Episode 48: Life and Death Flood

"Do you want to get rich? Ah?! Do you want to get rich? Hello, I ask you, Miss Lin from the Health Company, do you still want it?"

A lieutenant asked in a low voice as he pushed an artillery against the wall.

The artilleryman looked pale, avoided his eyes, stared at the dim light bulb on the top of the corridor nervously, listening to the roar of earth-shaking mountains every once in a while, licking his lips, and sweat beads rolled down.

On the Yangtze River defense line, a few meters below a 210mm giant cannon fortress is the artillery barracks area. The narrow corridor can only walk away with one person, and there are several small doors on both sides. The barracks of all the members of the cannon's gun team are here.

The lieutenant is Fang Zude, and he is the deputy leader of the fire control group. This artillery is a member of the transport group, Private Song Dabao. The battle above is full of energy. They were replaced for a short rest and they will return to their posts soon to change to others for rest. But the difference is that other artillery soldiers who have been replaced are extremely tired and are reluctant to move. However, they are in the corridor, whispering in a low voice.

Fang Zude grabbed Song Dabao's neckline and stared at him and shouted in a low voice:

"I'm asking you, do you want to get rich? Do you want to be promoted? Ah? Aren't you a kid obsessed with Miss Lin from the Health Company? Ah? You are a private, with a few dollars of Mingyang's military salary a month. Miss Lin is a second lieutenant, so you can fall in love with you?... Think about it, as long as you follow what I said, everything will come! Rewards at least tens of thousands of oceans, and even promotion to level three will not be a problem. At that time, let alone the Lin Xiaoniu in the Health Company, you can break through the Zijin Mountain Fortress and you can choose the female officers of the entire headquarters! That's beautiful - women like clouds!...What are you still hesitating about?"

Private Song Dabao was short of breath as he said, his face flushed, and he murmured against the wall:

"Can...can it work? Some time ago... the new emperor from the north came to power, and after... cleaning the sticky rod, even the fourteen princesses came over... Now that they have been out of contact with the north for so long, who knows if they still know our line?"

Fang Zude heard his tone loose, and he felt a little happy in his heart, and put his shoulder on his back and whispered:

"Brother, listen, if people don't know us, we have to make it so that we can know...Brother, since we have entered the sticking rod, we will never be able to get rid of it in our life, so we just followed the Qing Dynasty intimately and fought for the rest of our life! Now we have a great opportunity, I have brought all the explosives, and it's just you who can cooperate! Brother, you are a transport team and can go down to the ammunition depot..."

Song Dabao's face turned red, his legs were trembling, but he gritted his teeth and said:

"Okay, okay... It's really done by then. You...you can't be greedy for my credit! But we agreed to pull me into the sticker..."

Fang Zude was overjoyed, patted his arms and whispered:

"Brother, don't worry, brother can't treat you wrongly!... With such a great contribution, how can you finish eating by asking your brother alone! Haha..."

...

In the cement turret, as soon as the 210mm cannon was set off, the artillery soldiers wearing asbestos hood rushed up and quickly opened the cannon chamber to clean up the residual medicine.

At the same time, a giant shell that had just been transported was pushed out by a cart to the lift, and the loading team was pulling it onto the crane.

After resting, Song Dabao was already wearing a canvas gown and was waiting next to the elevator. The cannon leader looked at his watch and drank:

"Okay, change shifts, Song Dabao!"

"arrive!"

“Go to work!”

"yes!"

The tired transporter came out of the elevator. Song Dabao went in, pressed the button, and with a long sound of the motor, the elevator descended into the underground.

Song Dabao controlled his legs to prevent trembling, leaned against the wire mesh, and the surrounding cement walls moved up quickly.

More than ten seconds later, the "bang" stopped, the wire door opened, and the underground ammunition depot appeared in front of me. A shell was ready at the door, and two soldiers in lab coats pushed the cart to transport the shells into the elevator.

After the two soldiers withdrew, Song Dabao pressed the button, closed the wire door, and the elevator roared up.

However, when it was halfway through, Song Dabao trembled and pressed the button, the elevator stopped, and the steel wire door opened. The surroundings were the cement walls of the elevator shaft, the turret above, and the ammunition depot below, all of which were about ten meters away.

Song Dabao trembled and leaned against the wire mesh, and took out a heavy tart cloth bag from his canvas gown. He looked pale, hesitated for a moment, made up his mind, and took the tart cloth bag and smashed it hard on the wire mesh twice.

He put the tart cloth bag in his ear and heard a "hissing" sound inside.

The chemical fuze of the glass has broken and the acid solution inside is corroding the lightning tube.

Song Dabao had no choice at this time. He pressed the tart cloth bag a little flattened and threw it down the seam between the steel plate and the cement wall under his feet.

