Free Web NovelChapter 286: Chapter 226: The Squad Leader’s Testament
"Woo... woo..."
A group of helpless firefighters sat on the ground, crying.
The market leader arrived at the scene, explaining to the Instructor with a fierce face:
"We really do not allow people to live here, the market planning is only for sales operations, strictly prohibiting people from staying with the goods.
It’s just that these storefronts, they are all privately owned, we’ve notified them repeatedly, but they have not made any rectifications, we really can’t control it.
This family... ah, the deceased should be respected, we can’t say much now..."
He Yongjun stood with his hands behind his back, his eyes slightly closed, hiding the sorrow in his eyes.
After a long while, he opened his mouth indifferently:
"You can’t control it is just an excuse?
I give you three days to rectify the situation. Three days later, we will come to inspect at any time. If you can’t control it, we’ll help you control it! Your entire place will be shut down!
Moreover, as soon as day breaks, the Detachment will arrange for the Fire Prevention Office to issue a fire report. If the cause of the fire is due to a problem with your wiring, you will bear the consequences yourself!
You won’t be able to resume business for a year!"
A chill ran through the heart of the nearby market leader.
"Yes, yes, we’ll rectify immediately!"
Only then did Old Teacher He glance at the building surrounded by water but still burning inside, and the group of children crying their eyes out not far away, sighed, and stepped forward, saying in a deep voice:
"Comrades."
Some people around slowly got up and looked over.
He Yongjun looked at the tear streaks on everyone’s faces, his cheek muscles twitched, and his voice grew louder: freewebnovёl.ƈom
"The sacrifice of Comrade Zhou Yong weighs heavily on us all.
"The times need heroes, but none of us wished for Zhou Yong to become a hero.
"But! In firefighting battles, sacrifices are inevitable sooner or later!
"We must carry on Comrade Zhou Yong’s will, and do our duty well!
"The firefighting battle is not over yet. You are all firefighters, can you bear to just watch the fire burn right before your eyes?!"
"This is the property of the people, it’s also what the two girls saved by Zhou Yong will rely on to survive in the future! If it’s gone, how can they live properly? Can you bear it?"
As his words ended, the people around gradually stood up.
Everyone looked at the fiercely burning building, their fighting spirit growing ever stronger.
Fight!
He Yongjun looked at Ye Jiahong: "Squadron leader!"
"Present!" Ye Jiahong stood up straight.
"Give the orders!"
"Yes!"
Ye Jiahong wiped his nose, his eyes red, and shouted forcefully.
Turning around, pointing at the building, he yelled, "Brothers! We can’t let Zhou Yong’s sacrifice be in vain! For Zhou Yong! Move out!"
"Move out! For our brother!" everyone shouted.
Fang Huai, sitting on the ground, reached out and pinched Zhou Yong’s face, then patted it.
"Wait for me to come back."
After that, he stood up and said aloud:
"Captain, I’ll be the inside attack gunner!"
Ye Jiahong, who was walking in front, immediately raised his hand.
"Alright!"
This time, Cao Yi, who had silently watched everyone vent their emotions at the fire scene, did not stop them.
Fang Huai stepped forward and turned off the distributor valves of the hose operators one by one.
Everyone’s water supply halted, and they felt somewhat indignant.
"Fang Huai, what are you doing?!"
Fang Huai pointed not far away: "Stop wasting water here, Xiao Hei is still cooling off over there! I’m leading the internal attack to end this sooner, so we can bring him home earlier."
Upon hearing this, everyone fell silent.
"Alright! I’ll be the number two operator!"
"I’ll be the number three operator!"
"I’ll provide a hose to cover you! Let’s put out this f*cking fire and bring Xiao Hei home!"
...
The moment the hose entered Fang Huai’s hands, his mind became clear. Standing at the door, he loudly arranged:
"Number two gun, spray and stand in front of me! I’ll use the straight stream!
Squad Leader Huang! Take the firefighting hook next to me, hook open the fire sources along the way, and break apart everything that might collapse!
Pumper truck, bring the market leader, find the nearest fire hydrant to refill!
Rescue Team, prepare the ladder and stretcher, there’s still one person on the roof!"
Before, everyone was cautious to avoid collapse and backdraft, careful not to injure any potentially alive individuals. Now, there were no more reservations.
"Okay!"
United we stand.
Fang Huai hugged the water gun tightly, pressing on as it sporadically spat out rolling fireballs and charged in.
...
The battle lasted two full hours.
No, it should be said, only two hours.
Putting out a fire in a place full of electrical components wasn’t easy; now and then some kind of oil would get sprayed by water and reignite on the floor.
There wasn’t much special foam on the truck, which was mostly used on the first floor to open up a clean space for the water guns.
On the mezzanine, the second floor, the third floor, there were no stairs, so everyone tried to use the hook ladder and water gun cover to force their way in.
The floors couldn’t provide support, yet seemed to protect the raging fire like armor.
But several times the hook ladder pulled down the fragile large chunks of flooring from the mezzanine.
Thankfully it wasn’t high, so it didn’t cause any harm.
Everyone personally felt how difficult it was for Xiao Hei to come in and save people.
And Fang Huai’s madness beneath his calm exterior was felt by all in the internal attack group.
