A group of people got into Hu Rong's RV and drove to the countryside. Originally, the only way to go from Mandalay to Myitkyina was by train. However, the distance of 600 to 700 kilometers would probably take dozens of hours by train, because
The train speed in Myanmar is still at the level of the country in the 1950s and 1960s.
So Hu Rong used his connections to call a military helicopter from the Myanmar military.
The RV drove directly to a military camp on the outskirts of Mandalay, surrounded by soldiers with guns. Zhuang Rui couldn't help but tighten the bag in his hand. There was a pistol there. If these soldiers checked it out,
I don't know what trouble it will cause.
When looking at Peng Fei beside him, Zhuang Rui calmed down a little. This old man was carrying a slightly worn backpack and looking around with a nonchalant expression. It seemed that the bag was not a bomb, but a bomb to bring to a friend's house.
candy gifts in general.
Zhuang Rui now knows what it means to have a guilty conscience. In the past, I heard that people who broke the law and escaped often lived without food or sleep for years or even decades. Zhuang Rui didn't believe it at that time, but now he has realized it.
, although I didn’t commit anything, I just had a gun in my bag, and I started to feel uneasy.
Fortunately, no one asked to check the packages of Zhuang Rui and others from the moment they got off the bus to the time they got on the helicopter, which made Zhuang Rui breathe a huge sigh of relief.
Hu Rong, who followed Zhuang Rui into the helicopter, held a 50-60 centimeter long wooden box in his arms, which contained Zhuang Rui's tree-shaped jadeite. He was going to take it home and carve it slowly.
"Brother Zhuang, this is a Mi-8 military transport helicopter produced in Russia. It was produced in the 1960s and 1970s. It is an antique, but its performance is pretty good. It can seat more than 20 people..."
Peng Fei looked at the transport plane and introduced it quietly in Zhuang Rui's ear. However, when the Burmese soldiers came up, Peng Fei immediately stopped talking.
Zhuang Rui knew that before the disintegration of the Soviet Union in the last century, a fleet was stationed in Myanmar's seaport for its global strategic position. However, Russia later withdrew that fleet to the country due to economic stress, but it remained in Myanmar.
There are many military installations with Russian imprints.
The speed of a Mi-8 military direct transport helicopter like this is about more than 300 kilometers per hour, which is not very fast, but its advantage is that it has a large fuel capacity, a longer range than ordinary helicopters, and its internal
There is also plenty of space.
Hu Rongzhuang Ruihe and others, plus the few people sent by the Myanmar military, there were eight people in total. Sitting in the cabin did not feel crowded at all, and there was even room to lean down and take a nap.
But Zhuang Rui could only think about it. When the helicopter's propeller rotated, the huge roar made several people in the cabin blush and opened their mouths to relieve the discomfort in their ears. Only
Those Burmese soldiers and Hu Rong behaved quite normally. As for Peng Fei, Zhuang Rui estimated that he must be pretending.
However, Zhuang Rui and the two professors were really miserable, and their eardrums seemed to be burst.
It's not that Zhuang Rui has never made a helicopter, but the sound insulation effect of this military helicopter is really poor, and there is a hatch on one side, but the hatch on the other side is missing. The few people who saw it were frightened and quickly fastened their seat belts.
, I was afraid that if the helicopter tilted, it would roll down.
The two professors who originally wanted to continue chatting on the helicopter turned pale and fell silent after the helicopter took off. The wind outside the cabin blew into the cabin, let alone talking.
Just by opening your mouth, you can be filled with air filled with the scent of the tropical rainforest.
Fortunately, the winter temperature in Myanmar is above 20 degrees, otherwise everyone in the cabin would be frozen into popsicles.
After leaving the military camp, about half an hour later, he felt a little more accustomed to it. Zhuang Rui looked at the ground through the glass in the cabin, but everything he saw was tall trees and dense forests, and there was no scenery at all.
.
It is now the dry season in Myanmar, and the tall broad-leaved trees also look a little withered, and the leaves on the trunks are very sparse. After Zhuang Rui looked down for more than ten minutes, there was no one in sight, and it looked a little desolate.
However, now is also the best time to mine jade in Myanmar, because after entering the rainy season, the roads in the mountains will be very difficult to walk, let alone people, even animals cannot pass through. Therefore, in the mining area, it is the most difficult to walk.
When you are busy.
The mountains in Myanmar are not particularly steep, but they are endless, with one peak after another and dense jungle. Zhuang Rui believes that if he were thrown from here, he would probably not be able to get back from it in a year and a half.
Run out inside.
