The team carried two sleds pulled by men. The reason why Sokov ordered people to take the sled was not an extravagant move. In his words: one is that they could put the excess weapons and ammunition on the sled; the other is that after finding the pilot and staff, if they were unfortunately injured, they could also use the sled to pull them back.
Before setting off, Sokov announced in public: "I appointed Sergeant Geria as my deputy. If I sacrificed in battle, he would take over my post; if he sacrificed, Oleg would command the troops, and the next order was..." After he appointed the candidates to replace the command troops, he waved his hand and announced loudly, "Go!"
Since no one saw the missing plane flying from which direction, Sokov could only bet on luck. He decisively chose the south direction and asked the team to set out in that direction.
The troops were divided into three echelons. At the front of the team were Oleg and two soldiers who had served as forest watchers. They were the first echelon and the vanguard of the team; at the end, they were the third echelon composed of Sergeant Geria and four other soldiers; Sokov's soldiers and two sledges were the second echelons, and they walked in the middle of the team. The three echelons were 150 meters apart, and if anything happened, they could support each other.
As a pioneer, Oleg observed the surrounding environment with a vigilant look and carefully searched forward. After walking about four or five kilometers in the forest, a soldier quickly walked to Oleg and said to him: "Oleg, I think we are heading in the wrong direction."
"Why?" Oleg stopped, turned his head and looked at the warrior, and asked curiously.
"Look at the snow on the treetops." The soldier pointed his hand at the tree on his head and explained to him: "If the plane passes over this forest, the airflow generated will inevitably shake the snow on it. Now, the snow on the treetops is intact, so I think we must be in the wrong direction."
Oleg looked at the snow on the treetops and felt that the warrior was very reasonable, so he nodded and asked, "Then tell me, where should we go?"
The soldier pointed his hand southeast and said, "Oleg, I think it should be right to go here."
Seeing that the warrior chose a new search direction without thinking, it aroused Oleg's curiosity: "Why did you choose this direction?"
"When the battalion commander was giving the mission, didn't you listen carefully?" The soldier explained to Oleg: "He said that the destination of the plane was a friendly station in the west of Sushinic, but unfortunately lost his direction and flew to the south of the city. There was a German station in the south of our army, and the pilots would try to avoid landing there. The southwest direction is the area where our army and the German army confronted each other. If the plane landed there, friendly stations would definitely dispatch troops to rescue it, and it would not be our turn to take action. Therefore, we searched southeast and might find the missing plane."
After listening to the warrior's analysis, Oleg nodded with a smile and said convincedly: "Okay, let's change our direction and go southeast search."
In the second echelon, Asia did not sit on the sled, but walked forward with difficulty like Sokov, stepping on the snow that was not over his knees. She asked Sokov with some anger: "Misha, are we going in this direction, right?"
Sokov shook his head and said with a wry smile: "I don't know where the plane was missing. It would be an impossible task to find an airplane in such a vast forest. Therefore, we can only do our best. If we can't find it within two days, I will give up searching."
Asia agreed with Sokov's statement: "In such cold weather, if the pilot is trapped in the forest, he will definitely be frozen to death. If the time has exceeded two days, there is indeed no need to search again."
Sokov took out the compass he carried with him from his pocket and wanted to confirm the direction, but unexpectedly found that the direction of the troops was not the south he had just chosen, but had turned to the southeast. "Hell, what's going on?" He found that the troops had deviated from the direction, he quickly called a soldier and told him: "Go to the front to find Oleg, ask him what's going on, why our direction of progress has turned to the southeast." The soldier agreed, stepped on the footprints in the snow in front, and jumped to chase Oleg and the others.
Seeing Asia gasping continuously, Sokov ordered the second echelon to temporarily stop moving forward and rest for ten minutes. When the tired soldiers found a place to sit down and rest, Sokov helped Asia sit down on the sled and said to her in a complaining tone: "Asia, I won't let you come, you insist on coming, now you can't bear the physical strength?"
"I am the health officer in the camp," Asia said dissatisfiedly after hearing this: "You are going to come out to perform the mission, how can you not be accompanied by the health officer?"
Sokov knew that Asia had a unyielding personality. For her safety, he forced her to leave the battlefield several times, which had already caused her dissatisfaction. Seeing that there was an unhappy expression on her face, she could only smile and persuade her kindly.
The warrior sent to the front to inquire about the situation, and after returning, he told Sokov what happened before. After hearing this, Sokov felt that what the warrior said was quite reasonable, and he asked quickly: "Do you know which warrior is called the command? It turns out that which company belongs to?"
"I know." The warrior replied: "His name is Matrosov, and he is a soldier of the Third Company. Before joining the guerrillas, he was a forest watcher and was very familiar with everything in the forest."
Sokov remembered the name silently in his heart, raised his hand and looked at his watch. After ten minutes, he announced to the soldiers of the second echelon: "Comrades, let's continue to set out!"
After getting back on the road, Asia said to Sokov thoughtfully: "Misha, do you think we can find the missing plane based on the direction this forester pointed out?"
"None of us knows where that plane went." Sokov replied with a wry smile on Asia's question: "We can only take a gamble now and see if we can find the plane on this new route." Then he asked with concern, "Asia, I think it's hard for you to walk, or just sit on the sled and I'll take you away?"
Chapter completed!