Twenty warriors were divided into groups of two, with nine groups holding ordinary Luoyang shovels with wooden handles, and the strongest two holding Luoyang shovels with metal handles.
"Remember, when operating in the pit, always pay attention to any abnormal changes in the excavated soil. Let me tell you, if you see that the excavated soil is white, we have really found a salt mine!" Yang Mingzhi said earnestly.
After some explanation, a new round of excavation work began.
Bielski was awakened by the noise. He didn't sleep well that night because the energetic soldiers were digging until two o'clock in the morning under the illumination of kerosene lamps! It was a pity that they were so busy so late.
No salt deposits were found.
The commander urgently went back to make new tools. After he regained consciousness, he glanced at the construction site a few times, rubbed his sleep and woke up, and saw clearly that the commander had returned.
I saw the commander standing on the dark dirt, with his hands behind his back and his waist bent, looking directly at the largest and deepest pit.
Throughout the whole day yesterday, the focus of the excavation was to keep expanding the pit dug by Bielski. The soldiers worked for a long time and finally dug four meters underground. In order to prevent the people in the pit from being deprived of oxygen, the soldiers also kept expanding the scope of the pit to
In a sense, Tukang looks like a crater blown out by a 500 kilogram aerial bomb!
Belski was not having breakfast. He wandered over and couldn't help but walk to the commander's side.
"Report...report to the commander! Reporter Bielski reports to you."
"You look very tired. I don't mind if you continue to rest."
"No! I have to work hard. I can't miss today's digging work. I think I should go down to this pit. After all, I am the one who started digging."
"You can continue to wait and see." Yang Mingzhi pointed casually, "The new tools have been put into use, we will wait and see."
The pit is already four meters deep, and the soil is already hardened sludge. It has to be said that it is becoming more and more difficult to dig downward.
The newly built Luoyang shovel head is sharper and slightly curved inward. This shape ensures that the soil can be brought out smoothly.
Harder soil also has the advantage that the cave will not collapse and there will be no signs of water seepage.
Only twenty minutes had passed since the excavation, and the Luoyang shovel had already dug two meters in. The soldier did not pull out the shovel handle, but attached a spare metal rod to the end, tightened the screw and continued digging downward.
The excavated soil was not piled up in a haphazard manner. Yang Mingzhi thought of Antarctic ice core drilling and ordered the excavated soil to be sent to the ground and placed straight for research.
In Pripet Swamp, silt has accumulated continuously for thousands of years, and the humus of reeds and mugwort stalks has accumulated thicker and thicker. They gradually coalify layer by layer and hide the treasures on the ground.
The digging Luoyang shovel seemed to have opened the door to time and space. After an hour of non-stop digging, it had dug down thirteen meters, and the soil taken out could no longer be called soil.
This black material is a bit like coal, with more salt crystal particles in it.
Pulling out the Luoyang shovel from a 13-meter-deep exploration cave is already a laborious task! Because the metal handle is only 13 meters long, it is already very heavy!
Yang Mingzhi did not stop Bielski this time. He worried five more soldiers. There were a total of eight people in the pit, and their task was to pull out the metal handle.
It becomes increasingly difficult to continue digging, and people sweat a lot every time they dig and pull out.
It was 10:30 in the morning, and the excavation was already 17 meters. If the original depth of the pit was added, it would be 21 meters deep.
What was excavated from such a deep excavation pit was still hard mud mixed with a large amount of salt crystals. The columnar hard soil was spread flat on the ground, like the droppings left by a giant earthworm.
Yang Mingzhi said nothing on the surface, but was extremely anxious inside.
The key is that at this time, Antonov actually looked regretful: "Maybe there are no huge salt mines here, just some soil that absorbs a lot of salt. Even so, we dug out salty soil, and we have succeeded?
"
"No! If we don't dig a salt mine and see the white salt, we won't be considered successful!"
After that, Yang Mingzhi shouted into the pit: "Comrades! Keep digging, don't be discouraged! Connect all the shovel handles and dig to the deepest point. Regardless of whether there is a salt mine or not, each of you will get a
A bottle of liquor as a reward!”
Is there any better reward than alcohol? If so, it's premium cigarettes.
The promise of vodka gave them strong spiritual motivation, and the sweaty soldiers continued to handle the Luoyang shovel of terrifying length.
There were new difficulties as we continued to dig deeper. When pulling out the shovel, the shovel handle had to be temporarily unscrewed. In order to prevent the shovel head from falling into the exploration hole, someone had to hold the shovel handle firmly while unscrewing it.
