'Till Death Do Us Apart 長相守(bxb)

Chapter 22

XXII

This year, Shen Liangsheng spent a good half of the spring and summertime in the South. Since he decided to leave the country, he had to do what had to be done, and fast. He wanted to sell the factory, and there was no other buyer available except the Japanese. He could not object to the low price since the industrial sector in the North had been monopolized by the Japanese, leaving no room for English or American investors. However, there was no reason to liquidate the remaining securities and real estate at distressed prices, so Shen Liangsheng visited Peip'ing in April and Shanghai in May. After wrapping up business matters, he did not rush to return to Tientsin and instead stayed in Shanghai for a month or so. He thought of it as a long break for himself, and it seemed that the farther he was from Tientsin, the sooner he would forget the man.

Several storms hit the North in July raising the water levels of all the rivers and streams in the region at an alarming rate. Eventually by the end of the month flooding occurred, and the farms to the north and south of Tientsin suffered the worst. The Shen factory was located on the outskirts of the city but was not endangered as it was on the west side. Erring on the side of caution, Chou rang the hotel where Shen Liangsheng was staying. He told him about the flooded farms and asked the boss to return and personally attend to matters.

Hearing this, Shen Liangsheng did not hesitate and placed an order for a return ticket to Tientsin, but he did not take the news very seriously. Indeed, Tientsin was one of the most important strategic points for the Japanese in northern China, and thus the dummy government would not let the flood get to the city, no matter how useless they were. Should worst come to worst, they would destroy the dams and redirect the water, securing the city even if that meant flooding all the land around it.

Not only was Shen Liangsheng, who was out of town, not worried, the residents of Tientsin themselves were not particularly apprehensive about an impending disaster. Tientsin was situated at low elevation to begin with and had flooding problems every now and then. Once it became a frequent spectre, the people dropped their guard. The worst case scenario was some inconvenience for several days caused by clogged streets.

Just as the civilians had no sense of urgency, the dummy government did not take any action other than releasing a notice for households to build small dams in front of their doors or at the mouths of the hut'ong so that their homes would not be flooded.

It was early August when Shen Liangsheng embarked on his return trip. Halfway along the journey, news came that the flooding had become serious. Then a little farther down the road, the announcement came that the rails entering Tientsin had been flooded making it impossible to enter the city, so the train had to go around to Peip'ing.

The transportation system was in utter chaos, and the train kept making stops. The passengers could do nothing but pray for the government in Tientsin to blow the dams so the water did not actually enter the city.

This time around, the Japanese did not sit idly by and ended up sending the army to blow the Yungting River Dam. However, not only was the location wrong, the timing of the explosion was wrong, too - they had chosen the day of the highest tide according to the lunar calendar. The Hai Ho could not redirect any water out to sea, so when the waves came tumbling down from upstream, they crashed into the city inundating it in the blink of an eye.

It was a disaster like none had ever seen. The scene when the monstrous waves hit was surreal - pedestrians were still strolling along the streets when a thunderous roar came from afar mixed with shrieks saying, "It's here! Run for your lives!"

But legs could not possibly outrun the water. People could only watch as the flood gushed forth pushing up waves higher than a grown man as it turned the street corners in pursuit. With nowhere left to run and the water at their heels, some climbed on top of nearby vehicles while others climbed up trees. In the end, even the electricity poles were full of people clinging on.