The Red Era: Living in Seclusion in a Siheyuan as a Boss

Chapter 447 Earthquake Shed (Revised)
In fact, before the Qiaotou earthquake, there were earthquakes in many places in Xia State in the first half of the year, but the consequences were not as serious as this time.

During the Qiaotou earthquake, the intensity of the earthquake in Sijiucheng reached 6 degrees and 7 degrees in some parts of the city, causing walls and houses to collapse in some areas of Sijiucheng, resulting in casualties. More than 30,000 buildings were damaged or collapsed throughout the city.

Some ancient buildings with brick and stone structures, such as Baita Temple, Tianning Temple, Deshengmen, Yu Qian Temple, brick walls of the imperial city, and the Dipankara Relic Pagoda and Maizhuang Pagoda in T County, have suffered varying degrees of damage.

When the shock wave came, even those factories with relatively solid structures began to tremble.

The overhead crane in the steelmaking workshop of the Red Star Factory kept shaking and making noises, the high-voltage bushing was seriously displaced, and a large amount of oil in the pipe flowed out.

Furnace No. 5 was casting steel ingots. A large ladle filled with 15 tons of molten steel was hanging in the air and suddenly began to shake.

The 15-meter water supply pipeline of the Petrochemical General Plant Branch was cracked.

The coke oven building of the coking plant shook violently, and the entire plant suddenly lost power for more than ten minutes. The pressure inside the furnace suddenly increased, and the furnace roof was engulfed in flames.

The factory building of the oxygen production workshop of the oxygen plant was shaking constantly, many cracks appeared on the wall, there were five cracks and dislocations, and the large wheels of the machine were swinging violently.

The gable of the plastic equipment factory collapsed and the 25-meter-high chimney was cracked from the top.

The underground pillars of Jingxi Coal Mine cracked and made a sound, and the broken stones fell...

For a moment, there was light, sound, and the sky was shaking.

That night, it was unusually hot and there was not a breath of wind.

Many people still remember how they felt when the earthquake hit in the early morning: the light, the sound, the strong shaking... Many people were woken up by their family members.

"It feels like riding on a train, swaying from side to side."

At that time, people's general reaction was to follow earthquake prevention knowledge and run to an open area outside the house as quickly as possible.

But in the panic, some people even carried pillows outside as if they were babies.

The first people to sense the coming of a strong shock wave were probably Mr. and Mrs. Wang Guoning, experts from the Earthquake Geology Brigade of the Earthquake Bureau who lived in Jiaodaokou.

At around 3 o'clock in the morning, Wang Guoning was awakened by his wife, and she felt the bed shaking slightly.

"Guoning, it must be an earthquake."

Wang Guoning suddenly responded and said calmly, "Take the child away!

In fact, more than 20 days ago, Wang Guoning and his colleagues received a task from the bureau to conduct geological surveys in the surrounding areas of Bac Ha Province.

Later they submitted a report to the Earthquake Bureau, predicting that around July 20 and August 5, there might be earthquakes of magnitude 5 or so in the Ji, Fan, Lu, Zhang, Bao, Le and Bo areas.

Therefore, they were very alert to earthquakes and immediately picked up their three children and ran to the yard.

At this time, seeing the blue-purple light flashing in the southeast sky, Wang Guoning had a premonition that something big was going to happen.

Sure enough, a few seconds later, the ground began to shake even more violently.

At that time, Guo Zhen, a female cadre from the Machinery Bureau of Jingang City who was studying at Peking University, was awakened by a violent shaking in the middle of the night.

She also saw the light from the ground and heard the sound from the ground.

Guo Zhen suddenly sat up and heard a rumbling sound coming from outside, very dull and very dull; she opened her eyes and saw flashing silver-grey light on the ground, very bright and very bright. She quickly called out to the other three girls in the same room, and ran downstairs with them, pulling, dragging, and pushing her.

At this time, there was basically no one downstairs, and more and more people came.

When the initial panic subsided a little, Guo Zhen, who was wearing thin clothes, found a female classmate with her upper body naked, so he gave the small towel blanket he was draped over to her.

This student was so nervous that she forgot to be shy. She didn't react when Guo Zhen put a towel on her. It took a long time before she came over and said "Thank you!"

Yuan Hua, an expert who was preparing to assist in the construction of the Pingshi subway project, arrived in Beijing by plane in the early morning.

The earthquake began shortly after he entered the Capital Hotel.

When Yuen Wah came out of the elevator, the hotel building began to shake and the falling rocks smashed the car in front of the hotel.

