Chapter 982 Underground Outpost
Every soldier in the guard platoon is fully armed, with a full set of cotton-padded jackets, cotton-padded trousers, cotton-padded boots, locomotive hats, and double-breasted military coats. They carry guns on their shoulders, and have two bullet boxes, multifunctional water bottles, and bayonets hanging on their belts. Most importantly, everyone carries a quilt with an ordnance shovel pinned to the outside of the quilt.
Each squad leader is also issued a pair of monocular telescopes. The platoon leader not only has a telescope, but also a compass for identifying directions. The ignition is to rub a hunting knife and a flint to start a fire, which is issued to each soldier.
As for Qu Bing's equipment, there are even more. He also has a telescope, a compass, and even a map, as well as a military portable small calcium carbide lamp for lighting, a document package for issuing orders, and his seals and tokens, etc. There are a lot of things, of course, it is impossible for him to take them by himself, otherwise what is the purpose of having personal soldiers.
Following Youye, the group set off towards several surveillance points beside the river. In the marching team, the soldiers maintained a guard formation. Everyone held their guns in their hands instead of on their backs. They stepped deep and shallow in the snow. The long rifles in their hands could be used as crutches. Of course, as long as the muzzles were not pointed downwards, it would be fine.
"Uncle You, where is this?"
Walking in a low-lying river valley, Qubing looked around and saw a vast expanse of white. The river water was frozen at this time, and a layer of snow covered it, making it impossible to tell where the river was and where the land was.
"This is the upper reaches of the two water systems of our Han tribe. Whether it is the Ruyang River or the Liuyang River, as well as the wetland lake in the northeast of the Liuyang River, they are actually branches of this river.
"Of course, the branches of this river are not just the Liuyang River and the Ruyang River. There are many other water systems, which are generally connected." Youye explained immediately after hearing Qubing's question.
"Oh oh. "Qubing looked around the surrounding terrain while unfolding the map to compare something, and then he asked again, "But where is the river you mentioned, why can't I see it?"
"Hahaha, the river is right under your feet, you sweep the snow under your feet, and below is the ice on the river." Youye couldn't help but remind him with a smile.
"Huh?"
Qubing was stunned when he heard it, and immediately took a military shovel from his personal soldiers and poked it in the snow twice, and as a result, he really saw the transparent ice surface.
Maybe because of the low terrain here, the wind blew the accumulated snow into the river valley, making the thickness of the snow reach more than one foot thick, and there is running water flowing under the transparent ice surface. The water quality is clear and you can see the bottom. Even the transparency of the ice surface is very high. If you are lucky, you can even see fish swimming in the water.
"This is really a river!" Qubing said with some surprise.
"Hey, the environment here is like this, you will know in two months. "Youye also sighed, but he did not stop. He led more than 80 people forward with ease.
The group walked along the river valley for a whole morning, and then went ashore and walked for more than an hour. They did not even have lunch. When they saw a large forest at the end of their sight, Youye led them to turn into a small road and continue forward. After walking for a few minutes, they bypassed a high ground and came to a small woods. Then Youye said, "We're here."
"Isn't there an observation post here? Where are the people?" Qubing asked again. He looked around while panting, but did not see any house that could accommodate humans.
Youye looked at him and smiled without answering, as if he wanted to test Qubing, the young general.
A personal soldier carrying a cowhide map tube next to him sniffed hard, then pointed in a direction and suddenly said, "Commander, there is smoke over there. It's the smell of burning wood."
"Huh? "Qubing turned his head and saw that there was indeed light blue smoke floating in an inconspicuous bush.
He stared at the bush for a while, then looked at Youye suspiciously. Youye was still looking at him with a smile, as if he was still testing him.
Qubing snorted and immediately ordered the soldiers around him, "Everyone be on alert. You, go and take a look."
"Yes."
The soldiers responded in unison, and then they all aimed their guns in all directions at those places that they thought were very suspicious and could hide people. The personal soldier who was carrying the map was assigned by Qubing to check the smoking bush.
