Cao Rui also got out of the car and walked to Zhou Cheng:
"This is the water tower that holds the pressurized water underground in Jinghua City."
Wei Xu took a sampling bottle and was about to fill it with water on the roadside. The engineer stopped him:
"Dr. Wei Xu, please wait a moment."
"What's wrong? This is the source of Jinghua's groundwater. Aren't the samples taken representative enough?" Wei Xu asked.
A dry smile appeared on the engineer's splashing face:
"This is indeed the source of Jinghua's pressurized water, but the floating water on the surface flows into the city along the Yongning River. It mainly forms surface water and shallow groundwater. The floating water sample may not be representative, or it may be contaminated.
The water that seeps into the mountain, enters the ground, and enters under the Jinghua aquifer through the groundwater network to form pressurized water should be a deep water body closer to the middle of the reservoir."
Everyone was shocked after hearing this, and Wei Xu depressedly capped the sampling bottle:
"Now that the water surface is so wide, how can we get a deep water sample in the middle?"
The engineer's thin face showed embarrassment and his tone was hesitant:
"Only deep water samples can get meaningful results. I really didn't expect that the reservoir would be like this. It's really..."
"Then we have to find a small boat, row to the middle and use a rope to sink the sampling bottle to take samples. There should be a boat in this reservoir." Wei Xu looked around.
"You can't do it even with a boat. The water surface doesn't seem to be moving much, but in fact the surface water is flowing rapidly towards the dam body. The boat will be washed away soon after rowing out, and the dam may break at any time now," Cao Rui said firmly.
Denied Wei Xu's proposal.
"Then what should we do? We have spent so much effort to get here, and this may be the only chance to figure out why the pressurized water is alkaline." Wei Xu was in a very anxious mood.
Everyone was in trouble. The roaring sound of running water echoing in the mountains reminded everyone that time was still passing. But they couldn't think of a way for the moment.
Suddenly, an officer accompanying him said:
"I have an idea!"
Everyone turned to look, and the officer pointed to a high-voltage power line tower behind them. Several sets of transmission cables on the tower drew an arc, vertically extending to the water surface as wide as a lake. In the mist and rain, the other side could not be seen, and the other end of the cables looked like
It seems to disappear into the sky above the water.
"As long as I have a rope buckle and a rope, I can slide to the middle of the reservoir through the power line, and use the sling to sink the sampling bottle underwater. After getting the sample, I can just climb back along the cable!"
"With such heavy rain, it would be too dangerous to slide over high-voltage power lines and crawl back again!" Zhou Cheng said, shaking his head.
The officer said confidently:
"During the electromagnetic pulse storm, the power transmission network was destroyed long ago. This rope climbing is also a regular training subject for us. It is not dangerous. Don't worry!"
Although everyone knew in their hearts that things were by no means as easy as the officers said, there was really no other way at the moment, and time waited for no one.
Zhou Cheng used the rope buckle and rope of the off-road vehicle winch to make what the officer needed. Everyone watched as the officer climbed up the transmission tower with the sampling bottle and rope, and then slid along the cable to the invisible edge.
above the water.
The officer reached the middle of the water, and the cable that originally hung in an arc was pulled into a straight line. In the torrential rain, it was unclear what the officer was doing. He was like a dragonfly touching the water from a distance.
Hanging on the border of people's sight.
Not long after, the officer began to climb back upside down on the cable. At first, his speed was very fast, but after climbing for less than half a distance, his speed slowed down significantly. Halfway through, everyone could see that the officer was already on his way. I struggled to climb back. In such a heavy rain, the difficulty of hanging upside down on a wire and climbing hundreds of meters uphill is unimaginable to ordinary people.
At this time, the noncommissioned officer who responded to the line tower also climbed up the cable. He didn't even have a rope buckle or rope as a safety measure. He slid to the officer's position, took the reagent bottle, turned around and started to climb back, and The officer struggled back on the cable.
Several bottles containing water samples from the depths of the reservoir were quickly handed over from the blood-stained hands of the soldiers. Xia Lan and Wei Xu had also prepared the tests they had brought in the lifted back cover and trunk of an off-road vehicle. appliance.
Xia Lan opened a reagent bottle and poured the sample water into several reagent dishes. Wei Xu took out a pH value test paper from the sealed bag and put it into the dish. After a few seconds, he took out the test paper and looked at it repeatedly. .Then, use a dropper to drop a few drops of reagent into the dish.
"Senior sister, this is wrong! The pH test paper cannot detect the pH of the water, and the reagent has not changed color. You didn't get the wrong test paper and reagent, right?"
