The train driver in the courtyard

Upon hearing Liu Tianquan's shout, everyone thought he was talking nonsense.

This is truly unbelievable.

It has been sixteen years since the Japanese retreated. Even if there were any surviving Japanese soldiers, they could only be hiding in the forests of the Greater Khingan Mountains, not in this Gobi Desert where water and food are scarce.

Seeing that Liu Tianquan was clearly terrified and wanted to explain but didn't know how, Li Aiguo shouted, "Pull him up first."

Tang Guangwu and his team members reacted quickly, and together they pulled Liu Tianquan out of the cave.

Liu Tianquan was in bad shape; he had broken his leg and was also frightened, so he was sitting on the ground trembling.

While Li Aiguo called for a medic to examine Liu Tianquan's injuries, he also told Huang Ting to quickly get people to boil water.

The medical staff took off Liu Tianquan's pants. His leg was broken at the knee, but fortunately the bone was not broken. They applied some herbal medicine and wrapped it with a bandage.

Li Aiguo didn't recognize the herb.

In those days, there were many folk remedies for treating injuries, and they were particularly effective, no less so than Yunnan Baiyao. It's just that the recipes were not passed down.

While the medical staff were treating the wounds, the boiling water was ready. Li Aiguo took it from Huang Ting and handed it to Liu Tianquan.

Liu Tianquan took the enamel mug and drank a couple of sips of water, which helped him recover. He then explained the situation while holding the mug.

This story begins with everyone searching for the lime bag.

Liu Tianquan had been working with the second squad for a while when he felt the urge to urinate. According to regulations, he should have called another team member to relieve himself with him.

Seeing that everyone was anxiously looking for lime packets, Liu Tianquan found the nearest dead tree and planned to relieve himself before catching up with the group.

Before they even got close to the dead tree, they stepped on a dead branch and fell into the cave.

Liu Tianquan was thrown around and was completely disoriented. After recovering, he realized his predicament and immediately cried out for help.

However, by this time Li Aiguo had already discovered the lime bag, and the members of the second squad had all run over to provide support, so they couldn't hear his shouts at all.

Seeing no response from outside, Liu Tianquan could only force himself to stand up and try to find a way out.

Fortunately, his injuries were not serious, and he could still walk by holding onto the rock wall. What he saw next terrified him so much that he squatted down on the ground.

"A corpse dressed in Japanese military uniform?"

"To be specific, it should be skeletons." Liu Tianquan corrected Li Aiguo's statement: "I walked along the cave for about several dozen meters and saw two people lying on the ground. I was startled and wanted to reach for the flashlight, but I found that the big guy had taken the exploration bag. However, I can't mistake that military uniform."

Upon hearing that the bodies below were Japanese soldiers, the members of the exploration team breathed a sigh of relief, and Old Cat secretly tucked his pistol into his waistband.

The presence of Japanese soldiers' corpses in the cave is a plausible explanation.

Perhaps a small group of Japanese soldiers, seeing that the situation was hopeless, fled to this side and, like Liu Tianquan, accidentally fell into the cave.

"Perhaps this cave is where the Japanese hid their treasure. They looted so much gold and silver in Northwest China and hid it here temporarily, planning to retrieve it later. To prevent leaks, the Japanese captain killed his team members." The expert from the Wild Cars made a statement that shocked everyone.

After liberation, gold and silver hidden by the Japanese were discovered in various parts of the country. This seemingly extreme and outlandish inference is actually quite reasonable.

To verify this hypothesis, the method is simple: just send someone down into the cave to investigate.

Li Aiguo also planned to throw the rope down directly and send people down.

At this moment, the discovery by the first team of explorers made Li Aiguo give up the idea.

The two team members who were collecting timber found a large amount of engine oil on a rock several hundred meters from the cave entrance, which proved that there might be heavy construction machinery inside the cave.

The deserters and the treasure-hunting teams didn't need engineering machinery, which suddenly made things complicated.

Everyone was speculating about what the Japanese soldiers were doing in that remote, desolate cave.
Old Cat, representing the weather station, took over command of the exploration team, ordering everyone not to move around unnecessarily and to follow orders. He also took over the simple telegraph machine.

Seeing that it was getting late, the old cat used a telegraph machine to contact the weather station and report the situation.

The weather station instructed them to ascertain the situation inside the cave while ensuring their own safety.

After discussing it with Lao Mao, Li Aiguo and Lao Mao agreed that exploring the cave at night was too dangerous, and decided to make thorough preparations before going down into the cave the next day.

