The most important part of the village rescue mission is rescuing people. In this stage, all the 18 villagers who were originally buried underground have been found. What remains to be searched are the valuable materials buried underground.
Seeing that all the villagers in Wanxi Village had been rescued, Meng Changlong planned to take his soldiers to the next village overnight to help, at least to rescue the people from underground first.
"Captain Meng, our area is mostly mountainous and sparsely populated. Even the nearest village, Baixi, is at least a dozen miles away. It's already so dark, and the roads outside the earthquake zone are probably difficult to navigate. If you lead your men there for two or three hours, it will probably be early morning by the time you reach Baixi Village. It wouldn't be convenient for rescue operations at that time... It would be better to rest here for the night and then go back the next morning."
When Zhao Xingguo saw that Meng Changlong and his group were about to leave, he quickly tried to persuade them to stay.
Although Commander Meng hadn't been in their village long, he had brought them a lot of medicine from the military base and had the accompanying military doctor help treat the injured villagers. With such a great favor, how could he just let him go? He had to let him stay with them for at least one night.
Meng Changlong shook his head and refused, "We've already wasted enough time. If we don't go to Baixi Village, I'm afraid no one will be able to help with the rescue. If we work harder now, maybe we can save one more person later, so we won't stay here. I've brought two military doctors with me this time. I'll leave two soldiers and one military doctor here to take care of the villagers. I'll have the other one go with me to Baixi Village... Once the condition of your wounded stabilizes, have the other three come to us."
Not every village was as lucky as Wanxi Village, blessed with several such exceptional search and rescue dogs. Their base had only three military doctors, one of whom remained at the base to care for the wounded. The other two were brought out this time to aid villagers near the base.
There was only one barefoot doctor in Wanxi Village, and his medical skills were not very high. However, with so many injured villagers, there were not enough doctors.
But Meng Changlong had no way of deciding whether to let both doctors stay in Wanxi Village. After all, there was still a barefoot doctor in Wanxi Village, and they didn't know what the situation was like in Baixi Village now.
What if I go to Baixi Village and there is no doctor?
There was no way to persuade Meng Changlong, Zhao Xingguo could only watch Meng Changlong and his men leave.
Before leaving, Meng Changlong said one last thing, "I'd like to trouble the village chief to take care of the injured person. I'll have someone leave some more medicine for us later."
Zhao Xingguo naturally nodded in agreement and promised to take good care of the other party.
Late at night, in order to save electricity, the villagers did not plan to go into the ruins to look for the supplies buried underground. They all took the existing cotton-padded clothes and quilts and wrapped themselves up. They did not care whether these cotton-padded clothes and quilts were just dug out from the ruins and covered with dust, they just wrapped themselves up.
This earthquake came quickly and violently. Whether it was the signal towers built high up, or the electrical wires and circuits used in the village on a daily basis, or the water pipes, they were all destroyed in this earthquake!
Fortunately, because they lived in a remote area, many villagers still had old-fashioned hand-cranked water wells and some simple emergency lighting equipment in their homes, which allowed them to barely survive the first night after the earthquake.
However, there were many people affected by the disaster, and the sheds made of wood and plastic film to shelter from the wind and rain during the day were not enough. Except for the seriously injured villagers, they were placed in the best shed built by everyone earlier. There were special doctors and people to look after them, and they could roast charcoal basins in a better environment.
Many people had no place to sleep or rest, and could only sit outside by the fire late at night, feeling the cold mountain breeze.
In fact, if these people were willing to live in the homes of residents whose houses did not collapse during the day, they would not have to live in such a miserable state at night.
But everyone was afraid of an aftershock in the middle of the night. What if they happened to fall asleep again and were hit to death by the falling roof? That would be a huge loss!
Therefore, even though no one felt any ground tremors throughout the entire afternoon, we did not dare to take it lightly.
Even many residents whose houses did not collapse did not dare to move into their homes directly, and crowded outside with a large group of villagers who were severely affected by the disaster.
Qin Suyun looked at the many people sitting by the fire, feeling the cold wind. She frowned and went to Zhao Xingguo. "Village chief, we have a plastic greenhouse on the land where my family lived. It can at least provide some shelter from the wind. Why don't you let everyone rest there for a night? That will prevent everyone from getting sick from the cold."
The greenhouse was made of steel pipe, which was very resilient. As long as the ground wasn't cracked, it wouldn't collapse. Spending a night there was much better than being here in the cold. The only problem was that there were no beds in her greenhouse, so if she wanted to sleep, she'd have to sleep on the ground.
Qin Suyun told Zhao Xingguo these words.
However, Zhao Xingguo shook his head and rejected Qin Suyun's suggestion. "Although I haven't been to your greenhouse to see its current condition and don't know if it was damaged in the earthquake, your house and greenhouse are both at the foot of the mountain. If there's a landslide, your entire area might be buried underneath. When Commander Meng and his team came here before, they encountered a serious landslide... I'm also worried that this will happen to our village."
"This is the most open area in our village right now. Even if there's a landslide, it won't come here. Miss Qin, why don't you come with us and rest here? We can all look after each other. After a few days, when we're sure everything's OK, we can check on the houses that haven't collapsed to see if they're still habitable... Then, we can all move back in and live the same way."
Zhao Xingguo had not read any information and did not know how long it would take to move back to his original home after the earthquake, but he had lived for so many years and had his own experiences and opinions.
