The Army blew up a bridge in actual combat for the fourth time! The Touqian River Bridge in Tainan was blasted on 11/12. The island’s engineers will conduct a verification round.

The National Army continues to strengthen the battlefield interdiction capabilities of its engineering troops. This year, it has conducted three bridge blasting trainings in Yunlin, Yilan and Hualien. According to an announcement from the Tainan City Baihe District Office, the 54th Engineer Group of the Eighth Army Corps is scheduled to conduct actual blasting training at the Touqian River Bridge located on the 86th Route South at 9:30 a.m. on the 12th in conjunction with the local bridge reconstruction project. This will not only be the fourth time the Army has implemented actual bridge blasting training this year, but if successfully completed, it will also mean that the engineering units affiliated to the four combat zones on the island will have practical experience in bridge blasting this year.

According to military news, Lieutenant General Liu Weixin, commander of the Fourth Operation Area, went to the Tainan area yesterday (9th) to inspect the preparations for the bridge blasting mission, understand the blasting planning, operating procedures and various preparations, and provide guidance on blasting impacts, emergency response and other matters, requiring cadres to fully understand the local environment and implement safety control and contingency measures.

The National Army will demolish the Touqian River Bridge in Tainan's Baihe River by blasting.

Liu Weixin said that this mission was combined with the Tainan City Government's bridge reconstruction project to transform local public construction needs into practical training opportunities, allowing officers and soldiers to verify blasting procedures in real fields, and improve professional skills and battlefield interdiction capabilities through execution data recording, post-training seminars and experience feedback.

It is worth noting that the Army cooperated with local engineering for the first time on March 25 this year to carry out bridge blasting at Shanjin Bridge in Yunlin. However, some of the blasting results at that time were not as expected, which became an important experience for subsequent review and improvement. The 53rd Engineer Group of the Sixth Army carried out blasting on the No. 3 Xizhou Bridge in Yilan on September 22 and successfully achieved the predetermined goal; on October 20, the Combat Engineer Company of the Hua Defense Department carried out blasting on the Hualien Mingli Bridge, successfully blowing up some bridge piers and causing the bridge to collapse in the planned manner.

This time it is the turn of the 54th Engineer Group of the Eighth Army to perform the task. If successfully completed, all three armies of the Army and the engineering units of the Ministry of Defense will have practical experience in bridge blasting this year. Compared with the past simulated bridge destruction drills, actual blasting must face real structures, terrain, and operational constraints. This not only tests the professional skills of engineers, but also enables them to discover problems and correct procedures during operations, thereby improving their ability to disrupt traffic arteries and delay enemy advances in wartime.