He first felt the up and down vibrations, and then the horizontal sway from east to west; the building made a creaking sound, and the lights on the roof shook violently. Yuen Wah felt like he was in a swing that was getting bigger and bigger and stronger.

Finally, when Yuen Wah thought that the building could no longer withstand the vibrations, the shaking gradually stopped.

Professor He from Beijing University was also awakened by the earthquake at night.

He vaguely felt like a train was pulling into the station. When he regained consciousness, he suddenly realized that it was an earthquake.

Professor He suddenly stood up, grabbed his wife and ran out of the building.

The school's staff housing complex was just built this year and people had just moved in. There were still piles of dirt and ridges everywhere outside the building, so one literally had to crawl and roll to escape out of the building.

All the households fled at once.

There was another earthquake on the afternoon of July 28. Professor He and his wife were wandering on the roadside in front of the ninth building. They saw the water in the ditch beside the road rippling and the electric poles shaking.

Xiaodang was working at the Liujiazhuang Bicycle Factory. At about 3 a.m., she and her roommate Li Mei were sleeping soundly in bed when suddenly the building shook rapidly from side to side.

Xiao Dang woke up immediately, jumped off the bed, and found that the plaster statue on the bookshelf had fallen to the floor and broken.

At this time, noisy voices shouted, "Earthquake! Earthquake!" which woke them up. They quickly put on their clothes and ran downstairs. In fact, the tremors had stopped by the time they ran downstairs.

At this time, someone was horrified to find that a long crack had appeared on the outer wall of dormitory building No. 6.

Many people were frightened by the sudden earthquake. When they were at a loss, the factory security department and the militia organization were the first to react...

After the earthquake, many factory workers and farmers in rural areas insisted on continuing production, and the necessary supply of water, electricity, coal, gas and food was guaranteed.

In general, because of preparation, after the initial panic, people began to live calmly and social security was better.

On the morning of the 28th, buses in Beijing were running as usual, and a large number of people still rode bicycles to work as usual.

In the tent area on the street, there are small shops selling food and mobile trucks.

The rice shop became a factory for mass production of steamed buns.

Prices remain unchanged.

Temporary health and rescue stations have been set up in most urban areas.

However, the arrival of an earthquake always catches people off guard. Even with the most earthquake-resistant knowledge, experience and preparation, various accidents are inevitable.

Due to the continuous aftershocks, most people have been sleeping in earthquake shelters and living in the open air for the past month.

At first, people only used sewn plastic sheets and raincoats. A few used wooden boards and tarpaulin papers, and even put together a bunch of umbrellas to form temporary sheds. They sprang up like mushrooms after a rain in the streets, alleys, parks, and some large squares.

When building a shed, try to use trees, poles, and even shrubs and furniture to secure it, and constantly reinforce or repair it to make it as comfortable as possible.

The sheds on the street are also crowded, and each family has limited space to use.

Many people can only put up a plastic shed on their bed.

At night, several people have to sleep in one bed, or take turns to rest.

In some cases, several or even more than a dozen families live in one large shed.

The heat is unbearable and it is difficult to buy non-staple food. Adults and children alike are lucky to just be able to fill their stomachs.

The personnel on duty to protect the factories also sleep in the earthquake-proof sheds set up in the factories.

For the safety of citizens, the city government has also mobilized people not to stay at home, but to go out and live in makeshift sheds or cars.

……

After this summer, simple earthquake-proof shelters were built in most parts of Xia Country. People could study and work indoors during the day, and everyone had to sleep in the earthquake-proof shelters at night.

The educated youth such as Banggeng who lived far away in Sbei also started to get busy. They quickly set up earthquake shelters in open places such as the threshing ground near the village and the school playground.

He popularized basic knowledge on earthquake prevention among the members, asked them to observe whether there were any abnormalities in the poultry and livestock at home, taught people how to escape when an earthquake occurred, and was also responsible for the security and observation work of the earthquake shelter at night.

The equipment used by the educated youth to predict earthquakes was a face plate plus a gong or drum. The face plate was filled with water and placed flat on the ground. Someone was responsible for keeping an eye on it. As long as there was abnormal vibration in the water on the face plate, they would immediately beat the gong and drum to sound the alarm and wake people up to escape. There were militia on duty in every village.

What's funny is that maybe people are nervous and unprofessional, so false alarms often occur. On the night when this happens, every village beats drums and gongs, and the entire team doesn't have time to sleep.

...In the second half of this year, many people living in the old city hardly ever returned home.

