The train driver in the courtyard

Under the dim, diffused yellow light of the flashlight, one could see that there were many corpses, at least forty or fifty, lying haphazardly inside the iron cage.

In particular, those few partially ossified heads still retained the expressions they had when they died.

The sight of the dry, rotting face with its dark, hollow eye sockets staring intently at the exploration team was utterly horrifying.

The extreme fear they felt at that moment left a deep impression on the team members.

Decades later, the team members would still discuss it at gatherings, which led to them developing a strange fear of dog cages in their daily lives, always feeling that Japanese soldiers might appear inside.

Of course, that's a story for later. At this point, Old Cat gave everyone a little bit of the liquor he had brought, and everyone gradually came to their senses.

Finally, Old Cat handed the wine jug to Li Aiguo: "What do you think? These Japanese devils are short of food underground, so they're killing each other and treating each other as food?"

Old Cat's guess was similar to the team members' opinion, based on the two corpses at the door and the corpse in the cage.

Li Aiguo found it a bit strange, though. This was clearly a large geological exploration team. Why didn't they retreat when they were short of food? Why did they choose to be trapped in this cave and die?

“That is a problem,” the old cat frowned.

The big guy raised his hand: "Maybe they felt their sins were too great, so they took their own lives."

This remark elicited a burst of laughter.

"Big guy, do you think those Japanese devils are shameless? Would they really take their own lives?"

"No, that's not true. Back then, there was a captured Japanese officer who pretended to commit seppuku, but as soon as the samurai sword touched his belly, he regretted it and quickly found a doctor."

Seeing that the atmosphere had eased, Li Aiguo felt that he couldn't waste any more time.

We still don't know why the Japanese came here, so we asked the team members to continue exploring.

This is the end of the cave.

The flashlight beam swayed on the massive rock face, a huge structural limestone formation formed by the sudden convergence of strata on both sides.

This indicates that the seismic tectonic activity that formed this deep cave hundreds of millions of years ago stopped here, and the cave ahead naturally closed off, meaning we have indeed reached the bottom.

Professor He and the exploration team put on their headlamps and began searching everywhere, and soon they noticed something was wrong.

Professor He felt that if this were an exploration team, they should have been exploring something, but judging from the chisel marks on the rock wall, they had only expanded the cave and did not intend to conduct in-depth exploration.

Especially since the drill bits of those two core drilling rigs were both scrapped, it's clear that they couldn't have only completed such a small amount of work.

"So, there are still areas here that we haven't discovered yet?" Hearing this news, Old Cat perked up. After putting in so much effort, all they had found were a few dozen skeletons, which was quite disappointing.

However, the bottom of the cave is only so big, and it really ends there. After searching for a long time, we still couldn't find any hidden entrance.

Everyone was baffled, so they had to stop and rest again, while gathering together to analyze the possible scenarios.

Brainstorming is also a common method used by exploration teams when encountering problems.

Among the team, Professor He has the most experience in cave exploration because he has explored for minerals in the southwest and Hunan provinces. He also contributed to the discovery of Mine 712.

Professor He felt that, geologically speaking, the cave was clearly not long enough, and in particular, it lacked the characteristics of an earthquake tectonic surface.

It's possible that the rocks fractured during the earthquake, and all the stones fell down. The entrance to the cave is right under these stones.

Old Cat, however, thought his idea was too bizarre.

The fallen rocks couldn't possibly have blocked the hole so perfectly. He even had the exploration team drill down a few meters, but they found nothing.

"I think we should retreat first and wait for the base to send people over before concentrating our efforts on the investigation." The big man threw away the drill rod and glanced at the corpses with some fear.

Just as Lao Mao was about to nod in agreement, Li Aiguo suddenly raised his hand: "Everyone be quiet, listen."

Upon seeing Li Aiguo's actions, the scene fell silent. Several exploration team members looked puzzled, wondering what he was up to.

The old cat has the most sensitive ears and heard the faint sound of flowing water.

"I can hear water! That underground river from before hasn't disappeared yet."

The sound was faint even in the quiet cave; the exploration team strained their ears but couldn't hear it.
Professor He suddenly stood up and gestured for them to be quiet.

Li Aiguo also stopped where he was, wondering if this old comrade had a solution. He saw Professor He bend down and put his ear to the stone below.

Li Aiguo was taken aback at first, then mentally gave Professor He a thumbs up, and the others also bent down.

