Binjiang Police Affairs-Chapter 1041 - 683: I Need to Requisition Your Motor Transport Company!

Master Zhou from the Road and Bridge Company caught a cold and had a high fever. Another excavator operator from the Ministry of Transport's Marine Engineering Bureau had an upset stomach due to acclimatization issues. Xiao Yu went to participate in a water rescue, so there were not enough excavator operators, and Han Yu had to step in personally.

As a novice, I couldn't handle highly technical work, so I could only dig soil.

However, digging soil is now a very important task. The breakwater requires a large number of sandbags to protect the slope. A 1.6-kilometer dangerous dike needs sandbags tossed on the waterside to stabilize it. The opposite dike also needs sandbags for reinforcement.

Add to this the fact that the Jingjiang is hindered by downstream floods, and the upstream water flow is not smooth. The flood peak has passed, but the water level has risen instead of falling. The nearby levee sections are fraught with danger and urgently need sandbags to heighten the sub-dam.

The sections under emergency protection require sandbags, and nearby military and civilians also need sandbag support. Once filled, the sandbags are hoisted onto ships for transport, one ship after another, upstream and downstream. Relying solely on Dongdong's filling unit is not enough, so we had to ask for assistance from the 402nd Army to help with the filling.

Not counting the automated filling zones, just in the manual filling areas, there are twenty setups around the soil extraction point!

Han Yu's main task is to supply soil to the twenty-one filling zones, including the automated ones.

After digging dozens of cubic meters of soil to form a small mound here, the mound over there had shrunk, and further away, the mounds had nearly been flattened by the sweaty soldiers.

Since the soil extraction point and the filling zones are quite far from the hoisting point, relying on just Loader No. 2 and one forklift from Dongdong's side is insufficient. Hao Qiusheng immediately ordered the tractor unit to assist with the transportation.

Over in the manual filling zone of the 402nd Army, a motor company from the 402nd is responsible for transportation, and two infantry companies are assigned for loading and unloading.

Excavation Group One and Excavation Group Two are responsible for the emergency construction of Breakwater One and Breakwater Two, respectively. Two large excavators are extracting soil at another point, with two large dump trucks shuttling back and forth between the extraction and construction points, each carrying over thirty tons of soil per trip.

The two slanted breakwaters are extending into the river at a pace visible to the naked eye.

On the dangerous dike, soldiers from the 402nd are continuously tossing sandbags to stabilize the foot of the dike!

The entire emergency protection zone is brightly lit, filled with soldiers involved in the effort, resembling a bustling large construction site.

...

Working with the "Hong Kong Garrison" in flood relief is undoubtedly an awkward affair.

If they work while you stand aside watching, it would be very awkward.

If you take the lead and join the soldiers in carrying sandbags, or even filling sandbags, it would seem even more awkward.

Despite deploying nearly a regiment's worth of troops, the efficiency in filling and transporting sandbags is not as high as that of a filling unit commanded by a sixteen-year-old child.

With the assistance of soldiers from the 404th Division, along with one loader, one forklift, and sixteen tractors, they can fill, sew, bind, and transport ten to fifteen sandbags per minute. Each bag is filled with a standard weight of around eighty pounds.

The bag openings are sewn very securely, unlike hand-tied sandbags which easily come loose during loading and unloading, causing spillage.

Binding the sandbag cages is handled by those workers; the 402nd Army has no role in this task.

The commander led by example, filling sandbags with the soldiers for nearly two hours, feeling increasingly sore and realizing how foolish he looked.

He dropped the shovel and returned to the main dike as Han Yu happened to be switching shifts with another excavator operator.

Old Ge, seeing the commander ascend the dike and Han Yu return, quickly walked up the steel pontoon bridge and called out: "Captain Meng, it's mealtime!"

To ensure the participating soldiers had a warm meal, the commander proposed yesterday to share meals with the "Hong Kong Garrison" for the following days.

The cook boat, integrated supply ship, water factory ship, and three dunships were all relocated here. The two contingents united, creating a strong logistical support team. Preparing meals for several hundred people was not a problem, though the dishes couldn't be as diverse as before.

