Sapa (digging) is therefore called quiet, because since ancient times, during the siege of fortresses, the attackers quietly dug underground passages to the fortresses in order to lay powder charges and make breaks in the walls by exploding. Therefore, the besieged often dispatched teams of listeners who listened to knocks and sounds coming from underground. And they dug to meet the enemy with a silent glanders, managing to detonate a counter charge and bring down the arches of the dug tunnel on the heads of cunning opponents.
Underground Wars
In the 20th century, the Korean War of 1950-1953 showed that hiding underground, one can resist a well-armed enemy. Let us recall that in the Korean war the Americans fought on the side of the "southerners", and the Russians and the Chinese fought on the "northerners". If the USSR provided the fighters of North Korea with aircraft and radar equipment, then the Chinese - their numerous manpower and equipment for conducting underground wars. Digging under the enemy numerous secret passages, Sino-Korean soldiers appeared in the most unexpected places and recaptured the territory captured by the Americans. A quarter of a century later, the Phantoms, with hundreds of kilograms of bombs on board, were also powerless against the Vietnamese army, which literally burst into the ground. The Underground War helped the Viet Cong to bankrupt U. S. military doctrine.
Today, Israeli planes, equipped with powerful thermal imagers capable of detecting voids and tunnels underground, are actively directing bombers following behind into underground passages dug by the Arabs from the Gaza Strip to Egypt. Through these tunnels, laid under state borders, the inhabitants of the Arab enclave smuggle themselves with everything they need - food and consumer goods, weapons and explosives to fight their eternal enemy Israel. But the Arab owners of the tunnels are not discouraged, since the bombed-out passages are restored quite quickly. And to open a new passage costs three months of work of a digger and money spent on the purchase of a winch in order to pull the cargo through the tunnel and pull it to the surface.
Underground passages across the border are not easy to find
Russian poaching trails
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Based on world experience, it should be assumed that something similar exists in Russia. For example, in the Kaliningrad region, whose residents smuggle lucrative cargoes back and forth across the border with Poland.
In the Far East, underground passages have existed since time immemorial. Thanks to these moves, the Chinese bandit crafts are still flourishing.
And in tsarist times, the state border with China was well guarded. But yellow-faced alcoholos and hunhuzes moved freely or fiercely in the Siberian taiga. The former exchanged alcohol (taiga currency) for native gold, the latter simply robbed them of the gold. Sometimes the Hunghui congregations numbered up to 200 selected thugs. How did all these Chinese units cross the border, including with the loot, in the opposite direction? For the time being, the answer to this question remained one of the most burning Chinese secrets.
Triad members arrested in China
Today, while enthusiasts are saving the last Amur tigers and leopards, taking care of bears and wild ginseng, Chinese poachers continue to rampage in the Siberian taiga. From the skins, fangs, paws, by-products of "Red Book" animals and from the rhizomes of rare plants obtained from us, amulets and goods of Chinese traditional medicine are produced in China. All this costs fabulous money in the PRC, and, consequently, is shamelessly siphoned off from Russian resources. And this despite the most fortified Russian-Chinese border in the world, entangled with six rows of barbed wire and four meters high. It got to the point that in the mid-70s, not border guards, but Russian bandits declared war on the Chinese mafia - the triad. That's what came out of it.
The "watchers" worry about flora and fauna
Of course, the bobbed-up "environmentalists" with bobbed biceps first wanted to have their share of poaching Chinese trophies. A certain Sergei Bychkov, "looking" (there is such a thieves 'position) for the Far East, in Chita presented an authoritative Chinese with a common surname Li with a claim to pay the thieves' share. Like, "my land, you do what you want on it, but there are no dividends." At the same time, but for another reason, another illegal citizen, the owner of the Chita milk plant, Viktor Savkin, stole a young daughter from a Chinese authority with the aim of ransom. The Chinese instantly collected and paid the money, but Savkin went out in the morning to take out the trash can and disappeared. His body was found in the taiga 40 kilometers from home without signs of violent death. Examination showed that he died of a heart attack.
Having learned about the death of the kidnapper and the fact that one of the leaders of the triad, nicknamed Miner, was going to Chita for a debriefing, Bychkov realized that he had lost the fight and asked local law enforcement agencies to put him in jail under any pretext. And he explained his true fear of the arrival of the Chinese leader with the words that he tried to protect the Siberian nature from the predatory aspirations of his neighbors, and for this he could soon be killed.
Realizing that the Miner would not cross the border, experts from the power ministries focused their efforts on finding alternative routes. And they found it! With the help of an old Chinese map, with the designation of the paths of the hunghuzes, the place of a possible appearance from the ground of a guest from China was identified.
Light at the end of the tunnel
First, it was established that the Miner appears in Chita about 10 times a year. Then it became clear why in the border area the exit from the tunnel was not found by the search dogs. The exit was sprinkled with special herbal flour and cayenne pepper, which confused any sensitive nose. The tunnel itself was one of the wonders of the world and served as a clear proof that Chinese workers are able not only to pick quiet boots, but also to lay metro lines in cities by hand. The fact is that the underground passage stretched for 22 kilometers, was sheathed with boards, its vaults were equipped with supports, and ventilation was carried out. The equipped niches contained lamps filled with kerosene. Other niches were small warehouses with food and resting places in case of waiting to avoid being caught above during a raid or ambush.
Some tunnels were equipped with special 'rest rooms'
When the miner came out into the light, special forces soldiers immediately pounced on him. After a short confrontation, the illegal migrant was immediately stripped - and for good reason. They found three in his clothes, and on his body two more caches with poison for committing suicide. The detainee was covered in tattoos, defining his primacy in the triad. Studying the personality of the "guest", we found that a hardened criminal was caught who killed people using the specific knowledge of Chinese medicine. So, there are 20 points on the human body, and an experienced Chinese by pressing one of them caused the formation of a blood clot at the point of pressing, which slid through the veins and blocked the heart. Human death occurred without signs of violent death.
Of course, that tunnel was blown up. Found the second, no less disguised. Soon a battle took place near the exit from it, as three militants of the triad were born, hurrying to the rescue of the detained leader. They were shot, not without casualties. They say there is also a third move. Or - how many of them are still in the ground, these quiet Chinese glanders?
Source: Secrets of the XX century, No. 24, June 2010, Victor MARKOVICH