Although the Far East swept away almost all the Russian strongholds in Siberia, the Far Eastern Army still did not garrison the upper reaches of the three major rivers in Siberia, nor did it establish grassroots villages in those areas.

In February 1885, the famous Russian village of Oymyakon received the name of the Northern Hemisphere Cold Pole with an official record of -67.7 ° C. The village is inhabited by only a few hundred people, and the average weather in January is -50.3°C, with a minimum temperature of -71.2°C in 1962.

It is said that such a low temperature makes the live fish freeze immediately after only 10 seconds out of the water! Surprisingly, however, the highest temperature difference in the summer was recorded at 34.6°C.

During the Soviet era, people living in Siberia generally lived a long life. Because traditional factors such as completely pure air and water, an active lifestyle and a healthy diet may well have played an important role in this.

Beginning in the late 16th century, it is a miracle that Russian explorers traveled almost all of Siberia in less than 100 years. They walked a little further, and when they couldn't walk anymore, they built a castle as a starting point for those who came after them to continue their journey.

Of course, such a smooth occupation has a lot to do with the scarcity of the local indigenous population. They were just hunters in the forest, estimated to have never numbered more than a few hundred thousand, but they lived in a vast area of more than 10 million square kilometers, which was completely negligible.

Although the Far Eastern Army occupies the Siberian region, like Russia, it only holds the three major water systems and the main tributaries. In the vast mountainous forest areas such as East Siberia and Central Siberia, there are still many undiscovered areas.

Compared with the extremely cold Siberian region, the steppe desert areas of the outer northwest, although the temperature is not so low, but the vast steppes are still difficult to endure this winter.

A biting cold wind howled across the grassland. In an instant, the herdsmen in cotton coats can blow their hearts out. Once there is a snowstorm, there are basically no people on the grassland.

Li Shanhe led a platoon of soldiers and was trudging through knee-deep snow. The officers and men wore thick military coats, hoods, cotton hats, scarves and gloves, and goggles to prevent snow blindness from being in the endless snow for a long time.

Snow is extremely reflective of sunlight. It can reach nearly 95%, and looking directly into the snow is like looking directly into the sun, and this symptom is called snow blindness because it often occurs on mountaineering, snow and polar explorers.

Of course, you also need to wear wide snow shoes on your feet to make it easy to walk in knee-high snow. Even so, you still have to be careful when walking on thick snow. Many undulating places are often windswept depressions, where blizzards accumulate snow several meters deep. Once you fall into such a snow nest, it is still very dangerous.

The troops participating in the patrol generally form a patrol team in a platoon unit, and then a sled wagon is attached to carry the food and other supplies required by the patrol team.

Li Shanhe is now a sergeant squad leader of the Fifth Cavalry Division of the Northwest Field Army, and according to the rules of the Far Eastern Army, the squad leader of each platoon also serves as the non-commissioned officer of the platoon. In peacetime, he is responsible for helping the platoon commander manage the training and daily work of the whole platoon.

Although he was selected into the cavalry division, he was also separated from their second uncle. Because the second uncle participated in the non-commissioned officer training course of the Northwest Field Army, he is now a platoon commander of the field division of the Northwest Field Army.

Li Shanhe was selected into the teaching team of the newly built cavalry division in Xiye and became a sergeant squad leader of the new cavalry division. Although according to his second uncle's words, don't look at him as a sergeant squad leader now, anyone with a discerning eye can see that the Northwest Field Army belongs to a fully equipped cavalry unit.

Even field divisions belong to mounted infantry units. Except for the start of the battle, the rest of the time is on horseback. Therefore, the cavalry unit will be the backbone of the Northwest Field Army in the future, and as long as it survives there, the future is unlimited.

Since the Northwest Field Army formed two cavalry divisions, it has successively formed four newly built cavalry divisions. After nearly a year of training, in order to better temper the contingent and form combat effectiveness at an early date, the four newly built cavalry divisions all came to the outer northwest region for training through a long-distance training exercise last autumn and spent the winter there.

With the arrival of winter, heavy snowfall fell in the grassland desert areas of the outer northwest, and the entire grassland instantly turned into a snow-white color, causing great losses to the nomadic detachments in the outer northwest.

All units of the West Field also participated in the disaster relief operation, and they were busy for more than a month, and finally successfully completed the disaster relief task. The units did not return to their stations at all, but were stationed in the field at various disaster relief sites.

Every time a brigade-level unit is stationed on a patrol mission, several patrol squads will be dispatched to patrol a large area around the station; today Li Shanhe led a platoon of soldiers to form a patrol squad to carry out a large-scale field patrol around the barracks.

In fact, at this time, the significance of field patrols is not great, after all, the entire grassland is covered with thick snow, and there is no threat around the troop station. In fact, the process of patrolling is also to exercise the troops' ability to march in the snow.

During the period of training in the field, several newly built cavalry divisions of the Far Eastern Army in the West Field have always carried out strict management of their troops in accordance with the standards of combat readiness and duty. The troops must not let go, and occasional relaxation is allowed, but it should not be too long, and it will soon become tense.

At present, the troops not only have to conduct all-day training, but they are still very strict in their work on weekdays, such as internal hygiene, service system, picketing in barracks, and guarding posts, and so on, and the troops have always been required to be in a state of combat readiness.

Li Shanhe and his soldiers have been patrolling the nearby area for nearly a few days, and they will rush back to the station tomorrow. Tonight will be their last camping in the wilderness.

The soldiers worked very hard for the past few days of patrolling, but fortunately, the last camp did not require the patrol team to set up camp in the field, but camped in a nomadic brigade not far from the troop station.

This nomadic brigade is the grassroots unit that the cavalry division participated in disaster relief, so every time the patrol team of the cavalry brigade passed by here and was about to set up a camp in the field, they would be pushed and dragged by the enthusiastic steppe men to the nomadic brigade for warm hospitality.

For this reason, the patrol team that began to pass through here also sent a telegram to the brigade headquarters for instructions, and the leaders of the brigade headquarters also made a special report to the division headquarters.

After all, the regular troops of the division did not know much about the ethnic customs on the grassland, so the officers and men were also very cautious, for fear that the officers and men of the unit would violate discipline. They specifically consulted the main Mongolian cavalry division in the vicinity and received a satisfactory answer. So every time the patrol team passes here, they choose to camp in this nomadic brigade.

(To be continued.) )

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