After they set up the tent and lit a bonfire, they squeezed into a tent and used flashlights to check the route on the map.
Han Daxia brought a waterproof paper map, which was many times more accurate than the electronic map downloaded by a certain Xianyu tablet. Although it looked like a yellow patch, Han Daxia's map had many oases and peaks marked in detail, and even gave a relatively safe route.
After comparing the current GPS positioning coordinates on the tablet, Han Daxia took out a pen from his pocket, marked the current positions of the two on the map, and then calculated the distance to Kabash.
"We are here now. Although we have deviated from the original route, we are not too far away."
Hero Han pointed at the small red dot that had just been drawn on the map, and then drew a straight line with his finger towards Kabash.
Wang Ping was also standing nearby to join in the fun. Although he was just a badger who "didn't know" the map, it was okay for him to express his curiosity appropriately.
I don't know if it's a habit or some other reason, but a badger noticed that whenever Han Daxia used his finger to indicate the location of Kabash, he would always subconsciously point his finger at a fixed point in the northeast direction. Even if Gu Laosan moved the map and caused the location to change, he would still subconsciously point his finger there. Although it was just a virtual point and he would move away immediately, it seemed abnormal if it happened too many times.
Excluding the possibility that Old Han had Alzheimer's or Parkinson's, there was something wrong with that position. I guess he must have studied it many times behind the scenes, so he developed this habit and clicked it subconsciously without thinking.
A badger raised his furry face to look at Gu Laosan and found that the guy really didn't notice Han Daxia's action at all. Instead, he pretended to know and nodded blindly in agreement. However, his eyes kept scanning the legend labels from time to time, and a trace of realization flashed in his eyes.
"Alas, I really can't count on this guy too much..."
A badger sighed, then squinted his eyes and secretly observed the place that Han Daxia pointed to.
Except for the slightly darker color, there was nothing special about it on the map. According to the scale, it was on the edge of the desert about 80 kilometers away from the Kabash Highway, and about three days away from the current team's location.
Of course, if Gu Laosan is willing to accompany Han Daxia on horseback, no, on a camel, they might be able to get there in less than two days.
As Wang Ping was frowning and thinking, he suddenly felt a pair of eyes falling on him. He subconsciously turned his head to look, and met the scrutinizing gaze of Hero Han.
"Σ! Was he discovered by this guy?"
Wang Ping's heart skipped a beat, and then his heartbeat began to speed up. He raised his little paw and put it down again, looking a bit helpless. He subconsciously raised his head to look at the top of the tent, his little eyes turning around and not daring to look directly into Han Da Xia's eyes.
But soon Wang Ping realized that his behavior made things even more obvious.
"I'm a badger, why should I be nervous? I'm just taking a look, right? It's not against the law!"
Thinking of this, Wang Ping turned his head and glared at Han Daxia, and made up his mind that if this guy dared to look at him like that again, he would teach him a lesson. Anyway, he had always shown a bad temper, was petty, sensitive, and easily angered. If this guy dared to look at him like that, he would definitely be beaten.
Unfortunately, Han Daxia had already withdrawn his gaze, as if it was just an unconscious glance, and he was not paying attention to the badger intentionally. When Wang Ping looked over again, he was folding the map with his hand and calling a salted fish to go out and cook.
Wang Ping opened his mouth helplessly. He wanted to watch it for a while longer. He only remembered the approximate position that Han Daxia had just pointed out. If he really calculated it according to his memory, he was afraid that there would be a big error.
Although there is nothing else to see on the map except the direction and coordinates, at least the direction can be remembered more accurately.
People like Wang Ping, who are like mercenaries, carry out missions in the wild all year round, and deal with maps in addition to guns. After a long time, as long as they memorize the map, they will subconsciously bring their own speed and direction into it, and calculate the distance to the target while rushing.
After all, in many cases, the weather conditions or the environment are not convenient for using maps, and most people rely on memory and mental arithmetic to determine their position. This somewhat cumbersome method may not be used by new soldiers in today's increasingly advanced electronic individual equipment, but veterans like it the most. Electronic equipment may be detected and tracked, and may run out of power, but paper and brains will not.
When Wang Ping left the tent, Gu Laosan had already boiled water and was adding rice to the pot. Han Daxia was holding a saber and opening a can of luncheon meat.
Walking in the desert, the highest daytime temperature can reach 50°C, and no fresh food can be kept except canned food. Even canned food has a shelf life that is probably halved.
Wang Ping's current body doesn't like food that is extremely rich in nitrite, so he ran to the luggage to get beef jerky.
In a sheltered position behind the tent, three camels were tied to iron stakes wedged into the gravel ground, and they were squinting their eyes and leisurely eating the second-hand grass in their stomachs.
If it were a camel caravan that travels in the desert or Gobi all year round, they would usually tie the camels outside the tent to block the wind when they set up camp at night, and it could also serve as an early warning. However, Gu Laosan couldn't bear to let the people blow in the wind in front of him. After all, his and Han Daxia's tents were windproof, and the ground was solid enough, so he placed the camels in the back with the luggage. It turned out that he and Han Daxia blocked the wind for the camels.
Seeing the badger approaching, the two big camels didn't even change their expressions, but the little camel came closer to sniff. Perhaps because it was "young and ignorant", it didn't know that "camels and badgers are different", and as a result, Wang Ping slapped it back before its hot and moist nostrils touched the badger.
Wang Ping looked at the camel snot on the small pad of his palm with some disgust, wiped it hard on Han Daxia's travel bag, and was about to pull the backpack where Gu Laosan kept his beef jerky, but he moved his ears slightly and heard the sound of plastic paper.
He turned his head and stretched his neck to look outside through the gap between the tents. The two people in front were busy and no one noticed this side. The badger pricked up his ears to listen to the movements of the two people while quietly opening the backpack of the hero Han.
Sure enough, just as a badger had just wiped the inside of its claws at the edge, Han Da Xia's map was hastily stuffed there.
Wang Ping hurriedly grabbed the map, opened the folded part, turned the side that showed Kabash and held it close to his eyes. With the reflection of the plastic paper, he saw obvious fingerprints on it, just east of the south side of Kabash.
He estimated the distance silently in his mind, and heard the questioning voice of Han Daxia coming from the front of the tent, wondering why a badger stayed behind for so long. Wang Ping hurriedly put away the map and was about to put it back when he accidentally saw a stamp suddenly dropped from the top of the backpack.
Wang Ping remembered clearly that there was no stamp on the backpack when he first opened it. The only explanation was that the hero Han had deliberately put it in the map, and it fell out when he opened the map.
"Oh my god, what on earth does this guy do? His anti-detection ability is too much!"
Wang Ping scratched his head, his face looking a little square.
The map was stacked up in several layers, and God had no idea which layer he put the stamps in.