Looking at the towering trees below the plane, Zhuang Rui felt incredible about the social form of Myanmar. Myanmar itself is close to the seaport, its geographical location is very important, and the inland is rich in gems and precious teak, but the Burmese people are like this
The source of poverty is unknown.
After more than an hour, the helicopter slowed down and slowly stopped on a hilltop. Zhuang Rui thought he had reached the end of the field, so he quickly unbuckled his seat belt and jumped out of the helicopter. Who knew his feet would become weak?
If I hadn't supported the ground with my hands, I would have almost sat down on the ground.
"What...what is this place? Isn't it Myitkyina?"
Zhuang Rui looked around. There were dense forests everywhere. He couldn't help but look at Hu Rong. No matter how desolate northern Myanmar was, it was impossible not to see even a single person.
"We're only halfway there. The driver needs to take a rest. Come on, brother, have a drink of water..." Hu Rong smiled and handed Zhuang Rui a bottle of drink.
It is more appropriate to say that the pilot needs to rest than that the helicopter needs to rest, because after the helicopter stabilized, the pilot became busy. He was checking whether the various parts of the helicopter were operating normally. You know, this is thirty or forty years old.
An old antique from years ago cannot support a voyage of several hours.
If something goes wrong in the sky, the people on the helicopter may be smashed to pieces before their parachutes open. However, the quality of this military facility produced by Polar Bear is still trustworthy. At least Hu Rong has ridden it many times.
, there were no problems.
Professor Feng and Professor Chen also supported each other and stepped off the helicopter. Their bodies were not as strong as Zhuang Rui. Their faces were already pale. If they hadn't supported each other, they would have fallen to the ground.
"You two, are you okay? I'm really sorry for making you two suffer. There are also mineral veins nearby, but we have to work harder and get to Pagan. I wonder if you two teachers can hold on a little longer?"
Hu Rong saw the two professors getting off the helicopter and hurriedly greeted them. He just wanted to reach the Myitkyina Pagan area quickly, but he did not expect that the two professors' bodies could not withstand the bumps of the helicopter.
In fact, taking a train in Myanmar is probably not as good as this helicopter. It takes thirty to forty hours from Mandalay to Myitkyina, and the train is also a "luxury special train" left by the British in the middle of the last century. Maybe
The crime he suffered was even greater than this.
"It's okay, it's okay. I can persist. I never thought that the growing environment of the jadeite mine would be in a place like this. What you hear is false, and what you see is belief..."
Professor Feng waved his hands repeatedly, indicating that he had no problem. The beauty of jade is well known to everyone, but the mining and growth environment behind jade is rarely mentioned internationally. The reason is that the Myanmar government is closed-door.
Half a century ago, Zhuang Rui's grandfather went deep into Myanmar to inspect jade mines, but due to special historical reasons, his conclusions were not published and are still buried in that wooden box.
The formation geology and landforms of jadeite have always been a topic discussed by domestic geologists. Now they have the opportunity to see the geological environment in which jadeite grows. Although the two professors are tired, their faces are still full of excitement.
After resting for more than an hour, several people boarded the helicopter again. They only drank some water and did not dare to eat. Otherwise, they would have to vomit out whatever they ate during the bumpy ride.
The flight lasted for nearly two hours. From the helicopter, someone could be vaguely seen on the ground. At close to five o'clock, the helicopter also landed in a military camp in Myitkyina, outside the city in Myanmar.
Basically there are troops stationed there.
"Two professors, Brother Zhuang, I will meet you again tomorrow. Let's take a good rest today..."
After getting off the helicopter, Hu Rong looked at the pale faces of several people and knew that they would not be able to eat anything at night, so he used his car waiting in the military camp to take them to the most luxurious hotel in Myitkyina.
Zhuang Rui looked from the car and saw that the city of Myitkyina was far behind Yangon and Mandalay. At least in those two cities, there were some modern buildings, but here, what caught the eye
All you see are low wooden houses, and reinforced concrete buildings are very rare.
And the so-called luxury hotel was just a three-story building. Apart from a bulky 21-inch color TV, there were no electrical appliances in it, and there was no water heater to boil water, and the waiter had to bring it.
Zhuang Rui and others were really tired. After entering the room and taking a shower, they all went to bed and fell asleep.
Although Hu Rong also has a house in Myitkyina, the Hu family's roots in Myanmar are in Hpakant. Today, he also stayed in the hotel with Zhuang Rui and others.
The next morning, two imported off-road vehicles parked in front of the hotel.
This is Hu Rong's personal car. If he were to take a car provided by the military, it would probably be the old Beijing Jeep 212 made in China. At a certain period of time, the country had supported a batch of jeeps like this in Myanmar.
