The whole of Australia had become a land of monsters. Countless strange beasts with bodies as big as mountains walked on the land. Millions of members of the Seafolk filled up the northeast coast of Australia. They were several times faster than the zombies as they pushed inland like a hurricane. Countless explosions sounded like thunder under the feet of the Seafolk.
Three million landmines covered the flat terrain, and thousands of trenches were filled with the bodies of hundreds of thousands of seafolk. The defense line that humans had built for more than three months killed hundreds of thousands of seafolk every day. Many seafolk didn't even get to see humans before their legs were blown off by landmines, or they were hung by the steel nails in the trenches, and millions of their own kind stepped on them.
There were not many coastlines that were suitable for the seafolk to land on. These coastlines had been turned into death traps by humans. If there were no high-level mutated beasts, no matter how many seafolk there were, they would not be able to advance to a depth of a hundred kilometers in three days. There were all kinds of mutated beasts. There were giant mutated beasts that appeared in Shanghai. They were hundreds of meters tall and were even more majestic than the tallest human building. There were also giant sea snakes that were thousands of meters tall. These sea snakes were extremely poisonous. Every time they spat out a mouthful, a poisonous fog that could corrode rocks would envelop an area of more than ten football fields. There were also giant octopuses that had an area of a few thousand meters. These mollusks were like flowing water, carrying thousands of seafolk forward. There were giant sea turtles that had appeared before, scorpions that looked like aircraft carriers, and mutated beasts that had thousands of tentacles on their backs. They were like minesweeper tanks that detonated the landmines along the way.
None of the mutated beasts that were level three or above were killed by landmines. To be precise, they were not even injured by the explosions. These mutated beasts were moving faster than cars. They were ten meters deep, and the trenches that were buried with thousands of steel nails were easily trampled by them. Countless barbed wires were swept away in front of the monsters like weeds. There were also artificial algae swamps that could not even cover their calves.
The sea belonged to the seafolk, and the land belonged to the seafolk. Only the sky was still in the hands of humans. Many Bumblebee fighter jets were dragged out of the hangar of the Australian Air Force. After Xiao Lang repaired and optimized them day and night, they flew into the sky. Air-to-ground missiles flew across the sky and exploded on the bodies of the giant beasts. Countless triangular winged drones flew above the seafolk's heads and locked onto the monsters with lasers. Then, long-range missiles were launched from the missile bases to accurately hit the targets.
However, this kind of resistance was hopeless. The level five mutated beasts were almost unscathed. The number of level four mutated beasts far exceeded the number of missiles. Not every missile could kill a mutated beast. Under such circumstances, humans did not even have the chance to stabilize their defense line. In front of these level five mutated beasts, the Chinese army was no different from the Australian army. There was no way for them to resist. Once the seafolk found their position, they would definitely die. Therefore, before the giant sea beasts split up, the Chinese army could only retreat.
The seafolk used their absolute advantage to directly press towards the heart of Australia. Zhang Xiaoqiang tasted the feeling of the Americans continuously retreating. On the Australian side, there was only one military branch that was the busiest, and that was the newly established air force. All kinds of transport planes transported a large amount of resources to the central region. The central region of Australia had been immersed in an uninhabited area for countless years. Countless construction workers were busy transforming the complex terrain into a large battle fortress.
There were also planes shuttling back and forth between China and Australia, crazily transporting survivors to China. Facing such a huge pressure, Zhang Xiaoqiang felt as if there was a thousand pounds weighing on his heart. From the first day, he had never left the command center, closely monitoring the speed of the seafolk's advance. Under the ferocious advance of the seafolk, any resistance would be futile. Yang Ke-er, Zhuo Mingyue, Meow, and Ma Fei could only stay in the rear, and the millions of zombies of the Blood Phoenix also had to move to the rear.
The zombies in Australia had been eliminated many times, and the remaining millions of zombies were all type 2 zombies and above. These zombies had been nourished by the brains of their own kind and the flesh and blood of the seafolk, becoming the strongest zombie sea in the world. It was also the only sea of zombies that was controlled by humans. In the past three days, Zhang Xiaoqiang had wanted to stop the Blood Phoenix from moving and use the zombies to stop the advance of the seafolk, but in the end, he had given up on that idea.
The moment Flender was surrounded, in the busy command center, Zhang Xiaoqiang looked at the scene of the missiles exploding on the screen with a pale face. Every time it appeared, his heart would twitch. Australia did not have many missiles, and they had been hiding them in the past few wars. He had never thought that they would use 80% of their missiles in three days. China's missiles were incompatible with the American missiles, so even if they were transported by air, it would be useless. Missiles and bombs were the only heavy weapons that could kill level 4 mutant beasts.
"How many people have retreated?"
Zhang Xiaoqiang, who had not had a good rest for a long time, asked in a hoarse and dry voice. Every word seemed to be dragged out of his throat. Standing beside Zhang Xiaoqiang was Ishihara, who was equally unshaven and tired. Ishihara had always paid attention to his appearance, and there were few wrinkles on his neat military uniform. But here, his collar was open, and his sleeves were brushed up, and he reeked of sweat.
