Chapter 838 The Lifeline That Explodes (2) (For Lao Qi 14/40)
Regarding the doubts in the rookie driver's mind, it didn't take long for him to get the answer.
Because after he jumped out of the carriage, he realized that it was already evening.
Under the bright moonlight, the endless heavy snow in the sky stopped at some point.
But the weather is still very cold, especially for riders who have always lived in the south. It is very uncomfortable.
Even though he was wearing thick cotton clothes, he still felt the cold air penetrate into the seams of his bones.
A little in front of the locomotive, there is a short bridge with only its piers remaining; only about one and a half meters of the bridge piers are exposed from the frozen river surface. Someone is currently working on the bridge piers.
Then, he heard a deputy commander, who was probably the top officer leading the supplementary force, shouting loudly:
"Comrades, don't be idle, it's already three o'clock in the morning; apart from our train, I heard that there are several more trains coming soon.
If the railway bridge is not erected in time to allow the train to cross the river before dawn, we will be in trouble when the soldiers' planes arrive tomorrow."
Immediately, the supplementary soldiers of No. 5600 took action; they joined a group of volunteer soldiers nearby who were busy with various matters under the moonlight.
After hearing the words from Hu Biao's mouth, the driver suddenly felt excited all over.
Mainly at this moment, the brutal scenes of ground personnel being attacked by planes in the war movies and TV series he had watched clearly emerged in his mind.
It is true that he committed suicide because he did not want to live anymore, but it definitely does not mean that he wanted to die under an air raid.
What should I do if I am seriously injured by a bullet and struggle and suffer for a long time but still cannot die?
In such a huge panic, he instinctively followed Shadow and Yueying, who were also rookies, and started running.
Soon, the three of them found a place to help
That's when they saw a dozen volunteer soldiers, currently working in groups of two, using wooden sticks and ropes to hang a long steel rail, moving towards the river bank.
As a result, one of the thin little warriors twisted his foot or something.
Without warning, he collapsed on the ground and couldn't get up for a while; it was like there was no group of people to lift the rails, making it even more difficult for the remaining people.
Without any hesitation, the three rookies ran over.
The rider at the front grabbed the wooden stick with no one on it and carried it on his shoulder.
Shadow and Yueying also used their cotton-gloved hands to directly lift onto the rails, to some extent contributing their own strength.
But just like this, the driver soon began to cry in his heart.
Because the moment the wooden stick touched his shoulders, he immediately felt its heavy weight; not only was it painful to press on his shoulders, but it was also as heavy as a mountain, almost crushing him to the point of excrement.
In order to divert his attention so that he would not be able to hold on after lifting it for so many seconds, the rider prepared to divert his attention.
Facing his partner, the volunteer soldier on the other end of the stick.
A thin man who looked to be about forty years old began to greet him: "Comrade, what section are you in, and how should I call you?"
"My name is Wu Changsheng, and I belong to the Second Battalion of the Third Regiment of the First Division of the Railway Corps. The mission of our battalion is to always support here to ensure the smooth flow of the railway bridge here."
"Oh! Was this bridge just blown up by a soldier's plane?"
After feeling that his attention had been diverted, the rider felt that he was not so uncomfortable, so he continued to ask.
However, he heard an incredible answer: "No, we just demolished this bridge a few hours ago.
During the period from 10 to 12 o'clock in the evening, the foreign Japanese planes will basically come, and if they see the railway bridge, they will definitely not let it go."
Because this answer was so shocking, the driver was immediately stunned.
Wu Changsheng continued to speak in a calm tone:
"The foreign Japanese planes are so powerful. Their numbers were better when there was an air defense company stationed here some time ago. But after a few days of guarding, the air defense company was completely wiped out.
Then, often not long after we repaired the railway bridge, their planes bombed it again when they arrived.
But the railway bridge will not work if it is not repaired, because only trains can pull much; a big truck from Maozi's family can only pull so much, let alone horse-drawn carriages and donkey carts.