The meeting ended there. Old Cat repeated the confidentiality regulations and told everyone to hurry up and start cooking.

The meal was very simple, just a thick porridge with local dried wild vegetables added. It tasted terrible, but no one seemed to mind.

In the midst of the tedious work of exploration, such strange and unusual things are undoubtedly quite attractive.

Li Aiguo chatted with his team members for a while, planned tomorrow's work, and then walked towards the tent with his hands behind his back.

Seeing that Lao Mao and the guards had set up additional sentries and even assigned two team members to guard the cave, he returned to his tent.

The tent was littered with quicklime, and there were dead insects everywhere, but it was still bearable to sleep on the sleeping bag.

The wild car expert was so excited he couldn't sleep. He pulled Li Aiguo aside to discuss what was inside the cave, making Li Aiguo so sleepy he just wanted to slap him.

"Oh, right, something strange happened today. That short guy asked Old Cat and the others about their identities." The wild car expert's words immediately perked Li Aiguo up.

"Which short guy? Old Rong?"

"I think so." The wild car expert yawned as he lay on his sleeping bag. "This guy didn't ask directly, he just asked if Old Cat was the security officer at our factory."

Li Aiguo praised the wild car expert, saying that although the guy seemed carefree all day, he was actually very sharp-minded.

Li Aiguo instantly made up his mind about how to handle Lao Rong's matter.

The true purpose of secrecy work is secrecy, and the worst thing to do in secrecy work is to play tricks.

The scenario of knowingly assigning a technician a suspected culprit to a classified project and then using that opportunity to uncover the truth only happens in movies and TV dramas.

The practical approach is to exclude them from the project altogether, ensuring the technology is not leaked before discussing anything else.

The next morning.

When assigning tasks, Li Aiguo selected several trustworthy exploration team members, excluding Lao Rong.

The reason is reasonable; the higher-ups also need people to provide support at any time.

Two other weather station staff members were also left up there, their main task being to keep an eye on the exploration team members.

There will now be three teams—a weather station, a guard platoon, and an exploration team—both outside and inside the cave, which can monitor each other to ensure maximum safety.

The people whose names were called were extremely excited. They often explored caves, but this was the first time they had done something so thrilling.

Team leader Tang Guangwu had just been stripped of his command of the exploration team yesterday and was now excluded from the cave-going team as well. His expression remained unchanged as he led his team in making preparations with great enthusiasm, showing no sign of work-related emotions. Li Aiguo had grown increasingly impressed with Tang Guangwu over the past few days.

In fact, every era has its typical type of people, and Tang Guangwu was a unique type of person in that era.

They always put the big picture first and truly obey the organization's commands, not caring at all even if they are wronged.

They may seem foolish, and they've suffered a lot of injustice at work and in life, but they've lived up to the word "faith."

This was, of course, a conclusion drawn by Li Aiguo after he came to this era.

Li Aiguo was curious about this kind of person, much like how children in later generations feel when they see movie stars, always wanting to get close to them and become like them.

So after the preparations were finished, Li Aiguo took an opportunity to go over and ask him if he had any ideas.

At first, he just smiled at Li Aiguo without saying anything. Later, after Li Aiguo offered him a cigarette and he took a few puffs, he said to Li Aiguo, "Isn't this a normal thing?"

Upon hearing this, Li Aiguo was shocked: Yes, to be able to give up the superior life in the big city, risk one's life, eat dry biscuits and drink stream water, one probably wouldn't be able to last a day without this kind of awareness.

Tang Guangwu didn't know what was going on down in the cave, but he found it a bit strange. After saying that, he patted Li Aiguo on the shoulder and said, "Be very careful when you go down."

Li Aiguo nodded heavily at Tang Guangwu.

This cave is a geological formation, created by geological activities such as earthquakes, and its diameter is at least two or three meters.

A traction device and a diesel motor have been set up at the entrance of the tunnel, and a simple blower has also been installed to prevent oxygen deficiency below.

Once everything was ready, Old Cat tied the rope around his waist and was the first to swing down.

Hearing a safe voice from below, Li Aiguo entered the cave. The distance of more than twenty meters was inch by inch, like swinging on a swing, which was not a pleasant experience.

After descending into the cave, Li Aiguo found that it was exactly as Liu Tianquan had described.

The so-called vertical section is just the entrance; there is a cave that slopes downwards ahead, which is the main part. However, it is pitch black four or five meters down due to the lack of sunlight.

