"I do not know how much precise calculation is needed to take off a heavy bomber from a cave, nor do I have any concept of it. However, I can fully imagine the difficulty of a huge bomber returning from the abyss and landing."
Firstly, controlling the aircraft to maneuver into a narrow river mouth is already a very difficult operation, and to complete the landing in such a small space requires extremely high demands on the pilot. The length of the landing runway is not a problem and a large number of ropes can be used, but the main issue is that there is no room for error in altitude, as any mistake could result in a crash.
Japanese clearly knows this, so I feel that they didn't prepare for a smooth landing from the beginning. With so many cushion bags, they obviously prepared for the plane to crash. They intended to retrieve the plane through an emergency landing. Moreover, looking at the final condition of the plane, they did indeed do so. The "Deep Mountain" that returned from the abyss was completely destroyed.
"I feel a chill down my spine when thinking about that terrifying void. Those little devils dare to do anything. So, did the pilot of the 'Deep Mountain' see anything in the abyss?"
"I have never piloted an airplane, but the thought of flying in the endless abyss of the underground world, 1,200 meters below ground level, really gives me chills."
"I was lost in thought when I heard Wang Sichuan's voice from behind. When I turned around, I saw him dragging the person he had hit in the knee with a grim face. He had twisted the person into an extremely uncomfortable position, and his strength was immense. Most people would not be able to break free from his grip. The man had clearly given up resistance and was dragged over like a dead body by Wang Sichuan."
I hurried over, and Wang Sichuan pressed the man to the ground and cursed, "Damn it, this guy is faster than a rabbit, running in the pitch black darkness. I almost lost him. Luckily my eyesight is good."
"I used a flashlight to shine on the pale face of that person, and then I could clearly see his appearance."
It was a stranger's face, pale and sweating profusely. I couldn't tell if it was from running or if he was naturally that damp. Now, he was staring at me with extreme hatred, his eyes full of bloodshot veins, and his whole body shaking.
"I was a bit surprised to find that upon closer inspection, this person was not the same as the previously encountered Yuan Xile and those corpses. He wasn't wearing engineer soldier attire, but rather a Lenin suit. He didn't seem to be a soldier, and his dress was more like the so-called experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, like Li Siguang and his colleagues who were sent for assignments."
"We searched the pockets of the person's clothes and found his work ID. We discovered that his name was Su Zhenhua and he was indeed from the Department of Geology."
"It seems that the composition of the first batch of people is different from ours, and their specifications are indeed much higher," said Wang Sichuan, his face sinking.
Yuan Xile is a key figure who played a role in cleaning up after the Soviet Union's withdrawal, similar to Wang Ming and Bo Gu during the land revolution. His status was exceptional. People in the Geological Department were definitely involved in political work. Although they may not necessarily have a geological background, they were at least directly responsible to a few old men, similar to special envoys. This is similar to Li De, who was sent by the Soviet Communist Party to guide work in China. Although I dislike people with the status of special envoys, at that time, their presence could be seen in important matters.
"I called out Su Zhenhua several times, but that person continued to stare at me with extreme hatred. When I tried to turn his face, I realized that he, like Yuan Xilei, was in a state of madness."
"Okay, another crazy person found. I thought to myself, what happened to the first team? How come either they died or went crazy."
"Wang Sichuan was also helpless and asked me, 'What should we do with him? This kid is as stubborn as a bull. If I let him go, he will definitely run away. Should we tie him up?'"
"I don't know what to do either. In my heart, I want to send him back to cabin 2 first and let Ma talk to him while looking at him in the sea."
I was just about to speak when Su Zhenhua suddenly squeezed out a sentence from his teeth. I couldn't understand what he was saying with his strange accent, but Wang Sichuan's face changed immediately, indicating that he understood.
"I asked him what he said, and Wang Sichuan's face looked strange. He whispered that it was Mongolian and it meant 'Beware of the shadows, there are ghosts inside!'"
"This was the only sentence spoken by Su Zhenhua in front of us. Looking at his facial expression, we didn't know whether it was a warning or a curse. Since then, he never spoke again, only staring at us with an expression as if he wanted to devour us alive."
"I cannot understand the meaning of his words - "there are ghosts in the shadows" - this sentence is truly absurd. If you simply said there were ghosts, I might be able to comprehend it, but ghosts in the shadows? Where do these shadows come from? With the flashlight shining, so many shadows overlapping, are there really ghosts in all of them? And what even is the concept of ghosts?"
However, speaking of shadows, I cannot help but think of the dark shapes frozen at the bottom of the icy pond outside, which do give an eerie and inexplicable feeling. I thought, perhaps what Su Zhenhua talked about were those shadows?
"I can't think anymore. So many people have died in the Japanese underground base. If ghosts exist, it wouldn't be surprising to find them here. However, we are materialists and we absolutely do not acknowledge the existence of ghosts."
"Upon discussing with Wang Sichuan, he still insisted that we either bring him back to compartment 2 to watch the horse in the sea, or continue our search here. It seems there is a door here, and with so many things around, we should thoroughly search for supplies as our situation is not looking good."
"I said since that's the case, you don't need to take this kid back. I'll go back and bring over the horse with Hai and the others. You should see if you can start a fire, so we can warm up and boil water when we come back. This place is much better than Cabin 2."
"Wang Sichuan also thought about it and said, "Let me go first. He can take care of things here. With so much fuel here, it's still easy to start a fire."
"I wrapped my clothes tightly, be careful, there may be explosives here. Don't be surprised if this place is blown up when I come back. He laughed and said he was already making a bonfire on the grassland while I was still sleeping in bed. He wondered why I had so much to say."
