In the summer of 1924, a Polish army was ordered to Brest-Litovsk, a major military town previously occupied by Russian troops, to excavate a munitions warehouse that had collapsed during the war. Due to the 9-year gap between the time of the explosion, the wind and rain, and the natural changes, it is impossible to find any traces of the quartermaster warehouse in that year. All that appeared in front of the people was a pile of rocks and pieces of wood piled up like a hill, and the soldiers used earthen baskets to remove the earth and stones little by little, and it took many days to reach the stone vaults of the underground tunnels. The soldiers also used iron pickaxes and drills to cut a large hole in the vault. A soldier with a torch crawled through the dark opening. The cave was eerily silent, and there was no sound other than the soldiers' own footsteps.
"Stop, who?"
Out of nowhere, there was a cry of drinking, and this sound caused a series of echoes in the cave for a long time.
"Ghosts! ghost! The Polish soldier felt only the hairs on his body stand up, and shouted twice in a trembling voice, which immediately stunned his companions who were waiting at the entrance of the cave.
"What's wrong with you?" The soldier at the mouth of the cave asked.
"Ghosts! There are ghosts in the cave! The young soldier said breathlessly as he climbed out. When he reached the mouth of the cave, his companions thought he was timid and taunted him.
A large soldier volunteered to come over, patted the shoulder of the young soldier who was almost stunned, giggled and said, "Come, accompany me to see your ghost!" Don't be afraid, I'm in front and you're behind. ”
As they had done for the first time, they climbed into the cave entrance, and just a few steps away when they heard another broken cry in front of them: "Who?" Hold it! ”
When the big soldier heard it, he only felt his head buzzing, and he couldn't hear anything. He didn't think much of it, pulled the young soldier behind him and turned and ran.
"Stop! Hold it! Then there was the sound of a bolt of the gun being flicked.
What exactly is it? He spoke fluent Russian and pulled the bolt of his gun loudly. There is probably no more sensitive and accurate judgment in the world than a soldier reacting to such a voice. So - what can pull the bolt of a gun? Of course, there are only people, and since they are people, there is nothing to be afraid of. This time, they picked a few soldiers who spoke Russian fluently, along with the two soldiers before them, and crawled into the cave again. In order to find out the situation, to see the face of the drinker, and to strengthen their own courage, they deliberately lit a few more large torches, and the raging flames lit up the hole at once.
"Stand still, who?" Otherwise I'll shoot!" ”
In the silence after the shouting, there was a clear and recognizable sound of pulling the bolt of the gun. Judging by the tone, this is exactly the password of a heavily trained sentry, indicating that there is a man who is standing in the shadows where nothing can be seen, performing his duties strictly in accordance with the regulations of the military. It seems that if you don't match his password, it is impossible to get close to him. The Polish soldier paused for a moment, and one of the officers who spoke the most fluent Russian replied tentatively: "We are Polish soldiers, and we have been ordered to carry out our mission here." ”
"Please open the pass!" The sentry said majestically.
"Pass, what pass?"
"Russian Tsarist troops, passes issued by the Quartermaster Office!"
Hearing this long-unfamiliar word, a group of Polish soldiers were happy. It took a great deal of effort for them to make the people in the cave understand that the old Russia had long since changed dynasties, and that now, in that land, a new regime had been established, called the Soviet People's Republic.
This former soldier of the Russian Empire was suspicious of the Words of the Poles. Still holding the gun motionless, refusing to let them take a step forward. He told them that he was a soldier of the Russian Tsarist forces, that he had been sent here to look at the quartermaster depot, and that no one was allowed to come to the basement until he had received orders from his superiors.
"Oh, boss... The Polish soldiers listened to him and immediately remembered a man."
It turned out that the address of the quartermaster warehouse was provided by the sentry's direct superior, a White Russian colonel who had been in charge of the large quartermaster warehouse.
