Regiment Commander Huang guessed correctly, this kind of matter that concerns the safety of tens of millions of people naturally cannot be decided by the statement of a mere regiment leader.

But even so, the determination shown by him and the other commanders and fighters involved in the relief effort had an impact.

At noon the next day, after a whole morning of discussions, the General Defense Department finally officially issued an instruction to "not divert the flood water until the water level rises to 45.3 meters."

However, just in case, the evacuation of people in the flood distribution area still cannot be stopped.

It was also with such an instruction that tens of thousands of PLA commanders and fighters, militiamen, and cadres and masses participating in the rescue on the entire Jiangling embankment were all mobilized to prepare for the upcoming sixth wave of flood peaks!

……

is also at a critical juncture, as well as Xunyang, which is further downstream.

Due to special topographical factors, this city located next to Poyang Lake has borne the brunt of previous floods on the Yangtze River.

Although the rainfall itself is not large, the risk of flooding is more serious than that in the upper and middle reaches of the main and tributaries, when the floods begin to affect and superimpose on each other, the risk of flooding is more serious than that of the upstream rainstorms.

After the decision to divide the flood in Jiangling was issued, the pressure on the entire Yangtze River basin converged here in a short period of time.

There is no pre-designed flood discharge area, so there is no choice but to resist.

At the same time, it is also due to the lack of a flood discharge area, which leads to the fact that there is no place to focus on the entire Xunyang section of the Yangtze River embankment.

It's definitely not a good thing –

Anyone who has taken the test knows that if there is no focus, it means that it is all focused.

The Xunyang section of the embankment was not expected to withstand such a large flood, and with the previous rounds of flood peaks wave after wave, the higher and higher water level finally failed to fully withstand it.

There are a lot of rescue troops of tens of thousands of people, but if they really want to line up evenly on the embankment of hundreds of kilometers like scattering beans, I am afraid that if there is any problem, they will not even want to defend it.

Therefore, they can only concentrate on staying at the garrison not far away.

And because the stratosphere over Jiangxi Province does not meet the required meteorological conditions, and Zhejiang University does not have a second set of relay communication equipment at hand, the information transmission situation here is much worse than that in the Jiangling area of Hubei Province.

Fortunately, the local weather was okay, so helicopters from the Army Aviation continued to take to the skies, both to monitor the situation and to be ready for possible communication interruptions.

"Report, there is a collapse between Gate 4 and 5 of the embankment!"

In the local defense headquarters of the general front, an anxious voice suddenly sounded.

The most worrying thing happened.

"The current width of the breach is 60 meters, but there is a tendency to expand to both sides."

Liao Xinmin, the head of the local General Defense Headquarters, is naturally far inferior to Niu Maosheng, the head of the National Defense Headquarters, but his determination at the critical moment is not bad at all:

"Explain the situation to the PLA troops, ask for reinforcements, and the rest of you, follow me to the embankment!"

The breach at the scene was like the mouth of an evil dragon, and the surging river poured down and rushed straight to Xunyang City.

And there, there are 4.5 million masses who have nowhere to move.

The 60-meter-wide breach itself is not enough to get out of control, but if the so-called thousand-mile embankment is destroyed in an anthill, such a breach may even cause the entire embankment to collapse if it cannot be controlled in a short time.

This opening must be plugged.

How to block it will have to wait for the experts of the water conservancy department to decide.

But whatever the method, the first step must be to reduce the flow rate and reduce the flow rate.

Otherwise, in the surging river, any building materials and construction equipment will not be able to operate normally.

"Have you already deployed according to the emergency plan?"

Liao Xinmin asked the on-site staff next to him.

"It was already deployed when we found out that there was a bubble phenomenon, but the flood level in our plan is too far from the current situation, and it is completely a drop in the bucket."

The latter's body and face were almost completely covered in muddy water, and his tone was equally anxious:

"Just now, a shipowner near Poyang Lake spontaneously rushed over and scuttled 8 inland river coal carriers with a total of 10,000 tons near the breach, which played a slight role, but the current is too fast, especially the bottom of the ship can still pass a large amount of water, resulting in the position of the sunken ship is also constantly changing, if you can't continue to fill in new blocking items, I'm afraid it won't take too long to be washed away!"

The cadres and masses on the shore who participated in the rescue are throwing all the gravel, rubble, and coal that can be collected into it.

But even a shipwreck of tens of thousands of tons cannot guarantee complete stability, let alone these small things, which disappear without a trace almost the moment they are thrown into the water.

Just when everyone was almost helpless, a shout came from not far behind.

"The PLA has arrived, the PLA has arrived!"

Liao Xinmin turned around sharply and saw a convoy of hundreds of trucks on the highway in the distance, like a winding long dragon, heading towards the embankment.

The People's Liberation Army is coming, and there is hope.

"Quick, prepare the relevant information, as well as the current situation of the breach, and do your best to cooperate with the comrades of the army in disaster relief!"

The first to lead the team was the commander of the 1st Division and 2nd Regiment of the Jinling Military Region, Wang Hong.

After listening to the brief report, he went to the side of the breach to check on the situation himself.

"We've tried shipwrecks, gravel, and sandbags, but they all couldn't be fixed and were quickly washed away."

Liao Xinmin wiped the sweat on his face, and said to Wang Hong, who was poking his head out to observe.

"Normally, this situation is not enough to rely on gags alone, you need to drive wooden stakes and steel bars into the riverbed to form a cage-like structure, and then throw gravel bags and sandbags into it."

Before leaving, he had already consulted with his old superiors who had relevant experience, so he had already prepared for this.

"But how can you get something into it with such a big amount of water?"

Liao Xinmin, who heard this answer, was dumbfounded for a while.

