Chapter 267: Silent Great Sorrow, Do You Want to Copy the Suicide Note Too?
Chen Mo deliberately did not tell the camp what exactly happened.
But the veterans' intuition told them that all the tools and equipment were loaded onto the vehicles, the dry rations for each soldier were carried by the entire battalion, and all the vehicles were fully fueled.
Most of the time, there is a disaster somewhere and troops are needed to rescue.
On the training ground.
A dense crowd of people gathered, no one said a word, and no one asked questions deliberately. As the saying goes, when there are more than a thousand people, there is no end.
The total number of people in the demonstration camp is currently only about 600, but everyone is wearing equipment and has serious faces, still creating an extremely solemn atmosphere for the entire scene.
"Scholar, what's going on?"
After Cheng Dong finished writing the maneuver plan and handed it to other staff members, he quickly walked up to Chen Mo and asked in a low voice.
"I'm not sure." Chen Mo shook his head. "The military suddenly issued a notice that earthquakes were felt in many areas of Datong and Xiaocheng, requiring all garrison units to enter a level one combat readiness state."
"Captain, is there going to be another earthquake in Jin Province?"
"Yes, but not this serious." Cheng Dong recalled seriously: "I remember it happened in Datong in 1991. The highest magnitude was 5.8. I was a volunteer soldier at that time, and I didn't hear about the war preparation."
"A military parade!"
Chen Mo shrugged his shoulders. "The military parade has touched the nerves of all the top leaders. Any disturbance will be taken seriously. I hope the country will be peaceful and the people will be safe, and nothing will happen."
"That's what I said."
Cheng Dong said, turning his head to look in the direction of the veterans gathered, and waved to several company commanders: "Go, arrange for people to distribute duck down belts. The combat readiness order will not be cancelled tonight. Everyone stay here and wait for orders."
"Scholar, it's time to start preparing the suicide note."
"Wait a little longer!"
Chen Mo shook his head, and then looked at the instructor Fang Peijun beside him. Old Fang was a cadre arranged by the Political Department.
In terms of information, he is definitely much more informed than anyone else in the camp.
"Wait a minute."
Fang Peijun also agreed with Chen Mo's suggestion.
The two officers in charge of military operations and political ideology in the camp were not in a hurry to arrange for the writing of a suicide note, so Cheng Dong did not propose it again.
I think so.
They are organized into an academy, not a separate garrison. How bad does the situation have to be for the demonstration battalion to be deployed?
Datong has an armed police detachment and the 82nd Motorized Infantry Brigade. Xiaocheng also has an anti-aircraft artillery unit, and the 188th Division is stationed there.
These military control units can integrate forces and perform efficiently in the shortest time and at the fastest speed.
Chen Mo ignored the cadres around him and walked quickly to Wang Jianyong. The TV signal had been connected and a news interview program was projected.
A group of cadres gathered around to check.
Chen Mo looked around but still couldn't find Man Xuexue. He pulled Wang Jianyong over and said, "Go check the guardhouse entry and exit records to see if Man Xuexue is not in the camp."
"Find a way to contact him and return as soon as possible."
"Level 1 combat readiness is no joke. If we're ever needed, it'll be a disaster if we don't have the right numbers."
"Hey! Leave it to me."
Wang Jianyong also knew the seriousness of the matter. After agreeing, he left in a hurry.
at this time.
The broadcast continued, and the host's voice on the scene was clearly transmitted through the projection.
"As of 7:00 PM on the 5th, seven aftershocks occurred in various areas of Datong and Xiaocheng, the largest of which was a magnitude 5.6. The overall trend showed a fluctuating attenuation."
"According to current statistics, the disaster-stricken areas include two cities and six counties, among which Yanggao area is the most severely affected."
"Weather experts have determined that this natural disaster will not have a wide impact and is showing signs of stabilizing."
"Rescue supplies and PLA comrades arrived at the scene immediately. We are now reporting the latest rescue progress."
In conjunction with the broadcast, the projection began to turn to a bird's-eye view from a helicopter.
The picture is not clear.
The filming location should be in Gaoyang, where the earthquake was the most serious. Affected by the heavy rains during the flood season, and the 5.6 magnitude earthquake being considered a moderate earthquake, many buildings that were not designed to be earthquake-proof were all affected.
