10. Extracting iron from ore (1)
Extracting iron from ore is called smelting.
I arrived at the military region's reconnaissance business competition training base, and only then did I understand what a reconnaissance soldier was all about. If I could fool around with my own cleverness before, the real training was not that simple.
Let's talk about our living environment first. The training base was located next to a reservoir, and we all lived in temporary infantry tents. At that time, it was already May, and the early summer was approaching. The number of mosquitoes in the forest near the reservoir was unimaginable, and I had never seen so many huge mosquitoes before. How can I put it? When you went to the toilet - what they called a toilet was just an open area in the woods with a big hole dug out and covered with a few wooden boards as a stepping place - this was something I had never seen before. The smell didn't need to be mentioned, and when you were taking care of your business, mosquitoes would bite your butt fiercely. After finishing and pulling up your pants, your butt would itch unbearably, feeling like it had been bitten thousands of times. That's when I learned how to smoke - to repel the mosquitoes. Although smoking was strictly forbidden for us trainees, many cadres and officers still smoked, which seemed to have some effect. The power of these mosquitoes was something I had never seen before - even if you wore camouflage uniforms, they could bite through them. So-called insect repellents were useless. What I feared most was the evening roll call. Miao Lian's voice was loud, and his training skills were top-notch - he could scold you in all sorts of ways. This would take a long time, at least an hour or two, before we could disperse. That's when the mosquitoes started to get busy. You didn't dare swat them away, so you just listened as they buzzed around your ears in droves - you couldn't describe it without using the word "droves", because they always moved in droves, and there were countless numbers of them. Every brother was bitten to death. Mosquito nets could also be penetrated, and I really didn't know how they got in - at home, we never had the tradition of sleeping under mosquito nets, because we had insecticides and electronic mosquito repellents, and city mosquitoes weren't as reckless and numerous, launching all sorts of attacks on humans. Here, every day after finishing my chores, the first thing I did was to tuck in the mosquito net tightly.
Then comes the training. The training is not only intense but also difficult. In addition to traditional reconnaissance subjects, there are many technical and detective subjects that are too numerous to mention. However, many officers are also in contact for the first time, let alone me.
Let's talk about the concept of intensity. Let me mention a few subjects that have left a deep impression on me.
Generally, when we run armed cross-country in the army, we actually run on mountain roads. The more you run, the more roads there are, and they get flatter and flatter. The original slope is not high either. Our reconnaissance company's assessment is usually 5000 meters and 10000 meters. New recruits don't need to run 10000 meters, but I participated in both. The concept of armed cross-country running is to run with a gun, magazine, grenade, water bottle, etc., without a backpack. My personal record for the 5000-meter armed cross-country run is 17 minutes and 15 seconds, ranking fifth in our company. The fastest was the squad leader from the third platoon, who finished in 16 minutes; my record for the 10000-meter run is 44 minutes and 10 seconds, which is first in our company. Second place was Chen's platoon, with a time of 44 minutes and 27 seconds, only slightly slower than me. I think it's because his legs cramped up due to the large amount of exercise, which wasn't very comfortable. In contrast, my run was relatively smooth, and the longer the distance, the more momentum I gained.
But the scout's collective training and preparation for martial arts was not like that. The road was absolutely narrow and winding, and the surface was rugged to an unacceptable degree for ordinary people. The ups and downs were very large, often 60 degrees up and 60 degrees down. Moreover, we were required to wear steel helmets, those with camouflage cloth on them, the 80-style steel helmets. In my unit's assessment, I always wore a training hat, and if it was really unbearable, I would take off the hat and put it in my pocket and run bareheaded. But wearing a steel helmet was different. The strap would choke you after a while, and you didn't dare loosen it. If you loosened it, it would shake, and you didn't dare take it off. First, you didn't know where to put it, and second, you didn't know where the officials from the military region's organs were hiding at any time. The regulations did not allow taking off the steel helmet, and if you were caught, that was a big deal. The physical exhaustion can be imagined.
My first 10,000-meter mountain cross-country run was surprisingly tiring and left me breathless, taking 1 hour and 20 minutes to complete. Of course, others didn't fare much better either.
Then comes the climbing. In our team, I have only climbed a four-story climbing building, with a score of 7 seconds and 07. This result is just a little worse than Miao Lian's record that year, he climbed the climbing building in 6 seconds and 49. My score is estimated to be the fastest in our team's reconnaissance company, but I don't know about the whole division. This time, I saw several so-called masters from the division's reconnaissance battalion, and I have a number in my heart, not so afraid.
But the training didn't have a building for you to climb, a certain department's cadres drove a jeep to lead the team, and in the mountain valley, they looked for a cliff face to climb. I raised my head and saw that it was at least 30 meters high, very smooth, and there were very few small trees or anything that could be used as a resting point on the cliff. There were also many "sky lanterns" - this is our jargon, referring to rocks protruding from the cliff face. This is extremely dangerous, whether it's free solo climbing or not, you have to hang your body in mid-air to get past, which is a huge test of arm strength, waist strength, and physical coordination. Even with protective ropes, it's still dangerous, because there's always the possibility of falling rocks, even if you're wearing a helmet, getting hit once would be enough to hurt.
The assessment standard is a 50-meter-high cliff, and this is just the beginning. I really don't know who came up with this idea.
The place where we had our training and competition back then was later used by a group of young brothers to train for a famous international military climbing competition, even the instructors were the same. We gave that place a poetic name, a bit vulgar but very fitting - "Green Mountain Gorge". Even now when I think about it, I still have a smile on my face, because after climbing up, the scenery was too beautiful! On both sides of the green cliffs, in the middle a gorge, a stone road, and on both sides of the road were tall grasses as high as our waists, not just any ordinary poetic scenery. I'll look for some photos of "Green Mountain Gorge" later, it's still so vivid in my memory. Just thinking about it makes me want to laugh, it was too beautiful!
Next was the obstacle course. Not the traditional 400-meter infantry obstacle course, but a special obstacle course built on a slope in the mountains, which was extremely well-made, completed by an engineering battalion in just one night - I still marvel at the military's discipline and efficiency to this day. Nowadays, people often don't keep their promises, but in the army, what is said is done, no room for negotiation. If the leader says to build an obstacle course here today, it will definitely be there tomorrow morning. The engineering brothers did a great job! After we saw it, we all gasped in amazement. I don't remember how many degrees the slope was, but it was indeed a very steep mountain road with hundreds of meters of various obstacles built on it. I won't go into details, as it's too exciting and I've already discovered my own tendency to get sidetracked. Anyway, the increased difficulty is exponential. As for how tough it was, Lieutenant Miao would grit his teeth and squeeze out two words: "Bullshit!"