Xia Lan stopped what she was doing and looked carefully at the several reagent dishes in front of Wei Xu:
"It's impossible. The test strips and reagents are specially made by the chemical experts in the laboratory. After we did the test in the laboratory, I confirmed it repeatedly before bringing it with me."
"Is there nothing wrong with the water?" Wei Xu asked puzzledly.
"Let me check the microorganisms in the water first."
After saying that, Xia Lan put a reagent dish filled with water samples under the microscope. After finishing focusing the light, she looked at the eyepiece and began to fine-tune the focus. After adjusting the position of the reagent dish several times, a strange thing appeared in the eyepiece. .
It was a single-celled organism that was somewhat similar to Paramecium, but was several times larger than Paramecium. Its cell membrane was covered with slender flagella, and it looked like its mobility was not too bad.
The most peculiar thing is that its organelles are all on the side, and in the middle there is a mass of material that branches repeatedly like a plant root system. If you look closely, the mass has a slight metallic luster, as if it is crystallized.
Just when Xia Lan was about to adjust the position and focus to further observe the crystalline material, the cell membrane of this single-cell organism spontaneously shattered, and the root-like crystalline material began to subside with the inflow of external liquid. At this time, someone suddenly He pulled her away.
When she was surprised, she discovered that it was Wei Xu who pulled her away. Before she could ask any questions, he was stunned by the water samples in the reagent dishes in the trunk of the car.
I saw dense bubbles rising from the water samples in several reagent dishes along with the rising white mist, as if there were alcohol lamps heating them below. In the blink of an eye, the water in the reagent dishes was splashing everywhere as if boiling. .At the same time, thick white smoke was emitted, and flickering sparks could even be seen faintly in the dish.
Just as they were stunned, Cao Rui shouted:
"No! Get down quickly!"
Then he stepped forward to block Wei Xu and Xia Lan who were closest to the trunk, and then threw them to the ground. The moment they fell to the ground, there was a crackling sound of reagent bottles behind him. Then, he threw them to the ground. With the sound of glass shards splashing, a choking smell hit your nose.
After the explosion subsided, Cao Rui stood up and patted the glass shards on his body. The trunk, which was still smoking white smoke, was already a mess. Several sample bottles containing sample water exploded into glass shards. Wei Xu touched it tentatively.
The next reagent dish is basically dry:
"So hot!"
Xia Lan picked out a few blackened pH test strips from the debris, and looked at the overturned dropper bottle. The reagent flowing out had turned purple.
"What...what is going on?" The engineer was still shocked.
Xia Lan picked up a piece of test paper that had turned black with residual warmth and said:
"I just saw in the microscope that there is a single-celled microorganism in the water with metal crystals in its body. I don't know how it came from yet. It may have been replaced from minerals, or it may have come from other places. In short,
Judging from the current situation, I am almost certain that it is metallic sodium.
When the cell membrane is intact, metallic sodium is wrapped in the cell, so there was nothing abnormal when we initially tested the water sample. But just before all this happened, I saw that the cell membrane spontaneously ruptured. When sodium comes into contact with water, chemicals will occur.
Reaction produces hydrogen gas and sodium hydroxide.
This reaction is very violent and releases a huge amount of heat. This explains the explosion just now and why the pH test paper is alkaline and the reagent appears purple. The intensity of the reaction is such that all the reagent bottles will be exploded in an instant.
.The density of microorganisms carrying metallic sodium in the water must be very high!”
The engineer looked at the trunk and the reagent bottles that were blown to pieces on the ground, and said in horror:
"In other words, the pressurized water under Jinghua City is now full of such microorganisms. If they release the sodium in their bodies in the pressurized water..."
Cao Rui strode to the car in front and took out the long-range radio to call, and Zhou Cheng quickly followed.
"Command center! Command center! If you hear me, please answer! If you hear me, please answer!"
After several calls but no one answered, Cao Rui looked in the direction of Jinghua City and gritted his teeth and said:
"The damn rain must have weakened the signal!"
Zhou Cheng looked at Cao Rui in panic for a few seconds, then got into the cab:
"Lin Tianyu and the others have set up a signal bridge antenna. Let's go back quickly. Maybe we can get in touch! We have to hurry, Man Ling is still in the city!"
Zhou Cheng's speed was several times faster than when he arrived, and the car hit the guardrail on the roadside several times. The car even became airborne when passing through bad road conditions. Cao Rui, the co-pilot, did not complain at all and just held the handrail with one hand.