Upon hearing this, everyone was surprised. They could indeed hear a faint sound of flowing water by the rocks, with the volume of the water varying from rock to rock.

Everyone knows that the closer you are to the water, the louder the sound. After listening to more than a dozen stones, Li Aiguo arrived in front of a rock wall.

The rock wall is a pile of stones, which looks like it was naturally stacked, but no trace of an underground river was found underneath, which can only mean one thing: the underground river is hidden behind the rock wall.

"The cave might be just behind us."

Li Aiguo couldn't remember who started digging the stones.

Soon enough, the exploration team members all started using crowbars to pry the rocks open.

Large rocks were pushed forward, leaving behind scattered stones. There were traces of explosions on the edges of the rocks, indicating that this was originally a cave, but it had been blown up.

Li Aiguo couldn't help but speed up, and everyone's speed increased.

Clang! The entrenching tool hit something, and Li Aiguo's hands went numb from the shock.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked in the direction of the entrenching tool. Several beams of flashlight converged, revealing a rusty iron plate.

Old Cat and Li Aiguo exchanged a glance, both showing strange expressions. Could this be the Japanese army's treasure vault?

This cave is too eerie. Never mind, let's keep digging.

The exploration team members perked up and began clearing away the stones next to the iron plate. They soon discovered that the so-called iron plate was actually an iron door embedded in the middle of the cave.

The iron gate was about the same size as the gates of rural courtyards in later generations, painted green, and a few Japanese characters could still be vaguely seen, though they were now blurred.
The door is a double door, with two iron grooves at the bottom. This door design allows it to be pushed open directly from the outside.

"Looks like this is a protective door designed by the Japanese." Professor He patted the door.

"A protective door?" the big man asked in disbelief. "A door like this can be blown up with any explosives. How can it defend against enemies?"

Professor He glanced at him as if he were looking at an ignorant fool: "We're not guarding against the enemy, but rather to destroy classified materials and equipment."

Li Aiguo had also seen the construction of protective doors in meteorological station data.

The Japanese knew that what they were doing was something that couldn't be exposed, so they were very decisive when building the underground bunkers, first setting up a protective door.

Behind the protective door is the key area, and explosives have been drilled and installed in the top and load-bearing parts of the bunker.

If the bunker is breached by outsiders, detonating explosives can destroy the entire classified area, thus ensuring that materials and classified information are not leaked.

After liberation, comrades from the Northeast Meteorological Bureau discovered several laboratories built under the supervision of Shiro Ishii in the eastern part of Harbin.

The laboratory was located inside a cave, which employed a similar method, resulting in the destruction of much of the evidence.

These doors are usually just for show, used only to pinpoint the blast zone, and can be opened easily.

Old Cat was aware of these circumstances. He glanced at Li Aiguo, his meaning clear: Could this be another laboratory belonging to Shiro Ishii behind us?
Li Aiguo was also confused at this point; everything inside the cave seemed so abnormal.

Putting aside the cannibalistic monsters for now, if it's just geological exploration, there's no need to make it so mysterious.

However, the answer is right in front of us now, and there is no need for further guessing.

The exploration team had rested and regrouped, with bullets loaded and flashlights in hand, all staring at the iron gate.

Li Aiguo squatted under the iron gate for a moment, touching and tapping here and there, and soon found two torque pins and pulled them up.

With a gentle push, the iron gate opened.

Sure enough, there was another cave ahead, with an underground river running through it. There was a hydroelectric generator in the river, and a cable stretched out from it into the darkness in the distance.

This old-fashioned hydroelectric generator can still be seen in the Tianmenhe Hydropower Station from the 1980s. Because it is a purely mechanical mechanism, it can last for hundreds of years if properly maintained.

Li Aiguo picked up a flashlight and went closer. Over the years, the generator parts were badly worn and the sheet metal was heavily rusted, but the important components were fine.

Old Cat led the search party to the cave, while Li Aiguo and Professor He squatted down beside him, using the tools at hand to fix the generator.

The generator's thrust bearing was blocked by debris in the underground river.

The fault was simple, but because the bearing gap was very narrow, Li Aiguo jumped into the river and spent a while cleaning it up. He was just about to call Professor He to turn on the power switch.