...A full two kilograms of plastic explosive fell down the elevator shaft into the ammunition depot. It will explode after six to eight minutes.

The elevator was lifted into the turret, and the steel wire door was opened, and two groups of troops immediately rushed in and pushed out the shells.

At this time, the cannon had already fired and was idle for a while. The cannon leader shouted at him:

"Why is it so slow this time? What delays? Didn't you wake up?!"

Song Dabao looked pale and turned a deaf ear. He walked out with soft legs and walked towards the tunnel leading to the rest area.

"Hey, what are you doing?" the cannon leader was surprised and shouted, "Where are you going? When you come back, you still have to transport shells!"

Song Dabao was stunned and blurted out:

"I...I have a stomachache...ah!...No, I'll find someone to take care of me, I'll go!"

As he said that, he ran into the traffic tunnel, leaving behind the shocked cannon leader and loading team members in the fort.

...

At the turn of the passage, Fang Zude was waiting for him. He saw him hugging him and asked in a low voice:

"How about it?"

Song Dabao nodded:

"Take it down!"

"Is the fuse surely broken?"

Song Dabao nodded again:

"It's broken, I hear it."

Fang Zude pulled him away without saying a word.

"Run quickly, there will be a big explosion in a few minutes!" Fang Zude was overjoyed and gasped while running, "We did a big thing! Do you know, next to the ammunition depot of this fort is the power computer room. The power distribution of these two or three kilometers of defense lines depends on this computer room... Hehe, maybe it can even break the river embankment. When the river water penetrates in, there will be no electricity to pump water, and the entire defense line will be flooded!"

Song Dabao was stunned, turned around and ran back.

"Hey, what are you doing?!"

Song Dabao ran and said:

"Go to the hygiene company!"

Fang Zude said in surprise:

"Are you crazy?"

"I... I have to take Miss Lin with me! I can't let her drown too!"

Fang Zude stomped his feet, his eyes showed fierce light, he took out his pistol and aimed at Song Dabao's back heart, pulling the trigger.

Song Dabao fell to the ground and struggled for a while.

The explosion above his head covered the gunshots, and Fang Zude ran along the passage without looking back.

...

At Pukou Wharf, Emperor Guangwu was squatting in the trenches, his eyes leaning in the periscope to observe the war situation on the other side.

It is said that I am observing the other shore, but I can only see the river. The fog is now very thin, but the visibility is only a few hundred meters. This section of the Yangtze River is less than a thousand meters wide, and it is already very difficult to see the river beach. The Ming army's defense line cannot be seen at all, and can only see the flash of artillery fire behind the fog.

According to the report, the machine gun fire on the other side had stopped for some reason. A large number of infantrymen on their side took the opportunity to snatch the river beach, and some small fortifications had been controlled. Unfortunately, the Ming army's firepower gap was not interrupted for a few minutes and soon recovered. The soldiers who had passed became lonely and would probably be wiped out soon...

Suddenly, he felt the ground under his feet tremble violently, followed by the second and third...

A few seconds later, he heard a series of loud thunder-like sounds, which were definitely incomparable to the sound of artillery from both sides.

"Your Majesty, look!!"

The general beside him screamed, not caring about his superiority and pulling his sleeves.

Guangwu's eyes moved away from the cannon mirror, and when he looked at the naked eye, he was shocked.

A huge fireball on the other side surged into the sky, as if a hole had been cracked in hell, and loud noises floated one after another, and thick black smoke covered the entire river.

Everyone in Pukou can't believe what they see.

Guangwu hurriedly came to the gun mirror and looked at it. He saw several super huge cement blocks standing upright in the river, surging by, like several reefs. Between several "reefs", a cannon tube stretched out from the water and stood tall, like a big tree growing in the water.

The generals around him reacted and said ecstaticly:

"Emperor, Your Majesty, their ammunition depot exploded!"

"God bless my emperor! God bless the Qing Dynasty!"

"Long live my emperor!"

Guangwu was also ecstatic and immediately said:

"Order a fierce attack! All ships are launched! We cannot let God down!"

He said in unison:

"Yeah!"

...

The Yangtze River Defense Line on the South Bank.

All the fortifications near the explosion were destroyed, and no one survived. The passage far from the explosion site was pitch black, the lights were no longer on, the pump was stopped, and the fan was not turned on.

The passage was filled with the pungent smell of gunpowder, and the surging river water continued to flow up. Countless soldiers shouted, touching the wall, slashing the water with their legs, and struggling to struggle towards the stairs. The water level continued to rise, and soon lost its waist and then its chest.

The lowest level of passage was completely submerged first. The cold water rose inch by inch along the entrance of the stairs, and a pale body continued to float up.

When the terrain was higher at these two floors, the water rose slowly. The soldiers who had already fled to this floor supported each other, shivered and climbed up the upper floor with difficulty.
To be continued...