The setting sun, which had not been seen for many days, hung on the horizon again, on the plain under the bloody light. After the disaster, people were scattered along the road. In the queue that stretched to the horizon, it was so quiet that only dense and heavy footsteps could be heard. Their mouths were dry and they were exhausted and had no extra energy to speak.
When they reached the fork of the expressway, the soldiers at the intersection guided the flow of people down the road. Zhou Chengcheng was a little confused. He was clearly going to a satellite city in Beijing, so why did he have to go down the road.
But when he reached the intersection, he realized that in the afterglow, only the silhouette of ruined walls and a wisp of smoke and dust remained in the city.
Zhou Cheng sighed and said to his wife beside him:
"It seems that the cities around Jinghua City have not been spared."
Shen Manling shook her head slightly:
"I'm afraid it's not that simple. According to Tianyu's report on the observation of the star ring, the total amount of material thrown by the star ring before the pressurized water boiled was more than the total amount that caused the electromagnetic pulse storm and melted the polar glaciers.
Before the electromagnetic pulse storm, we monitored a throw of ring material through ground-based phased array air warning radar, and its throw path covered almost all cities and important strongholds around the world."
"So according to this, cities all over the world have been destroyed because of boiling underground water?" Zhou Cheng's voice was full of horror and disbelief.
"I haven't received any news from other places, and I'm not sure. But now it seems that it is very easy for an alien civilization to destroy a plain city like Jinghua with a well-distributed underground water network by boiling underground water. "Yes." Shen Manling replied.
Cao Rui glanced at the dark blue star rings in the sky and said with a wry smile:
"Haha, we humans have to rack our brains if we want to destroy a super city like Jinghua with complete three-defense projects at once, let alone wipe the city off the map on a large scale. It has only been half a month, and almost all All the coastal cities have disappeared, and there are countless others like Jinghua City. And the saddest thing is that humans have not even seen their faces."
Everyone was silent, no longer saying anything, just burying their heads in walking.
Night has enveloped the entire land, and the northern autumn night wind should have brought a chill. But maybe it is because the remaining warmth of Jinghua City has not dissipated, and the wind still carries the warmth of early summer.
The long queue stopped in front of a small village. It seemed that the buildings in the town had not been damaged. The soldiers at the entrance of the town were distributing bottled water, compressed food and clothing to people, and then they were dispersed by the soldiers who led the way. Rest in various places in the town. This town is not big, so many people can only rest on the eaves or even in the open air, but no one complains.
Zhou Cheng noticed that on the other side of the road, in the farmland in the distance, there was a long concrete low wall glowing gray under the bright moon.
"This is a semi-buried emergency material storage warehouse built in the era of crisis. It is very spacious inside. It stores drinking water, food, medical supplies, clothing and other urgently needed living supplies. Tens of thousands of such warehouses and underground oil depots have been built across the country. Some are like this on the edge of the city, and some are in the wild." Cao Rui said beside him.
"Oh, I've heard of it, but I didn't expect it to be so big." Zhou Cheng said.
"In the last three months of the crisis era, we have entered the stage of national armed defense, and all large-scale industrial and agricultural production has stopped. So many people need to eat, drink and consume. If we don't reserve in advance, we will starve to death before the enemy comes down." Cao Cao Rui said.
Zhou Cheng turned to look at Cao Rui:
"I see that before the enemy entered low-Earth orbit, the city was filled with various supplies for several months."
Cao Rui smiled slightly:
"There are also a lot of supplies in the city, but more than half of them are weapons and ammunition. The food reserves are expected to be enough for more than half a year, and a large amount of basic life reserves are placed in this kind of outdoor warehouse. Now it seems that this may be the most forward-looking
sexual measures."
While they were talking, several people had already arrived at the entrance of the town. The soldier who was guiding the diversion asked while handing over food, water and clothes:
"Please report your positions or armed forces."
After several people reported their job descriptions, an officer from behind quickly stepped forward and gave a military salute:
"Experts and leaders, please follow me."
After that, he led a few people towards the direction of the material warehouse. Several people were a little confused, but they didn't ask any more questions and just followed closely behind the officer.
A small road not far from the town entrance to the warehouse was full of people carrying supplies. Only when they came to the door of the warehouse did they realize that the volume of the warehouse was much larger than expected, and the part buried underground was several times larger than the part exposed on the ground.
times. Various materials are densely stacked in the warehouse that is more than ten meters high.
