Chapter 39 Thirty-eight caissons

In some large dams built by the Japanese in the 1930s and 1940s—such as Xiaofengman on the Songhua River, the generator sets are located about ten meters underwater, and a special elevator is required to reach the technical layer of the generator , this device called "caisson" is also used to transport large motor parts during the construction of the dam. Generally, it will be removed when the dam test is completed. If it is not removed, it will always be used for maintenance to reach the bottom of the dam. The only channel used. In my mind, only this kind of giant elevator is completely sheathed in iron sheets, its outer walls are square concrete vertical pipes, and the inner walls are covered with iron sheets reinforced with steel bars.

This kind of elevator is generally not used for flood discharge, because during flood discharge, the bottom of the entire dam is completely soaked in water, and it is useless to descend below, but when I saw this iron cabin at the time, I suddenly realized that it would No, this iron cabin is welded to this huge elevator. When we entered, the iron wall was actually the entrance of the elevator. After we entered the iron cabin, we actually entered the platform of the elevator. Thinking of this, I suddenly became enlightened, and suddenly remembered a lot of things—I thought it was the sound of the dam being pressurized in the iron cabin, and various strange noises. Thinking about it now, it feels wrong, it seems It's the sound of wheels and rails rubbing against each other. Could it be that the platform moved after we entered it?

Now I heard the sound of water outside the iron cabin again, and I thought to myself, did someone start the elevator during the time we entered the iron cabin?Without knowing it, we have fallen to the bottom of the dam? This is just my speculation. After thinking about it, I feel ridiculous. If it is true, why didn't I feel it at all?But in retrospect, the situation at that time was so chaotic, if I think it is absolutely impossible to be what I thought, I am not sure. Another reason why I think I might be right: I think, if this is the case, then there is an extremely reasonable explanation for the sudden disappearance of Yuan Xile and Chen Luohu.

My attention turned to a corner in the iron cabin, which I had never paid attention to during the panic just now, and I was a little surprised at this moment, why I didn't think of this place at all just now, in fact, This place is the most likely place for people to disappear, far more likely than that lunch box-like ventilation duct. This corner is the air-lock door of the iron cabin, which is the door we came in. I walked to the door and looked at the hole in the window. It was dark outside the window, and a little light could be seen vaguely. Now it seems that it does not come in from the outside, but the reflection of our flashlight. The overall situation seems to be the same. Same as when we first came here.

I stared at the door and was stunned. My idea is very simple: the reason why we didn't think about this door at all is because we thought that there was a terrible poisonous gas outside this door. Therefore, if Yuan Xile and Chen Luohu went out through this door, not only would they Death, we will definitely be implicated, that is to say, as long as the door is opened, whether it is smell or poison gas intrusion, we will definitely find out.So since none of us died, the door definitely never opened. However, according to what I just thought, if the iron cabin we were in had sunk to the bottom of the dam without knowing it, then there might not be poisonous gas outside, so when the emergency light went out just now, Yuan Xile was perfectly fine. Opening this door to go out in the dark is the same for Chen Luohu.

None of us paid attention to the direction of the door at the time. Although it sounds a bit weird, it is completely possible in theory, or it is the only possible explanation now. The question is, is my premise correct, that there is no poisonous gas behind the door? I told the deputy squad leader and Ma Zaihai my thoughts intact. Ma Zaihai immediately shook his head and said it was impossible. In his opinion, this kind of statement has too many flaws. It is impossible for the people in this iron cabin to not feel it.Moreover, how could Yuan Xile accurately locate the door in the dark? Why couldn't we hear the sound of the door opening?The deputy squad leader bowed his head and said nothing, but he obviously agreed with Ma Zaihai's opinion from his expression.

This is something I didn't think of, I thought about it, and I said it was indeed the case. In fact, if I restore the whole process, I will find that there are still some parts that are difficult to explain. First, as Ma Zaihai said, how Yuan Xile clearly knew the position of the door in the dark, and then it can be derived , how she avoided all the chaotic hands and feet in the dark, and passed by us without a sound, and she is not a cat. This is an antithesis, that is to say, on the premise that we think that the darkness blinded us and let Yuan Xile go, we must explain how Yuan Xile solved the same problem?

However, this seems to be an unsolvable problem, but after looking at the layout of the entire iron cabin, I found that this problem is actually very simple, because in the center of the entire iron cabin, there is a long strip of iron sheet welded dead Desk. On the table were messy papers and unidentifiable fragments we made, but it was very obvious that one end of the table was the corner where Yuan Xile curled up, and the other end was the airlock door. I will not climb onto this table. At that time, as long as I stepped on this table, I could reach the air-closed door very quickly. And Chen Luohu is easier to explain, after all, all our attention was in the ventilation duct at that time.

But after Ma Zaihai listened to my explanation, he went to look at the iron table, only to find that the whole iron cabin was in such a mess that it could not be restored.That said, my thoughts have no practical basis at all. The three of us stared at each other, feeling a bit at a loss for a while. Thinking about it now, what I said at the time actually did not relieve our tension, but added a lot of irritability to the few of us, because it was true that my words had already affected them at that time, and they began to waver, but in this way, our current The situation has become a situation that is likely to be a cocoon, and the situation behind the black iron gate has become a huge nightmare.

