90: Chapter 90 How will you know if you don't try?
"Are the Japanese devils acting out of desperation? The plane flew over without firing a shot or dropping a single bomb, just to ram the flagpole."
"That's obvious. They've been fighting for ages and couldn't take it down, so they're clearly getting desperate and resorting to ramming it with a plane."
"But you have to admit, Wang Ye and his men really can't do anything about this plane. Using light machine guns against a plane is just for show; at most, they'll punch a few holes in it, but a few holes won't cause any real trouble."
"Unless they get really lucky, hit the fuel tank, and spark a fire that ignites it. But the odds of that are too low to even consider."
"If the Japanese really keep sending planes to do this, it's possible they might actually knock it down."
"What's there to be afraid of? As long as they don't take the national flag away, if the flagpole falls, we'll just stand it back up."
The viewers in the livestream room were having an incredibly lively discussion.
This battle was the most satisfying one they had watched so far; their side had very few casualties, and the Japanese were almost entirely beaten into a chaotic retreat.
Every time they charged over, a lot of them died.
If this were any of the previous battles, that would have been completely impossible.
Although the Chinese army did have the advantage of defensive fortifications, and the Japanese were wary of the nearby International Settlement and didn't dare use heavy artillery or aerial bombardment.
Still, this battle was truly satisfying to watch.
It felt as if all the pent-up frustration from before had suddenly been released.
"This battle is still the most satisfying to watch. Fighting until now, Wang Ye's side hasn't suffered many casualties, while the Japanese are dying in droves."
"Exactly. I've never seen a battle where they just pin the Japanese down and pummel them like this. If the previous battles had been this satisfying, that would have been great."
"Tears in my eyes. The previous battles were too tragic; every time, our Chinese troops suffered heavy casualties while the Japanese lost so few. Seeing those ten-to-one loss ratios was truly painful."
"Right, it was too miserable. Why is our Chinese equipment in this game so poor? If the gap had been just a little smaller, it wouldn't have been so tragic. Since there are German-equipped Divisions, why are there only two? Surely a country as big as China couldn't be too poor to buy weapons, right?"
"Maybe it's because too much money was embezzled; that's what I saw in another livestream room."
"Whose livestream room? I'll go take a look."
"A small streamer named Li Cheng. He's also entered the storyline, though his progress is a bit slower than Wang Ye's."
At this moment, in Li Cheng's livestream room.
He was still at the part where Regimental Adjutant Xie Jin was being interviewed.
A viewer had just entered the livestream room and heard Regimental Adjutant Xie Jin's words.
"Although we are known as the 'Eight Hundred Heroes,' in reality, there are only about four hundred of us, but we want to make the enemy believe there are eight hundred!"
"We are Chinese soldiers. We would rather die in battle on this soil of Zhabei than abandon our duty to kill the enemy."
"We are not those high-and-mighty officials, nor are we those merchants hoarding goods for profit. Now that the country is in dire straits, they don't think about saving the nation; their minds are entirely focused on song and dance, squeezing the people for wealth, and profiting from the national crisis."
"With such people in existence, where does the future of China lie? My hope is that while we soldiers are on the front lines defending our homes, no one will be stabbing us in the back."
Hearing these words, the viewers in the livestream room were deeply shocked.
This was completely different from what they had heard in Wang Ye's livestream room.
It was as if one side was light, and the other was darkness.
After finishing these words, the reporter on the other side felt the same empathy.
Those high-ranking officials and noblemen were singing and dancing, living in luxury and indulgence within the International Settlement.
Many merchants also took the opportunity to hoard goods and profit greatly from the national crisis.
They had long since prepared an escape route; if Shanghai could not be held, they could flee elsewhere.
At this moment, in Wang Ye's livestream room.
Many viewers had returned from Li Cheng's livestream room.
Then, they used the bullet comments to share what they had seen and heard.
"No matter the era or the country, this kind of situation is unavoidable."
"After watching that, I don't know what to say."
"Sigh, when you encounter a situation like this, you can only rely on self-strengthening."
"Looking at it this way, there were reasons why China was so backward at that time."
"The wealthiest group of people didn't think about self-strengthening, only about indulging in pleasure; they were rotten to the core. If these people aren't dealt with, how can one achieve self-strengthening?"
At this time, after Wang Ye finished dealing with this plane, no more Japanese planes came.
He took a moment to glance at the bullet comments in the livestream room.
He found that he couldn't quite understand what the viewers were talking about.
After watching for a while, he finally understood what was going on.
After learning about these things, Wang Ye was deeply puzzled.
Why didn't he hear Regimental Adjutant Xie Jin say these things?
It seemed that the storyline experienced by each person would have different situations and wouldn't be exactly the same.
Carrying this doubt, Wang Ye wanted to find Regimental Adjutant Xie Jin and ask.
He wanted to understand more deeply the things about China within this game world.
The things recorded in newspapers couldn't fully reflect reality.
Just as he was preparing to go find Regimental Adjutant Xie Jin, a soldier suddenly shouted.
"Company Commander, there's a situation below!"
Upon hearing this, Wang Ye immediately walked to the wall.
He looked down and discovered what was happening.
Below, a dark green steel plate was moving.
Beneath the steel plate, it seemed there were several Japanese soldiers following along.
Seeing this scene, Wang Ye frowned tightly.
In just a moment, he understood the Japanese soldiers' intentions.
"Not good. They are holding up the steel plates like that because they want to forcefully charge over and blow us up."
The Japanese soldiers' plan was obvious: use the steel plates to block the machine gun fire from above.
As for the firing ports on the first floor, there was no need to worry because no soldiers were stationed there.
Originally, soldiers had been arranged to guard the first floor, but Regimental Adjutant Xie Jin was afraid that the Japanese would use the firing ports to blow up the first floor and enter it.
He simply filled the entire first floor with sandbags, so that no matter where the Japanese blew it up, they couldn't enter the first floor.
Each steel plate was held by three Japanese soldiers, and there were five steel plates in total.
These steel plates were joined together to form a mobile cover.
These steel plates were custom-made by the Japanese.
Not only could they stop bullets, but even if a grenade hit the steel plate, it wouldn't blow it open.
Unless it was thrown directly at their feet.
Otherwise, it would be difficult to cause them any harm.
Under the steel plates, a few combat engineers were carrying fifty-kilogram explosive packs, moving toward the first floor of The Warehouse.
Seeing this, Wang Ye's expression turned grim.
This thing was like a tortoise shell; it was really difficult to break through the Japanese soldiers' shell just by throwing ordinary grenades down.
He threw a grenade down.
As expected, it didn't cause much harm to the Japanese soldiers.
The Japanese soldiers were still moving toward the base.
"Company Commander, let me do it."
At this moment, a young man stepped forward.
He had a dozen or so grenades strapped to his body.
Seeing this, Wang Ye frowned.
If throwing grenades down didn't work, this wasn't something that could be solved by quantity.
"Shu Sheng, grenades are useless. This tortoise shell is too hard," Wang Ye said helplessly.
Upon hearing this, a flash of hesitation and determination crossed Shu Sheng's face.
"Company Commander, how will you know if you don't try?"
Wang Ye looked at Shu Sheng and suddenly realized something.