Minefield Wish
■ Liu Hao Zhao Wenhuan
In a minefield on a hillside on the border, Chen Zihan, the leader of the demining operation team, was searching with difficulty on the wet land with a mine detector. He kept his eyes fixed on the ground, constantly panning the detection frame, and concentrated on carefully distinguishing the sound made by the mine detector.
Chen Zihan is a sergeant in a mine clearance and explosive disposal brigade of the Army in the Southern Theater Command.
"Dip...dah..." Suddenly, the mine detector that had been buzzing sounded an altered sound from the roots of a big tree a few steps away from Chen Zihan.
After re-exploring and positioning, Chen Zihan slowly knelt down on the ground, reached out and gently pushed aside the fallen leaves and soil at the root of the tree, revealing the tail fin of an unexploded bomb that had been inserted diagonally into the soil.
Looking at the rusty tail in front of him, Chen Zihan initially judged that this was a heavy artillery shell with extremely unstable performance and could explode at any time during disposal.
"Everyone exit the channel, I will handle it!" Chen Zihan looked back at his comrades. Under the thick mask, his eyes were firm and calm.
Chen Zihan held his breath and dug out the mine pit little by little. The situation in front of him made him frown. There was an unexploded bomb more than 1 meter long lying in the mine pit, and the body of the projectile was also covered by 4 sticks more than ten centimeters thick. entangled with tree roots.
An unexploded bomb with such a large yield was found five or six meters away from the national border. It was impossible to detonate it on the spot and could only be manually dismantled, transported and then destroyed. But this operation is not only difficult, but also very dangerous.
After calming down for a moment, Chen Zihan began to use scissors and a hand saw to carefully clean up the tree roots wrapped around the projectile. Beads of sweat broke out from his forehead, dripping along his brow bone to the bottom of the mask.
1 hour has passed, and there is still no news from the minefield. Deputy squad leader He Licheng was worried about Chen Zihan's safety and asked twice for instructions to enter and rotate. The instructor who was observing the work looked at the slightly tired Chen Zihan and asked, "Do you want someone to replace you?"
"No, I can handle it myself!" Chen Zihan refused without hesitation.
When encountering a dangerous mission, it is the tradition of this army that the backbone of the party members rush to the front. In October 2018, Du Fuguo, a soldier of the brigade, and his comrade Ai Yan discovered an extremely dangerous unexploded ordnance while working in the Malipo minefield. Without any hesitation, Du Fuguo shouted to Ai Yan, "Stay back and let me come." At this moment, Chen Zihan, the squad leader, chose to face the danger alone like Du Fuguo.
It is not easy to saw off a tree root that is more than ten centimeters thick. If the force is too small, it will not be effective; if the force is too much, the vibration of the tree root may cause danger. Chen Zihan's heart rose to his throat every time he pulled the saw teeth, and the sound of the saw teeth scratching against the tree roots seemed to become extremely heavy.
Seeing victory in sight, the last tree root gave him trouble again - the shell fuse and the tree root were so entangled that they could no longer be separated safely. After much deliberation, Chen Zihan decided to saw off the tree roots, put them into a sandbox along with the unexploded bombs, and transport them to the destruction point down the mountain.
On the muddy and slippery mountain road, Chen Zihan hugged the sandbox weighing more than 50 kilograms tightly and moved down the mountain step by step, for fear of an accident.
"3, 2, 1, detonate..." With a loud noise, the unexploded bomb weighing more than 40 kilograms was successfully destroyed. Watching the smoke rising, Chen Zihan finally breathed a sigh of relief.
html In the past 2007 years, Chen Zihan and his comrades have entered and exited minefields more than a thousand times, removed tens of thousands of explosives of various types, and spread their footprints in more than 180 villages on the Yunnan border. They have successively delivered more than 60 square kilometers of land cleared of mine hazards to the local government. .During his vacation last year, Chen Zihan deliberately returned to Malipo. In front of him, the land that had been repeatedly and carefully raked by minesweeping rakes was full of vitality. The grass fruits and Panax notoginseng cultivated by the villagers were lush and lush. Not far away, a brand new hospital rose from the ground... His eyes gradually became moist, and his heart was filled with relief. .
(This article was published in the "Long March Supplement" edition of "Liberation Army Daily" on September 20, 2022)
Source: PLA Daily public account
Editor: Su Pei