In this way, every time you dig down twenty centimeters, it takes nearly ten minutes of tossing back and forth.
The time gradually reached noon, and the smell of roasted potatoes filled the huge construction site.
Thousands of soldiers gathered curiously around the pit, and a large number of refugees who were building houses came to watch with great interest, driven by curiosity.
Yang Mingzhi didn't care about the large number of people gathered. He looked at a baked potato and continued to supervise the excavation.
…
"I'm so exhausted. It's incredible how hard it is under the swamp." The sweaty Bielski kept complaining.
One soldier joked: "I heard that we live on huge rocks, and under the rocks is hot magma. If our shovels are long enough, we can dig out the rocks, and if we continue digging, we can create a volcano."
"Forget it! Semyon, you have a very rich imagination. Instead of digging out rocks, I think we have to dig out underground water first."
"Groundwater? It's really weird. We can't dig out groundwater even 20 meters deep. The place we dug is really weird. Is this... really part of the swamp?"
Bielski felt more and more that he lacked knowledge. Perhaps he studied geology in college and could immediately determine whether there were salt mines underground. Unfortunately, the Guerrilla Republic did not have such talents at all and could only rely on the commander's new skills.
Tool exploration.
After a light lunch, the excavation work continued.
Bielski could no longer care about his image. For the sake of honor and to satisfy his curiosity, he took off his shirt and continued working.
"Ready! Chisel!"
"Ready! Chisel!"
He shouted slogans, and the eight of them had been beaten countless times together. After digging all morning, he once again concluded that the shovel had dug another tube of hard soil. After struggling to pull out the shovel head, the soil was exactly the same as the one dug in the morning.
It is a mixture of hard sapropel and salt crystals.
"Come on, let's continue!"
He looked like a labor captain. Yang Mingzhi, who had been supervising him all the time, even couldn't bear it. The people in the pit looked like they were desperate, and he just stared at it?
The shovel handle was spliced again, and all eight metal handles were used. What if the salt still couldn't be dug out? Yang Mingzhi guessed that he could only suspend the operation and continue to explore the cave while ordering the arsenal to continue manufacturing metal handles. Still agreed.
Lao Maozi's proverb: A big stick sweeps away an army; if it fails, the big stick becomes thicker.
"I don't believe it. I can't find any salt deposits even if I explore fifty meters down? If that doesn't work, then one hundred meters away! Even if I dig out paleontological fossils, it won't be in vain for all my hard work!"
To be honest, Yang Mingzhi had given up hope. As the commander, he still had to travel as promised. He nodded and said: "Comrades, the eight of you continue digging. I will send a telegram to the headquarters.
I’ll prepare eight bottles of vodka for you!”
Yang Mingzhi turned around and left. The eight people in the pit were extremely excited. The onlookers talked a lot, and many people started making fun of the vodka.
It’s another round of excavation, and Bielski has transformed from a reporter into an excellent “exploration expert.”
"Comrades, get ready! Get ready! Chisel!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the Luoyang shovel with an eight-section long shovel handle clearly dug into a strange object. Yes, Bielski knew that he had hit something. The feeling of digging was completely different from the hundreds of times before.
Just like they both eat meat, the taste difference between chicken and beef is really amazing.
All eight people felt that they had struck something special. It was a somewhat soft feeling, but it was not something soft.
"Oh my God, have we finally dug a salt mine?" A soldier's guess immediately made Bielski extremely impatient.
"Quick! Pull out the damn shovel head quickly, let's see if it's all damn white salt!"
Bielski gave an order, and the eight people worked together to pull out the shovel.
Their techniques have been trained to be extremely deft, and the metal handle was lifted step by step, and the last part was finally pulled out.
Miracle, it was not absent when it was due.
The shovel was pulled out, and the eight people in the pit couldn't help but tremble when they saw the white stuff in the shovel.
Bielski felt that his heart rate had reached 120 due to excitement. He tried hard to suppress his excitement, stretched out his muddy right hand, casually picked off the white crystals from the shovel and put it into his mouth. Suddenly, there was an unbearable feeling.
The saltiness spread through the whole body, and the whole body was shaken.
He slumped to the ground as if unconscious, frightening hundreds of onlookers to think that he had eaten poison, and immediately became suspicious of the contents of the shovel.
Bielski! He's totally fine!
Suddenly, a shocking roar came from the pit: "Salt mine! We have dug a salt mine!"
The whole crowd was boiling, especially when the shovel head and its contents were brought up. After more than 20 people looked at and tasted them, the salty feeling alarmed everyone who tasted it. There were too many witnesses, and the entire construction site quickly fell into a commotion.