A filthy torrent was surging at the scene, the sky and earth were gloomy and yellow, and the might of nature's wrath was grand and mighty. It should be the earthquake that caused a dam to burst somewhere. The water surface was endless, two-story houses were submerged, and only a dozen centimeters of electric poles were exposed. A local dog, with its hair stuck to its body, curled up on the top of the pole.
He wailed alone and finally jumped into the water, trying to swim to the shore. However, the wooden planks washed down by the waves gave him no chance to struggle and he was knocked underwater by the huge force.
The heavy rain continued, and there was no noticeable shaking. The raindrops as big as beans were hitting the water surface violently.
This scene actually gives people a very strange illusion, as if the rain is not falling from the sky, but from the ground to the sky.
The despair and shock of the flood rising from the ground and flowing to the sky shocked every cadre who came over to watch the broadcast.
The torrent was roaring, and the endless fertile fields turned into a swamp in an instant.
Chen Mo frowned.
He just heard the host say that there were signs of stabilization and thought the problem was not really serious.
But looking at the broadcast, it doesn't seem stable at all. Is this the combination of earthquake and flash flood?
Could the orders faxed from the military region be biased?
Fortunately, the people in the affected areas should have been evacuated, and no scenes of rescue or people being affected were seen.
At this time, the host's voice came from the screen again.
"To relieve flood control pressure on downstream dam areas, levees, and cities."
"With the approval of higher-level leaders, preparations for the first flood discharge are about to begin."
"The following is a report from our reporters from the frontline earthquake zone and flood discharge area."
The scene changed.
A frontline host, standing in the rain, wearing a white plastic sheet as a raincoat, said: "Hello everyone, I am currently located downstream of the Gaoyang Dam."
"Because of the strong tremors and heavy rain, I couldn't even open my eyes standing here with the rain hitting my face."
"In the flood discharge area, there are two tributaries, the Sanggan River and the Baideng River, flowing downstream."
"According to reports, the water storage capacity of the dam will reach its peak in six hours, and the gates must be opened to release the floodwaters. Otherwise, there is a risk of a complete dam collapse."
"Beginning at 7:00 PM today, the Shanxi Provincial Flood Control Headquarters has officially issued a evacuation order. All civil servants, militia, personnel from enterprises and institutions, field 67mm anti-aircraft artillery, armed police mobile brigades, and firefighters are responsible for coordinating the evacuation of 150,000 residents to the city 80 kilometers away."
A long line of common people, driving their cattle, horses and sheep, began to move in the heavy rain.
What the host said at the beginning was not wrong. The tremors were indeed not strong and have already shown a stabilizing trend.
But the series of disasters caused by the earthquake were not as easy as imagined.
This scene is spectacular and sad. It shows the pain of abandoning one's home and sacrificing the small to save the big. The flood discharge area is already an earthquake-prone disaster area, and now it has to take on the responsibility of flood diversion.
Responsibility sounds glorious, but it is extremely cruel.
Because this is actively inducing flooding.
Around the training ground, more and more veterans quietly moved to the projected news, looking at it with serious expressions.
Chen Mo noticed the crowd, but he didn't say anything to stop them because there was no way to stop them.
They just arranged for people to move all the landlines in the communications room to the training ground so that the soldiers in the camp could contact their families.
This is human nature.
Seeing the relocation of some places, many people guessed that they might have to rush to the disaster area and just wanted to talk to their families, even if it was just one sentence.
What's more, there should be soldiers from the flood discharge area on the scene.
Sudden.
The broadcast footage captured a commotion.
The transfer team was stuck at a certain point. A little girl who looked only five or six years old, wearing a very old red vest and a raincoat made of a urea woven bag, stood there blankly with a wet big hen in her arms, looking at her two-wheeled cart stuck deep in the mud.
“One, two, three!!”
"One, two, three, push harder!!"
Three or four men around were covered in mud and roared as they tried to drag the cart full of goods out of the mud.
However, it was completely useless. The entire car body sank deeper and deeper, and finally most of the wheels were eaten away by the mud. The strong force plus the weight of the car body made a flimsy cart become hopeless.
There must have been quite a few people injured in the earthquake, and they were traveling with the crowd, dragging their families and carrying heavy luggage.
