When most people were enjoying the long National Day holidays, more than 500 officers and men of a group army of the Jinan Military Area Command had been fighting flood on the embankments of the Yellow River for 4 consecutive days and nights.

　　Due to continuous rainy days in the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River since the beginning of autumn, the main stream of the Yellow River was hit by flood once again. The No. 35 embankment of the Yellow River in Lankao County in Central China's Henan Province was on the brink of collapse and 16 villages were in danger of inundation. On October 4, the government of Kaifeng City of Henan Province requested the group army to provide urgent help. The disaster was order. More than 500 officers and men gave up their holiday and rushed to the dyke. Two noncommissioned officers of the anti-chemical battalion, who had planned to get married on October 5, decided to postpone their wedding ceremony and got on the truck to the flooding area without time to inform their relatives of the change of their wedding date. Gu Jianguo, commander of a pontoon-bridge company immediately bought return ticket for his wife, who had just arrived at the barracks on that day to visit her husband…

　　The water-control dyke at the forefront of the No. 35 embankment was endangered by the flood. Headed by deputy chief of staff Gao Guofeng, more than 360 officers and men carried stones to strengthen the dyke. Despite shortage of drinking water on the dyke, the officers and men were still in high spirit. Up to the time when the reporter submitted the news to the press, the troops had reinforced the dyke with more than 6000 cube meters of stones, evacuated 1500 people and delivered more than 120 tons of material to safe places. The dangerous situation of the No. 35 embankment and the other embankments had been basically brought under control.

　　By Su Jicheng, Wang Zhongxue and Zuo Qichao

　　(October 9, PLA Daily)