From the morning onwards, everyone at the military base was looking forward to one thing: the afternoon's activity of retracing the Long March route.
I've heard from older students that during these ten days, in order to let students personally experience the hardships of the Red Army, they designed an activity to retrace the Long March route. They would have to overcome many obstacles along the way to achieve final victory.
That sounds exciting, and the speaker has a nostalgic look on his face, which makes the listener even more eager.
The day before, the instructor of the Fifth Company accidentally let slip while chatting with his students during a break. The students in the Fifth Company learned that they would be retracing the Long March route the next day, and the news spread. Now the whole grade knows about it, and everyone is looking forward to it.
The afternoon sun was dazzling. Even though it was already October, the weather in the south is always changeable and unpredictable. Just two days ago it was raining and there was a feeling that a cold front was about to hit, but now the sky is clear and the temperature is staying at 25 or 26 degrees Celsius, just like the middle of summer.
At 2 p.m., the head instructor stood on the stage, holding a microphone and giving instructions for the upcoming activities. Because there were so many people gathered together and the air was not circulating well, he was sweating profusely.
"Judging from everyone's reaction, you should know that today's activity is to retrace the Long March route. Now I'm going to talk about the rules and precautions."
While the students rested, all the instructors gathered together to chat. They were used to being informal and playful, so they talked about everything. Therefore, Instructor Zheng from the Fifth Company had already informed everyone that the afternoon's activities had been known beforehand. Their plan to surprise the children was disrupted, and the Fifth Company instructor was jokingly given a whole set of punches by the head instructor.
Even if they already knew in their hearts, hearing it with their own ears was a different story. The people below couldn't help but get excited, but they were also afraid of the instructors' pressure and dared not make any rash moves. They stood up straight one by one. After several days of rigorous training, even the students who usually had no posture could stand properly in military posture.
"In a moment, the instructors will divide you into different teams, about ten people per team. You will each choose a captain to lead you. Remember, no matter what happens, you are a team and cannot be separated. Anyone who falls behind will be eliminated. You must crouch down within five seconds of hearing a gunshot, otherwise you will be considered dead. Only those who pass all the events will be considered winners."
"You all learned about the heroic deeds of the Red Army's Long March in elementary school. All our projects are based on difficulties that the Red Army encountered, so they won't be too difficult. As long as everyone works together and pays attention to their surroundings, it's easy to make it to the end," the head instructor continued.
"Alright, now each company's instructors can arrange the group assignments themselves."
The instructor of the Second Company was surnamed Zhang. He had a square and resolute face and looked fierce, but he was easy to get along with and didn't get angry as easily as the instructors of other companies. So the people of the Second Company had a good time these past few days and were glad that they were lucky to be assigned to an instructor who seemed very gentle.
At this moment, Instructor Zhang did not lead the students away from the base like the other instructors. Instead, he divided the more than fifty students in the class into five teams on the spot and said a few more words, which were nothing more than the most important thing: safety.
Their class was thus spared the ordeal of being divided into teams under the scorching sun outside.
When they arrived at the open space at the starting point, a company of instructors was reprimanding people. It seemed that something unpleasant had happened when they were divided into teams. Seeing the sweat running down the faces of the students, who dared not wipe it away, the students of the second company felt a pang of unease.
Because the teams had been divided in advance, they could set off directly. In fact, the so-called checkpoints were just various props set up on the two mountains to simulate the conditions at that time. In other words, they just needed to successfully climb the two mountains.
Su Xun glanced at his teammates: Song Lisha, who looked impatient from sweating profusely; class monitor Shu Lin; the universally acknowledged beauty of the grade, Gan Tang; a few boys who usually liked to joke around; and Pei Ke.
Squad leader Shu Lin volunteered to be the team leader. Su Xun didn't have much confidence in leading such a large group of people. Song Lisha was afraid of trouble, Pei Ke wasn't interested, and the others trusted the squad leader, so they all agreed. Compared to other teams that were about to start arguing, this was exceptionally harmonious, and they set off.
The mountain path was only wide enough for one or two people to pass at a time. Shu Lin walked in front to scout the way for everyone, while the others followed closely behind, checking the number of people every now and then to prevent them from getting lost.
They were still at the foot of the mountain, and the road was flat, but Shu Lin suddenly stopped. The others thought he had encountered some trouble and gathered around to see what was going on.
Ahead lay a long, narrow clearing, presumably a rice paddy in the mountains. Since it had already been harvested, it had been transformed into a clearing overgrown with withered grass. A row of wooden stakes stood in the middle of the grass, each about a meter apart, as if one had to jump across to reach the other side.
At this moment, there was a sign standing next to it that read "Seizing Luding Bridge".
Speechless, they wondered if these dozen or so wooden blocks were really a bridge. They were utterly rudimentary, and unable to think of any other adjectives, they began to doubt the difficulty of the entire event.
The squad leader gave everyone a few brief instructions, then took the lead and jumped onto the wooden stake, telling everyone to follow later.
Nobody paid much attention to these wooden stakes, actually because...
They're all so tall! They can be over in a single stride.
The boys were naturally a head taller than the girls. Song Lisha had been dancing since she was a child and had a tall figure, and Gan Tang was not short either.
Only Su Xun looked at his short legs, sighed, and never stepped onto the stake. Pei Ke was assigned by the class monitor to cover the rear, so naturally he didn't go first either.
So only the two of them remained in place, while the others had gradually set off and were having a great time playing on the wooden stakes. The squad leader had already reached the other end and was calling out to them to come over quickly.
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