If there is really no poisonous gas as I said, then we should open the air-closed door without hesitation to see what the space at the bottom of the dam is like, and where Yuan Xile and Chen Luohu went up? But if I'm wrong, isn't it suicide if we open this door? At that time, thinking about these crazy things, all three of them looked at the iron gate with very complicated expressions. The following period of time can be said to be spent in a kind of mental torment, because the most frustrating development is no development. We are in the iron cabin, time goes by little by little, and the hunger is getting worse. It became more and more intense, and we had no choice but to urinate and defecate in the corner, and the stench was suffocating. In such an environment, everything around us seemed to be completely frozen for eternity.

No one brought it up, what should I do next?Everyone is looking at the door. In fact, we know that when we open this door, we will find the answer to the current question. This is actually a struggle between materialism and idealism. It depends on which side we choose. As a devout Communist Party member and PLA officer at that time, our choice at that time should be very clear, but in fact, the anxiety at that time was It's not any less than ordinary people, but there is a kind of complicated emotion mixed in it. In this way, you may not be able to understand our distress, because purely from the perspective of a few men, especially children from poor families from the peasant class like us, staying in a closed space that smells of feces and urine for several hours , and hungry.It's actually not that big of a deal. This is indeed the case. If there is a deadline for this matter, such as one day, or one week, I don't think it is difficult. What's more, such a thing is also called a task, which is more difficult than dragging it to India. It's much easier to go to war. But in fact, what makes me feel on pins and needles is that our predicament here is indefinite, which means that as long as you don't open that door, it will continue until we die. This is really going to make people crazy, thinking about it makes me feel like my pores are going to explode, and it is very rare for me to be so irritable, and it has almost never happened before. We discussed at first, then fidgeted, stayed quiet for a while, and then got agitated for a while. Ma Zaihai and I took turns to look at the hole window, touch the iron wall, and do many meaningless things.The deputy squad leader sat there with his eyes closed, not knowing what he was thinking about. We made this suffocating irritability and decision-making for seven hours. In the end, the deputy squad leader stood up suddenly, walked to the edge of the airlock door, and grabbed the roulette latch.Then start screwing it out. I still remember the expression of the deputy squad leader at that time clearly. I really want to describe it as a calm and calm revolutionary fearless spirit, but in fact, I know that he, like us, has reached the limit of his psychological endurance. Those who came down were used to seeing life and death, and it was easier to make decisions at certain junctures, so he was the first to make a choice. The roulette latch was half bent, and we had just realized that he wanted to open the door. I did a rather useless thing and tried to rush up and hug him to stop him, but before I could move, the deputy squad leader stopped by himself. With a calm expression on his face, he turned his head and waved at us, telling us to lean against the inner wall, and if something went wrong, he could close the door right away. Ma Zaihai insisted on staying with him. The deputy squad leader said that this was the difference between being on the battlefield and not being on the battlefield. Anyone who has been on the battlefield knew that he would not do things that would lead him to death for nothing, because Survival is valuable to the motherland.Ma Zaihai didn't listen and was held back by me. The deputy squad leader got annoyed later and scolded him to stop making noise, so Ma Zaihai calmed down. He and I retreated to the inner wall, looked at the deputy squad leader, and saw him take a deep breath, almost without hesitation, he slammed the latch, and there was a rather slight "creak" sound from the inside of the door, and the door was air-closed The surroundings suddenly shrank, and the door quietly opened a gap. In fact, I was not ready yet, and my whole body was shocked at that moment. At that moment, the three of them froze, as if time had frozen, and my mind was blank. However, nothing seemed to happen, and everything was the same as before the door was opened. I held my breath and waited for a long time, and found that it really seemed to be all right, and suddenly realized that my thoughts were right. I breathed a sigh of relief, and Ma Zaihai and the deputy squad leader at the door also breathed a sigh of relief. Just as I was about to say thank you, the deputy squad leader suddenly let go and fell limp on the ground, and then the door was mostly opened to him. .As soon as I was startled, I saw a turbulent mist pouring into the iron cabin in an instant. My head buzzed, and my heart said that my life was over. At that moment, from behind the half-closed air-closed door, what I saw was a deep darkness, thick mist poured in quickly from the darkness, and then diverged, as if a huge mollusk was invading this place. Iron compartment. My nerves were stretched to the limit all of a sudden, and there was only one thought in my mind, which was that I was doomed, and there was no way to retreat from the cold iron wall behind me. Maybe give me more time, I will still feel regret and anger, because I have no basis for inferences, and suddenly pushed myself and my comrades into such a situation where there is no life, and the fear in the last few seconds is far away. Far greater than the damage caused by the final death, I should slap myself hard, and then scratch my scalp. However, there was no such time at all, only within ten seconds after I realized that something was wrong, the influx of fog was already in front of me. At that time, Ma Zaihai rushed into the thick fog and seemed to want to help the deputy squad leader. I knew it was futile. To live even a second longer. It was also in vain, I smelled a cold smell, and then I was wrapped in fog.