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Chapter 495 Disaster Like Fire

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    There was a thunderbolt, strong wind, black fog and red light. In an instant, the ground was rocking like a ship and people could not stand. The Haiyuan Earthquake happened!

    "The earth shook and the mountains shook, and the mouth of the mountain suddenly swung down. There were such wide openings in the valleys. Where people were sitting, the mountains collapsed." Survivor Feng Zhilu described the scene at that time.  Dong Shanzheng, another survivor from Xi'an Township, Haiyuan County, also said: "The mountains in Wanjiashui have merged. The two mountains have merged together. There are no sheep or people left."

    Because it was night and due to backward conditions, poor people in mountain villages could not even afford to light oil lamps and often went to bed when it got dark. This was one of the reasons why the losses were so great after 8 o'clock.

    Another reason is that Zhang Hanqing's notice was very close to the earthquake. With the communication conditions at that time, telegrams could only be reached in a few larger counties, and telephone calls were only available to a few wealthy people in a few central cities.  People.  It is a miracle that the decrees from the provincial capital can be conveyed to the county so quickly. As for the township and village levels, they can only hope for their own blessings.

    Zhang Hanqing, who was two hundred kilometers away, also felt the shock strongly.  Soon, reports of damage from the nearby city of Lanzhou reached the temporary headquarters.  According to a simple visual inspection, 70% of the houses were damaged. As for the number of casualties, it is impossible to estimate.

    We all know that Haiyuan is the epicenter of the earthquake, we all know that the situation here should be the worst, and we all know that this is the place in the country that needs help the most.  But for Zhang Hanqing at the end of 1920, all the knowledge he possessed was completely helpless in the face of the power of nature: there was a road from Lanzhou to Guyuan, but it was in disrepair for many years, and the mountain road was steep, potholed, and muddy, making it difficult to walk.  Only human legs can move freely. It is completely irresponsible for cavalry to walk at night in this era. Cars and other mechanical equipment cannot move at all.

    Disaster relief is like putting out fires. One more life may be lost every night. According to the experience of later generations, the most precious thing in earthquake disasters is the "golden seventy-two hours".  Comparing one's feelings with one's own, Zhang Hanqing couldn't sit still.

    The People's Army was born out of Fengjun and is inevitably affected by some bad habits. Although under the guidance of Wang Yizhe and himself, there has been some progress in the ideology of forming an army, most of them still remain on slogans. At most, they need to have stronger discipline.  , Ideological education is a little more successful.  To truly enable an army to understand "why it fights" and "what it means to be a soldier", it is particularly important to create a good military-civilian relationship.

    He believed that he could not mingle with the common people like the Red Army, but he could win a good reputation and make the common people like this army and see that it was different from other warlords' troops.  It is not enough to follow the "Eight Points of Discipline and Three Attentions". It is also necessary to truly integrate with the people and truly "come from the people and go to the people."

    Now that the people are suffering from disaster, it is time to show that the "People's Army" is the "people's army."  He immediately held a meeting of cadres at the regiment level and above and announced that from now on, "disaster relief" would be the top priority of the Northwest People's Army:

    "Just now, it has been confirmed that a very serious earthquake has occurred, and you have all felt it. Now many people in the epicenter are dying, and many people are buried in the ruins and are in urgent need of rescue. They and the survivors need food, clothing and medicine.  . With such a large area affected by the disaster, no one can help them. The central government cannot count on them, and the local governments are also poor. Only we can do something.

    Traffic is not good now, and the conditions in the disaster area are also very poor. All we can rely on are two legs and two hands.  But we are going because we are the people's army, the people's army.  How can we look at people suffering and excuse it with one reason or another?  If so, what do the people do to support us?

    Now, I am issuing an order in the name of the Chairman of the People's Party's Military Committee and the General Headquarters of the Northwest People's Army. All officers and soldiers planning to enter Xinjiang will fully devote themselves to disaster relief, except for some garrison tasks.

    Not only that, the garrison troops stationed in various places have also received orders to go all out for disaster relief.  In accordance with the deployment of the Earthquake Relief Headquarters, engineers, communications troops and cavalry were the first group to arrive overnight in the hardest-hit Guyuan counties. Some infantry units then rushed to designated locations, and some infantry units were enriched into baggage units and began to sort out supplies and supplies.  Transport them to the disaster area as soon as possible.

    Disaster relief is life-saving. All troops set off overnight and will make additional arrangements for follow-up matters!  "

    After receiving the order, various units of the People's Army acted quickly and marched through the mountains and ravines with torches.  The roads were no longer roads and the bridges were torn apart and twisted.  The deathly silent mountain road was filled with people's officers and soldiers following orders.  There were constant aftershocks at night. The People's Army marching in the dark had to watch the road under their feet and carefully avoid the dangers caused by possible earthquakes. It was very difficult to move forward.

      At that time, people still knew very little about earthquakes.  In ancient times, people in the Qintian Prison would consider it as "God's early warning" to traitors in the court and the emperor's "irrelevant governance", which required the emperor to go to the altar to pray for blessings and issue edicts to punish himself.  Even in modern times, accurately predicting earthquakes is still a world-class problem.

    After the earthquake, the telegraph office was also damaged. Telegrams and letters could not be sent out, and information with the provincial capitals Yinchuan and Lanzhou was interrupted.  According to official history, it was not until one month after the earthquake that the first telegram was sent from a temporary Guyuan telegraph office built with mats and door panels.