It was not just Ishihara. Everyone here had the same smell. Normal people would not be able to notice it, but Zhang Xiaoqiang, with his sharp senses, could easily detect it. Ishihara did not answer Zhang Xiaoqiang's question immediately. His eyes were fixed on another aerial image. It was a wide river. According to the drone's low altitude reconnaissance, the river had been filled with mutant beasts. The speed of the mutant beasts in the river was more than ten times faster than on land, and it was one of the most heavily guarded areas in Australia. Clouds of smoke rose from the river, and the mutant beasts were torn apart by the eruption of water. However, the mutant beasts did not slow down. They used their bodies to remove the mines in the river, and used their blood to extinguish the exploding fireballs. Unknowingly, the mutant beasts in the river had advanced to within a thousand miles of the heart of Australia. In the center of the river, a new city was being built. It would not be long before the mutant beasts would swarm into the new city, but Ishihara knew that a third of the people in the new city had not been evacuated in time.
"Twenty-eight of the thirty-two new cities have been completed. The remaining four cities are quite far away, and there are not enough transport vehicles. Two of them might come into contact with the merfolk in two hours. Do we need to …"
Ishihara pointed at the city icon on the electronic map that was about to be attacked by the merfolk. Zhang Xiaoqiang was a little slow as he turned his head to look at the city, and then the data of the city was displayed in a row. It was an agricultural city, and the surrounding farmland had the best irrigation system. It was located on a plain, and the surrounding land was all fertile. If it were not for the merfolk and the nuclear winter, it would be the granary of Australia.
The reason why Ishihara pointed at this city was that it would be the first to be attacked by the merfolk, and the other city would be attacked an hour earlier. Ishihara looked at Zhang Xiaoqiang expectantly. He hoped to hear Zhang Xiaoqiang's order to send out their only long-range mobile force, which was led by Yang Ke-er and Zhuo Mingyue, as well as Xue Feng's three hundred S4 zombies.
"How many of them have not left?"
Zhang Xiaoqiang did not answer directly, but asked for more details. Soon, the results were presented to them. This city had a population of thirty-six thousand, and there were still fifteen thousand people who did not have enough vehicles to evacuate. According to the city's surveillance system, the streets were filled with survivors carrying big and small bags, and they were running out of the city in panic. Even if they managed to get out of the city, they would not be able to escape the merfolk's advance unless they had enough vehicles and planes.
"How many people are left in the other city?"
Zhang Xiaoqiang glanced at the panicking survivors and asked about the other city that still had time to evacuate. Ishihara was slightly dazed, and he answered subconsciously, "That city evacuated earlier, and they have enough vehicles. There are about six thousand people left. If they send out bombers to block the bombardment, at least four thousand people can be evacuated.
There were fifteen thousand people on one side, and two thousand at most on the other. To Ishihara, it was a simple matter of numbers. Exchanging the lives of two thousand people for the lives of fifteen thousand people was not a bad deal for Ishihara. However, Zhang Xiaoqiang did not give the order to rescue as Ishihara had expected. Instead, he looked at the information of the two cities carefully and turned to the adjutant beside him, "Send out the alarm in Agricultural City and tell them to speed up the evacuation. Send out emergency forces to rescue City No. 2 …"
Zhang Xiaoqiang did not go to rescue the fifteen thousand people, but two thousand people instead. This shocked Ishihara, but then he realized what was going on. Most of the people in the agricultural city were Indonesians and Vietnamese, and most of the people in the other city were Chinese. Zhang Xiaoqiang would rather use his precious mobile force to rescue the Chinese than the Indonesians.
"Why?"
The pressure from the past few days had agitated Ishihara. He glared at Zhang Xiaoqiang and roared, causing the officers around him to look over. Zhang Xiaoqiang's face was cold, and he avoided Ishihara's gaze. He listed the data of City No. 2 and pointed at the screen, saying to Ishihara, "This is the production center of the detonator. There are still twenty-five thousand boxes of detonators in the warehouse that haven't been moved out yet. Also, we didn't expect the speed of the sea race's advance, so we didn't have time to move a lot of the machinery. If I had a choice, I wouldn't want to trade my life for it."
Zhang Xiaoqiang suppressed the annoyance in his heart and explained to Ishihara. He knew why Ishihara had such a big reaction. During the Silver Stream retreat, Ishihara had given the order to ignore the civilians, causing the hundred thousand survivors to become food for the zombies. Since then, Ishihara had been blaming himself, and he couldn't stand such a situation.
Ishihara wanted to say something, but he didn't know what to say. He understood the importance of this, but he was unwilling to watch over ten thousand people being killed by the sea race. Zhang Xiaoqiang patted Ishihara's shoulder heavily and sighed, "This is just the beginning. The days ahead will be even more difficult. We may not win the war, but we can't lose to ourselves. There's hope as long as we can survive. You don't have to worry about Farm City anymore. If there's a similar situation in the future, just do the same. It doesn't matter whether it's a country or a race, just make a choice. You'll feel better once you've made a choice."
Zhang Xiaoqiang's persuasion didn't make Ishihara feel better. He walked out with bloodshot eyes. Zhang Xiaoqiang looked at Ishihara's back and sighed, then ignored him. Just as they were talking, the sea race broke through another defense zone, and there were two divisions behind it. The official battle between the land forces and the sea race had finally begun …