Book Synopsis
Book Tags
Donation Rankings
Comment
0 Comments
You May Also Like
墨書 Inktalez
Due to the continuous rain over the past few days, the floodwaters outside were steadily rising. If the rain continued, the rushing water would become even more ferocious, and it was uncertain how much longer the embankment could hold.
When we got off the vehicle, no one was wearing raincoats. First, there had been no rain earlier, and second, wearing a raincoat would make movement cumbersome. Within minutes, everyone was soaked through.
Heavy rain pounded against the embankment, creating a mist of rain. The soil on the sloped embankment had turned into mud upon contact with water, flowing down with the current. It was extremely slippery and difficult to gain traction; one careless step could lead to a fall.
Several soldiers beside me slipped on the embankment. Without time to wipe their faces, they got back up, shouldered sandbags, and continued climbing.
However, this slowed our pace even further. Ahead of us was just a gap of over ten meters. We could see many armed police officers on the other side also carrying sandbags to fill in the breach. On both sides, a camouflage rescue team composed of soldiers and armed police was constantly moving back and forth.
We ran in the rain, carrying sandbags to block leaks. In the mud, we fell and got back up again. But no matter how hard we tried, as the gap widened, the force of the water increased. When we reached the last few meters of the gap, any sandbags thrown in were instantly swept inside by the current; there was no way to hold them back.
I personally threw several bags into the breach but saw no results. The armed police across were equally at a loss; they could only keep tossing sandbags downwards.
At that moment, our Company Commander stood there in shock, seemingly lost in thought. I was filled with anxiety when suddenly a squad leader climbed up breathlessly and shouted at him, “We’re out of sandbags!”
I was taken aback; if we ran out of sandbags, we would just have to watch helplessly as the gap widened further!
The Company Commander was startled and turned around. Upon hearing that there were no more sandbags available, the soldiers beside him stood frozen in place.
I quickly approached and urged him, “Company Commander, we should wait for the Technical Company to arrive!”
“Wait!? Just stand by and watch as the breach widens?!” The Company Commander’s eyes reddened as he nearly roared amidst the heavy rain. “No sandbags!? Get people to fill it! Jump down and block the flow! Starting with me—officers first!”
I was shocked; with such a strong current, jumping down would make it impossible to stand! There was no need to take such risks unless it was absolutely necessary! “Company Commander!” I wanted to say more.
Before I could finish my thought, someone below shouted, “Company Commander! Company Commander! The Technical Company has arrived with equipment!”
The Company Commander immediately brightened up. “Cao Cao has arrived! Quickly get all the piling equipment up here!” The latter part of his statement wasn’t directed at me.
I had nothing else to do but turn around and follow behind my fellow soldiers to transport equipment. The Technical Company had sent four trucks lined up with their backs facing the embankment. As the tailgates were lowered, soldiers quickly unloaded equipment from each vehicle.
The soldiers below then rushed towards the Company Commander. He glanced back at me with a frown and shouted, “We still need people for piling!”
The Company Commander was about to jump down when I urgently reached out and grabbed him. "What are you doing?!" The Company Commander turned to glare at me, and I had no time to explain. "Wait for me for a minute!" I shouted in his ear.
Ignoring the puzzled look from the Company Commander, I quickly ran to the embankment below the vehicle, grabbed several backpack straps, and tied them together tightly as I ran. When I reached the Company Commander again, I wrapped a stone with the backpack strap and threw it forcefully across the gap. "Catch it on the other side! Secure it!" I yelled.
The armed police on the other side were unsure of what we were doing, but despite their confusion, they instinctively reached out to catch the stone. I quickly pulled over three or four soldiers and signaled for them to do the same.
Once the armed police on that side followed suit, I shouted to the Company Commander, "Let's go! Hold onto the rope for safety!" Without waiting for a response, I jumped into the gap.
The Company Commander laughed heartily. "Good one! You've got skills!" He grabbed a wooden stake and jumped down as well!
I faced inward as I jumped down. Upon entering the water, I immediately felt a strong force pushing me back toward the embankment. I stumbled forward a few steps before grabbing onto the backpack strap to steady myself. Once in the gap, I realized that this section of the embankment had been eroded by about two meters, forming a concave shape. The embankment was quite wide, but waves of water surged in from outside, creating turbulent currents that forced me to hold tightly onto the backpack strap. It took considerable effort just to stand firm; seeing this situation, everyone on both sides understood that we needed to get into the water and work. They tightened their grips on the backpack straps to stabilize me.
At this moment, the Company Commander found his footing and shouted up above, "Throw down hammers! Get down here quickly! All squad leaders come down!" I yelled into the gap, and hearing my voice, our unit's Li Squad Leader was the first to jump down, followed by various squad leaders. With someone setting an example, many soldiers jumped down as well, even some armed police joined in excitedly.
