to secretly prescribe more individual soldier rations just for a piece of shelf-stable cake.
The last portion of cabbage and bacon brought from the farm was cooked in the army pot set up on the campfire. No matter how bad the big pot rice was, it was better than self-heating rations. Everyone put their helmets on their buttocks. The moon was still the moon from yesterday, but the tops of the trees were not yesterday. of forest tips.
Because of what happened today, no one was laughing loudly. Liu Youcheng, who usually grinned at his brother, apologized to his brother Liu Youde in front of everyone. Yang Qi and Liu Zixu, who had made big mistakes before, gritted their teeth and stood up under the urging of others, admitting that they had hurt many people by going to the auxiliary camp to have fun.
Shen Rusong originally thought that these people were all seriously ill and were not suitable for joining the army. They should be thrown into the assembly line and work as workers for the rest of their lives. However, when something like this suddenly happened, in the face of life and death, many things became trivial. If the war started, he would be thrown into In the battle, how many people in this class will survive the first winter?
Shen Rusong drove everyone to go to bed. In the tent and wrapped in a sleeping bag, Shen Rusong couldn't help but think about the cavalryman who died unexpectedly. Shen Rusong didn't recognize him. Among the more than a hundred people in the company, he did After completing his arduous task, except for the people in his own platoon, the maintenance team with Gao Keming, and the cavalry squad that he often interacted with, he had no time to care about other squads and platoons.
What if he died one day? For example, what about the helmeted rat that bit through his head during the battle yesterday? He had eaten too much radiation, so he definitely couldn't be transported back. Would he be burned in the base station? A few months later, his mother and sister received an urn and a cowhide envelope containing a notification letter and pension? In the military cemetery, set up a new one next to your father's tombstone early and bury it inside?
Shen Rusong didn't know.
No matter how much I think about it, I don’t know.
I felt my throat was clogged. It happened that Shen Rusong was on duty. He immediately tied up his military coat and walked out of the tent. He stood in the camp with dim lights and anti-animal mist passing through the gas mask, mixed with the cold mountain breeze. Breathe it into your lungs.
Standing at the sentry position with a gun on his back, letting the rain and wind blow on his face, Shen Rusong pulled up his face towel, hid his cheeks, and stared out at the mountain. Suddenly, he heard a noise and turned around to see Chen Xiaoxiang, who was also on duty, standing not far away.
The two looked at each other and immediately separated. Neither of them had any intention of saying a word. One person was carrying a gun, and the other was holding a gun. They leaned against an extremely strong old tree that had been growing for a hundred years, and looked into the distance together.
Shen Rusong folded his hands, not wanting to worry so much, lit up a cigarette, and took a few puffs of spicy smoke, the cigarette butt flickering in the night.
Soon, red dots also lit up at the other end of the forest. Shen Rusong guessed that she was smoking while sipping her flat wine flask that never seemed to dry up. Shen Rusong suddenly had the urge to ask her to pour a drink. Taste the wine on the lid to see if it is bland water, warm Long An Chun, or strong Erguotou.
Pressing the brim of his hat, Shen Rusong smoked half a pack of cigarettes one by one. Two red dots in the dim forest gradually flashed and then went out. It was at this time that Shen Rusong felt a coldness on his nose. It was not that he was feeling sad.
He stretched out his hand, and a crystal snowflake quietly melted into his palm.
Shen Rusong raised his head, looked at the bright starry sky, and murmured: "It's snowing..."
"Snowing……"
The snow fell one night, and the next day when everyone got out of the tent, they saw only a vast expanse of white between the sky and the earth.
Shen Rusong stepped on the thin snow to untie the tent ropes. When he touched the pile foundation, he felt slightly cold even through his plush gloves. He looked at the few little kids who were having a snowball fight while cleaning up. They couldn't help but smile.
"Sent a routine report to the superiors, and the weather report came back saying that there will be light snow in the next few days." The platoon leader sat at the folding table and drank hot soup.
Shen Rusong filled a bowl of soup, blew on the hot steam and took a sip. It was a freeze-dried vegetable bag wrapped in concentrated soup. You could put it in boiling water and drink it after a while.
My head felt hot after drinking the soup, and my ears felt cold all of a sudden after taking off my ear protection hat. Shen Rusong put his arms on the table, looked around the silver-covered forest, and said to Zhao Haiqiang who was approaching: "It's so cold in spring. yes? "
"Yes, you also know that the weather forecast is unreliable these days."
"It can't be so unreliable, right? When we set out, we said it would be sunny half of the month, but it rained the next day and now it's snowing. What the hell." Shen Rusong said depressedly.
Indeed, 2083 was like any other year, with weird weather conditions that were almost impossible to predict. But what can be done? The still lingering nuclear winter is completely different from the pre-war climate. It is necessary to establish a new meteorological model, but there are no remote sensing satellites to collect data, and there are no supercomputers to analyze and simulate. Where can we get accurate forecasts? Use high-altitude early warning aircraft to collect and summarize ocean current information? Just thinking about it makes me realize it’s unreliable.
"Then what can be done?" Zhao Haiqiang sighed and said, "The platoon leader said that he has asked the superiors. The training will continue and the remaining maintenance objectives must be completed."
"If it snows heavily, we will probably be trapped in the mountains." Shen Rusong said.
Just as Zhao Haiqiang was about to speak, Xin Jie, squad leader 3, came over. Shen Rusong raised his hand and said, "Sister Xin! Would you like a bowl of soup?"
It was also a standard brown long military coat, but when worn on Xinjie, it made her figure extraordinarily slender. The female soldier, who was about the same height as Shen Rusong, glanced at him and refused: "I'm going to work, I won't drink anymore."
"Temper." Zhao Haiqiang shrugged.
The two of them paid no attention to the disrespectful Xin Jie. She always only cared about her own affairs in Class 3 and hardly interacted with other people. If she didn't want to drink, she would just drink. How could she still beg for a bowl?
So Zhao Haiqiang divided the hot soup, drank it, exhaled, and said: "In April, the snow melts quickly when it falls heavily, and how far is it from the base? The helicopter can get us back in half a day."
"Where's the horse?" Shen Rusong pointed to the war horse in the temporary stable. At this moment, the cavalrymen were busy dressing their beloved horses in riding clothes to prevent them from freezing.
"Originally, I was a little surprised that the war horses were going to the mountain road. But now it's fine. It's snowing and the road is slippery. There's nothing much to say about our pack horses. Now that the war horses have no use at all, are you willing to use them to carry goods?"
Zhao Haiqiang shook his head and saw Chen Xiaoxiang walking by with Xunka in the distance, and said: "I think they are reluctant to use horses to carry the goods themselves."
"Is this not over?"
"What do you think your superiors can't do? Mountain training! Maybe you just want to train cavalry into the mountains?"
"Is it faster than others? I haven't heard of anyone riding a horse to the peak in Longshan!"
"Why don't you go talk to her and tell her to ride a horse and get out of here?"
