Hundreds of people started taking action, transporting wood and starting to drive wooden piles on the inner slope of the river embankment. This piling method is a conventional berm method, but it is extremely difficult to drive wooden piles in waist-deep water.
The wooden piles must be driven under the outer slope without damaging the dam body, which is quite difficult.
Everyone brainstormed and carried out extension work by building a movable trestle, and brought in tamping stone rollers for tamping work. Driving wooden piles one by one into the soil on the inner slope.
Below the outside of the river embankment, some people use door panels and diagonal braces to support the lower entrance of the embankment to strengthen the pressure resistance of the embankment. This approach does not seem to have much effect, but under the current circumstances, as long as it can
It would be beneficial to have any effect and provide weak support to the embankment.
Li Huize ordered six fishing boats to be transferred, loaded with earth and rocks to the water surface under the slope outside the embankment, and then scuttled the boats to form a fixed anchor point. The masts embedded in the boats that protruded from the water were used to hang anti-wave rope nets.
Fixed point. The waves in the lake are so big that they hit the lake embankment in waves due to the wind. When the big waves hit, you can even feel the vibration of the embankment under your feet. The pressure on the embankment is already huge, and you have to accept this.
Waves of ramming force like siege engines will cause cracks to continue to expand and the soil inside the dam to loosen. Therefore, this wave prevention measure is extremely necessary.
After dark, the torches on the embankment were brightly lit, and there was a bustle of people. Hundreds of people were busy without sleep. They shouted slogans, encouraged themselves, and dragged their tired bodies through the mud, water, and waves.
At this moment, everyone has only one belief: they must protect the embankment and win this battle.
The early morning light illuminates the dark night, and the embankment reinforcement work on the south embankment of Juchao County, which is more than three miles long, is still in intense progress.
After eight or nine hours of hard work throughout the night, the results were remarkable.
All the inner embankment reinforcement piles have been driven down, and more than 300 two-foot-long wooden piles have been driven under the inner slope of the embankment to stabilize the entire embankment. This is simple to say, it is a shift operation of more than 200 people.
, the result of using a rope to lift a stone roller and standing on a rickety bamboo trestle to pound it down.
On the outside of the embankment, thousands of door panels, table tops, bed boards and other objects are used as supports for the embankment. They are attached to the vertical section of the embankment on the outside, supported diagonally with wooden piles, and hammered down with wooden hammers to hold them firmly.
From a distance, it looks like thousands of people pushing the dam on the outside with their buttocks sticking out and their backs hunched over.
This is actually an auxiliary method, and the specific effect may not be useful. However, Li Hui is willing to do any method that can support and protect the levee. Even if it can only play a small role.
The outer anti-wave rope net was also pulled up. With the help of the anchor point of the sunken ship's mast, a rough rope net made of thick straw ropes was hung in the middle of the mast, and rocks were dropped below. The purpose of this was to block the violent waves.
, allowing the waves to lose some of their turbulent force after passing through the anti-wave net, thereby causing less damage to the embankment.
Of course, all these methods are not the result of Li Hui's brainstorming, but the methods used by local flood control and embankment reinforcements. Li Hui has also fully inquired and demonstrated the feasibility and effectiveness of these methods before. Therefore,
Only then would such a method be used.
After dawn, Li Hui got bad news and good news.
The bad news is that the water in Jiaohu Lake rose another half a foot overnight. Although it rose much more slowly, the Jiaohu levee was already under tremendous pressure. Let alone half a foot, even half an inch more could cause pressure.
The last straw that broke the camel's back.
The good news is that Jiang Sheng, who returned from patrolling the embankments, reported the situation of several important Wekou embankments. Except for this section, there are currently no abnormalities in the embankments in other places. This is also due to the role of the flood discharge area, allowing these
There is a place to release pressure at the entrance of the dike, and it does not bear pressure for a long time.
Li Hui opened his red eyes and led people to carefully inspect the cracks in the Nancheng embankment.
It was originally expected that if the dam could not hold up, leakage would occur this morning, and the dam would break today. From last night to now, Li Hui has been checking the cracks every hour to see if there is any leakage below the dam.
In the first half of yesterday night, the cracks did tend to extend towards the bottom and inside of the dam. A slight crack also expanded to about half an inch. For a time, Li Hui felt that things might be out of control and that everyone was doing nothing.
The reason why these cracks are frequently inspected is not only to understand the condition of the dam, but also to prevent problems before they occur. If the trend cannot be stopped, it means that all measures have not worked, and it is time to immediately order everyone to evacuate the dangerous area.
.
However, after midnight, the trend of crack extension and expansion stopped. Li Hui was happy. After several consecutive measurements, Li Hui believed that the measures to strengthen the embankment should have had an effect.
From the second half of the night to now, the cracks had no tendency to expand and spread, and every measurement proved this. This made Li Hui feel relieved.