Therefore, in order to send more supplies to the front line, our battalion commander told us that we must overcome all difficulties and there must be a functional railway bridge here.
Then, we started to think of solutions.
At first, several bridges were built on the river at a time, thinking that one of them would survive the bombings of the foreign Japanese planes, lest there be no bridges at all, which would delay the delivery of supplies to the front line.
Later, the foreign devils increased their bombing intensity, and more and more planes flew in the sky. On several occasions, all the bridges on the river were blown up.
No way! We just came up with this idea.
When no trains were passing by, all the other rails on the bridge were removed, making the foreign pilots think they were some abandoned bridges that had been blown up.
When the train comes, I will install it again~"
After hearing this, the driver was so shocked that he could not speak at all; although he did not know the specific location now, where in Korea it was now, and what was the name of the river in front of him.
But under the bright moonlight tonight, he could still estimate that this railway bridge was at least two to three hundred meters long.
After being dismantled and then installed again, and it was all done by manpower, how much amazing amount of work would it take to complete all of this?
This was the situation until Yueying, who was holding the rails with his hands, asked in his mouth:
"Isn't it tiring to dismantle and reinstall it like this?"
"We are all mortals raised by our parents. How can we not be tired from working like this?
The young man who was lifting the rails with me just now is named Yao Shitou. The young man has never been lazy at work, but he has only slept four or five hours a day for this month. He collapsed just now because he was so exhausted.
But everyone knows that the bridge cannot be broken and normal traffic must be ensured.
We can't let the soldiers on the front line go hungry and fight with the foreign devils on bayonets. The wounded soldiers can't be sent down, right? Our battalion commander said that this is the position of us railway soldiers. Even if we die from exhaustion, we must ensure the smooth flow of the railway.
"
After hearing this, the three rookies were no longer in the mood to talk.
Indeed! In such a battle for the founding of the country, the volunteers became the kings of light infantry, but the way of modern warfare has long since changed, and the battle is logistics.
Therefore, these soldiers who ensure the logistics of the frontline troops in extremely harsh environments and under the crazy bombings of the United Guo Army are also great and lovely people...
At five o'clock in the morning, the railway bridge was finally successfully erected.
At a time like this, the shoulders of the three rookies, Shadow, Driver, and Yueying, had actually been worn to a bloody pulp.
Even if I move my arm a little, I feel a burning pain.
That is the price paid by these modern people who have never done such heavy labor in these two hours.
Just looking at the newly-opened railway bridge, quietly erected on the frozen river, they really felt that the worn shoulders did not seem to be a big deal.
Unfortunately, soon they couldn't be happy anymore.
The reason is simple. The bridge piers that have been repeatedly bombed and repaired many times have become very fragile and have long been unable to withstand the originally designed load.
In the past, only lighter carriages could be used, and the heavy steam locomotives could not bear it.
Originally, this problem could still be solved by relying on the method of "crossing the river by propping a cow".
At this end of the bridge, the locomotive was used to push the carriage over the railway bridge; then at the other end of the bridge, the locomotive originally stranded there was used to pull the carriage away.
But this method requires a lot of time to operate.
There is absolutely no way to successfully cross the bridge before dawn for the five trains currently stranded on this side of the bridge.
And as soon as it gets dark, the soldiers' plane will definitely appear, which will be a huge disaster for the train that has not crossed the river.
At such a juncture, someone shouted:
"Let the train pass normally. The Second Battalion of the Railway Soldiers, all of us, go down to the river and hold up the bottom of the bridge. If the cement piers are not enough, we will add human piers to hold up the bridge. No matter what, the logistics line of the Volunteer Army will never be broken~"
The voice finally fell, and the extremely exhausted figures rushed towards the frozen river without hesitation.
God knows why, without any veteran greetings, when they saw Hu Biao and others trotting, Shadow and the other three rookies also followed...