"I followed the original route and ran back on the metal path, sweating all the way. Then I went out through the iron gate and walked back the way I came. When I was chasing Su Zhenhua just now, I was already sweating. Now with the temperature in the ice cellar, it's even worse. At that time, all I could think about was quickly bringing the horse over to Hai and them, and then relaxing with a hot drink."
"At this moment, I never thought that anything could happen on such a short road. I relied on my memory to run back, but suddenly realized that everything around me had become identical. At first, I didn't realize what had happened, but after running for over ten minutes and seeing nothing but endless icy terrain covered in cold mist, I understood that I had gotten lost because I hadn't left any marks. Damn it."
The lost in that time was also a very important part of the whole thing. The lost was inevitable because the vision was so unclear in such a deserted place, and we had no memory of the way we came. Even now, going back was only relying on our intuition, so it was almost certain that we would get lost in the fog and couldn't find the direction.
Of course, this was not a big deal, and I didn't really care. I only felt a little frustrated in the first few minutes because I was very tired. As a result, I had to stay in this cold place for even longer, which was annoying. Later, I chose a direction and kept walking forward.
My thought at the time was that as long as I kept going forward, I would at least touch something - whether it be the barbed wire fence or the wall in the middle of the field. With these reference points, I could then determine my next steps.
"And as I walked for two or three minutes, as I anticipated, the frost-covered concrete wall appeared at the end of the mist. Obviously, I may have turned too early."
"I roughly determined the direction there, turned and walked on another perpendicular concrete ridge. I started walking in the direction of the wall, and the No. 2 cabin should be ahead. At this point, I was already quite cold and couldn't resist any longer, so I increased my speed."
At that time, the base of the wall was filled with giant machines that were frozen by the frost, and numerous pipes and cables extended from there, inserted into the ice. Therefore, the entire area was covered with various sizes of frost, and it was impossible to tell what was buried under these piles of ice. All these pipes of different sizes were pressed against the field ridges that I was walking on, making them much higher and uneven than other ridges, making it quite difficult to walk. This area was a source of low temperature, which caused a thick layer of frost to cover the ice surface beside the field ridges.
So with these two conditions, I ended up walking on the ice surface because it was frosty and not too slippery, making it easier to walk on. As I walked faster and faster, I didn't even look down at the ice below and didn't think anything would change on the ice surface.
But my idea was wrong. After only about ten minutes of walking, my foot suddenly stepped on something. As I stopped, my foot suddenly gave way and I slid down a slope. I fell down unexpectedly.
In a moment of desperation, I reflexively sat down and squatted on the ice. Luckily, I managed to sit firmly as I fell down.
I looked down and saw a huge black spot in the cold mist in front of my feet. Upon closer inspection, I discovered that the ice field had been excavated into a deep pit for some unknown reason.
When I took a closer look, I found that the ice pit was not very big, probably only the size of a Liberation truck head. It was not necessary to use the adjective "huge". I felt that it was big, but it was just a sudden illusion when I looked at it. However, the pit was indeed very deep and should have been dug to the bottom of the concrete pool. The mist inside was faint and it was unknown what was below.
Obviously, someone has carried out a destructive task here. We've all drilled holes in the ice before, especially for fishing in the Great Xing'an Mountains during winter. If the ice is too thick, breaking it is quite arduous. The pit in front of us would have required tremendous strength and time to create, and it's unlikely that it was done by just one person.
I touched the edge of the ice pit and found that it was obviously smashed with brute force, and there were cracks - who did it?
"Could it be Su Zhenhua and them?"
I think it's possible that after Yuan Xile's team arrived here, something happened. Before the incident, they must have explored and someone might have suggested digging open the strange ice caves and shadows under the ice. If our team hadn't encountered so many problems and had arrived here intact, I believe we would have had the same idea.
"I suddenly became curious and wondered what exactly is beneath the ice. Have they dug it out?"
Thinking about it, I crouched down and reached my flashlight into the hole, hoping to see if I could illuminate anything.
"My personality is more cautious, so at that time I didn't have any thoughts of jumping down to take a look. If Wang Sichuan was here, maybe he would have gone down, which is also fortunate. After shining the flashlight down, I didn't see the figure clearly at first, I just found it strange that it seemed like a place had been dug and stopped hastily."
This is quite easy to distinguish because when you excavate an ice pit, due to the hardness of the ice, you cannot excavate it evenly like a geological borehole. You must first smash one side and then start extending from this side to the surrounding areas. Therefore, if you stop halfway through smashing, the bottom of the pit will be extremely uneven.
"I saw that the situation at the bottom of the pit was like this, dug haphazardly, and could faintly see the shadow frozen under the ice. It had already been partially uncovered, obviously when they dug up to the shadow, they immediately stopped."
"I became more and more curious, and wondered why they didn't continue to dig."
At that time, I was thinking whether I should jump down or not, but the ice pit of about two meters was quite dangerous. After going down, it was likely that I would not be able to come up and freeze to death inside. There is a trap in Northeast China that is dug like this. When a bear falls in, the pit wall is only higher than its head and it can't climb out.
As I was hesitating whether to search for Ma Zaihai or to go down and take a look, suddenly I felt a gust of wind blowing from behind me.
In such a cold situation, when a sudden wind blows, even if it's very gentle, people are extremely sensitive. I shivered with the cold and turned my head to look.
Before I could react, someone suddenly gave me a hard push from behind. I was already in an unstable squatting position, so I lost my balance and fell headfirst into a pit.