Professor He was standing not far away but did not move. Li Aiguo called out again, sensed something was wrong, cursed under his breath, and shone his flashlight upwards, but could no longer see anyone.

"Gone?" Li Aiguo knew that Professor He wasn't such an unreliable person, so he immediately shouted a warning and grabbed his pistol, running towards the shore.

After finally getting ashore, we turned around a few boxes and saw Professor He squatting on the ground, his eyes fixed on the distance.

Old Cat arrived just then. "Old He, you're here! Why didn't you answer me earlier?"

Old Cat's voice wasn't loud, but Professor He reacted like a startled wild animal, suddenly standing up and pointing a finger at him: "Watch out! There are Japanese devils here!"

Old Cat didn't hear clearly, so Professor He repeated it again. Old Cat heard it clearly, but obviously didn't understand.

Li Aiguo loaded a bullet and shone his flashlight around, but there was no sign of the man in the Japanese uniform.

"Old He, what's going on?"

Professor He had been helping Li Aiguo tidy up the generator on the shore. When he heard the words "push the switch," he planned to go to the rock wall. But as soon as he turned around, he saw the figure of a Japanese soldier flash through the gap in the box.

"You might be seeing things," the old cat said, frowning slightly.

He had just sent people to check the surrounding area, but they found nothing alive, let alone Japanese soldiers.

Moreover, there were guards on watch nearby.

Li Aiguo also felt that Lao Mao's words made sense, and planned to turn off the power switch to find out the situation around him.

As soon as I turned around, I saw a movement behind the box not far away, and then I saw several people wearing Japanese military uniforms stand up.

At that moment, Li Aiguo, Lao Mao, and Professor He were all so frightened that they froze on the spot.

If it were someone like Dieter, Li Aiguo wouldn't be so shocked.

But the sight of that disgusting yellow coat made him feel a sense of unreality, as if he had stepped into a TV drama.

However, Li Aiguo only froze for 0.05 seconds before reacting, raising a flashlight with one hand and a pistol with the other, his finger already on the trigger.

Once he could clearly see what was opposite him, he wouldn't care if it was a Japanese soldier or a Japanese zombie; he would fire a burst of bullets at it. But he felt that the figures of these Japanese soldiers looked somewhat familiar, as if he knew them.

He then shone the flashlight into the face of the person in the middle, and it turned out to be a big guy!
While Li Aiguo was still in shock, Lao Mao was already furious. He rushed over and kicked the big guy, almost knocking him to the ground.

"You bastard! You want to die?! I almost killed you!"

Old Cat was truly angry this time; if it had been another weather station member, they would have already opened fire.

It's happened before that family members have died at the hands of guns. Not to mention those who were accidentally shot and became disabled, the psychological burden of the shooter was too heavy, and they left only a letter before leaving.

"I didn't expect you to hit me. It's so cold. We found this army overcoat in the warehouse, and we only put it on because we were freezing."

The big guy was stunned by the beating and tried to explain, but Old Cat beat him up several more times. Seeing that Old Cat was in a bad mood, Li Aiguo quickly stepped forward and stopped him.

"Old Cat, calm down! They're from the exploration team; they don't know these rules."

After being persuaded, Old Cat stopped, and Li Aiguo took the opportunity to ask Big Guy what was going on.

Upon further inquiry, it was learned that the big guy and his companions had been sent to search and found a place that resembled a supply warehouse. The boxes were full of military overcoats. At first, no one dared to wear them, but later, when they couldn't stand the cold any longer, they put them on.

"How about we take them off?" The big man looked at Li Aiguo somewhat timidly.

"We'll wear the coats to keep warm, but we'll tear off the badges right away! Those things are disgusting." Li Aiguo could understand why they were shivering; it was just too cold inside the cave.

The big guy and the others squatted on the ground, busy with their tasks, while Li Aiguo walked over and turned on the power switch.

With a low hum, the electromagnetic synchronous generator inside the generator started to spin rapidly.

With a hiss, the lights around them came on one after another, and Li Aiguo then realized that the Japanese had hung dozens of lights above and to the side of the rock wall.

Unlike the natural caves we just saw, most of the caves here were carved out later, with the drilling stretching at least two or three kilometers.

Several core drilling rigs were still placed in front of the rock wall behind the cave, and two of the machines were still powered on, yet they started to rotate.

Old Cat rushed over and pressed the switch. After looking around, he couldn't help but exclaim, "Holy crap! Those Japanese have really gone all out! What treasure are they looking for with all this fuss?"

