Restarting life in Siheyuan

There are four main drainage rivers in the suburbs of Beijing: Qinghe River, Bahe River, Tonghui River and Liangshui River. There are more than 30 small tributaries of these rivers, all of which are now overflowing. The once calm river water has lost its reserve and is roaring against the sluice gates.

Fortunately, God was merciful. The heavy rain seemed to be getting lighter and lighter. It did not last for two hours and slowly stopped. The accumulated water in the city was slowly decreasing. Many people had red eyes and finally breathed a sigh of relief that there was no need to open the sluice gates to divert the flood.

Wu Qianqian, who was far away in Hong Kong, also breathed a sigh of relief. She contacted China immediately and proposed to donate relief supplies, medicines, and food. She also suggested that the steel rolling mill had 4,000 assault boats that could be donated free of charge for disaster relief. However, the feedback she received was gratitude and that the supplies were not needed, and that China would be self-reliant.

It was not until the morning of the 9th that she received new feedback and agreed to accept the donation. Wu Qianqian finally breathed a sigh of relief. She then had to quickly finalize other matters and was busy.

Seeing the water level outside begin to drop, Lao Yang felt both happy and frustrated. He had worked so hard to dig the mountain, but failed at the last moment. Just a few hours, just a few hours.

The phone rang again, and Old Yang picked up the phone tiredly. Unexpectedly, the voice of his old leader came from the other end. Director Yang stood up straight consciously.

"Commander, what are your instructions?"

"I won't waste any more time. I just got a call from the city asking if your factory can provide more speedboats. We need to save people. It's urgent!"

"But, Boss, all the stock in our factory has been taken away, and now we can't even get one set together."

"I know what you're talking about, but Lao Chen said that you still have 200 sets without engines, which can still save lives."

"Yes, where?"

"There is a farm in Louzizhuang area. More than 300 people are trapped there. The other speedboats have been allocated and cannot be transferred back for the time being."

Lao Yang secretly groaned, the distance was too far, dozens of kilometers, how could he get there without power?

Lao Yang's silence made the leader understand his concerns. "Make arrangements now. Someone from the city will go to your place immediately. Even if they have to use their bare hands to paddle, they must help them rescue the person."

"Yes! I guarantee to complete the mission!" Although Lao Yang agreed firmly, he had no idea in his mind. One speedboat can carry 6 to 8 people. More than people would not need many speedboats, but how to get through was a problem. There was water everywhere. Could it be possible to paddle across dozens of kilometers? That was nonsense.

By the way, Lao Yang soon had an idea. He knew that Zhu Xuefeng asked Lao Xia to help make a few jet skis. Xiao Zhu also boasted that the thing was very powerful. Although he had never seen it, according to Xiao Zhu's way, it should be reliable. Lao Yang even admired his own brain. He was right. This brain needs to be used more. Haha, Xiao Zhu, just be a boatman honestly.

Zhu Xuefeng was confused when he received the task of organizing people to rescue people at Louzizhuang Farm. He was a little confused. The city needed him to rescue people? What kind of thing was this? After graduation, he was an unemployed staff member.

After Director Ma explained for a long time, Zhu Xuefeng finally understood the whole situation. After so many twists and turns, it seemed that he really had to do it himself. Of course, he couldn't let Xie Junjie's five friends get away with it. Soon, six jet skis were lined up outside Dongzhimen.

"Be careful and come back soon!" The two girls' reluctant reminders made Xie Junjie discover some great secret, but he could only pretend that he didn't know and shouted at the top of his voice.

"Brothers, didn't they say we were not allowed to go to Jinhai for rescue? We can go to Louzizhuang Farm to test the waters first. Maybe if we perform well, they will let us go."

"Yes, this is an opportunity. Without us, these unpowered speedboats are just toys. With us, a jet ski is worth many speedboats. Haha, let's go."

The water level outside the city was much higher than inside the city. The jet ski quickly arrived outside the gate of the steel rolling mill, where dozens of unpowered speedboats had already been prepared.

The rescue comrades in the city looked in surprise as six strange vehicles drove along the road to the entrance of the steel mill, and turned to ask Director Yang in astonishment.

"Director Yang, is this what you use for traction?"

"Yes, as you can see, this thing is very flexible on the water and has enough power. Get ready to go quickly. The trapped comrades are waiting for you."

The other party then gave up asking questions and watched the six young men jump off the jet ski.

"Xiao Zhu, this is Comrade Liu Dan. He is representing the city to go to the rescue this time."

There were only three rescue workers in the city including Liu Dan. It seemed that the rescue team was very tight. The steel rolling mill did send five young workers. Zhu Xuefeng pointed to the five second-generation workers behind him.

