Binjiang Police Affairs-Chapter 980 - 649: That’s What They Said!

The second flood peak has passed, and the several river islands of Binjiang remain unscathed.

The river island embankments have been handed over to the Party cadres and basic civilian soldiers stationed on Jiangxin. Captain Xia has returned to the regiment headquarters located at the Military District, and the reserve soldiers previously summoned have all gone home.

The main force is combating the flood at Beihu. They initially planned to establish a "rear command post" to stay in touch with the front line, even if they couldn't help, just to know what's happening there.

However, as soon as the main force arrived at Beihu, it was taken over by others, so further inquiries were inappropriate. Furthermore, Han Yu and his team were extremely busy, having no time to answer calls, let alone report back by phone.

Yet, as superiors, they cannot truly ignore the situation. In recent days, Political Commissioner Jiao's work has involved gathering information on the main force through various channels.

Linghai is the principal source of information.

Judging from the news reports of the Linghai Daily, Linghai TV Station, and Linghai Radio Station, Salted Fish and his team are doing well; otherwise, the local party and government at Beihu wouldn't have repeatedly sent thank you messages to Linghai. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

This morning, even more impressively, several national-level major media outlets published an article by Reporter Wang from Binjiang Radio Station titled "Heroes Emerge When the Sea Surges".

The article describes a critical moment when a section of the embankment faced a major crisis and was on the verge of collapse, forcing the local party and government to make the painful decision to evacuate hundreds of thousands to ensure the safety of lives and property, with several key leaders tearfully ordering the evacuation.

It depicted, from multiple perspectives, the tragic scene of hundreds of thousands of people reluctantly leaving their homes, dragging their families along, turning back every few steps.

It also succinctly described, using the penmanship style of historic chronicles, how the Jiangnan Province Military District's Binjiang Flood Control and Rescue Camp (Linghai Reserve Camp) was ordered to rush to Beihu for flood fighting. Upon arrival, they launched directly into battle, achieving continuous victories over two short days, courageously fighting the flood together with the Second Battalion officers of a certain liberation army regiment and local cadres and masses, safeguarding the homes of hundreds of thousands!

Beside the written report were two photos.

One, taken at night, with close-up framing and good lighting, clearly captured the moment Xu Mingyuan and others grabbed the corner of a geotextile and fearlessly leaped into the roaring river in the rain.

The other photo captured from a further distance only vaguely showed amid the flood-fighting crowd a few reserve soldiers wearing camouflage helmets and life vests, with more liberation army soldiers whose ranks indicated they were air force soldiers.

There were reserve soldiers, active-duty officers, civilian soldiers, and the masses, but no sign of the mechanized construction equipment transported from afar.

After reading the newspaper, Captain Xia felt both pleased and worried, as well as somewhat puzzled, and couldn't help but dial Vice Mayor Qin's mobile phone.

"Captain Xia, what's up?"

"Mayor Qin, have you read today's newspaper?"

"You mean Salted Fish and his team, right?"

"Yes, I just got back from Jiangxin, and I just saw it."

"I saw it earlier. You're not the only one worried; I'm equally concerned. I've been keeping an eye on their updates." Vice Mayor Qin felt proud of his subordinates' achievements and couldn't help but pick up the newspaper he'd read three times already.

Captain Xia asked in a low voice, "Mayor Qin, the photos show people but no equipment. The report doesn't detail how the crisis was resolved. Do you think something might have happened on Salted Fish's side?"

"Are you worried Salted Fish might have driven an excavator to close the breach?"

"In such a critical moment, it's not impossible."

"Don't worry, that's unlikely. You should know how stingy Salted Fish is. Even if it meant jumping in personally, he wouldn't have driven an excavator worth millions over to fill the breach!"

"Now that you mention it, that eases my mind."

Captain Xia chuckled and continued, "Also, the unit names in the news report — why is there no mention of the Jiangnan Reserve Division or our Binjiang Reserve Group? It directly refers to the Jiangnan Province Military District Binjiang Flood Control and Rescue Camp, with brackets indicating Linghai Reserve Camp."

As soon as the thank-you letters were frequently arriving from Linghai, Vice Mayor Qin realized there was an issue at the front line, but the root cause was entirely in Linghai.

Salted Fish was too busy organizing and commanding the rescue operations to be bothered with such minor tricks. Even if not so occupied, Salted Fish wouldn't resort to such actions.

As Vice Mayor of Linghai, Shen Fan might be tempted to engage in such moves, but while he's adept in economic matters, he still needs years of refinement for such maneuvers. Or rather, he's not thick-skinned enough to resort to the shameless act of getting Linghai thank-yous written.

Vice Mayor Qin could almost certainly tell these actions were orchestrated by Old Ge, who mingled into the Senior Expert Group. After a moment of silence, he smiled wryly and said, "Linghai isn't the only one placing its name in brackets afterward."

"Mayor Qin, I don't quite understand."

"The Development Zone is also engaged in promotion. Just yesterday the Development Zone published an article in the Binjiang Daily about supporting Beihu flood efforts, mentioning their unit, also adding brackets after Binjiang Flood Control and Rescue Camp, specifying the Binjiang Development Zone Reserve Camp. The only difference is one was published in local media, and the other in national-level media."

"Aren't they messing around?"

"Captain Xia, it seems you're not yet fully familiar with our Binjiang. Such matters are very normal, you'll get used to it."

"Does Secretary Lu and Mayor Wang know about this?"

"They know; it's been on national media, how could they not know."

"Have Secretary Lu and Mayor Wang said anything?"

"In regular times, they certainly wouldn't be pleased. The current situation is rather delicate. Secretary Lu and Mayor Wang are pretending not to know. Early this morning, they even had the propaganda department notify Binjiang Daily and Binjiang TV Station to minimize or refrain from reporting news about Salted Fish and his team supporting the flood fight at Beihu."