Li Aiguo was also stunned by what he saw.

The cave was divided into several areas. The closest to Li Aiguo were dozens of Japanese military tents, which contained cotton quilts that would break into pieces at the slightest touch, as well as enamel mugs, kettles, and other daily necessities.

Further away is an area that resembles a warehouse.

The big guy just found the military overcoat from here.

Dozens of wooden crates were placed next to the rock wall, with Japanese characters on them. The crates were filled with equipment and spare parts for exploration.

Near the wall, there was a large quantity of weapons and ammunition, a dozen light and heavy machine guns, and even two Type 94 mountain guns. These were standard infantry support artillery pieces, which were relatively light and easy to disassemble and transport.

The location where Lao Mao was standing was likely the excavation area, where, in addition to the core drilling rig, there were several large pieces of equipment that Li Aiguo did not recognize.

According to Professor He, it is a chain rock drill, which was a very advanced drilling tool for that era.

It can be said that the drilling equipment here is equivalent to the entire 915 Exploration Team, and the firepower is enough to arm a reinforced battalion.

What exactly are the Japanese looking for after spending so much manpower and resources over several years?
"I might know," the big guy hesitated for a moment, then thought Li Aiguo was a really nice guy, and raised his hand.

He pointed to the warehouse area and said, "We found a room while we were searching through the boxes."

A room isn't unusual, but it's rather strange that a room, not a tent, would appear inside this cave.

"It's probably a place similar to a command center."

Li Aiguo had the tall man lead the way, and with the light bulbs illuminating the way from above, the group quickly arrived in front of the house.

The house was a simple wooden structure, nestled among piles of boxes, and looked quite inconspicuous. There was a green sign on the door that read "ni zhizu o".

Professor He explained that it meant "command," but felt that the wording was not standard and should be "command room."

Seeing that Professor He was indulging in his old-fashioned academic ways, Li Aiguo didn't delay and pushed open the door directly.

This isn't a command room or a rest room; it's definitely a place that resembles a "command" area. The Japanese used the right terminology.

The command post now reeks of a foul odor, the ground is a mess, with tangled wires visible, a military telegraph machine on one side, and even a rusty gun that looks like an iron bar on a gun rack.

Next to it was a military green bed, and sitting at the desk facing the door was a Japanese soldier wearing a yellow military overcoat.

Whoosh! This time everyone reacted quickly, loading bullets instantly and aiming their black gun barrels at the Japanese soldiers.

"They should be completely dead by now." Li Aiguo thought of the stench, waved to them, and walked away.

Sure enough, it was a dead Japanese officer.

The cause of death was the same as those Japanese soldiers: a bullet pierced his temple.

The blood that flowed out turned into black marks over time, flowing onto a telegram.

Li Aiguo picked up the telegram, the contents of which were simple: "Colonel Watanabe, Tianhuang has decided to surrender. After your unit destroys all exploration data, you shall withdraw from the Northwest and ensure that the secrets of the Empire are kept."

The date on the telegram was August 12, 1945, just three days before the Japanese broadcast announcing their acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration and their unconditional surrender.

This telegram explained a lot of things.

This was a secret Japanese exploration team that was sent to the Gobi Desert in the 1930s and 40s to explore for an important mineral. After several years of work, they found nothing.

Upon learning that the Japanese were about to surrender, Colonel Watanabe decided to commit suicide.

“But that doesn’t explain the cannibalistic maniac outside.” Old Ghost stroked his chin. “It also doesn’t explain the Japanese soldiers and explorers locked in cages.”

“Yes, we just found a lot of explosives in the back part of the cave. Even if this Japanese soldier wanted to commit suicide, why didn’t he blow up the whole cave?” Professor He also raised a question.

“We’re still missing some information, so everyone, let’s pull ourselves together and figure out what’s going on.” Li Aiguo clapped his hands.

After a brief meeting to explain, everyone got back to work.

This discovery shocked everyone.

First, Li Aiguo found a diary in the "command" room, and the author of the diary was Colonel Watanabe.

The diary was quite thick, with several hundred pages at most. Li Aiguo quickly flipped through it and figured out the true identity of Colonel Watanabe.

Colonel Watanabe was born in Hyogo Prefecture in 1906. His family had been a military family for generations.