Li Hui took Dachun Dazhuang and several others to the slope outside the dam, where the crack is located. From the moment the crack was discovered, this place has been classified as a restricted area, and no one is allowed to approach. Because Li Hui
It is necessary to know the progress of the crack accurately, and it cannot be trampled into a mess, otherwise there will be no precise results.
Li Hui took a wooden ruler and began to personally measure the width and length of the crack. The visual inspection before the measurement made Li Hui feel that the crack seemed to have extended a lot and the width was also a lot larger. After the accurate measurement, Li Hui's heart tightened.
.My eyes did not deceive myself. The crack extended for more than a foot, showing a lightning-like split. The crack at the widest part expanded by a point. Before, a little finger could be inserted, but now, even a middle finger could not fit in.
It can be stuffed in.
Li Hui was worried and didn't know what went wrong. The reinforcement operation was coming to an end. All that had to be done had been done, but now the cracks continued to expand. Wouldn't it be a waste of effort?
After returning to the tent, Li Hui called Zhou Che and several other core personnel and quietly told them the news. Everyone was dumbfounded and didn't know what to do. Looking at the people outside who were still working enthusiastically,
Li Hui was at a loss for a moment.
Half an hour later, all the reinforcement measures had been completed. The tired people could finally take a breath, eat something and squint their eyes to sleep for a while. Li Hui reluctantly went to measure again. Only half an hour later, the cracks widened again.
Extended.
This time, Li Hui really realized that the problem was troublesome.
If this trend continues, the dam will not be able to hold on. Maybe it will take a long time, or maybe a few hours, before the dam collapses, and everything will be completely in vain.
Although the people in Juchao County outside the embankment have evacuated to Gushan Mountain in the east of the city, there will be no casualties. But once the lake embankment collapses, the entire Juchao County and even everything within a few dozen miles around will be destroyed, including
Tens of thousands of acres of rice fields.
However, even if he didn't want this to happen, he probably couldn't do anything about it. Li Hui stood on the embankment and looked at the vast lake in front of him, feeling helpless and helpless. The power of nature is powerful, what can I say?
If man can conquer nature, he is really deceiving himself and others.
In such an era of low technological level, everything relied on manpower, and mechanical facilities were basically non-existent. Whether it was building embankments, digging canals, building roads, or opening mountains, it was an extremely difficult task. Moreover, even in later generations, sometimes flood control and rescue operations were difficult.
They all rely on manpower to resist.
In the current situation, it seems that I have done everything I can, but I am still going to fail in the end.
Li Hui was in a low mood, looking at the lake in a daze. His body was extremely tired, and his mind was dizzy. The wind on the lake was very strong, and huge waves came one after another, hitting the dam and splashing a lot of water.
The embankment was more than ten steps away, and you could be splashed with muddy waves.
A big wave hit, and the waves splashed Li Hui's head and face, causing Li Hui to suddenly wake up from his numb and ignorant state.
"Why are the waves so big? Doesn't the anti-wave rope net work?" Li Hui asked loudly.
"Xiao Lang, didn't Dachun report to you after dawn? The wind was very strong in the morning, and the mesh of the anti-wave rope net was so large that it couldn't stop the waves at all. You even nodded when Dachun reported it."
Guo Dazhuang was walking by.
Li Hui frowned and recalled carefully, as if he had heard the report. But his mind was in a mess, and he was feeling groggy. He hadn't closed his eyes for too long, his body was exhausted, and his spirit was exhausted. What others said might not be true at all.
There was no reaction. Dachun's report, he probably didn't react at all.
Starting in the morning, the wind on the lake increased, and it was southeasterly again. The waves were much bigger than last night. The anti-wave net only provides a little resistance, breaks the frequency of the waves, and blocks some of the force, so as to have the effect of preventing waves. This way
The strong waves have already rendered the anti-wave rope net ineffective.
How could it be that such huge waves hit the lake embankment again and again? I was so dizzy that I didn't react much to it. I thought everything would be fine if I installed a wave net. My brain was really turned into mush.
The increase in the cracks in the embankment was probably caused by the huge waves hitting the embankment. The strength of the huge waves must not be underestimated. It was like a siege truck hitting a city wall. This overall vibration and impact had no impact on the city wall.
A damaged dike at this point is absolutely fatal.
Li Hui quickly concluded that the extension of those cracks was related to the bombardment of huge waves, otherwise there would be no reason for the dam to begin to deteriorate from a stable state. The top priority was to prevent waves.
Li Hui quickly thought about what to do in his mind, and there seemed to be no solution for a while. Pulling up the anti-wave rope net again? It seemed to be of no avail. Mobilizing materials to build another anti-wave pile on the inside of the dam? It seemed feasible, but it took time.
It's too late.
If we send people to get materials and start driving piles to prevent waves, and add pile driving again and again, I'm afraid it won't be completed in half a day. And the condition of the lake embankment is deteriorating rapidly, and I'm afraid it won't last even half a day.
Li Hui's heart was spinning, and he thought of a way. It was a stupid, stupid and dangerous way. But at this moment, it was probably the only effective way.