Chapter 6 Chapter 5 Misty Forest

As soon as I heard this, I immediately became anxious. This is not a joke. In the dense forests of the mountains, the map is not very useful. The guide is simply our eyes. Without a guide, it is basically the same as a blind person.But the words that came out of his mouth at this moment really made me angry. We are not here to visit the mountains and rivers. We have already hit the board and dropped the hammer before this. Why did we change our mind overnight? up? I was quite disgusted and said: "How come your package ticket can be eaten on weekdays? You made a big turn in just one day!" After I finished speaking, I threw the remaining half of the cigarette on the ground and stomped hard on the ground. Said: "How much do you want to add, don't beat around the bush!"

"Boss, I know you are all 'banza' (clean and neat) people! But it's not about money, something has changed now, I'm really not familiar with the route you're going to take!" Seeing that my face changed again, Ah Hai hurriedly continued to explain: "Yes, I promised to take you on the mountain road yesterday. I am familiar with that route. But..." He pointed to the sky on the top, and said: "It's the rainy season now, and the heavy rain doesn't fall every day or two. The mountain road is not easy to walk, it's easy to get lost, and there are frequent landslides, which is very dangerous. And even if there is no heavy rain, the jungle route is not a good road. To put it bluntly To put it bluntly, I don't have to risk my life for your money, and bosses, you have to consider your own safety, don't you?"

When I heard this, my first feeling was that this guy was afraid of trouble and wanted to take the opportunity to evade, but after thinking about it, this kind of situation does exist.Less than ten miles further, it is the dense forest of Mangshan Mountain that runs through the entire southwest of Yunnan. Miasma is pervasive and poisonous insects breed. The deeper it goes, the more dangerous it is. The harshness of the environment is unimaginable.When I came here, I was really worried about this problem. Can we people who have been scrambling in the city all day can withstand the toss of this subtropical jungle?

I asked Ah Hai if there was any other way, and emphasized to him that the project we were handling was extremely important and could not be delayed for a moment, and he had to be responsible for our itinerary. There are still ways to return to Ahai. Now that the rainy season is coming, many small tributaries in the lower reaches of the Gulie River (the local name for the Salween River) are rising and flowing towards it continuously.The Shepan River is one of them. With the help of boats, you can go down the Shepan River, bypass the Gaoligong Mountains extending southward and go deep into the jungle.Although the journey is nearly twice as far in this way, the speed of going down the river is much faster than going over the mountains, and it is much easier for people.The only problem is that there are many tributaries of the Salween River, and there are dozens of them in the downstream, and the water potential is very unstable. Moreover, this waterway is even more unfamiliar to us. Without a guide, it is very likely that we will be trapped in the jungle and run out of food and ammunition. danger.

Faced with my new worries, Ah Hai patted his chest and said that he would be responsible for finding a boat and a new guide, and he would not ask us for a dime if the matter was not handled quickly. I can do that. This guy seems to be a bit guilty and meritorious, and the efficiency is quite high. Two days later, we received a notice from Ah Hai, saying that everything was ready.Our car is a second-hand wooden boat, which was taken over from a local boat runner. Apart from being able to barely shelter from the wind and rain, the whole boat has no obvious advantages at first glance. Not to mention the guide, just a dull-headed guy in his early twenties, who didn't say a word, only answered vaguely when asked, grinning, and looked honest and silly, quite like a villager. The demeanor of a mentally handicapped teenager.

Seeing our skeptical eyes, Ah Hai specially emphasized that this kid, Ah Dong, is absolutely reliable, he is honest in his work and has no bad intentions, despite his dull appearance, he is actually very careful, with him there is absolutely no problem. After getting along for a few days, I have already noticed that Ah Hai is a slippery head, and his deceit is obviously not satisfying to me, so I strongly urge him to change.Ah Hai complained and evaded several times, but was finally forced into a hurry, and said helplessly: "Oh! I won't hide it from you, but the place you are going to is a large area of ​​no-man's land, and the whole village depends on you guys to pass by. The God of Wealth eats an stable meal, and no one dares to go there except Ah Dong! You don’t think that A Dong is young, but he has been traveling to Myanmar for seven or eight years. No one is more respectful than him. You can rest assured!"

When things got to this point, there was nothing we could do. Once a few people made up their minds, it was barely worth the effort.The things we asked Ah Hai to prepare were in order: enough diesel engine oil, gas masks, archaeological exploration shovels, detonators and explosives... The most important thing was to get two 54-style pistols and a long-barreled double-barreled shotgun.This place is already close to the territory of Myanmar, and there are many casinos in the border area. There are also many underground money houses and many black markets that can provide gun transactions. As long as the relationship is strong, buying a gun is as easy as buying a condom.

The group set off from the Shepan River Ferry three miles away at three o'clock in the afternoon and went down the river.In addition to the previous few people and the guide A Dong, the woman named Sheng Nan was also in the team. I don't know if she accepted Long Shao's offer or what. Although this woman made me very worried, but She knows almost everything about our current whereabouts, and her origin is unknown, so it would be foolish to let her go. In the cross-examination of the previous few people, she admitted her identity. The ancient tomb with the white-haired corpse on the mountain behind the village was the one she hired a few villagers to rob with a lot of money.And then that bastard named Sanwang was greedy, complained about the uneven distribution of spoils, and stole the vanity mirror she stole from the corpse's tomb. As a result, he encountered an unexpected terrorist incident and died tragically at home.Katsuo explained that he was bitten to death by a ferocious wild cat called ghost lynx. This kind of wild cat is called "Night Demon" in the local area because of its ferocious appearance, and it is widely rumored that this thing is the illusion of a starved ghost. It is formed, and it can turn into a human form at night, and it is good at eating people's five internal organs.

