Recruits, although they have undergone a short period of training after enlisting in the army, and have not been trained in combat units, cannot be regarded as qualified soldiers.

Liang Guocheng asked: "How long will we have to walk, how many days will we walk, and when will we be able to respond?"

After his performance in Handong, Regiment Commander Jiao regarded him as if he was leading the troops, and replied: "In such bad weather, I am afraid that it will be difficult to respond for the time being, so we will find the troops ourselves."

Platoon Commander Wang said: "This snowy day makes the troops sleep in the snow and freeze to death!"

Regiment Commander Jiao glanced at him, and the head of the unit was the most reluctant to hear the discouraged words under special circumstances: "The night is deep, the wind is stronger, the temperature has dropped to minus 30 degrees, and the soldiers have become snowmen one by one, the true colors of their clothes cannot be seen all over their bodies, the snow on their eyebrows and beards has become frozen together, and each soldier is moving like a snow." Many of the fighters lost consciousness from the cold of their hands and feet, and could only pull one by one and stumble forward. The troops had been walking for an afternoon, and for half the night, it was obvious that the soldiers were tired on their faces, and it was time for everyone to rest and eat. But with such a low temperature, finding a place to rest, how to sleep, and what to eat are difficult problems in front of Commander Jiao and the troops. Commander Jiao recruited the soldiers together, and Liang Guocheng didn't have anything to do, but the two of them came over with a stretcher.

Captain Jiao glanced at everyone with his eyes and saw that everyone had arrived. He said, "When it is late, you must not ask the soldiers to march all night, but rest and sleep, and discuss with everyone." ”

In peacetime, the commander must give orders, and the troops will carry them out, and there is no need to consult with them. Now it's a special situation, and they're all recruits, so what else can we discuss?"

"At the very least, find a place to shelter from the wind." Liang Guocheng Dao.

Captain Jiao thought for a moment, "Yes! Find a sheltered place for the warriors to rest, and then eat something, if you don't eat, you will really freeze to death in such cold. After a pause, he said, "Another question is to keep warm." There is no way to do the clothes now, the key is the feet, they have been stepping on the snow, and every soldier has a big ice pad frozen on his feet, if he doesn't want to find a way, when he arrives at the destination, I'm afraid he can't keep his feet. ”

All the people in the meeting couldn't help but look at their feet, and everyone seemed to be covered with a big ice pad, and the soles of their feet were a few inches higher. However, the troops were halfway up the mountainside, and it was simply conjecture that they could come up with a way to protect themselves from the cold in such a cold night.

The people attending the meeting were silent for a while, some patted the snow on their bodies, and some looked into the distance, but they didn't dare to look at Captain Jiao, for fear that he would ask him what he could do to protect himself from the cold. Platoon Commander Wang and Liang Guocheng thought that the meeting was just a few words, and they kept carrying the stretcher, but now they saw that it could not be over, and the two put down the stretcher. Liang Guocheng took a step forward, opened his mouth and was about to speak, but Platoon Leader Wang grabbed him and waved his hand to stop him. In his experience, the chief is the most likely to get angry when he can't come up with a good idea in this special helpless situation. Don't be like being stuck in a letter hole, last time I persuaded the chief; If you come up with a blind idea and can't convince the chief, you will shoot him again. In fact, since he argued with him in the cave and persuaded him, he had a good impression of Liang Guocheng and a kind of trust in the educated college students, so that he was relieved to let him direct the excavation in the cave. Captain Jiao stood in the middle of everyone, looking left and right, no one could think of any ideas, no one said a word, in fact, no one could think of a way to not dare to say anything. was about to get angry, and when he saw Liang Guocheng about to speak and was stopped by Platoon Commander Wang, he was a little unhappy, "Why don't you let others speak?" He turned his head and smiled at Liang Guocheng and said, "Is there any way?"

Liang Guocheng saw that Commander Jiao trusted him, and said with a smile: "In our hometown, poor people don't have cotton shoes in winter, and some put corn husks in their shoes. I don't know if that thing can keep you warm, so you can try it. ”

As soon as Liang Guocheng finished speaking, everyone laughed, and no one believed that corn husks could keep warm.

Liang Guocheng was laughed at by everyone, took a step back and didn't speak again. The main reason is that he has no bottom in his heart about keeping corn husks warm, he has never tried it, and he has seen it when he is young, and he goes to school when he grows up, especially when he goes to college, he rarely goes home, and he has never seen it at all.

Captain Jiao stopped everyone: "What's ridiculous!" There is a way is better than no way, who wants to feel that this method is not good, you give a good idea, can use local materials, and solve the problem of so many people's feet are not broken. ”

Corn husks are very convenient to find in northern China and North Korea, countries with the same climate as northern China. Especially during the war years, in order to avoid the encroachment of the war on the crops, the Korean villagers often planted drought-tolerant crops such as corn in the mountains, ravines, and ridges, so that the crops would not be damaged by the war and the family would starve. Because in the mountains, only the sheep intestine trail is inconvenient to transport, so after the harvest, only the corn cob is carried home, and the orange stalk corn wrapper is thrown in the ground casually, and it is used for spring cold roasting fire in the spring ploughing of the next year.

