desert abyss

Two days later we chose a so-called auspicious day and set off.

At first, the march was spent in boredom.Liao Xiaodan is aggressive and Xu Jin is upright, both of them are good targets for bickering, but the monotonous scenery outside the window and the sound of sand flying and beating under the car are really drowsy.

It stands to reason that the Tarim River marks the official beginning of the desert, crossing the Tarim River means officially entering the basin, and one of the most important cities north of the Tarim River is Korla at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains.When we parted in Korla, our team was complained as the easiest team, because the other two teams went directly to the center of the desert, with no village in front and no shop in the back, and there was a large national road next to our route, which divided the main area of ​​Taklamakan The area where Lop Nur and the ancient cities of Loulan are located.Our route will meander along that national road, leaving Yuli, the last civilized village, passing through some large salt marshes, crossing the blue Tarim River with only a few scattered puddles due to seasonal problems, and entering the Tarim Nature Reserve.

There should also be a "desert highway" running through the desert near the road that Huang Kun and the others took, but the degree of maintenance of that road is unknown, and passengers often disappear inexplicably on the road.It is conceivable how dangerous the environment they are facing.

Surprisingly, there are a lot of natives stationed on the desert frontier.They are porters, who can bring great convenience to tourists in need, and some even lead tall wild camels.We avoided these people and also avoided the orthodox desert roads.

I attach here a crude map.

The reason why I want to write all this down is because the geographical location is really strange, and we are not taking the orthodox road to avoid suspicion (the convoy driving out is really cool), and there are naturally no signs on the road.When Liao Xiaodan said in the front seat that we had entered the protected area, I didn't feel it at all, because I didn't see any signs of the protected area, not even a fence.She has a GPS in her hand, and she doesn't know if it will work.

The Taklimakan is surrounded by highlands on three sides, and between the desert and the mountains is a sloping lowland made of pebble debris deposits. The shells of several jeeps were dirty and worn out in a short time.Relying on the high chassis, the jeep is on the road anyway, regardless of whether there is a road or not.

After leaving Huang Kun, Li Zhen was in a low mood, but his eyes lit up when he saw the car, and he repeatedly asked the driver uncle to relieve his itchy hands, and he did everything he could to give him cigarettes and hit his back.He was so desperate to drive that the two specialists threw up three times.Later, at our unanimous request, the driver uncle kicked Li Zhen away.

We set off on the first morning before the sun was up.The weather was fine that day, with almost no wind, and the rising sand dunes around them showed no tendency to move.Liao Xiaodan showed a rare expression of satisfaction.

Misfortune always comes.

People often post some posts on the Internet recording the so-called trekking across the Taklimakan, making a big news, which is very awesome.In fact, these so-called crossings are just a circle around the edge of the desert, because on most maps, the middle of the Tarim Basin is empty and there is nothing, even guides and porters.The place where the national highway really crosses is a location specially designated for the convenience of the West-East Gas Pipeline, not the center of the desert.

Once in the desert, a lot of problems arise.It is impossible for a car to drive in without limit, and there is nothing you can do when you reach the place within ten meters of the sand dunes, and the rest of the road must be completed on foot.We didn't rent a camel team, because that would mean hiring someone to handle the camels, which would be very troublesome.Even if we rode a camel to that unknown destination, there is no wooden stake in the desert to tie the camel to you, and our equipment is as light as possible without the help of a camel.

One day later, the car couldn't go anymore, we slept in the jeepney for one night, and parted ways with the uncle who was driving the next day.We took our gear down, all with a faint sadness.The original plan was to set up another garrison line here, but then the delivery of materials would be delayed, so the arrangement was that the uncle would drive here every day, and drive back to Korla at sunset to receive any information or personnel or needs.

The equipment is said to be very streamlined.I think that after receiving Li Zhen's training, I have a well-proportioned body and good health. Even so, it is not easy to carry the equipment on my back.The sandy ground was difficult to walk on, and everyone wore jackets and goggles, as if digging out a hornet's nest with righteousness.In the whole team, there should be only two muscular German men who can easily carry the equipment on their backs, and they are determined to help Yenia share things.I think they are really courteous in serving tea and water.Helpless, Yenia was cold and unmoved by the invitation.