When they went down into the cave, the team members brought all the flashlights from the exploration team, with each person taking at least three.

We didn't know the length of the cave or how long we would need to stay down there, so we only used two flashlights at a time, and the cave was dark inside.

Li Aiguo glanced at the rock face briefly. It was clearly Late Permian basalt, and most of the world's uranium deposits have been found in this type of rock.

The cave floor is made of sandstone, which means the cave was formed during an earthquake. Otherwise, it would be impossible for two rocks with completely different origins and formation conditions to come together.

"This is truly a wonder; you can only find caves like this on the edge of a basin." Professor He was also attracted by the peculiar cave and called on his team to quickly collect samples.

"Keep up, and don't forget our purpose." Li Aiguo turned to remind Professor He that the cave interior hadn't been fully explored yet, so it wasn't a good time to conduct scientific research.

Compared to Professor He's excitement, Li Aiguo was somewhat worried.

The composite caves formed by earthquakes are different from ordinary caves. They have both a terrain with many ravines and craggy rocks, and an extremely complex cave system.

To put it simply, based on the cause of a cave's formation, one can roughly deduce the environment inside the cave, and it is generally quite stable.

These complex caves are like something a child could casually mold from mud. The front might be perfectly flat, but suddenly it could be a bottomless abyss. If you step into the wrong place, you won't have any chance of survival.

In later generations, only those reckless cave enthusiasts would dare to explore such caves.

However, this time it was unavoidable, and Li Aiguo wanted to warn the old cat in front of him about the danger.

As soon as he looked up, he saw that the old cat had stopped, and in the light of a flashlight not far in front of him were two skeletons.

"They really are Japanese devils." Old Cat handed the flashlight to Li Aiguo, then put on a mask and turned the skeleton over.

Li Aiguo noticed that the clothes on the skeleton were somewhat similar to the uniforms of the Japanese soldiers, but not quite, especially since the two hats on the ground did not have the distinctive "butt flaps" on the back.

"This is a Showa 5th generation peaked cap, a hat commonly used by the Japanese in the early days. Later, it was replaced by the Type 98 peaked cap." Old Cat threw the cap on the ground and unceremoniously turned over a corpse.

Due to the unique environment inside the cave, the body was not completely decomposed, appearing as a semi-skeletal skeleton, seemingly too thin for much to decompose.

None of this is critical.

The key point is that there were bite marks on the leg bones of the corpse, and both arms were torn off without any rotting flesh, indicating that they had been eaten by wild animals.

There was a bullet hole at the back of the skull, a fatal wound. "That's strange, do wild animals shoot?" Old Cat frowned and turned over another corpse.

This body is clearly better preserved than the previous one.

The half-skeletal thighs and arms indicated that he had not been attacked by wild animals; the real cause of death was a bullet hole in his temple.

A pistol lay nearby; judging from the distance, it could be determined that the person had committed suicide.

One Japanese soldier was attacked by a wild animal, his body was half-eaten, and he had been shot in the back of the head. Another Japanese soldier died by suicide. The scene was so bizarre that the team members who followed behind felt a chill run down their spines.

Everyone felt a chill when they saw the extremely painful and distorted face of the first corpse.

"Could there be a ghost here? Did the Japanese devils get their comeuppance for all their evil deeds?" The big man gasped.

Old Cat was pondering the cause of the two men's deaths, which was related to where the dangers inside the cave were hidden. Li Aiguo put on woolen gloves and rummaged through the two men's Type 5 backpacks.

There was a pocket lamp inside, which was the Japanese soldiers' flashlight. I pressed the switch, but it didn't light up, probably because the battery was out.

With 6.5mm Arisaka bullets, a full-copper kerosene lighter, a 'Seikosha' three-hand watch, a five-pack of brass cigarette cases, a multi-purpose folding knife, and two water bottles, these two Japanese soldiers were quite well-equipped.

Seeing Li Aiguo's serious expression, the old cat couldn't help but ask, "What did you find?"

“It’s not that we found anything, it’s that we didn’t find anything. Have you noticed that there’s no food here?” Li Aiguo straightened up.

Upon hearing this, the wildlife expert was puzzled: "The food might be in the cave, what's so strange about that?"

“You don’t understand us people who work in the field.” Professor He shook his head at him: “Even if there is food stored in the cave, you must carry some with you in case something happens, just to save your life.”

"It's really strange that neither of them has any food now."

