The 24 soldiers who managed to escape with their lives were still in a daze. After winning the battle against the virus, they exhausted every drop of energy in their bodies and were sent to the rear by the supply team. The frontline soldiers still did not know that their comrades had become evolvers, but it did not affect their great joy.
Regardless of the army, executing wounded soldiers was the most demoralizing act. Every time a wounded soldier was executed, it would leave a shadow in the hearts of the experienced soldiers, which would lower their combat effectiveness. This situation had already begun to appear in the suicide squad. The old prisoners no longer dared to fight with their lives on the line. Although the new prisoners suffered heavy casualties, they had contributed quite a lot.
In this situation, the greatest effect of the JS substance was shown. As long as there was a 1% chance of success, it would give them hope, let alone a 60% chance. This way, the soldiers would no longer be afraid of getting injured, and there would no longer be any demoralization caused by executing wounded soldiers.
The frontline had stabilized, and there were only three hours left until dawn. On this night, other than Meow, who was sleeping on Zhang Xiaoqiang's thigh, no one went to sleep. The battle at the frontline had reached its climax, and all the rocket launchers were mobilized to the frontline just in case.
Reports from the frontline came back like a river. The mountain of corpses in front of the frontline had already reached a height of five to six meters. Countless zombies were climbing up the mountain. Other than the zombies in the frontline, the zombies on both sides had already crossed the burning pits and were advancing towards the flanks of the frontline. The soldiers on the frontline gritted their teeth and held on. The four regiments were constantly switching out the soldiers who had run out of ammunition to rest.
No one knew how many zombies they had killed. There was only one last step before the sky would brighten. All the walls in front of them had been smashed or filled with zombies. Countless zombie corpses had filled the complicated terrain into a flat ground.
The troops on the periphery had not moved. Even though the frontline was in a tight spot, they did not move. This was because they were the main force in the encirclement of Z2. As they waited anxiously, danger kept appearing on the frontline. Without the obstacles blocking the way, the zombies' advantage in numbers was finally displayed. Wave after wave, they continuously attacked the frontline. In the end, the four regiments at the frontline felt a great deal of pressure, and their formation began to weaken.
No matter how fierce the firepower was, it could not stop the zombies from gradually approaching, especially when the zombies were numbly enduring the bullets. Their actions were the same. They climbed up the mountain of corpses, got shot, fell, and the endless number of zombies made the soldiers anxious to kill them all. All of this added up to a huge pressure on every soldier.
Once the zombies charged into the camp, the soldiers would no longer fight to the death with the D2s like before. Sometimes, quantity could truly overwhelm quality. At that moment, the majority of the soldiers were counting down the seconds to fight, because they had to hold on until dawn. There was no room for negotiation.
The first line of defense was finally broken through. The soldiers did not flee, nor did they rush forward. Instead, they lined up in a few lines and retreated as they fought. For every meter the zombies advanced, thousands of corpses would fall.
This was the only way. Behind the soldiers, there was an open space of tens of meters. It was originally a place to store ammunition and transfer ammunition, but now it had become their last line of defense. Thousands of soldiers stood neatly in rows, calmly firing at the incoming zombies. Casualties were naturally unavoidable. The S2 zombies did not have any obstacles, and used their fastest speed to rush into the crowd.
Even when the zombies rushed close, the soldiers did not panic. Countless of rifles fired continuously, and every time the zombies were torn into pieces. However, there were always some that managed to avoid being hit in their vitals, and pounced into the crowd to scratch a few times.
Once someone was injured, they would retreat to the furthest edge, and take the alcohol flask and gulp it down. Then they would inject the JS substance, and let the supply team soldiers find handcuffs to handcuff them, and carry them to the camp at the back.
Out of more than 10 people, there would always be a few who would die, but the majority would survive. Because of this, the soldiers at the front line were no longer afraid. At least, unless the zombies directly pierced their vitals, the chances of survival were relatively high.
When the thousands of people retreated to the last wall, the darkest hour of the sky was about to pass. Three consecutive groups of green signal flares flew into the night sky, causing the soldiers to raise their heads in unison.