Because all the people living in the city have to spend the night in the earthquake shelters they have built.

All the open spaces in the city are earthquake shelters. Because the materials used to build them come from a variety of sources and are colorful and unplanned,...

On the third day after the earthquake, for safety reasons, residents of some alleys in the north city were dispersed and arranged to live in Ditan Park.

Most of the residents of the Nanluoguxiang alley complex were assigned to the Ditan Shenku area.

Each household is free to find a suitable place to build a shed.

Families with wooden poles dug holes and buried piles in the open space, then erected beams and added a roof to build a sturdy shed with four corners.

Families without building materials choose places with dense trees, use ropes tied to tree trunks to pull cables, and then cover them with plastic sheets or tarpaulins to build a shed that looks like a battlefield.

At night, the Ditan Park is filled with towering ancient trees, curling smoke, flashing lights, and bustling voices, giving it the appearance of a camping scene.

In the blink of an eye, the weather changed from midsummer to the beginning of autumn. People have been living in the courtyard-like Ditan Park for nearly two months.

Some families began to prepare sand, stones, bricks and tiles, intending to "settle down in Shajiabang".

After the earthquake, government agencies and factories distributed materials for building earthquake-resistant sheds to help their employees survive the winter. These materials were mainly wood of various shapes, red bricks, tarpaulin and reed mats.

Xu Xiaonian remembered the day two months ago when his parents suddenly woke him up in the middle of the night. He ran out of the house half asleep and half awake, only to see many neighbors gathered in the yard, all shouting, "Earthquake! Earthquake!"

Xu Xiaonian was too young and didn’t know what an earthquake meant, so he thought it was very strange that everyone came out in the middle of the night. He became extremely excited and soon he was not sleepy at all.

In the second half of the night, no one dared to go back to the house to sleep. Fortunately, it was midsummer, and the adults took out their mats and lounge chairs to rest in the yard, while the children ran and played in the yard. It was not until dawn that news came in and everyone realized that a major earthquake had occurred in Qiaotou.

At this time, rumors were flying everywhere, saying that the Qiaotou earthquake was just the beginning and that even bigger aftershocks would come, so no one dared to go home and all slept in the yard.

There were several old trees outside the courtyard of No. 95. Everyone moved a few bricks under the trees, put up wooden boards, and spread mattresses and mats under them to make a simple large bunk bed. They hung mosquito nets on the poplar trees, and several families slept on the large bunk bed like this.

What impressed Xu Xiaonian the most was that caterpillars often fell from the trees, and sometimes even when he was sleeping, caterpillars would suddenly fall on his face. The prickly feeling was really terrifying.

The boys like to chase and scare girls with caterpillars.

People lived in large dormitories for several days, but rumors about aftershocks not only did not subside, but intensified. Street officials conveyed the government's statement and warned everyone not to go home yet. Thus, the capital city ushered in an unforgettable era of earthquake-proof shelters.

Most of the residents of Nanluoguxiang went to Ditan Park for temporary resettlement, while the people in No. 95 Courtyard moved to a nearby school.

There happened to be a large concrete field in the school, which became a perfect place to set up an earthquake-proof shelter.

There were no tents for sale in those days, so the neighbors made their own earthquake-proof sheds out of bed sheets and raincoats. They looked all kinds of strange and colorful. The open space was soon occupied by the earthquake-proof sheds, and the whole family lived and ate in them, and the whole open space was a mess.

These days, after get off work, Liu Guangfu either goes to the factory to collect wood or goes to the street office to collect materials, including ash, Philippine oak, red pine and birch.

The masters in the factory also provided him with a batch of board materials for packing boxes.

Liu Guangfu borrowed a tricycle from the logistics department and rode it all the way from the Red Star Factory to his "home" in the school, carrying the planks.

When I arrived at the school, I found that there was an open-air furniture market on the roadside of the east gate of the school. People were talking around a few brown cabinets made of calendered veneer and polymer board.

These days, polymer board furniture is still a novelty, and wardrobes with dressing mirrors are even rarer.

The medium wardrobe, which is a head shorter than the large wardrobe, is much better than the wardrobe that Liu Haizhong's family converted from a filing cabinet.

Liu Guangfu ordered one without hesitation, for 32 yuan.

The second aunt, who was preparing dinner in the earthquake-resistant shed, was very happy to hear that Liu Guangfu had ordered a medium-sized wardrobe.

She immediately got on a tricycle and rushed to the east gate of the school with Liu Guangfu and transported the cabinet directly back to her home in the earthquake shelter.

