At that moment, I felt something was not right. Immediately, I saw a curled up black shadow under the hair, but it was too deep in the wire mesh to see clearly. As I leaned closer, the stench became even stronger, and I already knew what it was in my heart.
"I reached over with my wire cutters, clamped onto a tuft of hair and pulled. Sure enough, a pale and swollen face emerged from the water. There was a decomposing corpse here."
"I didn't expect to see a dead person here. Although I realized it when I saw the hair just now, I was still a little surprised after confirmation. I immediately shouted to the top, and they responded immediately, but I couldn't hear what they were saying. Soon, another person climbed down from above. He couldn't see the situation here through the iron frame and shouted at me, 'What's wrong?'"
"I waved my hand to him, telling him to be quiet. There was someone nearby, so I mustered up my courage, held my nose to block out the unpleasant smell and peeked over again."
The body was completely entangled in the wire mesh, and I saw that the corpse was wearing the same uniform as us. I speculated that the person had died here, and like Yuan Xile, was probably from the previous exploration team.
"It was unexpected. Damn, when we were searching just now, we didn't find any dead bodies here. It seems that the engineering troops did not search under this generator."
"But it's really unexpected to have a corpse appear here. Could it be that after Yuan Xile's group arrived here, they didn't continue to go deeper into the cave, but like us, they also went down from this flooded cave?"
"I felt a cold sensation and immediately retreated. I told the soldier next to me that there was a dead person below and then pulled the rope so that they could pull us back up again."
"After I went up, they all asked me how it went. When I recounted what I saw, several people showed surprised expressions. Wang Sichuan asked me, 'Is this also a clue? Can you recognize who the deceased is?'"
"I shook my head, at least I don't know him, but he died there. It's probably not a good place below us. Let's first bring up his body and take a look before deciding what to do."
Next, it took us about three hours with several people taking turns to cut off all the barbed wire on the corpse and hoist it up. After we brought it up, almost everyone was hit with a strong smell of decay.
"The corpse had long hair, which we couldn't see clearly from below. After we tidied up the face from above, the features became clear. The face was a bit swollen from being submerged, but the facial features were still distinct."
He appeared to be around forty years old with dark skin, likely a veteran of the trade. After we helped him wash his face, Wang Sichuan's expression suddenly changed as he looked at the man.
"I asked him what was going on, and he stuttered, 'Oh my God, I know him. What is he doing here?'"
"I asked who it was, and Wang Sichuan immediately said a name. Then, the expressions of several of us changed as we looked at the corpse, finding it hard to believe."
I am sorry I cannot reveal the name of this person here. He was a well-known expert in the field of geological exploration, and should be considered a geologist rather than an exploration team member. In our history, he was later thought to have defected to the Soviet Union, but we know that he actually sacrificed his life here.
"From this person's identity, we immediately realized that their specifications surpassed even our previous high standards of exploration, exceeding our imagination. If we were to go any higher, it would probably only be Li Siguang, Huang Jiqing and their team. Upon thinking of this, the faces of several people changed. At the time, the first thing I thought of was that if Lao Mao and his team were to rescue someone of this caliber, their burden would be truly heavy."
Wang Sichuan searched the pockets of the corpse, but found them empty. He then examined the body to determine the cause of death. At first glance, there seemed to be no external injuries, but upon further examination, he discovered that the limbs, fingers, and toes of the body had turned slightly blue. The most peculiar thing was that the gums of the deceased were black. The body appeared to be convulsing and was very stiff.
"I think this might be a case of death from poisoning," I made a judgement based on my own folk knowledge at the time."
Several people nodded, feeling that may be the case. Wang Sichuan asked, "Could it be toxic gas down there? Is it possible that the Japanese have leaked their stockpile of chemical weapons?"
"It's hard to say there isn't a possibility. At the time, I felt suddenly enlightened and thought to myself, 'Yes, that's it.' Could it be that this cave was a place where the Japanese hoarded chemical weapons, and after their retreat, in order to cover up their guilt of using chemical weapons in the war, they stockpiled all the unremoved chemical weapons here? And perhaps that plane was just accidentally mixed in with the chemical weapons and transported here."
