55: Chapter 55: Behind us lies our homeland; we swear to serve our country to the death.
Battalion Commander Yao Ziqing looked at the two-colored smoke not far away with a grim expression.
His battalion had no supplies like gas masks at all; once the Chinese Soldiers encountered this poison gas, their survival would be uncertain.
"Quick, tell everyone to use urine to wet a strip of cloth, cover their mouths and noses, and absolutely do not inhale this colored smoke."
After Battalion Commander Yao Ziqing finished speaking, he hurriedly found a strip of cloth, then wetted it with his own urine and covered his mouth and nose.
Seeing this, the adjutant followed suit and covered his mouth and nose.
Then he hurriedly ran to tell the other Chinese Soldiers about this method.
However, in just this short amount of time, quite a few Chinese Soldiers had inhaled the toxic smoke; the mild cases vomited, while the severe cases suffered body swelling and collapsed to the ground, unable to get up.
Not only that, but many local residents in the city also inhaled these poison gas fumes.
They were all foaming at the mouth, struggling as they crawled on the ground, and were eventually poisoned to death.
These residents had not managed to evacuate Baoshan in time.
Before the war started, there were still many common people in the city.
Later, as the war drew near, most of them left Baoshan.
But there were still a small number of residents who refused to leave and stayed inside the city.
At this moment, these residents, having inhaled the poison gas launched by the Little Devils, were coughing incessantly.
Others came into contact with the yellow smoke, causing their skin to fester.
Once inhaled, they would immediately collapse to the ground, unable to get up.
Outside the city, the Command Post of the Little Devils' 3rd Division.
Division Commander Fujita Sei listened to the adjutant's report.
"Your Excellency, Division Commander, all the Red Canisters have been fired, and we also used Yellow Shells to prevent any accidents."
"Hmm, good. After today, let's see how they continue to fight us." Division Commander Fujita Sei already wore a victorious smile on his face,
as if Baoshan was already within his grasp.
In order to capture Baoshan, in addition to the Red Canisters, Division Commander Fujita Sei had ordered his men to add more Yellow Shells.
With two secret weapons working in tandem, Division Commander Fujita Sei did not believe the defending troops inside the city could hold out any longer.
"Tomorrow, we will break through Baoshan in one go. After entering the city, kill everyone for me!" A bloodthirsty madness flashed in Division Commander Fujita Sei's eyes.
Inside the city, the toxic smoke continued to spread.
Even with strips of cloth wetted with urine to cover their mouths and noses, other parts of their bodies exposed to the air could not be protected.
Many Chinese Soldiers had red and swollen eyes and wanted to find a place to hide.
The wind picked up.
The wind dispersed the toxic smoke.
It was a good thing, but also a bad thing.
After all, the wind could not only disperse the toxic smoke but also spread it to more areas.
Wang Ye and Old Liu found a house, sealed the doors and windows, and hid inside.
The top priority now was to survive.
The toxic smoke filled the entire city; wherever the poison gas reached, both humans and animals perished.
Soon, a day passed.
The toxic smoke finally dissipated.
At this moment, the city was exceptionally quiet.
There were corpses everywhere on the ground.
These corpses were bloated with edema, looking very horrifying.
Wang Ye and Old Liu left the room.
Enduring the hunger in their stomachs, he and Old Liu walked toward the camp in the city.
As Wang Ye walked along the way, he could see corpses everywhere.
Some of these corpses were their fellow Chinese Soldiers, and some were residents of the city.
Seeing this scene, Wang Ye felt his stomach churning.
Many of these corpses were already unrecognizable as human.
Their manner of death was extremely miserable.
Some corpses had their eyes wide open in anger, showing how much pain they had been in before they died.
Looking at these corpses on the ground, Old Liu's eyes turned red.
He knew many of the people lying on the ground.
Seeing his former comrades lying on the ground with such miserable appearances, a wail of sorrow rose in Old Liu's heart.
He would rather see his comrades fall on the path of an assault than see them killed by inexplicable toxic smoke.
The Netizens in the livestream room were all shocked to see this scene.
They had only heard that poison gas was an anti-human weapon, but they had never seen what it looked like when poison gas killed people.
Now, looking at those Chinese Soldiers with such miserable appearances,
they felt the terror of the poison gas.
These Chinese Soldiers' bodies had no wounds, yet they died in such miserable ways.
"Did the poison gas kill these corpses? They died too miserably, my heart aches just looking at it."
"The Little Devils are too insane; no wonder poison gas shells are anti-human weapons."
"The Little Devils definitely aren't using these poison gas shells for the first time. Why can't China pay them back in their own coin?"
"The China in this game is an agricultural country and simply cannot manufacture poison gas shells; even if they wanted to use them, they couldn't."
Wang Ye and Old Liu returned to the camp.
At this moment, the camp was empty.
Wang Ye had a bad premonition.
Could it be that everyone in the battalion had died?
Thinking of this, Wang Ye wanted to go look for any survivors.
Just as he walked out of the camp gate, a few Chinese Soldiers were walking over in scattered groups from outside.
"Old Liu? Wang Ye, you two are still alive!" Seeing Wang Ye and Old Liu, those few Chinese Soldiers exclaimed in surprise.
Throughout the whole day, with poison gas everywhere in the city, they had almost despaired.
They had watched with their own eyes as their brothers foamed at the mouth and their lives vanished due to inhaling the poison gas.
Their hearts could not have been more painful.
After all, those were their compatriots, every one of them a vibrant life.
Yet they were heartlessly taken away by the Little Devils' poison gas just like that.
Originally, they thought they wouldn't survive either, but it turned out they were lucky enough to have survived.
Now that they saw acquaintances they knew were still alive, they could not have been happier.
"Old Chen, you guys are also still alive, that's great." Seeing the few of them, Old Liu also showed a joyful expression on his face.
At this time, more than a dozen people returned here one after another.
Finally, Battalion Commander Yao Ziqing and the adjutant also returned to the camp.
Looking at the troop of only a few dozen people left in the camp, Battalion Commander Yao Ziqing felt immense sorrow in his heart.
Those were all the lives of his own men, all killed by the Little Devils' poison gas.
This insane act made Battalion Commander Yao Ziqing feel extremely angry.
Returning to the camp, Battalion Commander Yao Ziqing gathered the Chinese Soldiers who had survived the poison gas.
In the evening, they took roll call again.
The number finally stopped at 57.
Yesterday there were over 200 people, but now only fifty-seven remained.
Seeing that only so few Chinese Soldiers were left, Battalion Commander Yao Ziqing understood clearly.
This Baoshan would likely not be held.
However, since he had said he would live and die with Baoshan,
then he would definitely fight to the end.
"Today, the Little Devils used poison gas shells against us in an insane manner. Many of our brothers were killed by the Little Devils' poison gas shells."
"Not only that, but there were also hundreds and thousands of common people in the city."
"Now, we have exhausted our ammunition and supplies. Perhaps tomorrow, we will die here."
"But, what we are defending is not just Baoshan, but also the homeland behind us!"
"Tell me, can we retreat?"
"Swear not to retreat!"
Seeing the Chinese Soldiers' appearance of swearing not to yield, Battalion Commander Yao Ziqing showed a gratified smile on his face.
Now, they had no way back.
Returning to the battalion headquarters, Battalion Commander Yao Ziqing looked at the adjutant beside him, his eyes beneath his glasses glinting with the flickering candlelight.
"Help me send a telegram to the division headquarters..."
"The officers and soldiers of this battalion all hold the determination to perish with the enemy; however, the isolated city has no reinforcements, the Japanese Invaders have surrounded us, and we swear to serve the country to the death!"