My Military Career in a Parallel World

"Damn it, when did you put on your clothes? You put them on while I was just lowering my head?"

Jiang Chen's explosive speed in dressing just now stunned everyone in Class 3. Lu Xingwang looked at the clothes he had just taken out, and then looked at Jiang Chen who was already dressed neatly, his eyes almost popped out.

Jiang Chen sat on the grass by the river, wiping the water stains on his feet with a short-sleeved shirt that he had just wrung out. Hearing his words, he said with a smile, "Haha, this is called talent, you can't learn it, hurry up and put on your clothes, why are you standing there, aren't you cold?"

"It would be strange if it wasn't cold. My old man, Jill, is almost frozen." Lu Xingwang came to his senses, cursing under his breath, and his hands moved faster.

In less than two minutes, everyone was dressed neatly and waiting for the unlucky guys in the third row who were still in the water, swimming hard with their kayaks to get ashore.

"Don't just stand there, those who are dressed well, go to the surrounding woods to collect firewood and tinder!" Platoon leader Li Cheng gave orders on behalf of Ge Hongtao.

"Yes!" Everyone started moving immediately.

Wilderness survival is one of the skills that scouts must master.

Although in most cases, the most primitive way of making fire, such as rubbing two sticks together, is not very useful, but whether it is useful or not is one thing, and whether it will be useful is another.

You can choose not to use it, but you can’t fail to know it.

When I was in the recruit company, the squad leaders only mentioned it during training but never really put it into practice.

Jiang Chen, who had watched many wilderness survival programs in his previous life, was inevitably curious about the legendary fire-making method of rubbing two sticks together.

In fact, it's not just him. Su Yu and Lu Xingwang, two veterans who have been in the army for more than two years, have actually had little contact with the project of making fire by rubbing two sticks together.

Nowadays, military daggers are equipped with a flint at the end. It is rare to need to use it to make fire. It is enough to use it once or twice a year to deepen your memory.

"Jiang Chen!"

"To!"

"Come, look carefully. I will teach you the essentials and precautions of rubbing wood together to make fire."

"Yes!"

When Jiang Chen approached with a flashlight, Li Gang took out a piece of dry wood that he had selected long ago.

“First you need to find a piece of dry, soft wood to use as a drill board.

Secondly, find a straight and hard wooden stick to serve as the drill rod. It doesn’t need to be too long, just 20 to 30 centimeters is enough.

Finally, prepare dry, flammable tinder. ”

As he spoke, Li Gang took out a fist-sized bundle of hay.

Use a harder drill rod in your hand to dig a small depression on the drill plate to collect the wood chips generated by the friction between the drill rod and the drill plate, and also to make it easier for the wood chips to reach the combustion temperature.

While using a dagger to sharpen one end of the drill rod, Li Gang said, "If you lose the dagger in the wild, you can use a stone to sharpen the drill rod. Now it's training, so I won't waste the effort."

Jiang Chen nodded, indicating that he understood.

Making fire by rubbing two sticks together is not a difficult task. As long as you master the key points, ordinary people can succeed after a few tries.

After completing the preparations, Li Gang began to make fire by drilling wood.

Hold the drill rod with both hands, place the blunt end into the pit of the drill board, and step on the drill board with one foot to prevent the drill board from shaking when drilling wood to make fire, and to provide better leverage.

Hold the drill rod steady with one hand and use the other hand to rub it back and forth quickly, just like rubbing a rope.

The drill rod rotated faster and faster. Under the illumination of the flashlight, Jiang Chen clearly saw that the wood chips in the groove of the drill plate began to gradually turn black and emitted wisps of white smoke.

"Squad leader, there's a spark!"

"Hmm." Li Gang hummed lightly, but his hands did not stop moving until there were enough sparks flashing in the grooves. Then he stopped rotating the drill rod.

Throwing the drill rod aside, Li Gang quickly brought the tinder that he had prepared long ago close to the spark and blew gently at it.

More than ten seconds later, accompanied by Li Gang's continuous blowing, with sufficient oxygen support, the faintly flickering sparks turned into a ball of flame rising from the hay.

Li Gang quickly held the burning hay ball, bent down and put it under the pile of firewood that had been set up next to him.

The fire quickly started.

Li Gang placed the clothes that were still dripping from his backpack next to the fire with a wooden pole, turned his head to look at the others who were still busy, and finally looked at Jiang Chen and said, "Did you see everything clearly just now?"

"See clearly, squad leader!" Jiang Chen replied.

"Try it yourself first, and feel free to ask me if you have any questions."

"Yes!"

