Column classification: outdoor exploration cottage bandit cave;
Geographical coordinates: Tianyuan Township, Wuxi County, Chongqing;
Filming: Carmen Wanbonezhai;
Exploration members: outdoor Meng Shaojie, local villagers;
Bones
On March 12, 2023, under the leadership of our classmate's father (Uncle Ren), we went to Tianyuan Township, Wuxi County, Chongqing for a new exploration.
I heard that there is a mysterious cottage hidden under the cliff of a certain mountain, and the "cottage cave" is not the focus of this exploration, the key is that the inside of the cave is still full of white bones. At that time, there was a terrible tragedy, nearly 100 people died in the cave village, and no one has collected the bones so far, resulting in the white bones remaining in the cave village.
What happened in the cave? Why are there nearly 100 skeletons left? Who are they? And what is the cause of death?
Uncle Ren only knew the approximate location of the cottage, but he had never been there in person, so we drove there, inquired along the way and finally determined the "Ten Thousand Bone Village" (because the white bones are everywhere, so it was named Ten Thousand Bone Village. ) for the exact location.
Today's "Ten Thousand Bone Village" appearance
According to the local elders, more than 90 years ago, that is, around the 30s, in the social environment at that time, especially in remote mountain villages, bandits were rampant, causing people to have a poor life, and incidents of burning, killing and looting frequently appeared, and the tragedy of Wanbone Village was caused by evil bandits, a tragedy that led to the death of nearly 100 people was staged in the deep mountains, but no one could stop it, ordinary people were simply unable to resist the heavily armed bandits, and could only be slaughtered. In the social situation at that time, historical events that took human lives happened almost all the time, not to mention the bandits who were cruel and inhumane, they did not care about the lives and deaths of ordinary people, and murder and arson were already commonplace.
After the bandits entered the village, the local people took their valuable things and hid in a cave in Carmen, and Carmen is true to its name, naturally forming a geographical advantage of being a husband and wife, if you want to cross the mountain to reach the cottage, Carmen is the only way and the only way, in addition to the 100-meter steep cliff, but anyone who guards Carmen, the only passage, no matter how strong the armed forces, want to advance half a step.
A husband who is closed to the "Carmen"
In fact, there is another way to reach the Carmen cottage, and that is to use the "roundabout" tactic, back down the mountain and through the dense thorns and jungle from the other side of the cliff mountain range. Before the cottage, there was only a gentle slope of 50 degrees, and it was not difficult to walk through the jungle, but it was necessary to turn back several kilometers from the top of Mount Carmen back to the bottom of the mountain. The angry bandits traveled a long way, thinking that they could loot some belongings other than food in the homes of the local people, but they hid in the cottage cave, but they could not directly lead to the cave from Carmen. In the end, they decided to teach the local people a lesson, even if they took a detour through the jungle with thorns.
When the villagers hiding in the cave were still glad that they had forced the bandits back with the dangerous terrain, how did they know that they detoured down the mountain and climbed the slope again to the front of the cave. Originally, he was still immersed in rejoicing in victory, but once again ushered in an even more terrible disaster.
The bandits set up guns around the cave, so that none of the people hiding in it dared to step out of the cave. Maybe the bandits launched a fierce attack at that time, because I found the shells left behind during my exploration, and it is even possible that when the original cottage was built, the wall of the walled cave was not part of the bottom of the cave as we saw later, or maybe at that time, the thick stone wall covered almost the entire walled cave, so that the bandits below the mountain could not directly attack the cottage.
The "Ten Thousand Bone Village" back mountain of a hundred zhang cliffs
The bandits found that guns and cannons attacking the thick walls had no effect at all, so they gave up the idea of looting property, and even then, they had to teach them a lesson, establish their own prestige, and even kill all the people hiding in the walled cave completely.
There is only one exit in the walled cave, and the area of the cave cavity is only tens of square meters, and nearly 100 people are hiding in it, almost standing next to each other. When I entered the cave, I found that if the cave cavity had not undergone drastic changes in the process of geological changes, then the "Ten Thousand Bone Village" only belonged to a mountain crack, not a naturally formed karst cave. The people can only have absolute geographical advantages for a short time, and once they are besieged for a long time, the villagers will face the torment of extreme hunger and thirst. The bandits did not intend to fight a protracted war at all, besieged until the villagers could not bear the hunger and thirst, and voluntarily gave up resistance, but cut a large amount of firewood around, piled it under the walled cave, mixed a large number of dried peppers in the middle of the firewood, lit the firewood and mixed the peppers to burn, and with the help of the wind direction, the burning smoke rushed straight into the walled cave.