In the summer of 1915, around mid-July, German troops launched an offensive against Poland from the Eastern Front, and the Russians began to retreat under the strong attack of the enemy. Warsaw was abandoned, and after Warsaw, Lublin was abandoned, and finally forced to leave the eastern part of Poland. In August, the Germans came to Brest, the fortress of Litovsk.
Among the facilities that had been ordered to be blown up was a huge quartermaster depot somewhere on the outskirts of the city, set up in an underground shelter deep above the ground, where large quantities of food and uniforms were stored. The man in charge of the warehouse was the White Russian colonel.
When the colonel received the order to blow up the underground warehouse, he asked the command why the warehouse should not be blown up, and the colonel said: "The suburban residents have no idea what warehouses are here, so just blow up the entrance to the basement and let the enemy know." In this way, in the future, the Russian army can recover the lost land, the entrance to the warehouse is not difficult to dig, and the reserves inside can be reused. The Colonel's advice was taken. The soldiers hurriedly set up the explosives and, as expected, blew up the entrance to the basement. From the outside, there is no trace of any warehouse.
A few hours later, the German army marched into Brest. Fighting continued on the Eastern Front. But the Colonel's original expectations could never have been fulfilled—the Russians had not been able to retake Brest. Two years later, the October Revolution broke out, followed by the withdrawal of the Soviet Union from the war, followed by a long and fierce civil war. In this war, the White Russian Colonel became a White Russian. So after the Red Army completely defeated the enemy, he went into exile with many of his cohorts. Nine years later, he was old, and when the economy was extremely strained, he suddenly remembered the secret he had in his hands- the bombed underground quartermaster warehouse in Brest. So the colonel came to Poland with full hope and revealed the secret that had been buried in the ground for 9 years.
It was not until the Polish soldier had accurately named the White Russian colonel to the sentry that he glanced carefully at the Polish soldier in front of him, slowly lowered his gun, and withdrew from his post.
"You know, how long have you been here?" You..."
Before the Polish soldier could finish speaking, the sentry replied without hesitation: "Of course I know, 9 years and 23 days, not including today." I was picked up nine years ago, at 4 p.m. on August 2, 1915. This shocked the Polish soldiers, who could have imagined that a person who had been buried in the ground for 9 years without daylight and 9 years in isolation could accurately tell the changes in time in the world, and it was so accurate.
The Polish soldiers supported the sentry and stepped out of the hole and climbed up to the ground. The summer sun is like a fiery ball of fire, throwing thousands of scalding golden arrows to the ground. The Polish soldier had just reached the ground with the sentry when he suddenly heard the sentry scream and saw him cover his face tightly with his hands... Oh my God, it was only then that the Polish soldiers realized that they had committed an unforgivable sin: the sentry had lived underground for 9 years in darkness, and before taking him to the surface, he should be blindfolded beforehand, and then slowly let him adjust to the light little by little. But now it was too late, and the sentry was blind.
On the day the entrance to the warehouse was bombed, Russian sentries were standing guard in an underground tunnel. He was in a particularly good mood that day, he had just received a courtship letter from a girl, and he read the letter over and over again before carefully folding it into his pocket.
Suddenly, a dull explosion sounded outside the cave. This sudden roar shook his ears, and even the ground under his feet shook violently. Subsequently, he was surrounded by darkness...
By the time he was well aware of the horror of his situation, it was too late. He stumbled forward, his body crashing against the stone wall of the tunnel, his head hitting him and bleeding profusely. As he desperately picked up the dirt, he frantically shouted and cried out for help, cursing those who had forgotten him and buried him alive in the grave...
All the struggles were nullified. When the Russian sentry was convinced that everything was irretrievable, he stopped shouting for help and cursing. He returned to the tunnel where he was standing, crouched down slowly, lit a cigarette, and pondered his situation as he inhaled.
"Yes, I can live!" It was the sentry who, after carefully inspecting the hole in the ground, raised the hope of life in despair.
