Soldiers Assault: Starting from the 7th Steel Company

Chapter 263 Finally, they made contact.
The young lieutenant was clearly taken aback, but he quickly recovered. He nodded solemnly and then loudly ordered, "All other personnel, divide into two groups!"

"Everyone, use whatever tools you have to reinforce the structure above the two children and minimize the risk! The rest of you, cooperate with me, follow my commands, and act in unison! We need to be fast and steady to buy time!"

The lieutenant continued to give orders, "Group one, led by this commander (pointing to Yuan Lang), is responsible for clearing away any movable rubble and debris around the siblings to expand the rescue space, but under no circumstances are they allowed to touch the main supporting structure! Group two, led by me, is responsible for the younger brother's side."

The commands were clear and unambiguous, and the order of command was also outlined.

The previously chaotic scene immediately became orderly.

The soldiers acted swiftly according to their assigned tasks, each holding their breath and moving with utmost care.

Time passed slowly amidst heavy breathing and the soft clatter of tools against stones.

Every tiny movement sent everyone's hearts into their throats.

The mother, supported by the soldiers, covered her mouth tightly, afraid to make a sound, but tears streamed down her face like broken beads.

"Support at point A has initially stabilized!"

"We need to add another support block at point B! Move that rock over here to help me hold it up, and put it down slowly!"

The rescue operation is progressing with extreme difficulty.

However, the greatest threat—aftershocks—still arrived.

The familiar, heart-pounding tremors came from the ground once again!

The rubble slid down the ruins with a clatter.

The surrounding crowd was immediately terrified and scattered.

"Stay calm!" Neither Chen Jiang nor Yuan Lang chose to leave.

With these two pillars of support, no one else would back down.

The soldiers of Brigade A braced themselves against the steel crowbars in their hands to prevent the support points from shifting.

Everyone froze, their hearts nearly stopping.

Fortunately, the aftershock was not strong and gradually subsided after a few seconds. The supporting structure withstood the test, but a teeth-grinding "creaking" sound could be clearly heard from the precast slabs, and the cracks seemed to have widened slightly.

"We can't wait any longer!" The lieutenant's forehead veins bulged. "On my command! I'll count to three, and the two groups will simultaneously exert force and slowly lift the front edge of the precast concrete slab above the younger brother by one centimeter! Just one centimeter!"

This is the most crucial and also the most dangerous step, like dancing on the edge of a knife.

"one!"

Everyone's muscles were tense.

"two!"

The air freezes.

"three!"

The soldiers responsible for lifting the slab exerted their strength simultaneously, and the heavy precast concrete slab groaned as it was lifted with difficulty, creating a tiny gap! Almost at the same instant, the fire lieutenant, with lightning speed, accurately pulled out the lower part of the slab!

The younger brother has been successfully rescued!
However, his condition was not optimistic, with a lot of blood seeping from his chest and abdomen. The medics brought by Team A rushed forward to examine him immediately.

"My child!" the mother cried out, overwhelmed with mixed emotions of sorrow and joy, and tried to rush over, but was gently stopped by the soldier. "Sister, there's one more, just hold on a little longer!"

Now, everyone's attention is focused on the older sister.

With the loss of some support from the younger brother's side, the precast slab above the older sister became even less stable.

My sister is already somewhat delirious due to pain and blood loss.

"Quick! Concentrate your efforts to save my sister!" Chen Jiang roared.

However, just as the rescue team was preparing to make a final rescue of the sister, an extremely strong tremor, far stronger than before, suddenly came from deep underground!
"Boom--!"

This time, it wasn't a brief tremor, but a continuous, violent shaking that seemed to tear the earth apart! The real, strong aftershocks had arrived!

"Watch out! The big one's coming!" The lieutenant's warning was drowned out by the huge roar and the sound of falling rocks.

The supporting structure, which had already been groaning, could no longer withstand this violent force! The hydraulic rods supporting the precast concrete slab above the sister structure suddenly sprang open, and the massive concrete slab pressed down with overwhelming force!
"No—!" the mother screamed in anguish.

The hearts of all the rescuers sank into an ice cave!
It's over! It's too late!

In those fractions of a second that determined life and death, a figure, like a moth drawn to a flame, moved with incredible speed, and before the concrete slab could completely fall, suddenly rolled to the side and precisely wedged into the narrow space above the sister's body that was about to disappear!
It's that firefighter lieutenant from earlier!

