Chapter 28: Outdoor Activities and Picnics

  "Hurry up, hurry up, catch up from behind." Guo Xiangyang stood at the edge of a steep slope, pulling each member of the class up with one hand. All members of Class 6 were fully armed, wearing steel helmets, and were galloping through the mountain forest like flying.

  Today is the 14th Middle School's wilderness survival class, they need to complete many subjects such as outdoor camouflage, outdoor camping and picnic in this mountainous area. Now they are completing the subject of rapid movement in the jungle, they must arrive at the instructor-designated campsite within the specified time.

  The woods here are not very dense, and it's clear that they have been harvested by the locals and replanted. Moreover, since it's just spring now, there aren't many leaves on the trees yet, which makes the view relatively open for Liu Ban, and he can move forward without worrying about getting lost.

  But what's annoying is the high and low shrubs, especially the hawthorn trees in the northern mountains, which grow in clusters, generally reaching the height of a person's thigh. The sharp thorns on the branches can easily pierce through the camouflage uniforms and rubber shoes worn by Qiu Mingjun and his team. If they get caught on the uniform, the soft hawthorn branches will entangle with you for a while, and when you finally manage to pull them off, the branches may snap back into place, causing your teammates behind you to be pierced by a cluster of dense, bloody dots.

  This led to the opening of the road, Cui Ze had to stop from time to time, using a willow branch picked up to open the shrubs and clear a path for Liu Ban to jump through.

  "This is really annoying." Cui Ze muttered under his breath, he didn't dare to speak loudly now. The background of the subjects that Class 6 had completed was a rapid infiltration into the enemy's rear, and if they spoke loudly, it would lead to exposure.

  "Sigh, if only we were like the US military, we'd just issue combat boots and be done with it. At least that way you wouldn't have to worry about them falling apart even when you stomp on something." Qu Mingjun also started complaining.

  So far, the Chinese army still uses the standard uniform set in 1987. For field operations, apart from camouflage uniforms, there is only a pair of rubber shoes left. It's not that rubber shoes are bad, although the soles are soft and it's very light to run with them. However, in the future, if we need to make rapid advances on complex battlefield environments, wearing such rubber shoes will be outdated.

  The standard combat boots of the US military, canvas boot tube, cowhide leather surface, thick rubber sole with a steel plate inside, can fully meet the wear requirements of various terrain conditions, and even encounter some landmines, can play a certain protective role.

  "Alright, alright, stop talking. Keep quiet!" Guo Xiangyang signaled to Qu Mingjun to go up and open the way with Cui Ze. The two of them each took a relatively large branch and when they encountered thick bushes, they pressed them open from the middle to both sides, ensuring that everyone could pass through quickly.

  It's also two people with good physical strength, otherwise they would have been panting on such a long road, running back and forth, squatting up and down.

  They finally arrived at the designated campsite within the specified time, and after recording the scores of Class 6, they indicated that they should return to their team. Although Class 6 was not the earliest to arrive, it also belonged to the first echelon, mainly because the instructor randomly selected a more difficult route for Class 6.

  "Alright, the next subject is a picnic! Each class will go to their designated location, and the deputy class leader will come over to lead the way." The instructor looked around at all the team members who had arrived at the campsite, then ordered them to line up, and continuously gave out commands.

  After a while, Li Dongkuan came back with two basins. Inside the basins were a bag of rice and several pieces of raw meat, as well as a small seasoning packet.

  "What are you all staring at? Three or four catties of rice per person, and two catties of meat. That's it." Li Dongkuan put the basin on the ground.

  "It's not too early, haha." Guo Xiangyang said with a smile, "Cui Ze and I will go dig the marching stove together. Old Li, you find someone to go with you to rinse the rice and wash the meat. The rest of the people follow Jiang Xiaoming to find some dry branches nearby."

  Qu Mingjun and a few others followed Jiang Xiaoming into the nearby woods, Cui Ze and Guo Xiangyang picked up individual folding shovels and found a place to start digging a marching stove.

  This marching stove is not something that anyone can dig a hole or pad a few stones and burn fire as long as it's okay. Guo Xiangyang and Cui Zexian first put the basin prepared as a pot on the ground to draw a circle slightly larger than the basin, then dug straight down to create a fire pit, and then dug out a wide material port on the windward side, and carefully dug out three long smoke dispersal channels on the other side, and covered the smoke dispersal channels with leafy branches. This can ensure that when burning fire, there will be no thick smoke escaping, which also meets certain concealment requirements.

