Chapter 2198

The day after the Jiangkou embankment breached, Su Xinghui was directing flood control on the embankment when Yu Ruizhi and Yu Sister Sister Ruoqiu suddenly arrived, which surprised Su Xinghui very much. He asked, "Why are you two here?"

Yu Ruizhi said, "To see your situation. Mainly, the embankment breached in Jiangkou, and Sister Sister Ruoqiu is worried that something might happen here."

Su Xinghui said, "It's okay, the embankment in our Chongjin County is repaired very firmly, and various materials are also fully prepared. Speaking of which, this also has your credit. You have contributed a lot of effort."

Yu Sister Sister Ruoqiu said, "Xinghui, yesterday a batch of disaster relief materials from our foundation was already sent to Jiangkou City, and today we have another batch of materials to be sent over, including the stone materials you mentioned. We organized a large batch of stone materials from Junchu's side and sent them over by train cars."

Yu Junchu was now the County Magistrate of Wushui County. Wushui County was located in the Tianyue Mountain Range, which produced a large amount of stone materials, so it was most appropriate to organize stone materials there.

Yu Ruizhi said, "We called Junchu yesterday and asked him to be responsible for organizing the stone materials. They started to mobilize train cars and load stone materials yesterday afternoon, and they set off this morning. They can be transported to Jiangkou City by noon today and can be put into the plugging and emergency rescue. Don't worry."

Now in Jiangkou City, the most lacking material for plugging the breach was stone materials. With this batch of stone materials organized by Yu Ruizhi and the others transported over, the plugging of the Jiangkou City breach should be no problem. Su Xinghui felt relieved all of a sudden.

Speaking of which, this Jiangkou embankment breach also had an impact on Ke Zhifang. After all, he was the Governor of Jiangyou Province, so this batch of stone materials organized by Yu Ruizhi and the others could be considered a great help to Ke Zhifang.

The sooner the breach here was plugged, the less pressure Ke Zhifang would have.

In fact, when the embankment breached yesterday, Ke Zhifang followed Vice Premier Xu to the scene at the first time to direct the plugging work on the spot. From yesterday afternoon until now, he hadn't closed his eyes. He stayed on the front line with the flood control soldiers and civilians on the scene, less than ten meters away from the breach.

Seeing that various methods had been used, but the huge opening just couldn't be plugged, Ke Zhifang was anxious.

What he was thinking about now was not just his responsibility; he was thinking more about the millions of citizens in Jiangkou City. If the opening couldn't be plugged and was even dug larger, once the city protection embankment was washed away, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Ke Zhifang even thought tragically that if that really happened, he could only jump down from the breach.

Ke Zhifang now understood those people in history who either died in depression or committed suicide to apologize after making a big mistake. This feeling of both shame and regret was truly too uncomfortable.

Although this embankment breach was not caused by Ke Zhifang and he was not the primary person responsible, he was the Governor of Jiangyou Province. If the opening couldn't be plugged, he really didn't know how to face everything that followed.

This time, the Jiangkou embankment breached such a large opening. If it couldn't be plugged in the short term, the most serious consequence might even cause the Changjiang River to change its course. And once it changed its course, the cities along the way would become a vast expanse of water, and the loss would be unknown. In that case, the primary person responsible for this breach would certainly become a sinner through the ages, and Ke Zhifang's name would likely also be left in history books.

Of course, it wouldn't be a good reputation left behind.

Yesterday, the plugging work had made some progress. The director on the scene mobilized a large ship of several thousand tons and sank it at the breach. This immediately reduced the water flow, winning time for the transfer of the masses and the plugging of the breach.

And the expert group that arrived at the scene with Vice Premier Xu also played an important role. Shi Wenguang and other experts proposed a new plugging technology, which was the steel-wood-earth-stone combined dam technology.

This steel-wood-earth-stone combined dam technology was to use steel pipes to weld into large cage-shaped steel frames, place the steel frames at the place of the breach, and then fill various wood materials, sandbags, and stone bags into the steel frames. Because there was a steel frame to fix them, these things would not be washed away by the water flow.

After filling this steel frame, it became a temporary embankment, which could block the flood, which meant that the plugging of the breach was successful.

Last night, Ke Zhifang ordered to mobilize a large number of steel pipes to weld on the spot. Because the breach was slowly expanding and had expanded to more than sixty meters, this steel frame also needed to be very large. And in order to fix those sandbags and stone bags, the steel frame needed to be welded very densely.

So they spent a whole night to successfully weld this steel frame and successfully placed the steel frame at the place of the breach with a crane.

But at this time, the problem came again. Because relying only on sand and soil, this temporary embankment was not strong enough and could not bear such great pressure if soaked for a long time. So they still needed a large amount of stone materials. According to the volume and loss calculation of the embankment breach, at least tens of thousands of cubic meters of stone materials were needed.

