The twenty people who are good swimmers, including twelve from the special training team.

Most of them are here, Geng Wei volunteered to lead the rescue effort but was stopped by Ling Chengyan.

"You stay and lead the team, I’ll go over and take a look." 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Her tone was calm, as if she were talking about running a five-kilometer.

Geng Wei and the remaining team members could hardly control themselves; some turned red-eyed, some choked and turned their faces away.

Before coming to the rescue, facing the breach rescue, they had no idea of the danger and fear, but after the previous experience of sealing the dike, which was not a breach but a diversion after river water overflowed the dike, the flow was not too large, yet two rescue personnel were sacrificed.

Their team almost couldn’t make it back, luckily the captain timely intervened and pulled people back.

This time, the breach at Xu Family Dam, the situation must be extremely urgent, the captain leading the team there would be... near death.

"Ling Jie!" Zhang Wanxiang suddenly shouted, which was their term of address as they left Nanli Village together, "Let me go."

Last time when the southern forces fought, Zhang Wanxiang couldn’t go because he was the only son in the family, with an old mother close to seventy waiting for him to support her.

Without Ling Chengyan speaking, Wu Qingming raised his hand and patted his shoulder: "You’re not having it easy here either, it’s tough for Captain Geng to watch everything alone, you have to assist him, don’t worry about the brothers working, just be sure they don’t go too hard, watch out for safety."

Zhang Wanxiang couldn’t speak with a choking voice, nodded forcefully, lowered his head as water mixed with rain dripped down.

The dam of Xu Family was considered the strongest section in this county, before Ling Chengyan’s special training team rotated through five rescue points, they did not come to Xu Family Dam, it was enough to see the trust in this section of the dam in everyone’s mind, no matter how urgent other places were, this section would not have a problem.

Ling Chengyan’s truck had not yet reached Xu Family Dam, they saw a vast expanse of flood outside the car, a section of the roadbed was washed away, their vehicle narrowly passed along the remaining side of the road, while those in the rainproof canopy couldn’t see a thing, Wu Qingming and Ling Chengyan driving in the cab had their palms soaked with sweat.

After the vehicle safely passed through, Wu Qingming let out a gentle sigh and managed a laugh, "This water is certainly wicked."

The road’s foundation underwent several layers of compaction, stones, gravel, asphalt layers, usual floods wouldn’t knock down the roadbed, let alone like this, hollowing out a large section of roadbed. How fast must the flow be?

Ling Chengyan looked at the raging flood under the highway, her face grim.

The force needed to hollow out the roadbed, ordinary houses couldn’t withstand it, afraid they had collapsed and been swept away the moment the flood hit.

The vehicle continued to travel on the road when suddenly, Wu Qingming pointed out and shouted on the roadside ahead, "Captain, look quickly!"

Ling Chengyan turned and was equally stunned.

In the flood about a hundred meters off the road to their right, a yellow cow struggled in the turbulent water, perhaps it saw their truck, as it persistently raised its head and let out a mournful moo.

"Captain!" Wu Qingyun saw the yellow cow approaching and not wanting it to miss them, as a young man from the countryside, he felt compelled seeing the cow in distress, instinctively slowed down, and looked at Ling Chengyan with pleading eyes.

Ling Chengyan hesitated slightly, then let Wu Qingyun stop the car. Without waiting for it to stabilize, she swung herself out of the cab, reached out, and gracefully climbed onto the cab roof.

She connected two rescue ropes in her hand, made a knot, and powerfully tossed it so the loop accurately hooked onto the old cow’s neck.

She crouched and gently patted the roof, "Drive, slowly."

Engaging the gear, pressing the accelerator, the truck slowly moved, while the old cow was led by the rope, gradually turning its head against the current.

After over two hundred meters, the old cow finally stepped onto the road.

The vehicle stopped again, the team members in the cargo jumped down, placed ramps in place as the old cow mooed softly and followed onto the cargo bed obediently.

The vehicle restarted, heading towards Xu Family Dam again, until they came within four or five miles and the lead off-road vehicle stopped. Ahead, there were another seven or eight vehicles, all were high-chassis SUVs.

Stopping, Ling Chengyan led the team out of the vehicle, walking forward, then saw that the highway was washed away at the waist, an urgent stream cut across the destruction and collapse, filled with muddy water and debris, looking murky yellow, like flowing mud.

Twelve or so people were standing by the water, all frowning deeply, worried and anxious, staring at the turbulent flood, some without knowing what to do.

The leader who walked over with Ling Chengyan assessed the situation and turned to her for advice, "Captain Ling, do you think there’s a way to build a temporary passage?"

Ling Chengyan withdrew her gaze from the water and looked at him, "It’s not hard to pass people through, but to walk freely, or even cross vehicles, under current conditions, it’s not possible."

On their truck, they had some stakes, boards, and hemp ropes; they could throw a rope over for a temporary person-crossing slide, even a simple rope bridge was doable, but going further was unfeasible in terms of manpower and materials.

The leader visibly breathed a sigh of relief, "Alright, let’s first cross people, dealing with road repairs or bridge-building, we’ll call in an engineering team later."

Ling Chengyan nodded and used the same rope that caught the cow, aiming it at a tree across diagonally, she tossed it. The end of the rope tied with a stone spun around the branch a few times and caught. After exerting force to pull it tight, she turned to call over a team member, equipping him with a safety rope at the waist, attaching him to the rope, then he stepped into the surging water one step at a time.

Almost immediately entering the water, the team member was tilted by the rush, struggling forward, several times being knocked into the water by the flood, but with the safety rope, he got back up, arduously moving step by step. After nearly twenty minutes, he finally pulled himself along the rope onto the opposite road.

Everyone sighed in relief. Ling Chengyan glanced at her watch, a gap of less than twenty meters of destruction took the team member a full 17 minutes.

Usually, in 17 minutes, they could run five kilometers carrying weight.

This team member crossed the rapid and quickly set up a slide passage on both sides of the torrent, allowing waiting people to cross.

Slides weren’t unfamiliar to the special patrol team; in outdoor training, rope-sliding across rivers, cliff descent were routine tasks, a small rapid like this was trivial to them.

But observing people was different, they had no exposure to such things, facing surging water and flimsy ropes, they instinctively feared.

The situation was urgent, the leader quietly discussed with Ling Chengyan, "Captain Ling, could we ask the special training team members to assist, to take us across?"