Free Web NovelChapter 400: 325
"There’s wind."
Fang Huai took off his gloves, raised his hand and felt it carefully.
Having just arrived at the higher bald ground behind the burning area, everyone looked around at the mention of this.
Indeed, there was wind, and some sparks were blowing over from above.
"Pay attention and see if any sparks have drifted outside!" Cao Yi shouted.
Just when they found a relatively safe spot, if the fire started from behind again, trapping them in a pincer movement, this hundred-square-meter natural barrier would not save them, and they would all suffocate here, becoming roast beggars.
Next to him, Song Lin, upon hearing the word "sparks," couldn’t help but recall the past.
The potential wildfire risk had been extinguished by a rainstorm.
He couldn’t help but ask, "Can we have the city send over people for artificial rainmaking? I heard rainmaking shells aren’t expensive, right?"
Fang Huai listened, looked up at the sky, then shook his head with a smile, "Even if Guanyin tries her best, if you don’t get into bed with your wife, how can you have a child?"
Song Lin was stunned, "What do you mean?"
Fang Huai looked around and said, "The meteorological bombs for artificial rainmaking are rain enhancers, not rainmakers. There have to be rain clouds in the sky for them to work! At best, they’re like Guanyin, not the Dragon King!"
China’s earliest record of rainmaking dates back to the warlord Zhang Zongchang in the Northeast when he was the governor of Shandong. There had been no rain for three months, the land was barren, and crops failed. Enraged, he went to the Dragon King Temple and cursed, threatening to blast it with cannons if it didn’t rain within three days. freēwebnovel.com
Three days passed without rain, and true to his word, Zhang Zongchang immediately brought 19 cannons to Mount Qianfo and fired a volley into the sky.
The rain fell after the barrage.
Zhang Zongchang, who had written countless pairs involving his parents, a veritable avalanche of such verse, even wrote a poem titled "Praying for Rain" about the event:
The Jade Emperor shares my surname Zhang,
Why pick on me, Zongchang?
If it doesn’t rain within three days,
I’ll strip the Dragon King Temple, then bombard your mother with my cannons.
And historically, people weren’t exactly devout in their prayers for rain. They would first offer then worship the Dragon King, carrying the idol around the neighborhood to show how parched the land was. If it still didn’t rain, they would resort to tough love, placing the idol under the sun for days, or even beating and kicking it if necessary.
The land of Huaxia doesn’t nurture idle gods.
The piety of the people is like Schrödinger’s piety.
"Zhang Quan, check the wind direction!" the leader of the Forest Fire Brigade yelled.
One of their members immediately pulled out a light silk scarf from his pocket and held it up in the air.
The thin scarf swayed slightly behind everyone.
The leader looked at it and breathed a sigh of relief.
The wind wasn’t strong, so it shouldn’t cause too much trouble.
Turning to Cao Yi, he said:
"We need to be ready for a long fight!
Luckily, the fire is intense but not widespread yet. Let’s circle this area and create a firebreak first. Once we interrupt the fire line, we can observe the wind direction and fight fire with fire!
By early morning, when the temperature is lower and the humidity higher, the fire situation should be clearer, and we’ll have passed the peak of the blaze, then we can focus on extinguishing it!"
"Okay!"
Cao Yi was decisive; after all, they were the experts in this field. As long as there was a consensus on an effective strategy, it was time to act.
The leader raised his hand, pointing with his finger at several trees about forty to fifty meters beyond the periphery of the fire, roughly outlining a circle:
"That tree, to that tree, then over there, shall be the inner circle of our firebreak! But there’s some cover from the trees! You’ve got firefighting chainsaws, right? You cut down the trees, we’ll clear the firebreak!" fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm
Cao Yi nodded, "Alright, Fang Huai, you arrange the tree cutting!"
While Fang Huai might not know how to plant trees, Cao Yi had seen him explaining the functions of a motorized chainsaw to several conscripts in detail.
However, Fang Huai said to the man:
"There is a voluntary fire brigade nearby that was established last year. Your task of clearing the firebreak is too heavy! This large area can’t be done in less than four or five hours!
Call them for help! We only have three motorized chainsaws, with one operator and two or three to push the trees should suffice!
The rest can assist you!
Also, contact the Meteorological Bureau! If there are indeed rain clouds in the vicinity, have them fire a meteorological bomb. Even if there aren’t any, they should still be informed about tonight’s wind direction!
The fire spread speed doubles with each increase in wind force. That gust of wind earlier made me really uneasy!"
When Cao Yi heard this, his heavy heart lightened by at least seven or eight taels.
As expected, he knew his stuff.
Fang Huai, this kid, had never actually dealt with a major wildfire, yet he seemed to know everything!
What Cao Yi didn’t know was Fang Huai was currently wishing the System would refund his money.
In his previous life, he had never faced a major wildfire, and he had missed the few fire alarms in the Squadron. He truly lacked experience in this area, and this time he could only search the System for knowledge on forest fire emergencies.
To his surprise, "Forest Fire Disposal Ability" was divided into beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels.
Intermediate level cost 40 points, advanced level cost 80 points, and after learning, you could pay the difference to upgrade.
Expensive as hell!
After scraping together just over 90 military merit points, but given the danger of the forest fire and that it was one of the significant types of emergencies for firefighters, he begrudgingly spent 20 points to learn the beginner level.
Twenty points gone!
The information he gained in exchange was almost laughably basic!
The moment he made the trade, he suddenly felt a little less fearful of the wildfire.
His judgment of the fire became a bit clearer.
But the sensation of knowledge crossing his mind was sparse.
I’m asking for professionalism here! Is that too much to ask?
