Chapter 350 - 282: Preparing to Evacuate

The sun had already reached its decline for the day.

At four forty in the afternoon, four long lifelines, living up to expectations, allowed 800 soldiers to descend upon the massive dam body at the base of the cliff.

The soldiers were all very brave; many descended with the resolve to face death, given the height of the rappel.

But this mindset actually prevented major mistakes; occasionally, the ropes would snag at the knots, but the issues were resolved quickly, not causing much delay.

Not until the last Fang Huai untied the three fixed ropes and one backup rope, leaving only one behind, before he swung his body on the long rope and rapidly descended to the bottom of the cliff, did the surrounding soldiers finally erupt into thunderous applause.

"Good!"

"Beautiful!"

Major General Jin strode over with a big laugh, "We really owe it to you guys! The Firefighting comrades have made a significant contribution!"

However, Fang Huai removed his gloves, patted the dust off his hands, and shook his head, "Is the blasting plan set?"

Major General Jin pointed to a soldier operating the Single-Soldier Satellite Communication System on a nearby piece of open ground,

"The real-time image transmission was not very clear, so we sent some photos of the scene later. The command is still studying them, but the leadership has already praised you, saying your judgment was very accurate!

On your way back, I will also report your outstanding performance to the command!

I estimate, a second-class merit for you and a collective third-class merit for the group, you won’t be able to escape that this time!"

Fang Huai quickly walked closer to the communication computer and waved his hand,

"Let’s talk about the task first, then the merits. If we don’t blow this up by tomorrow morning, we might have to notify the residents of Beichuan to evacuate."

Upon hearing this, Major General Jin crossed his arms, "The command has already been in touch with Mianyang Command, and Beichuan has been notified to evacuate, aside from the search and rescue soldiers, everyone is to withdraw to higher ground."

"What?" Fang Huai was stunned,

"Already notified? What about the panic that will cause? You heard what the locals along the way were saying!

Why didn’t you persuade the command? If we succeed in the blast today, why should everyone worry unnecessarily?"

Major General Jin shook his head with a heavy heart,

"After recent measurements, the current water storage has reached at least 28 million cubic meters, which is beyond the guarantee that water won’t flood into Beichuan. As soon as a splash reaches Beichuan City, the command must be notified.

Little Fang, leadership has its responsibilities; when you become a leader one day, you will understand the complexity of these matters."

After saying that, he leaned closer to Fang Huai and whispered,

"Right now, some disaster-affected people are recklessly working on saving things in front of dangerous buildings, very risky behavior, and they don’t even wear masks. After a major disaster, there is a risk of epidemic; the leadership thinks it’s best to take this opportunity to evacuate those folks altogether, and then carry out a comprehensive disinfection, which would be safer."

Fang Huai listened and couldn’t help but let out a long sigh.

Misfortune does not come singly.

In this earthquake, while Wenchuan was at the epicenter, Beichuan suffered the worst. Barely two out of ten families remained intact, and now they faced a potential catastrophic flood disaster and the possibility of an epidemic outbreak.

The heavens were truly so unfair.

As the evening approached and the proximity of Beichuan before him, Fang Huai’s heart grew anxious once again.

"Major General Jin, how much longer will it take for the command to finalize the blasting plan?"

"Everyone’s pushing it, but it can’t be rushed." Major General Jin, with a look of concern, said, "We can first decide on the plan for getting out. Once we blast, the surrounding mountain walls may collapse again, and the dam releasing water will definitely not be safe."

Fang Huai pointed to the three long ropes set aside in the distance,

"I’ve already thought about the evacuation plan while descending.

Crossing the water.

The ropes are over there; before the blast, we should use the slow current to cross the downstream waters and retreat up the mountains below, then carry out the long-range detonation.

If successful, we will head towards Beichuan directly following the downstream mountain."

Upon hearing this, Major General Jin was immediately on board, "Yes! That’s exactly what I was thinking too! We’ll just float from here directly towards Beichuan!"

...

It wasn’t until 11 pm that the plan was finally set.

During the intervening hours, Fang Huai shared his knowledge of the soil conditions with Major General Jin and they dug around together for verification.

Although the command determined the plan, the exact sites to plant the explosives had to be decided by Major General Jin after a field inspection.

The command’s first plan was to conduct the blasts in three separate incidents.

But that was quickly revised.

Given that they only had ten tons of explosives, the command decided to opt for a mid-point blast on the side of the dam facing Tangjia Mountain.

Experts, after examining the section of Tangjia Mountain, concluded that this side was less likely to cause a secondary landslide.

If one side collapsed, releasing the water flow, the force of the water would gradually collapse the dam body. This method had the greatest chance of success on the first attempt.

This was especially important, as there had already been a case of a snakebite among them. The soldier who was bitten was still hospitalized for treatment, and there were also a dozen other injuries.

This was already the best outcome, and experiencing it again was a loss that none could bear.

With the plan in place, the next steps were to dig the holes and fill them with explosives.

Blasting was not something Fang Huai was particularly familiar with, expensive knowledge starting at 10 military merits was available in the military merit shop, but he was not interested in learning.

So, he stood next to several operators, silently learning.