Although morale was high, watching the Company Commander struggle to balance with one hand holding a wooden stake and the other gripping a backpack strap made me shout, "Company Commander! It's hard to stand here!"
"More people down! Hold hands to form a human wall to block the water flow from outside; those behind need to focus on driving stakes!" The Company Commander shouted with red eyes.
I yelled back, "Take your time crossing over; hold hands and stand outside! Block some of that water!"
Li Squad Leader quickly reacted; he grabbed onto the backpack strap and slowly walked into the middle of the gap, turning to face the flood. Soldiers on both sides (including several armed police) cautiously made their way over as well, grasping tightly onto the backpack straps and forming a row. Soldiers coming down behind them began driving stakes and packing sandbags.
One soldier near our gap was particularly clever; fearing that those outside might be swept away by the current, he found another backpack strap and tossed it over. With some distance between two straps, more officers and soldiers rushed down from both sides, interlocking to form a human wall that effectively blocked the surging water!
After a long while, I saw someone post online about how the People's Liberation Army formed a human wall against floodwaters. I couldn't help but chuckle; of course, forming a human wall wasn't meant to stop floods—it couldn't stop them anyway. Anyone thinking so clearly had issues with their intelligence. The purpose of forming a human wall was to reduce the impact of floodwaters on sandbags behind us when sealing breaches; otherwise, throwing down one sandbag would result in it being swept away before it could accumulate enough to block the gap. Time was critical when sealing breaches; within minutes, gaps could widen significantly due to flooding. So in emergencies without equipment or large objects available to mitigate water flow impact, forming a human wall was our only option. If people cared enough, they should take another look at photos of that human wall—behind it were other squads working on driving stakes and tossing sandbags—so it was merely a temporary measure to weaken water flow impact.
In fact, using heavy machinery to drop large concrete blocks or sunken ships instead of forming a human wall would have been more effective; however, such machinery couldn't be used in many terrains. Looking further afield at how Americans handled flood control in New Orleans—only knowing how to drop sandbags one by one from helicopters—was beyond foolish; it was simply ineffective disaster relief.
Once we managed to slightly block off some of that water flow inside our area without being affected ourselves, we could focus entirely on driving stakes. The Company Commander had one soldier support him with a wooden stake while he raised his hammer high above his head and began hammering it down. With him leading by example, we all rushed forward; soon enough, rows of wooden stakes were driven deep into place. Sandbags passed from armed police continued coming down in neat lines before and behind those stakes. In less than an hour's time, water flowing through gaps in our human wall could no longer surpass our sandbag barrier—only some seeped through slowly between cracks.
As river levels rose higher on one side while our sandbag wall grew taller on this side, our human wall remained steadfast—even as floodwaters lapped at their noses—they pressed tightly against that sandbag barrier. Gradually, we built up our inner layer of sandbags higher than those forming our outer human wall until their height matched that of both sides of the embankment. Finally catching his breath after all this effort, the Company Commander wiped his face and shouted triumphantly, "Alright!"
"Quick, come help!" I hurriedly passed the hammer up to the embankment beside me and turned to pull Wu Chao up from the ground. Others quickly followed suit, and over there, Li Squad Leader climbed across to the other side of the gap.
Once this gap was blocked, both sides were connected, with a stretch of road only as wide as two sandbags in between. Although it wasn't very smooth, it was passable. The sandbag wall had stakes embedded in it, rising nearly a meter above the water level outside, so it should be fine.
At that moment, several officials from the armed police appeared, holding umbrellas and parting the crowd as they approached. "Who is in charge over there?" asked a leader figure at the front, while someone behind him held an umbrella for him, seemingly his secretary.
The Company Commander responded and walked over. I had no intention of getting involved in these official matters and turned to head back, but the Company Commander called me over, so I had no choice but to join him.
"Haha, it's still impressive how capable the People's Liberation Army Comrades are! It hasn't even been four hours since we sent out the distress signal, and you've already blocked the gap! Thanks to you all, otherwise the village below would be in serious trouble!" The leader came forward and shook hands vigorously with the Company Commander. He wasn't used to someone holding an umbrella for him and stepped aside slightly. "No need for thanks; as long as you have a situation, we will definitely rush over to handle it. Don't hesitate!"
"Ah! The People's Liberation Army Comrades are straightforward! Haha!" The leader laughed and then added, "However, when it comes to flood control and emergency rescue, you are truly experts! We can't do without you! There's another situation that needs your attention!"
"What situation? Please give your orders!" The Company Commander was a straightforward person who never understood why people bothered with pleasantries.
"Well, near the city center, a new section of embankment has been built. It seems there might be some piping issues. You know how close it is to the Development Zone; if there really is piping trouble, it could be problematic. However, we aren't very good at judging this; we need your professional team to handle it. I'd like to ask you to conduct a thorough inspection," the leader said hesitantly.
(To be continued; more exciting content tomorrow!)
Comment 0 Comment Count