Section Seventeen

  The next day, it was Li Tie's turn to lead a patrol with his squad.

  Farewell to the two elders, Li Tie set off with the Fox Team.

  In summer mountainous areas, everywhere is covered with green grass and vines. The leeches are crawling all over the place. If you're not careful, your ankle will be covered in blood blisters.

  The fox team formed a combat formation and searched forward.

  In a mountain valley, a team member discovered a small opening. The small opening was hidden among the green trees from a distance.

  As I walked closer, I found that it was a very large cave. The entrance of the cave was covered with green vines for more than half.

  The entrance outside the cave is a piece of bluestone, and the top of the cave is also bluestone. The entrance to the cave is actually formed by two huge bluestones leaning against each other in a triangular shape, about 4-5 meters high and 5-6 meters wide.

  With a bayonet, he cut off many green vines and led several people into the cave along the bluestone at the entrance.

  After entering the cave, I walked a few meters and couldn't see anything anymore, it was too dark.

  But the cave doesn't seem stuffy at all, it's as if the air is still quite fresh, and there aren't any animals like bats either.

  Two team members went out of the cave, found some twigs, made several torches and lit them up inside.

  As we continued to walk in, the cave was bottomless and very dry. The ground at the bottom of the cave was a whole piece of bluestone. The flame of the torch obviously slanted towards the direction inside the cave, as if there was a strong suction force.

  After walking for about a few dozen meters, the scene suddenly opened up. Although the surroundings were also rocky, inside was indeed a different world.

  A large, rough cave appeared before everyone's eyes. The cave was about 45 degrees from the entrance, stretching from the right front to the left front. Overall, it was slightly higher on the right front and lower on the left front. The entire cave was approximately ten meters high and forty or fifty meters wide, making it a relatively flat cave. The stalactites hung down from the top of the cave like roots.

  As we walked forward towards the right front, after several hundred meters, there were many side caves on both sides. We went into a few to take a look and found that none of them were deep, with the deepest being only tens of meters. As we continued walking forward, the sound of water suddenly came from ahead, and an underground river appeared before us. The icy water flowed from the top of the cave to the bottom, but it was unknown where it went.

  On the top of the cave, there were many cracks, with the widest being over ten centimeters and the narrowest being one or two centimeters. The smoke from the torches dispersed through these cracks, and people standing in place felt a gentle breeze blowing towards them from the entrance of the cave.

  This cave basically ended here, as further inside it became lower and narrower until it was impossible to proceed.

  The torch was almost extinguished, and Li Tie and his companions hastily retreated.

  Relighting the torches, this time Li Tie and the others went to the cave on the left front.

  This section of the cave is similar to the previous one, but slightly shorter. Inside, except for finding a few snakes and some snake feces, no signs of human habitation were found. However, Li Tie discovered many familiar things on the wall of this cave, which are the marks left by urination, of course, it's not that someone came here specifically to urinate, what is it?

  Li Tie thought about this matter while leading everyone out.

  Suddenly an idea flashed in his mind, could it be nitrate? He tried hard to recall the chemistry knowledge he learned in school. It seemed that the nitrate was indeed the one, with nitric acid and sulfur, he could make explosives? As for charcoal, there was no need to consider it, there were plenty of trees on the mountain, just burn a few and that's it?

  Li Tieyu was overjoyed. After exiting the cave, he carefully observed his surroundings again and found that this was indeed a good location. The mountain cave was located near the foot of the mountain, and the entrance was relatively flat. As long as a simple road was built, his car could drive directly into the cave. Moreover, the inside of the cave was spacious and dry, not only could it be used to park cars, but also as an arsenal or a military base.

  And this entrance, although not very hidden, would require a large amount of explosives to cause any substantial damage. Even dozens of hand grenades tied together wouldn't be able to do much to such massive boulders, which weigh hundreds or even thousands of tons and are a work of nature. As for other places, I estimate that even if the enemy were to bring out their largest cannons and bombard the top of the cave non-stop for three days and nights, they still wouldn't be able to cause any harm to the limestone cave, because above it is an entire mountain.

  Li Tie immediately fell in love with this place and decided to set up his base here. This cave has already been named after Li Tie.

  Remembering the specific location of the cave, Li Tie led everyone to patrol and return to the mountain base.

  Li Tie reported to Er Gou District Captain about the discovery of the cave and requested permission to lead a team to clean it up, possibly turning it into another base for their guerrilla group. Er Gou District Captain agreed with his suggestion but due to the need for troops to undergo joint training exercises, only the militia team was assigned to them.

  Li Tie brought the Fox Team and the Militia Team back to the cave in two cars.

  Along the way, of course, they were repairing the road as they advanced, and by the time they reached the mountain cave, a simple highway had also been repaired. Although it was only a few meters wide, cars could run on it, and Li Tie was very satisfied. In fact, building roads in hilly areas, especially simple highways with low requirements, is relatively simple. Generally, in relatively flat areas, just use soil to fill it up a bit, and in uneven areas, just turn around, if not possible, walk along the mountain slope, only need to cut down a few trees and part of the shrubbery, cars can pass through. Anyway, it does not involve land expropriation issues, nor do you need to consider occupying farmland problems, no need to worry about compensation issues.

  A simple highway was completed in just two days. The tens of kilometers from the base to the mountain cave.

  To renovate a mountain cave, we must first renovate its lighting system.