He used his own shoulders and back to firmly hold back the edge of the precast slab that was pressing down, which weighed more than a thousand pounds!
The immense pressure caused his bones to creak under the strain, his face turned red and contorted from the extreme effort, and the veins on his forehead and neck bulged like dragons!

"Ugh—!" A roar of suppressed extreme pain burst from his throat.

"Platoon leader!!" The surrounding firefighters were furious.

"Save them!!!" The lieutenant's eyes turned bloodshot as he forced out these words through gritted teeth, each word sounding as if he had used all his strength.

The tiny space he created was the little girl's last chance at life!

This selfless act shocked everyone present!

"Quick! Support! Hurry!" Chen Jiang was the first to react, his voice trembling. He and the other soldiers rushed forward like madmen, using everything they could find—entrenching tools, crowbars, even their own hands and shoulders—to push and support the rickety precast concrete slab, trying to share even the slightest bit of the weight with this hero!

With tears welling up in his eyes, Wu Liu practically scrambled in and, as fast as he could, carefully pulled the unconscious girl out from under the lieutenant!

"The girl has been rescued! Quick!" The medic immediately responded.

"Comrade, hold on! We're here!" Chen Jiang and several of the strongest soldiers worked together, desperately using crowbars to pry open the precast concrete slabs.

"One! Two! Three! Go!!"

With a roar of anger, the crowd seized the precious moment during a lull in the aftershocks and finally pried open a larger gap in the heavy precast concrete slab. "Pull him out!"

Two soldiers quickly pulled the lieutenant, whose mouth and nose were bleeding, from under the rubble.

His training uniform was worn through on the back, and his shoulders were covered in blood and gore. The red epaulets against the bright red blood made him look particularly tragic.
Blood was seeping from the corners of his mouth and nose, clearly indicating internal organ damage.

Chen Jiang's wife is a surgeon, and he has learned a little about her from what he has seen and heard.

"Platoon leader! How are you?" The firefighters beside him were all crying.

The platoon leader waved his hand, as if he wanted to say something, but he was too short to speak. He just looked weakly in the direction of the little girl who had been rescued.

The medics are giving the siblings emergency treatment.

The younger brother suffered severe abdominal injuries and needed immediate surgery; the older sister's legs had been trapped for too long, and her condition was also not optimistic, but her vital signs were temporarily stable.

The fact that the platoon leader was also seriously injured is like adding insult to injury.

"He must be transferred to the ward for surgery immediately!" the medic shouted anxiously.

However, after the strong aftershocks, communications were still cut off, and the mountain roads were even more difficult to travel. How could they possibly send the message out?

Are we just going to leave the people we rescued with such difficulty to just sit here like this?

Just as a shadow fell over everyone's hearts once again, the long-awaited, enormous roar came from the sky, growing louder as it approached!

Everyone looked up and saw three helicopters painted in military camouflage appearing in the sky above the city, piercing through layers of smoke and dust!

"It's a helicopter! Our helicopter has arrived!"

"Signal baton! Send the signal now!"

The soldiers of Brigade A waved their flags excitedly and lit the signal batons.

The red smoke rose quickly and was very conspicuous.

The people in the helicopter had clearly spotted the red signal and the crowd on the ground, and began circling in the air, looking for a suitable landing spot.

Hope, in this most desperate moment, finally arrived in the most shocking way!
The helicopter at the front descended first, its powerful airflow whipping up clouds of dust that made it almost impossible to open one's eyes.

But at this moment, the sound of the wind and the roar were like the most melodious heavenly music.

Before the helicopter had even come to a complete stop, the cabin door opened, and several military doctors and medics dressed in camouflage uniforms and wearing Red Cross armbands jumped out nimbly with stretchers and first aid equipment, rushing quickly to the location of the wounded.

"Here! Three seriously injured! One child has a penetrating abdominal wound suspected of internal bleeding, one girl has crush injuries to both legs, and the other is a rescue worker with severe back and shoulder injuries, suspected of internal organ impact injuries!" The medic from Team A immediately stepped forward and quickly handed over the situation to the military doctor.

