Chapter 296: Crisis at the Riverbank
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
When Wang Ye and the others ran over, they heard Wu Jian Feng shouting,”Quick, quick, pull him up!”
Soon, Wang Ye and the others also saw that under the interweaving lights from the torchlights and headlights, a person was pulled out of the water on the other side of the flood wall.
“It’s, it’s not possible. The current is too fast, and the pressure…The pressure was too great. 1 really think that it’ll be impossible to swim downwards!”
He was lying on the wall made of sandbags, and his body was still being pulled by a rope to prevent him from being swept away by the water.
At this moment, Zheng Ke was panting heavily.
It was too strenuous underwater.
He had just carried a sandbag down.
However, once the water rushed, even if he held the sandbag, he could not sink to the bottom at all. It was like flying a kite. With the rope tied to his waist, he was directly swept up in the water. No matter how hard he tried to control his body to sink, it was futile.
“Change the person. Why don’t I give it a go?” Kang Hua stepped forward and said.
“No. There’s no need, just tie two sandbags around me this time, and then I’ll carry another bag down.”
“What are you talking about? If you tied the sandbag to your body and the rope broke free, would it be any different from sending yourself to death?”
Zheng Ke had just finished speaking when Wu Jian Feng cursed.
It was already very risky to tie a person down with a rope, so why would he tie a sandbag down?
If the rope broke, he would have a chance to float up without the sandbag. However, if he tied the sandbag, he would sink to the bottom.
Under this torrential rain and flood, they probably wouldn’t even know where to find your corpse.”
“It’s not a big problem!” Zheng Ke looked at Wu Jian Feng and said,” Our rope won’t break so easily. Just control the time and pull me up.””
He added,” Besides, there’s no other way now. The current is so rapid. If we don’t add weight, we really can’t go down!”
Wu Jian Feng was silent. After a few seconds, he said,”Then add another rope.”
Quick, bring another rope over and tie another one!”
“No need!”
Zheng Ke wanted to refuse, but Wu Jian Feng directly ordered, “This is an order, listen to me!”
In the end, Zheng Ke could only listen to his orders. After tying another rope to his waist, he also tied two sandbags to his back.
ii
Plop.”
He didn’t say anything. When he was ready, he let go of the flood wall and quickly sank into the water.
Wang Ye’s heart was in his throat. This job was indeed scary.
He wasn’t really close to Zheng Ke.
Zheng Ke was in the company, and he rarely smiled even when he was near him.
He had always kept a straight face, and Wang Ye rarely communicated with him.
However, at this moment, Wang Ye really admired his courage and prayed in his heart that nothing would happen to him.
Underwater.
Zheng Ke kept his eyes open.
In the murky flood, his eyes struggled to stay open, and his visibility was only a few centimetres when he opened his eyes wide. However, he was now sticking close to the shore.
Unlike before, he had two more sandbags on his back this time.
Therefore, he successfully sank.
And this time, he rushed forward very quickly.
This was caused by the current.
At this moment, his expression changed drastically.
It wasn’t that he felt that he was in danger, but that he knew that he had found the place after charging forward.
However, it was also because of this that his expression changed drastically.
Because his entire body had been brought down at least a metre deep.
But he didn’t touch his surroundings.
This was terrifying.
This meant that it wasn’t a small hole that leaked water, but a big hole.
A huge crater was formed.
He tried his best to sink to the bottom, but it was useless. The water current inside was even stronger. In just a moment, he was washed out by the water.
Quick, pull him up!
On the shore, Wu Jian Feng kept looking at the time.
Zheng Ke could hold his breath for two minutes at a time, but the time he agreed with Zheng Ke was to pull him up after one minute and twenty seconds.
Therefore, when the time came, he gave the order.
The seasoned soldiers on the side were pulling the rope. When they heard the order, they immediately pulled back with all their might.
Wang Ye had been watching nervously. Fortunately, nothing unexpected happened.
There was no incident of the rope breaking or the person pulling the rope disappearing.
That was true. The ropes in the army were all specially made. Although this one wasn’t big, its weight was enough for two classes to play tug-of-war.
Soon, Zheng Ke, who was carrying only two sandbags, was pulled out of the water.
Wu Jian Feng and the others hurriedly went to the wall to grab him.
“Hu ~ Hu ~”
Panting heavily, Zheng Ke took a few deep breaths before telling him the bad news that he had received.
For a moment, the expressions of those who heard his voice changed.
The worst-case scenario had occurred.
If it was just a small hole, he could think of a way to block it.
However, a huge hole had already been formed.