The personal soldier installed a bayonet on his rifle, walked to the bush and poked it with the bayonet. He found that the smoke came from a dead tree lying horizontally in the bush. The dead tree seemed to have been eaten away by insects, leaving only the empty bark, and the smoke came from inside.
However, there were no traces of humans here, and no one knew where the smoke came from, so he immediately wanted to turn around and report the situation.
"Commander, there are enemies! "
The personal soldier just turned around and shouted the word command, when suddenly an arrow flew out from the side and hit him in the chest, which scared him. But then he found that the arrow did not pierce his body. It bounced off his chest and fell to the ground.
This arrow actually has no arrowhead
"Hahaha, don't look at it, there is no arrowhead. There are no enemies here. We are all our own people."
Suddenly, a hearty laugh came from the grove, and then a man with a longbow, wearing a cross-collared cotton robe and cotton trousers, came over. He clasped his fists to You Ye, then saluted to Qu Bing, and then said.
"Envoy You, why did you bring so many people this time? Are you taking action? These people in green clothes are the brothers of the Shen Ce Guard from our Han tribe, right? They can't be like this, they lack vigilance."
The man looked at the personal soldier who was shot by him with a grin, and looked disgusted with these guys who were too naive.
"You!! "When the bodyguard who was shot heard what he said, his face immediately turned red with shame and anger, and he immediately raised the rifle in his hand.
"What are you doing? Put your gun down. Are you pointing it at your own people?" Qu Bing saw that the situation was not good, and immediately shouted loudly to stop him. The bodyguard then put down his gun, turned his head and snorted coldly.
"Oh, what are you doing, Lu Ping, be honest, how can you talk to your brother like that?" You Ye also said something to the man with the bow, and then introduced the two parties.
"Let me introduce you. This is our commander of the Shen Ce Guard, General Xie Qubing, and this is Lu Ping, the team leader in charge of this surveillance point." The
bow-wielding man Lu Ping saluted Qubing again, and Qubing looked him up and down, then nodded. This guy came up and shot his soldiers. Qubing was still angry at the moment, and of course he would not return the salute to such a small character.
"Qubing, this is our observation post, which is on the only way for the enemy to enter and exit, and there are only three people in the observation post, so in order not to be discovered by the enemy, their residences are built underground.
"The smoking point you saw just now is actually the chimney of the underground residence. It was built specifically according to the wind direction here, and the smoke blown out will not blow towards the direction of the main road, so it is generally not discovered by the enemy. If discovered, it will be like what you just saw.
"The entrance to the underground outpost is in the woods, and the chimney is used to attract the enemy's attention. Once someone comes forward to check, he will turn his back to the entrance in the woods, and our secret sentry can kill the enemy from behind. We do this just in case.
"You just arrived and have not dealt with that group of cannibals. In the future, you must never underestimate them and must always be vigilant, especially in the wilderness like this. Although those cannibals don't have any good weapons, they are all first-class hunters. Any disturbance in the wild may alert them. You must pay attention to this in the future and be more careful. "
In order to ease the relationship between the two sides, Youye explained the situation here, and by the way, explained the reason why Lu Ping did this just now, which was actually just to keep Qubing and the others alert.
After hearing this, Qubing nodded silently. He suddenly realized that he was indeed a little careless and a little too proud. He was the leader's personal guard at a young age, and now he has become the youngest commander of the guard in the Han tribe, in charge of the most powerful army of the Shen Ce Guard, holding the most advanced weapons in the world.
He really never took the cannibals seriously. In Qubing's eyes, those cannibals were just a group of uncivilized barbarians, so he despised them.
Now after listening to Youye's warning, he realized that this group of races that hunted wild beasts and their own kind for food were not useless. Since they could survive in this way for so long, it showed that their combat effectiveness was still very strong.
Seeing him nod, Youye stopped talking about this topic to avoid causing Qubing's disgust. He continued to introduce it to Qubing.
"The underground outpost is large enough to accommodate a hundred people, and there is a lot of food stored inside. However, only three people are usually left to guard it. More people will be dispatched if there is an action.