Old Ghost stared at the two corpses and said in a low voice, "Perhaps one of them was food for the other."

He pointed to the two corpses: "I just saw that the bullet that killed the first person was fired from the second Japanese soldier's gun. Also, the first person's arm that was bitten off and the gnaw marks on his thigh can basically confirm it."

The untrained car expert felt a chill run down his spine.

Those who haven't witnessed it firsthand simply cannot comprehend the scene; the Japanese devils were capable of such a heinous act as cannibalism.

The scene was silent for a long time. Even the big guy, who had an irreconcilable hatred for the Japanese and would not hesitate to stab them to death if he encountered one, had a face darker than Bao Gong's.

Cannibalism crosses the moral line of being human and cannot be considered human.

The atmosphere immediately became serious because of this discovery.

Li Aiguo broke the silence: "The Japanese devils must have something to do with coming here. We should continue."

The two corpses were placed against the wall. Li Aiguo took out the identification tags for the two men and put them in his pocket. These were the identification tags of the Japanese armed forces.

The rest of the journey was uneventful. Everyone was so disgusted by the brutality of the Japanese soldiers that they felt they had lost all interest. Even if the Japanese soldiers had been eaten by dogs, they wouldn't be this repulsive. To divert their attention, they focused all their energy on the cave.

The cave gradually descends and widens, revealing traces of human intervention: protruding rocks on the ground have been processed, and there are discarded hammers and chisels.

On the nearby stone slabs were tattered blankets and Japanese soldiers' aluminum lunchboxes and other miscellaneous items, all of which were empty.

Old Cat found several Japanese newspapers among them, which, judging from the year, should be from 1935. This further confirmed Li Aiguo's conjecture that this group of Japanese soldiers should be the first group to enter Northeast China.

But at that time, this area was still the territory of warlords, so what were the Japanese doing here?
Things he couldn't figure out, he didn't need to think about for the time being. Li Aiguo put the newspaper in his exploration bag and continued on his way.

Inside the pitch-black cave, it was almost impossible to judge distances. Li Aiguo roughly estimated the speed and time, and walked for almost a whole morning. Although the speed was very slow, the distance was more than ten kilometers.

This length of cave is considered quite long for a cave system.

The surface was covered with irregular stones, some as big as a truck cab, others only the size of a fist, extremely uneven and somewhat frightening to look at.

Li Aiguo wasn't afraid. This time, Lao Mao's men brought Type 56 semi-automatic rifles, and the exploration team members also brought pistols, with plenty of ammunition.

Li Aiguo also carried two extra grenades on his waist, giving him a fighting chance even against underground monsters.

The psychological pressure of walking in the dark for a long time without ever reaching the end is very difficult for everyone.

Fortunately, after traveling a while longer, the old cat at the front made a new discovery: it was an underground river located under a rock wall.

Specifically, the river flows sideways through the cave, emerging from under the rear rock wall and flowing away under the front rock wall, leaving only a pool of water about half the size of a standard basketball court inside the cave.

Below is water, which is flowing slowly. This kind of underground river is very common in caves.

Li Aiguo called out to the big guy who was about to wash his face, and shone his flashlight into the pool, but there was nothing there.

At this time, some team members found something left behind by the Japanese soldiers nearby. It seemed that the Japanese had taken water here, so the water source should be fine.

Out of caution, Old Cat ordered his team members not to approach the underground river.

Li Aiguo agreed with the decision, saying that in horror movies, "if you don't do stupid things, you won't die" is an ironclad rule.

Li Aiguo then inspected the items, which were a mixed bag: sacks, a kerosene stove for cooking, gasoline cans with Japanese writing on them, and an abandoned gasoline generator.

Professor He also found a magnifying glass in a corner.

He said it was a 20x scope used for geological exploration, which is still considered a very advanced gadget even now.

"Let's put it away first." Li Aiguo climbed onto a smooth rock, picked up a flashlight and shone it inside; the beam disappeared into the darkness.

After a brief pause, the team continued their journey, walking for nearly half an hour until several exploration team members were exhausted.

The big man, panting, said to Li Aiguo, "There's no end to this walk, why don't we take a break?"

Old Cat frowned: "It's pitch black ahead, who knows? Maybe we'll reach the bottom of the cave in a few more minutes. Let's hang in there a little longer."

The big guy immediately objected.

The old cat was a little surprised and asked him, "Are you scared?"

The big guy immediately said, "Only bears are afraid, I'm just hungry."

