"This is truly unbelievable. Both the scene in front of me and the actions of the Japanese people give me a chilling feeling. I also deeply feel the eccentricity and strangeness of the way Japanese people do things. Perhaps only this kind of paranoid nation can do such a thing."
"A huge deep mountain bomber takes off from an underground river 1,200 meters below ground and flies into the abyss of that empty underground world, disappearing into the darkness."
For a long time afterwards, this image remained like a nightmare in my mind, impossible to shake.
"I can even imagine the situation when the Japanese exploration team arrived here. This kind of natural wonder created by God cannot be seen in Japan, a country of islands. What would they think back then? Just like me now, looking at this seemingly endless darkness, wouldn't they have a strong desire to explore? To see what is hidden inside the abyss 1,200 meters underground?"
"I kept staring at the beam of light disappearing into the darkness, lost in thought for a while, before being awakened by the cold wind. I'm overwhelmed and enervated. Immediately, I calmed myself down and told myself that it wasn't a suitable moment for sentimentality, as romanticism needs a stable and united environment, which is clearly not the case here."
At this moment, the beam of the searchlight was moving slightly, obviously being adjusted by someone. I thought it must be Wang Sichuan, so I and the deputy squad leader supported each other and walked towards the direction of the searchlight. One more person here is one more person, we have to join him immediately. Find a way to leave here. Our mission, so to speak, has been completed. What the Japanese do, we may have to do it too, but it's definitely not our job.
The searchlight should be installed in the control room of the dam. There must be a mechanism to regulate the water level by opening the valves, but I don't know where the entrance is. The deputy team leader called Wang, but he knew that his voice couldn't be heard outside, it would be blown away by the wind as soon as it left his mouth.
Walking to the top of the searchlight, you can see the lamp post shooting out from somewhere under our feet on the dam body, but there is no entrance here. On the outside of the dam, there is a wire ladder like the one we climbed up just now, but it is too scary. It is a bottomless abyss. Even Wang Sichuan, no matter how brave he is, dare not walk from here.
"We had to move forward and ended up stumbling upon a damaged part of the dam. A large section of the top had collapsed, but there was an escape ladder-like structure at the gap. I cannot describe the specific appearance of that thing, as I was in a panic and didn't look closely. Anyway, I followed it down and saw a wrought iron gate on the inside of a large dam."
"The interior of the dam's control room is very complicated. I only went in there once in my lifetime, and it was built by the Japanese before liberation. It was still dark inside, but it didn't matter because the outside was also dark. After we went inside, we found that it was indeed a temporary dam. The concrete walls were functional repairs, and exposed steel bars and cracks could be seen everywhere."
The machine room is divided into several layers, but the concrete floor is not solid, full of holes, like a half-dismantled building. In the layer we entered, there are many wooden boxes placed there, covered with muslin cloth, and shaking them will produce a lot of dust. Looking down from the holes in the floor, you can see several layers of floors below, with dim light at a certain point, probably the tail light of a searchlight. The bottom should be the real engine room, and you can feel the presence of giant machines in the blur.
"The wind has lessened a lot here, but the sound of water outside is still quite terrifying. We shouted for a while, but our voices were too soft. There was no response down below, probably because they couldn't hear us. Moreover, there is no road here to go down."
"I asked the deputy team leader what to do. The floors of the dam control room are not the same as those of ordinary buildings, they are quite high. I couldn't jump down. The deputy team leader found a concrete block and threw it down, but we didn't hear any sound. There was no response from below. He said it seems we can't go down here, we need to find another place."
"I cursed inwardly and finally used the flashlight to shine a light. The flashlight's beam was already completely insufficient. Based on my experience using flashlights outdoors, this flashlight was already performing beyond its capabilities. It should have died before we entered the sunken cave. At this point, I couldn't expect it to last much longer."
"I told the deputy squad leader that we must first establish a new source of light, otherwise, if the flashlight runs out of power, we might be completely stuck."
"We looked around and found quite a few things that could be lit as torches. We didn't know what was inside the boxes piled up in the corners. The deputy leader pried open one of them and found mostly cables and welding rods inside. We also saw cement bags inside, which had already hardened, causing the boxes and bags to stick together tightly."
These should all be materials for maintaining the dam. People who do not work in water conservation may not know that cement slurry needs to be poured into the joint between the dam foundation and the mountain every year, otherwise the dam foundation will gradually shift outward, which is very dangerous. Therefore, in the event of a long-term war, if the dam is abandoned, it is best for downstream residents to evacuate the flood discharge zone.
"We opened four or five boxes in a row and the most useful things we found were helmets and cotton coats. The coat we found was totally useless and damp inside, almost like it had been dug out of a coffin. The helmets, however, were in good condition and I wore one to block the wind. We also discovered a box of canteens. I lost my own equipment a long time ago, so I took one with me."
The search during that period didn't seem important to me at the time, but now thinking back, it's a bit scary. The most crucial thing is, if I hadn't taken that water bottle at the time, I would definitely not be here reminiscing, but still slowly decaying in that underground dam.
"The machine room itself is not big. After walking around, most of the things have been overturned because of the severe decay and dust. In the end, we could not breathe. We took out a few wooden sticks and wrapped them with oil cloths to prepare them for use when the flashlight goes out completely."
"But when we were getting ready, something unexpected suddenly happened."
Suddenly, there was a buzzing sound coming from outside again. When I listened closely, it was the same loud and piercing alarm sound as before. This time it was near us and the sound was so loud that it almost deafened me.
"I was mentally prepared at this point, thinking to myself, 'Do they need to close the gate? What's going on? Is there an automatic maintenance system for the dam here?'"
Luckily we have arrived here, so we no longer have to worry about being stranded on that bomber wreckage due to rising water levels.
We walked out to look down and see if the water level had started to rise, but then the deputy squad leader suddenly frowned and said to me, "Wu, listen carefully, this alarm is different from the one just now."
"I listened carefully but couldn't tell any difference. I asked him what was different. He said, "This is a lengthened alarm to allow the sound to travel as far as possible. During military exercises, we need to identify different types of alarms. This alarm sounds like a warning for an air raid."
"I was stunned, an air raid? Can an air raid happen here too?"