Another frustrating thing is that we underestimate how dry the climate is.I saw that Liao Xiaodan and the others were carrying big jars of skin care products, and they had a macho attitude of contempt. Seeing that Li Zhen also brought a lot of them, we even sneered at him. As a result, on the first day we collectively found out that we were forced to take them. A little bit of body lotion is not even a fraction of the price.As long as the skin is outside for more than ten minutes, it will start to shed its skin. The feeling is like sitting on a 30-hour plane.One of the Germans, Simon, had the most deplorable nose condition.

We collectively asked Liao Xiaodan to give us some charity.

We were laughed at.

It happened the next day.

We chose to march at dawn and evening, and slept at noon, so the surrounding area was always gray, and we couldn't tell the difference between morning and evening.

Two elusive warrior comrades walked at the back and didn't communicate much with us.We lined up in front, Liao Xiaodan and a German named Andreas knew where to go, one led the team and the other opened the way, while Li Zhen was unorganized and disciplined and didn't know the importance of orderliness, running around alone, like An asteroid with a strange orbit.But thanks to his sharp eyes, he discovered what was under the sand.

Everyone surrounded the mine, stood far away, and looked at each other.Most people do not have any knowledge of demining, let alone demining equipment.Although Li Zhen likes to show off his IQ in front of me, he also admits that he has no research on landmines.But he said that when he was a child, he smashed guns, played with bullets, and crushed pickles with cannonballs.No matter how dangerous things are, there is no less handsome guy in the world, so the explosives will not do anything to him.

He dug the mine out of the sand and carried it directly in his arms.

Therefore, people are shameless and invincible, and land mines dare not trouble you.

Different mines have different blasting principles.In the movie, those who step on it and don’t explode, but lift their feet to explode are Songfalei. As long as they step on Songfalei, as long as they have not loosened their feet, in a sense it means "the living will not be suffocated by feces and urine", you can always think Find a way, so there are often plots of dismantling and releasing landmines on the screen.The variety differentiation of landmines appeared a long time ago. There are many kinds of landmines that trip the mine, press the mine, or even re-explode the mine.Today's smart mines can calculate the number and density of infantry on a certain unit area, and then detonate when the lethality is the greatest.

There are no markings on the mines.Comrade fighters recognized it and said that no matter how you look at it, it is a landmine from the middle of the last century or before, and it is a heavy-pressure landmine and anti-tank, but they have never seen the exact same type.The fuse of the mine had been removed, so Li Zhen casually threw the mine aside, and was scolded by Liao Xiaodan.

Xu Jin was very courageous, went to the nearby and squatted down to study, and finally pinched a device on it with her hand and asked what it was.

Everyone studied for a while without any results, but she seemed to think of something, and found a flat ground where the mine was discovered just now and started digging.

This is where we found the chain minefields.

Except for the place blocked by the sand dunes, we dug the nearby sand and found that there is a mine every three to five meters underground, and all the fuzes have been removed.The minefields spread beneath our feet, and the extent of the area covered was unknown.Judging from the weight and shape of these chain mines, such a dense arrangement is simply unnecessary.

Xu Jin said that this is a suspicious point, because it is meaningless to plant mines in the desert, the dunes will move and bury them all to the bottom.

"Maybe it's something under the sand." Geologist Ma Zhonglin said. "The fluid desert sand can allow larger things to move underneath."

Everyone jumped.Ma Zhonglin is one of the two experts accompanying the team. This guy is very unreal, and his speech is also very unpleasant.

"The chain cannon blows up all at once, single use," said Jania, crossing her arms after I explained the situation, "so it can't be to prevent something from moving, it seems to me like Turning the area upside down with an explosion might blow up something. But if that's the case, why use landmines?"

