Crossing the Western Tianshan Mountains

Ling Fengxi was woken up by the cold. After opening his eyes for a while, his limbs were still stiff. He was afraid that if he continued to lie like this, he would become a cold corpse in Xitian Mountain.

Based on his brain, he ordered himself to move. Gradually, he felt a numb and dull pain in his fingers, and then he finally sat up.

Climb out of the tent on all fours like an animal.

The hillside was covered with lush autumn grass, and sharp gravel pierced his knees and palms. He groaned twice and simply lay down, letting his back bear the sharp pain.

After more than ten minutes, the clear white sun on the top of the mountain became warmer and warmer, and he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

I hurried to other tents to see what was happening to the others.

This is the Zhaowen Highway Project Base in Dongduguoergou, Xiate Kirgiz Township, Zhaosu County. It is the preliminarily determined entrance to the West Tianshan Tunnel. The project has not yet started, and many engineering teams have been dissuaded.

Because the conditions here are harsh, it is located in the southern foothills of the Western Tianshan Mountains, which are high in altitude, cold and have high latitudes and high earthquake intensity. The mountains are relatively large, the average monthly temperature is -23°C, and it is covered with hail all year round.

The cold climate not only brings many inconveniences and difficulties to the construction workers' work, but also has a negative impact on the normal operation and performance of construction equipment and materials.

Due to various factors, many engineering teams are discouraged and choose to give up after conducting research and investigation.

As one of the persons in charge of the West Tianshan Tunnel project, Ling Fengxi personally led the leaders and technical personnel of another engineering team determined after the bidding, the China Communications Construction No. 1 Engineering Team, to explore the West Tianshan Mountains.

Unexpectedly, we encountered a severe frost as soon as we arrived.

However, Ling Fengxi relied on the fact that he was a veteran and had certain survival skills in the wild. He also had enough cold-resistant equipment and all the people who came were men, so he decided to choose this slope to station and conduct a week-long observation and investigation.

As a result, on the first night, he almost couldn't get out of the tent.

He dragged his stiff feet to the tent of Wu Yongjie, the head of the engineering team, and saw that he, who was originally a burly man, now had a pale face and purple lips.

Without saying a word, Ling Fengxi took out the oxygen cylinder and gave him oxygen, while pushing him hard, "Old Wu, wake up! Something happened!"

Wu Yongjie woke up after a while, feeling his body unusually heavy. Confused, he pulled out the oxygen tank from his nose and said, "What's wrong? This thing... is it trying to make me laugh to death?..."

Seeing that he was fine, Ling Fengxi said, "It was too cold last night, and there was a lack of oxygen. Everyone was about to fall into a deep sleep. Let's go wake up Xiao Li and the others."

Wu Yongjie was stunned for a moment before he realized he had a severe headache and felt a little nauseous...

At this time, Ling Fengxi had already gone to another tent.

Like Ling Fengxi, Wu Yongjie struggled to get out of the tent, lay in the sun, endured the nausea and stiffness, and slowly recovered.

The sun is very strong here.

It is much bigger than the sun you see in the city, but unfortunately, the sun here is white and has no temperature.

Just when Ling Fengxi was in a panic, an old Kazakh man who was herding shepherds suddenly came to the camp. He was wearing a thick gray sheepskin coat and had a strong smell of sheep on his body. Without saying a word, he took out his sheepskin water bottle from his waist and gave Wu Yongjie, who was lying on the ground, a sip of warm goat milk.

Wu Yongjie seemed to have recovered his strength and sat up suddenly. "Thank you, fellow villager. Can you help my other friends?"

The old man nodded, handed a pot of milk to Wu Yongjie, and raised his head to indicate "drink".

Wu Yongjie understood, took the kettle and went to other tents. He gave each person who had been awakened by Ling Fengxi a sip of milk. Then he turned around and saw the old shepherd sitting on a blue stone not far away, leisurely smoking a cigarette.

Different places have different people.

Ling Fengxi and Wu Yongjie had only been here for one day, but they already felt all kinds of difficulties. Their first impression was that this was not a place suitable for human survival.

But this old man can live here leisurely and freely. All the difficulties here seem nothing to him, as if it should be so, as if they have become one with him.

More than half an hour later, everyone finally woke up. Once they woke up, the feeling of lack of oxygen was not so obvious. Everyone sat in a circle, staring at each other, as if they knew what had happened, but also seemed not to know.

Ling Fengxi and Wu Yongjie went to the old man.

As the leader, Ling Fengxi sincerely thanked the old man again. The old man just smiled and asked in broken Chinese, "Is it yours? Are you playing here?"

Wu Yongjie laughed, "We're not kidding. According to Lingda's leader, we need to break through this mountain and build a road that can pass directly through it, that is, a tunnel..."

In the future, we can build this tunnel to make the southern and northern Xinjiang unimpeded. Then you can sell your sheep for money and live a better life."

Ling Fengxi also said, "With this road, we will quickly connect China with Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Pakistan, linking eleven important border ports like Alashankou and major transportation routes from Xinjiang to Tibet. Not only your sheep, but even your sheepskin coat will be in high demand."

The old man didn't understand and just shook his head. "My name is Jiayi Laobai. I've been herding sheep here all my life... As long as my sheep are safe and my sheepskin coat is safe... I don't want to give it to anyone else..."

The old man spoke incoherently, taking a puff of cigarette for two words, a pause, another puff of cigarette, and two more words. It was very difficult for him to communicate with Ling Fengxi and Wu Yongjie.

But maybe it was because Jiayi Laobai extended a helping hand to them and contributed the goat milk he brought, so both of them felt that they had to express something to make Jiayi Laobai feel that saving them was meaningful and worthwhile.

But how could the old man Jiayi Laobai understand them?

However, they understood Jiayi Laobai's words a little bit. He said that his sheep and sheepskin coats were very important and he would not give them to others.

For some reason, this sentence made the emotions of the two of them inexplicably complicated.

Although it is called a field research, just living here is actually a huge test. Li Jianguo, one of the technicians, still felt uncomfortable after waking up and choked on the milk he drank.

I just half-lay on the rock at the edge, frowning and covering my chest. I wanted to vomit but couldn't, and I felt nauseous and dizzy... I was in so much pain that I couldn't even think about going to the research.

The others also dragged their heavy feet to prepare food for lunch.

It is a bit difficult to boil water here, and it is also a bit difficult to eat hot and fully cooked meals. The key is that there is one mountain connected to another, either uphill or downhill, there is no flat ground, and there are polygonal stones of various shapes under your feet, some of which have sharp edges.

A place where you have to be careful even when walking.

Yue Lin, a young man in the team, simply sat nearby and began to weep. Wu Yongjie was very dissatisfied when he saw this. "Xiao Yue, are you still a man? It's only the second day, and you're crying like a woman! Isn't that embarrassing?"