Ma Brothers

It was already very cold in Xiangyang in early November during the Chongzhen period of the Ming Dynasty. Rich people had begun to light charcoal fires in their rooms for warmth, and the river water was even colder.

A small river rushed forward quickly through the undulating mountains, until it slowed down a bit in a curved open area, and formed a relatively open water surface here.

Although the water surface is nearly 30 to 40 feet wide (about 100 meters, one foot is equivalent to 3.1 meters in Ming Dynasty), and the depth of the water is also two meters due to the depression below, but due to the topography, the entire surface of the river is

There is still a very fast flow rate.

At this time, on this wide river, a group of men were splashing in the river, apparently wanting to cross.

Some of them were wearing thin clothes and pushing and pulling their luggage held up by simple bamboo rafts or sheepskin bags in the water. Others were just wearing slightly more clothes and swimming by themselves. There were several piles rising on both sides of the shore.

bonfire.

On the bank where these men were swimming, there was a thick, wet man standing there, looking gloomily into the river. Just from his appearance, he could tell that he was an arrogant guy who was not easy to mess with.

He is Ma Lan, the commander of the reconnaissance company in Li Ping's camp. At this time, he is organizing armed swimming training.

Finally, the more than 40 strong young men in the water managed to get ashore, but Malan suddenly pointed at a tall guy and said: "Wang Huqiang, go, swim back and put out the fire on the other side."

After saying that, Malan turned around and walked to the nearest bonfire without looking back. As he walked, he shouted: "Everyone, pack up immediately. After counting to 100, we will start emergency march training. Zhao Dongdong, you count."

"

As soon as he finished speaking, a young man who was warming himself by the fire jumped up in excitement. He answered "Yes" loudly, and then shouted "1, 2, 3, 4..." while shouting anxiously.

He tidied himself up eagerly.

The platoon leader named Wang Huqiang was also tall, fierce, and had a strong aura. He looked even more difficult to mess with than Malan.

At this time, he looked at Malan's back with a look of astonishment and pity on his face and couldn't help shouting: "Company Commander, we have been swimming back and forth in the water for several times. We are really exhausted. Let our brothers rest for a while!"

"

"Execute the order. If you come back late and can't catch up with us, just count the stars in the mountains by yourself." Malan turned to Wang Huqiang fiercely and said.

After saying that, he kicked down the bonfire next to him.

Wang Huqiang's mouth gnashed twice, and finally he could only say one word, "Yes", and then he turned around in a hurry and jumped into the water again.

Other people on the shore were already jumping up and down, putting on clothes, putting out fires, packing their luggage, and some people were hurriedly stuffing dried meat into their mouths.

"Be strict and difficult, and start from actual combat. Sweat more in peacetime and bleed less in war." These are the two most common words spoken by guerrilla Li Ping. Ma Lan deeply believed it and resolutely implemented it in the daily training of the reconnaissance company.

The number of 100 was quickly finished, and the soldiers all stood in line in a panic.

The training during this period of time has made them understand the serious consequences of not listening to orders and not completing orders on time. No one is stupid. Being beaten up is a minor offense, but being eliminated is the real loss of face.

The current reconnaissance company is definitely the place that the tough guys in the whole battalion most yearn for. This is a collective of strong men. Being eliminated will mean that you are too weak.

And it is too easy to eliminate people. That King of Hell will never be merciful. He has already eliminated seventeen people, and no one knows who will be next.

After quickly arranging the team, Zhao Dongdong, one of the two platoon commanders, carefully ran to Malan and asked: "Company commander, where are you going?"

"Here, Hejia Village." Malan pointed on a simple small map.

…

Ma Yong has been lying on a large square table looking at the map for a long time. He also holds a simple wooden ruler in his hand. A staff officer next to him is reporting various distance data to him.

This map is made of hard paper and is not very big because we cannot make large paper.

If you look closely, you can see that this map is completely different from the maps commonly seen in this era.

It adopts the diagram method of upper north and lower south, with a scale marked on the side. On the map, cities have outlines, villages are divided into sizes, rivers are thick and thin, mountains and rivers have rough heights and directions, and there is a row of large characters at the top: Topography around Xiangfan

picture.

Although this map is still far behind the maps of later generations and is much simpler and childish, it is already much better than most maps of this era. What's more, at this time, quite a few miscellaneous army generals didn't even look at it.

They don't know what the map looks like, and their knowledge of the terrain relies solely on verbal reports. It would be good if they could identify large towns.

However, most of the map in front of Ma Yong is still empty. In the empty areas, some are more densely drawn, and some are only sparsely marked with a few villages.

Ma Yong used a ruler to draw on the picture for a long time and finally gave up.

There must be something wrong with the markings of the area in front of him. After several places were marked on the map according to the reported distances, the distances from other surrounding reference objects were completely messed up. It seemed that the measurement was very inaccurate.

He sighed and wanted to say something, but in the end he didn't.

His staff office is too weak now, and all staff officers have not yet been selected. Most of the staff officers still only hold the rank of squad leader, because they are not qualified to be awarded warrant officers.

Tomorrow, most of the battalion planned to conduct a long-distance pulling training. It was estimated that they would be away for five or six days. Thinking of his weak staff team gave him a headache.

He decided to go watch the army's training to make himself feel better.

