Binjiang Police Affairs
Chapter 156 - 127 The Great Eel Catching Battle_2

Chapter 156: Chapter 127 The Great Eel Catching Battle_2

Because of outdated equipment and insufficient professional training, eight firefighters were sacrificed. Those were eight young lives!

Tears swirled in Xu Sanye’s eyes, and Sister Zhu couldn’t help but cry.

"The fire from the night of January 2nd had burned until January 8th, a total of more than one hundred and fifty hours. During this time, to ensure that the burning fuel barge would not drift to the downstream docks or even the Yangtze River Bridge, Hanwu’s side developed two sets of tactical measures."

"One was to have two unmanned barges from Yangtze River shipping stand by at Shuihongkou; as soon as the fuel barge showed signs of drifting, they would push it to a predetermined shallow location on the South Bank. The second was that if the push failed, they would use artillery to sink the fuel barge on the Dazuijiang surface downstream of Shuihongkou!"

Director Yu could not continue the briefing and dared not imagine what would happen if the fire occurred in the Bailong Port Waters.

Xu Sanye regained his composure and turned to ask: "Director Zhu, your bureau is the governing body for maritime transportation and water firefighting. You speak first."

Sister Zhu hurriedly took out a handkerchief to dry her tears and said with a choked voice: "After receiving the report from our superiors, our bureau leadership urgently convened a meeting, demanding all Port Supervision Stations and law enforcement teams to carry out a major inspection of water firefighting safety, and also requesting units with the capacity to purchase firefighting equipment to make up for this shortcoming."

"What about our situation here at Bailong Port?"

"Our logistics department found out that the firefighting water cannons on the ship ’Dun 001’ can be modified."

"How to modify?"

"To modify it to be both water and foam compatible, Director Yu, Station Chief Qian, and Director Liu, it’s not realistic to want you on a firefighting ship. With ’Dun 001’ there, you temporarily don’t need another firefighting ship, but for the foam required to extinguish large oil fires and chemical fires, can you three parties share the expenses and purchase more?"

"No problem."

"The lesson is right in front of us, we need to learn from it, our ship lock management office has no objections."

"Director Xu, Director Zhu, I... I need to report to our superiors first."

"Okay, but make it quick."

Xu Sanye took over the conversation and turned to ask: "Director Yu, what do you say?"

Scholar Yu hurriedly put down his pen and paper, and looked up: "Comrades, regarding firefighting, equipment is indeed very important, but professional training is just as crucial. The loss of eight firefighters is heartbreaking.

We must absorb this bloody lesson and take responsibility for our officers, employees, and Cooperative Defense Team members. I propose that after the New Year, we invite firefighting experts to give a thorough lecture and conduct a professional firefighting training session."

It’s praiseworthy for officials to take the lead, but they should not be ignorant about their duties.

Xu Sanye felt that Scholar Yu’s suggestion made a lot of sense and asked, "Where do we find a firefighting expert? I guess there isn’t one in Binjiang, and the professional level of the Binjiang Fire Brigade might not be higher than ours."

"I’ll figure something out. If we can’t get one from the province, we’ll go to East Sea, and if we can’t get one from East Sea, we’ll invite one from the Capital!"

"Alright, I will leave this matter to you."

Xu Sanye nodded lightly and started the second item on the meeting agenda, asking Sister Zhu to report on the current intense eel fry fishing war.

Compared to firefighting, this was the most pressing issue.

Sister Zhu steadied her spirit and with a bitter smile while flipping through her notebook said: "Every year there are people who come to the river to fish for eel fry driven by profit, but this year, there are more people and boats fishing for eel fry than last year.

According to statistics from our brother law enforcement teams and Port Supervision Stations, as of yesterday afternoon, from Jiangyin to Binjiang to Xujiajing Waters, tens of thousands of small and large eel fishing boats have gathered."

Xu Sanye couldn’t believe there were so many, murmuring to himself: "A million troops crossing the Yangtze River."

"Director Xu, we are driving them away every day here. A lot of people got annoyed after being driven away and went upstream. That’s why it doesn’t look that many from the Dunship. If you go to Binjiang Port, you’ll see the river is full of boats fishing for eel fry."

"Is it affecting navigation?"

"Yes, severely."

"How severe?"

"Before the meeting I called to ask, three ferries at the Binjiang Port Passenger Pier have been delayed for six hours, and I guess they haven’t set sail yet."

Sister Zhu glanced at her notebook and recounted as if enumerating her family treasures: "On the afternoon of the 24th, Hui’an Province Timber Company’s ’Sen Gong 22’ timber tug couldn’t avoid the eel fishing boats and collided with the Yangtze River 21004 tugboat, disintegrating and losing a large amount of timber, with economic losses of over seventy thousand yuan."

"On the night of the 25th, over a thousand navigational aids from Binjiang to Jiangyin Waters were manually vandalized by eel fishing boats. They took the buoy’s zinc-empty batteries and flashing lights for nighttime illumination, causing economic losses of tens of thousands of yuan and seriously affecting navigational safety."

"On February 1st, a fleet from Hanwu Yangtze River Shipping Company, 81012, was blocked by eel fishing boats when passing the 26th anchor ground in Binjiang. They sounded the horn as a reminder to make way, and as a result, more than thirty illegal eel fry fishermen swarmed, stealing oil drums, mooring ropes, and all the living supplies of the fleet, and beating up the few sailors who tried to stop them."

...

Eel fishing boats crowded the ship lock channels of Tiansheng Port, and the locks dared not let ships pass.

The coal stockpile of the Tiansheng Port Power Plant was only enough for a few days, and the coal transport fleet was stuck at the anchorage and couldn’t move.

The passenger ships at the Binjiang Port Passenger Pier were delayed every day.

Ship collision accidents occurred several times daily.

The Yangtze River Tail was in chaos, and the golden waterway was blocked...

Xu Sanye realized the seriousness of the problem, furrowing his brows and asking: "Did your bureau leadership take any measures?"

"We’ve deployed all the supervision boats we could, but apart from yelling to drive them off, there’s nothing else we could do. The city told us to contact the Yangtze Port Supervision Bureau, the Yangtze Port Supervision Bureau told us to contact the city, or to find the Fishery Administration, but in the end, the Fishery Administration also came to us, and now nobody knows who should be in charge of this matter."