The crowd had very little energy left.
I watched as the piled-up goods, including the carts that were taller than two people, gradually collapsed and sank into the mud.
The men sighed.
The little girl with messy hair had tears in her bright eyes, and her eyes were full of fear. The big rooster also raised its head and looked around, appearing very panicked.
A middle-aged woman, probably the little girl's mother, collapsed in the mud, kicking her legs in a disgraceful manner and crying loudly.
All her belongings were in this car, and most of them were stuck in the mud. This blow was hard for her to accept.
In 1999, a cart might not be a big deal, but to a family, it was all the wealth of the family.
As for the house, it's in the flood zone and is nothing.
"Try again, Cuihua sister, don't cry, try again!"
A middle-aged man who looked like a village cadre couldn't bear it, so he called on the men from the same village and planned to try again.
However, the militiamen who were organizing the evacuation nearby, as well as a small number of field troops, came over to stop them, and even began to anxiously urge and scold them.
There's nothing I can do.
With more than 100,000 people evacuated over dozens of kilometers, the safety of the large force must be guaranteed.
There are many earthquake zones along the way, and the roads are damaged. Coupled with the floods, traffic is completely blocked and the flood will be released in a few hours.
They have to stay alive, they have to run, run fast, run against time.
One person can be helped, but what about ten, one hundred, one thousand?
What is delayed is the best time to evacuate.
"My friend, why are you still here? Why don't you leave?" A captain hurried over wading through the mud.
The village official gritted his teeth and said, "Leader, this is all her family has. Cuihua's husband died in the mines at the beginning of the spring, and she only has one daughter. If we throw away their belongings, they will be gone. There is no one to support her and her daughter."
The captain's expression changed again and again. It was obvious that he was also very conflicted. But looking at the car in the mud, the captain took the village cadre's arm and said, "If things are gone, there is a chance to buy them again. But if people are gone, they are really gone."
"If we delay here, the teams behind us will be affected. How much road have we occupied? Give up!"
The captain had no choice.
The rescue troops did not arrive so quickly. Even if there were a lot of people in the nearby anti-aircraft artillery units, there would not be many left after they were dispersed to various disaster relief areas.
The large group of people who were transferred had their families with them, so it was impossible to spare anyone to help.
The village cadre felt depressed. He knew that people were more important than materials, but he couldn't say anything.
"Leader, please, please, try again, the child's father's things are still in the car, please!!!"
The little girl's mother's eyes were full of unwillingness, and she crawled out of the mud and water to the captain, mumbling something.
Seeing this scene, the captain was stunned.
As a soldier, he knew that the overall situation was more important and that time was of the utmost importance. There were still tens of thousands of people behind him and he could not delay.
But as a soldier, how could he resist a plea from his fellow villager?
He felt that the most difficult choice in his life was at this moment.
The captain glanced at the cart again, gritted his teeth, squatted down, and said, "Sister, it's okay if the things are gone."
"I can't survive."
The little girl's mother grabbed the captain's trouser legs tightly with both hands and cried out in a shrill voice.
The little girl holding the big rooster behind her cried out "Wow" and burst into tears.
Can't survive!
It was like thunder that shattered all the captain's persistence.
He was completely stunned. These four words were extremely heavy.
Maybe many people in later generations don’t notice it and think it’s just playing the victim and being unreasonable.
Actually not.
In the late 1990s, before the country's economy took off.
Rural women often buy pesticides and abandon their children because of a little family setback or quarrel.
To be so cruel, a mother must have been tortured to the point of collapse by life, and this would be unimaginable 10 years later.
But this is reality.
Because of poverty!
Many people have endured unimaginable hardships. Every year, they have to go out to borrow money for their children’s tuition, and every time their own children are the last to pay. Has anyone experienced this?
People would be so depressed just because a sheep fell off a cliff and died. Has anyone ever seen that?
Who has ever tried to borrow even a bowl of rice?
If you have not experienced that era, you cannot imagine the despair of losing the family breadwinner, living a hard life with children alone, and facing the loss of all your belongings.
"Forget it. I can't just stand by and watch even if it means violating the rules."
The captain sighed.
They actually spoke for a very short time, but if they really wanted to rescue their belongings from the mud and reorganize them, a lot of time would be wasted.
