Chapter 468 Search and Rescue
When Zhou Yi and Lu Xiaoshuang reached the entrance to the scenic area at the foot of the mountain, an old police car had already parked in the parking lot opposite, and Wang Tao was standing next to the police car.
As soon as he saw Zhou Yi, he immediately came over to greet him.
"Officer Zhou, I'm sorry to bother you again. Director Ni asked me to pick you up." Wang Tao came up and quickly shook hands with Zhou Yi.
Ever since he saw Zhou Yi "guiding" Ni Jianrong's work yesterday, Wang Tao knew that this person must be no ordinary person.
"I know. Director Ni called me." Zhou Yi asked, "Officer Wang, what's going on?"
"How about we get in the car first? We can talk on the way?"
Zhou Yi nodded.
"Brother Yi, give me the things. I can walk back. It's only two kilometers anyway." Lu Xiaoshuang stretched out her hand and said.
Wang Tao asked, "Is this my sister-in-law?"
"Yes, my girlfriend, Lu Xiaoshuang. Officer Wang, if you don't mind taking a short detour? My grandmother's home is in Xiaguang Village up ahead. Just get off at the entrance of Xiaoshuang Village."
Wang Tao immediately replied, "It's okay, it's okay. Director Ni is waiting for you over at Xishan. It's just on the way there."
Since that’s what he said, Zhou Yi didn’t hesitate and the three of them got in the car together.
Soon the car stopped at the entrance of Xiaguan Village, and Lu Xiaoshuang, who was sitting in the back seat, got out of the car carrying her things.
"Brother Yi, be careful." Lu Xiaoshuang warned.
Zhou Yi smiled and said, "Okay, don't worry."
Lu Xiaoshuang watched the police car leave, then pulled the bag on her shoulder. She realized that Zhou Yi had been carrying such a heavy bag while climbing the mountain with her.
For some reason, she felt a vague sense of unease.
In the police car, Zhou Yi asked, "Director Ni just said on the phone that something happened to the group of students who went hiking in the wild mountains, but he didn't give any details. What exactly happened?"
Wang Tao said: "I'm not very clear about the specifics, but the short answer is that eight university students climbed the western part of Yunxia Mountain, which is an undeveloped area. Then, early this morning, a forest ranger on patrol discovered one of them."
Zhou Yi was shocked: "Dead?"
Wang Tao was stunned for a moment and said, "He's not dead, but he's seriously injured. He's been sent to the county hospital."
Zhou Yi nodded, as long as he was not dead.
"Oh, what a bunch of idiots!" he said with a disappointed look on his face.
"From what I hear, Officer Zhou, you know them?"
"Yeah, I saw them in town the day before yesterday. They were discussing hiking next to me. I tried to persuade them, but unfortunately, no one listened."
After listening to this, Wang Tao sighed and said, "Hey, I hope the remaining seven are alright."
Soon, Zhou Yi saw many police cars and policemen parked at the foot of the mountain in front of him.
Ni Jianrong was standing in a prominent position, organizing work.
Zhou Yi and Wang Tao got out of the car and walked towards him.
When he saw Zhou Yi, Ni Jianrong's eyes lit up and he immediately walked over.
"Zhou Yi, thank you for your hard work." Ni Jianrong patted Zhou Yi's arm with trust on his face, acting very close to him in front of Wang Tao.
"Director Ni, what is the current situation?" Zhou Yi asked hurriedly.
"This morning, while on patrol, a forest ranger spotted a female university student in the bushes at the foot of the mountain. They immediately called the police and an ambulance. After officers from the Yunlai Town Police Station arrived, they learned from the female university student that she and eight other people had entered the undeveloped area of Yunxia Mountain yesterday morning."
"As a result, they got lost along the way, and the eight of them had an argument over this, which led to them splitting up."
Zhou Yi was completely speechless. The fact that they got lost showed that this group of people were inexperienced and unprepared.
The quarrel was obviously caused by getting lost, which led to losing control of the emotions and then blaming each other.
Hey, these guys are not hikers at all, they are just a bunch of stupid donkeys!
Ni Jianrong continued, "Then this female university student named Shen Chunlin got separated from her companions again."
"Chen Chunlin?" Zhou Yi remembered this name. It seemed to be the girl who sat behind Lu Xiaoshuang and disliked her age.
"What's wrong? Do you know him?" Ni Jianrong asked.
Wang Tao interrupted, "Officer Zhou met with that group of college students a few days ago and tried to persuade them, but unfortunately they didn't listen."
"Really?" Ni Jianrong was very surprised and thought to himself, why didn't you persuade him at that time? If you had persuaded him, this would not have happened.
