Chapter 477 - 381 Mount Tai Squadron

"F*ck... how much longer do we have?"

"We’re almost there, really almost there. Just around this bend, and you’ll see it."

"I f*cking... really have no jealousy toward your model squadron."

"...None of us are jealous!"

When it was time for Police Dispatch, everyone was full of enthusiasm.

After all, they were fresh from learning mountain rescue, a topic they were familiar with and needed no review.

But just to transfer the patient on the stretcher to the Zhongtianmen aid station and coordinate with the medical emergency number 120 to take over, it took more than an hour.

Climbing the mountain, the squadron Captain named Sun Hongyou told them they would arrive soon.

"Soon" was quite a while.

Even Hu Peizhou was growing impatient and said, "Captain Sun, can you lead us to your squadron first to drop off our bags? Climbing like this is too slow. With six officers, I’m afraid we won’t be able to handle all the dispatches today."

Police Dispatch was paramount, no matter the training, and when work came up, it had to be prioritized.

Once again, Captain Sun turned to look at the fifty or so people behind him and said:

"Our squadron is at the Top of Taishan; the conditions are very simple and can’t accommodate so many people. But if you go past Shiwu toward the north, there’s Beitianmen, where there’s an Air Force radar station. When we first arrived, the temporary rescue station was set up there, and it’s still vacant now, so you can stay there!

Instructor Huang is not here, but he instructed that I take you all there! What do you want to eat? I’ll have someone send up some food in a bit!"

Hu Peizhou then waved his hand and said:

"We’ll eat whatever there is. We brought our rations when we came up!"

Captain Sun laughed and said, "Fine! I’ll have someone cook potato stew for you all in a bit! I know that during these big training sessions, your food is good. We buy groceries and send them up by cable car every three or four days; it’s quite troublesome. With just a small fridge, there’s not much we can stock, so it’s mostly potatoes and cabbage. With the conditions up here, I hope you won’t complain!"

Wow, potato stew with meat!!

How many days has it been since I last saw that?

As Logistics progressively withdrew from the food system, the meals were becoming blander by the day. Like during marches without a kitchen, they ate compressed biscuits, and they had begun to depend on redeemed points for extra food.

They even invented some new dishes: instant noodles soup with rice, spicy tofu with rice, pickled pepper chicken feet sour soup with rice.

Fortunately, they still had rice, and if there wasn’t enough vegetable, they could exchange some points for soupy dishes to go with the rice.

Pig’s trotters were an extravagance they didn’t dare dream of; costing 8 points each, they were damn expensive.

The f*cking bobcat had even taken them to a restaurant a few days ago, where they didn’t eat a thing, just watched a cooking competition on TV.

To this day, they remembered the dishes they saw on the screen: pita bread pulls, sauce-smothered duck, dumplings.

The table next to them had spicy diced chicken with peanuts, stir-fried celery with pork liver, tomato and egg soup, and sautéed cabbage...

Having a meal without any vegetable was like not eating at all.

They experienced, for the first time, what it meant to grow hungrier as they ate.

This journey had strengthened their willpower, but some were already contemplating becoming monks.

At the mention of potato stew with meat by Captain Sun, all the trainees’ eyes collectively lit up.

But everyone was looking at Captain Hu, afraid they wouldn’t be allowed to eat.

Seeing the wolfish glow in everyone’s eyes, Hu Peizhou chuckled and said, "Since you helped out with the Police Dispatch today, I’ll give you a break."

"Long live!"

"Hahaha... potato stew with meat!"

The soldiers cheered collectively.

With that, they had truly stumped Captain Sun.

How come... it looked like the conditions were even worse than ours?

He simply didn’t understand the difference between being poor and being a savage.

...

minutes later, they finally reached the vicinity of the most urgent distress call.

The victim was easily found because several tourists were gathered around, and nearby there was a steep uphill trail with railings that weren’t high enough. It seemed likely that the victim had fallen over the railing from higher up.

A group of tourists from Zhejiang were all talking at once.

"Ah, you’re finally here! Quick, save the person!"

"He’s going to die! He’s going to die! This person has been lying down there for hours without moving!"

"They’re here, they’re here; let’s go! The person below is going to die! Oh my... may Grandmother Mount Tai protect us, may Grandmother Mount Tai protect us..."

Upon seeing them arrive, the tourists immediately turned and left without even staying for the excitement, seemingly very superstitious and afraid of bad luck.

Fang Huai hurried over in a few steps and peered down.

It was an old man who had fallen into a gap between two large rocks, on a patch of grass below, more than ten meters down, and he was unconscious.

With his sharp eyesight, he could see the slight rise and fall of the man’s back; he was alive. Since the man was lying face down and there was no visible bleeding, it was hard to assess any external injuries.

The gap was quite a distance from the edge, suggesting the man had rolled down.

After assessing the situation, Fang Huai announced, "I see the person! He’s about 12 meters down!"

The soldiers behind him immediately followed up.

Truth be told, everyone’s first instinct was to call for a helicopter.

But the helicopter was in Hubei.

In the construction of Taishan’s cableway system, equipment weighing up to five tons had been carried up little by little by porters.

"Shall we do a T-type rescue?"

Number 20, who was close to Fang Huai, pointed to a footpath across the way, which, if followed up a couple of steps, could allow a crossing, and there were also trees on both sides to serve as anchor points.

Everyone was aware of Fang Huai’s versatility. With him around, they were all just offering suggestions.

