The train driver in the courtyard

Chapter 561 The enemy is on the move, the storm is coming!

Wuhansan Town is a famous furnace in China.

Especially this year we have encountered drought and it has not rained for a month.

The air was still hot in mid-October, and there was no trace of coolness even in the early morning.

Walking on the road, the heat wave hits you in the face, as if you are in an oven.

The leaves formed into thick forests, and even the wind became lazy and no longer danced lightly.

There was no air conditioning in those days.

There are only a handful of fans, so finding a cool place has become the most important task for many people every day.

Today, every subdistrict office was notified of the news of the experimental driving on the Yangtze River Bridge.

Residents living near the bridge all ran to the shore to enjoy the cool air and watch this once-in-a-millennium spectacle.

Older people who live further away are not so lucky.

They could only sit under the dull shade of the trees, fanning themselves with palm-leaf fans and gossiping.

The working people are very smart. Several retired employees of Hanyang Second Hospital did not seem to be prepared to take the usual path. They brought benches to the door of the morgue early in the morning.

The trees planted around here are extremely lush, and cool breeze blows out from the morgue, so it is very cool even in the hot summer.

The most important thing is that it is very quiet here. After all, the dead cannot speak.

We brothers are staunch materialist fighters and are not afraid of the dead crawling out of the morgue.

Today was an exception. Just as the brothers were setting up their formation, they heard the sound of footsteps coming from the morgue.

The sound of footsteps was particularly creepy. Several people were startled and stood up, picked up their crutches, and moved towards the morgue.

They decided to fight all the evil spirits to the end.

A sallow face suddenly appeared on the window. The old brothers were startled. When they saw the other person clearly, they all breathed a sigh of relief at the same time.

"It's Lao Chen, you haven't slept yet?"

Old Chen glanced outside with his eyes squinting, muttered something incoherently, ignored the few people, and directly pulled the heavy curtains.

The old guys weren't angry because Old Chen was the weirdo in the hospital.

Old Chen was the manager of the morgue before liberation.

They are called administrators, but in fact they just help carry the bodies of dead people to the morgue.

The deaths of some accident victims are quite tragic, so we help clean their bodies and do some simple repair work.

Although the salary is not high, I can still make ends meet by receiving red envelopes from the families of the deceased.

Because he has been working in the morgue for many years, Lao Chen has become more and more withdrawn and never interacts with others on weekdays.

Others think that Lao Chen's job is unlucky and will not take the initiative to interact with him.

So much so that many young people who have just entered the hospital do not know Lao Chen.

Only the elderly people in the hospital could recognize Old Chen at a glance.

"This old Chen is becoming more and more withdrawn. He used to talk to me when he met me."

An old employee muttered a few words and sat down to chat with his old friends.

What they didn't know was that just across the window, Old Chen was eavesdropping with his ear tilted to the window.

After making sure that he hadn't attracted anyone's attention, Lao Chen put the Browning into his waist, and the dull look on his face suddenly disappeared.

"There seems to be some movement over at the Yangtze River Bridge today. We should go observe and see if we can find an opportunity. But we have to finish the work first to avoid attracting other people's attention."

Old Chen pondered for a moment, picked up a white iron bucket and staggered towards the back.

The morgues back then were very large. There were no freezers to store the bodies, only rows of cement beds with the bottom empty for storing ice in the summer.

If the ice is not replaced in time, the consequences can be imagined in this hot weather.

Even so, in the summer it's full of green flies, buzzing all over.

Old Chen waved his hands to drive away the flies and walked to the concrete bed carrying an iron bucket.

The row on the left are men, and the row on the right are women. If you put a washbasin next to the concrete bed, it will make a "patta, patta" sound of water. There is no doubt that there must be someone who died in an accident, and the blood is still flowing.

If someone has a cotton bag on their head, they must be squashed.

Even though Lao Chen was a trained staff, his face turned pale after changing the ice.

"The second brother has been working here for more than ten years. He really has some skills."

Thinking of his second brother, Lao Chen took out two black steamed buns from the bag with the hands that had just touched the corpse, put them in his pocket, and walked towards the depths of the morgue.

The hospital's morgue is divided into two parts.

That was the "lobby" just now, and the bodies stored there were those of ordinary people.

Some powerful people want to act superior even in death.

So when the hospital was first designed, they thoughtfully built several private rooms at the back.