"Thank you for the connection, village chief, but I'll still stay here tonight. I have so many dogs at home, and it's not convenient for them to rest here. It would be bad if they scared the children in the village." Qin Suyun frowned.
Unexpectedly, before she could convince the village chief, the village chief wanted to turn around and convince her.
However, what the village chief said was indeed the truth. Putting aside the quality of the house, the probability of encountering landslides, mudslides, etc. when living at the foot of the mountain is much greater than in the village.
When the house was first built, Qin Suyun only wanted to keep it a little distance away from the villagers, so that no one would notice anything unusual happening in her house. This would also allow Dahei and the others to go out for some fresh air from time to time, so that they wouldn't feel uncomfortable being cooped up at home all day.
But she hadn't really considered things like landslides and mudslides. Yunhai City's geological structure was tight, unlike those areas with loose soil where landslides and mudslides were common. Especially in Wanxi Village, where the mountains and forests were lush and the terrain was not steep, how could landslides and mudslides possibly occur?
But... when Meng Changlong came here before, he did mention the landslide and ground fissure in the mountains.
But her house here was already built. It was such a huge project, costing so much money and manpower, she couldn't just give up. If she encountered something like a landslide or mudslide, she would only have her bad luck to blame.
"These landslides and mudslides that the village chief mentioned should not affect this area..." Qin Suyun secretly encouraged herself.
Since the village chief was unwilling to let anyone go to her, she could only wait until tomorrow morning to cook a pot of hot porridge for everyone in the village and put two drops of jade dew in the porridge to help the villagers.
As for He Zhennan's matter, Qin Suyun has not yet figured out any way to help him without making a fuss.
Qin Suyun exchanged a few polite words with the village chief, then took Dahei and the others to say goodbye to the village chief and headed home.
Although she was not worried that her house would collapse, she still had to check it again, just in case something happened.
The money spent on this house was indeed not wasted. Qin Suyun carefully checked the house from top to bottom and did not find anything unusual. Not to mention any cracks in the house, not even a piece of the white wall had fallen off!
The whole house looks new, as if it has never experienced any setbacks.
The only downside was that a lot of things in the house fell to the ground due to the earthquake. Cups, bowls, and saucers were scattered all over the floor, and cabinets and chairs were tilted all over the place. The whole house looked like it had been attacked by a riotous army. Fortunately, the supplies stored in the basement had been wrapped with shock-absorbing foam pads and packed into boxes on the previously damaged straw, so there was no problem.
I soaked the rice for making porridge tomorrow in a bucket and cleaned the house simply.
Qin Suyun took the emergency power supply and checked every place one by one. She thought that several fish in the fish pond at home jumped out of the water and fell to the ground because of the earthquake. When she saw them, the four fish that fell to the ground were already dead.
Qin Suyun picked up the four fish with some heartache and put them in the kitchen, waiting to come back and prepare them for Hei Dou as a snack.
The chickens and ducks in the backyard were fine, probably because they were locked in cages and couldn't get out, so they stayed in their cages obediently. When they saw Qin Suyun coming, they chirped and called out. As for the pigs and sheep in the pigpen, because of the earthquake, they all huddled in the corner with their heads drooped, and even when they saw Qin Suyun, they didn't react much.
Qin Suyun didn't know if these little creatures were injured by the earthquake, but seeing how they were all huddled together in fear, she got a large bucket of water with a drop of Jade Dew to feed them.
Normally, Qin Suyun was afraid that these chickens, ducks, etc. would become human-like after drinking too much jade dew, and she would not be willing to kill and eat them, so this was the second time she fed them jade dew.
"It's a pity that I won't be able to get those mini pigs I ordered later, and the fish I ordered from the Fan brothers. I was also planning to buy some rabbits and other supplies..."
…
at the same time.
Chen Zhou, Xu Rong and three others came to Lixi Village, 20 to 30 kilometers away.
The journey from the highway to Lixi Village should only take more than two hours, but Chen Zhou did not take into account that there was a pregnant woman and two elderly people in their team.
Xu Rong is now more than seven months pregnant. Not only is her belly round, but her feet are also starting to swell. It is impossible for her to walk fast!
Xu Xiangguo and his mother are already in their 50s, almost 60 years old this year. How can they compete with Chen Zhou, a strong young man?
The group walked and rested from time to time. In addition, the road sections were damaged by the earthquake. If the four of them wanted to walk directly from the highway to Lixi Village, they had to keep taking detours.
As a result, the journey that was supposed to take more than two hours actually took them more than six hours!
However, before the four of them could feel happy when they arrived at Lixi Village, they heard a burst of crying and barking of dogs in the village shrouded in darkness.
"What's going on?! Didn't you say we could rest at your house?! How can we rest like this now?!" Xu Rong looked ugly and panting.
She followed Chen Zhou all the way to Lixi Village with such a big belly. Her greatest perseverance was to rest. However, she didn't expect that before she even entered the village, she could tell from a distance that 60% to 70% of the houses in the village had been destroyed by the earthquake.
Looking around, all they could see was ruins! Many people were walking around with lighting equipment, illuminating the area even more clearly.
Whether it was Xu Rong or Xu's father and mother, their faces all darkened and looked unhappy at this moment.
Unfortunately, Chen Zhou had no time to pay attention to the ugly expressions of Xu Rong and her family. He looked at the mess, his heart sank, and he ran to the village in a hurry! He was afraid that something might happen to his parents at home!
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