"Are there any members of the Second Grenade Company nearby?"
"Third Company? Where are the anti-aircraft artillery guys?"
“Here it comes!!”
soon!
A combat squad temporarily put aside their mission and gathered together, along with the original villagers and the crowd that squeezed in later.
They surrounded the car, their eyes wide open, veins popping out on their necks and arms, and they roared with force.
The car slowly emerged from the mud.
Five centimeters!
Ten centimeters!
Fifteen centimeters!
Seeing that most of the car body had been pulled out and only another twenty centimeters would be needed to completely pull the car out of the mud.
Perhaps it was because he was standing in the wrong position, or perhaps it was because the belongings were heavy and covered with mud, a young soldier ran out of strength, slipped, leaned forward, and hit his forehead hard on the side of an iron pot.
Suddenly, red blood gushed out.
Everyone's rhythm was disrupted and the car sank into the mud again.
Hold!
The captain who was originally in command had red eyes and waved his hand to disperse the crowd.
"Don't waste time!"
"Get out of here, leave him alone, let's continue."
After saying that, the captain replaced the young soldier, shouting slogans loudly and coordinating forces.
However, the car body, which was mostly submerged, had already tilted at this time and was no longer stuck straight in the mud. It seemed that the car body was stuck by something and no matter how hard it tried, it was useless.
"There seems to be something down there!"
"dig!"
The live broadcast changed again, and the two soldiers lay down regardless and started digging with their hands, but soon their hands were covered in blood again.
There were not only gravels in the mud, but also broken glass bottles from the household belongings, the fragments of which scratched my hands.
Everyone's eyes twitched and they looked at the captain.
The captain's face was ashen, as if he hadn't noticed the soldier had been injured again. He shouted, "Come on, stop digging and continue!"
"One, two, three!"
"One, two, three!"
On the side, the mother of the little girl, who was originally sitting paralyzed in the mud, was dazed just now, but suddenly she burst into emotions.
She got up from the ground and rushed forward like crazy, pushing away the two soldiers with injured hands, the captain, and all the people who came to help.
During this period, she fell many times.
Everyone around was stunned.
"Sister, what are you doing?" asked the captain.
Seeing everyone being pushed away, the little girl's mother smiled. It was a numb and boring smile, mixed with cold rain and mud.
"I don't want it anymore."
"I don't want this broken house anymore. I don't want it anymore."
As she laughed, she began to cry softly again.
"No, I don't want any of it."
She turned her head and kept muttering to herself. In the rain, among the large group of people evacuating, her expression gradually became unclear, and then she suddenly picked up a shoulder pole from the ground.
He started smashing the car that was stuck in the mud.
One, two, three times.
"Why should I marry you? Why should I marry to a place like this? Why could you leave me?"
The little girl was frightened and took a few steps back timidly, holding the big rooster tightly in her arms, not daring to say a word.
All around, the men were speechless, and great sorrow was silent.
Perhaps, they cannot empathize with the elder sister's pain, but they can have infinite sympathy.
The captain sighed.
He took off his raincoat and the casual clothes underneath it, took off the woven bag on the little girl's head, and put on his military uniform and raincoat for the little girl.
The captain carried the woven bag on his own head.
The news broadcast was in black and white, a black and white mixed with a cold paleness.
At the demonstration camp, almost all the soldiers watching were silently crying and clenching their fists.
Chen Mo took a deep breath and turned his head away.
This is just a part of the news broadcast. If Chen Mo didn't understand the situation just now, he would still have the illusion of trying his best to avoid any accidents and not to take any action.
You can see this situation.
More than 100,000 people have been evacuated and are still in the flood discharge area. I am afraid that many troops will have to go to rescue them.
Including demonstration camps.
Chen Mo turned his head and glanced at Fang Peijun. Old Fang immediately understood, nodded, and turned to walk towards the west campus.
He strode to the flag-raising platform on the training ground.
"Tell me about it!"
brush!
Hundreds of officers and soldiers stood at attention. At this moment, the entire battalion unexpectedly reached the most unified state, and the execution was also at its highest point.
But Chen Mo just couldn't be happy.
He just tried his best to suppress his emotions and said in a loud voice: "There is no specific task at the moment."
