Chapter 1158 - 1031: Emergency, Emergency

Chapter 1158: Chapter 1031: Emergency, Emergency

This was how countless victims met their end.

Yet, the stubborn instinct for survival in humans relentlessly perseveres, miraculously fighting for life.

These miracles are not just phenomena of life but also of the history of human spirit.

The Teng Mountain Earthquake, with its shocking and destructive challenge, left despair yet brought hope.

These survivors are undoubtedly the pride of humanity.

Before experiencing catastrophic disasters, it’s hard for humans to grasp the meaning of survival, nor do they realize what resilience and tenacity survival demands.

Often, the disappearance of life is not just due to external calamities but more so despair.

And tens of thousands gathered in military green gave these people hope!

Moreover, the strength of mutual aid in times of difficulty provided these despairing people with a yearning to live well.

Rescue efforts proceeded methodically...

Faced with vast ruins, under the rain, miraculous lives were pulled out from beneath collapsed panel buildings and the sunken coal mines.

Rescue operations were conducted effectively, yet Zhang Guoqing, who hadn’t closed his eyes for several days, told himself he couldn’t rest, for his work had just begun.

He fully understood humanity first faced death and pain.

However, once the danger of death had just passed and wounds had just been dressed, they faced hunger and anger.

Some people suddenly realized they were exposed, while others felt their throats burning and stomachs cramping.

Collapsed shops tossed out scattered cans and clothes during the earthquake; some people retrieved them, leading others to realize there were numerous urgently needed life-sustaining items beneath the ruins.

The ugliness of human nature emerges hesitantly in those walking toward the ruins: food stores buried with pastries, department stores pressed with clothes, hotels piled with bedding...

Initially, they may have been merely for survival, to meet urgent needs.

But when hands reach out for possessions that do not belong to them, a certain desire buried deep within people’s hearts begins to unleash.

The future is quickly slipping into an unprecedented state of sin.

As a commander, he needed to first stabilize the situation, an unshirkable responsibility!

Then Zhang Guoqing immediately sent an urgent secret message to the military committee: They must have the police department and armed forces organize a substantial number of police and militias nearby to the front line to maintain the property safety of this city.

Immediately upon receiving this secret message, several key figures in constant contact with the front line turned pale. Even the ever-calculating Zhou Xiaozheng broke into a cold sweat.

For days, everyone’s focus was on racing against time to save lives, allocating troops, and counting casualties, overlooking this matter.

One must know that, besides major department stores and supply centers, all banks and savings institutions, as well as grain warehouses with the city’s invaluable food supplies, are of critical importance.

Imagine, if tens of thousands of disaster survivors lose reason and start riots, it would undoubtedly inflict another devastating blow to the city’s reconstruction efforts thereafter.

Thus, soon after the arrival of a hundred thousand soldiers in the earthquake zone, a large number of police personnel and militias from nearby cities were dispatched to Tengshan City, which the world watched closely.

The arrival of these personnel greatly facilitated Zhang Guoqing’s work, with one order after another signed and issued from his mouth and hands to various support points throughout the city.

"All police officers and militiamen in J City shall be stationed at major banks and savings institutions."

"All police officers and militiamen in H City shall guard major grain warehouses."

"All police in X City shall guard major districts, with the first battalion of XXX regiment leading the remaining militiamen to form a squad to maintain market stability."

"If confronted with lawbreakers, all comrades shall fire warning shots first, and anyone refusing orders should be executed on site."

Upon issuance of these orders, protection work formally commenced, and Zhang Guoqing began focusing on public health and epidemic prevention.

On this night, in the tent of the ’forward command,’ everyone wore severe and grim expressions.

By now, no one regarded Zhang Guoqing’s warnings as exaggerations.

With his outstanding command skills, he had won over the comrades by his side.

Epidemic!

Almost since the first body was buried under the collapsed building, alongside death, another terrifying shadow was approaching Tengshan.

Epidemic! History tells the world that a major epidemic inevitably follows a major disaster, a frighteningly indisputable law.

What to do about Tengshan?

The forward command’s logistics staff, having received Zhang Guoqing’s orders earlier, had already brought epidemic prevention experts, driving a jeep around Tengshan area for two consecutive days.

The epidemic prevention experts provided an extremely alarming report...

City power and water supply systems were interrupted, and roads were blocked, forcing all troops and civilians to resort to drinking pit water, ditch water, and swimming pool water, living out in the open.

The transport system for excrement, garbage, sewage discharge, and all city sanitation facilities were badly damaged by the quake, leading to the accumulation of excrement, filth, garbage, and widespread breeding of mosquitoes and flies.

With heavy casualties of people and livestock, given the current season’s high temperatures and abundant rainfalls, bodies were rapidly decaying, and the smell of decomposition severely polluted the air and environment.

Rescue points saw crowded personnel with poor living conditions, increasing infection opportunities. Once infectious patients appeared, the lack of quarantine conditions could easily lead to disease spread.

Critically, local health agencies at all levels and civilian organizations for disease prevention had suffered severe damage!

From such reports, the few present understood better than anyone what it all meant.

So far, nearly 170,000 people had either died or been injured, leaving hundreds of thousands of disaster survivors and over a hundred thousand rescue soldiers potentially vulnerable to an outbreak!

Prevention was crucial, as this was a grueling battle of humanity against an impending epidemic.

Fortunately, before departure, Zhang Guoqing had reported to the military committee; if his calculations were correct, the epidemic prevention teams should be arriving soon, though they hadn’t appeared today.

Logically speaking, with his father-in-law in the military committee, he shouldn’t worry. But could this time someone feel obstructed by him and resort to tricks to stop his father-in-law?

Furthermore, would the orders from above promptly receive responses from below?

Reaching this point, it was essential for him to prepare backup strategies to anticipate uncertainties.

Watching his colleagues, Zhang Guoqing regretted he couldn’t reveal the truth. If the top failed to firmly execute his requirements, troop morale would waver.

Fortunately, by dawn, at eight in the morning, Zhang Guoqing finally welcomed the crucial personnel he’d long awaited like a star-gazing wish.

——Nationwide, 22 epidemic prevention teams of roughly 2,000 people; 300 tons of disinfectant, 20 tons of insecticide, 10,000 sprayers; additionally, 50 military chemical dispersant vehicles; 5 spraying planes dispatched...

Tengshan was saved!

At the moment of joy, Zhang Guoqing knew better than anyone else that this was all the effort his father-in-law had discreetly made for him. If not for his father’s help, how could so many supplies reach him in just a few days?