It was almost midnight for the troops, the temperature was getting colder and the wind was getting stronger. Captain Jiao observed all the way, but he couldn't find a place to shelter from the wind. He knew that there was a strong wind in the north, and the words left by the old man were called: "Wind Three" means that once the wind blows, it must blow for three days to stop; If, during these three days, the wind is strong during the day, the wind can stop when the sun sets, and there is no wind at night, and the next day when the sun rises, the wind rises and blows again with the sun, and if the wind does not stop when the sun sets, the wind will blow overnight tonight, and the wind will be colder and stronger in the second half of the night. The warriors bowed their heads, craned their necks, and silently marched through the snow that was up to their necks. Regiment Commander Jiao was particularly anxious, he knew that the soldiers had been exhausted to the extreme, and if they continued to walk, they might faint from exhaustion, and if they fainted on such a cold night, they might soon freeze to death.

At a bend in a hill, the troops saw a cornfield. Generally, when North Korean villagers grow crops in ravines, they will choose a place that is flat and leeward. If this is not the case, after the corn is ripe, it will be more than one person high, and the ravine will be windy, and it will be blown by the wind until it has time to harvest, and it will rot in the ground. Commander Jiao decided that the troops would rest here, and the exhausted soldiers, seeing that they were allowed to rest, rushed to the cornfield like crazy, and did not care to open their backpacks, and lay down in the snow to sleep. Commander Jiao suddenly became anxious again, with many years of experience in the army, if you don't eat, you won't have food in your stomach, and on such a cold day, if you sleep in the snow, you will soon freeze to death. Although I don't have the conditions to cook now, I gave each person a bag of fried noodles before going abroad, which was a three-day ration, so that everyone could eat their stomachs, open the quilt and put it under their bodies, so as not to let their bodies sleep next to the snow so as not to freeze people to death. He asked the men of each carriage to gather the people in their own carriage together, supervise them, and ensure that everyone was well fed. Platoon Commander Wang and Liang Guocheng put down the wounded and brought together the soldiers in their carriages, some of whom had already fallen asleep and were woken up by them, and they were unhappy and muttering and cursing. Some soldiers were crying out in a daze, untied the grain bag, grabbed a handful of fried noodles and put it in their mouths, choked out, and then choked on a violent cough. Liang Guocheng squatted next to the wounded, wanting to give the wounded something to eat, but worried about choking the wounded, holding a frozen water bottle in one hand and a food bag in the other, a little at a loss. He turned his head and saw a warrior grabbing snow in one hand and fried noodles in the other, first putting a handful of snow in his mouth, and then putting a handful of fried noodles in his mouth when the snow melted in his mouth. He was inspired to gently remove the dusty layer of snow on the top of the snow, grab a handful of clean snow from the middle, put the fried noodles in the middle, and then put them in a ball and put them in the mouth of the wounded, without choking! He stood up happily, while telling everyone his method, and also demonstrated, watching everyone eat smoothly, he squatted down to feed the wounded, and when the wounded were full, he felt that he was also hungry. He was next to the stretcher, ate a few bites of himself, and fell asleep in a daze.

Captain Jiao leaned on a stone, ate a few bites of fried noodles with Xue, and felt that his upper and lower eyelids were fighting, he tried to open his eyes, looked around at the sleeping warrior, and wanted to force himself not to fall asleep, but his eyelids closed involuntarily, and he snored softly. He hadn't slept for a day and a night, and he was really tired. It is said that he is only in his early forties, and he is in the prime of life, and his body should be the golden age of life. As a veteran soldier who has led the army for so many years, it is common for me not to sleep or eat for a day or two during the war years, and I will not feel as tired as I am today. But today he feels very tired, not only physically tired, but also mentally tired! Especially these recruits. The combat units he has been leading in the past have all gone through the baptism of war, and they have a particularly strong sense of organization and discipline; occasionally there is a shortage of troops, and new recruits are allowed to come in, and there are veterans on their behalf, and after one or two battles, they are quickly trained into qualified soldiers. Now with so many recruits, from the beginning of the task, I always feel chaotic and the discipline is too poor; Especially when encountering emergencies such as the blocking of Handong after the bombing of the train by US military planes, I felt that I was not as calm and obedient as the veterans. He is very grateful to Liang Guocheng for this matter, if it weren't for him coming up with an idea, even arguing with him, persuading him to make up his mind to let him command, I don't know if there is a hole now. So he believes in Liang Guocheng now, and every time he discusses things with the soldiers, he always wants to hear his opinion. Like today, when everyone is helpless about the blizzard, Liang Guocheng came up with the idea of using corn skin to pad shoes, which may not be the best way, but it is the only way.