Yang Mingzhi had just sent a telegram to the headquarters when he heard a violent commotion in the mine. Listening carefully, there were too many "hurrahs" mixed in the violent noise.
"Ah! They succeeded?!"
Yang Mingzhi ran frantically, squeezed through the crowd, and stood by the pit with a panic look on his face.
Bielski trembled and presented the shovel: "Commander... Comrade Commander! We have verified it, and the comrades present are all witnesses. We... we can be sure that this is salt! We succeeded!"
Holding a shovelful of salt, Yang Mingzhi was not overjoyed at all. It seemed that everything was destined. From the moment he discovered the salty soil, he could dig out salt mines as long as he continued digging. All this was inevitable, but the depth of the digging
It's just a question.
But Yang Mingzhi still needs further verification.
A new round of excavation began, and after ten minutes, another tube of white salt was dug out.
Yang Mingzhi's forehead was covered with sweat. Even though he was quite calm and the whole construction site was boiling, he was eventually infected by this momentum.
After hearing the news, Fyodorov and Antonov came over and reported the good news to Yang Mingzhi in a frenzy.
After warning shots were fired, the commotion finally calmed down, but the expressions of the majority of soldiers were still ecstatic.
Of course, this kind of joy must be exploited. Yang Mingzhi straightened his body and shouted loudly: "Comrades! Our construction site is above a huge mine. Twenty-six meters! Dig down twenty-six meters, and we will
We can start digging out huge blocks of salt! Let’s dig in the ground! We’re going to build a huge mine here!”
Like a magpie flying into Shetang, Yang Mingzhi, who was completely excited, wrote a telegram himself and quickly sent it to the headquarters in Blacksmith Village. Suddenly, the entire guerrilla republic was inspired.
Salinchkin, Lyudbalev, Yevlov, Fomin, and a large number of staff officers and agency staff. White flowers of salt were dug out at the construction site, and the good news spread to various collective farms, and loudspeakers
Immediately launched propaganda in front of the military and civilians.
It is self-evident what salt means, but salt was once very precious, until superiors airdropped a batch of salt, and the pressure on the guerrilla republic to use salt was significantly relieved.
Even so, the salt rationing system is also classified in detail for the military and civilians. Those who do not perform high-intensity labor and do not sweat profusely will receive an extremely small amount of salt per week. Obviously, if the supply of salt is stable, everyone will
In theory, you can eat salt until you vomit.
Most civilians know little about salt digging, and the headquarters doesn't know much either.
Because of the seriousness of the matter, Salinchkin made an impromptu decision to go to the construction site to inspect it in person.
A jeep was running wildly on the winding dirt road. Salinchkin looked excited. He and Lyudbalev were traveling in the same car. This trip was to personally taste the salty taste of the so-called "huge underground rock salt mine".
As for Yang Mingzhi, he no longer had time to think about the response after the telegram was sent. Since the two men were coming, he just let them come.
Even the meeting to be held in a few days is not more important than the salt mine.
After the Luoyang shovel dug out the salt, it continued digging. According to the shape of the shovel head, more than ten rock salt pillars were dug out.
All the rock salt pillars were spliced together under Yang Mingzhi's instructions, with a total length of 190cm. This shows that the underground salt mine has at least more than two meters of seam. Because the Luoyang shovel continues to dig out the rock salt pillars, I am afraid there is only one clue as to how deep the seam is.
Only after the war is over can we truly understand.
The density of salt is .1 times that of water, which means that one cubic meter of salt weighs .1 ton.
Yang Mingzhi has a little understanding of geology. Considering that the construction site is near a sulfur mine, it is obvious that the formation of the salt mine must be related to the sulfur mine.
This area of Belarus was a shallow sea in long prehistory. The changes in the sea have caused the shallow sea to dry up, and the salt content has been covered by new soil layers.
Due to geological activities, a heat source uplift appeared underground in Pripet Swamp, and the uplifted Yancheng brought up rock formations buried deep underground. The heat source uplift changed the underground water network structure, so that in the core area where the salt mine is located,
There is no groundwater, but in the surrounding area, as long as a deep well is drilled, the groundwater that gushes out will have a salty taste.
It should not be a secret that brine can be dug out of some areas near the sulfur mine! But because the mining area was once uninhabited, even if someone settled, surface runoff is everywhere, and there is endless water without digging wells.
, not to mention the hot springs gushing out near the sulfur mines.
If the Guerrilla Republic had organized a large-scale well digging operation near the sulfur mine a few months ago, the secret of salt underground would not have been discovered just now. (To be continued)