The wild car expert exclaimed in surprise, "I saw you munching on three dry biscuits this morning."

The big man's face flushed red: "I'm so big, I eat a lot, how can you blame me? Besides, having a big appetite doesn't stop me from contributing to the country. If you laugh at me, you're insulting a comrade."

Old Cat and Li Aiguo exchanged a helpless glance. Li Aiguo said, "Let's rest for thirty minutes and have lunch. Comrade Old Cat, why don't you take some men and scout ahead again?"

The exploration team members had long been unable to hold on any longer and all raised their hands in agreement.

Li Aiguo took a flashlight, found a clean spot, placed the items on it, and the guards in charge of logistics brought out the food.

To ensure the success of the exploration work, 915 also brought compressed biscuits, two boxes of meat with a shelf life of 100 years, and piled them all together in the iron pot.

A kerosene stove was set up below. The water from the underground river was not to be used, but fortunately the guards carried more than a dozen jugs of water.

Water was added, the kerosene stove was lit, and in no time, the iron pot began to bubble and gurgle.

Li Aiguo and the exploration team also took this opportunity to take off their socks and put them aside to dry.

Walking in wet socks in the dead of winter can easily cause frostbite on your toes.

The big guy said that there used to be a reckless guy in the exploration team who fell into the river while exploring. When he got out, he didn't feel cold at all. When he got back to the camp that night, he took off his boots and broke off his little toe.

Li Aiguo thought he was talking nonsense, but the big guy just chuckled.

Because the exploration team members work in the field for many years, their personalities are polarized. Liu Tianquan, for example, is a quiet type who is hard to talk to.

The big guy is the kind of guy who talks nonsense all the time; you can't believe a word he says.

The rice was cooked, but we didn't bring aluminum lunchboxes, so we were given a spoon each and ate together while chatting.

I have to say, this hodgepodge of ingredients tasted surprisingly good, maybe because I was hungry.

After finishing his meal, Li Aiguo drank a few mouthfuls of water. Seeing that Lao Mao and the others' food was getting cold and they hadn't returned, he lit a cigarette and prepared to call the Wild Car Expert to go and get help.

At that moment, a series of thunderous gunshots suddenly rang out from afar.

The sound was extremely loud, and Li Aiguo and the others all jumped up immediately.

The guards were indeed regular soldiers; they threw away their cigarette butts, grabbed their guns, and headed towards the sound of gunfire, with the other exploration team members following behind.

They ran so fast that it was dark and chaotic, and all they could see were a few people ahead with flashlights waving and guns firing in the distance.

Li Aiguo saw the tracer of the bullet, about seven or eight meters away. Old Cat and the others hadn't walked very far, so the distance was about that.

It was pitch black all around. With the help of the dim light from his flashlight, Li Aiguo could see heavy construction machinery on both sides, as well as two rare vertical shaft core drilling rigs. There were drilling marks on the rocks next to him. This must be the Japanese army's work area.

It seems Old Cat was right after all; we only needed to walk for another ten minutes or so to reach the bottom of the cave.

By the time Li Aiguo arrived, the gunfire had stopped.

When Li Aiguo saw that the person holding the gun was Lao Mao, and that the other comrades from the weather station were all unharmed, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

"what happened?"

“There are a few cages here.”

As he spoke, the old cat moved the flashlight to a corner, where Li Aiguo saw more than a dozen cages with shadowy figures inside, and he didn't know what was locked up there.

Li Aiguo recognized this kind of iron cage as a water dungeon, which was often seen in the buildings constructed by the Japanese in Northeast China. People imprisoned in the water dungeon could not stand up and could only press their faces against the top bars of the cage and stick their noses out to breathe.

However, the cages were placed on the ground, clearly intended as prisons to enslave the mining laborers.

Upon seeing the water prison, the faces of the wildlife car experts and exploration team members who had followed also turned grim.

"Those bastards, I knew they wouldn't do anything good!"

The beams of flashlights all shone over them.

Contrary to Li Aiguo's expectations, there were indeed dozens of corpses locked in the cage.

However, they were all wearing Japanese military uniforms, and the few in gray uniforms were clearly not something the laborers could afford.

What's even more baffling is that, like the first corpse, these Japanese soldiers also had broken arms and legs, and their flesh seemed to have been gnawed away.

"What on earth is going on? Could it be that the Japanese soldier at the cave entrance is a super cannibal who ate all these Japanese soldiers?" Old Cat frowned.

(End of this chapter)