Fang Huai, however, felt it was a bit troublesome, as there was some height difference on both sides, so he turned to ask Captain Sun for his take.

"Captain Sun, how do you usually handle this sort of situation?"

After all, he was the local expert, and perhaps he had some clever ideas.

Captain Sun came over, crossed his arms, and looked before pointing to an area higher up on the side: "Set the anchor point from up there, make use of the relatively smooth side of the mountain, and pull the person up."

What he described was obviously just a standard rope descent.

Manual rope protection.

At this moment, Hu Peizhou who was behind also came up to take a look and said,

"T-type rescue, huh? The drop might be a bit high, but safety comes first."

Fang Huai nodded in agreement, "This will be the B-end, with Number 2 and Number 3 in charge. The A-end will be set up above with Number 11 and Number 20 responsible, and the hauling system will go over there!"

As he spoke, he reached up and took a closer look at the person below, a rather chubby old man, and added.

"The person below must weigh close to 200 kilograms. The force will be significant when we pull him up, so all the anchor points on the A-end should be made into double anchor systems with rabbit ear knots to distribute the force!"

This time, not just Sun’s Team but also his own team members were somewhat confused.

Double anchor system?

Fang Huai didn’t wait for their questions; he took off his backpack, pulled out a safety rope, tied a rabbit ear knot, grabbed the two loops, and showed them.

"Fold the rope in half, tie a double figure-eight knot without tightening it, thread the end back through the top loop, then pull the other loop through and tighten!

That’s a double loop! For two anchor points with an angle less than 30 degrees, use a D-shaped carabiner on top! The force is distributed evenly, get it? It’s like each rope has an extra twin rope protection system! The anchors can distribute the force! If one side breaks, there is still another!"

Once they saw it, some understood.

Number 20 laughed, "It kind of looks like a noose knot!"

Fang Huai grimaced.

"Well, this knot can simultaneously hang you and Number 11!"

"Haha..."

Although someone was at the bottom, everyone still couldn’t help but laugh heartlessly.

...

Joking aside, fun aside.

Fang Huai turned the old man over to examine his injuries, felt around his body, unsure if there were any fractures, so he had to get the man up first.

The Mount Tai Squadron’s stretcher was designed for carrying people and wasn’t suited for immobilization, so Fang Huai had to make a triple loop around the old man’s waist and legs at the bottom. He then strapped on a safety belt, securing two protection points onto one haul rope before assisting the old man and shouting with a raised hand,

"Ready, pull!"

"One, two!"

"One, two!"

Using a three-to-one mechanical advantage system, everyone pulled with all their might.

The two men quickly completed the vertical and then the horizontal transfer, after which Fang Huai climbed up, grabbed the old man by the armpits, and with a fierce pull, he hauled the overweight elder up.

The soldiers from the Mount Tai Squadron were stunned.

What the heck is this?

A soldier from the Mount Tai Squadron couldn’t help but ask, "...the two of them together, that’s over 300 kilograms, right? And just two of you could pull them up?"

The trainees laughed and gave a PUA-like response from what they had learned that day, "It’s the three-to-one mechanical advantage system! Taught by Director Wei! Haven’t you learned that?"

The Mount Tai Squadron looked confused, "No, who is Director Wei?"

Now it was everyone else’s turn to be surprised.

"You don’t know Director Wei? Haven’t you attended the ministry’s video conferences?"

Mount Tai Squadron:

"Video conferences?... To hold a meeting, we have to go down to the Big Team headquarters. It’s such a hassle!"

Everyone looked at the mountain and understood.

It was then Number 20’s voice came over.

"He’s bleeding from the nose, has a hematoma, could he have internal injuries?"

Fang Huai shook his head, "Subcutaneous hematoma, probably from external injury. He might have hit something on the way down, which is also the cause of his fainting. There’s a clear fracture in the leg joint. We should splint it and send him to the hospital!"

"Alright!"

The other side of the Mount Tai Squadron was shocked.

What, does your team also have a doctor?

Captain Sun quickly shouted, "We’ve got splints at the rescue station down below! Let’s send him there first!"

Hearing this, Fang Huai nodded, waved his hand,

"Get him on the stretcher!"

...

The work continued until the sun dipped behind the distant mountain horizon.

Six units were dispatched, but in reality, only four were needed.

Two of the cases weren’t serious; brief fainting spells, and by the time they woke up, they had already descended on their own.

Apart from the old man, the rest were minor sprains, exhaustion, or fainting episodes.

Captain Sun said that oftentimes they would go on a call for nothing, as there would be tourists who were doctors that would help with the rescue.

Some were simply too tired to continue climbing and wanted a free ride down the mountain on a sedan chair. Last week, there was a case of someone feigning epilepsy; they looked perfectly normal, with not a drop of drool, just fake convulsions, but there was no choice but to turn a blind eye.

Upon arriving at the Mount Tai Squadron, everyone felt a bit awed.

This is a squadron?

This was hardly a squadron.

It was just a cavern under a platform at the top of Taishan.

From the outside, it simply looked like a security room.

The soldiers from the training group were once again astounded, "This is your... quite exemplary indeed!"

The design, narrow with a hint of wild abandon.

If a squadron’s conditions score a perfect ten, this place would lose 8.4 points, because it has a smidgen of 6.

"Crude conditions, crude indeed! It’s tight inside, but once you’re out, it’s spacious!"

Captain Sun laughed heartily, leading them through the door.