Chapter 113：Underground Well and Customs Point Ruins

In a dream, Dara dreamed how he found a huge treasure, then as a snake crawled out, who guarded the treasure and talked with him about something. And on the top of the Fisherman's mountains, he saw a leopard!

In the pre-monotheistic traditions of the people of Small-An, these all zoomorphic creatures were the harbingers of great wealth. But in practice, of course, it was just archaic ideas about the incomprehensible world of dreams and dreams.

But to believe dreams are the last thing ?!

Dara "So we don't find a damn in the Rybakov mountains? Or will we find but not a treasure? Is it worth it to go? But is it not bad to go too ?! Let's go, let's take a look!"

The morning of the next day was typical as in the groundhog day, everything is as always. Get up at 6 in the morning. Wash with cold water, from which the teeth seem to crack and hear the crackling of breaking teeth.

Gymnastics so that the joints work and the lungs are filled with oxygen to drive away sleep and give clarity to the mind.

6:30 to cook a quick breakfast. A piece of sausage from lamb baked in Tandoori with lard, cut into equal portions. One serving of 4 cm. Throw into a wok, add some water, some dried vegetables - tomatoes, sweet pepper, dill, sprinkle with vegetable oil. Mix everything quickly and after 4 minutes - the miracle is ready. Nourishing, tasty, high-calorie, in the city this would lead to the fact that everyone would quickly gain weight, but in the mountains, it gives energy for movement and a person does not gain weight.

In the second empire, they even developed a special table where they calculated how many calories an average worker should consume - a worker, a peasant, a scientist, a builder, a nomad. And accordingly, they came up with food for them. But this direction has not taken root in everyday life. As they used to eat, they ate.

Although with the advent of the second empire, several tastes in the Asian part and the European have changed. The people inhabiting the empire partially abandoned their usual food, and began to eat modern, European camp cuisine.

And it was designed to get a lot of energy quickly, but it was also meant that it would go quickly on hikes, throws. But since it was not, people were sitting in offices, they began to get fat. Slowly becoming thick and overweight. They tried to fight this by introducing more healthy and less colorful food into the menus in working cafeterias. But it was a Pyrrhic victory. But this is the topic of another story.

Make tea. Too fast. Tear off a bunch of thyme right near the house, throw it into the wok and brew it right there, at the same time and wash the wok. The infusion was fat, odorous and tasty. The truth is very amateur! The old people drank this easily, even savored the young people familiar to the field kitchen, realizing that they needed to use every chance to relax, eat, gain energy, calmly drank this brew. But the refined nature of Barno, could not drink, she did not understand how this can be drunk and called tea in general. Aesthetes like Li-Ban and Fang, were from peasants, so they calmly accepted this particular kind of tea. And they didn't drink in the mountains of Tibet. They generally put snow goat fat in cocoa. So they quite normally perceived this giving tea and protection from colds and inflammation tea.

Already 7 am, it is time to leave for the steppe, and then the Rybaki mountains. And the old foxes went fishing because the ban season was only in June. So there was a time. They did not fish as much as they enjoyed the fresh air, contemplated silence, by the way, the old foxes considered the best music - they considered silence to be the best. They drank from a thermos tea from lingonberry leaves with fresh mountain honey. Talked leisurely conversations. In the mountains, there were no listening devices. One could calmly discuss important topics.

And the young went to the mountains. Again the same picture. Mountains on both sides, with sparse vegetation. Protruding cliffs from the slopes covered with grass cover. Dusty, dirt road. After 5 minutes, exit from the narrow gorge to a wider road. transition to the valley. At the bottom in the floodplain of the river, woody vegetation was visible and a small but fleeting river flowed.

The first terrace began from the floodplain in meters 3, the remains of vegetable gardens were visible on it, the terrace was 10 meters wide and 70 meters long.

After about 15 minutes the road was divided into two directions, one went down to the plain, into the steppe and the second went sharply east along the foothills to the administrative capital of the prefecture. The city had to go 50 minutes at a speed of 100 km per hour. That road was asphalt, though already very badly broken.

Another 30 minutes cripple the steppe to the Fishermen Mountains. They were short, small and almost deserted. Nomads stopped there only in winter, placing their goats, rams, and horses for the winter.

It is almost 8 in the morning and they are already in the Fishermen's Mountains. Need to find a place. According to the coordinates, the place is located in the southeast. Refined place. There are only one underground well and a building with it, a customs point. Of course, already ruins. True underground well preserved. So there is a chance to find something interesting at the bottom, and maybe the roof since a dome is built from bricks on top of the well. Its color, like the steppe, is earthen-brown. The total diameter is 35 meters. Outside the dome there are three holes, one in the very center on the roof of the dome, a small hole for collecting rainwater, it has a diameter of 1 meter, the second hole is the entrance to the dome, 2 meters wide, 1.2 meters long. The third hole opposite the second, uneven, apparently accidentally destroyed. Traces of bullets of different diameters are visible on the brickwork. A customs station attacked? But there is no information about this yet, you need to look in the archives and scientific foundations, maybe something is there about it in more detail? But not a fact ?! Maybe there is some information in the manuscript archive, but access is limited there and the archive employees themselves are engaged in research and they will not let a person from the street as a potential competitor.

Therefore, it was easier to abandon the search than to attract the attention of these greedy people. They would simply take the direction, assign themselves, and completely deflate it, leaving only gnawed scraps.

Many interesting projects have not been implemented, as on the ground, there was a very hard access control mode. If they were "not their own" people, then they did not succeed. Allowed to do business only "their own."

Near the underground well were the ruins of a customs post. About him already Dara mentioned earlier.

The ruins looked like a four coal building, rather even the remains of a foundation. Not fully preserved.

In the northern part, large stones were visible, about 60-90 cm long, going deep into the soil, only residues 30 centimeters sticking out of the ground, they were covered with reddish and gray moss, mushrooms. There was practically no foundation wall on the south side. Apart from two broken stones. On the east side, the foundation was visible half the length, and on the west, the remainder of the wall was visible, it towered above the foundation at 1.4 meters. The total area of ​​the customs post was about 190 square meters. meters.

According to a small note, "Guide to Small-An of 1908," there was a small garrison of 7 people at the customs post. Near the customs post in the north, 3.5 km was a large fort with 750 horsemen and 300 soldiers armed with flintlock guns.

Alas, the fort is no longer to be seen; it was located in a lowland; in 1978, this lowland was turned into a man-made reservoir. Now the fort lay underwater at a depth of 11 meters. So it would be difficult to search there. Firstly, the protected area, secondly there are sands, salt pits, you will come closer to the shore closer than 5 meters to the "salt marshes". So the search there is possible only from the boat, you need to get permission to manage the hunting and national parks, plus have a controller with you - a fish inspector. And why are extra eyes and ears? It is easier to refuse or wait for the moment when the reservoir is shallow and then already tries to search with a search magnet.

Having decided on the place, Dara, directed the car to the hills, near the reservoir. The jeep drove up to the hillock, and there they left the car, unloaded the equipment and headed off to study the underground well.