Along the way, people familiar and unfamiliar with me kept sighing: "There was an earthquake and people were panicking. Why did you buy such expensive furniture for your home?"

The second aunt replied proudly: "If there is no earthquake, where can I buy such a good wardrobe?"

Not long after buying the wardrobe, Liu Guangfu bought a set of simple sofas from the Donghuamen Furniture Store: ash wood armrests, serpentine spring soft seat cushions, soft backrests, and brown coarse corduroy exterior fabric.

This set of sofas cost 120 yuan, which was an astronomical figure at that time.

The sofa was a foreign item and caused quite a stir among the neighbors.

Several old neighbors came over specially to watch and appreciate the pair of sofas.

Life in the earthquake shelter is both bitter and joyful!
When it rains heavily, there are often several families hiding under a piece of plastic sheet.

Thousands of people lived in the school's earthquake-proof shelter for more than two months. The shelter was always clean and orderly, and no fire or safety accidents occurred.

As a person who experienced it, Yan Bugui witnessed how united and calm the residents of Nanluoguxiang, who were usually lax, were in the face of the disaster.

The autumn wind in the capital is getting colder day by day.

Although the "instructions from higher authorities" conveyed by the unit were still that "there is a possibility of aftershocks this winter and next spring," the "earthquake-resistant sheds" on the school playground were gradually dismantled.

The plastic shed could not withstand the chill of the autumn night. Perhaps before the illusory aftershock came, both adults and children could not stand the cold, so they moved back home one after another.

Although everyone was living at home, they were still feeling very nervous.

At this time, "earth seismograph" became popular in society.

In fact, it is an inverted wine bottle. It is believed that when an earthquake occurs, the wine bottle reacts more quickly than humans. When a person falls asleep, he can wake up and escape when he hears the sound of the wine bottle falling.

For a time, wine bottles became a hot commodity.

However, this also caused many misunderstandings. One day, Xu Damao placed a wine bottle upright on the windowsill, but it was blown down by the wind. The sound of the bottle shattering could be heard throughout the yard. Everyone thought it was an earthquake, so they hurried out to see what was happening, and found out it was a false alarm.

As the National Day approached, most of the city's residents followed the arrangements and returned to their familiar homes in the alleys.

This earthquake changed the lives of many people.

Every family has a batch of earthquake-resistant timber issued by the work unit.

After returning home from school, in order to continue to prepare for earthquakes, the neighbors in No. 95 Courtyard set up earthquake-resistant sheds under the eaves, in the yard, and even at the entrance of the alley.

The layout of the old north city's alleys, which has existed for more than a hundred years, and the courtyard structures, which have existed for hundreds of years, have all been changed this autumn.

Sha Zhu used the two pieces of military tarpaulin that Liu Zhiye gave him to build a large shed. He installed electric lights and a TV inside. He could also play mahjong and poker on the bed...

During this period, his earthquake-proof room became the most lively place in Yard 95, and it would be noisy until very late every night.

"The whole family lives under this big shed. It doesn't seem like they are preparing for an earthquake, but more like they are at a children's 'summer camp'."

Lying in the newly built earthquake-resistant shed, people feel not the panic of the impending earthquake, but the happiness brought by the new living space.

When most young people come back a few years later, they are still unsure of where to find a job.

While waiting patiently, these young people always want to do something to prove their existence in the family.

They demolished the simple earthquake-resistant shed outside their home and rebuilt it into a small livable kitchen.

Some people even use earthquake-resistant wood from their homes to make furniture to improve their living conditions.

Or when others are at work, I go shopping for groceries and prepare dinner for the family. Over a long period of time, I actually mastered the cooking skills.

A few years later, new houses evolved from earthquake-resistant sheds stood in courtyards, alleys and streets.

Walking into these large courtyards, one will see small sheds made of wooden boards, iron sheets and various other materials that are hard to name, filling up the already small courtyards. The narrowest path is less than two meters wide, with three-wheeled vehicles loaded with goods and all kinds of sundries parked on the side of the path, leaving no room for people to step.

In the distant corners, there are several two- and three-story buildings built on the roofs of bungalows, and there is even a row of small houses built on the roof of a simple building.

I bent down and walked into the small shed which was less than 1.5 meters high. It was dark and could just fit a small bed.

In the small shed next door is the kitchen for cooking. This "kitchen" is too small, and the person who cooks pushed open the small door when he turned around.

Although these simple houses were not very good, they later became the wedding houses of these young people returning to the city, the workshops of cooperatives, and the earliest individual business places.

(End of this chapter)