"There are two observation posts. One is outside, on the high ground we just came from. There is a man watching there. He has seen us just now. The other is at the entrance of the cave, mainly monitoring the situation around here to see if we have been discovered by the enemy. There is another person resting inside, ready to replace the two outside at any time. They take turns to rest.
"Let's take the soldiers inside to eat first. Everyone has been hungry for the whole morning. Then we will discuss the next action."
Qubing looked at the soldiers around him. Everyone was still holding their guns and observing the surroundings, but fatigue was already revealed on their faces. Everyone had been trudging in the snow for most of the day and had not eaten a hot meal yet. It was time to take a break and replenish their energy.
"Okay, then listen to Uncle You's arrangements. Everyone go into the cave to rest. Be disciplined and don't make too much noise. "Qubing waved to everyone and said.
The soldiers then followed Youye into the underground sentry post with their guns, while Qubing stayed behind, ready to take a look at the surrounding situation outside.
When the soldiers filed into the cave one after another, the guy named Lu Ping carried a bow on his back, then took out a branch like a broom, carefully smoothed the footprints of the soldiers heading to the cave entrance, and then went to the chimney, picked up the arrow he had just shot, and clasped his fists to the personal soldier just now and said, "I'm sorry, little brother, don't take it to heart, I'll get you something delicious to make up for it when I get downstairs."
"Huh, who cares." The personal soldier still snorted coldly, turned around and followed Qubing step by step, never leaving.
The guy named Lu Ping didn't care, but smiled and asked Qubing, "Young general, don't you want to go in and have a rest? "
Two personal soldiers stood beside Qubing and spoke curiously, "Don't take a rest yet. Brother, I just saw you clear those footprints. How come, are there still cannibals coming here often? Do we have to be so careful?" "
Hey, there's nothing wrong with being careful. It's not easy for us to dig such a sentry post. If it is discovered by the enemy, they will take advantage of our small numbers to attack the sentry post one day, and the sentry post will be exposed and cannot be used in the future. It would be a pity.
"But there are indeed cannibal activities here frequently, otherwise we would not have built an observation point here. If there are no enemies around, what is the point of calling it an observation point, right?" Lu Ping explained.
"Well, that makes sense. Can you take me to your usual sentry post to have a look?" Qubing nodded and asked.
"Of course." Lu Ping agreed immediately, and then led Qubing and the other two to a mound a few dozen meters away. They saw a dug-in cave on the mound that looked like a single-soldier bunker, with a few stones piled on it. A young man was hiding in the cave, wrapped in a thick quilt, with only his head sticking out from the cracks in the stones looking out from time to time.
"Little Stone, go back and rest. I'll watch here. Our brothers from the Han tribe's guards are here and are downstairs. You should go back and warm up, and see if there's anything you can do to help." Lu Ping first said to the observation post in the cave.
"Oh, okay, I'll come back to replace you later." The boy named Little Stone looked about thirteen or fourteen, about the same age as Qubing. His face was red from the cold, and it was obvious that he had suffered a lot in such an environment. Qubing nodded at him.
Lu Ping lay directly on the snow and pointed to the surrounding environment to introduce it to Qubing.
"The forest in the north is the direction of the cannibal camp. Their village is in that forest. The river valley in the east is the place they must pass every time they go out. Every time they go south, they walk along the river to avoid getting lost. No matter how far they go, they can find their way back along the river.
"Do you see the Huishui Bay over there? It's where the river turns. The river in this kind of terrain is generally deep, and there will be a lot of fish below. Those cannibals often come here to break the ice and fish, but those who come out are not the most powerful. They are often some old, weak, sick and disabled. The powerful ones go out hunting or go south to hunt other tribes. They appear here every few days." Lu Ping pointed to some of the more iconic terrains around and introduced them to Qubing.
"Binoculars, maps." Qubing didn't say anything, but asked the personal soldiers beside him for something.
So a large map was immediately unfolded, and another personal soldier handed over a military standard 10 to 40 times variable magnification monocular telescope.
Qubing took it immediately, raised the telescope and looked at the places Lu Ping mentioned.
(End of this chapter)
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