Sometimes it is a helpless move to divide troops, such as the Battle of Sarhu, but sometimes it is necessary.

Zhou Changfeng divided the six teams of the 1st and 2nd Battalions under his command into 12 "sweeping detachments" equivalent to strengthening the platoon level; The three squads of the 3rd Battalion stood still, and only when the bandits' tracks were confirmed did they take their turn to attack.

The troops were divided into 12 routes, and the width of the 1st Marine Regiment was as high as 50 miles, and each sweeping detachment was spaced four miles apart from the left and right, so as to make sure that they could advance in unison as much as possible, so as not to leave an opportunity for the cunning and stubborn bandits to take advantage of.

The dense trees in the deep mountains and old forests will affect the radio signal, so the voice call distance of the 36-type radio radio is reduced from 3 km to about 2 km, which is why the distance between each detachment is four miles.

Six of the units have also been strengthened with an additional team of military dogs to maximize search capabilities.

It is now the second month of the lunar calendar and the beginning of the third month of the Gregorian calendar, and the temperature in the mountains of western Hubei in mid-spring is still low, and the humidity is very heavy in many places.

The officers and men trudged deep and shallow, and in just a few moments, their boots, socks, and clothes were soaked with dew, and their bodies were wet and quite uncomfortable.

The frequent appearance of snakes and insects made everyone miserable, and in just half a day, nine of the 12 detachments were bitten by poisonous snakes.

"Ahh Grass! Damn it! There are snakes! ”

A stout soldier clutched his left hand and shouted, and the crowd followed the sound to see a snake spitting a letter in the grass beside it.

Flat head, circles of white patterns...... Is this a krait?!

What could be more unlucky than being bitten by a frightened krait while burrowing through a forest bush?

"Medic! Someone was bitten by a snake! Someone shouted.

The medical soldier who rushed in didn't say a word, but directly took out a tourniquet from the first-aid kit he carried with him, and stabbed the soldier's upper limbs to death.

Then he took out a small aluminum cylinder that only looked like a syringe in the back half, and placed it directly over the two small wounds from the snake bite, and then pulled the piston head hard.

The soldier screamed in pain, because it was not transparent, and everyone could not see what was going on inside, in fact, the small patch of skin was sucked out by the huge pressure difference.

After sucking out the venom, rinsing the wound, and ingesting the snake wound pills, the hapless soldier was then sent to the rear; If the condition worsens, he may have to be sent to Yiling State Hospital for antivenom injections.

This happened in several teams, and the ubiquitous snakes and insects made the officers and men of the whole regiment very helpless, so they had to be careful, careful, and careful.

Even more unbearable are mollusks, such as... Grasshoppers.

Sometimes, after burrowing through the bushes, a few locusts are hung on the body, and this gray-black or brown finger-thick thing adheres to the skin and sucks blood; And because of the locust secreted by its mouthparts, people don't feel pain or abnormalities at all.

Just imagine how terrifying it is to have several of these mollusks on their arms, calves, and necks constantly sucking blood, and some soldiers who grew up in the city tremble with disgust.

In the face of many difficulties and obstacles, the twelve detachments struggled to search and advance through this mountain range.

In the evening, the damp, wet crowd spent the night in the mountains, roasting clothes around the campfire and checking on each other shirtless.

The soldiers who grew up in the city did not dare to touch it, so they had to ask others to help them.

The soldiers from the countryside were not afraid, and they grinned at the locusts hanging on their bodies, and then threw them into the campfire, and then they could hear a "swish".

Early the next morning, the search continued.

Although it was difficult to discern the sun in the dense mountain forest, it was estimated that it was three poles above sun, and the leading group of the fourth sweeping detachment encountered two young men dressed as mountain people.

They were led into the ranks.

"Sir, these two people are sneaky, not like good people."

The leader of the team was Zhao Rong, who was known for his taciturn but alert and calm, and after returning from his trip to Batavia with Zhou Changfeng, he continued to follow him to the 1st Marine Regiment, and is now the deputy captain of the 1st Battalion and 2nd Team.

He looked at the two young mountain people, "I announced this place a few days ago that this place is a forbidden area, why are you still here?" ”

"No... We don't know......"

"What do you guys do?"

"He who went into the mountains to collect medicine."

Although there was no contradiction in the words, and they did dress like mountain people collecting medicine, Zhao Rong keenly noticed that the two of them were a little flustered.

This kind of panic is not the kind of fear that civilians will encounter Qiu Bahou, but the kind of anxiety that they are afraid of being discovered if they do something bad.

Zhao Rong quietly stretched out his hand, grabbed a few herbs from the basket that one of them was carrying behind him, and then turned around and walked to the side of a sergeant.

The two whispered a few words, and then Zhao Rong walked back and asked casually: "The atractylodes and gastrodia you two picked are in good condition, and you have been collecting medicine in the mountains since you were a child, right?" ”

The two young men hurriedly nodded and replied, "Yes, I often do this as a living when I was six or seven years old." ”

Because of the dialect and accent, Zhao Rong only understood a rough idea, but it did not prevent him from making a judgment.

Damn, those herbs just now are Fu Baiju and Qi Ai, which have nothing to do with Atractylodes and Gastrodia!

"I can't tell the difference between herbs, and I've been collecting herbs since I was a child?" Zhao Rong snorted coldly and said lightly: "Take it!" Questioning! ”

It turns out that these two grandsons want to get by?

All of a sudden, several soldiers around rushed up, punching and kicking, "Pretend, why don't you pretend?" ”

The so-called "how can you walk by the river without getting your shoes wet", and the two bandits can be regarded as planted.

These herbs were collected by the brothers in the gang who knew how to do herbs, and they were used as cover for those who went out to investigate in disguise. This trick has never been doubted before, but now it is really unlucky.

At first, the two men tried to quibble, but they didn't survive the beating.

The soldiers, who had been guilty of all the way, held their breath and smashed several teeth of one of them directly with the butt of their rifles.

After a while, the two confessed and confessed to the stronghold located in the northeast of the main peak of Lijia Mountain.

"If you don't see the king of Hades, you don't cry, it's the gentlemen." Zhao Rong waved his hand, and the two were dragged behind.

The detachment then reported the situation to the other detachments via radio talkie.

These bandits also sent people in disguise to find out their progress?

After learning about this, Zhou Changfeng looked at the map and pondered for a while, then pointed to a dot on the map and said, "Let's go, let's go here." ”

Xie Wancheng on the side thought that he had lost his eyes, and said suspiciously: "But this is different from what the captured bandits said." ”

"Do you think they might just send two people to investigate? Now that there is a high probability that the stronghold has been exposed, it will definitely be transferred immediately. Zhou Changfeng replied as a matter of course.

Zhao Hanfeng also bowed his head and agreed, "This stubborn bandit can survive to this day, it must have some ability, if you go to that hiding place now, I'm afraid it will be empty." ”

(End of chapter)