After a long day of tying ropes, setting traps and camping training with the officers and soldiers in a company, Ma Yongyong consciously went to the reconnaissance company that he must visit every time. It has become a habit for him to visit often.

At this time, all the officers and men of the reconnaissance company were washing the horses in twos and threes. Some chatted while washing, while others hummed a tune. The whole company was filled with a leisurely atmosphere.

Ma Yonggang's face turned gloomy again.

Soon, Ma Yong found Malan lying on a big rock with his eyes narrowed and basking in the sun. The guy still had a piece of withered grass in his mouth and was dangling with one foot on the other bent leg.

Ma Yong was so angry that he kicked him up.

Probably because the boss was used to it, Malan didn't take it seriously when someone approached him and continued to squint.

Until he was kicked violently, Malan rolled to the side reflexively on the stone. While spitting out the dead grass in his mouth, he propped himself up and cursed: "Damn it, I don't want to live anymore..."

When he saw clearly that the person in front of him was Ma Yong, Ma Lan was stunned.

He slowed down his movements, stood up, and muttered helplessly: "Brother, why did you kick me?"

"Why should I kick you? Is this how you make me look bad?" Ma Yong almost yelled, then went up and kicked Ma Lan twice in the butt.

"What did I do? Brother."

Malan looked aggrieved. He did not hide or dare to hide. He knew that his brother was under great pressure and had a bad temper during this period.

"Damn, the other companies are training in full swing, and look at you, you, the company commander, still have the heart to sleep here.

There are so many people in the whole camp, but your company can eat meat every day, and everyone has a horse. Even my staff office only has a few horses for delivering orders. You don't train me like you are risking your life, but you can't

Lead my troops like this,

You still know that I am your brother. By the way, damn, how many times have I told you that you are not allowed to call me brother in public, you have no face, right?"

Ma Yong was obviously a little angry.

Ma Yong always felt that if he didn't even give him respect from his own brother, how could he command the whole camp, so he always had extremely high demands on Ma Lan and wanted him to be the best in everything. If he didn't like it at all, he would scold him.

"Chief of Staff, I'm not lazy. We have been training in the mountains for the past two days. Didn't we just come back last night? We haven't had any serious rest for a long time. Brothers are exhausted. Don't you know all this?

Of?

I was thinking that there will be a big training session in the camp tomorrow, and our company will be responsible for the sentinel mission of the whole camp. Why don't we quickly let the brothers cultivate their relationship with the horses, so as not to get separated. How about we take a rest by the way?

Your ability is not ironclad!"

Malan defended unwillingly, but at the same time he was full of grievances.

"You're still reasonable! You're still reasonable. You little bastard, you've worked so hard, you've worked so hard, no matter how tired you are, it's of no use if you don't do any work. Why don't you work on your company's math and math skills while you have this free time?

As for surveying and mapping, most of the distance data provided to me is inaccurate, so you still have some merit, right?"

It was okay if Ma Lan didn't explain, but Ma Yong became even more angry when he defended himself.

He immediately remembered the powerlessness he felt when looking at the map just now. Although this was not entirely Malan's problem, he still had to bear a lot of responsibility.

The reconnaissance company and the staff office are the only units in the battalion that have "very high" requirements for mathematics and elementary surveying and mapping. This high level actually means reaching the mathematics level of the fourth and fifth grade elementary schools in later generations and possessing the most basic map recognition and mapping skills.

ability.

Since Li Ping has not yet set up a dedicated surveying and mapping unit, and the reconnaissance company is currently the unit with the strongest scope of activities, the reconnaissance company is not only responsible for reconnaissance of the enemy, but also responsible for improving the map together with the staff office.

When Ma Yong said this, he couldn't explain the constipation expression on Ma Lan's face. Not to mention his company, even he was almost going crazy from the torture of mathematics, but he had no place to complain.

As he stayed longer and longer under Li Ping, and as the commander of the reconnaissance company became longer and longer, Malan had become more and more aware of the importance of culture and the importance of mathematics to the army.

sex.

He began to agree more and more with many of guerrilla Li Ping's demands, but he also increasingly discovered his own insignificance and ignorance.

Just like mathematics and simple surveying and mapping, it was difficult for him to learn. It was too difficult to learn. He used to look down on those weak literati, but now he admires them very much.

Platoon leader Wang Huqiang, who had just filled a bucket of warm water, looked at company commander Malan not far away who had been trained as a grandson by the chief of staff. He carried the water with a confused face to the side of platoon leader Zhao Dongdong who was brushing his horse.

He poked Zhao Dongdong, who was peeking curiously, and asked: "You said, the chief of staff is not an unreasonable person, but when he saw our company commander, he changed completely. If I didn't know that they are brothers, I would

I thought they were enemies!"

Zhao Dongdong glanced at Wang Huqiang and said with concern: "Do you know what it means to hate iron for not being able to become steel?" After saying that, he directly took a ladle to Wang Huqiang's bucket and scooped out a ladle of warm water.

Before Wang Huqiang could react, he was still confused: "What does this mean?"

"What do you mean, thank you for the water." Zhao Dongdong said while continuing to scoop water.

At this time, Wang Huqiang realized what he was saying, "Damn it," and hurriedly picked up the water and put it behind him.
Chapter completed!