And the soldiers are also racing against time to resettle people in areas likely to be flooded by two big quake lakes surrounded by mountains and landslides, which contain around 170 million cubic meters of water between them.
Chen said the death toll in his county, with a population of 200,000, is expected be at least 5,000.
Although 168,000 locals have been made homeless, helicopters have so far dropped just 100 tents.
Mountainous area
The county, 300 km from the quake's epicenter at Wenchuan, has more than 400 rivers and over 90 percent is more than 1,000 meters above sea level. The area is also sparsely populated, with around 30 people per sq km.
This has added to the difficulties in locating those who remain missing.
And as time passes by, some of them may have starved to death.
Baima, Nanba, Shuiguan and other towns are at the foot of these picturesque mountains, with a river flowing from one end to the other.
So when the May 12 quake struck it brought down tons of rocks and a massive flow of mud from the mountains, intensifying the extent of the damage.
"Nearly all the towns have been flattened in mountainous areas," said Chen.
The once green mountains are now scarred and covered with dust, sand and rocks. Some of the boulders are hanging so precariously that passers-by are even afraid to cough for fear of triggering a landslide.
As a result of landslides, it now takes five hours to travel from the city of Jiangyou to Pingpu, a journey which takes normally just one-and-a-half hours.
"Before driving across a section affected by a landslide, you need to first look carefully and then get across it as fast as possible," said driver Zeng Xiaohong. "Otherwise, a falling stone may hit you."
Zeng, 42, is an experienced driver who travels from Chengdu to Lhasa all the year round. "That road is dangerous and the road to Pingwu has become the narrowest and most dangerous I have seen."
A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 on the Richter scale hit the province's northwest corner from Songpan to Pingwu 32 years ago.