And the flowing fire on the ground was constantly moving; once it was necessary to stop firing and shift positions, several nearby water guns had to coordinate to ensure the fire truck wasn’t overwheld by the raging blaze.
The scene was already in chaos, as if misfortune always struck at the worst possible ti.
From the north side, a loud crash!
Chief Cong Shuyin, who was at the entrance, saw a small mushroom cloud rise about two or three hundred ters away and imdiately picked up the two-way radio, saying,
"Get down! Get down! Where did it explode? Are there any casualties??"
No one answered on the command channel for a mont.
But suddenly, a loud shout ca through the Special Duty channel:
"Pipe 2 position! Retreat!"
After a few seconds, soone reported, "Report to the Regintal commander! Everyone ran out! But the oil pipeline on the north side exploded! We couldn’t hold the position! The flowing fire is out of control; it might reach the main road at the north gate soon!"
Old Cong was now panicked.
The main road at the north gate was the regint’s position, and the long-distance water supply truck was parked there, with soldiers still laying the two or three kiloters long water pipeline. Moving the truck with a 300-caliber pipeline was challenging, especially with a finished oil area behind! Could they afford to lose this position?
"Other directions, find a way, hold it off for !"
The Cadres’ voice from Special Duty First Squadron who had lost their position ca through, "Regintal commander! We’re trying!"
It was easy to say, but what could they do?
The soldiers from Special Duty First Squadron, seeing the explosion had ended, wanted to go back in, pick up the guns, and continue, but when they turned around, both the guns and water hoses were already in the fire.
The Cadres could only yell, "Forget the original lines! Pull out the remaining water hoses and guns from the truck, and lay down a new position!"
"No way, Captain! We have to fall back 10 ters! The fire is coming this way! If we don’t, we’ll lose the position!"
"Follow orders, hold the line! We can’t retreat a single step!"
Chief Cong Shuyin heard those reckless commands regarding safety, yet he was powerless to change them.
Luckily, another squadron had arrived.
The truck hadn’t even stopped on the highway when he imdiately pointed towards where Special Duty First was and said, "Hurry over there, help them hold the position!"
"Yes!"
From the mont he arrived on the scene, 40 minutes had passed, continually using the newly arrived forces to fill the most critical gaps, like a craftsman trying to fix a huge leaky house with only a small bucket and mud, patching up here and there.
But the crudely applied mud might not even stop such big leaks, ultimately requiring makeshift solutions.
And now, as one gap was managed, another piece of bad news arrived.
"Regintal commander! The water pressure at the hydrants isn’t enough! It’s filling too slowly!"
"Didn’t I tell the port area to open the secondary booster pump for water supply?!"
"The electrical room’s burned down! The circuits too! There’s no electricity!"
"Then make the distant water supply line connect faster!...call Dagang General Dispatch! Have them increase pressure in the municipal water network!"
Difficulties were everywhere, Old Cong was burning with urgency, and he imdiately picked up the phone again, reaching the whole corps.
"Hello! Where’s the closest reinforcent now?"
"Still in Yingkou, hasn’t entered Dalian??"
"Good, good, good! Hurry up! The forces we currently have aren’t enough! Get reinforcents from the nearest several cities, both first and second responders!"
"Right! It’s too late if any later! Call them now!"
After hanging up, Chief Cong Shuyin sighed deeply inside.
Getting reinforcents to Dalian was too difficult.
At the southern tip of the Liaodong Peninsula in the Northeast Region, on the map of China shaped like a rooster, this was like the at on the rooster’s chin, jutting out into the sea. From many cities within the province, one had to go around the "neck," and many places were even further than so cities in North Korea.
Watching all water guns on the field combating the flowing fire, with no gun reducing the temperature, soldiers had to duck or lay down to continue spraying, even struggling to hold their position, retreating even while fighting, grabbing the loudspeaker from the Command Car, walking around the field and shouting:
"Hold on! Reinforcents will arrive soon! I have good news for everyone! From the city, two large squadrons of reinforcents are on their way here! I am Regintal commander Cong Shuyin! I am right here with you, sharing life and death!"
After a round of shouting, he returned to the regint’s position and sent out all of his party committee team.
Each person was to hold a position! No retreating for soldiers or leadership!
Well then.
Now no one could retreat, with regint leadership right behind them, it was a do-or-die situation.
But everyone knew as they ca one after another, how many squadrons had arrived on the scene: the city squadrons had all arrived, and the ones from the county were very far away! Were there any squadrons left?
The Regintal commander, in order to keep us from retreating, even made up lies!
Only those prepared to cooperate with the exercise, those in the know, who were also enduring the hardest on the field, kept watching the north gate.
These two squadrons, they actually existed!
And they were huge!
In the exercise plans, they were designated as the main combat squadrons for a chemical plant fire, divided into two main teams, and these two squadrons acted as eight responding reinforcent forces, each arriving separately!
It sounded unbelievable.
Two squadrons, each portraying four response forces; then why could their Special Duty First Squadron only match up to half of them?
Were they that strong?
When they received the exercise plan yesterday, not everyone was convinced or satisfied, so during the outbreak of the fire, they were continuously rehearsing, prepared to prove themselves.
Unexpectedly, real battle hit before the exercise did.
Now they were desperately holding a crude oil leakage direction, hoping that the two reinforcing squadrons could indeed be as formidable as planned.
...
Actually, the two squadrons en route were thinking the sa.
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