"These are the helpers I found. They are all skilled in driving jet skis. Please rest assured, we will complete the task."

After shaking hands one by one, they were considered to be acquainted. Director Ma then arranged for someone to quickly attach a "speedboat" to the jet ski.

"This is Comrade Jian Hui. He will be in charge of giving instructions later."

Zhu Xuefeng looked at a young man wearing a "white vest". The white vest had turned yellow. He looked excited but seemed very tired.

Watching Director Ma arranging people to string speedboats onto the jet skis, Zhu Xuefeng was surprised not to see Lin Yilan. It had only been two days and she was gone again. It seemed that she was not in the compound either, so he asked in a low voice.

"Uncle Ma, where is my junior sister? Didn't she come to work?"

Director Ma looked around awkwardly, pointed at Deputy Secretary Gu who was not far away and said, "She was asked to lead a team to Jinhai for support. I really don't know what she was thinking. I have section chiefs under me, but she insisted on letting a little girl lead the team."

Zhu Xuefeng said nothing more, but just looked at Deputy Secretary Gu's face in the distance. The two had never met formally, so he couldn't figure out her temper. She looked quite educated, with short hair pulled back and black-framed glasses covering her vision. But her posture of leaning back slightly with her hands behind her back could still explain something. This woman might not be as easy to mess with as she looked.

"Director, it's tied up!" The security guard came over to report, and Lao Yang also reminded, "Xiao Zhu, it's done, you guys can go, the sooner you go, the sooner you can come back."

Zhu Xuefeng didn't notice it just now, but only saw it now. Wow, there were six unpowered "speedboats" tied behind each jet ski. The five silly guys kept saying that if there were more, they would definitely be able to pull it. The jet skis were powerful enough and there would be absolutely no problem.

Zhu Xuefeng hurriedly stopped him. "Sorry, sorry, please take a few off. You can only take three at most."

"Xuefeng, you know the power of this vehicle. It can pull more people in the water. There are only six of them. There is absolutely no problem." Li Bin was very puzzled by Zhu Xuefeng's opinion. He had driven it before. The super power of this jet ski was enough to pull a small boat with dozens of people on it like a piece of cake.

"No, no, there are too many. It can be pulled, but the speedboat itself can't handle it. This is not a boat. It's not designed to withstand such a strong traction. It's good enough if one speedboat can carry two behind it." "So that's the case. Let's dismantle it then." The brothers lost their previous high spirits and honestly came down to help dismantle it. They originally wanted to look cool with a string of them behind a jet ski, but they didn't expect that the speedboat itself might not be able to withstand the traction of such a force.

When the team was ready to go again, Zhu Xuefeng unexpectedly discovered a female comrade.

"Director, we don't need female comrades, do we?"

"All the people from the Propaganda Department have gone down. This time only Comrade Xiao Yu can go with us to do the on-site interviews. She will come back to do a special topic on disaster relief."

It turned out that she was here for publicity. Zhu Xuefeng lost his temper. Old Yang whispered, "The girl asked for the battle herself. You introduced her. Please take care of her and don't let anything unexpected happen to her."

Zhu Xuefeng was completely speechless and could only nod and get on the car. The young man who showed the way also got on his jet ski, and everyone else got into the speedboat and tried their best to help maintain balance.

"Slow down, safety first! We have to rescue the people too."

Director Ma reminded loudly, and Zhu Xuefeng could only raise his hand and wave to indicate that he understood. Then he started the jet ski, was the first to set off, led the team out of the street, into the wider ocean, and quickly headed southeast.

The person who pointed out the problem was a young man who worked on the farm. He swam six kilometers in one breath to ask for help. The farm didn't have a boat, so there was no other way, so he had to go to the city to ask for help.

"Swimming six kilometers in one breath? That's awesome. Man, you are such a good swimmer?" Xie Junjie, who was already running side by side with Zhu Xuefeng, asked when he heard the voice.

"My hometown is Baiyangdian. I have been a good swimmer since I was young. I can even sleep in the water..." The young man seemed a little embarrassed and a little bit shy.

It turned out that the day before yesterday morning, several rivers overflowed their banks, five villages and a farm in Louzizhuang area were all flooded, transportation was cut off, and soon the city command center lost contact with the farm.

The young man's name was Jian Hui. After a day and night of heavy rain, the water level rose again. Seeing that the water level was still rising, he was extremely anxious. More than 300 workers on the farm were in critical condition. They had been trapped by water for two days, lacking water and food, but there was no support ship for a long time.

Jian Hui really couldn't wait any longer. Relying on his good swimming ability, he decided to swim across the flood to seek help. He and two PLA soldiers each held a car tire liner and went into the water.