I don't know if this is true or not, and I can't figure out whether there is a necessary connection between the ghost lynx and the vanity mirror, but when I think of the tragic scene of gut-piercing, I feel that the mirror is a scourge, and it makes me feel safe even if it is around us. a sense of insecurity. Fortunately, the itinerary in the afternoon was quite smooth, because the Snake Pan River is twisted and twisted, with nine bends and eighteen bends, so we are now driving in the opposite direction to the destination.From A Dong’s mouth, we learned that the twisted degree of this section of the river is relatively large, but it is quite peaceful and the water potential is stable. After passing through three bays in a row, the meandering of the river channel will be much gentler, but the water potential will be relatively faster. Moreover, there are almost no people walking in that place, dense forests are overgrown, and sometimes rocks, big trees, etc. will collapse and block the river.

If we encounter this kind of situation, we can only admit that we are unlucky, and then turn back and go around the other forks of the Shepan River. After leaving, we are all a little anxious, and now we can only hope for God's blessing. We saw that A Dong was serious in his work, and the boat sailed very smoothly, taking care of our feelings.The night in the jungle came very quickly, and the torrential rain became more and more violent at this time. There were waves of rain and fog on the river, and the visibility was very poor.Not far from Adong Road is a very dangerous big bay, the current is very fast, and the visibility is not good now, so it is a bit reluctant to go through it smoothly.For the sake of safety, Young Master Long ordered Ah Dong to stop the boat for the time being and wait for the rain to slow down before leaving. Several people took advantage of this gap and gathered around the simple square table to settle the dinner by the way.

A Dong said very little, basically we didn't ask him, or when we were joking together, he kept giggling.But he is a guide, and we always have a lot of questions to pester him endlessly. Under our pestering, he gradually became more talkative, telling us some of his experience in western Yunnan. Adong has a quarter of Burmese blood. His grandfather was Chinese and was a junior officer in the Second Division of the Kuomintang. His grandmother was a Burmese woman in the "International Corps", a mercenary army of the Burmese government in World War II. soldier.When the Second Division of the National Army smashed the "International Legion", many female soldiers were captured. A Dong's grandmother married his grandfather after being captured.Adong's father and uncle both went to Taiwan to make a living as adults, but they were discriminated against and finally couldn't stand it anymore and returned to the border area.Both of A Dong's parents died young. At that time, there were no roads in the mountains, and the transportation of materials to and from largely relied on waterways, so he started sailing with his uncle when he was nine years old. Along the Snake Pan River and deep into the Salween River, and then stretching northeastward to the Savage Mountain, it is an endless no-man's land. Whether it is the glory of ancient times or the hail of bullets in modern times, it is all covered by the mountains and mountains that have existed for hundreds of millions of years. Buried by the long river of history, only countless bizarre legends remain.Rumor has it that this place is outside the Three Realms, and even the devil Buddha dare not accept it. It is a terrifying place of nothingness. The rain crackled on the window panes, and it was dark all around. With the help of the searchlights on the ship, we could barely see the dense forests on both sides of the river and the light blue mist.The edge of the cabin and the bottom of the boat can be heard from time to time. There are knocking sounds and vibrations. In this case, anyone will think that it is a water ghost who has come to lift the board. Fortunately, Adong told us that it is a toothpick. The fish are playing tricks. It’s raining heavily and the bottom of the water is cloudy. These things keep jumping out of the water to breathe. As long as they stay on the boat, they are safe, but if they accidentally fall into the river, they will become skeletons in less than ten minutes. . According to A Dong's estimation, we have to have at least three days of water travel, and it may take longer to encounter this kind of continuous rainstorm, and it will be even more difficult if the river is blocked again.But the so-called man is not as good as heaven, this kind of thing is beyond our control, so we simply don't think about it. The rain showed no signs of stopping, and today's itinerary probably ended here. We each sorted out the materials at hand, and then we felt sleepy.This boat has two cabins, inside and outside. The inside cabin is airtight and raintight, and I gave it to the woman. Our group squeezed into the spacious and messy outside cabin, which not only reflects the gentleman's demeanor, but also prevents the woman from cheating at night. . A Dong said that he was used to driving night boats, and became a night owl. He couldn’t sleep at night, so he might as well help us watch the night. Ying Ge can sail the boat anyway, and he will replace him during the day. Besides, in the wild, the group sleeps like death Pigs are dangerous things.At this time, we were all extremely sleepy, and I didn’t take it seriously when he said this, and fell asleep on the hard ship plank wrapped in a blanket, which was even more comfortable than sleeping on Simmons. I don't know how long I slept, but I woke up with a stomachache in the middle of the night. I have eaten too much official food in these years, and the wild game in the border area is really unbearable.I couldn't bear it anymore, so I had to tiptoe up and carefully ran to the simple toilet at the stern to squat in the pit. After a lot of shaking, my stomach finally felt refreshed, but the sleepiness also disappeared.I carefully touched the driver's cab, intending to chat with A Dong to entertain the boredom. Just when I was about to knock on the door and enter, the scene in front of me shocked me greatly!