Chapter 349 - 281

This time, the journey seemed to have grown considerably longer, and if things went wrong, it could take half a day.

But Fang Huai had sharp eyes and pointed at a mountain path on the detour route:

"We can’t go around it, look there, it’s also collapsed, and it’s covered in plants, with a large empty spot inside. If we go in, it’s highly likely we’ll have to come back out and think of another way."

"What do we do then? We need to go down!" Major General Jin frowned as he spoke, "If we can’t, then on this slope, we’ll have to dig out some steps to go down—we have to!"

At that moment, Fang Huai shook his head and pointed to the middle of the mountain where the range broke off: "That won’t be necessary. The height of the mid-mountain should not exceed two hundred meters, and below is exactly our destination. Utilizing our rappelling equipment, we could get down. It’s just that your soldiers have not been trained for this, so we might need to conduct some on-site training."

Hearing Fang Huai’s idea, Major General Jin’s eyes widened:

"That would save us a great deal of distance... But is it feasible?"

Fang Huai rubbed his head, pondering: "If your men are obedient, it shouldn’t be a problem."

The old man didn’t quite understand what ’rappelling’ meant, but he had followed them all the way here and knew they were going to blow up the dam. Now somewhat anxious, he said:

"Once you go down this mountain and blow up the dam, how will you get out?"

At which, all three men spoke in unison:

"We’ll figure that out after we go down!"

...

minutes later.

The less than 200-meter-high cliff saw four ropes, each nearly 240 meters long, slowly descending down the mountainside, leaving a generous amount after reaching the ground.

The firefighters had brought 40 meters of safety rope each, amounting to a total of 1200 meters. These four ropes were all their possessions.

In fact, there was another rope, which was used for hauling equipment.

Fortunately, the firefighters’ safety ropes were very lightweight; even such long ropes did not weigh more than 30 pounds.

However, the soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army were clearly a bit distrustful of the slender rope and were somewhat afraid.

"This rope can bear a load of 300 kilograms! How much do you all weigh with your gear? Plus, there’s the slope to ease the descent. What’s there to fear?" Fang Huai stood at the edge of the slope and laughed.

At this time, even Major General Jin was scratching his head.

"The knots in this rope... they won’t break, will they?"

Fang Huai couldn’t be bothered to explain and turned to Hao Chengbin.

Hao Chengbin quickly buckled his safety harness, attached the D-type hook, and pulled the rope to demonstrate:

"This rope is connected with a double figure-eight and half hitch for reinforcement; the connection will be stronger than the rope itself. However, you do need to be careful when passing the knots. Everyone should descend slowly, and it’s better to apply some force with your legs. The knot is quite small, so if it gets stuck, just wiggle the safety hook a bit, and you can continue down."

As he spoke, he casually pointed at Zhang Yang and said:

"Zhang Yang, come down with me!"

"Yes!" Zhang Yang swiftly took out the standard-issue D-type hook from his pack, secured it around his waist, fixed the rope in place, and said loudly:

"Ready!"

"What are you saying ’ready’ for? This isn’t a training exercise!" Hao Chengbin glared at him: "If you’re ready, just go down! Be careful! This is actual combat! Hold on tight to the rope!"

"Hehehe..." With that, many people laughed.

Zhang Yang, somewhat embarrassed, began his descent amidst everyone’s laughter, stepping off the side of the mountain.

Hao Chengbin watched him; seeing that there didn’t seem to be any issues with the first connecting rope, he then said to the surrounding soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army: "I weigh 152 pounds! If I can go down, so can you!"

Then, holding onto the rope, he turned his back to the cliff and jumped down.

"Wow..."

Those watching exclaimed.

Fang Huai frowned and shouted, "Squad leader, don’t show off, focus on safety!"

The actions of the two were highly skilled; they managed the 200-meter descent in less than two minutes.

Seeing the two reach the bottom unscathed, taking three steps and giving a wave from the middle of the dam, everyone grew a bit envious.

According to the original terrain, you would have to descend the mountain first and then find a way to get onto the dam.

However, they had managed to save the journey down the mountain and directly reached the dam with just a rope.

The firefighters were already down.

Now, the men’s challenge had begun.

Fang Huai patiently explained the use of the D-type hook while exhorting people to make the jump down.

The first group of four soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army successfully made it down, which was encouraging for everyone.

During the whole descent, for most of the time, they could step on a slope, which made descending fairly stable.

Only in the middle was there a section about ten meters high where the slope ended and the mountain recessed, leaving no ground beneath their feet. The soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army were reluctant to release the rope; many of them held tightly to the rope and descended slowly through this part.

Thankfully, the abrasion-resistant quality of the firefighters’ rescue gloves was quite good, and the descending soldiers reported that they were mostly uninjured.

Every 20 people who descended would pack the rappelling equipment into a bag, which was then pulled back up by the spare rope.

Meanwhile, Major General Jin was contacting the Command to get the Signal Soldier to link to the satellite imagery.

The satellite imagery transmission was not the same as the future’s 3G individual soldier communication device; the audio and video were separate, highly inconvenient, and the connection was extremely complex, often losing signal. It took a long while for everyone on the mountain to adjust the system.

Major General Jin dallied.

Fang Huai saw through his act but kept his thoughts to himself.

Unexpectedly, the major general was afraid of heights.

Earlier, Fang Huai had noticed that Major General Jin hardly dared to look down when standing at the edge of the cliff, staggering whenever he was close to the precipice, one foot in front and one foot behind.

But after waiting for over an hour, and Fang Huai having sent down more than a hundred men using the four ropes, with Major General Jin still on the mountain going "Hello? Hello?", Fang Huai could no longer hold back and chuckled:

"Major General Jin, with such an unstable system, even if you connect now while on the mountain, won’t you have to reconnect once down the hill? Are you planning to stay up here and not go down? To command remotely?"

Embarrassed, Major General Jin let out a grunt: "Um... just tweaking the system a bit up here! At this rate, it’ll be five o’clock before everyone’s down!"

Fang Huai smiled half-heartedly: "But it’ll take time to get the expert’s assessment, and your hesitation to descend and contact the Command to establish image transmission is delaying the people of Beichuan."

Upon hearing this, Major General Jin felt a rush of adrenaline and stood up suddenly, shouting:

"Give me the hook!"

The way he demanded it, it looked as if he didn’t even need the rope and would dare to jump with just the hook attached.

...

minutes later.

Major General Jin’s hands were clenched tightly around the rope, hanging off the cliff edge.

Fang Huai patted his hand and could not help but laugh:

"Hold on above with one hand, below with the other! How can you descend if you hold it like that? Don’t worry! If you tighten your grip on the lower rope, you won’t fall!"

Major General Jin’s eyes bulged like cowbells.

"Can... can this hook really hold?"

Fang Huai smiled: "The hook is even sturdier than the rope! It also has built-in friction!"

Only then did Major General Jin slowly let go with his right hand and immediately gripped below.

Soon after, however, a cacophony of yells and curses came from up the mountainside.

"@¥-#**..."

The content was disharmonious, and the scene wasn’t at all serious.

Both the soldiers on the mountain and those below watched the spectacle, snickering secretly.

They had not expected to be amused by the major general’s predicament today!