Father can be an enemy country

Chapter 1315 Thirst

"Holy shit, is this thing broken?" Lan Yu's eyes widened in disbelief, and she tested it again, but the result was still the same.

Then he asked others to take out compasses, and they all pointed in the same direction, about ten degrees west of true north as measured.

"What's going on?" Everyone looked at each other. Either the compasses failed at the same time, or their measurements were wrong.

This measurement method has been used in the army, and there should be nothing wrong with it. But the compass points in the same direction at the same time, so it is obviously not a simple failure...

"It is the Immortal Heaven that is protecting the Golden Family!" Lai Tu, who had helped the Ming army break open the gates of Qingzhou City, screamed horribly: "They are going to lead us astray and trap us to death in the desert!"

"Bullshit!" Lan Yu kicked him to the ground and cursed: "Stop confusing the public with your monstrous words!"

As he said that, he asked Liu Xiang: "Liu Kuaishou, what do you think?"

Liu Xiang held up his compass and said: "The pointer of this thing is actually used to sense the geomagnetic field, so if there is a magnet nearby, the pointer will malfunction."

As he spoke, he opened his backpack, took out a round magnet used to hang maps, and brought it close to the compass, and the pointer immediately started to follow its direction.

"Yes, we call the desert south of Hada Tolgoir the Hunshandak Desert." Guantong replied.

"Fuck!" Lan Yu spat harshly. Unexpectedly, they, veterans of many battles, could make such a fatal mistake of getting lost.

"Since they are integrated, is there water only in Youhun South Road?" Lan Yu said solemnly: "How could it be such a coincidence that all the water sources are connected in a straight line?"

"Let me ask you a question, is the desert we are in integrated with the South Wandering Soul Road?" Lan Yu asked Guantong.

The entire army was ordered to stop advancing and rest in place.

"It's hard to say, we don't know when the direction changed." Liu Xiang said: "The safest way is to return to the previous water source."

"The last time we got water was four days ago." Wang Bi said solemnly: "The men and horses can't last that long."

"No wonder we can't find the water source. It turns out that we left the Wandering Soul South Road and strayed into the depths of the Gobi." Guantong suddenly said.

"That's it..." Lan Yu and others generally understood. But the principle is not important. What is important is that they are lost...

"So there may be magnetite in this area, which makes the compass temporarily unable to indicate the direction." After the demonstration, he concluded.

"What should we do now?" Lan Yu frowned and asked, "How long will it take to return to Wandering Soul South Road?"

"The Wandering Soul South Road is not a straight line. The ancestors found the water source, and then connected a route through the desert based on the water source." Guantong said.

But the task of the general is to solve these unexpected problems. He calmed down quickly,

"In any case, in such a large Gobi Desert, it is impossible that there is water only in the South Youhun Road. There must be water sources elsewhere!" Lan Yu pointed at a group of yellow sheep in the distance that quickly passed the horizon and said: "Otherwise they would have been thirsty. died!"

"The general's words make sense." Liu Xiang nodded in agreement: "Although the land in the Gobi Desert is barren and there is no water source, there are vegetation everywhere, which means at least there must be water underground."

"Yes." Guantong agreed at this time: "The South Road of Wandering Souls was the road that Genghis Khan explored when he led his troops south. They have been guarding this road for generations since then, and there is no need to explore elsewhere. So. It's possible to find it if you look for it." "Since Temujin can find water, so can I, general!" Lan Yu said proudly, "Send all the scouts out with the camp as the center. Find water sources within a hundred miles!"

"Yes!" Dongchuan Hou Hu Hai responded in a deep voice.

"We're going together too!" Guantong volunteered: "Although we have never been to this Gobi desert, we have rich experience in finding water."

"Yes." Lan Yu nodded and said, "Let's go together and work together to solve the army's urgent needs as soon as possible!"

"Yes!" The two men agreed in a deep voice, and hurriedly gathered their own men.

~~
The army then stationed itself where it was and waited.

The reason why Lan Yu didn't let the army return the same way was because it was a waste of time. Second, it caused too much damage to the army. The soldiers were so frugal that they only had enough water for one day. The return journey takes four days, and there will definitely be a serious water shortage on the way.

Generally speaking, people can go three days without drinking water. But in the desert, if you don't drink water for a day, you will die. Once a large number of troops die of thirst, it will greatly damage the morale of the entire army. If you lose morale, you still have to fight.

Third, when stationary, the consumption of men and horses is the lowest, and precious fresh water can be evenly distributed to the scouts looking for water.

In order to be able to hold on until they found the water source, the soldiers who stayed in place also worked hard. They refused to drink the last bit of water, but drank horse urine and their own urine to stay alive.

They also killed some of the pack horses to reduce water consumption, but Lan Yu strictly prohibited drinking horse blood raw.

First, horse blood is not very effective in quenching thirst. Second, in such a hot, irritable, and even desperate environment, drinking raw blood may cause the soldiers to go crazy, and they will be saved if the camp roars.

Of course, such precious materials cannot be wasted. The soldiers heated and solidified the horse blood to make blood tofu, and cut the horse meat into thin strips and smoked it for long-term preservation. Even horsehide has been made into a muddy water bag. Although I don’t know if it can still be used, I still have to dream...

In addition to cutting costs, open source is also important.

Lan Yu listened to Liu Xiang's suggestion and ordered people to dig holes on the ground covered by vegetation near the military camp. The soil under the vegetation was moist. If you were lucky, water would seep out as you dug.

It doesn't matter if you can't dig out water. Just put the tent over the wet pit and then spread the tarpaulin under the tent, so that you can take advantage of the temperature difference between day and night to get water. I could hold more than half a bowl of water the next morning.

Although these two methods are only a drop in the bucket, they can greatly boost morale. The soldiers went into battle together, dug holes everywhere, and accumulated a small amount into a large amount, and they were able to barely survive.

Of course I have to continue drinking my own urine and horse urine...

~~
"Prince, stop drinking." Zhang Yu and others couldn't bear to see their prince drinking the same thing as them.

"There are so many of us who can still provide you with water. You don't have to be like us."

"How many times have I told you, I am here as an ordinary soldier this time." But Zhu Di was very stubborn. He took a sip of the drink he had just made, and his face wrinkled into a black chrysanthemum.

"I found that you can't drink this stuff while it's hot..." Zhu Di said with a start: "Besides, I don't drink it, and you don't drink it either, so just let the sergeants drink it? Can they have no objection?"

"Your Majesty is right." Once Zhu Di rose to the level of military morale, what else could Zhang Yu and others say?
And indeed Zhu Di said, they just don't want to drink this stuff. But the prince insisted on drinking it, so they had no choice but to drink the cup of horse urine together.

(End of this chapter)