Steel steam and flame

Cassia and the others turned over the shell and checked it several times, carefully avoiding the shaken out gunpowder, and even wrapped the cement-like gunpowder with snow. Although I know in my heart that there will be no accidents, several people around me are always worried.

"It's just a cannonball that has been buried for a long time." The two captains were a little disappointed. They thought they had found something useful. "Everyone, continue to look around. The heavy snow may have buried everything. Especially on these ancient trees. , take a closer look to see if there are any traces similar to craters.”

After hearing this, other soldiers continued to spread out to the surroundings, further expanding the scope of the search.

"It seems that we are really the first team to arrive here." One of the captains looked around and said with certainty.

"That should be it." Another captain agreed at this time. There were really no obvious clues around. Apart from the endless snow, there were only tall ancient trees.

Cassia stood beside them and listened, but did not respond a word. In the strange eyes of the two captains, he took out a strong flashlight from his backpack, adjusted the power to medium, and the beam shot out, illuminating the small snowfield in an instant. It was getting a little dark now in the woods.

"What's wrong, is there something wrong with the cannonball?" The two captains also looked over. Under the light, nothing seemed to change. It's just a lump of slightly moist red rust, and its color looks a little brighter.

"There's nothing wrong with the cannonballs." Cassia replied, shining a bright flashlight on his feet, "It's just that there seems to be something wrong under the soil."

"Look at what's inside. It's not entirely solid soil. There's a large hollow space underneath." Cassia was a little unsure. The rusty cannonball just now was pulled out of the soil, forming a hole in the ground with a diameter about the size of two adult waists. Now that Cassia turned on the flashlight, the light shone directly into the hole without touching the bottom. It seemed a little deep down there.

"Is this the only case here?" Cassia shook the flashlight slightly while speaking. Under bright light, you can see another scene underground through the hole created by pulling out the cannonball.

There was indeed a hollow area in the soil beneath the three of them. Under the light, you can clearly see the dense tree roots hanging down, with different thicknesses, as if a waterfall composed of tree roots has been formed there. It has been a long time since I saw the sun, and the skin of the tree roots is bright yellow.

On a piece of entangled tree roots, Cassia and the others did not see any mold, but some fluorescent moss.

"The air below seems to have always been dry." Cassia judged at this time. Immediately, two more flashlight lights appeared in the corners of his eyes. The two captains seemed to have become interested in the hollow area under their feet. They each took out their own bright flashlights to see what was underneath. .

The dark space was illuminated by three flashlights. There are many tree roots. This is the most intuitive impression of Cassia and the three of them. In the light, under their sharp sight, they quickly discovered other things. There were an equally large number of copper tubes. The first time Cassia saw those copper tubes, he could see their function through the color and thickness of the tube wall.

"They are all pipelines for transporting steam, and they are all still the classic design and standardized model that the empire has continued to use to this day. Almost a hundred years have passed, but until now, this classic design and standard, as well as the treatment of materials, are still applicable In all aspects of steam power." Cassia explained to the two captains at this time, "Looking at the degree to which they are twisted by tree roots, I think the actual history of the things left below is greater than the ones that grew on them. The trees are much older.”

The two captains opened their eyes wide at this time, and the beam of the flashlight slowly spread along the roots of the tree towards the surroundings. They looked at other things in this underground space bit by bit.

But the hole formed by pulling out the cannonball does seem a bit small at this time. It seems impossible to take in all the scenes in the dark space below in the eyes without widening the hole.

Cassia asked the two captains to help him get the flashlight. There were no useful tools around him, so he used his hands to pull apart the soil piece by piece. In the cold weather, the soil almost froze into ice, lost its flexibility and became extremely brittle, which made it easier for Cassia to expand the holes.

However, Cassia and the other two captains ignored one important thing at this time, probably because they did not consider other things now and focused on the underground cavity.

They remembered that they were the surgeon, but completely forgot about their weight at the time. Especially Cassia, as an obese person among the surgeons, he weighs much more than the two captains.

When they started to pull away the hard soil under their feet piece by piece, a crisp "click" sound suddenly sounded from the feet of the three of them. Cassia reacted immediately. He knew what happened. The soil under his feet should not be able to bear their weight and reached the critical point of collapse.

"Don't use too much force at this time, otherwise it will only accelerate the collapse of this area." After Cassia considered this, she realized that she was thinking too much. Several huge cracks suddenly opened in a small area of ​​the ground. He only felt that his body became very light, and then he fell rapidly downwards.

Cassia immediately spread out her arms and grabbed the ground on both sides that had not collapsed to prevent herself from falling. But a chain reaction started, and Cassia's palms rested on the ground on both sides, which were immediately covered with dense cracks, and then became completely shattered like glass.

The body uncontrollably fell to more than half the height of an adult. Just when Cassia was considering how deep it was and how he should land on the ground to reduce damage, he felt that his shoulders were tightly grasped by a generous palm.

It was two captains, and their reflexes were equally astonishing. At this time, they reached out and grabbed Cassia, preparing to pull him out of the gaping hole.

"You should lose weight." The two captains felt Cassia's astonishing weight as soon as they started. They pulled him up and said, "I see that your body is so thin, but I didn't expect to be so uncomfortable." The right weight for your body type.”

Cassia smiled helplessly, her body had just undergone a major blood exchange, and she had already lost a lot of weight. When he was in full condition, he was a little heavier than he was now.

"Thank you..." Before Cassia could finish her words, she was interrupted by several more crisp cracking sounds. The ground under the feet of the two captains was also covered with cracks at this time. The three of them only had time to look at each other. With a crashing sound, their bodies suddenly sank and fell.