Jiang Chen returned to his seat and was about to start drilling wood to make fire when he heard a sudden scream from the side.

"what!"

Jiang Chen's hand holding the drill rod trembled, and he turned his head to look, only to see Lu Xingwang slumped on the ground with his whole body leaning back. The drill rod in his hand was thrown aside, and a faint white smoke was still coming out of the groove of the drill plate under his crotch.

"Why are you yelling? Be patient. Drilling wood to make fire is a job that tests your patience. If you don't want to travel in wet pants, get up and continue!" Li Gang walked over and said with a stern face.

Lu Xingwang looked up at the squad leader with an aggrieved expression and said, "Squad leader, I was almost successful just now, but that guy threw water on me while shaking his clothes, and the cigarette went out immediately!"

Lu Xingwang pointed at the obviously wet groove in the middle of the drill plate, and the grievance in his heart was about to overflow.

After listening to his narration, Jiang Chen almost laughed out loud. In order to avoid irritating the unfortunate child Lu Xingwang with his laughter, Jiang Chen quickly turned his head away.

Then, by chance, he saw Fang Zheng, who was stuffing his clothes into his backpack two meters away with a nonchalant look on his face.

There is no doubt that the person who was throwing the clothes just now must be him.

Realizing that Jiang Chen was staring at him, Fang Zheng quickly waved his hands, forcing an awkward smile on his face, and opened and closed his mouth to signal Jiang Chen not to tell anyone.

Jiang Chen covered his mouth and laughed.

Lu Xingwang is such an unlucky kid that he even encounters something with such a low probability.

On the other side, Li Gang forced himself to control his expression and not let himself laugh out loud. He looked at Lu Xingwang and said, "Okay, don't look so sad. If you can succeed the first time, you can succeed the second time!"

"Yes, squad leader." Li Gang had already said so. What else could he do? He just got up and continued.

Anyway, he didn't want to put the car in neutral.

As for running away in wet underwear?

Haha, if you don’t want to burn your crotch halfway, you can try it.

Once clothes are stained with water, the friction will increase exponentially.

It doesn't take much, just run a kilometer or two in wet socks and you'll know how amazing it is.

The same principle applies to changing underwear, except that the location of friction is different.

Training continues.

In order to avoid repeating the same mistake as the unlucky Lu Xingwang, Jiang Chen unzipped his jacket and tried his best to protect the drill plate.

As the force continued to increase, the drill rod rotated faster and faster, and a wisp of green smoke slowly rose.

Jiang Chen slowed down his breathing, but did not stop the movements of his hands, trying to keep rotating the drill rod at a constant speed.

When I saw Li Gang making fire by rubbing two sticks together before, I didn’t think it was a big deal, but when he tried it himself, he discovered the difficulty.

Just as Li just said, making fire by rubbing two sticks together is a task that tests one's patience.

The wooden pole kept spinning at high speed, rubbing Jiang Chen's palms so hard that they felt hot and stinging.

Once he clearly saw sparks coming out of the sawdust in the groove of the drill plate, but before he could be happy, the sparks went out the next second due to lack of heat.

The wooden pole was kept rotating for four or five minutes. The smoke in the groove of the drilling plate became thicker and thicker. Li Gang, who had been patrolling and guiding the third shift in the back, was also attracted by the smoke coming out of Jiang Chen's drill.

"Don't stop, keep going, maintain the temperature, and let the wood chips burn more. Once you stop, it will be difficult to raise the temperature again." Seeing that Jiang Chen was about to stop, Li Gang immediately reminded him.

Jiang Chen did not answer, nor did he have time to answer. While keeping the wooden pole spinning, his eyes were fixed on the sawdust in the groove that was flashing with sparks.

After about another minute or two, the sawdust in the center of the groove had turned completely black.

"It's okay!" Li Gang's voice sounded again.

Jiang Chen did not hesitate. He immediately took out the hay ball he had prepared long ago and poured it on the sparks in the groove of the drill plate.

"Whoo~"

"Whoo~"

He imitated what Li Gang had done before and blew gently into the middle of the hay ball.

Li Gang's voice sounded at the right time: "Inhale first and then blow out. Don't use the air in your lungs."

Jiang Chen was no fool and immediately understood the meaning.

This is a truth that even an elementary school student understands.

The air in the lungs contains a lot of carbon dioxide, while flames need oxygen to burn.

Instead of helping, carbon dioxide can extinguish any flames that have already started.

Inhale and exhale.

Soon, a large amount of white smoke came out of the hay ball in Jiang Chen's hand.

Boom~

Suddenly, a ball of flame rose from the center of the hay.

