Gao Yang soon discovered a new problem. Rafael had started running, but the tank was too close to the others, and with six 3-kilogram blocks of C4 under the tank, he feared that getting too close might blow up his own men.
Just then, Gao heard Rafael yelling through the headset, "The distance is good, detonate now!"
While Gao Yang wasn't completely ignorant of the power of C4, what a safe distance was, he really wasn't clear on. He felt the tank was a bit too close to his people, but hearing Rafael's yell, Gao subconsciously pressed the detonation button.
First, he felt a violent shake under his feet from the sand, followed by an earth-shattering explosion. Gao felt as if the fifty-seven-ton tank was blasted off the ground, but he wasn't sure if it was just an illusion. With the sand and dust rising and then violently spreading around, Gao couldn't see anything for a long time.
Gao yelled into the intercom, "Is everyone okay? Respond!"