But there were no mountains in Jiangkou City, and no stone materials were produced at all. They used all the stone materials stored by the flood control headquarters and some stone materials reserved for road construction projects nearby, but the gap was still quite large. They could only call everywhere for help, but for a while, it was like water from afar not being able to quench thirst from nearby.

Just when everyone was as anxious as ants on a hot pot, Ke Zhifang received a call from Yu Ruizhi. Yu Ruizhi told him that they had organized a batch of stone materials from Wushui County and had already sent them to Jiangkou City by freight train, and they were expected to arrive before noon.

The quantity of this batch of stone materials was about ten or twenty thousand cubic meters, which had to be transported to Jiangkou City by more than ten freight trains. He asked Ke Zhifang to hurry up and organize trucks to rush to the breach.

In fact, to transport stone materials, it was originally most cost-effective to use ships. A ship could carry thousands of cubic meters of stone materials, and the freight was also low. But at this time, it was not suitable to use ships. The speed of ships was relatively slow, and it was expected to take one or two days to arrive. Moreover, the Changjiang River was now blocked for shipping, and the water level was too high, so it was too dangerous to sail, so it could only be transported by train.

Ke Zhifang was overjoyed when he heard Yu Ruizhi's words. He didn't expect Yu Ruizhi to send the stone materials so timely. He thanked him repeatedly and asked, "Why are you so timely? It's simply a timely rain!"

Yu Ruizhi smiled and said, "Uncle Ke, it was Xinghui who called me yesterday and asked me to help organize a batch of stone materials to be sent to Jiangkou. He said that Jiangkou must be short of stone materials now. So I called Junchu and asked him to organize stone materials, and I paid for it. He didn't sleep all night last night, just busy with this matter, and finally set off this morning."

Ke Zhifang didn't expect that it was Su Xinghui who thought ahead again. He was so careful that he actually asked Yu Ruizhi to organize stone materials and send them over yesterday.

From the breach yesterday until now, it had been less than twenty hours, and their stone materials were actually almost here. This was not a small number, ten or twenty thousand cubic meters. This organization efficiency was too high.

Ke Zhifang sighed a little, then thanked Yu Ruizhi for a few words, hung up the phone, and went to report this good news to Vice Premier Xu.

Vice Premier Xu had already contacted the provincial governments of other provinces and asked them to support stone materials here, but these places were too far from Jiangkou, and the cities close to Jiangkou were basically along the Changjiang River, located on the Yanglan Lake Plain, and did not produce stone materials. It would take at least until tomorrow for these stone materials to arrive.

When Vice Premier Xu was anxious, he heard Ke Zhifang report this news, and he was also overjoyed. This news was truly too good. This was truly a timely rain.

Just when they were happy about this news, Premier Nan also arrived. He also came to the scene to inspect the situation of the breach. After such a big thing happened, Premier Nan naturally had to rush over.

As soon as Premier Nan arrived, he asked about the progress of the plugging work. Vice Premier Xu, Ke Zhifang, and the leaders of Jiangkou City reported the work progress to Premier Nan. Premier Nan heard that there was already a plan for plugging the breach, and the stone materials needed for plugging the breach would also be transported soon, and his face eased a little.

These days, Premier Nan was also running around the country, because this flood could be said to have swept across the north and south of China. From the northernmost to the southernmost, super floods occurred, and only those provinces in the west with relatively sparse rainfall were spared. One could imagine the pressure on Premier Nan's shoulders.

This time, the Jiangkou embankment breached. Jiangkou City was a large city with millions of people, densely populated and prosperous. If it couldn't be plugged, Premier Nan would not be able to account to the Party Central Committee, so his mood was also very urgent.

Now, fortunately, although the embankment breached, because there was a city protection embankment, it had not caused more serious consequences for the time being. Moreover, the on-site command and disposal were relatively appropriate, the efficiency was high, and the speed was fast. If the stone materials could be transported by noon, according to the expert group, the plugging of the breach could be successful by tomorrow at the earliest.

Premier Nan immediately came to the place of the breach. When he saw a large ship sinking at the place of the breach, the water flow was relatively gentle, and the water volume was not too large, his face eased a little.

He turned back and asked, "Why did it breach?"

Premier Nan's question made the faces of several leaders in Jiangkou City a bit embarrassed. How could they answer this question? Along the thousands of kilometers of embankment sections in the Changjiang River Basin, there was no place that breached, but it breached here. Their faces were ashamed and angry.

They couldn't answer. Premier Nan turned to ask Shi Wenguang, "Construction, do you know the reason for the breach?"

Shi Wenguang said, "The main project of the embankment here has been for a long time, and many places inside are not steel bars, but bamboo strips. The strength of the main body of the embankment is not enough. After long-term soaking under high water level, it is easy to have a piping phenomenon. Coupled with the wrong response measures when the piping occurred, the piping eventually developed into a breach. However, this is just our preliminary judgment."