There was a vast expanse of water all along the way. Toads lying on top of sorghum ears fluttered towards them. Several times, snakes took them as a refuge and tried to climb over them. They simply took off their white vests and dived into the water with them, only then did they get rid of these small animals.

But the further he swam, the higher the water level became, the faster the current became, and he was swimming upstream. Fortunately, he grew up in Baiyangdian and had been swimming in the Juma River since he was a child. In his own words, "I can walk in the water and sleep in the water."

When he was halfway through swimming, Jian Hui found a telephone pole soaking in the water, which made him feel more reassured.

"Where there are telephone poles, there are wires. If you follow the wires, you won't get lost, and you can also get some support."

After fighting the flood for nearly 4 hours, the three people finally swam to a higher place. They were also surrounded by water and traffic was interrupted. They were cutting trees to make a raft to save themselves. There was no choice but for the three people to go into the water again to ask for help. They finally found rescuers, but unfortunately the rescuers only had a green iron boat from the boat unit. The rest were the rafts that had just been made, the small boats used by fishermen for fishing, and even more than a dozen small covered cruise boats in Beihai Park.

He said that except for the iron boat, all other rescue equipment would find it difficult to cross the water current ahead, and there were many people on the scene who needed to be rescued by this "rescue team", and they didn't know when it would be their turn to be rescued, so they ran to the city for help.

"Comrade, now that you meet us this time, you will definitely complete the task easily." Xiao Donghai, who caught up with us on the left and was running neck and neck with us, boasted happily.

"You can see that this thing of ours is fast and stable. With so many speedboats, we can rescue all 300 of you in a few times."

Jian Hui looked at the six young men with envy. They were riding something she had never seen before, speeding across the water. Behind each of them was a string of speedboats, which was indeed impressive.

The rescue team maintained a speed of 30 to 40 miles per hour and soon arrived at the farm where Jian Hui worked. From a distance, they saw someone riding on the roof and waving at them. It was a farm employee who had been trapped by the flood for two days.

As soon as the rescue team arrived, the city comrades hurried to find the farm manager to ask: "Are there any casualties?" The farm manager proudly replied: "No, so far, only one pig has been lost."

It was good that no one was injured or killed. The higher-ups had issued a strict order that no more deaths were allowed. Comrade Liu Dan, the team leader, finally felt relieved. The next step was to rescue these workers and nearby farmers.

People were scattered on different rooftops, most of which were almost reaching their ceilings. Only the small building of the office building was better off. It was estimated that there were no less than sixty or seventy people gathered there, many of whom were elderly and children.

The speedboat slowly docked in front of the small building. Zhu Xuefeng wanted to test the water depth, but was stopped by Jian Hui.

"This place is flooded to the ground, at least three meters away. Don't go down, you can't find the bottom. The terrain here is low, and there is a water channel behind the building. It's dangerous!"

After hearing what Jian Hui said, no one was ready to go into the water anymore. However, it was a problem as to how the people on the roof could get on the speedboat.

Zhu Xuefeng just moved the speedboat closer to the small building and wanted to try to pick up people while standing in the speedboat, but he was frightened by a black shadow under the eaves in front of the small building. Oh my god, there was a huge snake coiled here trying to survive, and it was estimated to be two or three meters long. Zhu Xuefeng was scared. He was not afraid of wild beasts, but he was really unsure about giant snakes.

"Everyone be careful, there is a big snake here. Looks like we have to kill it first." Zhu Xuefeng reminded everyone loudly. Everyone then noticed that there was a big snake lurking under the eaves not far in front of them. Everyone was panicked and heard someone shouting on the roof.

"Comrade down there, is that a big brown snake? Two or three meters long?"

"Yes, it's a big one. Don't rush down, let's destroy it first."

"No, no, no, this snake has been on the farm for many years and has never hurt anyone. It has always helped us catch voles. Don't hurt it. It won't hurt anyone."

Although the farm workers on the roof said so, Zhu Xuefeng didn't have the courage to try it. He didn't think he could defeat this huge monster in the water.

The winch is about three meters tall, and its power is immeasurable. Although Zhu Xuefeng has heard that snakes cannot use their power in water, he does not want to try it.

"Captain Liu, let's change direction and let them lower us down with ropes. We can't do that here. This big snake doesn't know that we won't hurt it. Who knows if it will suddenly attack us."

"That's right. We can't rely on a dangerous thing for our safety. Since we don't want to hurt it, let's change direction. Now let the team disperse and rescue people. I'll lead the team over there, and you'll take care of this side." (End of this chapter)