"Liu Yuanbao rubbed his face and moved his mouth a bit.
"Follow me, everyone."
We followed Liu Yuanbao and Sun Tiedan back, turned a sharp corner, and were shocked by the sight in front of us.
A large number of skeletal remains lay scattered on the ground, estimated to be around thirty to forty. They were dressed in military uniforms, wore yellow fur-lined big-toe shoes, and had steel helmets on their heads.
Huang Erhei tore off a sleeve badge from one of the skeletal remains. It read: 16th Army.
Having experienced turbulent times, White Granny, with a pensive expression, said, "The 16th Army belongs to the 34th Corps, with General Hu Zongnan as the commander and Lieutenant General Li Yannian as the deputy commander, stationed around Guanzhong."
I recalled something. Sun Tiedan had mentioned that his grandfather was a company commander under the "Northwest King" Hu Zongnan. Could these people be his grandfather's subordinates?
"Tiedan, has your grandfather ever told you about the past?"
Suddenly, Song Haizhu's huge face appeared, and he stared at Sun Tiedan with a glare. "Are you called Tiedan?"
Faced with such a daunting figure, Sun Tiedan involuntarily swallowed his saliva.
"Yes, I'm called Tiedan, what's wrong?"
At these words, Song Haizhu's face changed dramatically.
"Please don't kick my eggs, please, A Lian, save me."
Song Haizhu trembled behind White Granny, a big guy of over two meters, his face full of fear, which was quite amusing.
White Granny shook her head helplessly.
"Bignose, why is the big octopus so afraid of Tiedan?"
Shi Jingxia pointed to her own head. "In our family restaurant, there are often people from the south. They call iron 'tie' as 'kick,' and Big Zhu's brain must have some issues, probably from some traumatic experience."
"Sis, are you saying someone smashed his head with an iron hammer, and now he's holding an iron hammer to smash others' heads?"
"This? I don't know."
Sun Tiedan recalled his past.
He remembered that when he was a child, he always slept with his grandfather, who did tell him some things, but his grandfather passed away when he was five or six years old, so his memories were quite vague.
He vaguely remembered that his grandfather had once said that he was the company commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 3rd Regiment of the 1st Division of the 16th Army. Later, after suffering a defeat, he strategically retreated with several dozen brothers, which was essentially desertion.
According to military law, he would face certain death if he returned, so he hid in Yanmen Mountain.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Sun Tiedan's grandfather settled in Yanmen Mountain and became an ordinary farmer.
Sun Tiedan looked at us. "That's all I know."
I pressed on, "Think about it. Is there anything else you might have forgotten?"
After a moment of thought, he shrugged and said there wasn't.
Bignose, like a Japanese invader entering a village, rummaged through the skeletal remains, finally decking himself out in new attire, holding an M3 submachine gun, and posing for photos for Shi Jingxia.
"Hey, Tiedan, do I resemble your grandfather back in the day?"
"Like your mom..."
Seeing Sun Tiedan's agitation, Bignose immediately retracted, "Okay, okay, I won't say it anymore."
With that said, he tactfully stepped aside, not forgetting to pick up something from the ground and blow on it, making a metallic sound.
"City folk, Yuanbao, can you mimic the sound of a shell casing?"
Liu Yuanbao ignored him.
Annoyed, Bai Ruoxue said, "Could you please be quiet? You're so annoying."
Suddenly, Huang Erhei remembered something, squatted down, and picked up something from the ground to show to White Granny.
I also went over to take a look. It was some dark and dirty objects, resembling black peanuts, but they made a metallic sound when they collided.
White Granny said, "They're bullets."
Huang Erhei nodded. "Exactly. I checked just now. The bones show signs of impact fragmentation, indicating they were shot dead."
Shi Jingxia turned back and used a flashlight to illuminate, saying, "That's unlikely. These people seem completely unprepared. Even if they were pursued here, it's impossible for them to have no resistance at all. And..."
"Moreover, they were all well-trained regular troops. It's impossible for there to be no casualties on the other side."
Shi Jingxia's reasoning made sense, and the cause of death for these people remained a mystery.
Inadvertently, I saw Song Haizhu clutching his crotch, vigilantly staring at Sun Tiedan, genuinely afraid of having his 'eggs' kicked.
This reminded me of the encounter with the Nans in the past. A crazy idea emerged in my mind, and I checked the walls around me. I made a significant discovery.
There were many holes in the walls, and judging from the direction of the shots, it seemed chaotic.
"They shot each other, resulting in collective death."
As these words came out, everyone felt incredulous, even I found it crazy.
Continuing, I said, "Because they, like the Nans, ate bats raw."
At this moment, Sun Tiedan suddenly said, "Oh, right, there's this one thing."
"Quick, what is it?"
"My grandfather used to go to the foot of the mountain every Qingming Festival to burn paper offerings, and on the Winter Solstice, he would burn and send off thirty-eight sets of cotton clothes, thirty-eight in total."
Bai Ruoxue interjected, "Thirty-eight sets? Why burn so many?"
Sun Tiedan rubbed his flushed face and ignored Bai Ruoxue.
I urged, "Tiedan, please tell us."
Only then did he continue, "I was also curious, so I asked my grandfather why our family, which has only been here for three generations, needed to burn so many sets of cotton clothes."
"What did your grandfather say?"
"My grandfather didn't say anything. He just said that after he died, this task would be handed over to me."
Shi Jingxia pulled on my sleeve and whispered in my ear, "Guangting, I counted, and there are exactly thirty-eight sets of skeletal remains."
The truth gradually surfaced. Currently, it can be confirmed that these thirty-eight people were indeed Sun Tiedan's grandfather's subordinates. They fled to Yanmen Mountain, ran out of ammunition and food, and resorted to eating bats, resulting in an unexpected end.
As for the exact truth, it's impossible to know, but this explanation seems to be the most reasonable and closest to the real situation.
There's another question: both being deserters, why was Sun Tiedan's grandfather able to escape unscathed and later marry and have children, while the others met their fate here? What unknown secrets lie within?
Bai Ruoxue was ruthless and decisive, wasting no time on these questions. She said to White Granny, "Granny, instead of wasting time on these questions, why don't we break open the rammed earth wall and see what's inside? I have a strong feeling that there must be something valuable inside."
With that, we began to demolish the rammed earth wall.
Liu Yuanbao wielded the tornado shovel vigorously, digging a few times, causing some soil to fall and a cloud of dust to rise.
"Get up, city boy, you're useless here. This isn't how you work."
Sun Tiedan spat in his hands, rubbed them, picked up the tornado shovel, and began digging.
In a cloud of dust, he bent his front leg, arched his back, squinted his eyes, and concentrated intently, the tornado shovel flying up and down.
If diligence could bring wealth, Sun Tiedan would probably have achieved his small goal.
Half an hour later, a soil hole a dozen or so centimeters appeared in the rammed earth wall. He stopped, his face covered in soil, his nostrils moist, gasping for breath.
"I can't go on. Let's take a break; it's stuffy in here."
Bai Ruoxue anxiously said, "The rammed earth wall is over a meter thick. If we want to pass through, we need to dig a hole about a meter wide. This is too slow."
I remembered being trapped in Yongling and decided to use the same trick again.
"Indeed, it's too slow. If only we had water."