It’s like walking into the Water Gathering Spa on the second floor, where I’ve already forked out 499 for the exorbitant massage fee, and the beautiful masseuse has arrived, giving me a tentative massage that feels quite nice, and then she tells me, "Sir, this is just the room fee. For anything extra, you’ll need to add another 1000."
Moreover, even after giving another 1000, it might just be for a standard massage, not the special kind, which might require an additional 2000!
Now I don’t want the massage and wish to get a refund, but the masseuse just tells me, "No worries, Sir. Next time, you can go straight for the 1000 experience, and you won’t have to pay the 666 room fee, you can go directly to the project."
Oh my god, the "Consumer Rights Protection Law" stipulates that the information provided by business operators to consumers regarding the quality, performance, uses, and expiration date of goods or services must be true and comprehensive, and should not be misleading or deceptive in their advertising!
I was planning to use this very clause to fight for my rights at a wife-cake shop in my past life, alright?
"All right, I’m going to call the headquarters right now!" The leader immediately agreed and was about to make the call.
Fang Huai turned around, ready to signal his men to go down the mountain to fetch the equipment.
Suddenly, a gust of wind swept past them towards the side of the mountain; some embers were blown into the air, almost landing at the edge of the predetermined isolation zone.
Everyone watched in silent frustration.
Afterward, how to describe the danger of today’s fire?
Fang Huai gritted his teeth at the System: damn it, add 20 more military merit points and exchange for Intermediate "Forest Fire Disposal Ability" for me!
In total, 40 military merit points disappeared.
The sensation of knowledge flowing through me is enough to bring anyone to tears.
Intermediate level, that’s the confidence I was looking for.
Fang Huai let out a long sigh of relief, then turned to the leader and asked, "Excuse me, may I have your name?"
"My name is Wang, Wang Peiguang!"
Fang Huai then looked at Cao Yi: "Instructor Cao, Captain Wang, let me take over the command!"
Captain Wang looked at Cao Yi somewhat puzzled.
Clearly, this guy was the one in charge of leading the Fire Brigade.
Still, he said, "All right, if you have a better method, let’s hear it!"
Of course, Cao Yi had no objections either, while those from the Forest Fire Brigade and the surrounding people watched curiously.
Even the members of Second Squadron were surprised.
Even during incidents handled exclusively by Special Service Squadron 2 in the past, Fang Huai had never taken over command.
"All right, Captain Wang, you make the call and let your bureau notify the Municipal Government’s Forest Fire Command to tell them that the range of flying embers can now reach 0.5 hectares! Ask the Meteorological Bureau to cooperate using the forest fire weather risk levels published two years ago to make an accurate assessment of the weather risks tonight, to determine the level!"
Fang Huai said this while looking up, his gaze scanning the heavens.
His eyes seemed to pierce through the clouds.
The 15 points just now, they were worth it.
In addition to some methods for extinguishing forest fires, he actually received an extra strategy.
Cloud-reading skills.
The shape, distribution, and direction of clouds can actually be used to estimate their potential for rain.
Cumulonimbus clouds are dense and thick with a relatively low base. The cloud mass is large, resembling towering mountains.
Bristle cumulonimbus clouds represent a vigorous stage in the development of cumulonimbus cloud convection, with a relatively low base and one side of the cloud top has filamentous cloud manes. Bristle cumulonimbus clouds generally herald the prospect of severe convective weather events, including thunderstorms, hail, and other adverse weather.
Hook curl clouds, also known as "hook-hook clouds" or "broom clouds," appear like bundles of filaments floating across the sky, with the strands pointing upwards and small hooks at one end. The clouds are milky white and translucent, often appearing before cold air from the North or low atmospheric pressure from above. The appearance of these clouds indicates that rain is likely to come soon.
Castellanus cumulus clouds, also called "cotton clouds" or "fish scale skies," also often appear scattered and broken in the sunny skies of summer, resembling clusters of loose and torn cotton or exploded cotton flowers. The cloud bodies vary in size and elevation, forming under highly unstable moist air conditions, resulting in fragmented cloud masses, which are also indicators of impending rain.
The flow direction of distant clouds can also give a certain level of judgment on the wind velocity soon to be encountered.
The wisdom of ancient people has also accumulated some experience in predicting the arrival of rain from the movement of clouds.
Of course, it’s not possible to predict for too long or too far in advance.
Old timers would say: My judgments are more accurate. When I say it’s going to rain, it definitely will.
But it’s because the prediction covers a smaller area that it can be even more accurate than weather forecasts.
Weather forecasts can predict the changes that remote winds might undergo when they pass through an area based on gradient forces of horizontal air pressure, pressure belts, and friction.
What Fang Huai saw though was the scenario that was about to unfold before his eyes.
Clouds moving east, it’s all in vain.
Clouds moving north, a gust of wind.
Clouds moving south, the pond is full.
Clouds moving west, put on your straw raincoat.
What the System gave him wasn’t just knowledge but also practical ability. Combined with his exceptional eyesight, that precision was uncanny.
The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Now past six o’clock, the sun should be due west, slightly northwards.
There are some castellanus clouds in the sky coming from afar, moving from north to south.
The other clouds are generally moving in the same direction.
While making these judgments, Fang Huai felt exhilarated.
Those 40 points were absolutely worth the ticket price!
Damn it, every single point of military merit is pure positive energy.
"Within a short time passing this area, the wind won’t be strong; less than a level-four breeze coming down from the northeast, from the mountain. We need to quickly prepare the isolation zone at the base of the mountain! Captain Wang, this area may see light rain within three to five hours. If the Meteorological Bureau has rain-increasing bombs, have them come around ten o’clock and set off a couple to protect the vegetation!"
As soon as Fang Huai spoke, it was like a bolt of lightning striking.
People around him were astounded.
Oh my god, what the heck.
Are you a modern-day Zhuge Liang?
Even Zhuge Liang would be a step behind without an altar!