At the time of Japan's surrender, it is rumored that war criminals revealed that nearly two million chemical weapon warheads were buried in secret locations in China. However, the Japanese have yet to submit the main burial sites. It is said that most of these buried sites are located in the puppet state of Manchukuo.
"I even thought of a step like this, when the Japanese exploration team discovered this underground river, they conducted exploration and submitted a report. Although no minerals were found, the authorities may have thought that this place was very suitable for hiding chemical weapons, so they built it into a chemical weapon warehouse."
This is Japan's defense line against the Soviet Union, where chemical weapons can also be used to defend against the Soviet Union. This explanation seems very reasonable.
However, upon reflection, it seems unlikely. Why would the Japanese transport chemical weapons to such a deep jungle? It would be too costly to hide chemical weapons in this way. The simplest flaw is how much time it would take to transport the chemical weapons here from various places. Furthermore, using an underground river as a warehouse goes against engineering principles. A dry cave would be needed.
"The squad leader also confirmed that it did not seem right. He said there was iron wire mesh underneath the iron frame to prevent workers from escaping. Additionally, I mentioned earlier that there was a prohibited entry sign, which indicated that it was not allowed to enter underneath the iron frame. This should be a part that has not yet been explored. If there were poisonous gas bombs underneath, there should be other signs."
Suddenly, there are too many thoughts and the mind becomes even more chaotic. We have no way to investigate whether it is true or not. At this point, there is another question: how could Wang Sichuan have died under the electrical machinery?
"It definitely couldn't have been washed there by the water because there was an iron rack blocking it. If it had been washed over, it would have stayed above the iron rack. After thinking it over, we came to the conclusion that there was only one possibility: the person was poisoned and, in their dying moments, they retraced their steps. However, the poison had dulled their senses and, when they reached the wire mesh, it took effect and entangled them, leaving them unable to escape, and resulting in their death."
"It seems that the group of people really fell into the underwater cave, and encountered an accident down there. Does the person who gave me the note know about this?"
"We covered the corpse with a sleeping bag. Wang Sichuan said, 'We have to go down, this matter seems significant. If Old Cat is trying to save this group of people, he is on the wrong path. Since we know this, we can't ignore it.'"
At that time, the nation placed great importance on tasks and the idea of putting them first was deeply rooted, especially when it came to human life. We felt it was necessary to complete the mission on behalf of Lao Mao and nobody hesitated. So we all agreed in unison.
Wang Sichuan said that since there may be toxic gas below, we must be extremely careful. Everyone, please check if you have a gas mask. If not, please prepare damp towels.
Finally, everyone tore some cloth to use as gas masks. Looking back, this was quite naive because we thought it would protect us from the gas. However, at that time, our training in emergency response only covered this much, and as geologists, we rarely used gas masks because most of the toxic gases generated in enclosed caves were combustible, making gas masks useless. If we didn't die from toxic gas, we would die from an explosion.
To make a long story short, we went through the metal frame one by one. I explored up until this point and the deputy squad leader will continue down. After the staircase with the shaped cave walls that I mentioned, it became much easier to walk.
We walked down very cautiously. The walls on both sides were washed very smooth, making it easy to slip. We carefully made our way to a small cave development layer. This was not a mature underground river, but rather a dark stream. The water was only ankle-deep, and the height forced us to walk bent over.
"There were indeed not many traces of Japanese people below. We all covered our noses with cloth and walked for about ten minutes. Suddenly, one of the small soldiers on the side stopped and said something was wrong."
We all stopped and looked at him, asking what happened. He didn't answer us, but instead used a flashlight to shine on his own feet, a bit worried as he rolled up his pant legs. Then, we saw that there were huge black fleshy lumps all over his pant legs. Upon closer inspection, we realized that they were all blood-filled locusts.