It’s so unlucky that I encountered such a thing just after taking office.
What’s even more speechless is that she is a college student. I am destined to fail because of her.
"Director Ni, how is Shen Chunlin doing now?" Zhou Yi asked.
"He is currently in the county hospital. His life is not in danger. The initial diagnosis is that he has a broken leg, several fractured ribs, and multiple contusions on his body."
"Why is the injury so serious? How high did you fall from?" Zhou Yi asked.
Ni Jianrong pointed to a spot a few dozen meters ahead and said, "That's where it fell. Fortunately, there were a lot of bushes below to cushion the fall. Otherwise, the consequences would have been disastrous."
Zhou Yi took a look and thought, wow, this must be about ten meters high, and he didn’t die from the fall, he must be really lucky.
"So there are still seven students trapped in the mountains and haven't come out?" Zhou Yi asked.
Ni Jianrong nodded. "Before you came, we had just finished searching the surrounding area, and no one else was found. We've also asked around in several nearby villages, and no one has seen this group of college students."
"Director Ni, let me ask one more question. Was Shen Chunlin pushed down by someone?"
Ni Jianrong was stunned: "No, she said she slipped and fell."
"Then...did she say anything about other students being killed, or was there murder involved?"
Ni Jianrong was even more confused: "No, it should... probably not."
"So this is an emergency, right?"
Ni Jianrong nodded.
Zhou Yi thought, "Oh my god, if this isn't a murder case, why did you call me here? I'm not from Yunshan County!"
But Ni Jianrong hadn't noticed it yet, and was talking about how he was going to organize people to go up the mountain for rescue and search.
Zhou Yi sighed helplessly in his heart. This Director Ni really must repay his debts. I just used his connections to solve Wu Yuemei's problem yesterday, and today he comes to order me around.
After he finished speaking, Zhou Yi asked, "Director Ni, where did these eight college students come from? Which university did they come from?"
"According to Shen Chunlin, they are all students at Fengde Vocational and Technical College, and they seem to be part of some kind of travel club. Shen Chunlin is a freshman, and their leader is Liang Bin, a sophomore."
"Fengde Vocational and Technical College? I've never heard of it. It doesn't sound like a very good school."
Ni Jianrong sighed: "Well, whether it's good or not, they all have to be saved."
Zhou Yi nodded. Indeed, no matter how unpleasant this group of students was, the police would not just stand by and watch them die.
And since Ni Jianrong had called me here, it was impossible for me to just say it was none of my business and leave.
Then he learned that the Yunshan County Bureau and several police stations had a total of less than 150 people. Excluding those over 40 years old and the household registration police, who were mainly female police officers, there were only about 80 people who could be mobilized to go up the mountain for search and rescue.
Even if we add the county fire department, there are only a little over a hundred people.
Yunxia Mountain is a medium-sized mountain. Zhou Yi remembered that the sign at the entrance of the scenic area introduced that the entire Yunxia Mountain covers an area of about 80 square kilometers, which is a lower-middle size in the country.
The developed area in Dongshan only accounts for about one-third of the total.
In other words, the undeveloped wild mountains cover about 50 to 60 square kilometers.
What does this mean? It’s about the size of seven or eight thousand football fields.
Of course, judging from where they went up the mountain, it is impossible for them to walk that far in the mountains, but the difficulty of this search can be imagined.
"Director Ni, please report it quickly. We don't have enough manpower." Zhou Yi reminded.
Ni Jianrong nodded. He was now in a state of panic. Before the county bureau had even started to clean up its mess, someone else came and pooped his pants.
According to Ni Jianrong's instructions, 28 police officers from the county bureau and Yunlai Town Police Station who met the search and rescue conditions were present at the scene. They formed the first search and rescue team and went up the mountain to search from the place where Shen Chunlin and his companions entered the mountain.
Ni Jianrong, the follow-up search and rescue personnel, is organizing and dispatching, and is striving to arrive as soon as possible.
Even these twenty-eight people did not officially enter the mountain until around ten o'clock.
Because the police are not professional search and rescue personnel, they need to make some preparations before entering the mountains, including compasses, protective equipment, ropes, emergency medical kits and supplies.
You can't just go in and get killed.
In addition, there is no geographical structure map for the undeveloped areas of Yunxia Mountain, and small places these days simply do not have the conditions for high-tech equipment such as GPS.
It took a lot of effort just to gather the equipment for these twenty-eight people.
And there is another problem, that is, there is no signal in the mountains, and you can't make calls even if you bring your mobile phone in.
