Bicycle Repair

  The special geographical location of the plateau Gobi determines that there can be no truly warm weather here, even if the sun is shining brightly in the sky and the ground is cracked inch by inch, the autumn wind is still cold enough to freeze people, and the temperature is low enough to make people dare not take off their coats.

  As a new recruit, even if Hu Song didn't trust himself, Zhao Zhong couldn't possibly stay in the driver's cabin and watch him solve everything on his own.

  Jumping down from the car, Zhao Zhong felt a sharp pain in his feet as he landed on the ground about one meter below. The special wheel with a diameter of 1.2 meters made the chassis of the heavy truck quite high, and only such large wheels could carry tens of tons of weight, after all, the wheels themselves weighed hundreds of kilograms.

  When Zhao Zhong arrived behind Hu Song, Hu Song had just opened the front cover of the truck, and the hot air that rushed out was immediately frozen into a white mist.

  "What's wrong, did it blow up?"

  He trotted over from another car and chimed in with a sentence. As far as he was concerned, the only possible car trouble was probably just a blown engine.

  "It doesn't seem so."

  Before putting the water tank cover back on, Hu Song glanced at Zhao Zhong, who had also come to take a look, after all, he had been shouting to stop the car just now.

  Although he still wore a thick hat on his head, Zhao Zhong habitually scratched his head and said with an apologetic expression: "Instructor, I can only listen to the sound and judge by driving feeling what's wrong. As for mechanics, I don't understand much."

  "It's useless."

  It seemed that Hu Song didn't expect Zhao Zhong's answer to be unexpected, and his evaluation came quickly. On the side, Xu De also squeezed his eyes at him.

  Zhao Zhong was also completely helpless, he is a professional circuit racing driver, not those rally drivers who run on the road. Although he wasn't unfamiliar with mechanics, repairing was not his specialty after all.

  "You can always tell where things go wrong!"

  "If it's a visible fault I can try."

  When he said this, Zhao Zhong didn't dare to look into Hu Song's eyes and immediately buried his head in the front cover of the car, not caring that it was still emitting hot air.

  A visible fault can be seen by anyone, it's just a matter of time. But if it's an invisible fault, the three people present will probably all be guessing blindly.

  "Captain, don't think Zhao Zhong is so capable, he's just a new recruit who can drive but not fix cars." After Zhao Zhong escaped, facing Hu Song's gloomy eyes, Xu De patted his shoulder and laughed.

  Hearing this, Hu Song opened his mouth and was also somewhat stunned. There are not many young people in today's society who can drive a car, but as Xu De said, being able to drive a car does not mean that one also knows how to repair it, otherwise the car repairmen would all lose their jobs. Compared to this, Zhao Zhong could already judge whether there was a problem with the car just by listening to the sound, which was much stronger than himself.

  "Let's go find Song Ba and discuss it with him!"

  Since Zhao Zhong had already gone to check on the car, Hu Song also knew that he didn't need to show any particular distrustful feelings.

  Songba was the driver of another vehicle, also a local born and bred like Xu De. Compared to Xu De, although Songba lacked in many aspects, because the troops had higher hopes for him, he was still assigned to be led by Xu De personally, hoping that one day he would become a reliable snow guide like Xu De.

  Seeing Xu De making gestures on the side of the road, Song Ba first carefully checked the handbrake condition of his car, and then jumped off the slightly vibrating body. As for the faint roar of the engine behind him, Song Ba didn't pay much attention to it, and he continued to run towards Xu De and Hu Song on the side of the road.

  In the high-altitude and cold region of Sa Plateau, it is absolutely unwise to turn off the engine easily. Regardless of temperature or air pressure factors, they will cause unnecessary damage to the engine. Perhaps vehicles passing by don't need to pay much attention, but vehicles that are stationed on the plateau still have to pay attention to real-time protection of the engine. This is not about letting the engine idle for a long time, looking at the weather conditions, and Songba doesn't think the two cars will stay here for a long time.

  "Instructor, class leader."

  As soon as he came before the two, Songba stood at attention and gave a military salute. While Hu Song was still standing at attention, Xu De had already sat down on a stone pier by the side of the road.

  "Songba, has the time for the blizzard changed?"

  "Reporting to instructor, although the weather forecast says the blizzard will pass through here in the evening, I think the front edge will arrive within two hours."

  After answering Hu Song's question, Song Ba and Hu Song looked at Xu De together. Only after seeing him nodding there did Song Ba truly feel at ease. Although the current sky is still very clear, the horizon has already drifted with many scale-like floating clouds, and even the air can feel slightly humid, which in the traditionally dry plateau area also means that wind and snow are approaching.

  "You go with Hu Song to take a look at the car, I'll discuss it with the class leader."

  "Yes, instructor."

  After finishing the courtesy, Songba first turned around and rubbed his legs together before running towards Zhao Zhong who was buried in the car. Seeing this, Hu Song nodded his head in satisfaction.

  "Class monitor, look at Song Ba, he still remembers the original parade requirements!"

  Xu De was not only the class leader of Zhao Zhong and Song Ba, but also the class leader of Hu Song. Although it has been a long time ago, Hu Song would occasionally call Xu De "class leader", and at this time, Xu De knew that Hu Song's mood was quite good.

  "Mistakes are mistakes, but it's already been two months, is there still a need for this?"

  "It's not a question of whether it's necessary or not, since he is willing to be strict with himself, we should give him the encouragement he deserves."

  Taking the opportunity to light a cigarette, Xu De shook his head, but didn't let Hu Song see the dissatisfaction in his heart. Although Song Ba was really hardworking and indeed a good guide, the motivations for joining the army were vastly different from those of city soldiers. For rural recruits like Song Ba, their motivations were more or less the same.

  It's unclear how much longer Song Ba can stay in the troops, even though he has now switched to being a volunteer soldier. Xu Deke doesn't think he will be content with taking over his own baton as a guide in the automobile regiment.