A scene of a cave full of corpses
The city wall bunker made of irregular stones is permeable everywhere, and the smoke continues to pour into the cave under the urging of the wind direction, and there is no outlet at the other end of the cave cavity, so that the air cannot be convectioned, and the smoke generated by the burning material will hover inside the cave for a long time and cannot be dissipated.
If you can't understand how poisonous the smoke from the dried pepper in the firewood is, you can do a small experiment yourself, light the dried pepper, and breathe a little of that smell to know how painful and uncomfortable it will be. It's not just that it's hard to breathe, tears and snot come out unconsciously. At that time, there was more than one dried pepper, and after a large amount of firewood and pepper were mixed, it was more powerful than tear gas, and the smoke produced was enough to make people breathe failure in a short time, and eventually to death.
According to the two survivors who later survived, the elderly and children who were hiding in the cave and the adults who were in the prime of life continued to wail and cry out in the thick smoke, until finally, apart from the sound of trees burning in the fire, almost no other sound could be heard. Nearly 100 people died of respiratory failure in the billowing smoke, but only two teenage children survived. If they were directly burned by the fire, there was absolutely no possibility of survival, and they survived the smoke by luck, and they died nearly 20 years ago. At that time, the moment they woke up, all they saw was corpses, and there was only fear in their hearts except pain, and psychological trauma and shadows would accompany them for the rest of their lives, until they were old enough to take them to another world.
After the bandits broke through the stubborn resistance of the villagers, they did not enter the cottage to loot their belongings, but left directly, so that there were survivors and the truth we know today.
Those dead villagers were not buried, but in the cave village over time, the body decayed, leaving only the white bones we see today, you can imagine what the scene would be like in that area at that time, the festering corpses would emit a foul smell, attracting countless flies and mosquitoes, as the body decayed and dissipated, the white bones spilled all over the entire cave village of only tens of square meters, and no one dared to approach easily. For most ordinary people, facing human bones is always full of fear, and touching white bones is even very taboo.
Gradually, with the development of society, the situation in the country became more stable, the group of "bandits" was constantly eradicated, they completely disappeared from our lives, and no similar incidents continued to occur, and new people gradually migrated to settle here in the deserted villages, and the survivors who survived at that time married away. Later, after a villager discovered this walled cave, what climbed into it and appeared in front of his eyes was only white bones everywhere, and he had never experienced it personally, how could he empathize with the tragedy at that time, and fear only flashed in his heart. With the discovery, which later spread, they found the survivors, only then did they understand the tragic scene at that time, and there is all that the exploration and discovery tells now.
After the reform and opening up, people in the 80s were more bold, some people began to carry out the original "excavation" of the cave that once left life remains, they found the property left by the people at that time in the cave, with waves of people going to "treasure hunting", the original small area of the cave village, the ground was almost dug three feet to rummage over and over again, the bones were discarded at will, scattered everywhere. When I went to the cave to explore and shoot, most of the bones were still left on the ground, and many more bones were buried under the rubble and dirt while looking for belongings.
While seeing this scene, in combination with the pictures in film and television dramas, it is completely possible to restore the scene where the tragedy occurred through imagination. This is the environment of social turmoil, where the lives of ordinary people are like grass and mustard, slaughtered by others, and the law of the jungle is vividly displayed. In today's era of prosperity in an equal society, although our lives have become better, the past that has happened, even if it becomes eternal history, is still worth telling and recording. Without the blood of the martyrs, there would be no era of peace today, and the tragic lives of those blood and lives will always be remembered.
I have been to so many places to explore and find that I have seen too many human bones, whether it is video records or written narratives, it is easy to associate how difficult people's lives were at that time, and living will often become the greatest luxury, and food and clothing are even more out of reach.
We were in awe of the deceased, and the reason why we did not bury those bones on the spot was because dozens of bones were also found in a cave somewhere, and after we buried them on the spot, someone tried to sue me for violating the deceased in the name of unauthorized decisions, and since then, whenever there are bones in the process of exploration and discovery, I will no longer make a claim to bury them and continue to maintain their original appearance.
Our journey of exploration and discovery has just begun, there is still a long way to go to crack more legends and reveal more unknown ends, with outdoor exploration and discovery to shoot records, tell those buried in the dark world, what bizarre stories and special scenery are there, identify the truth behind the legend, let the world re-recognize their past, whether it is really as treacherous as the rumors, exploration and discovery will take you to understand the truth behind it, and let those hidden wonders be appreciated by the world.
March 23, 2023
Douyin: Outdoor Meng Shaojie
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