The county bureau only has twelve radio devices in total, and it is impossible to confirm whether the signal will be interfered with after entering the mountains.
For safety reasons, police officers going into the mountains to search and rescue are in groups of at least two, equipped with a radio device, and will immediately report the location of any missing person they find.
Wang Tao was originally going to be in a group with Zhou Yi, but Ni Jianrong asked him to stay and help him coordinate the work.
At this time, Zhou Yi saw Lu Tiezhu in the crowd.
"Brother Tiezhu!" Zhou Yi waved and shouted.
Lu Tiezhu looked in the direction of the sound, was surprised and delighted, and immediately ran over.
"Zhou Yi, why are you here?"
"Director Ni asked me to come and help." Zhou Yi said casually.
Only then did Lu Tiezhu notice Ni Jianrong standing beside him. When he was directing the search at the foot of the mountain just now, he already knew that this was the new director of the county bureau.
Startled, he quickly saluted: "Hello, Director."
In front of the grassroots police, Ni Jianrong immediately put on airs again, nodded like a leader, and then asked Zhou Yi: "Your friend?"
Zhou Yi nodded and was about to introduce.
Ni Jianrong said to Lu Tiezhu in a rather official tone: "Work hard and learn more from Zhou Yi."
Lu Tiezhu didn't understand what was going on, so he saluted with great fear and trepidation and answered yes!
Zhou Yi happened to be in a group with Lu Tiezhu.
Wang Tao didn't know Zhou Yi's background, but Lu Tiezhu knew it very well. After all, he used to follow him around during the summer vacation when they were little.
As they climbed the mountain, the team dispersed. When no one was around, Lu Tiezhu asked in surprise, "Zhou Yi, are you familiar with this new Director Ni? He seems to think highly of you."
Zhou Yi smiled bitterly and said helplessly, "I really appreciate his appreciation. I can't bear it."
In fact, even if Ni Jianrong didn't call me, I would still come to help if I knew something happened here.
Having been a policeman for two lifetimes, some things are ingrained in me.
The undeveloped area of the West Mountain of Yunxia Mountain is a world apart from the East Mountain we climbed before.
At the beginning, there was a small path leading up the mountain. The forest ranger said that some local old Chinese medicine practitioners still retained the habit of going up the mountain to collect herbs, so there was such a small path.
But after walking for a while, the only path disappeared and was filled with trees and grass everywhere.
In order to search more effectively, ten teams dispersed to search in ten directions.
This group of college students went up the mountain yesterday morning, and it has been 24 hours. Even if they move slowly, it probably won't be found in a short time.
Zhou Yi looked at the weeds and dense woods all over the mountains and felt how insignificant human beings were in the face of nature.
Fortunately, the grass was not very tall because the shade of the trees blocked the sunlight.
The two walked forward while looking for traces around them.
Since it hadn't rained recently, the soil on the mountain was not moist, and it was covered with grass, making it almost difficult to tell whether there were any footprints.
The only hope is to see if there are some traces left by humans, such as garbage thrown away casually. After all, this group of people is the kind of person who would do that.
"These college students are just bored out of their minds. They're so young, yet they're using their parents' money to come to places like this for excitement," Lv Tiezhu complained. "If anything goes wrong, their parents won't be able to stop crying."
"Brother Tiezhu, are there any wild animals on this mountain?"
"There aren't any big ones like tigers, leopards, or bears. I've never heard of them. There are wild boars, roe deer, rabbits, and so on in the mountains."
Zhou Yi nodded. As long as there were no dangerous animals, it would be fine. At least these students would not be hurt by wild beasts.
"Oh, when I was a kid, my grandfather told me there were lynxes in the mountains. An old hunter in the village once killed one."
"Really? There are lynxes." Zhou Yi was quite surprised.
This is a large feline, generally about one meter long, like a big cat and a bit like a leopard.
It looks cute, but it's actually a carnivore.
Zhou Yi had seen it in the zoo in his previous life. It was said that it would not attack humans under normal circumstances.
I just hope these people don't do anything stupid.
After searching for almost an hour, Zhou Yi and Lu Tiezhu stopped to rest and sat on a big rock to drink water.
Zhou Yi looked up at the sky. The sky he saw through the dense branches was no longer as bright as it was in the morning.
Zhou Yi then remembered that he had checked the weather forecast yesterday, and it seemed that it was going to rain today.
"Brother Tiezhu, I remember the weather forecast said it's going to rain today. We need to hurry. If it really rains heavily, it will be troublesome. If these students don't take the right precautions, they will get hypothermic due to the rain and the low temperature. That would be troublesome."