To construct in the water, you need to reduce the flow rate by blocking the object first, and to reduce the flow rate, you must first drive wooden piles and steel bars into the water?

"Leave it to us."

After Wang Hong finished speaking, he asked for a wrist-thick rope from the staff officer behind him, tied it around his waist, and then took over the big horn used to shout from Liao Xinmin.

"All cadres above the company level, out of the ranks!"

Soon, the hundreds of commandos who had been selected were threading themselves into several strings with ropes, and the men who remained on the shore were holding on to the other end of the rope.

Immediately afterwards, Wang Hong took off the hat on his head and jumped into the river first.

Under the obstruction of several human walls, the turbulent water flow finally slowed down slightly.

The others who came up behind them began to desperately throw sandbags into the middle of the wall.

Most of it will still be washed away, but at least, it's starting to have some effect.

It is impossible for trucks transporting supplies to drive directly up the embankment, so the last leg of the road can only be completed by manpower.

Half an hour later, the first stake was successfully driven into the bottom of the riverbed, finally giving a new support point for the nearby crumbling human wall......

While progress has been made, it is still inefficient.

Moreover, the danger is full.

At first, everyone was fine when they were full of energy, but as time passed, the long-term immersion in the flood caused everyone's physical strength to drain rapidly.

Already the fighters with weaker physical strength were almost washed away.

Of course, there is also a rotation of people on the shore and in the water, but due to the shortage of manpower, even on the shore, they are responsible for carrying relief supplies, and there is no way to ensure adequate rest......

Two days passed.

The breach was initially contained, but the flood was still pouring outward at a flow rate of more than 130 m3/s and a flow rate of 5 m/s.

According to the plugging plan, after the initial control of the breach, a half-moon-shaped cofferdam should be formed in the area to prepare for the subsequent filling of the pond and the embankment.

But because Wang Hong and the others who went down at the beginning were fixed with ropes, it was really difficult to make the cofferdam into a half-moon shape.

It can only expand outwards a little bit on the basis of a straight line.

However, after two days of continuous high-intensity work, the commanders and fighters of the three regiments who participated in the flood fight themselves have almost reached the limit.

Many people have already fallen into coma or even shock due to overwork, and have been taken to a nearby makeshift field hospital.

The commander-in-chief of the scene was like a knife, but there was nothing he could do.

In fact, he had already sent his own son, who was serving as a company commander, to him.

A division, there are already no reserves.

"Deputy Commander Dong, the commander of the 2nd Regiment just reported that a new batch of strange relief materials was sent later."

The deputy chief of staff of the Jinling Military Region came over and whispered in his ear.

"Strange?"

The long-term lack of sleep caused the commander-in-chief to be stunned for a moment before he reacted:

"Let's go, let's see."

When he arrived at the disaster relief material distribution center near the embankment, he saw Wang Hong communicating with a person in civilian clothes opposite.

Next to them were two large bags unloaded from the car.

Rainproof cloth material.

One of them has been opened, and inside is ......

Something that looks like a sack.

"What's the situation?"

"Report to the commander-in-chief, this is a new batch of disaster relief materials, and the comrades of the Zhejiang Provincial Bureau of Science and Industry are introducing us to the precautions for use."

Wang Hong came up and saluted and replied.

"That's all?"

The commander-in-chief picked up the corner of a bag from the side and weighed it.

It's flat, takes up little space, and seems to weigh less than a tenth of a sandbag.

The casual clothes worker next to him nodded:

"Yes, this is a kind of flood control expansion bag that we urgently produced, and now this first batch is a total of 10,000, and more are being produced and shipped in the future."

"Although it looks small now, as long as you throw it into the water, it can become a slightly larger than a standard sandbag in ten seconds, and the weight is about the same, which can greatly reduce the physical burden on the soldiers."

"In addition, there are prefabricated steel plate girders on the car, which can be assembled with bolts when transported to the site, and the ability to resist the impact of water flow is much stronger than that of ordinary steel cages......

Hearing this last sentence, the commander-in-chief thought of the young faces who had fallen in front of him in the past two days, his eyes turned red, and he hurriedly turned his head slightly.

"Commander Wang, let your troops try!"

"Yes!"

In fact, after hearing the other party's introduction, Wang Hong was still a little skeptical.

The main thing is that this description is just amazing.

When people encounter particularly big good news, their first reaction is often to doubt its authenticity.

But in any case, this expansion bag is very easy to handle, and he can take a dozen of them alone, so it doesn't hurt to try.

What if it helps.

He called a few people and took out a total of 100 expansion bags from the first waterproof bag.

The sharp-eyed warrior noticed the word "Si Yang" printed on the surface of the bag.

Wang Hong has read some books and knows that this seems to have something to do with the legendary Dayu.

The jackpot is not bad.

But if you dig deeper, Dayu and his old man use a sparse method to control water, and now this thing is obviously going to be used to block the ......

The group soon returned to the vicinity of the breach.

Wang Hong personally threw the first expansion bag into the water.

Then, in the stunned expressions of several people, this thin bag, which was expected to be washed away in an instant, really swelled up rapidly as the person from the Science and Industry Bureau said just now.

In the end, it was blocked by two wooden stakes erected at the back, which perfectly played the role of a sandbag.

“TMD…… How useful is it? ”

Wang Hong's shock instantly turned into ecstasy.

Even if you don't consider the steel plate beams that have not yet tried the effect, this expansion bag alone is enough to increase the rescue efficiency by 10 times!

"Quick, send someone to move some more, let's speed up the progress!"

Reacting to this, he directly threw the remaining ten or so expansion bags into the water, and then turned around and ordered loudly to the staff officer behind him.

"In addition, according to this efficiency, we can block the opening before nightfall today, and tell the engineers to prepare to fill the pond and strengthen the embankment!"

(End of chapter)