Chapter 348 - 281: A Method That Descends from Heaven

Pm, 11:35.

Plans can’t keep up with changes.

The goal was to arrive in 12 hours, but they had only reached the summit of the last mountain, and were already overdue.

The mountain was quite difficult to climb.

After tremendous effort and risk, they reached the summit opposite Tangjia Mountain and found an irregular plateau.

More than 800 soldiers had gathered here.

The civilians who had followed them had already stopped halfway up the mountain, looking up at them from a distance, vividly aware of their destination.

Standing here, looking down.

The great river flows from among thousands of mountains, all converging toward the east with the river’s current.

Beneath one’s feet lay the severed mountain.

In one’s eyes surged the waves.

Directly opposite stood Tangjia Mountain, with the dam of the barrier lake lying just ahead and below, yet the path had disappeared.

The terrain here was a sheer drop, and so was the mountain across from them.

Tangjia Mountain had been uniformly sheared off, and the broken section collapsed into the mountain hollow, blocking the only exit among the encircling mountains.

This dam was obstructing an extraordinarily long stretch of river.

And within the plugged cirque lake, one could still see the sharp edges of the rooftops of several buildings.

According to the maps Fang Huai had seen and the information in his head, this location should be Xuanping Market Town, where locals from several nearby townships would gather every weekend, making it a very bustling marketplace.

Photographs from yesterday afternoon showed that most of Xuanping Township’s buildings were still visible.

But now, the original river channel was completely out of sight, and even the market town situated higher up along the riverbank had been totally submerged. The water, now higher and wider, had made two mountains into the new riverbed.

Higher up from the market town, there was a small village.

That village was inside the dam and, as the blocked river rose higher and higher, it seemed to be in imminent danger. The water level was nearly reaching the base of the village.

Water was actually slapping against the bottom of the dam in waves.

Looking at these towering waves, one would find it hard to believe that this was only the lower part of the dam.

"The water level is higher than what we saw in the previous photos. Part of the Jianjiang Riverbed has been cut off.

It continues to store water inside. If it rises more, the village inside the dam will be flooded. If it rises further, it can only overflow the dam. Once it spills over, the water flow will wash over the entire dam, possibly causing it to collapse, and then the water inside will burst out like a column..."

Fang Huai murmured, while Major General Jin swallowed hard, looking at the distinctly outlined Beichuan City Gate—Qu Mountain Town.

If the water inside the dam fills up, that county city will seemingly turn into a pile of toys.

Actually, Fang Huai’s heart was as turbulent as a tempest.

Because he knew, in a previous life, this terrifying barrier lake had truly overflowed.

Brigade Captain Chen of the Hydropower Troops, upon seeing the water level and the high dam on-site, couldn’t help but exhale deeply and said:

"It’s fortunate that it’s happening now. Otherwise, without the equipment from two or three Detachments arriving, it would be impossible to handle this situation.

Even if we could, it would be very dangerous. Look at that dam, hundreds of meters wide, almost a kilometer long. If we need to dig a channel on it to drain floodwater, making it four meters deep, 50 large machinery units would need to work for at least three days."

"50 large machinery units, you’re dreaming," Major General Jin scoffed, raising his hand to feel the wind, and said:

"Canyon terrain, heavy rain along the way, strong air currents, accompanied by extremely chaotic low-altitude wind shear changes, and constant aftershocks. Just yesterday, before we set off, there were already 18 aftershocks of magnitude five or above!

If you wait until transport aircraft can come in, this place will probably have already flooded.

Let alone the aviation group, those few old planes from our 14th Army have been eager to get into the fray!

But who dares to give the order for them to come in and face certain death?

Now, our Military District has other major tasks guarding the borders. As soon as the disaster struck, troops not involved in the rescue can’t sit idle; they all have to go on border patrols to deter those sneaky foreigners.

The people in the earthquake zone... they are suffering. Such a great disaster and they can’t wait for mechanical rescue forces in time.

Those soldiers, too, are suffering, holding up such great hope with their two hands."

Hearing this, Brigade Captain Chen couldn’t help but sigh deeply:

"Let’s wait. Your mechanics and our three Detachments from the Hydropower Troops are all rushing to repair the road. It will be quick."

Fang Huai, however, looked down below, pondering a more practical issue.

The dam below didn’t seem too hard to deal with.

In one word, blow it up.

Blow up one side of the river-blocking dam and let the water flow through.

But with the dam positioned between two mountains, it was necessary to go down and see which side to blast.

After all, with only 10 tons of explosives, if they didn’t succeed, or if it triggered another landslide and caused more collapses, that would be a tale for another time.

They did not want to make this journey a second time, nor did they want to sit around waiting.

"Now, from where do we go up?" Fang Huai looked around for a long time and then pointed to both sides of the dam:

"Going down from our feet is a bit steep, isn’t it?"

Both men were looking down.

It was more than steep; half of Tangjia Mountain had been shaken off, and the terrain of this mountain was no better. Looking down, halfway up the mountain was a slope with exposed rock at an angle of seventy to eighty degrees. Any paths and vegetation further down had been obliterated by the earthquake.

There seemed to be a gentler slope on the opposite mountain, but though it looked close, they would have to traverse four mountains to get there, and they would also have to cross a water stream that was not shallow.

"Locals, is there any way down here that leads to the top of the dam?" Major General Jin still adhered to the policy of "When in doubt, ask the locals."

The old man who was guiding them was also troubled now.

"I have never been to this dam! I only know this mountain! Before, this place wasn’t a dam but a township! Following the road down, you’d get there, but now... it seems the road is completely broken! If I had known earlier... I wouldn’t have guided you up here!"

Major General Jin was suddenly at a loss and looked down again, saying, "If we really can’t, we will have to climb over and cross the water."