It turned out that in this munitions warehouse, a large number of ruks, cans and other kinds of food were stored. Therefore, there is no need to worry about starvation. In addition to food, he found a lot of mahogand cigarettes, matches and hardfat candles in the warehouse.
What was even more reassuring to him was that there was still water here. There are many swamps and water areas around Brest, so there is an undercurrent not deep from the ground.
Don't worry about air problems, there are many gaps in the cave wall to penetrate the air. The sentries also found that there was also a slender ventilation channel at the top of the tunnel entrance, which fortunately was not completely blocked, through which the light of the day could be faintly illuminated from the ground.
One night, the lit candle somehow caused a fire, and the fire became more and more fierce, spreading to the place where the candles and matches were stored, and suddenly burst into flames. By the time the sentry had been awakened by the smoke and fire, the entire underground warehouse had been engulfed in flames, even by his own clothes. The quilt also burst into flames. He quickly took off his clothes, bare-chested, and fought the fire to the death with the bravery and tenacious perseverance characteristic of a soldier. When he extinguished the fire, he was already covered in scales and his breath was dying. He collapsed in a cold and damp tunnel, and did not eat, drink or move for three days and three nights. Probably during his 9 years underground life, this was the only 3 days he did not perform his sentry duties. When the threat of death was finally lifted, he began to pass the time in the cold darkness, and even the letter she sent him could only be tasted and "silently read" by memory.
When he first saw the rats, he was glad that there were other animals here besides him. Soon, however, he became frightened. The rats multiplied at an alarming rate, and their behavior became more and more bold, not only destroying the stockpiles in the warehouse, but also threatening the sentry's life—on several occasions, when he was asleep, they actually nibbled his cheek with their sharp teeth. Thus, a battle to exterminate rats began.
This is truly an extraordinary battle. A man wrestling with a rat that runs extremely fast and quickly in the dark is unimaginably difficult. After a long period of hard work, he finally learned to distinguish his invisible enemies by sound and smell, so that he was able to kill them in hundreds of days every day.
When the Polish sergeants heard that the Russian sentry, who had lived in the cave for 9 years, could accurately tell the time of his life underground, they were shocked, and even long after a long time, they could not believe it. In fact, this sentry has a special calendar.
Every day, when a glimmer of light was extinguished from the tiny ventilation hole overhead, he drew a mark on the wall of the tunnel to indicate the past day. He also calculated that Sundays were longer than other days. Every Saturday, a "bath day" is strictly observed, as a true Russian soldier would do. Of course, he did not have bathing conditions. The water from the puddle he had dug into the ground with his bayonet was only enough for him to drink for a day. On his weekly "bath day," he simply took out a set of underwear and two new footcloths from his reserves.
After he put on his new shirt and shirt, he folded the dirty set neatly and placed it on the wall alone in units. The taller stack of dirty clothes is his calendar: 4 sets represent a month, and 52 sets is a year of his underground life. By the time Liberation Day came, he had piled up more than 450 sets of dirty underwear.
The Polish sergeants took the Russian sentry to the most exclusive hotel in Brest, gave him a haircut, took a bath, and let him drink enough hot coffee. Then, with his consent, he was taken from Brest to Warsaw. There, they volunteered to scrape together a large sum of money and asked the most intelligent doctor in Warsaw to treat his blind eyes, but to the dismay of the Polish soldiers, his eyes never improved. And, according to the most famous doctor, the Russian soldier will probably never see the light again.
When the Polish soldiers told him the unfortunate news, they hoped he would cry or scold someone hard. But he did not do so, and the strong soldier even smiled very delicately and calmly at the Polish soldiers and journalists who revered him.
A few days later, the Russian sentry refused to be retained by the Polish sergeants and returned home alone. The Polish sergeants knew that he missed his homeland and longed for a new life as a Soviet citizen. However, no one knows, there is still a love letter in his pocket, and he takes it with him to find the beautiful blue-eyed girl...