The Third Movement: Worried Heart

  "Zhao Zhong, is there something wrong with the engine? Do you want me to take a look?"

  Coming behind Zhao Zhong's body, Song Ba did not rush to drill into the bottom of the car cover, but first stood behind and asked a sentence.

  "How about it?"

  Upon hearing this, Zhao Zhong, who was searching with his right hand in the engine, stopped for a moment. Although he wasn't very close to his fellow comrades either, just like how he knew he was an outcast in the army, he also knew that Song Ba was another outcast in the army.

  It's not that Song Ba is being talked about by others, but just these three words "do you want to" make Zhao Zhong feel very annoyed.

  "Can you help me shine a flashlight over there?"

  Zhao Zhong resumed his actions, but didn't make any excessive demands on Songba. Songba's words already had a hint of probing tone, and Zhao Zhong didn't detect that he was genuinely willing to help. In this weather, inspecting the engine wasn't an easy task, even with gloves on, Zhao Zhong felt the oil stains on the engine starting to congeal slightly as the temperature dropped.

  Maybe it's because the weather is about to change, the clouds in the sky have been accumulating more and more under the strong wind, covering up the sunlight at the same time, some engine corners in sight also start to become blurry.

  "I'll help you carry it right away."

  Didn't want others to know that his vision was impaired, and although the narrow field of view didn't affect driving, inspecting engines was indeed a bit difficult for him. Since Zhao Zhong's requirements were so low, Songba readily agreed.

  Although Songba did indeed enlist as a volunteer soldier, he actually didn't like the life of a barracks. People living on the plateau have always yearned for freedom; Songba had the dream of becoming a musician.

  It was just a sudden change in his vision that forced him to make this choice, and he didn't dare take any risks before his vision recovered. However, since his vision had not naturally improved, he had already decided to have a thorough examination at the military hospital in the provincial city during his next vacation.

  He took out a flashlight from the toolbox and shone it towards the corner of the engine under Zhao Zhong's indication, trying to make an appearance of helping to inspect the engine.

  "What are they doing? Why are they still wasting time."

  Song Ba surprisingly started using a flashlight to illuminate the engine, and Hu Song immediately furrowed his brow. As the weather was gradually turning bad, they couldn't find the engine fault immediately, which made him unhappy.

  Xu De grasped Hu Song's hand, who was about to go and take a look, and said: "Commander, can't you just give them a little more time? A sapling that doesn't undergo tempering will never grow into a sturdy pine."

  "...now we don't have time for this."

  Hu Song is also clear that he should take main responsibility for this matter, not because he didn't listen to Zhao Zhong's suggestion, but if he had stopped the car early to check, there wouldn't be a problem now. However, this is only the reason why he is more worried about it, and not that he wants to shirk his responsibilities.

  "Just give them another ten minutes! Anyway, we may not have been able to help much in the past. Why don't we prepare an emergency plan now?"

  Listening to Xu De's words, Hu Song's face sank. He also knew that he and Xu De were not more capable than Zhao Zhong and Song Ba in repairing cars. Maybe they could go and put some pressure on Zhao Zhong and Song Ba, but they couldn't guarantee that they would be of any help.

  Xu De's emergency plan was to consider the contingency of what to do if the car couldn't be repaired, although this situation wasn't unusual for a convoy driving on the highlands, but thinking about the content of their mission, Zhao Zhong started to get worried.

  X392 sentry post is located above the snow line in the nearby deep mountains, although there is a road connection, it is also often in an icy state. The brick and wood structure of the sentry post can avoid freezing, but once it encounters heavy snowfall, it is still easy to be covered by thick snow.

  The snow in the deep mountains is never measured in centimeters. Even if the X392 outpost is small, it still has a platoon of border defense troops stationed there.

  "Really, they're delivering new generators today?"

  Coming out of the house covered with thick snow, Xiao Xiangdong came to Chen Ke's side at the crossroads. Not only were their thick winter clothes unable to reveal their figures, but the fur hats on their heads also covered more than half of their faces.

  To maintain the necessary living needs, the power supply of the sentry post is a top priority. However, the X392 sentry post is located in a high-wind area, where strong winds blow all year round, regardless of weather conditions, with wind speeds above level 8. Under the circumstances that it is impossible to set up overhead power lines, only diesel generator sets can be used to guarantee basic electricity needs.

  "The transportation team said the vehicle has already departed and hopes they can arrive before the blizzard."

  Rather than saying that Chen Ke was looking at the road intersection waiting for a car, it would be better to say that he was looking at the clouds in the sky with worry. The high mountain sentry post, especially those above the snow line, have never had the possibility of laying underground cables, not to mention the fact that the climate is prone to damage and repairing underground cables on the snow line is more difficult than burying them.

  The generator set of the X392 sentry post has been malfunctioning frequently, and the mechanic has gone to the mountain for repairs at least three times in the past two months. After careful consideration, the troops finally decided to replace the new generator set for the X392 sentry post, and Hu Song and his team were on a mission to deliver the new generator set to the X392 sentry post.

  Originally, under normal circumstances, they should have waited for good weather before setting out, but because the weather forecast showed that the bad weather would continue, the transportation team had no choice but to dispatch Hu Song and his team to rush the power generation equipment up the mountain before the weather changed.

  "Let's go back inside and wait! The sentry post is still watching anyway!"

  It's not Chen Ke's fault that he was in a hurry. Shortly after Hu Song and his team set off, the generator at X392 checkpoint broke down again, and they were now relying on charcoal fires to keep warm. Everyone was looking forward to Hu Song and his team arriving as soon as possible, as the blizzard was expected to last for three days, and given the geographical location of X392 checkpoint, it could only get worse.

  If Hu Song and his team can't deliver the generator set today, X392 outpost doesn't know if they can hold on any longer.

  Knowing that waiting here is useless, Chen Ke can neither change the speed of the fleet nor the approaching blizzard, so he has no choice but to turn around and head towards the sentry post with Xiao Xiangdong.

  "Get in line and hurry up to get warm! I'll go out and take a look for you."

  As Chen Ke and Xiao Xiangdong walked into the house, Su Yang, who was just about to leave, called out to them.

  Su Yang, who was over thirty years old, had been training at the X392 outpost for two years. He had become accustomed to the climate of the snowy plateau and his pale face had accumulated some subtle red spots, making him look much coarser. As a platoon leader in the border defense troops, his work tasks were not much different from those of ordinary troops. A platoon leader in the border defense troops was equivalent to a frontline commander, responsible not only for ideological and political work but also for sharing many specific command and leadership tasks of the border defense troops.

  As a platoon-sized unit, border defense troops are generally at the company level. If it is too large, there will be problems in logistics supply; if it is too small, it will be difficult to complete the patrol mission.

  Although this situation only exists in Snowy Plateau, no border defense warrior will underestimate a platoon leader. A transfer like Su Yang's is often a sign of an impending promotion.