While everyone was discussing, someone bumped into me, and I looked back, but I didn't see anyone.That's when I realized the zippers on the pockets of my jacket were open.Reflexively, I reached into my pocket to check my survival kit and found a note.

I took out the note, opened it and saw the words written on it:

"□□, she is very wrong."

The note was written in Russian.I put it away and looked up, and Yenia was squatting on the ground in the distance to study landmines with another expert Gu Zhiming and Director Gu. This note must have been written by her—I have seen her notes, but because of the distance , it must not have been passed on to me by her.

Thinking about it carefully, this matter contains more doubts than I discovered at the time.

The notebook certainly seemed to belong to Genia.She usually writes some stories and essays in a small notebook. I have read it, but this does not mean that I can completely write down her notes. As long as the imitation is very similar, I can't tell the difference at all, but I didn't suspect it at the time, it was one.

Second, Genia is a very complicated person.Most people (including me) have an inescapable stereotype that pretty young women with blond hair and blue eyes usually have big breasts and no brains, while Jania, on the contrary, is a rather intelligent woman.This kind of intelligence is different from Liao Xiaodan's leanness, but a kind of intuitive wisdom.She was very low-key, she was the only Russian here, she had her own status and tasks, which I was also aware of at the time.But I didn't think her rank was enough at that time, and I didn't fully estimate her ability correctly.

The third, which was the most important point to me at the time, was that if this note was written by her, who passed it to me.The person who passed the note to me was probably her accomplice, which shows that there are factional disputes in this small team.Or maybe Genia wrote this note, which wasn't addressed to me, but maybe it was intercepted or discovered, and then someone wanted me to know about it and slipped it to me.There are so many possibilities, it can be imagined endlessly.

Fourth, assuming that this note was indeed sent to me by Genia, who is this "woman" referring to?There were only 3 women in the team, and Yenia would definitely not point at herself, so only Liao Xiaodan and Xu Jin were left—it was impossible for her to point at Li Zhen.

Liao Xiaodan is a cruel woman, but at times like this, I believe her instead.Because Xu Jin is unpredictable, while Liao Xiaodan is more straightforward.Although she kicked me, she is the leader of the team after all, and she can gain Huang Kun's trust.

Then only Xu Jin was left.

I felt an indescribable weirdness. If my fate was arranged before and I couldn't control it, then the existence of this note indicates that things have changed, but I can't see the clue .

I thought of the phrase "take care" that Huang Kun said.I know that there are many secrets buried in his heart. He and Li Zhen may know the most among all the people here, but Li Zhen still accompanies us here to play treasures and mines.

Everything people do has a purpose.I knew I had to start acting spontaneously.However, I didn't know at that time that my "spontaneous actions" were also calculated and specially triggered.

After seeing the landmines, Liao Xiaodan ordered Xu Jin to record the information, and Gu Dao and Ma Zhonglin took a moment to take pictures of the situation in the sand with their cameras.As soon as they finished, the wind picked up all around.Although the wind was not strong, the mines were buried again within 10 minutes.

We picked up our gear and continued to move forward, the atmosphere became oppressive.Two armed policemen told us that there might be other thunderbolts in front of us, which might explode when we stepped on them. They were leading the way with Liao Xiaodan and asked us to follow them.But in the desert, their footprints were filled in a short time, and we just followed our feelings. We were a little nervous at first, but then we became numb.

Li Zhen didn't get along well with the armed police.Reading between the lines, I learned that he seemed to have been a prisoner. Although he was released on bail a day later, he still despised all the notes—this may be one of the reasons why he and Huang Kun didn't get along well.Li Zhen's mouth is already cheap, and it's even less pleasant when talking to them.

After walking for two hours, the sky gradually brightened and the temperature began to rise, so we decided to prepare for a rest.Ma Zhonglin majored in natural environment, and Gu Dao majored in history. They told us a little about the archaeological knowledge of Tarim, but it was not interesting.