But after liberation, everyone became equal and privileges were no longer allowed, so the private room became abandoned and became Lao Chen's storage room.

The lights in the corridor had been broken for a long time and no one came to fix them.

Old Chen lit a kerosene lamp, held it in his hand, walked along the corridor to the utility room inside his mouth, took out a rusty iron key from his pocket, and opened the door lock.

The shrill sound of Zhining seemed particularly creepy in the gloomy environment.

The light from the kerosene lamp tried its best to dispel the darkness in the house, but its power was limited and most of the house was still dark.

You can vaguely see a middle-aged man with his hands and feet chained, squatting in a dark corner.

Noticing Lao Chen coming in, the middle-aged man slowly stood up with his hands on the ground.

The cold touch of the chains tightly wrapped around the middle-aged man's body, making it difficult for him to move, and every step seemed to require tremendous strength.

The friction of the iron chain made a "clacking" sound, and after a while, the middle-aged man finally stood up.

He poked his head out of the darkness.

With the help of dim light.

You can see that the face on the head is another Old Chen.

The two Lao Chens stood opposite each other, and the air was filled with a strange atmosphere.

The other Old Chen is named Chen Youcai, and he and Chen Youde are twin brothers.

From childhood to adulthood, Chen Youde, as the boss, has always been superior to Chen Youcai.

When Chen Youcai was fifteen years old, he broke his leg and became disabled.

Because he was a virgin, his father sent him to the police station to help deal with the corpses.

Chen Youde was amazing. He went to a new-style school and also joined a lecture hall.

Chen Youcai was very happy for Chen Youde.

But no one expected that on the eve of liberation, Chen Youde suddenly disappeared with his wife.

Chen Youcai used many connections to look for his brother, but was unable to find him.

The Japs retreated and the enemy came. The police station did not change at all except for its name. Chen Youcai, as a "technician", was not affected.

Later, when the second hospital was being established, Chen Youcai was assigned to work in the morgue because he had relevant work experience.

Chen Youcai has worked in the morgue for more than ten years.

After liberation, the world changed dramatically. The name of the morgue was changed to morgue, but the people lying inside were still dead.

Chen Youcai's job is still to take care of the dead.

Things changed a month ago.

The sun was very scorching that day. Chen Youcai lay on the cement bed and slept as usual, listening to the old man bragging and chatting while enjoying the cool air at the door of the morgue.

He was suddenly awakened and saw his brother Chen Youde who had disappeared long ago.

At that time, Chen Youcai thought he was dead too, and felt a sense of relief.

However, Chen Youde told Chen Youcai that he was now a high-ranking official on the enemy side and came here to carry out a mission, and hoped that Chen Youcai would cooperate with him.

Although Chen Youcai worked in the morgue, he saw the changes in society after the establishment of the new world. He knew very well that the new society was better than the old society, and he knew even more that the so-called "counterattack" was a huge joke.

He tried his best to persuade Chen Youde to surrender himself.

Chen Youde pretended to agree, but knocked him unconscious when he was off guard.

"Chen Youde, please let me go immediately. I will take you to the government to surrender yourself. The government will treat you leniently. I have saved a lot of money over the years. When you get out, I will take care of you until the end of your life."

Even though he was tied up with chains, Chen Youcai still did not blame Chen Youde.

In his memory, Chen Youde was a smarter person than him, he just took the wrong path for a while.

"It's too late. Everything is too late now."

Chen Youde threw the black steamed bread on the ground and said in a cold voice: "Second brother, don't worry, I will take you away after I complete the task. When we get there, I will find you a wife, which will be regarded as fulfilling the wish of our parents."

After saying that, he turned around and left.

"Are you going to do something bad?"

Seeing Chen Youde going out during the day, Chen Youcai felt that something was wrong, and he rushed over and wanted to grab Chen Youde's arm.

But after taking just two steps, he was pulled by iron chains and could only watch Chen Youde leave.

"Help, help, my brother is a Dieter, catch him!"

Chen Youcai shouted loudly, but the black door was tightly closed, blocking all the noise inside the house.

"Second brother, one day, you will understand me." Chen Youde paused for a moment at the door. Feeling that he could not hear any sound from inside, he slowly left with the kerosene lamp.

He came to the rest room, put on a shabby hat, picked up a cane, and limped out of the morgue.

"Old Chen, it's so hot, where are you going?"

The retired employees who were enjoying the cool air at the door saw Chen Youde coming out and greeted him.

