On the battlefield in Hubei, the 4 million zombies had been fighting for a week. Along the 100km route, there were traces of fire and zombies everywhere. The frontline had long become yesterday's news, and the 10 km defensive line that they had painstakingly constructed had long been taken over by the zombies. All the trenches, fortifications, warehouses, and barbed wire had long been taken over by the zombies.
The three mountains had become the only place that had not fallen, and the 3,000 people were trapped on the mountains, waiting for the final counterattack. The frontline troops had already retreated to the second line of defense, and were gradually being forced out of their positions by the zombies.
The unprecedented pressure caused Huang Quan to not be able to sleep well for the entire week, including the soldiers and the higher-ups. Yang Ke-er and the Evolvers were the same, as they filled up the weak defensive lines at the places that were about to be breached, and the moment a place was stabilized, they would rush to the next place. It was a futile effort.
Not to mention the ordinary soldiers and Evolvers, even Yang Ke-er's two dogs were exhausted, running back and forth all day. The only one that was happy was the Mutant Snake, Xiao Hei. Faced with food, Xiao Hei started to be picky, and did not eat anything other than Type 2 zombies. It would arrogantly charge into the horde of zombies, turning the sea of zombies upside down, and in the end, it would eat the Type 2 zombies that were hiding in the sea of zombies.
After the two mutated dogs barked, the huge body of the Mutant Snake continued to expand, reaching the width of one and a half large water tank. Its size had exceeded the huge black fish, and if it was Zhang Xiaoqiang, he would definitely not be able to recognize it. Other than that, the Mutant Water Snake had gone through its second molting, and the color of its scales had become more vibrant, like a rainbow.
However, that was in the past, the Mutant Water Snake had now become a Mud Snake. The huge battlefield only had one line of defense, the swamp line of defense. Lu Xiao Bu was the commander of the second line of defense, and thought of all sorts of ways to transform the land within a radius of 20km into a large swamp.
The reconstruction of the swamp required a huge amount of work, and for that, Old Frank led his 20,000 men to complete it. Of course, 20,000 men was only a small portion, for the sake of this war, Hubei Base had mobilized 70% of the population to assist the army in the reconstruction of the swamp. Countless people worked hard on the land, and finally, the reconstruction was completed within a month.
Millions of cubic meters of soil was mixed with underground water that was pumped out to form mud. All kinds of lime, coal ash, and sand were mixed together to form a slush-like mixture. In addition, the depression was also dug deeper, and countless trenches were intersected in the depression.
By the time the sea of zombies neared the second line of defense, the depression had become a miracle created by Lu Xiao Bu and Old Frank. They worked day and night in the mud, and tens of thousands of people had become mud monkeys. The construction site was filled with excavated soil, and the trenches were filled with underground water. Because they needed water, no one would drain the water out, and everyone worked in the muddy water.
When the long line of zombies fell into the swamp, everyone's fatigue and pain seemed to have disappeared. The first line of defense had lost 800,000 zombies, and close to 300,000 zombies were attracted to the three mountains. On the road, there were millions of zombies slowly approaching. The first wave of close to 200 zombies was the first wave, and about 300,000 zombies were all buried in the mud within a day.
The results of the first day were gratifying, and by the second and third day, the endless swamp had turned from an ocean to a small pond in front of the millions of zombies. The 20 square kilometers of man-made swamp was quickly filled up by the zombies. By the afternoon of the third day, all the mud had been filled up into a sturdy hill, and the zombies' corpses were the bones of the hill.
Finally, the troops could not hold on any longer, and were forced to retreat by the zombies. This time, they had nowhere to retreat to, as there were only two battlefields. One was the defensive triangle formed by the three mountains, and in the middle of the triangle, the corpses and bones of the zombies formed the fourth mountain.
The mountain emitted a strong stench of rotting corpses, and the rotting liquid of the zombies formed a green lake at the foot of the mountain. Every soldier fighting at the top of the mountain could not smell, and everything was smelly. Rifles, military uniforms, the smoke from bullets, drinking water, and even food were filled with the stench of rotting corpses.
This mountain of corpses was a man-made bait. Most of the corpses were burned by the army, and the number of zombies was decreasing, but the quality could not be replenished. With this mountain of corpses, it became a flame that attracted moths, and the zombies kept rushing into the center of the three mountains, adding bricks and tiles to the mountain of corpses.
Zhao Deyi no longer looked like a human. His whole body was covered in smoke and ash. His eyes were no longer black and white. The dense blood vessels made his eyes look frighteningly red. His eyes were sunken, his cheeks were sunken, and his hair was like grass. He looked like a drug addict with one foot in the grave.
Zhao Deyi, who had no image, sat at the top of one of the mountain peaks. His eyes were lifeless, and he looked down at the surging zombies. In the trench below him, the soldiers were squatting in the trench, shooting at the surging zombies at the foot of the mountain. Countless bullet shells paved the trench, and the soldiers were surging through the countless bullet shells, as if they were shuttling through floating sand.
There were rarely three shots, and most of them were single shots. The single shot every three seconds was the main rhythm of the camp. The soldiers were stingy with their bullets, and the scattered gunshots were not enough to stop the zombies. The endless zombies were surrounding the foot of the mountain, devouring the corpses of their own kind.
Over a hundred heavy machine guns had already stopped firing. Although they used wood to make bullets to alleviate the shortage of ammunition, but no amount of ammunition could keep up with the endless number of zombies. More and more zombies were killed, and more and more ammunition was used up. At this point in the battle, all the heavy machine guns finally stopped firing. No matter how thrifty the soldiers were, every heavy machine gun had an average of less than three boxes of ammunition left, and every box had 50 rounds of ammunition. Counting up, there were over a hundred heavy machine guns with less than 20,000 rounds of heavy machine gun ammunition. This was a last resort reserve.