Xu Jin thought for a while, and then told everyone a story she heard in school:

Legend has it that a long time ago, the local people were eager to attract snow water from Tianshan and Kunlun Mountains to irrigate the arid Tarim Basin. A benevolent fairy had two treasures, one was a golden ax and the other was a golden key.Moved by the sincerity of the people, the gods gave the golden ax to the Kazakhs to split the Altai Mountains to attract clear snow water; and the golden keys to the Uighurs to open the treasure house in the Tarim Basin.Unfortunately, the golden key was lost by the fairy's young daughter Margesa, and the center of the basin became the Taklamakan Desert from then on.

It's a pity that Andreas and Simon couldn't understand the subtle beauty in Chinese mythology. Andreas said that he wanted to speak a more serious one, so I translated it for him.Like the story told by Huang Kun, this story is also quite weird, so I recorded it for fun.

"I was an exchange student in the United States for two semesters in college. At that time, I was jokingly called the 'son of Satan'. Because I was born on June 666. [-] is a very unlucky number. Most of my American classmates do not believe in religion. Although I I'm German, and I get along well with them. My three classmates who are better at fun often travel together in a dilapidated old car. This happened when I was traveling with them. .

"It's also a story about the desert. We were driving across the vast, rose-colored sands of New Mexico. I know you're probably thinking of 'The Hills Have Eyes': the car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, and we We got off the car and asked for help separately, but were rounded up and killed by the cannibal tribe lurking in the local mountains, and our beautiful female classmates were forced to reproduce for the cannibals.

“That’s not quite the truth. We never took a shortcut off the highway, but planned ahead, followed the map, and made sure we ended up in a town that wasn’t too sparsely populated every night. We stayed every night. Every small town will make adequate preparations for the next journey, replenish food and water, refuel, and buy necessities for the journey. Of course, wine will also be prepared.”

"While crossing the desert, we found a road curve with beautiful scenery on both sides, so we parked the car on the side of the road and went down to take pictures. When we got back to the car, we found that the vodka and beer on our seats were gone. .Someone used red spray paint to paint the three numbers 666 on the back cover of our car. We thought it was maliciously done by passing tourists, so although we were very angry, we didn't care.

"At noon, we came to a small town in the desert. The gas station is self-service, and there are no people. There are many cars parked in the gas station, some of which are still new, but there are no people inside. This town is not on the map. It was marked, and the economy seemed to be doing well. There were many shops and residential buildings, but unfortunately they were all closed. There was no one on the street, and the curtains of every house were tightly drawn. We parked the car on the side of the road, We went down and wandered around. Because it was Sunday, we suspected that this was a small town with a strong religious atmosphere, and people in the town were all active in the church.

"However, when we passed the church, we found that the door plate of the church was gilded with three big characters 666. The door of the church was locked, and the smell of rotting flesh wafted from inside. This made us feel very ominous.

"We drove out of town at dusk. My friend who was sitting in the back seat with me patted me as we left. I saw through the rear window a group of dense black shadows converging on the exit of the town. They It looks like a human being, but the neck and limbs are extremely slender. Fortunately, we didn't say anything at the time, otherwise if a friend who was driving saw us, we might have a car accident, and we can't tell what happened afterwards.

"That night we came to the city where we lived that day. After entering the youth hostel, we asked the boss about the strange town. The boss said that he didn't know what kind of town there was, only that frequent travelers disappeared there at night. The police suspected It was the tourist who was not familiar with the terrain of the desert and got lost. We told him what we saw, and he drew a cross and told us that we saw a vampire. We didn't believe it. But after asking all the locals, they all That's what it says.

"So you really think that you passed through a town of vampires, and the residents were sleeping during the day, but came out to act like us at night?" Liao Xiaodan asked.

"Why is it impossible?" Andreas picked up the heart box pendant with a cross carved on his chest. "I took my mother's necklace when I went back to Germany, and I've been religious ever since."

"Then you can still come here." Liao Xiaodan sneered.

"Leader, it's fun." Andreas patted her.

I was a little puzzled, but didn't say anything.Xu Jin had fallen asleep a long time ago, when her head hit me with a thud.