The experienced military doctors performed their examination swiftly and professionally. "Vitality signs are unstable; immediate air transport is necessary!" the lead medic decisively ordered. "Prioritize transporting the seriously injured child and this wounded comrade! The girl's condition is slightly better, but she must also be taken to the hospital as soon as possible!"

At this moment, the leading military doctor also saw Chen Jiang and Yuan Lang, who were covered in dust and dirt. He was somewhat shocked to see two senior colonels arrive at the scene so soon. He hadn't expected that there were people who had arrived even earlier than them.

"Hello, both leaders!"

He first saluted, "We are from the Chengdu Military Region Army Hospital. Because there are very few helicopters that can adapt to this kind of complex weather and terrain, the pilots risked great danger to find a low-altitude route that was barely passable, which is why we are late."

Hearing the other party's explanation, Chen Jiang smiled wearily.
"I am Chen Jiang from the R&D Department of the General Assembly, and this is Yuan Lang, the captain of the A Brigade. We received orders from our superiors to parachute here first. So you are not too late."

The military doctor was taken aback upon hearing this.

I never imagined those two senior colonels were so capable; they parachuted in. And the conditions for that parachute jump...
However, upon further reflection, he realized it was understandable. Parachuting is something that only special forces can accomplish. Ordinary paratroopers don't have their formidable wilderness survival skills, and ordinary rescue forces don't know how to parachute from high altitudes, so it is indeed very difficult.

The fact that they came by helicopter was already an achievement in itself.

"After you get back, you must report the route as soon as possible so that the follow-up rescue forces can get in quickly. The disaster-stricken people here desperately need rescue."

The well-trained medics immediately secured the little boy and the wounded lieutenant to stretchers and, with the help of the soldiers, rushed towards the helicopter against the wind.

Other seriously wounded individuals who had been pulled out were also sent up.

The little girl was cared for by another group of medics as they prepared to board the next helicopter.

"Lieutenant, hang in there!" Chen Jiang squeezed the lieutenant's uninjured hand tightly.

The lieutenant was pale and wanted to say something, but he couldn't say anything. He could only nod slightly with a firm look in his eyes before being lifted onto the helicopter.

As the children's mother watched her two children and the People's Liberation Army soldiers who had risked their lives to save her being put onto the plane one after another, she was so excited that she trembled all over. She wanted to express her gratitude, but she choked up and could not say a complete sentence. She could only keep bowing to the soldiers and to the direction of the helicopter.

The military doctor assured her that he would do his best to treat the children. Due to the limited carrying capacity of the helicopter, all the seriously wounded would be transferred, so the children's mother would not be able to go with them.

Yuan Lang directed the members of Team A to help maintain order and quickly organized other lightly injured people found at the scene to prepare for transfer.

Soon, the first helicopter, fully loaded with the wounded and hope, roared into the sky and headed towards the hospital in the rear. The second and third helicopters landed one after another, taking away the sister and the other wounded.

As the helicopter gradually disappeared into the distant horizon, everyone on the ruins, whether soldiers or civilians, breathed a long sigh of relief. A complex emotion that was hard to describe filled the air—a sense of relief at surviving a disaster, a profound respect for the heroic spirit of sacrifice, and a firm hope for the future.

"salute!"

Someone shouted, and Chen Jiang, Yuan Lang, Wu Liuyi, and all the soldiers present, regardless of their unit, raised their arms in unison, saluting the direction the helicopter had gone and the land beneath their feet that had endured so much hardship yet remained unyielding.

The surrounding crowd also spontaneously quieted down, their eyes filled with gratitude.

When Chen Jiang and the others lowered their arms, all the people spontaneously applauded, creating a very touching scene.

Chen Jiang turned to the exhausted but determined soldiers, his voice hoarse but powerful: "Clean up the scene, check the equipment! There are many more people waiting for us!"

Since the initial rescue efforts were mainly in the suburbs, the collapsed buildings were not very tall, making the rescue easier. However, as Chen Jiang and his team continued to venture deeper into the city center, the collapsed buildings were all relatively tall, which made the search and rescue work on site extremely dangerous and difficult.

Fortunately, the helicopter brought some rescue equipment when it arrived, and with survivors constantly joining their team, the work efficiency improved considerably.

"Captain, we've made contact with the troops behind us!" Just then, the communications officer from Battalion A ran up excitedly and shouted.

(End of this chapter)