The commander raised his arm to check the time and curiously asked, "Director Ge, what's for dinner tonight?"

Old Ge looked back at the brightly lit "Linghai Port Engineering Command" dunship and smiled, "Braised chicken, braised ribs, and stir-fried bok choy, plus seaweed and egg drop soup."

"Two meat, one vegetable, one soup - not bad at all."

"Today is Ba Yi Army Day, so ideally we should have added some extra dishes, but there are too many people, and the cooking team can't keep up, so we kept it simple."

"That's more than sufficient. Director Ge, do we have enough funds for meals?"

"Yes, we do."

"Are you sure?"

"Even if there's not enough, we're here to provide subsidies."

"You are the hosts now, and we're just helpers. It's only right to share some perks with the hosts."

"Captain Meng, you sure know how to joke."

Just as they were speaking, Han Yu climbed up the slope.

The commander, smiling, looked at him and said, "Salted Fish, you're something! You can even operate an excavator!"

"I can only dig soil, nothing else. Operating an excavator isn't very difficult, but doing it well isn't easy."

Han Yu glanced at the progress on the river and pointed to a small segment of the breakwater extending into the river, saying, "For instance, when the soil is nearly filled, you need to drive the excavator up to level the slope. That's something I can't do. If they insist I try, there's a good chance I'd drive the excavator right into the river."

"Being able to do a little of everything is better than not being able to do anything at all."

The commander took a cigarette from Old Ge, watching the loader at work, and reflected, "An excavator and a loader can accomplish in a day what might take several hundred people ten days to do. Having mechanization is a blessing. Watching you all at work reminds me of my brother."

"Commander, did your brother do construction work too?"

"What construction? He passed away early."

The commander lit a cigarette and took several deep puffs, sighing, "When I was in school, my hometown was developing water conservancy. Every household had to contribute labor in the river works. From spring till the cold months of the lunar year, river work was a constant. There were many siblings in my family, and we didn't have enough rations. Back then, working the river earned work points. My brother supported the family by working on the river."

Director Ge asked instinctively: "Captain Meng, do folks in your hometown have to go out for river labor too?"

"Yes, the big and small rivers and irrigation channels in the hometown were all dug out by the people shovel by shovel. Back then, there weren't these modern tools, and now probably still aren't; everything relied on iron shovels, iron spades, shoulder poles, and bare hands."

The Commander took a deep breath and said solemnly: "In the cold winter months, with snow and ice everywhere, a load of earth weighing over a hundred pounds, my brother used to climb ridges with the burden, trudging through mud that clung to his feet. In such cold weather, sweat beads could even be picked off his hair, and the shoulder carrying it swelled like a 'bun'."

There was a daily task quota for how much to carry, and when the river labor site was close to home, I'd rush to help him dig soil right after school. At first, it was manageable as it was flat ground, and the work intensity wasn't high. But as the digging progressed, the slope got steeper, making it difficult both to dig and to carry upward."

Director Ge hadn't expected the Commander to have such a childhood and murmured: "Digging the river was so exhausting that even the strongest would lose weight, shedding layers. Sometimes even the shovels would be worn white, particularly when digging to the riverbed where water seepage made the job much harder; carrying watery mud, getting sweaty in summer and frostbitten in winter."

The Commander was silent for a moment and said in a low voice: "My brother was worked to death, dying at the work site. The production team wrapped him in a mat and took a tractor to carry him home, where my mother, sister-in-law, and sister wept heart-rendingly. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

But life had to go on. With just those little work points, the family couldn't survive; I took my brother's shoulder pole, ready to continue working, but my mom snatched it, beat me, told me to study well and not to be a river worker anymore."

Anyone of this age, as long as their home was south of the Huai River, probably experienced this.

Old Ge sighed heavily and said softly: "My father passed away many years ago; he got tuberculosis from being chilled during river labor in winter, untreated and died before he turned forty."