What he had not expected was that the Armed Police Hydroelectric Forces also had blasters, assisting the artillery brigade.

Brigade Captain Chen spoke proudly, as they would sometimes use blasting when encountering hard rock while building roads.

This statement made all the firefighters present green with envy.

Demolition is not easy.

It wasn’t just about piling up the explosives and setting them off.

To ensure that the energy from the explosives was fully directed to one side of the dam body, it was necessary to implement the blast internally.

Since there was no machinery, holes had to be dug manually to place the explosives. The charges had to be opened, filled with explosive powder package by package along the hole, then wired, and finally, each hole had to be filled with soil and covered up.

Under the rotation of every movable light, they started working at 9 p.m. Those who understood blasting filled the explosives, while those who didn’t learned to dig holes under the guidance of the experts.

The holes needed to be deep and narrow.

After several hours, many soldiers who hadn’t slept for a day and a night, even over two days, began to falter, even Fang Huai couldn’t help leaning against a small earth slope and dozed off.

But the comrades from the anti-aircraft artillery brigade and the hydropower troops were still working.

Fang Huai had an incredibly long dream.

He dreamt that he flew across the rivers and mountains of Sichuan, gathered the wandering souls, listened to each of their lives—long or short—heard their reluctance to die like this, heard all their regrets, and then sent them off to heaven.

Awoken by Major General Jin’s shout, it was already dawn.

The surrounding lights had also gone out.

"Check the circuits, get ready to evacuate!"

Standing high on the dam, Major General Jin looked down contentedly at the night’s work.

Fang Huai wiped the moisture from the corners of his eyes and, seeing a few comrades from the Second Squadron sitting beside him, catching their breath after their shift, felt a surge of warmth.

Hao Chengbin, Ye Jiahong, Cao Yi, Zhao Jinchen, Fang Hongliang.

Huang Yong, Kong Xiangzhong, Zhang Yang, and the others who still had energy were running around on the ground.

These were comrades he had only known for a few short months, among them, some with whom he had had grievances. Yet now, they all gave him a familiar and solid feeling of "having someone to watch my back."

Their casual poses sitting on the ground like clay figurines, hooking shoulders, supporting each other, all felt endearing to him.

The Second Squadron...

It was only the third day since he entered Sichuan, and yet it had already become a term he deeply missed.

The events of these past few days felt like he had lived through several lifetimes.

He missed the days when a small alarm went off every now and then, which rarely took lives, and even though the crazy training didn’t take away the peace and happiness.

He missed sitting down with everyone, blowing hot air and waiting for lunch in the beautiful front yard.

He missed playing games and laughing freely on the fourth floor during the weekends.

But now, seeing everyone’s faces, serene yet anxious, he knew that this joy wouldn’t return for a long time.

The soldiers participating in this mission were, more or less, affected by PTSD.

The main symptoms in patients are re-experiencing the trauma, hyper-vigilance, and avoidance or numbing behaviors.

In these past two days, many people couldn’t sleep at all. He had seen a People’s Liberation Army soldier fall asleep during the daytime and suddenly start shouting, get up and run, and it took half a day before he realized everyone was watching him. Then he returned confused and continued to sleep against the tent.

Especially for them, the early entrants who have seen gruesome scenes and participated in dense and cruel rescues.

The symptoms of PTSD might become even more severe once they entered Beichuan.

He could only hope that everyone, accustomed to the thin line between life and death in firefighting, would recover quickly.

As he was contemplating...

Squad Leader Hao’s next move pulled him back to reality.

He took out a pack of cigarettes, shared a few with the others, then lit one for himself.

"Damn, Squad Leader, there’s gunpowder everywhere, are you smoking?!"

Hao Chengbin just waved his hand and laughed, "The holes are sealed, what are you afraid of? The brigade general said we could smoke over here.

Besides, if we get blown up, we’ll be martyrs. What are you afraid of?"

The others also lit up their cigarettes, laughing.

Hearing this, Fang Huai shuddered, pulled his legs in, squatted up, and feeling Hao Chengbin’s forehead, frowned and said:

"Squad Leader, you don’t have PTSD, do you? Why are you acting so fatalistic? We’ve still got many days of work ahead of us! Pull yourself together!"

"Smack!"

Hao Chengbin knocked his hand away and yelled, "PTSD my ass! I’m still waiting to get home and renovate my house, don’t you curse me!"

The others laughed.

Their mental resilience truly exceeded that of many others, it was only the dim light of dawn and the heavy atmosphere around them, thinking of the horrifying scenes in Beichuan as described by the locals, that really weighed on them.

Only then did Fang Huai feel relieved and stood up.

At that moment, the sight seemed miraculous.

The ten tons of explosives that had piled up into a mountain the night before had completely vanished into the earth, built into the yellow soil.

Fang Huai shouted to Major General Jin who stood at a commanding height:

"Major General Jin! How soon can we evacuate?"

"At seven o’clock sharp, we’ll evacuate! Arrange the anchor points and get the ropes ready!"

(I had things to deal with at home today, utterly exhausting. I was busy for half a day, really felt like taking a day off. I endured it, next month I’ll take a day to rest.)