    Fortunately, Zhang Hanqing was here. The People's Army used military code to send out this important news overnight: Beijing, Shenyang, and Tianjin. Major newspapers reprinted it one after another, and radio stations also immediately transmitted the radio waves of the disaster to various places: Shanghai,  Wuhan, Nanjing, Guangzhou far away from the northwest, the People's Army's telegram has almost become the only communication channel between the earthquake area and the outside world.

    All seven divisions of the People's Army have been involved in disaster relief.  In an area of ??thousands of miles, this amount of manpower is insignificant, but it is crucial.  Since it is winter, the dead are not at risk of the plague in the short term, and they can go all out to search and rescue the living buried in the ruins and treat the injured.

    The Earthquake Relief Headquarters manages the military on one hand and liaises with provincial governments on the other to carry out self-rescue.  Within a week, 10,000 tents, 30,000 pieces of cotton-padded clothes and 500 tons of grain were delivered to the disaster area, and free rice and porridge were provided at 2,000 bases.

    The Northwest People's Army and the government are deeply involved in disaster relief, and there is no distinction between Huihan and region.  Urgently transported clothing from the Northeast also came via railways and highways along the inner and outer sides of the Great Wall, the ancient roads beyond the Great Wall, and the vast grasslands.  Tianjin Dodge Automobile Factory donated all the cars that had just left the factory to the use of disaster relief materials, allowing the materials to arrive at the disaster area as quickly as possible, which fully verified Zhang Hanqing's foresight in developing mechanical transportation.

    ? In contrast, what the central government can do is extremely limited.  Historically, the "Gansu Earthquake Relief Association" has received a total of 30,943 yuan in donations, 70,60 cents and 8 cents. This amount of money is not enough to meet the emergency expenses of the disaster area. Due to the cold and food being buried, the victims are extremely likely to freeze and starve to death.  many.

    At this moment, the central government also has no good solution - even the military pay needs to be borrowed from abroad. Let's talk about a famine in the territory of the Feng clan. It is delusional to say how much effort the central government will need, at least.  The immediate boss is not willing to pay too much attention to this matter.  People who came to Beijing late from Gansu criticized: "Gansu is a place where the state levies rental tax, and the people of Gansu are burdened by the state. Now that we have suffered this unprecedented catastrophe, we cannot take into account the remaining benefits. This is not only public opinion, but also  Inhumane.¡±

    Of course, objectively speaking, the central government does not have the conditions to support the northwest earthquake on a large scale at this time: transportation is inconvenient, information is poor, and materials are in short supply. However, these cannot be negotiated with human life, at least in the context of disaster relief.  In fact, the People's Government is very popular.

    After all, there were very few engineers and shovels, and the disaster relief tools were not prepared in advance. The weather was freezing and the ground was freezing. Countless human lives were dug out from the ruins. The people's army used only flesh and blood.  This is a team that is different from the armies of previous dynasties and the troops of successive warlords. The people see it and feel pain in their hearts. The image of the People's Army as a benevolent and righteous army was passed down from this time.

    The efficiency of the People's Government is also surprisingly high.  Zhou Tingyuan, the county magistrate of Jingning County, the hardest-hit area, immediately called for people to rescue the living people buried in the rubble, regardless of the safety of his wife and children and the danger of the walls and houses of his home collapsing.  "The next morning, food was delivered to the county warehouse. The victims who had no food to eat bought clothes from pawnshops. The victims who had no clothes took tents and flags to sleep in the county treasury, and built tents and huts for the homeless victims." He also asked "the authorities  Send doctors with medicine to treat victims with internal injuries and fractures."

    Because of his effective disaster relief measures, people's hearts are relatively stable.  He took the lead in donating his salary, using work as relief, and summoned victims to dredge rivers and divert water to prevent it from overflowing.

    This work-for-relief method not only effectively solves the problem of insufficient manpower for disaster relief, but also calms people's hearts because everyone has something to do.  Therefore, although Jingning is the place where the earthquake was more serious this time, it is also the place where disaster relief is most effective.

    Zhang Hanqing was appointed by the Fire Line as the commander-in-chief to handle the northwest earthquake river dredging relief project. Administratively, he had ideas, but the specific work was complicated and he did not have the energy to do it. It was appropriate for people to do their best.

    Two weeks later, the first phase of emergency rescue came to an end. According to the experience of later generations, although some people who still cannot be rescued for such a long time are still conceptually possible to be rescued, the focus of disaster relief should be on the deceased.  of processing.  This is a long-term experience that a major disaster must be followed by a major epidemic. Now, it is time to let the souls of the dead rest in peace.

    Because it is an area inhabited by Hui and Han people, there are dead people of different ethnic groups everywhere, so how to deal with them becomes the first priority after the disaster.  According to the customs of various ethnic groups, Han people use coffins after death, while Hui people wrap them in white cloth and bury them, although they are currently buried in the ground.  Moreover, in the areas where Hui and Han people live, the rule that Hui and Han people are buried in different places is strictly enforced. This has been true for thousands of years.

    Now the conditions are no longer met: there are dead people in every family, and in some cases almost the whole family is dead.  It's too late to save a living person, so how can we care about the customs of various ethnic groups?  Besides, Zhang Hanqing also wanted to take this opportunity to promote his idea of ??national integration.  (Remember the website address: www.hlnovel.com)??? The custom of different burials in Han Dynasty has been the same for thousands of years.

    Now the conditions are no longer met: there are dead people in every family, and in some cases almost the whole family is dead.  It's too late to save a living person, so how can we care about the customs of various ethnic groups?  Besides, Zhang Hanqing also wanted to take this opportunity to promote his idea of ??national integration.  (Remember the website address: www.hlnovel.com
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