Chen Youde ignored them and limped away.

"Why bother with him? He's just a weird guy. Come on, tell me about the weird things that happened during the construction of the bridge."

"I heard from my brother-in-law's third cousin's nephew's nephew's son-in-law that when the bridge piers were being built, no matter how hard they tried, the piles couldn't be driven in.

A strong wind suddenly blew on the river, and the waves were turbulent for a while, and there seemed to be a big object in it.

The soldier who led the team raised his gun and fired a shot into the river. A bright red color rolled on the surface of the river, and then it became quiet in an instant, and the bridge piles were driven down.

"What nonsense! I saw it with my own eyes. It wasn't a gun shot, it was a cannon. The barrel of the cannon was as thick as a human skull."

Old Chen has always been a loner, and the employees are used to it. They sit down again and chat, and the air is filled with a peaceful atmosphere.

Chen Youde left the hospital, straightened his collar, looked around, and suddenly strode into the crowd like a fish disappearing into the sea.

When he appeared again, he was sitting leisurely on the bow of a small boat.

The person rowing the boat was a young man in his twenties named Bai Lan.

Before liberation, he worked as an apprentice in Wu Han's wine shop for several years, but he didn't stick with it to the end and ran back home.

While serving as an apprentice, Bai Lan met Chen Youde.

Chen Youde was generous and rewarded Bai Lan with two silver dollars.

Although the two dollars were snatched away by the shopkeeper before they could even warm up, Bai Lan still remembered the face of this benefactor in his heart.

After liberation, Bailan became a member of Chenshui Commune, which was only ten miles away from the river.

Bailan, who had seen the prosperity of the big city, was not content to work in the commune, and always wanted to run to the city when he had the chance. In those days, people often checked letters of introduction and documents on the streets.

Bai Lan was sent back to Chenshui Commune several times because he had no documents and was severely criticized by the commune.

With a bad reputation, he was not only unwelcome in the commune, but it also became a problem for him to find a wife in the future.

From then on, Bailan gave up everything.

Anyway, he would not starve to death living along the Yangtze River. Every day he would row a boat to the river to catch fish and sleep in a shack on the shore at night. He was able to live a decent life.

By chance, Bai Lan met Chen Youde who was scouting the location.

After learning that Chen Youde was going to do something big, Bai Lan took the initiative to ask to join.

"Brother Chen, when we get over there, can we really eat delicious food and drink spicy drinks?" Bai Lan rowed the boat towards the bridge.

Chen Youde looked up at the Yangtze River Bridge in the distance, a sinister smile appearing on the corner of his mouth.

"Don't worry, just do what I say. When we get there, I promise to recommend you for merit and give you a major position."

"Major? It doesn't sound that great. If I want to be one, I have to be a major!"

Chen Youde: “.”

He looked at Bai Lan, who was wearing tattered clothes, had a thin body and a dull face, and sighed in his heart.

He was spotted by a nobleman and traveled to Chenjiaying, Shibalipu, in the eastern suburbs of Hanzhong, to attend the "Hanzhong Special Technology Training Class", also known as the "Han Training Class".

They learned political reconnaissance, shooting, grappling, makeup, and stealth, and also received training in skills such as blasting, assassination, and poisoning.

Learn how to write with rice soup, alum water, saliva, paste, etc., and use iodine, fire, water, etc. to show the operating skills.

Master the formula of universal developer and skills such as intelligence encryption.

All students in the Chinese training class have only one destination - "in and out" - to lurk in the liberated base areas as "dead spies".

Chen Youde performed excellently in the Chinese training class. Logically, he should have infiltrated key departments and key units such as the Security Office of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, Suide Special District, and Longdong Special District.

but.

Before Chen Youde could take action, the farmer found a "dead spy" and followed the clues to wipe out the entire Chinese training class.

Chen Youde is very lucky.

He had already set out at that time, but when he learned that his hometown had been searched and his information was already on the farmer's desk, he no longer cared about his mission and fled to the south.

Relying on his good relationship with the instructor, Chen Youde got a position at the Wu Han Special Investigation Station.

Later, when the enemy retreated, considering that Chen Youde was a special talent, familiar with Wu Han's situation, and loyal, they took him along.

Chen Youde once commanded a special operations team of more than a dozen people. How come he has now fallen to the point of cooperating with such people?

Chen Youde put the blame on the General Staff.

