35: Chapter 35 Your Determination is Worthy of Praise

She didn't charge in this battle, but watching from behind, she still felt terrible.

In the past, she would always die early and start the next round.

Now, she had actually survived until after a battle.

"Are your wounds okay? Do you need them bandaged?" Zhou Xiaoyi asked.

Hearing Zhou Xiaoyi's voice, they finally snapped back to reality.

They shook their heads.

At the entrance, someone was on patrol duty.

The conditions at the temporary encampment were poor, and coupled with the rain, the temperature was quite low.

Even though it was August, they felt a bit cold.

On the other side, Wang Ye met up with Old Kui.

Old Kui told Wang Ye about the casualties in his regiment.

Nearly a thousand dead.

Now, the two regiments had less than half their strength left.

And that was only after a few hours.

As for how many enemies they had killed, they didn't know.

But they guessed it probably wasn't many.

In the early hours of the morning, they met up with Brigade Commander Li Zheng.

At the moment, Brigade Commander Li Zheng's Command Post only had a dozen or so wounded guards and staff officers.

"Old Li, what's the situation here? Are there enemies?"

Seeing that the guards were wounded, Wang Ye quickly asked.

"No. I sent the guard company to bomb the Japanese Army's Airport, but only a dozen or so made it back. Everyone else died, and they only destroyed three planes." Brigade Commander Li Zheng sighed.

His tone was full of exhaustion and helplessness.

"Sent out a whole company, over 150 men, and the casualty rate was as high as ninety percent."

"The casualty rates for your two regiments must also be very high."

"Yes, between our two regiments, we only have 1,200 men left." Wang Ye nodded.

"By the way, what about the 88th Division?"

Brigade Commander Li Zheng shook his head upon hearing this. "I'm not sure. They haven't replied to us, but I don't think their situation is very good either."

The next day, time accelerated.

Less than half an hour had passed in the outside world.

The game's time flow was different from reality.

This was the black technology of the virtual pods in this world.

The time flow in the virtual world differed from reality, and precisely because of this, in many games, while the day-night cycle was the same twenty-four hours as reality, the time that passed in reality was only an hour or even just a dozen minutes.

The speed could be adjusted directly according to one's own needs.

Of course, there were limitations.

It was impossible to adjust the flow rate without limits, otherwise, it would cause mental confusion.

The maximum setting for the virtual pod was 1:365.

Zhou Yang adjusted the game time flow for the campaign mode to 1:48.

This meant that two days inside the game was only one hour in reality.

This ensured that players wouldn't find that several days had passed in reality after finishing a game.

The open beta had only been running for a little over an hour.

Zhou Yang had already harvested quite a lot of emotional value.

Moreover, the growth rate of this emotional value was getting faster and faster.

He earned more in one hour than he had in the five days of the closed beta combined.

Not only that, but the internet was currently flooded with gameplay videos and discussion articles about [wwii: eastern meat grinder].

The game had completely exploded in popularity.

Among them, a video titled "An Inventory of the Game Background of wwii: eastern meat grinder" was the most popular.

This video was an hour long and had received a million likes within just one hour of its release.

At this moment, Zhou Yang was watching this video.

Watching the video creator's introduction, it also included edits of many of the game's CGs.

The video creator had laid out a clear timeline of the causes and consequences of the Battle of Shanghai.

"Everyone can see that this game's CG, as well as various in-game videos, mention terms like 'September 18th' and 'July 7th Incident,' and the time period was the last century, which is not far from us, a hundred years ago.

These two terms should both refer to events, and they should be quite far apart in time."

"Combined with the game's opening CG mentioning a fourteen-year war of resistance, we can be certain that this war lasted for fourteen years.

"The game planners have big ambitions. I don't even know if all the wars in our last century combined lasted a year."

"Fighting for fourteen years, it's unimaginable how many people will die."

"This Battle of Shanghai is the first large-scale battle, which means there must be other battles later on..."

After watching this creator's analysis and speculations, Zhou Yang was impressed; this video creator actually had some skill.

At the very least, they guessed many things correctly.

Some content, for which he hadn't even given hints, was guessed correctly.

However, the wars weren't that short. Aside from the fourteen-year war of resistance, there were later wars against the sixteen-nation alliance, as well as the war against Vietnam, and the war against India.

And even the split and confrontation with the Big Brother.

