Troops came by air, water and goat trails
They came from the air, waterways and off-the-map goat trails. Finally, the first troops began arriving late on Tuesday night in Wenchuan county to help with rescue and relief.
It was a competition of sorts: eager to reach victims still waiting for help, the PLA offered rewards to the first batch of soldiers who could reach the epicentre of Monday's earthquake in Sichuan province . A group of 200 paramilitary police was the first to arrive. Xinhua hailed the feat and said the officers had been given awards by the high command - offering an insight into how determined the central government was to reach Wenchuan.
It has become a familiar scene in a tragedy-riddled year: people at nature's mercy and the PLA marching to their rescue. Premier Wen Jiabao said yesterday more than 120,000 troops had been sent, armed with sandbags, shovels and first-aid kits.
According to mainland media, the first 100 troops marched into Wenchuan with almost all roads to the epicentre blocked by landslides from the quake or its aftershocks.
'I don't care who you are, a general or a soldier. I tell all of you: those who arrive [in Wenchuan] first will be remembered,' Sichuan military Area Commander Li Shiming was quoted by Xinhua as saying.
More than 20,000 PLA soldiers and paramilitary police had arrived at the disaster zone by yesterday morning, with more expected.
Around 5,000 soldiers from Jinan Military Area in Shandong province , who would otherwise enter Sichuan by road, were ordered to take planes and parachute in, launching the biggest air rescue operation in PLA history. Footage of soldiers trying to reach the blocked epicentre were repeatedly telecast on mainland networks. By late yesterday afternoon, the air force's helicopters had dropped 12.8 tonnes of relief materials into Wenchuan, Mao and Li counties.
More troops were expected to enter the epicentre on foot, with every soldier carrying several kilograms of supplies.
Once there, they mounted a huge search effort with cranes and some clearing wreckage by hand to reach victims. Hundreds of people were pulled out alive, but most were dead. He Huifeng