  It's just the beginning of spring and hasn't rained yet, so Qiu Mingjun and others easily found many dry branches in the forest. Jiang Xiaoming thought it was enough and took them back. After returning, Qiu Mingjun squatted beside Guo Xiangyang with great interest to watch them dig a marching stove.

  It's like a work of art, Qu Mingjun thought. A portable stove that can only be used once is enough, but the edges that have been dug out are even polished with a little water to make them very smooth, is it necessary?

  Qiu Mingjun thought of it and asked, Guo Xiangyang smiled and said: "This is to ensure that the fire can reach the pot when burning, don't look at us adding water and flattening it seems like a waste of effort, in fact, after adding fire and burning, the wall of this fire pit will dry up, whether adding firewood or removing excess ash, are very convenient, and not afraid of being extinguished by the surrounding soil."

  Oh, I see, Qu Mingjun suddenly enlightened. Study hard, if you want to be a good soldier, there are too many things you lack.

  So Qu Mingjun squatted and watched as several old soldiers bustled about. Deputy squad leader Li Dongkuan rinsed the rice and put it in a basin, then added water, with the water surface two fingers higher than the rice surface. He covered the two basins together and cooked over high heat. Then he took an iron ladle and washed it clean in the water, applied some edible oil from the seasoning bag to the inside of the ladle, used a dagger to cut the meat into strips, placed them on the ladle and started stir-frying, sprinkling seasonings as he went. Old soldier Jiang Xiaoming somehow produced a handful of peanuts, crushed them with a stone into peanut flour, mixed in some salt and stirred well.

  Soon, the fragrance of rice wafted out. Cui Ze had been carefully watching the fire in the pit, occasionally poking out some ash and adding new firewood.

  Dinner is served, and every face in Class 6 seems to be blooming with joy. Each person holds a bowl of rice that may not be very soft but is definitely cooked, topped with a layer of fragrant peanut sauce and several strips of roasted meat.

  It smells so good, Qu Mingjun suddenly felt that this meal was more fragrant than any banquet he had ever eaten. Unfortunately, it was a bit less, and the whole class of Class 6 basically wolfed down their food, Ma Xiaotian even licked the edge of the rice bowl with the remaining peanut sauce.

  "Here, take it." Guo Xiangyang had somehow picked up a handful of grass and divided it among everyone, each person getting four or five blades.

  "What's this for? A toothpick?" Wang Jinnian looked left and right, puzzled, and asked Qu Mingjun beside him.

  Qu Mingjun also didn't know, he looked up at Guo Xiangyang.

  "Remove the outer layer of grass, and eat the white roots at the bottom, they are sweet." Guo Xiangyang explained.

  Everyone curiously put the unknown small grass in their hands into their mouths, and hey, it really was a slightly bitter sweet taste that spread to everyone's mouth.

  Dessert after meal? Qu Mingjun couldn't help but want to laugh. The picnic was arranged just like a Western-style dinner, and there was even dessert after the meal.

  "I'm asking you, Monitor Wang, what kind of grass is this?"

  "I don't know." Guo Xiangyang shrugged and said, "This is what our class leader taught me. He said it's called sweet root grass, but I don't believe him."

  "What's the point of eating this?" Qu Mingjun asked, chewing on a sweet grass root.

  "Of course." Guo Xiangyang squatted down, also chewing on something, just like he was chewing a piece of gum. "The things we sent out earlier didn't have any green plants, so chewing this can supplement our vitamins. This explanation isn't bad, huh?"

  At this time, Captain Yan Weidong followed the instructor to wander around each class, eating a bit of that class, occasionally laughing and scolding two sentences, the atmosphere was surprisingly good, just like a group of friends going out for a picnic.

  After dinner, the instructor did not comment on the pros and cons of each class's food, but simply said that everyone knows in their heart what they ate, if it was not good or not enough, then it can only be sorry. However, the instructor still focused on evaluating the field stoves dug by each class, pointing out many problems, including the sixth class's field stove, which was like a work of art.

  For example, on the issue of fire concealment, on the issue of solving smoke and fog, the instructor stood in front of more than 140 people who were standing upright and talked eloquently. Qu Mingjun suddenly felt that those messy family things, social things, were so far away from himself, far away as if they were things from another world.

  Now we are learning all sorts of skills that are not very useful when we arrive at our destinations, and yet we still take them gladly. Even though we know that most of us will not be able to wear military uniforms forever, we still spend our limited youth struggling on the training grounds.

  Qū Míng Jùn suddenly had an epiphany as a professional soldier, that is, to be willing to bear loneliness and endure solitude.

  We guard our poverty and talk about wealth, we are far away from joy and do not speak of sorrow, we lavish our youth without being stingy, we drink alone in solitude as if it were fine wine.