The leaves had already stilled, and Song Heping took out his wallet from his pocket, pulled out a stack of bills, removed a paper clip clipped on the bills, and then straightened it into a metal rod.
Morins, watching beside him, had no idea what Song Heping was planning to do, his face filled with confusion.
With the small metal stick in his hand, Song Heping rubbed it against the barrel of the M4A1 in one direction for a while, then gently placed the needle on the leaf floating in the water.
Soon, Morins witnessed a miraculous scene.
The leaf actually began to move.
No.
To be precise, it started to rotate, slowly beginning to turn, and after several seconds, the leaf finally stabilized.
Song Heping stared intently, then looked up into the distance, his gaze sharp as an eagle's.
Then he spread out the map, compared the direction and the terrain, and then pointed to a location on the map.
"We are here now."
"Are you sure?" Morins was entirely confused.
Song Heping packed up the map, affirming confidently, "No mistake."
"Were you just finding our direction?" Morins pointed at the leaf, "With that?"
Song Heping put away the paperclip and turned to Morins, saying, "Yes, there's no sun today, I had to rely on this thing."
"What method is this?"
Morins wanted to inquire further, but Song Heping, not inclined to explain, pointed forward and said, "Let's go, this direction will take us to the camp you mentioned."
After speaking, he started walking in the determined direction.
Morins stayed put momentarily, then seeing Song Heping moving away, he quickly caught up by taking three steps for every two of his own.
It wasn't really surprising that Song Heping didn't explain the reason to him.
After all, the operation was quite complex, and explaining it would be too time-consuming.
He was actually using the magnetic field method.
In the wilderness, determining direction is crucial, but in many special cases losing equipment or accidentally damaging GPS and other positioning devices might happen.
Therefore, Special Soldiers must learn to use the most primitive methods to determine direction in the most challenging circumstances.
With no sun today, Song Heping was forced to adopt this magnetic field method.
This method utilizes the earth's magnetic field principle to find the north-south direction.
One only needs to find a water source, a leaf, and have a metal stick or wire on hand to use the magnetic field method.
The operation is also simple. First, place the leaf on the water, letting it stabilize, then magnetize the metal stick.
The best way to magnetize it is to have a magnet on hand and scrape the metal stick against it, which will give it a slight magnetism in a short amount of time.
Even without a magnet, scraping it on iron can also magnetize, and if neither is available, your head could be an option.
However, obviously, the best choice is to use a magnet.
This method is not necessarily absolutely accurate, as magnetic method is greatly affected by external environmental disturbances, such as iron ore deposits underneath the testing spot, which can impact the stability and accuracy of the magnetic field.
Therefore, Song Heping also used another method for cross verification, which was observing the surrounding plants; the side with lusher leaves indicated the south.
Not only that, even the rocks on the mountains served as speaking compasses, like the moss on rocks.
Since mosses prefer damp, cool places, the side covered with moss indicates the north, while the smoother side indicates the south.
Having assessed all these factors, Song Heping was able to ascertain north and south even on a sunless, overcast day and thus determine all directions.
Just as Song Heping and Morins had determined their direction and set off into the jungle, at the original ELN camp, Colonel Freddie stood in the middle of the camp with a steely expression on his face.
Before him were rows of corpses.
The scene was thick with the stench of blood, numerous flies circling overhead, swooping down when undetected to greedily lap up the fresh blood from the wounds on the bodies.
A lieutenant came running over and saluted Colonel Freddie, "Sir, all counted, a total of 121 bodies and 32 captives, but Morins is not among them, it seems they really escaped into the mountains through the north side of the camp."
"Have all the captives been interrogated?" Freddie's face was as expressionless as rock, "Was Morins really here before?"
Indeed, he had heard the unwelcome news that Morins had escaped, which made it difficult for him to be pleased.
"They have been interrogated." The lieutenant seemed somewhat disheartened, "Before the assault began, Morins was indeed here in the camp. Apparently, there was an important guest expected today, so he had been waiting in the camp."
"Guest…" Freddie frowned deeper, "Do you know who it was?"
"The captives don't know, some say it could be an arms dealer from abroad, seemingly a Chinese." The lieutenant reported truthfully.
Freddie slightly raised his eyebrows, looking at the lieutenant, "Chinese?"
The lieutenant nodded, "Yes, that's what they said. I personally verified several people's statements, all consistent, but they are unclear about the specific identity."
Such a result was expected.
Freddie knew well that ordinary soldiers in the camp were unlikely to know the identity of important guests.
"Where are the bodies of our men?"
Lieutenant Colonel Freddie asked.