Not only Feng Juan was worried about Qin Zheng's situation, Yun Qiao was also worried about her brother's safety. However, in this era of underdeveloped communications, they had no other way to contact Qin Zheng except waiting.
No news, but it's the latest news anyway.
At this time, Qin Zheng, who was worried about Yun Qiao and her daughter, was sitting in a wooden boat and came to a hillside surrounded by floods.
The rain here has stopped temporarily, but the flood level shows no sign of dropping.
At the foot of the hillside was once the camp of Fuqiang Farm. Now the houses had been submerged by the flood, with only the pointed roofs exposed above the water. They rowed the boat upstream, facing great resistance. From time to time, they could see the carcasses of animals washed away by the current around the boat. They even saved a middle-aged man who was washed away by the flood.
The man was probably nearsighted. When he got on the boat, he subconsciously reached out to his face to feel if his glasses were still there. He searched around but couldn't find them. In the end, he could only squint his eyes to look at people.
The man groped for Qin Zheng's arm, reached down, and shook his hand. He said with gratitude, "Thank you, fellow soldiers. Thank you so much. If I hadn't had the good fortune to meet you today, I would have died in this flood. I'm so lucky to have escaped death today... Thank you so much, thank you so much. You gave me a second life!"
The man was probably frightened, his speech was incoherent, and he kept saying thank you.
Qin Zheng waited for him to calm down, then asked, "Where are you from? How did you fall into the water? Has everyone on the farm evacuated? Besides you, are there any other survivors here?"
The man nodded immediately: "Yes! We are lucky enough to have survived! There are more than thirty of us."
He stretched out his hand, pointed to the hillside ahead, and said, "When the flood first came, we all hid in the mountains. The mountains are high and the flood can't reach the mountains, so it's relatively safe, but we have no food. The flood was so sudden at the time, and we ran away in a hurry. We almost didn't bring any food with us. We ran out of food after two days. We haven't eaten since yesterday. We are really starving. We have no choice but to send people down the mountain to find food.
Who knew I would be so unlucky? Before I could even find anything to eat, the boat I was in was overturned by a large log floating in the water, throwing me and the boat into the water, where the flood swept us away. Fortunately, I met you and was rescued by you, otherwise I would definitely not have survived today.
Having said that, he couldn't help but say a lot of words of gratitude to Qin Zheng and the others.
Qin Zheng listened patiently and then asked him, "Are all the over 30 people on the mountain employees of your farm?"
The man shook his head. "No, basically everyone on our farm has evacuated. Only the dozen or so of us who were responsible for covering the rear didn't make it in time and were left behind by the flood. The remaining twenty or so people were from the art troupe that was performing for the border defense forces. They were unlucky. They were almost at Sanguan Temple, where the terrain is higher and the floodwaters can't reach the river. If they had just crossed the river, they wouldn't have been trapped with us. But halfway through, their car broke down, and they had to turn back to find someone to repair it, which delayed them all night. As a result, the flood came and they couldn't go any further."
Qin Zheng's eyelids twitched when he heard this, and he couldn't help but ask, "Where is that military performance troupe you mentioned from?"
"That... I don't know much about that. They didn't say anything specific. It must be kept secret." The man said, "I only know that the female leader of the literary troupe is named Zhou something Lin."
Qin Zheng said: "Zhou Yalin."
"Yes, yes, that's Zhou Yalin," the man said excitedly, "Do you know them? Could this literary troupe be from your army?"
Qin Zheng didn't say yes or no, but turned around and told the soldier rowing: "Paddle forward and up, row faster, we need to reach the shore as soon as possible."
The soldier responded.
The man asked curiously, "Is there anyone you know in the literary group?"
Qin Zheng nodded: "There are my friends."
He frowned as he looked at the devastation before him, his heart feeling as if it were being tightly gripped by an invisible hand, making it difficult for him to breathe.
I wonder how Yan Jingwan is doing now.
Under the guidance of the man, the wooden boat gradually approached the hillside. Qin Zheng saw from afar some people standing on a large rock on the hillside waiting for rescue.
He only had one wooden boat, which was used only for search and rescue and investigation, and could only take away two people at most in one trip.
"Old Li, you're so stupid! It's really too stupid!" A tall man who looked to be about fifty years old pushed through the crowd and walked out. He was wearing a short-sleeved shirt stained with mud. He was very thin and had a scholarly air.
He looked at Lao Li, and tears immediately fell down his face. He said tearfully, "I watched you being swept away by the flood, and I thought I would never see you again."
"I also thought I was going to die. Luckily, I ran into the soldiers who came to rescue me while floating on the back. They saved me." Old Li pulled him and walked in front of Qin Zheng, saying, "Accountant Wang, come here, let me introduce you. These are the soldiers who came to rescue me."
"Comrade soldiers, you're here." Accountant Wang excitedly shook hands with Qin Zheng and the others one by one. "We've been waiting for rescue for three or four days, and finally you're here."
Qin Zheng didn't waste any words and started asking him directly about the situation and safety issues on the mountain, and whether he should continue to stay on the mountain and wait for the flood to subside, or follow their rescue boats to be transferred out of the mountain in batches.
If they stay, they will deliver food and water later. If they move, they will coordinate with ships and rescue personnel to rescue everyone after they return.
Accountant Wang didn't hesitate for a second and immediately replied, "No, no, we have to move. We absolutely have to move out of the mountain. This mountain is not safe."
Accountant Wang said, "Comrade soldiers, you don't know this mountain is a mud mountain, unlike a solid rock mountain. It's not solid. If the rain soaks through it, there's no telling when it could collapse. Ever since I was a kid, this mountain has been hit by mudslides every ten days or so, some larger and some smaller. The worst one I remember happened when I was a teenager. A mudslide rushed down the mountain, submerging an entire village. Not a single person in the village survived."
"We are at our wit's end this time. We have nowhere to run. If there is any solution, we won't come up this mountain."
Qin Zheng nodded: "Hey, I understand. This mountain is indeed dangerous. After we return, we will immediately coordinate boats and rescue personnel to come in and get everyone out."
"I heard you haven't eaten since yesterday. We brought some dry food, but it's not much. You can share it and each of you can have a few bites to fill your stomach first."
Qin Zheng was thinking about Yan Jingwan in his heart. He arranged for her to be rescued and began to look around, trying to find her figure, but he never saw Yan Jingwan's shadow.
He was just about to ask Accountant Wang: "Where are the people from the Wenyu Group?" when he saw a familiar face squeeze out of the crowd and waved at him happily: "Captain Qin, it's really you!!"
Chen Rong ran to Qin Zheng and said with a look of surprise: "I just heard your voice from a distance and thought I had misheard."
"Comrade Shen." Qin Zheng nodded slightly at him and asked, "Why are you alone? Where are the others?"
"Everyone else is up in the hills."
Chen Rong said: "Many people in the group started to have fevers after being caught in the rain. However, their clothes were soaked and it was very cold. We had no choice but to go up the mountain to find a place to shelter from the rain, light a fire, and try to dry our clothes. But even so, many people still developed fevers in the past few days."
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