The flood continued to sweep inside.
The sand from the river bank was constantly being carried away. How long the river bank could last was completely up to the heavens.
Fortunately, the flood had receded and the river embankment had not collapsed. How could it be repaired afterwards?
If his fate was bad, this place might collapse in the next moment.
“Company commander, we have to ask for help. The hole below is too big and can’t be repaired by manpower. Even if we want to throw the sandbag inside, it will be washed away by the water.”
“Good! Come over here first!”
Wu Jian Feng’s expression was ugly.
“Let’s go back and continue packing the sandbags!”
After hearing the news and seeing that Zheng Ke had come up safely, Wang Ye didn’t continue to stay here.
Although he was also very worried about the situation here, it was useless to worry now. He had no way to repair the river embankment.
He could only continue to do his own things.
He brought the recruits who had thrown their sandbags back to the place where they dug the sand.
“Brother Wang, will the river bank really collapse?”
Peng Yu Hang held the bag and kept looking back at the river bank as he spoke.
“I don’t know. Let’s see what the company commander and the others do.
We should do our job well now. If the dam really collapses, we can only accept our fate!”
Wang Ye felt a little powerless.
Ever since he was reborn and enlisted in the army, Wang Ye had always felt that everything was under his control.
However, facing the natural disaster this time, Wang Ye really acknowledged the reality.
Even if he used a cheat, it was definitely not enough to deal with the dangers of nature.
The cheat he used was not invincible, nor could it be like Superman in Hollywood movies, which allowed him to transform into Superman and end the disaster alone.
Soon, Wang Ye knew what Wu Jian Feng and the others had decided.
He was prepared for both scenarios.
Since they were guarding against the breach of the riverbank, a small box truck and a van that happened to be in the village were transferred over.
Wang Ye and the veterans had to fill the two vehicles with sandbags.
The second scenario was to coordinate the mobilisation of an excavator.
If the excavator didn’t break the embankment, they would use the excavator to find a way to cut down the tree stump. After that, they would fill it up with sandbags.
In any case, both plans required sandbags. Fortunately, the veterans had come to help.
Everyone worked together. In just half an hour, the two cars were filled with sandbags. There were also a lot of sandbags piled on the side.
Another half an hour passed.
The excavator was here.
The Chief of Staff and the two local leaders who were in charge of the flood control came along with the excavator.
“How’s the situation?”
The Chief of Staff asked Wu Jian Feng.
“Chief of Staff, the riverbank has not collapsed yet, but the situation is urgent. We went down to explore the pit again just now, and it’s getting bigger and bigger.”
“Alright then, let’s not waste time. We’ll act according to the plan!”
The plan was naturally to use the excavator to hit the tree stump.
On the riverbank, the wood from the village had long been collected by the villagers.
Of course, it was definitely not an easy task to hit a tree stump in such a rapid flood.
However, after such a long time, everyone had also thought of a way.
That was to first tie one end of the wood to the bucket of the excavator with a
rope.
Then, he tied the other end of the wooden stick with a rope. This way, when the excavator raised the tree stump later, he could use a few people to pull it. This way, the wooden stake could be kept straight under the impact of the current and could also be pressed down by the excavator.
However, this was still not enough to control the problem of the tree stump being shaken left and right by the impact of the water current.
Fortunately, there was a solution to this problem.
He used a bamboo pole and a rope to stand on the riverbank. He used the bamboo pole tied to the wooden stake to control the horizontal direction of the wooden stick.
“Pull it, pull it!”
The operation soon began. Wang Ye stood by the flood control wall not far upstream and watched nervously.
At this point, they no longer needed to fill up sandbags.
He had already made enough in the previous period of time. The most important thing now was to fill the hole below.
Seeing that the first tree stump had been controlled to enter the water, Peng Yuhang, who was beside Wang Ye, stared nervously and kept muttering,”Good, good, good…”
Finally, the first wooden stake was planted.
For a moment, the riverbank was filled with cheers.
But then, the second one came.
As expected, one after another.
but…
When the fifth stump was placed, it was very sudden.
“Bang ~”
There was a loud bang.
“All ~!” Someone screamed.
“Zheng Ke!”
“Platoon leader ~”
Panic instantly spread on the shore.
Because the river bank had collapsed, not as a whole, but half of it.
The flood wall above, along with the remaining half of the river bank behind, suddenly collapsed into the water.
In this position, Zheng Ke and the platoon leader Meng Wen Bin, who had been fighting to get on, were using bamboo poles to control the horizontal position of the wooden stake.
Now that it collapsed, the two of them instantly fell down.