34: Chapter 34 Half of the Casualties

One must know that the International Settlement did not allow Chinese troops to enter.

Once discovered, they would be arrested.

These policemen, who looked like Chinese, were stunned to see Li Cheng and his men.

They had never imagined they would encounter such a situation.

But they did not dare to arrest them.

Because Li Cheng and his men were carrying guns, and they were just lackeys; there was no need to risk their lives.

After all, their lives were their own, and if they died, no one would care.

"This is the International Settlement. How did you get in?" one of the policemen shouted, emboldening himself.

"We stumbled in by accident. Where can we go to get out?" Li Cheng asked, his brows slightly furrowed.

Upon hearing this, the policeman immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

"We can send you out, but you must first unload your guns. We will keep them for you; otherwise, you can't leave."

The policemen did not want any extra trouble. These soldiers were clearly part of the Chinese troops fighting outside.

As long as they did not cause trouble in the International Settlement, they would turn a blind eye and not make things difficult for them.

Li Cheng hesitated for a moment after hearing the International Settlement police's words, then nodded.

They did not know the situation here, so they had to listen to these policemen for now.

However, while they gave them the guns, the bullets were removed to prevent any foul play.

As for the pistols at their sides, Li Cheng was not worried.

Soon, led by these policemen, they arrived at the exit of the International Settlement.

There was a checkpoint at the exit.

Li Cheng could see many soldiers with distinctly Western appearances.

Seeing this, he immediately became vigilant.

At this moment, one of the policemen went up to have a conversation.

Then, he waved at them.

These policemen returned their equipment and sent them out of the International Settlement.

At this moment, having left the International Settlement, they looked at the pitch-black darkness before them.

The darkness was like a devouring abyss; they stood in place, not knowing where to go.

"Let's go. Back to the battlefield."

After saying this, Li Cheng led his men away from the entrance of the International Settlement, braving the heavy rain.

...

At the Airport, the main force had already breached the interior.

However, the Japanese soldiers inside were putting up a very tenacious resistance.

The Japanese naval ships by the river turned their main guns. With a boom, a flash of fire tore through the night, the intense heat of the flames evaporating the raindrops, and then it slammed directly into the ground of the Airport.

Nearby, soldiers who could not dodge in time were instantly swallowed by the explosion, leaving almost no remains.

A single shell from the naval gun took out dozens of people.

Even over a hundred meters away, the shockwave from the explosion made it hard for people to stand.

A massive crater several meters wide was left on the ground.

The survivors nearby were stunned by this scene.

What kind of artillery was this? A single shot had such power.

However, before they could even react, the next shell followed immediately.

In the rear, Wang Ye had just moved the Command Post to the outside of the Airport.

Then he saw this scene.

A deafening roar erupted in the sky, and several naval shells engulfed the charging players in a sea of fire.

The game had no death notifications, so he had no idea how many people had died.

He looked at that sea of fire; the flames were hard to extinguish even in the heavy rain.

In Wang Ye's livestream room, the viewers watching this scene all fell silent.

The temporary Command Post was on the fourth floor of a building, offering a clear view of the Airport in the distance.

The sound of the naval guns firing in the distance was also very clear.

Naval shells poured continuously onto the Airport positions they had captured.

The players who had rushed into the Airport were immediately subjected to a nearly devastating blow.

The hard-won results were severely damaged by just a few enemy naval shells.

The battle raged from the night until the early hours of the morning.

Facing such a cruel battlefield, the players in the midst of the flames had long forgotten their identity as players.

They immersed themselves in it, treating this as a real battlefield.

Seeing the comrades who were charging with them just moments ago fall to the ground, they had no time to grieve before the enemy's artillery fire poured down on them again.

"Regimental Commander, the brothers have suffered heavy casualties; there are only a dozen or so men left in the Third Battalion."

At this moment, a messenger ran to the Command Post and spoke with grief.

As a messenger, his task was very dangerous.

He needed to weave through artillery fire to relay orders and battle conditions back and forth.

"What about the other two battalions?" Wang Ye took a deep breath and asked slowly.

"They have also suffered one-third combat losses," the messenger continued.

Wang Ye closed his eyes with a pained expression.

They had only been fighting for a few hours, and his regiment had already lost half its men.

And this was while taking advantage of the heavy rain, which meant the enemy's planes could not take off to attack.

The Japanese had too many defensive setups at the Airport; for every firepower point they captured, dozens of people would die.

Even so, they had not been able to advance deep into the Airport.

The Japanese naval artillery was too powerful.

"Retreat."

Wang Ye issued the order to retreat.

They still could not break through after fighting until now, so there was no need to increase casualties in vain.

Everyone was exhausted after these few hours of attack.

When the order to retreat reached the front line, the players who were preparing to continue the charge suddenly deflated.

Their tense nerves relaxed instantly upon hearing the word retreat.

They quickly withdrew to the barbed wire fence of the Airport.

The Japanese soldiers did not continue to counterattack.

After fighting for so long, the mental pressure on both sides was immense.

When they saw the Chinese troops retreat, the Japanese soldiers breathed a sigh of relief.

This was because the Chinese soldiers' style of fighting—fearless of death, charging with their lives—made them feel afraid as well.

In the temporary encampment, Zhou Xiaoyi looked at the injured people everywhere.

The severity of their injuries varied.

The encampment was unusually quiet, with hissing sounds of pain heard from time to time.

Zhou Xiaoyi and the Medics from the medical platoon stepped forward to provide simple bandaging.

This was something they had just learned; although they were not skilled, it was better than doing nothing.

In a corner of the temporary encampment, the dozen or so remaining men of the Third Battalion lay scattered on the ground.

The ground was merely covered by a layer of cloth.

Each of them was covered in dense wounds.

Their clothes were stained with blood.

At this moment, their eyes were dull.

They stared blankly ahead, not knowing what they were thinking.

They were an entire battalion of five hundred people.

Only these dozen or so were left.

Each of them had personally seen their brothers next to them fall into pools of blood, or even be blown to pieces.

"Brothers, we are clearly just playing a game, so why do I feel so terrible?"

"They all died right in front of me, and I was powerless; I could not save them."

"I could not even protect myself."

The cruelty of war had already been materialized.

Zhou Xiaoyi walked up to them and saw a flag standing beside them.

It had the characters "Third Battalion" written on it.

However, compared to the two or three hundred people in other battalions, these dozen or so men of the Third Battalion seemed extremely lonely and desolate.

"Are you… okay?" Zhou Xiaoyi asked softly.

Hearing Zhou Xiaoyi's voice, they lifted their heads like machines.

The lack of life, the blank despair in their eyes, gave Zhou Xiaoyi a big fright.

In her livestream room, the viewers were also shocked by such expressions.

"Why does my heart hurt so much when I look at their eyes?"

"I remember a battalion used to have hundreds of people, right? Now there are only these dozen left."

"If we encountered such a war, what would we do..."

Zhou Xiaoyi ignored the livestream room.

She looked at these dozen people, her eyes rimmed with red, filled only with heartache.