The next day, less than ten minutes after breakfast, the command platoon was fully armed and assembled at the entrance of the village.
This is the first time that Wang Ke has accompanied Staff Officer Hu of the artillery unit into the mountains since he became the acting command platoon leader.
"Stand at attention, look to the right, and look forward! Take a break and stand at attention!" Wang Ke clenched his fists and ran to the old platoon leader Hu Zhijun on one side. Five or six steps away, he stood still with a "pop".
"Reporting to Staff Officer Hu, the artillery company command platoon of the direct team has been assembled. Please give instructions, acting platoon leader Wang Ke."
"Set off."
"Yes!" After Wang Ke said this, he turned back and ran to the front of the queue to stand still. Then he shouted: "Turn right and walk!"
It is impossible to walk in unison on this mountain road. It is not easy to walk fast and steadily.
The command platoon set off, two columns, headed by reconnaissance squad leader Song Ruimin and wireless squad leader Huang Zhonghe. Song Ruimin carried a command bag and binoculars on his right shoulder, and a kettle, dry food and a gun on his right shoulder. What Huang Zhonghe carried on his back was a kettle of dry food and a two-watt radio, and a five-wing antenna above his head shook as he walked.
Nineteen people formed a special team.
What was different from the past was that everyone in the command platoon wore leggings. This strap is from the time when I was helping the munitions and ordnance section organize the warehouse. The old squad leader Huang Zhonghe couldn't bear to throw away the torn gun cleaning cloth strips. He bought a bag of grass-green paint and dyed the white cloth at that time. Dry it, and then wind it into a small bundle of three or four meters.
After training in the mountains, everyone understood the use of leggings. Wrap the calves of the military pants in circles and tie them. In this way, when training in the jungle or mountains, you will not be afraid of the thorns of the jujube trees scratching your military pants.
Haha, the people in the command platoon today look very much like the old Eighth Route Army, attracting soldiers from the company who are not artillery platoons to stand in the distance and point.
Wang Ke followed the old platoon leader Hu Zhijun and walked at the back of the team.
"Platoon leader, our landlord told us to enter from the mountain pass on the opposite side. Within two kilometers, turn right and you will see Eagle Mouth." Wang Ke and Hu Zhijun said, pointing to the mountain pass on the opposite side of the road.
"Eagle's mouth?"
"Platoon commander, you know?"
"Well, the deputy company commander and I studied that area on the map that day. But from the map, that place didn't look like an eagle's beak, but more like a knife."
"Then why is it called Eagle Mouth?"
"Yeah, I don't understand either. Maybe it's just a random place name." The old platoon leader Hu Zhijun turned around and said to Wang Ke. Today he was carrying a pistol, a bottle of water and a satchel with dry food on his chest. A telescope hangs.
Wang Ke didn't have a gun. He only had a kettle, a satchel with dry food, the military dagger he carried with him, and a drawing board with a map of the area.
With that said, he crossed the highway and followed a path made by the shepherd.
The grass on both sides of the road grew deeper and deeper, reaching up to my knees, and slowly only a shallow mark remained on the road. Song Ruimin, who was walking at the front, noticed that the trees were getting denser and denser, and the team was slowly moving through the trees and grass.
When I turned around and looked behind me, I could no longer see the road, and was surrounded by dense woods and grassy beaches.
"Wait a minute, reconnaissance squad leader." Wang Ke stopped the team when he saw it. He and the old platoon leader Hu Zhijun came from the rear to the front of the team.
"Reconnaissance squad leader, are you sure you are walking in the direction of the eagle's mouth?" Wang Ke took off the picture board, held it flat, and took out the compass from his pocket.
Song Ruimin scratched his head, looked around and said, "There is no way to judge the terrain now. I walked in along the path."
"Then look at the front of this road." Wang Ke pointed to a few dozen meters ahead of the path. A white thing could be vaguely seen through the cracks in the tree trunks.
"what is that?"
Huang Zhonghe, the old squad leader next to him, said in surprise: "That's a highway."
"Ah?" Several soldiers nearby screamed. After walking less than a kilometer, they turned back to the road in the mountain pass.
"No way? How could I be such a bad guy?" Song Ruimin also shouted. In his impression, he not only walked in along the path, but also walked in a general direction. When the middle road became more and more blurry, he hesitated a little. Under the deep grass, everything looked like a road, but it didn't look like a road at all.
"Hurry up and find your location." Wang Ke ordered. Now standing deep in the dense forest, there were three generations of scouts, and everyone gathered around them.
Song Ruimin quickly took out the compass, determined a direction of magnetic north, and then quickly placed it on Wang Ke's drawing board.
Both compasses pointed to the same place. Wang Ke quickly straightened the map. Based on the winding distance he had just walked, Song Ruimin pointed to the edge of the green symbol on the map and said: "Staff Hu, platoon leader, We should be here."
"That's not right, the eagle's mouth is over here. In other words, we just came in and went off the road without knowing it?" Hu Zhijun looked at the map, then looked at the road, and said to Wang Ke.
"Yes, platoon leader, it seems we have been led astray by this sheep trail."
Wang Ke looked at the map, then looked at the surrounding trees, and said decisively: "We are going to Eagle Mouth now. We have to correct it about ten degrees to the left. Fortunately, it's not far. We can go directly from here and walk more than a thousand meters. , you should be able to see the eagle’s beak.”
"Okay, everyone, don't worry this time. I will lead the way with the compass. If you go wrong again, you will punish me." Song Ruimin turned around and dug directly into the grass with his feet, ready to set off.
"Wait a minute, reconnaissance squad leader, have you seen the poplar tree at five o'clock?" Wang Ke pointed forward.
"Saw."