Han Yu felt terrible inside and choked, saying: "And my master, my master who died early left behind illnesses from those days of river labor."

Old Ge nodded thoughtfully and sighed: "The reason many places are now flood-free and drought-free is because the predecessors endured all the hardships, and several generations' efforts in river labor and water conservation cannot be overlooked!"

"Anyone who ever did river labor almost invariably ended up suffering from rheumatism, arthritis, and their late years were full of pain."

The Commander's heart grew heavier, and he turned back, saying: "Salted Fish, you being a local official, do your best; once you ascend to a higher leadership position, you must find a way to build a river labor museum to commemorate the spirit of river workers of the older generations! I believe this spirit can be as renowned as the Red Flag Channel spirit!"

Han Yu wasn't sure how to respond, while Director Ge pondered: "Red Flag Channel is for water conservancy, so is river labor essentially the same thing."

"But without a museum or memorial hall, who would remember it in ten or twenty years?"

The Commander took a deep breath, thought for a moment, and pointed at an excavator at the soil extraction site: "If dredging a river now, a machine and a worker can complete it in a day. If your master were still alive, what would he think? Does it feel like there's a gap of a thousand years between your work with him, from primitive shovels to modern, mechanized water conservancy?"

Indeed, there have been tremendous changes over these years.

The first time meeting the master, there was a plan to repair 001, and who back then could have imagined a 016 million-dollar Linggang Tuo 001. Plus, the new Law Enforcement Boats costing over 600 thousand each, built one after another, like making dumplings — four or five in a row!

Regarding river labor, Han Yu never carried a pole himself but saw it as a child.

In fact, until last year, while extensively repairing the Yangtze River levee, the city organized farmers in various towns to go out for river labor.

The only difference is that the workload wasn't as hard as in the master's time; it didn't require digging a river or reinforcing or raising the levee, mainly focused on constructing Yanjiang Road.

The most grueling and hardest earthwork relied on mechanization equipment.

Han Yu was contemplating what the master's thoughts would be if he were still alive and witnessed all this when suddenly, an urgent call from Master Xu came through the intercom: "Secretary Han, Secretary Han, can you receive this? If you receive, please answer!"

"Received, please go ahead."

"The water flow suddenly quickened, and the water level suddenly dropped a bit!"

Han Yu instinctively looked towards the river surface, faintly spotting 001 assessing the water situation, holding the intercom asking: "The water level suddenly dropped, how much did it drop?"

"Approximately four millimeters."

"Did you call to ask the Yangtze Flood Control Headquarters and Jingzhou Flood Control Command?"

"I did, but they don't know either; they're urgently asking several hydrological stations to report."

"We can't wait for news, Master Xu, stop measuring, let Liu Wei set sail and see downstream what's going on."

"Alright, we'll set sail immediately."

"Hold on, let Yangtze Police 110, Binjiang Police 002, and Supervision 48 go together, and ensure navigation safety."

"Yes!"

The Commander was puzzled and couldn't help asking: "Salted Fish, what's going on?"

"The sudden drop in water level and increase in flow rate mean that downstream could have a breach, and likely it's not far from here."

Han Yu couldn't explain in detail, put down the intercom, picked up the phone strapped to his chest, and hurriedly contacted Xu Mingyuan.

The call quickly connected, and Xu Mingyuan instinctively asked: "Salted Fish, what's up?"

"Senior Brother, what are you guys doing?"

"We... we just finished eating, today is Ba Yi Army Day, the local government visited us with lots of food."

"Emergency assembly, pack up equipment!"

"Is there a mission?"

"It's hard to say for now; assemble and stand by first."

"We don't have enough vehicles, the trucks have all returned!"

"I know, I'll arrange transport for you."

"Okay."

Han Yu put down the phone, turned, and said: "Commander, our water rescue personnel and equipment are all in Xiang'an County; without vehicles, they can't return. Even if they can rush back overnight, the equipment can't be transported. If downstream really has a levee breach, the superior will surely organize rescue efforts. Saving people and emergency response are crucial; I need to requisition your motorcade!"