Colonel Watanabe's older brother came to Lushun with his unit during the Battle of Lushun in 1894.

Influenced by his older brother, Colonel Watanabe came here after graduating from the military academy in 1930 and served as a second lieutenant platoon leader in the 10th Division.

Due to his outstanding performance, especially in assisting in the capture of experimental subjects, he achieved many successes and was promoted to colonel in the following years.

Colonel Watanabe also received a top-secret mission: to be in charge of uranium exploration in the Gobi Desert of Northwest China.

At that time, Xiao Mei's family and Da Mao's family had already begun to study the giant mushroom. Xiao Rizi also realized the great power of the giant mushroom, so he stepped up his research and development work and established a special organization to be responsible for it: the Institute of Physics and Chemistry.

Under the leadership of Yoshio Nishina, the RIKEN Institute developed and successfully operated two cyclotrons, successfully simulating the explosive power of a giant mushroom.

Furthermore, a Nuclear Physics Applications Research Committee was established, more than six months earlier than the Manhattan Project in Xiaomei's family.

Then a funny scene unfolded.

The Navy idiot felt it was too embarrassing for the Army idiot to lead the project, so he turned his attention to researching radar instead.

Army idiots could only work alone, so they established an experimental project at the Institute of Physics and Chemistry, namely the "Separation Wall" project.

The project's mission is to separate uranium-235 through thermal diffusion.

The project's goal was clear, and the technical difficulties had been overcome; the only problem was the lack of uranium ore.

Thus, an exploration unit called Sakae 312 was established, led by Colonel Watanabe and consisting of a special operations team, to escort and assist a group of exploration experts to this area in search of uranium ore.

Following the trail of a luminous pearl, the team eventually arrived inside a cave in the Gobi Desert and began a multi-year exploration mission.

However, the exploration yielded no results for a long time, and with the defeat of the Japanese, the original supplies could not keep up.

Colonel Watanabe wrote in his diary: "Yesterday, Company Commander Nojiri reported that the last bag of flour had been used up. I never thought that my great Japanese Empire would fall into such a state."

Nojiri asked me what to do, and I simply replied that without orders, we couldn't retreat. I believed Nojiri knew what to do.

"Nojiri is a clever man. He came up with a way to hunt, and today's meal is pork soup."

"Nojiri is very lucky; he brought back another pork leg."

"Today I felt like someone was watching me in the dark, which made me very uncomfortable."

"I saw Miss Keiko today. She was the only girl in the exploration team, but Nojiri said that Keiko had died of illness long ago."

“I saw Professor Saito again. Nojiri thought I had a mental problem, so I got angry and beat him up with the mental injection stick.”

"Nojiri reported today that there are not many wild animals left on the mountain. If we do not retreat, we will run out of ammunition and food. I scolded him. Under the light of the celestial radiance, the locust army is invincible. Nojiri is very obedient and has found another pig."

"There's no fresh pork left, but the pork that's been salted should keep for a while."

"The telegram has finally arrived. The locust army has actually been defeated. I'm starting to doubt the point of my persistence. Let me go with the locusts."

"Only me, Nojiri, and Muto were left in the cave. I always felt like someone was watching me, so I decided to commit suicide. I asked the two of them to pour gasoline on my body and turn it to ashes. This is a custom from my hometown."

Cremation allows the soul to ascend to heaven with the smoke, thus gaining new life and escaping this terrible cave.

After everything is over, Nojiri will activate the detonator before committing suicide, destroying the cave.

The diary ends here.

Old Cat took a puff of his cigarette and asked a question: "Wait a minute! The diary says that after Watanabe committed suicide, Nojiri and Muto were supposed to cremate the body and blow up the cave? Where are they?! The orders were not carried out at all!"

Li Aiguo tapped the table: "It wasn't destroyed by the two of them. Note that Watanabe assigned the demolition task to Nojiri."

Old Cat nodded in agreement with Li Aiguo's opinion, and then asked another question: "So where are Nojiri and Muto now?"

"The guy who committed suicide at the entrance, judging from his uniform and rank, was the company commander. It should be Muto!" Li Aiguo analyzed.

The old cat then asked a third question: "What about Nojiri? Where did Nojiri go?!"

As Li Aiguo was pondering, Professor He's voice rang out from outside: "Aiguo! Come quick! We've found something amazing!"

(End of this chapter)