Chapter 11 Chapter Four: The Day of the Yangtze River Drying

About it - this giant dragon belonging to the fourth largest river in the world, Chinese people like to compare it to a symbol of strength and bravery since ancient times.Indeed, there is hardly anything in nature that can compare with it.The thunderbolt from the sky is extremely powerful, but it can't stay in time and space for a long time, and it has been raging in the world for thousands of years.Modern laser technology penetrates wood and steel to break gold, but it can't cut off mountains and mountains, but it can pass through thousands of mountains and split thousands of miles of valleys.Brave human beings regard it as a kind of pride to conquer it, and it swallows a few "long drifting" warriors as easily and comfortably as a dragon's head shaking its beard.Build a hydropower station on it, which can be used by a quarter of the world's population...

Its power is great, incomparably great. However, this giant dragon also has a terrible "natural enemy", and this "natural enemy" has been with it since the day it was born.This "natural enemy" is the landslide of one of the "catastrophes" born after the barbaric "marriage" of human beings and nature.I can't believe that this scourge can bring the dragon to its knees.It is said that when the Gezhouba project was being built, people were most worried about whether the Yangtze River could be successfully intercepted according to the current project transportation capacity of our country.Later, of course, it was successful, because at least 10,000 people and a thousand giant loading and unloading machines were used, and after several months of battles.The price can be calculated.At that spectacular scene, even the head of the Chinese government felt the inspiration of "man can conquer nature".

However, our giant dragon is not convinced by such a failure, because Gezhouba chose the narrowest and gentlest lot.The dragon's submission and fear of the bane star is because it can compete with itself in the most precipitous and turbulent places.This kind of contest is the most spectacular!But what it leaves to human beings is more fear of losing one's soul. This scene has happened in history, in AD 100, 377, 420, 1030, 1542, 1558, 1923, and 1935.Among them, the most prominent is the one that happened in the 21st year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty.That dragon was truncated for 82 years.

If you stand on the bank of the Yangtze River today, you will never think of any natural event in the world that is more spectacular and thrilling than the rift of the Yangtze River except for the volcanic eruption!It is too necessary to spend some ink to describe.It is not far away, it happened in Hubei in 1985, on the north bank of the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, a place whose name cannot even be found on the county-level map.It is famous at home and abroad because of the earthquake on June 12 of this year.It is one of the famous Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, "Sword of War Gorge".This is the name given by the ancients.Now people call it Xintan Town, which is 15 kilometers away from the old county seat, 70 kilometers away from Gezhouba Dam and 26 kilometers away from the Three Gorges Dam site under construction.It is the most daunting dangerous shoal on the Wanli Yangtze River, and it is also the throat dangerous shoal of the Chuanjiang waterway.It is composed of upper, middle and lower beaches, and the drop of the river is only one kilometer long with a drop of 8 meters.The south bank facing each other is the prominent Jianzi Cliff, the north bank is a cliff, standing tall by the river, and the three beaches face each other, tightly strangling the Chuanjiang River.Here, the river bed is narrow, the river is strewn with huge rocks, hidden reefs are everywhere, the water is boiling, and the whirlpool is uncertain.As early as "Guizhou Zhi" said: "The beaches of Chu and Shu are the first to risk new beaches."However, the Xintan that was first recorded in the history books was not the dangerous place it is today, but "beginning flat without a big beach", and it is one of the eight scenic spots in Guizhou.The formation of the dangerous shoal was caused by the blockage of the river center by rocks and stones on both sides of the river during the Han and Jin Dynasties.For thousands of years, how many heroic writers have left famous sayings that have been passed down through the ages in Xintan Tianxian.However, how many people have really realized how the people on both sides of the strait live on the edge of the knife for generations, how to live in fear! "Once the sky falls and the earth falls apart, there will be no apes singing on both sides of the strait." Even though the literati wrote the scene of the disaster so tragically in the "Shui Jing Zhu", they have no power to reduce the danger of the gorge.

The founding of New China, the opening of the Chuanjiang Waterway and the Three Gorges Project were put on the agenda, making Qiannian Gutan a "stubborn enemy" of the builders. In 1964, dozens of experts from the Three Gorges Work Office of the Ministry of Geology conducted a comprehensive consultation on Xintan, and the report was sent to Premier Zhou Enlai: The entire terrain of Xintan's dangerous cliffs is a huge collapsed ancient landslide, distributed from north to south, and the thickness of its covering layer is between 50 and Between 60 meters and an elevation of 70 to 910 meters, it does not rule out the possibility that 20 million square rocks will slide into the Yangtze River at any time under the action of external force and crustal movement...

What is the concept of 20 million square meters?The secretary told Zhou Enlai that rocks the size of 10 Great Halls of the People were poured into the river at once. In the event of strong earthquakes, wartime bombing, and prolonged rainstorms, large-scale landslides or slides may occur in the rockfall area; once the waterway is blocked and the river is blocked, it will bring great harm to people's lives and property, transportation, and the national economy. Great danger...be careful to watch out for the danger!Based on the opinions of Premier Zhou Enlai, the Hubei provincial government issued orders to governments at all levels and professional units in the relevant areas.