Those good-for-nothings in the General Staff had no idea about Wu Han's current situation and thought it was still before liberation.

The information they provided to Chen Youde did not match the facts at all.

The so-called contact person had already betrayed him.

Fortunately, Chen Youde was alert and only had a brief encounter. After realizing that something was wrong, he quietly slipped away.

This is not the key point. The most important thing is that those good-for-nothings have required him to complete the task before the bridge opening ceremony.

Otherwise, his two wives who stayed there would be in big trouble.

Fortunately, when those people evacuated, the ammunition they left behind was still intact, and Chen Youde found his long-lost brother, which made it possible to carry out the plan.

"When I get there, I'm going to put an oil pan next to my bed and fry oil buns every day."

As the bridge got closer, the white railings were still chattering away.

Chen Youde asked Bai Lan to row the boat into a waterway, and took out a bulging backpack from the canvas bag and handed it to him.

"When you get close to the bridge pier, put your backpack on it and light the fuse. That will mean you have completed the mission." Chen Youde pulled out a fuse from his backpack.

Bai Lan, who had a silly look on his face just now, now had a sly look in his eyes and suddenly said, "Brother Chen, this is a bomb, right? If it explodes suddenly and I don't have time to run, won't I be killed?"

"What? You want to go back on your word?"

Chen Youde was already preparing to leave the boat and jump onto the shore.

Hearing this, he turned around and looked at Bai Lan with a gloomy face.

"I'm afraid of death, brother." Bai Lan said.

Seeing that Bai Lan was still looking at him indifferently, Chen Youde felt inexplicably panicked. He pulled out a pistol from his waist and pointed it at Bai Lan's forehead.

"How dare you play with me! Believe it or not, I can kill you right now."

"Of course I believe it, Brother Chen. You were a high-ranking official back then, and I was just a waiter. If you kill me, no one will dare to stand up for me."

Bai Lan held the explosive pack and shook it: "But if I die, who will row the boat for you? Who will place the explosive pack for you? How can you complete the mission?"

Seeing Chen Youde was silent, Bai Lan continued, "Brother Chen, I just want you to follow me. Don't worry, I will place the explosives without bothering you."

Placing explosive packs carries the risk of leakage.

Chen Youde originally planned to let Bai Lan do this kind of work and then shoot Bai Lan to death.

I didn't expect Bai Lan to be such a fool.
"Brother Bai Lan, look at what you said. We are good brothers. How can I let you take risks alone? I was just joking with you just now."

Chen Youde hesitated for a moment, but finally climbed onto the boat by stepping on the water.

"That's right, that's right. We two have kowtowed to the Yangtze River and promised to live and die together."

Bai Lan reached out and pulled him up, and continued rowing towards the bridge.

Looking at the people coming and going on the shore, Bai Lan asked in confusion: "Brother Chen, why don't we place the explosive packs at night?"

Chen Youde explained: "I have carefully studied the defense of the bridge recently. There are people patrolling the bridge every night, and there are almost no ships on the river. We are easily exposed.

The bridge is going to conduct a driving test today, and everyone's attention is drawn to the test. We can sneak past quietly under the cover of these small boats."

Bai Lan thought about it carefully and gave Chen Youde a thumbs up: "As expected of someone from there, you are very thoughtful."

"We are close to the bridge. There are spies on the shore. Stop talking!"

The bridge was getting closer and closer. Chen Youde could already see the GAZ truck parked at the bridge head and quickly reminded Bai Lan.

Bai Lan also understood that this action was related to whether he could live a good life for the rest of his life, so he immediately shut his mouth.

Accompanied by the sound of splashing water, the boat slowly moved towards the bridge.

Things happened just as Chen Youde had expected. There were many small boats on the river watching the fun, and their boat was not conspicuous at all and was not blocked at all.

Seeing that they were only two miles away from the bridge pier, Chen Youde suddenly waved his hand and asked Bai Lan not to let the boat get close to the bridge.

"Brother Chen, if we rush up now and throw the explosives over, won't that be the end of it?" Bai Lan was puzzled.

Chen Youde raised his head and said confidently: "If I am not mistaken, the guards of the bridge have already clamped machine guns in the bridgehead. If we get close now, we will be easily discovered by them.

We will take action when the driving test begins and the train drives onto the bridge, and the safety factor will be much higher."

"Brother Chen, I'll listen to you." Bai Lan held up the mast, allowing the boat to temporarily stop on the river with the help of the wind.