"Go directly to that tree and don't take any more trails." Wang Ke said to Song Ruimin. Because at this time he discovered that the trees around here were basically oaks and ailanthus trees. Only a tall white poplar tree in the distance was very conspicuous.
"Okay." Song Ruimin agreed, and just as he was about to take a step, Gu Maolin squeezed in from behind.
"Squad leader, I'll open the road ahead with you." As he said this, Gu Maolin pulled out a sickle from his waist. When he was about to set off in the morning, he took the sickle from the landlord's uncle Geng's house.
"Okay, everyone, follow up. Don't fall behind, and pay attention to the white poplar tree in front of you."
The team continues to set off.
Yougu Maolin waved his sickle in front to clear the way, and Song Ruimin pulled Niu Suozhu to follow behind to escort them. The team soon walked seven or eight hundred meters, but stopped again.
"What's wrong? Reconnaissance squad leader."
"Report to the platoon leader, there are three white poplar trees in front of me, I don't know which one is the right one." Gu Maolin shouted over his shoulder.
These three wastes. Wang Ke was so angry that he really wanted to curse. He walked for more than an hour and still couldn't find the right way! At this rate, let alone finding a training ground, how many hours would it take just to find the Eagle Mouth?
Wang Ke and veteran platoon leader Hu Zhijun came to the front of the team again.
"Let everyone rest where they are. The telephone monitor and wireless monitor come to the front." Old platoon leader Hu Zhijun shouted. After hearing the sound, "plop, plop", it fell into a piece. No matter which direction you lay in this deep grass, it was almost like a "grass carpet".
Wang Ke looked at it, but there was no sound. Marching like this will definitely be much more tiring than walking on a flat road.
Arriving at the front of the team, Wang Ke took a look and saw that there were indeed three white poplar trees in front of them, and they were all similar in size and height. I didn't see anything just now, but when I turned out of the woods, three trees suddenly appeared. Now I couldn't go back and look for that tree again.
"Old platoon leader, look, from the map, we are heading in the right direction. There should be an unnamed highland on the left. But why can't we find this unnamed highland?" Wang Ke was also a little anxious. He looked around and saw that he Trying to see the unknown highland from the bulge of the tree crown.
"Gu Maolin."
"arrive!"
"Can you see that there is an unknown small highland on our left?" Wang Ke asked. No one else in the platoon knew, except Wang Ke, that Gu Maolin's clairvoyance was still very powerful.
When Gu Maolin heard this, he immediately stood up on tiptoes and looked around. "Platoon leader, there is nothing like a flat plain ahead of us."
How is this possible? Wang Ke asked again. "Then take a look, are there any rivers within a few hundred meters of here?"
Because in Wang Ke's memory, there is a river near the eagle's mouth.
"Report to the platoon leader, no."
Weird, weird. The old platoon leader Hu Zhijun took the board over. As soon as we entered the mountain valley today, the whole platoon turned around. If we really reach the southern border, it is entirely possible that we will be unable to move forward.
Wang Ke closed his eyes. He wanted to activate his navigation system now. The map would be correct. At least he had to see where the unknown highland was? When I closed my eyes, an unknown highland appeared in my mind. Wang Ke slowly turned around and took a step towards the unknown high ground. When he opened his eyes, he was stunned. The place he was facing now turned out to be the left rear he had just passed.
In other words, I walked through it myself. That's right, a few hundred meters ahead, you should be at the river. After crossing the river, turn right and you will see the Eagle's Mouth. But why didn't I hear the sound of the river?
Wang Ke closed his eyes again, and this time he felt it, right in front, not far away. But that's not a river. It's like a broken mirror, with spots covering several hundred meters. It's a swamp. Why is there a swamp in this place?
"Gu Maolin."
"arrive!"
"Let's go to the front and clear the way!"
"yes."
Then, Gu Maolin was in front, waving his sickle to cut left and right, while Wang Ke was behind, directing him to move forward. Soon, a road nearly three hundred meters long emerged.
Suddenly, Gu Maolin's feet went soft, and his left foot came up empty. Then, his shoes got wet.
There was a puddle under the grass, but what surprised Gu Maolin even more was that when he turned around, he found that the acting platoon leader Wang Ke was walking with his eyes closed.
"Hey, did you fall into the water?" Only then did Wang Ke open his eyes.
"Platoon leader, you saw it, why didn't you remind me?" Gu Maolin was so impressed that he had already known that Wang Ke could recognize the road with his eyes closed.
"I want to verify, is there water under this grass?"
"What now?" Gu Maolin asked, closing his eyes to explore the road. He also had this ability. It's just that he didn't use it just now. Now he admires platoon leader Wang Ke a little. He can't see the road as far and clearly as platoon leader Wang Ke.
The two of them looked forward and saw a patch of grass. If it were normal, they wouldn't be able to see any patch of grass with water under it?
"Maolin, chop down a few small branches and mark them with me, and we'll clear a path." Then Wang Ke closed his eyes, kicked left and right, and walked forward in long strides. Wherever he passed, Not a drop of water.
"Wait a minute, platoon leader." Gu Maolin ran to the right and quickly picked up an armful of tree branches. There was no need to perform the "blind man's walk" in front of the entire platoon. It was best to "explore" the path.
I marked the path along Wang Ke's path, and soon it extended forward another twenty or thirty meters. When I stood here and looked to the right, I saw a cliff about fifty or sixty meters high rising abruptly. The top of the mountain was indeed It's like a knife, lying there, not like an eagle's beak at all!
"This is for you, Platoon Commander."
"What?"
Wang Ke saw it and Gu Maolin handed over a freshly cut tree stick, and he understood immediately.
"Maolin, go and bring the comrades from the platoon."
"Yes!" Gu Maolin picked up the sickle and another tree stick, jumped and ran back, and sang as he ran: "Forward, forward, our team is facing the sun..."