I still don't understand such a question anyway: since 100 AD, although there have been bloody lessons in this ancient beach, and there has been an unprecedented catastrophe almost every hundred years, there are people living and working there on the Xintan rock mass. , Pass down the lineage.While admiring the tenacious ability of human beings to survive, I also sadly pondered the stubbornness of Chinese people's love for their hometown. In 1542 A.D. (the 21st year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty), the catastrophe left Xintan Town with "very few people and animals left." Eighty and two years after the Yangtze River stopped flowing, Gutan had no major disasters, but it also experienced several dangers.In the middle of the twentieth century, after "all the poor people in the world turned over and became the masters of their families", the population increased suddenly. In 1985, it became a large town with 457 households and more than 1,370 people.So many creatures are embracing the Calamity God!

"With regard to the dangerous situation in Xintan, we have reported to the relevant departments more than once, hoping that all the residents of Xintan Town will be relocated. But the above said: so many people, where do you let them go? You said there are dangers and disasters, but the people live in I've lived here for several lifetimes, isn't it safe and sound?" A monitoring officer smiled wryly and shook his head and said, "Although this sounds harsh, we also believe that there will be a catastrophe here one day, but on which day, who There is no way to tell. We are powerless in the face of the will of the chief, and there is only one thing we can do: closely monitor and timely forecast!"

Over the past two decades, the admirable mountain rockfall investigation and monitoring personnel have finally succeeded with their high responsibility and professionalism. From November 1981 to March 1982, they twice found a 450-meter-long, 0.1-meter-wide crack in the north-south pattern on the Jiupan Mountain and Guangjia Bank that crosses Xintan; A crack 270 meters long and 5 centimeters wide was also found at the elevation. "Impossible! The dangerous rocks in Xintan will not push and slide!" Just as the monitoring work entered a difficult stage, a report signed by an authoritative person in geology was sent to the Hubei Provincial Science and Technology Commission and the Three Gorges Project Office of the Yangtze River.

In March 1983, monitoring personnel discovered that the section from Yan'anpo to Guangjiayan above Xintan was "resurrected", and immediately after the "resurrection" section sank by 3 meters, the rock and soil of 13 million square meters showed an overall sliding trend. In March 1985, the "resurrection" area sank again, and the springs that used to rush on the hillside suddenly dried up, and springs spewed out from places where there was no water before... Various signs indicate that the mountain slide is imminent! "Call the police immediately!" On May 9, the investigation and monitoring department's first alert was sent to governments and departments at all levels.

