Literary Master 1983

Chapter 83 Reunion in the Cave

There was only a faint light inside the cave, and there were stacked supplies and ammunition, a thermometer, and neatly stacked cans of food on the wall. Water was dripping from the top of the cave, and there was an empty can underneath.

There are about ten people here, three of them are holding guns and staring at the outside of the cave at all times.

This is the legendary Cave No. 3, the best and most complex cave in the entire Laoshan Mountain, so it was used as the command post. More than 50 generals have walked out of here in the future.

Who knows, that fan of Yu Qie's novel who is not wearing underwear and is currently giving condolences may become a big shot somewhere in the future.

Wang Min is a familiar face, everyone knows him, but no one knows Yu Qie. Wang Min introduced him and Ning Ke.

This small cave was immediately filled with joy. They let out a suppressed roar, just like Robinson Crusoe speaking for the first time after he drifted ashore. They lost the ability to speak and kept repeating the words "Yu~qie~" and "Yu~qie~".
Yu Qie's infiltration operation also gave him great ambition. He excitedly shook hands with everyone and expressed his silent excitement. Everyone spoke in a low voice, because they had lived in the cave for a long time, and their hearing had become extremely sensitive.

Afterwards, everyone sat down in the narrow cave and communicated with each other.

The soldiers had several difficulties, and war photographer Wang Min wrote them all down: the cave was very humid, causing a high degree of rust on the weapons, and more waterproof canvas was needed.

Due to lack of vitamins, vision is not sharp at night.

The military boots issued by the army made too much noise when stepped on in the cave...etc.

Some are old topics, and some have just happened recently. For example, as the number of people moving in increases, there is no room for guns, and the entire cave is full of guns. What should be done?

Wang Min and Ning Ke didn't know what to do, they just recorded it and reported it to their superiors.

Yu Qie suddenly remembered the behind-the-scenes story of China's first manned space flight: at that time, domestic material technology was not up to standard. In order to develop a space suit fabric that could stretch freely, experts made the fabrics of the space suit's arms, knees, etc. into shrimp-like shells, which could provide more ductility with less space.

Taking hole No. 3 as an example, you can make a retractable storage rack. When it is laid flat, it is a wooden board, and when it is unfolded, it becomes a storage rack.

Yu Qie briefly described his idea, and immediately a soldier split the pine boards of the ammunition box and assembled a simple bracket structure that could hold four guns.

Ning Ke and Wang Min opened their mouths wide: Cotangent, how did you come up with that?
"Is Li Hai here?" Yu Qi asked.

“Lehi is on hole 2,” they said. “We can reach them by phone.”

"beat!"

"But Li Hai has already gone to bed. We have a three-hour shift system at night, and he hasn't gotten up yet."

Then I'll crawl over there by myself so as not to disturb your sleep.

Here, Yu Qie learned about some special phenomena of cat ear caves. These things were rarely depicted in domestic war works, but were reflected in Hollywood movies that often invited retired soldiers to serve as consultants.

For example, one soldier said, "Besides my comrades here, my best friend is the rat."

Yu Qie was stunned: "What's going on?"

"We collect the excrement in empty cans and disinfect it with lime."

"Then a lot of rats came and they would carry the excrement to their own nests, and then our cave would be cleaner. They are our friends."

Another soldier said: "Rats are very smart. When others are about to bombard, they will run in from outside the cave in groups and evacuate the surface in advance."

"So, when we saw unusual rat activity, we hid in the caves to avoid being bombed." Another soldier said: "When we ate, we shared our food together under the weak light of flashlights... The rats also ate together in a circle, so we sympathized with them."

"There was a military doctor who specialized in keeping battlefield records in Cave No. 2. He observed that some people did not speak for a long time in the cave, and the longest time was three days and three nights without saying a word... However, they also liked rats, and some even felt that rats could talk to them."

"Even if there was no one around, I would jump up and be very alert, but as soon as I saw the rat, I knew it was safe."

Shit, isn't this typical PTSD?

The harsh environment of the Maoer Cave is severely torturing people's rationality. Among all the supplies sent to the Maoer Cave, except water and ammunition, the soldiers would rather not have canned food and eat less, but would smoke and read newspapers.

After learning about the situation of the soldiers in Cave No. 2, Wang Min wanted to take a photo for everyone, which he called the "Rat Hole Restaurant."

As the name suggests, it shows how people eat together in an extremely confined space - like rats.

Except for the soldiers who were defending their positions, everyone else was very interested in Wang Min's idea. They arranged the cans into a circle, added the co-cut, and took this photo.

"Crack!"

Wang Min said: "I hope this photo can be published in Military Literature and Art or even People's Daily, so that people all over the country can see what is happening in our cave!"

While he was talking, a few rats suddenly rushed out and ran into the hole. Before Yu Qie could say anything, he saw the soldiers' faces turned pale, and one of them said, "The shells are coming!"

The three soldiers stationed at the cave entrance also turned back, and everyone crowded together in the deepest part of the cave, only to see rats coming from nowhere, running skillfully in a line into the depths of the cave. It happened so fast, from the time Yu Qie saw the rats to the time he felt his chest stuffy and uncomfortable, it was less than 30 seconds.

Then he heard the deafening sound of artillery shells exploding, like the thunder after a summer shower and lightning. The earth trembled, followed by a series of bangs, bangs, bangs, and several bombs fell on the ground in the distance.

However, the bombardment lasted only about ten seconds, and even Yu Qie felt something was wrong.

Ning Ke wiped the dirt off his body and said, "I have never experienced such a short firecracker. I have experienced firecrackers that lasted for five or six minutes, and more than ten minutes... but not more than ten seconds."

He asked the people at hole 3, "Has this happened a lot recently?"

The answer is, “A few times.”

"There must be something fishy going on here," said Ning Ke.

The three of them waited for ten minutes and found that there was no more shelling, so they said goodbye to the soldiers in Cave No. 3 and followed the direction of the rats to find Li Hai in Cave No. 2. The caves were connected.

The No. 3, No. 2, and No. 1 holes were getting closer and closer to the enemy, so they were getting more and more hidden and the noise was getting smaller. The No. 1 hole at the forefront was only 37 meters away from the enemy. It was under such eyes that the soldiers opened up their positions.

In Cave No. 2, notes are often used to convey information, while in Cave No. 1, audible communication has been completely isolated.

Ning Ke suddenly said, "Before I went to Laoshan, the troops confiscated my radio. All personal radios of those who went to the front line were confiscated."

"why?"

"In order to prevent us from listening to the opposite side's radio station, they play it every day to disrupt our morale. Now that we are not allowed to use the radio, they will use the loudspeaker. So when we see you, we are so excited that we shed tears. We are so lonely."

(End of this chapter)