"Retreat … Retreat, keep running …"
"Quick … Quickly fire the mortars out, all of them out, there's no time to move them back …"
"Don't care about the shells, don't care about the shells, don't care about them, don't care about them, just bring the magazines …"
"Machine gun team, stop shooting, stop shooting, retreat, don't leave a single machine gun behind …"
All kinds of orders came one after another from the soldiers. Although it was a retreat, it was not a swarm of thousands of people running back, but layers of stragglers gradually retreating. Those who first emptied their magazines retreated first, then those who emptied their magazines retreated. There was always a portion of people covering the retreat of the others.
The speed of humans was always faster than the zombies. In less than 20 minutes, the thousands of people retreated along the dozens of passageways like a tide, and when the zombies rushed to the last line of defense, other than the ground full of shells, there were no other living things.
When all the soldiers retreated, everyone in the combat room let out a long breath. The zombies had lost a lot of soldiers in the battle that lasted for a day and a night. Even if the zombies still appeared to be boundless, everyone present knew that after the blockade of the river and the front line, there were at least 300,000 to 500,000 zombies killed. Including the number of zombies that had passed through thousands of shallow ditches, the zombie horde had lost at least half of its original strength.
Other than that, the Type 2 zombies in the zombie horde had also been greatly depleted. At least three Type Z zombies had been killed, causing the Type 2 zombies in the front to be severely lacking in strength. This was proven by the fact that there were less than 30 S2 zombies that had appeared before the final retreat.
However, this did not mean that the zombie horde had reached a state of weakness. The Type 2 zombies were the backbone of the zombie horde, while the evolved zombies were the main force. Although the normal zombies were boundless, to the humans, only the evolved zombies could cause the most fatal damage to the front line in the shortest time.
Up until now, the zombies that were attacking the front line were all normal zombies. There were quite a number of Type 2 zombies, but compared to the entire zombie horde, it did not count as much. As long as there was enough zombie fluid, 10 evolved zombies could at least evolve into 3 Type 2 zombies, and 100 normal zombies could at least evolve into 50 normal zombies.
Therefore, the seemingly unconscious depletion of the zombie horde itself was also a survival of the fittest. The cunning Type Z2 zombies were also using the front line to optimize its source of soldiers. This could be proven by the fact that the evolved zombies did not appear on the battlefield at all.
According to the 5% chance of zombie evolution, the number of evolved zombies in Ordos was about 90,000. However, after nearly two years of the apocalypse, most zombies were close to the edge of evolved zombies, and a large part of them began to evolve on their own. According to this ratio, the proportion of evolved zombies was at least 25% to 30%. In this way, the actual number of evolved zombies was 450,000 to 540,000, and perhaps, 600,000. According to the reconnaissance aircraft during the day, almost all the zombies in the middle and rear of the zombie horde were evolved zombies.
The reason why Zhang Xiao Qiang wanted the troops to fight until daybreak was to give the evolved zombies time to evolve. The open space of over 10km was filled with the rotting corpses of the zombies, and when they reached the main camp, the rotting corpses became a sea.
Once the evolved zombies ate the fluid, there might be 100,000 type 2 zombies appearing. At that time, the Z2 zombies would show their trump card.
Zhang Xiaoqiang had encountered countless Type Z zombies, and there was more than one Z2 zombie. Any changes that might occur to the zombies, after the summary of the zombie war, were fully excavated by a group of staff officers who were good at reasoning.
Therefore, the 100,000 type 2 zombies were not only expected by the Z2 zombies, but also by the combat department. The Z2 zombies' plan was to reduce the number of soldiers and increase the quality of the soldiers as a decisive force. The combat department also expected that humans and zombies were weaker in terms of strength, but they had the absolute advantage in terms of intelligence.
However, 100,000 type 2 zombies were not so easy to deal with. Everyone knew that quantity trumped quality, but people also knew that once quality became quantity, they would be invincible. If the D2 zombies formed a zombie horde, even if they gathered all the rocket launchers, heavy artillery, and tanks, they would not be able to stop it.
The S2 zombies that formed the zombie horde were much stronger than the clumsy D2 zombies. They were like piranhas that preyed on their prey, able to destroy all living things in an instant. If the two of them were to work together, only a large amount of nuclear weapons would be able to destroy them.
Zhang Xiaoqiang did not have nuclear weapons, not even conventional missiles, but he had dozens of tons of explosives and a trap that could gather the zombies together. This trap was their countermeasure against the type 2 zombie horde.