The epicenter of the earthquake was in Yingxiu Town and Beichuan County in Wenchuan County.
A few days later, Zhou Xinghe learned from the information released by the state that the area of this earthquake with an intensity of more than 6 degrees reached 440,000 square kilometers, of which the area with an intensity of more than 8 degrees was 27,786 square kilometers and the area with an intensity of more than 11 degrees was 2,419 square kilometers. As mentioned earlier, most of the thousands of houses built by Galaxy for towns and villages in western Sichuan are located in the fault zone of these hardest-hit areas!
This made Zhou Xinghe restless and restless.
As mentioned earlier, the "Danhui Villa" in Jiufeng Village, Dabao Town, Pengzhou, built by them, is in the hard-hit area where the intensity reached 11 degrees. The Yinchanggou Scenic Area near "Danhui Villa" was almost completely destroyed in this disaster, and the two mountains shook together in an instant, burying hundreds of tourists in the scenic area, and the scenic area no longer existed. The author is familiar with Professor Shen's family of five people who were visiting the ditch that day, and they were all buried in the ditch, together with his daughter and son-in-law who married him back to his hometown from Shenzhen, which made people feel sad and weeping.
"Danhui Villa" is only one or two kilometers away from Yinchanggou in a straight line. Does it still exist? Were there casualties among its owners and guests? If there were casualties, how many were killed?
At this time, this "Danhui Villa" that haunted his soul, he wanted to find out!
However, the road to Yinchanggou was completely damaged, traffic was completely interrupted, aftershocks were frequent, flying rocks continued, traffic control had been implemented on the entire route, and non-rescue troops and personnel were not allowed to enter the area. Zhou Xinghe saw from the TV that in order to finally search for the surviving lives in the silver factory ditch, the troops organized a death squad of more than a dozen people. Before leaving, a general personally toasted each daredevils with a bowl of wine. Each of the daredevils drank the wine toasted by the general, smashed the wine bowl to the ground in a majestic atmosphere, and resolutely climbed towards the mountain with rolling flying stones. That scene is really a bit of a tragic situation of "the wind is bleak and the water is cold, and the strong man is gone".
Unable to get to Yinchanggou, early on the morning of May 31, Zhou Xinghe took the helicopter of troops to Wenchuan County, the epicenter, to pick up the wounded, preparing to conduct a field survey of the housing built there by the company.
The plane took off from Chengdu's Fenghuangshan Airport, gradually climbed higher, and flew along the Minjiang River Valley towards Wenchuan County. From the airplane to see the villages and mountains after the earthquake, Zhou Xinghe couldn't help but feel sad: the villages and towns that were once fresh have turned into ruins; The beautiful mountains and rivers of the past have become devastated and scarred; The clear and bright Min River in the past has become turbid and narrow, and the rocks and sediment that collapsed from the mountains continue to roll down the river, stirring up turbid waves that rush into the sky!
After the helicopter landed in Wenchuan, the scene in front of him was even more tragic than what Zhou Xinghe saw in Dujiangyan, even the sun became hideous, and even the air was almost suffocating. In order to hurry, he got off the plane, braved the constant aftershocks, and hurried to conduct a field survey. Walking in ruins, the heavier his legs and feet became, and the more he walked, the more painful his mood became.
However, when he came to Wenchuan County, he also felt a little comfort.
In front of the Wenchuan County Town Industry and Commerce Building, he stopped. He vividly remembers that the building was built in 2003, and that his company's "five-proof lightweight partition panels" were used on the second and third floors of the building. During construction, the wall panels here were bonded with special materials, and the embedded parts at the board-to-board junction were welded by electric welding. After the earthquake, the partition panels were not damaged by collapse, there were no cracks in the walls, and all the other brick walls of the same building had collapsed.
Came to Shuanghe Village, Weizhou Town, Wenchuan County, he found that the "Shuanghe Market" here is also the use of Galaxy Company's "five-proof lightweight partition panel", although the construction did not use special seam adhesive, embedded parts did not use electric welding, but the wall did not collapse after the earthquake, but cracks appeared between the plates.
Zhou Xinghe in the Wenchuan earthquake-stricken area before preparing to take a helicopter back to Chengdu
Looking again, all the buildings here that use his company's "non-proof lightweight partition panels", the partition panels have not broken and collapsed. While Zhou Xinghe felt a little relieved, he was also thinking as he walked: since the partition panel he produced can withstand the harshest test of this earthquake, then in other areas, it should be similar to the situation here, maybe it will be better. So, when the victims are sleeping in the wild and aftershocks are still continuing, why not use your own building materials to build more transitional houses for the victims? At the same time, in the process of post-disaster reconstruction, why not call on the government to build more such houses on these earthquake-prone fault zones? ......
