Let's turn our gaze to the hapless 13th Infantry Brigade, which is missing.

On the afternoon of May 17, the 13th Infantry Brigade under Wang Jiejun of the 3rd Division encountered a sandstorm while pursuing the 24th Division of the Soviet Army's Simbirsk Iron Army and the 1st Political Commissar of the Soviet Army's Eastern Army, Melnikov.

On the morning of May 18, when the sandstorm ended, the 13th Infantry Brigade plunged into the Ares Salt Marsh, and the brigade commander Yu Wensong hurriedly called over to Xue Qinglin, the chief of staff, and discussed with various officers what to do.

What made it difficult for them was that because of the pursuit of the Soviet army, their brigade did nothing except carry weapons and medicine, a water bottle, and a small amount of cakes, and even the baggage battalion and machine gun battalion of the brigade headquarters were left with Wang Jiejun of the third division. Now they were a lightly armed infantry brigade, with no supplies, no water, only a low-power radio - and it had been broken.

And most importantly, they are lost. Now in the salt marsh, between heaven and earth are a white expanse, everyone really doesn't know what to do, over the salt mountain in the distance to see a lake, everyone excitedly go to drink water, but the result is salty. This is a salt marsh, and the water here is not drinkable.

Yu Wensong sat anxiously on the sand, the corners of his mouth a little chapped, staring at the telegraph operator who repaired the radio station, and the telegraph operator was also sweating profusely.

"What should I do, what should I do?" Deputy Brigade Commander and Commander of the 25th Regiment Lang Qike said depressedly.

"Can't fix the radio?" Lu Ming, the commander of the 26th regiment, asked.

"It broke, it was too windy yesterday." Xue Qing, chief of staff of the brigade headquarters, said Linnadi. The maintenance telegraph operator said: "I will only send a message, and the maintenance station will not be very ......"

"Ugh." Lang Qike smiled bitterly. "You can even send telegrams, and you can't fix the radio?"

Yu Wensong smiled bitterly: "Don't blame him, their telegraph operator is not a repairman, blame this gale, his mother is blowing too much." ”

Lu Ming licked his lips, snorted to the ground, highlighted a mouthful of black thick phlegm, and complained: "The mouth is full of sand." What the is a broken place, it's too buried. Brigade, now we have to find a way to get out of this salt marsh, his mother's eggs, smelling salty air, are thirsty to death. I think when I was in my hometown, a bag of salt was fifty dollars. It's all salt here, take whatever you want. Eh, you said that if we brought some back, wouldn't we be rich? Everyone laughed, and Zhang Dawei, the head of the 27th regiment, said: "Let's open a salt wholesale company, and we must make a lot of money." In the future, everyone will not be able to marry ten or eight daughters-in-law. ”

Yu Wensong, who was smiling on the surface, regretted it in his heart, he knew that he shouldn't have pursued the enemy in the first place, and he lost himself and was embarrassed! A vast white salt marsh area, even the southeast and northwest can't be confused. How to get out? After laughing for a while, he sternly did a self-examination. Said that it was his own problem that led the troops to get lost.

Yu Wensong's apology was still forgiven by everyone, after all, it was not only his fault at that time, the important thing was whether he could get out of this salt marsh now, and then what should he do?

Lu Mingjian said: "Since you can't find the direction for the time being, don't walk around first, save everyone's body, it's better to rest on the spot." His proposal was approved by Yu Wensong, who ordered the whole brigade to rest in place and continue to discuss solutions.

Xue Qinglin, chief of staff of the brigade, was a high-achieving university student, and later abandoned the military to study at the Yakeshi Army Non-commissioned Officer Academy, and then went to the Army University for further study.

Brigade Chief of Staff Xue Qinglin studied civil engineering at university, and now is the time for him to show his skills, and he speculated based on the direction of the wind, time and height of the sun, that they should be relatively close to the Chu River and the Leisu River, because the two rivers eventually flowed here, and eventually formed a huge salt marsh and two large saltwater lakes, Lake Akzayken and Lake Asikel, so they should be almost two hundred kilometers away from the Kizil fortress. Calculating their rations, Xue Qing Linnaeus said that they could only eat for three days, and it was not a problem to travel 200 kilometers in three days, but it was not an easy thing to accomplish in the desert and salt marshes, especially the lack of water.

"Two days of food reserves, can you rush to the Kizil fortress......" Yu Wensong hesitated, he looked at his subordinates, and suddenly stared at Gu Dazhao, the commander of the reconnaissance company, Gu Dazhao was stunned for a moment, and stammered: "Brigade commander, don't you want to slaughter me and eat me?" ”

"No, but you have war horses, and our brigade will have horses." Yu Wensong said.