"But all the troops in the military region have received the notice. I believe many comrades have also witnessed the specific situation just now."
"Everyone get ready."
"The instructor will hand out paper and pens to everyone later. Leave your suicide notes. I don't know the specific situation in the flood discharge area. I can't predict whether the heavy rain and subsequent earthquake will cause worse consequences."
"I can't guarantee that I can bring every one of you back, let alone that I can come back myself."
Chen Mo was in a depressed mood and raised his voice in a stern tone the next second.
"Require!"
brush!
All officers and soldiers stood at attention again, their movements in unison.
"Once we receive the order, we will immediately move out and strictly follow the plan. No mistakes are allowed in any link."
"At the same time, you must remember that when you arrive in the disaster area, the safety of the people is the most important, the mission assigned by your superiors is the second, and only then, you are the most important."
"Comrades, is this clear?"
"Yes!" A thunderous response suddenly erupted on the training ground.
The air is filled with murderous intent!
The power is everywhere!
Perhaps in normal times within the camp, there is no harmony between the classes, platoons, and companies, and there are many open and covert struggles.
They are all competing for honor and seeking benefits for their own collective.
But at this moment, the backbone of the soldiers is the people's greatest support.
soon.
Fang Peijun returned and distributed paper and pen to each person.
Hundreds of people sat cross-legged on the ground, using their backpacks as cushions, and began to write suicide notes with a rustling sound.
There are many veterans in the demonstration camp, and for some of them, writing this stuff is as easy as drinking cold water.
Of course, there are also student officials who have just graduated from college. They are more fragile and have not even written a word. They cry secretly for a while, and then pretend nothing happened to call home and chat about family matters.
Then I came back and wrote while wiping away my tears.
Chen Mo had never written in his previous life. He was a government official, so this could be said to be his first time.
He also missed his parents and sister and wanted to call home, but he couldn't because everyone in the camp was watching.
If even the battalion commander showed weakness at this time, there would be no way to organize a rescue.
He moved a stool and sat on the flag-raising platform, looking up and thinking.
He lowered his head and wrote, "If I unfortunately die, there's 2,363 yuan in my salary savings account. 2,000 will go to my parents, 300 to my younger brother; he should be in high school soon. I'll keep some money, and 63 yuan will go to my younger sister to buy her some candy. She likes sweets, but she needs to eat them sparingly to avoid cavities, or she won't be pretty when she grows up. After I die, please tell my family I'm sorry. As a soldier, I have certain duties I must fulfill, and I've never regretted becoming a soldier."
After Chen Mo finished writing, he folded it up silently. He didn't feel very lost, nor did he feel too sad. Maybe it was because he was getting old.
I don’t have much feeling about these.
It’s just a regret that I can’t spend more time with my family.
After finishing writing, Chen Mo turned his head and glanced at Cheng Dong. What Captain Cheng wrote was even more trivial than what he wrote. It was all about reminding the children to study and some trivial family matters. It was the type of detailed reminders.
Old Cheng also discovered that the scholar was slacking off. He was quite a bachelor and didn't hide it at all. He couldn't help laughing and said: "Damn it, you want to copy the suicide note? Write your own, damn it."
Since becoming the battalion commander.
I never heard the company commander scold me again, and now when I hear it again, it feels quite familiar.
Chen Mo turned his head and looked at Liu Min, the captain of the medical team. This twenty-six or twenty-seven-year-old girl wrote a suicide note that looked like a fucking prose.
Something like, "Now that the people are in trouble, soldiers should step forward. Although I am a woman, I am also a soldier, so it is my responsibility to do so." She said a lot of things, which made Chen Mo feel disgusted.
The more powerful veterans, who probably had a slightly lower level of education, either drew circles or symbols on their suicide notes.
He actually didn't understand.
This left Chen Mo speechless.
Just as the crowd on the training ground was writing suicide notes, three 142 transport trucks drove in at the west campus gate.
From a long distance away, Chen Mo saw Lao Man's dog head sticking out of the passenger seat of the first car and looking around.
Without waiting for Chen Mo to go over and ask.
The communications staff officer on duty in the operations duty room ran over breathlessly.
"battalion commander!"
"Orders, orders have arrived!"
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