  The skylight on the top of the cave is obviously not feasible, let alone whether it can penetrate hundreds of meters of mountain body, even if it is penetrated, light cannot enter. In addition to this, lighting a lamp is also a good suggestion, but isn't it too outdated? Moreover, it's not safe, our bodies are all flammable and explosive products. Then there's the use of electricity. Now there is no power bureau, and the only bit of electric power is still in the hands of the devils, how can we negotiate with them? Pay more electricity bills? This matter is not easy to handle, if you go to negotiate with the devils, before you even get the electricity connected in the cave, you'll already be tied up in an electric chair and given a shock.

  Call on us: self-reliance and hard struggle.

  We must carry forward the glorious tradition of having conditions to go up, and creating conditions to go up without them. We should rely on ourselves, work hard and strive to build this cave into a modernized one. The prerequisite is to solve the lighting problem first.

  Li Tie's gaze fell on the car headlights in the cave.

  Without saying another word, he dismantled the generator, battery and headlights.

  The members of the fox team can drive, but they have never driven at night, so they don't know what the two "eyes" on the ghost car are for. They thought it was good-looking or that the car was looking at the road. Hum, generator, who knows what that thing is? It's just that there are iron bumps all over the front of the car, and when you start the fire, one wheel turns, the other wheel rolls, everything is moving, everything is turning. All things are almost the same, just big or small. I don't know how these ghosts think, putting together large and small iron things to make such a thing, and it can even pull people around.

  Ke Li Tie knew that he had seen many cars, and modern cars were countless times more advanced than the ones from this era. Disassembling a generator was child's play for him.

  Three down, five off, dismantled the generator and gave a simple explanation of the principle to everyone, and explained his own idea: installing the generator in the underground river at the deepest part of the mountain cave, using water power to generate electricity.

  Li Tie had already seen it, and the water force of that place was still quite large. The fan next to the water tank was also dismantled, and after everyone's efforts, this small generator was successfully installed on the underground river, and the first shanzhai power plant in human history was officially established, and the electricity was transmitted, of course, this network is limited to this cave. When the first small light bulb emitted a bright light, everyone couldn't help but cheer up, and this cave that had been surrounded by darkness for many years finally welcomed the light of the first electric lamp.

  Using thin electrical wires (all copper core, haha, secretly delighted, if it were aluminum core, I'm afraid the electricity would be consumed just by the wires themselves, without even lighting up the lights) found in the warehouse, Li Tie installed several light bulbs in the cave. In order to install electric lights throughout the entire cave, Li Tie dismantled all the electrical wires and lamp holders from this vehicle, finally installing lights on the main sections of the cave. For convenience, he directly installed the car's headlights, not caring whether they were front or rear lights, signal lights, as long as they could illuminate. Although Li Tie almost scrapped an entire automobile to electrify it, he felt it was worth it. One reason was that this vehicle was already very old (or rather, due to poor maintenance, many parts had been damaged), and several times on the road, it broke down, although later everyone pushed it again, but since no one knew how to repair cars, they couldn't guarantee it wouldn't break down again next time. Also, he had three vehicles, but no spare parts, no maintenance tools, no necessary motor oil, and most importantly, not enough gasoline for the three vehicles. Rather than letting this breakdown-prone vehicle waste gasoline, it was better to save gasoline for the other two cars. And with electricity in the cave, Li Tie could develop it further, striving to turn it into an advanced base.

  In order to have enough strength to defend the cave when the devils come, Li Tie made necessary changes to the entrance of the cave. First, he built two three-story bunkers on both sides of the cave entrance, in the outer part of the large hall (the widest place in the entire cave, where everyone called it the "large hall"). Each bunker could hold one or two soldiers, who could use submachine guns to sweep the entrance and cover the entire area outside the cave. The walls of the bunkers, especially the side facing the entrance, were made of several hundred kilograms of large stones, with a thick layer of cement in between, ensuring that ordinary firepower couldn't penetrate. In fact, such heavy stone blocks could not be destroyed by hand grenades, unless the devils used cannons to blast the bunkers directly. But Li Tie built the bunkers into three layers, and the top layer could attack the enemy outside the entrance from a height, while the enemy would have difficulty reaching the entrance to blast the bunkers.

  Of course, in order to facilitate the rapid entry and exit of cars from the cave entrance, all the rubble at the entrance has been cleaned up, swept clean, and uneven places have been padded with mud. Inside the cave, many places are large enough to park a car. Li Tie even designated a parking lot specifically for the car, in order to avoid bullets shot from outside damaging the vehicle, this parking lot was set up inside the cave on the left front side of the entrance, and it can accommodate dozens of cars.

  Due to the limited power of the generator, not all the caves can be equipped with electric lights. However, Z still did some preliminary cleaning and organization in most of the caves, some were used as storage rooms, and others as barracks for soldiers. In all the barracks, simple beds made of wood had been built, covered with thick dry grass. (There is no straw in the mountains, but a very fine and soft grass grows everywhere, which Z felt was similar to the "Wula Grass" from Northeast China, although locals didn't have a clear name for it.) This type of grass grew everywhere, up to half a person's height, and would regrow quickly after being cut. Now that it's summer, the harvested grass would dry in just one day. Although not as comfortable as modern sofas, lying on these beds was still quite cozy. According to the size of each cave, six to eight beds were set up. Each cave entrance had a torch for lighting. Of course, if conditions permit, electric lights will be installed later. For now, they'll just have to make do.