Many times, people who die in the wild are not really in danger, but are killed by invisible killers.
Hypothermia is the most common.
The temperature in the mountains is already low, and if it rains heavily and you get soaked, it will be troublesome.
Lu Tiezhu nodded, and he and Zhou Yi stood up to continue searching.
…
Xiaguan Village, Zhou Yi’s grandmother’s home.
Lu Xiaoshuang moved a small stool and sat at the door, holding her chin with her hand and looking at the Yunxia Mountain not far away. The big yellow dog lay at her feet and slept comfortably.
…
Ni Jianrong at the foot of the mountain has been busy all the time. After all, in Yunshan County, he does not have a deputy captain who can take charge of the overall situation and get things done flawlessly.
What's more, when he came here, he was very humble for the sake of his own face.
I originally thought that I could just get by, but later I found out that the county bureau had a lot of bad debts. However, at least these bad debts were historical problems, and it would not be my responsibility if I couldn't solve them.
But suddenly this kind of thing happened, and he had no choice but to do it.
The second group of people transferred from the police stations in various towns and villages in Yunshan County also arrived, as well as people from the county fire brigade. These people completed their preparations at around 1:00 p.m. and entered the mountains.
After reporting to the city, the city also organized and mobilized the third rescue team to arrive, and it is expected that the third team will be able to enter the mountain around 3 pm.
By this calculation, the three rescue teams have a total of nearly two hundred people.
But Ni Jianrong's mood became more and more solemn, because not long after the second team entered the mountain, the sky was covered with dark clouds, and at around two o'clock in the afternoon, the surroundings were as dark as evening.
The situation at the foot of the mountain was even worse, and it was as dark in the woods as at night.
Although they brought flashlights, the battery life of battery-powered flashlights is limited these days, so the two of them had to use them sparingly and use one person's flashlight first.
After searching for more than half an hour, the sound of communication suddenly came from Zhou Yi's radio.
"Attention all units, attention all units, I'm Ni Jianrong. Just now, a team sent word that they've found two students. Both have varying degrees of injuries, but overall they're fine."
"All units please pay attention to safety and continue searching."
This good news is undoubtedly a morale-boosting shot for all search and rescue personnel.
After all, it has been more than four hours since Zhou Yi and his team entered the mountain.
But just as the radio call ended, heavy rain began to fall from the sky. Zhou Yi and Lu Tiezhu had taken out their raincoats earlier and put them on quickly.
The dense raindrops hit the woods, making a huge noise.
The rain was getting heavier and heavier, visibility became very low, and I couldn't see anything in front.
Lu Tiezhu shouted, "Zhou Yi, the rain is too heavy, let's find a place to hide first!"
The cold rain hit Zhou Yi's face, causing pain.
"Okay, let's find a place to hide first!" In this heavy rain, no one can be heard unless you speak loudly.
After the two of them walked forward for a while in the heavy rain, Lü Tiezhu pointed ahead and said, "There's a protruding rock over there. It should be able to block some of the rain!"
Zhou Yi looked in the direction he pointed and said, "Okay!"
The two of them walked quickly in that direction, which was a protruding rock on the mountain.
It is said to be bulging, but in fact it only bulges out about thirty to forty centimeters.
Fortunately, it was just a rainstorm without strong winds, so this protruding rock could still block the rain to a certain extent.
Fortunately, I prepared a raincoat. The heavy rain has been going on for twenty minutes and there is no sign of stopping.
I don’t know what happened to these students. If we don’t take preventive measures, we will be in trouble.
This protruding stone was about 1.8 meters high, and Zhou Yi had to bend slightly when standing underneath it.
Over time, this posture becomes very uncomfortable.
So Zhou Yi simply squatted down and stretched his stiff body a little.
As it stands now, there is no way to continue the search until the rain subsides.
What’s more troublesome is that no matter whether the rain subsides or stops, this rainstorm will inevitably make the subsequent search and rescue work much more difficult.
Suddenly, Zhou Yi, who lowered his head, saw red liquid flowing in the rain on the ground.
Zhou Yi was startled and quickly asked, "Brother Tiezhu, are you injured?"
Lu Tiezhu said doubtfully, "No."
Zhou Yi followed the direction of the red liquid and finally found the source.
At the other side of Lu Tiezhu's feet, there was actually a piece of black cloth. The rain washed the cloth, and a light red liquid flowed out of the cloth.
Zhou Yi reached out and picked up the cloth that had long been soaked by rain, and red liquid kept dripping down his palm.
Zhou Yi's heart sank. It seemed something had happened!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