Not only the machine gun ammunition, even the millions of bullets stored at the top of the mountain were almost depleted. The zombies were like an iron bucket surrounding the top of the mountain. The bullet shells could not go down, and the ammunition could not go up. Some people had already prepared for a melee fight, because the zombies had already occupied the position at the waist of the mountain.
Zhao Deyi gave up the responsibility of commanding, and sat in the trench in a daze. It was not that he was in despair, but it was no longer necessary. Maybe in an hour, maybe two hours, the ammunition would be depleted, and the three mountain peaks would no longer be able to stop the zombies from devouring the corpses. At that time, the number of S2 zombies that had caused them a lot of casualties would increase by a hundred times.
Zhao Deyi had already predicted the worst, but the soldiers below did not know. Compared to their superior, they were still doing their best. Looking at the soldiers below who were as haggard as him, and worse off than the refugees, Zhao Deyi's eyes suddenly became moist. He lowered his head, and used his hands that were covered in smoke and the stench of corpses to cover his face.
Zhao Deyi did not know how many of them could survive, after a week of fighting, they were on the verge of collapse. The soldiers below only needed to fight, they did not need to understand much, but Zhao Deyi was different, he knew more. The second line of defense was their line of life and death. The three mountains were the battle nodes, placed in the center of the battlefield. The original plan was to use the second line of defense to kill a large number of zombies, and let Yuri execute the decapitation tactic in the air to kill the Z2 zombies, and finally launch a full scale counterattack. If it did not work, they could use the swamp to stop the zombies from advancing.
When the endless zombies entered the swamp, they still could not find the Z2 zombies, and after a large number of rockets and cannons were used up, the previous plan was completely overturned. There were only about two million zombies left, and they had reached the point where they were out of food and ammunition. If this continued, there would be nothing that could stop the zombies from advancing.
"Report, the frontline commander has ordered that the main force is moving to continue attracting the zombies. He wants us to act according to the situation, allowing us to find a chance to retreat and regroup with the Yangtze River Fleet that is guarding the river. Also, the higher-ups want us to hold on for a short period of time, as the supplies will arrive soon. They also asked if our water reserves are sufficient."
The messenger found Zhao Deyi who was resting in the trench. Zhao Deyi stood up with his rifle and took the written order from the messenger. He nodded silently and waved his hand to let the messenger leave. He leaned against the mud wall behind him and rummaged through his clothes. After a while, he found the empty cigarette box. He took out the last cigarette and lit it up. Looking at the curling smoke, he knew that the main force's counterattack had disappeared.
"Sir, is it true about the supplies?"
A hoarse voice came from behind. Zhao Deyi turned his head and saw a soldier holding a rifle looking at him. When he looked at the soldier with doubt, the slightly older soldier said in a panic, "The bullets … are out."
Zhao Deyi's heart suddenly tightened. The bullets were going to be used up so quickly?
A gust of mountain wind blew, and the smoke from the mountain blew onto the two of them. The soldier did not feel anything, but Zhao Deyi was chilled to the bone by the mountain wind that carried the smell of gunpowder and corpses.
"Go to the ammunition storage area and search again. Find all the storage areas and see if there are any that were missed. Let the heavy machine gunners take out the remaining bullets and prepare …"
Zhao Deyi did not give a specific answer and gave a new order to the soldier who had run out of bullets. For the illusory supplies, he would rather go to the bottom of the warehouse. Looking at the soldier's back, Zhao Deyi put the cigarette to his mouth and took a deep puff. He frowned and turned to look at the other two peaks.
The firepower of the remaining two peaks was not as dense as the main peak where he was. One of the peaks only had half the firepower of the main peak. Seeing this, Zhao Deyi's heart was even more disappointed. The situation seemed to be really bad. The clear sky was covered by smoke and gunpowder, just like his heart. More and more negative emotions were accumulating, making the big stone in his heart heavier and heavier. It was so heavy that it was suffocating, and he just wanted to roar to vent the depression in his heart.
Unfortunately, he could not. He was the commanding officer of this unit. His every word and action would be magnified by the soldiers below him. Before the last minute, he could not let the soldiers lose their confidence. Just like how he did not answer the soldier's question just now, he could not let the soldier have the chance to think too much. He had to let the soldier always have something to do, regardless of whether it was futile or not, as long as the soldier did not focus on running out of ammunition and running out of options.
"Commander, Commanding Officer … I found it, I found the ammunition …"
The soldier that he had sent out carried the box of ammunition and ran over. Previously, after a few days of fighting, this soldier could not even walk steadily, but now, with the heavy box, he was running as if he was flying.
"Peng …"
The green ammunition box fell at Zhao Deyi's feet. The soldier used his dirty sleeves to wipe the sweat on his face. On his face that was covered in oil, only his eyes were alive. The red eyes that were also covered in blood flashed with the luster of hope. Looking at the pair of eyes that were waiting for praise, Zhao Deyi stretched out his hand and handed over the remaining half of the cigarette in his hand. The soldier did not look down on it and carefully took a puff before returning it to Zhao Deyi.
"Fire the bullets …"
Zhao Deyi didn't need to ask to know that this box of bullets must have been hidden in a corner and forgotten by someone. It was only luck that he was able to find it. The soldier gave a simple and honest smile, and the confusion in his eyes faded away, leaving only determination.
"Sigh!"
Zhao Deyi let out a long sigh and no longer looked at the cheerful footsteps of the soldier who was running to the trenches below. There were only a thousand rounds in a box of ammunition, which was only enough for a platoon of people to use one magazine. It was a drop in the bucket, perhaps …