Catch thieves

  Lao Duan immediately blew up upon hearing this and loudly exclaimed: "You can't blow it up! You can't blow it up! If you do, the entire city of Xi'an will be dead for real. I've already reported to my superiors explaining the reason why. The thousand-year-old underground palace may have accumulated a large amount of toxic gas. Once this toxic gas is released, all living things within hundreds of miles will die."

  Luo Lianzhang took a big step forward, pulled out the Little Red Book from his pocket and held it to his chest, staring at Old Duan and saying loudly: "Chairman Mao said that this army has an indomitable spirit, it will crush all enemies and never yield to them. I know your class stance and I know you hate the poisonous tumor of feudal culture, but you are not ruthless enough, when dealing with the enemy we must be swift, accurate and deadly, so let me take on this arduous task!"

  After finishing speaking, he continued to arrange for the blaster to lay explosives.

  At this time, Old Duan was already sweating profusely and still shouting loudly in the same spot, but he was soon taken down by more than a dozen Red Guards who arrived with the troops. He was then beaten up, and within ten minutes, Old Duan had passed out. The other members of the archaeological team did not dare to stand up and obstruct again.

  The explosives were in place, and with a loud order from Lao Lianchang, everyone retreated to a safe distance.

  Explosion, followed by an earth-shattering roar.

  After the smoke and dust had all dispersed, the crowd then gathered around to see what was going on.

  When they got closer and took a look, it wasn't that the poisonous gas inside had escaped, but even the huge stone gate had only fallen off a small piece, nothing more.

  Lao Lianchang was anxious and immediately arranged for the blasters to increase the blasting intensity, and the amount of explosives also increased by more than tenfold.

  After the placement was completed, Lou Lianchang was about to give the order to blast with full confidence, but at this moment, the ground suddenly shook violently, and then he saw that the guns and big knives in people's hands flew towards the tomb gate direction at the same time. Some people who were too close to the tomb gate were immediately chopped into pieces by the blades and became sieves, and some guns also misfired. More than a dozen people fell to the ground, lying in a pool of blood.

  Watching the incomplete bodies of his comrades, listening to their heart-wrenching screams, Lao Lianchang, who had never experienced high-intensity warfare before, was at a loss, forgot his previous ambitions and fled with his head in his hands.

  Others who witnessed the situation also quickly fled the scene, and during the evacuation process, another stampede occurred, resulting in seven or eight more deaths.

  The last hundred or so people in the troops had only sixty or so people retreat to the temporary barracks in Xiaohe Village, and six or seven Red Guards who were guarding the work team also died. At that time, when they escaped, they didn't even care about Lao Duan and others, so the entire work team was still at the scene of the bloodshed. Fortunately, everyone in the group was safe and sound.

  Lao Duan looked at the corpses and blood all over the ground, and immediately started vomiting loudly on the ground. After a while, he raised his head again and exclaimed: "It seems that the records in the history books are still accurate. The gate of the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor is indeed made of magnetite. But where did they find such a large piece of magnetite? And it can withstand such a violent explosion, which is really unbelievable."

  After finishing speaking, he turned his head to instruct a young man: "Go back and write a report about this matter. I reckon that from now on, no one will dare to have the idea of hitting the Dragon Emperor's Mausoleum again."

  After Peng Jianjun and other educated youth arrived at Xiahe Village, except for Dong Juan who was ill and could not immediately join the production team, others quickly participated in the labor of the local production team and lived with the local farmers. The scene was originally full of laughter and joy, a harmonious atmosphere.

  Peng Jianjun and another male educated youth Lin Tong were assigned to a production team. It was the busy farming season, with much work to be done in the fields. During the day, the autumn sun was still scorching hot, enough to make people's skin peel off, but at night, the temperature dropped sharply, becoming very cold. Fortunately, Peng Jianjun and Lin Tong had both been assigned military overcoats to keep warm, so even when they took turns keeping watch at the grain warehouse at night, they didn't feel too cold.

  The old man brought Liao Dongfeng, who had recovered from his injuries, to Xiahe Village. As soon as they entered the village entrance, they met the local militia and learned about Peng Jianjun's whereabouts after inquiring around, which led them here.

  The village government is holding a party, everyone singing and dancing around the bonfire, speaking freely. The village director warmly welcomed Liao Dongfeng and told him that Peng Jianjun and others were guarding the grain warehouse at the second team farm. Only then did Liao Dongfeng bid farewell to the old man and prepare to go find Peng Jianjun and the others.

  When leaving, the old man held Liao Dongfeng's hand and was reluctant to part with him. After spending a few days together, the feelings between the two men had grown stronger day by day.

  Liao Dongfeng also knew a little about the leader of the lifesaving team, Feng Le Tian, Qin Liao and Tugouzi Anyue Min, but because of the old man, Liao Dongfeng only knew that his surname was Yu, and he never had the opportunity to ask what his name was.

  The two of them exchanged a few pleasantries, and the old man took out a small cloth package from his inner pocket and handed it to Liao Dongfeng, instructing him: "These three brocade pouches you must keep safe, don't let others see them, wait until later when you encounter difficulties and are in a desperate situation before opening them."

  Liao Dongfeng politely thanked the old man and watched as his figure disappeared into the darkness, then turned around to tuck away the silk pouch and headed straight for the Second Production Team's farm.

  As soon as he arrived at the farm, he saw flames everywhere and heard a commotion, it seemed like something had happened.

  Liao Dongfeng was worried that Peng Jianjun and others would get into trouble, so he quickly ran a few steps forward to ask.

  The result had not yet spoken, and far away, I heard Peng Jianjun shouting: "Dongzi, Dongzi, here, here."

  Liao Dongfeng, Peng Jianjun and Lin Tong were so excited to see each other that they hugged each other tightly, with too many things to say, and for a moment, they forgot that two of them were supposed to be catching thieves.

  "What thief is being caught?" Liao Dongfeng asked.

  Peng Jianjun's smile on his face suddenly disappeared, and he seriously talked about catching thieves.

  "It's strange! Nobody was seen entering, but the grain in the warehouse suddenly decreased by half. We've searched everywhere and haven't found a single hair. Can you help me analyze what's going on?"

  Liao Dongfeng did not rush to answer, but instead walked to the front of the grain warehouse and checked it for a while. Finally, he found a sturdy wooden stick and poked it into the pile of sticks, and with a rustling sound, a large area in the middle of the stick pile collapsed, revealing a deep and bottomless pit.