This sentence also made Fang Huai give up any illusions, and he picked up the two-way radio to issue a warning to the rear.
"Command! Command! We might not be able to hold on, prepare to retreat!"
There was an imdiate response from the other side, it was the voice of Regintal Commander Cong, "Little Fang, are you sure?"
"...I suggest you co and see for yourself!"
As soon as Fang Huai had finished speaking, a figure ran out of the small tent set up by the Full Attendance Command, looked around, and then disappeared.
...
A minute later.
The voice of Regintal Commander Cong once again ca through the two-way radio.
"Sound the warning horn!"
From the Command side, there was a loud, sharp blast of the warning horn signaling to the positions inside the fire scene.
"Withdraw the water guns, the three positions beside tank 103, temporarily retreat!"
...
Three minutes.
"Only leave two water guns in place! If you can’t retrieve them, then don’t! Move out quickly!"
Fang Huai’s head was tingling, his whole body was succumbing to a sour numbness caused by tension, and looking away from the tank for even two seconds caused his heart to flutter and his breathing beca much shorter. Yet, he sohow maintained his composure, ensuring everyone and the vehicles retreated from the battlefield in an orderly sequence.
But the supports for the high-spray unit weren’t fully retracted yet, and the "sizzling" noise from the tank in front was getting stronger and stronger.
Soon, the large tank began to sway slightly.
Fang Huai finally picked up the two-way radio and yelled:
"Full withdrawal!! Find solid cover! Get down! Get down! Horns, sound the alarm!!"
"Bam!!..."
The alertness and pre-warning gave everyone more than four minutes of precious ti to escape.
But from the vehicles’ full-blown horns to that jarring explosion, there was only a minute in between.
Fang Huai had just managed to push Hao Chengbin, who was still helping two conscripts from the squadrons to run and hadn’t lain down, to the ground.
"Boom!!"
There was a huge explosion behind him.
A trendous force from behind hit him, making the world spin.
He was thrown into the air, tumbled in mid-flight, and then crash-landed with force.
"Buzzing...."
"Because..."
This droning sound dragged on, just like the perilous night itself.
Chief Cong slowly rose from the ground in a half-squatting position that was oddly poised for action and began to observe his surroundings. Then he grabbed the two-way radio and yelled:
"All governnt agency rooms! Every squadron, every big team, roll call! Roll call!!"
Many people who managed to get up were sowhat disoriented at that mont, their minds inevitably recalling all the horrific stories they had heard during their military service.
But the cadres from each squadron began to take roll call, one by one.
Fang Huai, who was thrown several ters away by the blast wave and landed hard, finally got up slowly amid the urgent shouts around him.
His first reaction was to turn back and observe the tank.
The towering fire did not cease with the explosion but grew even more ferocious.
The tank was now completely engulfed by the forceful, flowing fire, and the position that everyone had been struggling to advance to was completely out of sight.
Talk of holding any line was now irrelevant, and it was impossible to see what was happening inside.
The surrounding noises were filled with unease, despair, and collapse.
"Song Bo!"
"Song Bo~!!"
One of the cadres beside Fang Huai was calling out a na.
No response ca from the first call, and by the second call, it was accompanied by crying.
Thankfully, the soldier nad "Song Bo," seed to have just been knocked dizzy by the blast. Hearing his na called, he imdiately sat up from not far away and waved vigorously.
"Instructor! Here!"
The cadre next to Fang Huai heard the response and went weak at the knees for a mont, but quickly regained composure and continued calling out the next na.
The scene of the ergency retreat just now had been too chaotic, the flowing fire had expanded outwards by at least a hundred ters in an instant, and at this mont, everyone was busy tallying up their own squadron mbers. If soone couldn’t be found, it ant they were left behind in the blaze.
But Fang Huai felt relatively at ease in his heart because he ca out in the last group. If he was alright, the others would be too.
It was just that he was in severe pain from the fall.
Noticing that the flowing fire was already less than fifty ters away, and even the Command was less than a hundred ters away, and that the long-distance water supply line was about to fail, he quickly went to a fire truck, banged on the rolling shutter door, and shouted:
"Get up! Grab the guns and hoses! Hold the front!!"
Then he picked up the squadron’s two-way radio and yelled, "Wang Peng! Wang Peng! Are you all right?"
"Here, here, Captain, we just hid behind the big tank, the ground only shook a bit, all of us are fine, but there’s now a big hole in front of tank 103, spewing fire out far, and it seems like the temperature here has risen again," ca the voice from Fang Huai’s two-way radio.
The voice that ca through Fang Huai’s radio left everyone shocked.
A hole had burst open??
Fang Huai also asked in surprise, "So it just burst open a hole without exploding completely?"
Wang Peng’s laughter ca through the radio.
"Captain, it’s just a hole blowing off pressure. If it had really exploded, you wouldn’t be hearing my voice," he said.
Everyone fell silent for a long while.
This tank, just by bursting open a hole, had everyone’s hearts in their throats.
What if the oil tank, or even the entire depot exploded?
...No need to worry then, for our hearts wouldn’t be startled anymore, nor would our flesh be jumping.
At this mont, Wang Peng’s voice ca through the two-way radio again:
"Captain, I just rembered, I forgot to write my will. If sothing happens to , rember to tell my family that I beca an officer...make it a big rank for ."
The people who survived the ordeal couldn’t help but laugh upon hearing this.
Fang Huai laughed too.
"Okay, I’ll tell your family you made deputy squadron leader!"
(To wrap up, the author also wants to write well. There’s also a matter of scale. I got heavily censored today, which made panic too, big bosses, please don’t rush .)
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