"Not bad." Li Gang nodded with satisfaction, turned around and left to watch other people's training.

The firewood pile was ignited, and Jiang Chen's face was filled with a smile. He sat on the ground for a while to relax. After confirming that the flame was in no danger of going out, he also propped up the clothes he had taken off earlier with firewood and placed them next to the fire to dry.

While everyone was drilling wood to start a fire, Ge Hongtao also reached the other side of the river with the efforts of several soldiers from the ninth squad.

Commanding the unfortunate guys in Class 9 to pull up the kayaks in the river, deflate them and put them away, Ge Hongtao looked at the dozens of flickering fires on the shore and nodded with satisfaction.

“The first 20 people who successfully light the fire by rubbing two sticks together can go to the platoon leader to get a box of self-heating rice and canned food!

Those who number 20 to 30 can receive a bucket of instant noodles.

Thirty to fifty people, each person gets a pack of compressed dry food.

As for what comes later…"

The smile on Ge Hongtao's face grew even wider.

"The supplies we can bring with us this time are limited. Those who come after the 50th person will have to go hungry!"

"Oh, by the way, let me remind you that the self-heating rice and canned food have been distributed now, and there are only five packs of instant noodles left. You'd better hurry up."

Wow~

Hearing this, the scouts, who had been walking slowly and leisurely, immediately sped up the movement of spinning the wooden poles in their hands.

It has been almost five hours since dinner, and coupled with the forced march and armed swimming just now, the little food in the stomach has long been digested.

Besides, who knows how long I will have to practice at night.

Given Gekeng's character, it is not impossible for him to practice until tomorrow morning.

Being dragged out in the middle of the night to practice armed swimming was bad enough, and if we were hungry...

Thinking of this, the people who had not yet successfully lit the fire could not help but shudder. Looking at their companions who had already stood up to get food, their hands moved a little faster.

Although Jiang Chen started late, he was steady and lucky, so there were no accidents. With Li Gang's guidance, he successfully lit the fire in one go.

You definitely can’t think about self-heating rice and canned food, but it’s still no problem to get a bucket of instant noodles.

In addition to Li Gang and Jiang Chen, Zhang Ming and deputy monitor Wang Jie also successfully lit the fire.

Three veterans, Hu Kai, Han Li and Tang Junjie, one was stuck at the last step and was blowing the tinder hard, while the other two were still trying hard to spin the wooden pole.

It's not their fault that they are slow, in fact most other veterans are the same.

He talks a lot and gives advice, but when it comes to real practice...

There is no way. This thing can only be practiced once or twice a year at most. It is of no use at other times. Not everyone is Li Gang. It is already very good that they can achieve this step now and have not returned the key points of fire-making by rubbing two woods to the teacher.

Not to mention, there is a certain element of luck involved in making fire by rubbing two sticks together.

The sparks from sawdust are too fragile. If you blow a little faster, the sparks will likely go out before the tinder is ignited.

ten minutes later.

Looking at Jiang Chen eating instant noodles in big mouthfuls, Lu Xingwang, who was roasting clothes, couldn't help swallowing.

"Hey, Jiang Chen, leave a mouthful of instant noodle soup for me. These damn compressed biscuits are too dry!" Fang Zheng, who was among the last fifty people to light the bonfire and get the compressed biscuits, said hurriedly as he stared at Jiang Chen after he finished the last bite of instant noodles.

"Uh……"

Jiang Chen, who was about to finish the noodle soup in one breath, stopped, feeling speechless and amused.

"Here." Jiang Chen handed the instant noodle soup to Fang Zheng. Seeing this guy not showing any disgust and even eating the compressed biscuits with a happy face while dipping the instant noodle soup, he inexplicably recalled the scene when a group of people were scrambling to share a packet of instant noodle seasoning when they were young.

A packet of seasoning, each person pours a little into the palm of their hand, and then gently licks it...

To be honest, is that thing really that delicious?

Not necessarily.

However, in that atmosphere, a seasoning packet that would be thrown on the ground and no one would pick it up in the future would be more delicious than any delicacies from land and sea.

"Five minutes to clean up the scene, pack up everything, and get on with the journey!"

Ge Hongtao's voice brought Jiang Chen back from his memories.

Get up and put out the fire on the ground. If conditions permit, you can also choose to turn on the faucet and take a bath. If not, you can only go to the river to fetch water.

Throw the excess wood back into the forest and put the stones surrounding the fire back in place. As for the ash left over from the burning on the river beach, there is no need for extra trouble. Just make sure there are no sparks left and they will disappear completely when the mountain breeze blows.

After doing all this, the group continued to move deeper into the forest.

……