It wasn't until the latter part of the century that things gradually became peaceful and stable.

After finishing the video, Zhou Yang opened the system panel.

Seeing an emotional value balance of over ten million, Zhou Yang felt very reassured.

Subsequently, he opened Zhou Xiaoyi's livestream room.

At this moment, it was already the fourth day in the game.

Zhou Xiaoyi was on the path of a charge.

Everyone was dead, everyone was dead.

The battalion commander died, so the company commander went up.

The company commander died, so the Platoon Leader went up.

They were all dead, so the soldiers went up.

Even they, the Medics, could charge.

These past few days, over a hundred people died every day.

Looking at the dwindling troops, everyone had become numb.

No one knew when they would die.

However, as soon as they saw the Japanese, they would charge forward regardless of their own safety.

There was only one thought in their hearts: kill the Japanese and take revenge.

On the fifth day of the game, Wang Ye, looking at the dozen or so people left beside him, received a message from Brigade Commander Li Zheng.

"Enemy reinforcements have landed. The battle is over. You can retreat."

"Retreat? Can I even retreat?" Wang Ye smiled bitterly, gripping a flag in his hand.

This was the regimental flag of their 245th Regiment.

Wang Ye planted the flag in his hand at the Airport; all around him, the ground was covered in corpses.

Among them were Japanese, but more of them were his own people.

Wang Ye was covered in blood as he looked into the distance.

He seemed to see a dense swarm of Japanese surging toward this side.

"Are you afraid?" Wang Ye looked at the dozen or so brothers beside him and said with a smile.

"No!" the dozen or so people shouted in unison.

After fighting for so many days, they had long since lost their fear of life and death.

"Good! We will never be captives! If we die, we die standing!"

Wang Ye laughed aloud.

On the other side, Old Kui's situation was equally dire; he had led the remaining twenty-some men to rush to the defensive line outside the Japanese Navy Command Headquarters.

At this moment, fighting alongside him were Chinese Soldiers from the 87th and 88th Divisions.

He watched with his own eyes as a company of Chinese Soldiers braved the heavy machine-gun fire from the Navy Command Headquarters building opposite them and charged toward it.

However, facing the enemy's dense firepower, most of the Chinese Soldiers in that company fell on the path of their charge.

This short distance of a little over a hundred meters was like a natural chasm, impossible for them to cross.

Along this path lay countless corpses.

Two days ago, they had already attacked to the front of the Command Headquarters building.

But it was precisely this distance of a hundred meters that had cost the Chinese Soldiers of the 87th and 88th Divisions hundreds, if not thousands, of lives.

In order to capture this Navy Command Headquarters building, the 87th and 88th Divisions had even brought in 150mm howitzers recently purchased from Germany.

They bombarded the building continuously.

Wanting to destroy the firing points inside the building.

But the Japanese had turned this building into an impregnable fortress.

Every step forward taken by the Chinese Soldiers of the two divisions required a heavy price.

At this moment, news suddenly came from the rear.

Japanese reinforcements had landed, and they were ordered to retreat immediately.

The Chinese Soldiers in the trenches heard this news.

Looking at their comrades who had just charged, their hearts were filled with grief.

This order to retreat had come too late.

Those Chinese Soldiers who had charged had all died in vain.

But there was no way; they couldn't save those comrades.

...

[Game Over]

Brigade Commander Li Zheng looked at the game-over screen in front of him and couldn't help but smile bitterly.

It was finally over.

He hadn't died, but his feelings were extremely complex.

Was the gap really that large?

Why was it so difficult?

[Mission: Block the Japanese Army landing failed. Total brigade enemy kills: 327. Total deaths: 2977.]

[You failed to change history, but your determination to fear no death and fight to the end without retreating is worthy of praise and song. Campaign Rating: 80.]

Seeing these words, the pent-up frustration in Brigade Commander Li Zheng's chest suddenly surged into his heart.

327 enemies killed, 2977 dead.

This data was so glaring.

He exited the game.

The virtual pod opened, and Brigade Commander Li Zheng stepped out.

In the room where the virtual pod was located, the walls were densely hung with many certificates of honor and medals of honor.

On one of the certificates, it was written: Major General Li Zheng of China.

He looked at these certificates of honor and medals of honor.

They felt very glaring.

He went outside the room, took out his phone, and dialed a number.