At 5 o'clock in the morning on June 8, when they were surveying Jiangjiapo, they suddenly saw hills protruding from the ground. The "God of Disaster" has begun to act!Experienced monitors concluded that a catastrophe was imminent. At this time, the residents in the Xintan area also felt that the ground under their feet was restless... "It's moving a lot. The road we used to carry the stone slabs has just been paved and repaired, but it has been pulled and cracked for some reason in the past two days!" said the road construction worker. "It's strange, the big rock in front of my house used to be higher than the ridge of the roof, but after a day, it was three or four meters shorter!" A resident reported in panic. The earth trembled slightly. "Run away! The mountain is about to collapse!" "I don't believe it, you don't even want your wife and furniture?" The residents of the town were in a mess, and the smart people had fled for their lives with what they could carry, while more ordinary people stayed at home. They didn't believe that God didn't pity them. The mountain is still sinking, and long and thin cracks are forming like a net. The entire slope seems to have moved to the equator, and the hot wind blows in gusts. "There can be no more delay, the residents must be mobilized to spread it immediately!" An urgent telegram was sent to the prefectural committee and then to the provincial government. "Scatter out of the danger zone firmly, completely and thoroughly!" The order of the provincial government was broadcast throughout the town by radio waves and broadcasts. The common people finally believed the truth.On the balance of life and property, they finally chose the former. "I have lived to be 66 years old and have never left this house. This house has been passed down from my ancestors. I will not leave!" The old man Yang Qizhong held on to the threshold and refused to leave. "Cuff him!" The commander of the armed police who arrived a few minutes ago ordered. When the old man Yang left the town crying, all 1,371 people in the town had already left. Five minutes later, at 4:15 a.m. on June 10, 60,000 to 70,000 square meters of rock and soil poured down from the top of the mountain, opening the prelude to the world-shocking cut-off of the Yangtze River. The mountain is sliding, the houses are collapsing, and the entire Xintan Town is sliding towards the surging Yangtze River hundreds of meters below at a speed that can be seen with the naked eye. At 3:35 am on June 12, a huge landslide consisting of more than 30 million square meters of earth and rocks began.The creepy muffled thunder kept ringing, and the strong magnetic field generated by the sliding mountain made the electric lights in the Longjing residential area a mile away dim like kerosene lamps.Huge boulders poured into the river, and the huge waves aroused by the river were as high as 80 meters, like white dragons leaping towards the sky. The Yangtze River stopped flowing, and the mountains whimpered. The lower reaches of the Three Gorges suddenly bottomed out, and the upper reaches of the Three Gorges piled up against waves like a tsunami, traveling eight miles backward!The motor boats, wooden boats, and fishing boats sailing along the river were involved in the bottom of the river one after another. The great and brave Yangtze River never imagined that there would be a shameful day when it would cease to flow! Calamity wins.Although it failed to win a complete victory, the smart scientific and technological workers successfully predicted that no one in Xintan Town died, but the entire thousand-year-old town was wiped off the earth in an instant, and the Yangtze River was suspended for three full months. , The country suffered a direct loss of 130 million for this.After that, another 80 million yuan for dredging and renovation... The largest "bloodline" of the Chinese nation, the Yangtze River, may be cut off once in a hundred years. However, in the upper reaches of several source rivers, landslides and landslides occur almost every few years. On the afternoon of April 30, 1994, Jiguanling in Wulong, Sichuan suddenly burst into a puff of black smoke in the shape of a mushroom, which was like a large mushroom bursting out during an atomic bomb explosion. Earth-shattering loud noise.Looking along the sound, I saw a 100-meter-high wave splashing in the roaring Wujiang River for thousands of miles. A barge with a load of 300 tons was lifted into the air at once, and then was thrown into the bottom of the wave... Howling in the past The Wujiang River in Benpu came to an abrupt end, and in the middle of the river, like a heavenly soldier descending from heaven, a stone dam 110 meters long and tens of meters high was erected in the middle of the river with lightning speed.Looking up at the Jiguan Ridge, which is usually looking up to the sky, it seems that most of it has been cut off with a sharp knife. The bare rock wall, under the green cover on both sides, looks extremely dazzling. The Wujiang rockfall this time was 760 meters long, 200 meters wide, and the total volume of the rockfall was 5.3 million cubic meters. Due to the blockage of rocks, the Wujiang River was completely cut off. Sixteen people died in the disaster, and one was rescued after being buried in the rocks for 40 days.The Wujiang River has a total length of 1,018 kilometers and a drainage area of ​​80.68 million square kilometers. There are 46 counties and cities in Sichuan and Guizhou. It is the lifeline of transportation in eastern Sichuan and northern Guizhou. Coincidentally, the Yalong River, another source river of the Yangtze River, also suffered a large-scale rockfall in the Jinlong Mountain area of ​​Sichuan more than ten years ago, and the river was cut off in the middle.Immediately, the water level of the river from Fupan Osmanthus to Yibin rose by 50 meters, causing more than a dozen counties to be flooded, and hundreds of thousands of people were submerged in the water in a blink of an eye... It is said that our Long March has the power to restore heaven, but how fragile it looks in front of the disaster god! In modern astrophysics, with the continuous advancement of satellites and high-power observation telescopes, scientists suddenly discovered a "monster" several times larger than the Milky Way in the vast universe. This "monster" is opening a huge magnetic mouth. , like sharks in the sea devouring one after another swimming creatures of all sizes.The entire Milky Way - celestial bodies including the planets of the solar system, are approaching this black "monster" at a predictable speed. This "monster" is a new phenomenon in the universe called "black hole" by Western astronomers. The emergence of the theory of "black holes" made scientists full of hopeless fear for the future of celestial bodies, because they found that it was almost impossible to have a force that could make the sun, including planets, and the entire Milky Way galaxy escape its merciless devouring.It is said that several British astronomers who first discovered the phenomenon of "black holes" committed suicide in despair. The tragedy of astronomers is that they are too real.In fact, according to the calculation results, the day when the earth is swallowed by the "black hole" is at least several billion light-years away.Ephemeral human beings don't need to think about things that are far away. However, the loveliness of those astronomers who committed suicide is a heart of honesty like gold, and today's human beings lack this kind of honesty, and there is no such thing as honesty that can be compared with those few astronomers. compared to an astronomer whose life ended in tragedy.Without wisdom and honesty, one becomes foolish and hateful.Isn't that so?Those who shout loudly to "get rid of poverty and create happiness" and build a paradise for themselves on earth at all costs are such fools.This folly has increasingly made the benign Earth angry.Earthquakes, floods, droughts, severe freezes, extreme heat... The earth is like a raging lion, and it no longer wants to be the "mother" with a generous heart.It is creating Armenian-style fear everywhere, creating a Mediterranean-style "black world" Human beings are helpless in front of it! Scientists with a keen sense of smell shouted: Human beings are leading themselves to the "black hole world"!The advanced industrial countries were the first to discover this problem. They are desperately looking for possibilities in fields that may change destiny by using advanced science and technology and human ingenuity. In addition to expanding to the universe, they put more eyes on their feet Standing on the ground. However, this is not the case in developing countries.In order to change their backward appearance and seek more "milk and cars", they are almost accelerating the destiny of their own nation to the "black hole world". The same is true of China in the Eastern Hemisphere.