Under the guidance of the sergeant, several people entered the tent next to the warehouse door. Here they met Xia Lan, Wei Xu and the team members who set out together in the morning, as well as Lin Tianyu and Wu Fan who were responsible for observing the star ring earlier. They briefly reunited
After greetings, everyone sat around the table.
A lieutenant colonel said:
"Experts, I have the highest military rank among the armed forces currently gathered here, so I will temporarily serve as the commander here."
Everyone was stunned. It was not that they had any doubts about the command authority of the lieutenant colonel. But in a political and military center like Beijing, the lieutenant colonel was not considered a high-ranking military rank.
"We are very fortunate to have experts here to help us provide professional advice. The situation is very serious now, so I will keep the story short and introduce the situation first.
There are currently and are expected to be about 300,000 refugees in the central urban area who will join us. We have contacted eight war material warehouses around Jinghua City through long-distance radio, and the situation there is similar."
"In other words, only 1/3 of the people have evacuated from the city?" Shen Manling asked in horror.
"The disaster happened too fast. If I hadn't received your warning in advance, I'm afraid the loss of the population would have been far more than 2/3." The lieutenant colonel said. He paused for a while, and then said:
"The casualty statistics are not the most important thing. There are two issues we need to solve most urgently. One is how to organize a rescue. The other is what to do next for the survivors.
I have sent several rescue teams back to the city. However, it is reported that the temperature in Jinghua City is still very high. They can only carry out rescue operations near the Fifth Ring Road, and the rescue efficiency is very low. Do you experts have any good ideas?
"
Everyone looked at each other, and finally Xia Lan said:
"It is now certain that the reason for the boiling of pressurized water is that alien civilization put a large amount of metallic sodium into the water network under Beijing City through some single-celled organisms in a short period of time. The reaction between sodium and water itself will release
The huge heat and hydrogen gas generated can also cause an explosion.
And another substance after the reaction, sodium hydroxide, which is caustic soda, will also emit heat when dissolved in water. Under such circumstances, the size of Jinghua City may not be completely destroyed for a long time.
Cooling. Moreover, caustic soda is very corrosive and can cause great harm to the human body."
The lieutenant colonel looked horrified:
"You mean, we won't be able to enter the city for rescue for quite a long time?"
Xia Lan closed her eyes and shook her head without speaking.
"Moreover, caustic soda exists in large amounts in underground and surface water. The water system near Jinghua will not be drinkable for a long time, the land will become salinized, and plants will wither. What's worse is that after the pressured water is empty due to boiling, The ground surface will gradually collapse on a large scale due to loss of support," said the engineer.
"There are more than a dozen material warehouses around Jinghua City, and the ones in the southeast have been flooded. The remaining items are enough for people to use for a while. But if we can't get replenishment, we have to consider moving to other places." Cao Rui said.
Lin Tianyu proposed:
"What about the northeast? That's where my hometown is. The northeastern plain was originally our food base. It's relatively easy to restart production and help ourselves."
Shen Manling shook her head:
"Cities on the Northeast Plain and Jinghua City have similar groundwater network layouts, so I'm afraid the same results are inevitable."
The lieutenant colonel’s brow seemed to be stuck with glue:
"The warehouse stronghold in the east of the city received a group of troops driving from Chengde earlier. According to their reports, their city has also suffered the same destruction, and the refugees who escaped are also coming to us.
Another point is that we still don’t know what the enemy wants to do. Now, our armed forces are already very weak. If we are further dispersed, it will not be conducive to possible defensive battles."
Cao Rui nodded:
"Now the refugees in the northeast may evacuate to us, and the south has been flooded by sea water. The only places we can go to are the northwest and southwest. But the natural environment in the northwest is harsh, and there are not many material warehouses. There are so many of us. Once we reach the prairie or desert, there is no need for the enemy to take action."
"But we don't know the situation in the southwest at all!" Zhou Cheng said.
At this time, a soldier ran in in a panic, holding a pile of curled papers in his hand.
"Report! We picked up several homing pigeons nearby, all from the western theater. The content of the letter is a report on the losses after the electromagnetic pulse. The losses in Shuchuan centered on Chengdu are far less than what we have here!"
The lieutenant colonel took the small curled papers, looked at them, and said excitedly:
"The latest news is from five days ago. Their losses are indeed not as big as ours, and the rainfall is much less than ours!"
Cao Rui looked at the map on the table:
"Then we will retreat to the southwest. There will be supply warehouses along the way, and the personnel will be denser."