Gu Dazhao jumped three feet high, and suddenly shouted: "No, no, absolutely not, if anyone eats my horse, I will play with whom!" ”

Xue Qinglin, chief of staff of the brigade, said: "If we go south, we only need to walk 150 to 170 kilometers to reach the steppe along the Syr Darya River, and there are villages along the Syr Darya River, maybe we can get supplies." ”

"Not perhaps, but it has to be resupplied." Deputy Brigade Commander and Commander of the 25th Regiment Lang Qike said coldly, "We can't watch our brothers die of thirst and starvation. ”

"If you continue walking along the Syr Darya River to the south......," Xue Qinglin calculated, "according to the normal pace of our army's march, it will take five days to reach the Kizil fortress." ”

"Nope." At this time, Yu Wensong no longer hesitated, he said: "Our main purpose is to reinforce the fortress after blocking the enemy's troops, five days is too long. He said firmly: "Two hundred kilometers, two days, from here to the west, two days to the Kyzyl fortress, must arrive!" ”

Xue Qinglin said with a bitter face: "This qiē is calculated by me according to the approximate location, if it is safe, it is still to the south." ”

"You can't mistake the plane." Yu Wensong said, "It's imminent." ”

Lang Chike said with an expression on his face: "Why didn't you see the reconnaissance plane?" ”

"yes, the reconnaissance plane can't be seen either." Other officers complained.

Xue Qinglin suddenly said in surprise: "Could it be that we are chasing the wrong direction, now we are in the salt marsh north of Lake Asikir, if this is the case, it will not be two hundred kilometers." He measured it with his hand on the map and said with a wry smile: "That's two hundred and forty kilometers." ”

"Even if it's forty kilometers more, I'm going to go." Yu Wensong said, "If we delay the fighter, you and I will all be punished, if we delay the fighter and guide the battle, what are our bones?" He looked at them and said, "Obey the order, tell the warriors, that food and water should be used as evenly as possible." He looked at Gu Dazhao again and said, "If the food runs out after two days, kill the horse!" ”

"Brigade commander, no, no!" Gu Dazhao exclaimed heartbreakingly.

Yu Wensong patted Gu Dazhao on the shoulder and said, "I know you're sad, but if you really can't get out, you just watch your brothers starve to death." Gu Dazhao was speechless.

On May 18, the 13th Infantry Brigade began its long journey westward in fear, and from noon onwards the temperature continued to rise, so that everyone did not dare to drink lightly, so they had to take a sip in their mouths and not swallow it, so as to save water. In the evening, when the weather turned cooler, the team rested in place to avoid going in the wrong direction. The sentinels searched everywhere, but could not find a way out, and the whole brigade was in mourning.

At a little after five o'clock in the morning of May 19, the sky was overcast, and after sleeping on the salt marsh for the night, everyone was covered with grains of salt, which were very uncomfortable adhering to their bodies. The reconnaissance company, led by Chief of Staff Xue Qinglin and Gu Dazhao, was responsible for leading the team to find the direction, and finally walked out of the salt marsh at noon and came to a saline-alkali land. The soldiers cheered, and finally walked out of the salt marsh, looking back at the huge salt marsh, which was white, but where no life died.

In the afternoon, the reconnaissance unit suddenly encountered a puddle of water, because the experience in the salt marshes made everyone dare not drink water casually, and after drinking the water, they were thirsty. Originally, everyone was going to get out of the way, but the horses of the reconnaissance force took the initiative to run over to drink water, and then everyone unexpectedly discovered that this was actually a freshwater puddle.

There is not much water in the puddle, Gu Dazhao built a lot of water and left two people for the troops behind to watch, Xue Qinglin felt that the time was a little late, everyone was still resting around here, waiting for the big troops.

The follow-up troops of the 13th Infantry Brigade came here after walking for a day and were very thirsty, and even the brigade commander Yu Wensong's lips were dry and white, and after seeing the water source, he laughed excitedly and said that the sky will not die for me. Maybe there was too little water in the puddle, maybe the soldiers were thirsty, but in short, for these four thousand soldiers, the water in the puddle was far from enough, and the water was gone. Everyone stared at the mud and sand with regret, and the dirty ground was shady, and no one thought that at this moment, water that they don't pay attention to on weekdays would be so important and precious.

Gu Dazhao, the commander of the reconnaissance company, said: "There should be some of it under the sediment, let's dig deeper, maybe it's a spring." "But to everyone's disappointment, after digging four meters deep, we couldn't find a spring other than half a meter of muddy water.

"If you filter the muddy water, you can drink it, it's better than dying of thirst." Gu Dazhao tried his best to get more water, he patted his thigh and said: "Filter it with clothes, two or three layers, it should work, just sink in the waterproof pot for a while." He ordered the reconnaissance company to give the water from the current kettle to others, especially the wounded, and the reconnaissance company to drink the filtered water from the sediment. But the other fraternal troops naturally did not do it, and both sides came and went for a while, and they were embarrassed to ask for it. So I decided to get more water overnight to filter, and tomorrow we will enter the desert, and water is indispensable.

Everyone filtered out hundreds of pots of water overnight, and they were very excited, and they were happy that someone had dug up muddy water in other places, and Yu Wensong immediately ordered everyone to filter water overnight, which temporarily solved the water problem. To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to the www.biquge.info of Biquge (qidian.to vote for recommendation votes, monthly passes, your support is my biggest motivation. For mobile phone users, please go to m.qidian. )

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