Section Thirteen: Crouching Guard

  People living in different places have their own habits of life. Although Xu De is now living in the county town, Zhao Zhong has never heard him say where he came from on the plateau, which is hard to imagine for those plateau soldiers.

  Move two boxes of Daqu into the tent, and Xu De began to pull out the straw used for keeping warm from the wooden box and lay it at the bottom of the tent.

  By this point, Zhao Zhong was somewhat perplexed. Although straw did have some warmth-retaining effect, it couldn't compare to a kerosene lamp! As basic survival equipment, the warmth of a kerosene lamp was still quite strong.

  "Why use straw, aren't there still kerosene lamps?"

  Zhao Zhong never feared to show his doubts to anyone, especially in front of Xu De.

  "Gas lamp? What's the point of using that? Don't you see how small this tent is? Once the blizzard comes, how long can the air inside last? Gas lamps can only be used in large tents or when the tent door is open, but now with the intensity of the blizzard unknown, who can bother with all that?"

  Rescue and lifesaving must not be afraid of trouble. Zhao Zhong also leaned into the tent to help, remembering what Xu De had said to him before.

  The straw in the crate was not much, only barely enough to spread a thin layer on the double tent. It's more like insulation than warmth. There wasn't much straw that could be used by two people, and they couldn't go open other crates to get more straw.

  After the straw was laid out, bottles of wine were taken out from the box by Xu De and placed at the edge of the tent. Zhao Zhong didn't say anything more about it, being prepared is always better than not! As a new recruit like himself, he could only follow along with what others did.

  "You don't need to help here anymore, come on, go find something to pry open this wooden box."

  Taking over the empty wooden box handed over by Xu De, Zhao Zhong was really stunned. Split open the wooden box? He didn't even use kerosene lamps, how could he still think of burning fire?

  "What's this, class monitor? What are you doing with a wooden crate?"

  "Haha, I thought you could really hold back from asking! If you don't understand, you should ask more questions, got it? ...Compared to straw, wood has a stronger warming effect, or rather, its water absorption is stronger. It can be used to block the entrance of the tent. Not only can it block moisture, but by touching the dryness of the wood, you can roughly tell what's going on without having to constantly open the tent to observe."

  Squat and defend! Zhao Zhong immediately understood Xu De's idea.

  This is said to be a snow survival method created by Xu De, which requires not only calculating the air content but also opening the tent for ventilation at fixed times, while keeping the tent completely sealed at all other times.

  No wonder he refused to use a gas lamp, the amount of oxygen it consumes is absolutely unbearable for 'ambush'.

  "Monitor, since you're adopting a 'squat and wait' approach, does that mean this blizzard is going to last for a long time?"

  "You finally know! Although the weather forecast said that the blizzard would not last more than two days, but because the blizzard has already gone in the direction of X392 sentry post. Affected by the blockage of the mountain body, it is unknown whether to stay for ten days or twenty days."

  As Xǔ Dé said this with a serious face, Zhào Zhōng's complexion slightly turned pale. Ten days, twenty days? Such a violent snowstorm he had indeed heard of when coming to the plateau, but it was not something that could be easily encountered. Perhaps in deep winter there might be a possibility, but now it was still autumn after all.

  "Haha, haha, you actually believed it! City kids are just city kids."

  Xu De finally burst out laughing. This wasn't to say he had any ill will towards the city soldiers, but teasing new recruits from the city was indeed his hobby. Especially since Zhao Zhong was extremely curious and often fell into this kind of ambiguous trap.

  "Whoa! I'm going to split some wooden crates!"

  In his multiple interactions with Xu De, Zhao Zhong had already been deceived by him more than once. Knowing that this was due to his own lack of highland survival common sense, Zhao Zhong didn't have a reason to be angry about it, he just felt slightly embarrassed.

  Carrying two wooden boxes towards the car, Zhao Zhongke didn't think he had the ability to split the boxes open with his bare hands, so it was better to use the large wrench in the toolbox.

  Walking on the frozen ground, although he couldn't leave any footprints, Zhao Zhong still stepped heavily with all his might, not feeling awkward at all. The time for physical activity was limited, once they started "ambushing", he and Xu De could only wait in the tent until the blizzard ended.

  Of course, there are also times when the car breaks down. However, even if that happens, perhaps the two of them can only look at each other helplessly.

  In his heart, he was considering the situation he would soon face. Although Xu De had been trying to relax himself, Zhao Zhong still felt a bit tense.

  "Bang! Bang!"

  He went up to the driver's room, took out a toolbox, and with a large wrench in his hand, it was as powerful as an axe. In just a few strokes, Zhao Zhong had already split open two wooden crates.

  Pull out the nails one by one from the wooden frame, without reminding him, Zhao Zhong also knew that he had to dismantle the wooden box into pieces of wood to use it. And absolutely no nails can be left on it, that would be a deadly thing for the two-man tent.

  "Zhao Zhong, where is the rope on your car?"

  When Zhao Zhong carefully pulled out the rivets, Xu De also came over shouting loudly. Every time he did this, his voice would be very loud, although not scolding anyone, but in terms of tone, it was already comparable to Instructor Hu Song's lectures.

  Perhaps he was resisting the impending blizzard in this way, Zhao Zhong didn't think much and raised his head to answer: "Behind the driver's seat, do you want to use it to fix the wheels? But how are you going to do that?"

  The rope used for towing is much longer than the general vehicle tow rope, but even so, Zhao Zhong doesn't think it's possible to use those ropes to secure the car. However, if only used to secure the wheels, it might be barely feasible, depending on how it's used.

  "Hey, you really know that! Of course we can't directly use ropes to fix the wheels, we have to pile up stones around the wheels first and then tie them together with the stones."

  Xu De's words immediately made Zhao Zhong feel at ease. Although there were no landmarks nearby to borrow and fix the car, if stones were piled up around the wheels, it would indeed increase friction and prevent the car from shifting or tipping over in the blizzard.

  After dismantling the wooden boxes in his hands, Zhao Zhong didn't rush to take them to the tent either. Anyway, these woods would only be used when sealing the account and squatting at the end.

  Zhao Zhong took out a iron shovel from the driver's cab and began to follow Xu De to scoop up stones beside the roadbed. These stones were not natural products of the Gobi Desert, but leftovers from previous road construction teams when they paved and repaired roads.

  Although the transport convoy had never helped the road construction team transport gravel before, thinking that these gravels could save himself and his car today, Zhao Zhong also felt a slight sense of gratitude towards the road construction team in his heart.