Chen Youde stood at the bow, staring at the bridge with anticipation on his face, muttering quietly: "Where's the train? Come out quickly, come out quickly!"

Eat like crazy, eat like crazy, eat like crazy.
Cao Wenzhi drove the coal train across the railway line of the bridge and then turned at the loop line at the switch station.

The driving team was replaced, Li Aiguo took over the coal truck and drove towards the Yangtze River Railway Bridge.

When the train was two kilometers away from the bridge, Li Aiguo put down the accelerator and stopped the train steadily.

Huang Jing saw this and asked curiously, "Master, why don't we go up the bridge now?"

As she spoke, Huang Jing took out a cigarette from her pocket, put it into Li Aiguo's mouth, and lit it with a match.

That skillful look makes people feel distressed.

Lao Liu and Lao Zheng were both there making a fuss. Li Aiguo waved his hand at them and said, "If you have the ability, you can also accept an apprentice!"

The two men shrank their heads in frustration, and Li Aiguo began to perform his duties as a master, smoking a cigarette and explaining, “This driving plan requires our two trains to reach maximum speed on the railway bridge and then perform emergency braking in the center of the bridge.

This requires us to work closely with the comrades in the Jiangan Locomotive Depot.”

There were no mobile phones in those days, so signals could only be transmitted manually.

After waiting for more than ten minutes, a railway soldier who was transmitting the signal stood on a distant hill and waved a flag towards this side.

Upon receiving the signal, Li Aiguo yelled, "Ignite!"

Old Zheng, who had been waiting on the side, picked up the coal shovel, stepped on the furnace door to open it, and threw a shovel of clean coal into the furnace. The fire cat in the furnace immediately jumped up.

Huang Jing also rushed over to help at this time. She had worked in the locomotive for more than two months and was already competent in the job of shoveling coal.

With the joint efforts of the two boiler operators, the pressure gauge showed that the air pressure gradually rose. When the air pressure was sufficient, Li Aiguo pushed the valve.

The train loaded with hundreds of tons of clean coal was like a long black dragon, slowly moving towards the bridge.

Thirty kilometers per hour, forty kilometers per hour, fifty kilometers per hour, the speed of the car is getting higher and higher.

Because the bridge's rails are straight and the terrain is relatively flat, the train quickly reached 80 kilometers per hour and was showing a tendency to accelerate.

Liu Qingquan and Lao Zheng have worked in the locomotive depot for so many years, but they have never seen a heavy-loaded train running at such a high speed. Their faces turned pale.

Li Aiguo became excited at this time.

That's it, faster, faster. He finally found a little bit of the feeling of riding a high-speed train in later generations.

On the other side, in the opposite direction of the bridge, the driver team of Jiangan Locomotive Depot also drove a train towards the bridge.

If you look down from a high altitude at this time, you can see two black dragons rushing towards you.

Woo woo woo.
The loud sound of the whistle resounded through the sky, and people standing on the bridge could vaguely feel the vibration of the rails.

Commissioner Liang Sicheng raised his wrist to check his watch: "The time is right."

He shouted to the technicians and engineers, "Everyone, take your positions. We only have one chance. We must record all the bridge data accurately."

"Yes!"

The technicians and engineers went to their respective recording points.

The GAZ trucks at the bridgehead also began to move out under the command of the Corps leaders.

Two fully loaded trains and hundreds of heavy trucks all rushed onto the bridge at this moment.

For a moment, the sound on the river was deafening.

The people on both sides of the river had never seen such a grand scene, and they all raised bright red flags to cheer.

At this moment, dark clouds gathered and the sky suddenly became dim. Heavy rain poured down, as if countless small silver beads were hitting the water.

Bean-sized raindrops fell from the sky, hitting the rails, the bridges, the river, and the clothes of the people.

"It's raining, it's finally raining, it's been more than a month, it's finally raining.

As the bridge was being tested, it immediately started to rain heavily, which is a very auspicious sign!"

In the overwhelming rain, the people did not dodge but cheered excitedly.

On the small boat, Chen Youde saw this scene and suddenly felt depressed.

It has only taken a few years for these people to win the support of the masses. If they want to counterattack in the future, it will probably take some effort.

But now it's raining heavily, which is a good time to carry out the mission.

Finally he lit a cigarette, took a long puff, and pointed toward the middle pier.

"Go over there and blow it up!"

(End of this chapter)