With a ladder leaning against the ladderwell, Fang Huai amazingly carried the cumbersome water gun, scaling the hose to reach the fire floor, and then with a fierce jump, he entered directly into the blaze, crazily sweeping water around him.
The covering water gun handlers behind him, who momentarily couldn’t keep up, had to quickly climb up the ladder and provide protection by dumping water almost directly on him from a distance.
He seemed fearless of any flame; when some components with batteries violently ignited, he didn’t even move to dodge, like an armed policeman facing a rioter, with the water from the nozzle as his gun and the water screen before him as his shield, advancing closer and closer until he had pushed the fire into surrender, then completely extinguishing it.
The firefighting leaders who arrived one after another saw the entire floor extinguishing like lights being turned off step by step, they were somewhat speechless.
To be honest, upon arriving and seeing the towering flames, everyone thought this internal attack would last at least six hours.
Slowly establishing ground, finding safe footholds, establishing pathways upstairs, step by step, everything was well-planned, and even the second internal attack group was arranged to replace the water gun handlers inside once their strength waned.
But while the second gun changed handlers three times, Fang Huai only came out to catch a breath, drank two bottles of water, and then went straight back in.
Detachment Captain Li wanted to switch water gun handlers the first time Fang Huai came out, but Fang Huai just changed his empty call after staring at the regimental commander and said,
"Leader, please give me a chance. If anyone should die today, it’s me."
Detachment Captain Li was witnessing for the first time such a hard-nosed soldier. He was about to speak when Zhang Zhongting pulled him aside.
"Forget it, Li Zh, let him vent. He’s my own nephew; my sister entrusted him to me, I’ll be responsible if anything happens."
Li Zhi suddenly turned his head, pointing to the figure who had re-entered the fire scene, he said in shock, "Is that Fang Huai?"
Fang Huai’s reputation had long entered his ears.
A martial arts vanguard.
Such talent among the hundreds of thousands in the Firefighting forces isn’t rare, with some graduates from military or sports schools, individuals from gymnastic teams enlisting – new recruits with exceptional physical abilities, there are always a few in every whole corps each year.
But none could be associated with the phrase "police dispatch backbone" in a short period of time; training a squad leader capable of leading an internal attack group into a fire scene needs a lot of time.
Just now he heard this soldier arranging things on the fire scene, taking the lead, he didn’t recognize his face and thought he was some elite from another Detachment recently transferred; he didn’t realize it was actually Fang Huai whom he had never met.
"Yeah, Li Zh, didn’t we waste our recruitment spot, did we?" Zhang Zhongting nodded and said.
Li Zhi watched the fire dim again after Fang Huai re-entered the building and genuinely exclaimed,
"The young Lv Bu."
At this time, Lv Bu didn’t have any titles like traitorous tyrant-killer; he was considered the foremost general of the Three Kingdoms era, a synonym for bravery.
Zhang Zhongting, however, surveyed the men sitting at the door, drinking water, hoping to quickly recover and return to the fire scene, he sighed,
"These lads are good. Today with a hero watching over them, it looks like everyone wants to be a hero. Let’s get the psychologist involved, it’s better to have fewer heroes."
"Mhm," Li Zhi nodded. "I’ll take care of these matters, you should start considering the next personnel arrangements. You’re halfway in charge at the Corps Headquarters now; you have an easier time with transfers than I do."
"Alright, I’ll take care of it."
...
When the last ember was extinguished, Fang Huai staggered out of the fire scene.
Exactly two hours and ten minutes.
He Zhijun, the third gun handler who had fought alongside him in the fire for an entire hour, also instinctively supported him.
What does it mean to be in a high-temperature fire scene for over two hours?
The first one to volunteer, Zhang Yang, lasted only 40 minutes before he couldn’t handle it anymore. When he came out, he stripped off his top, his entire upper body steaming, and only after rushing with cold water for a full minute did he catch his breath.
Zhao Jinchen, the second one who followed him into the hottest layer, lasted even less than half an hour.
Even so, everyone was already far more combat-ready than usual.
Fang Huai’s performance was infuriatingly impressive.
Fang Huai, however, waved his hand lightly and shook off He Zhijun. As he walked out of the fire scene, he headed straight for Xiao Hei.
Only when he reached Xiao Hei did he collapse onto the ground beside him, lying shoulder to shoulder and pulling him close, panting and saying,
"Squad Leader Xiao Hei, I’m back."
By the time everyone reached them, they saw Fang Huai’s tears flowing freely like a flood, the iron-steeling Fang Huai who in the fire scene spoke nothing but commands, was now chattier than ever.
"You said you’re only 22, without even a girlfriend; looking at how innocent you are, you must still be a virgin, right?"
"Do you have a place you want to go? If I’m ever idle, I’ll go to your ugly-as-hell QQ Space, print a couple of your photos, and take you to see them."
"Those two girls from before, I heard people mention, the older one is Feng Xiaolu, and the younger one, Feng Xiaobao, they were alive when put on the ambulance, and so far no family has come... If they don’t have elders at home, I... I probably can’t adopt them, but don’t worry, I’ll have my parents adopt them. With their age though, they can’t call me brother, henceforth, they’ll have to call me godfather, and you’ll be their godfather too. On holidays, I’ll take them to see you."
(End of Chapter 2 review)