With such a mentality, in the afternoon of the same day, Zhou Xinghe was eager to rush back to the company to arrange the next step of earthquake relief. When he arrived on the helipad, he was ready to catch the helicopter for the return trip back to Chengdu. By mistake, the Mi-171 helicopter he was riding on was the No. 734 plane piloted by the martyr Captain Qiu Guanghua.
The helicopter is parked on the lawn, the propellers are still spinning, ready to take off and return. Zhou Xinghe took a photo with the crew in front of the plane, registered his name and mobile phone number, and boarded the helicopter. But just before the helicopter was about to take off, a seriously injured person was urgently sent on a stretcher below. Because there were too many wounded in the cabin, the crew discussed with Zhou Xinghe and asked him to take the next helicopter. Of course, it is important to rescue the wounded, so Zhou Xinghe took the initiative to get off this helicopter.
It was such a sudden change that not only allowed Zhou Xinghe to meet the crew of 5 martyrs for the last time, but also left the last complete photo of the helicopter, and also heard the last voice of Captain Qiu Guanghua on another plane, becoming the only "survivor" on the 734 helicopter.
In the press release "Survivors of the Crashed Plane Where Martyr Qiu Guanghua Was", a reporter from Xinhua described the situation as follows:
"The names and mobile phone numbers of 19 people were registered on the crashed plane, and in the end, only the remains of 18 victims were found, because although I registered, I got off the plane before takeoff."
Zhou Xinghe, chairman of Sichuan Xinghe Building Materials Company, was in his office, looking through the last photo of him and the helicopter crash during the Wenchuan earthquake, while recalling the experience of earthquake relief.
On the afternoon of May 31, 2008, Zhou Xinghe returned to Chengdu from Wenchuan, and the helicopter he was riding in and another helicopter that took off after him suddenly encountered heavy fog and strong air currents. Unfortunately, another helicopter crashed, killing all 18 people including Captain Qiu Guanghua on the plane.
"Originally, I had already checked in and boarded Captain Qiu Guanghua's plane, but because there were too many injured people on the plane, I gave up my position."
Zhou Xinghe recalled that the helicopter piloted by Captain Qiu Guanghua took off about 10 minutes later than the helicopter he was riding because there were seriously injured people bandaging. He sat in the seat behind the captain of the other helicopter and clearly heard the conversation between the two captains. Zhou Xinghe said that at that time, nothing could be seen around the plane except dense clouds and fog, and the visibility was extremely low. The helicopter's engine rattled.
"The fog is coming, we all go up!" This was the last time Zhou Xinghe heard Captain Qiu Guanghua's voice.
After climbing to clouds higher than the mountain, Zhou Xinghe's helicopter returned safely to the airport at about 3 p.m. But for more than an hour, Zhou Xinghe did not see Qiu Guanghua's helicopter return.
The next morning, Zhou Xinghe received a call from an earthquake relief friend, who was surprised to be able to get through to him and asked, "Are you back?" ”
"It's back." Zhou Xinghe said.
"Just come back! Just come back! The other party said 3 consecutive "just come back", which made Zhou Xinghe feel that something might happen.
In the afternoon of the same day, Zhou Xinghe received a call from a friend again and was told that Qiu Guanghua's plane was missing. At that time, Zhou Xinghe was lucky, hoping that the helicopter would just go on other missions. It was not until June 10, when the wreckage of the crashed helicopter was found, that Zhou Xinghe realized that the plane had really had an accident, and he became a survivor.
"Now that I survived that disaster, I should do more for the people in the disaster area and for those in need." When Zhou Xinghe said this, he couldn't help but be a little excited. After the earthquake, he braved the aftershocks and went to the disaster area many times to help the affected people, donated money, delivered food, and water to the disaster area, and also sent his own invention and national patent - five-proof lightweight partition wall panel, to help the disaster victims in Wenchuan County and other places to build houses...
What people still remember is that during that time, people turned on the TV every day, and what they were most concerned about was the disappearance of the No. 734 helicopter piloted by Captain Qiu Guanghua, which was the most worrying thing for the people of the whole country; The plane that searched for him and the search and rescue crew and the people on board also touched the hearts of people across the country all the time.
The airport is solemn and mournful. On the morning of June 13, 2008, on the 13th day of the 64th flight of helicopter No. 743, the crew of five martyrs finally returned to the Chengdu Phoenix Mountain Airport where they fought and lived - the icy coffin sealed the once vivid body, and the tear-jerking sorrow replaced the familiar roar of the helicopter... At this moment, the heavens wept and the whole country grieved.
Zhou Xinghe was attending the World Building Materials Conference in Canada at this time, and could not go to Phoenix Mountain Airport to welcome the martyrs back to the barracks. He can only look at the land of the motherland in a distant foreign land, silently crying for the heroes, silently mourning for the heroes, praying for their heroic souls to rest in peace...