In the Vladivostok Battle Headquarters, after Li Guodong threw out the special term "weapon of mass destruction" and gave a simple explanation of this term, Duan Qirui, commander of the Second Front Army, and Liang Huadian, commander of the Third Front Army, were immediately stunned on the spot.

Nuclear weapons, chemical weapons and biological weapons, these are simply unheard of for Duan Qirui and Liang Huadian.

After a long time, Duan Qirui was the first to wake up and asked, "Is there such a weapon in the world?" ”

Li Guodong said with a smile: "Since we have just started in terms of technology and knowledge reserves, many projects are still in the most primitive exploration stage, but chemical weapons can already be put into actual combat." ”

Liang Huadian asked, "What exactly do you mean by chemical weapons?" ”

Li Guodong said: "It's poison gas!" ”

For poison gas bombs, Duan Qirui and Liang Huadian can guess that they are not far from ten, ancient military strategists often used poisonous smoke near the enemy, poisoned in water, etc., but in ancient times, the equipment was very primitive, and in modern times, it can be upgraded to poison gas bombs, which is not a fuss.

Duan Qirui asked, "How about lethality?" ”

Li Guodong explained: "At present, we only have one poison gas, chlorine gas, and the method of using it is not much more advanced than that of the ancients, relying on the power of the wind to blow the poison gas onto the enemy's position. The only advantage we have over the ancients is that we have a large-scale industrial chlorine production base, and the lethality of chlorine is also very terrifying, eyes, skin will be burned, inhalation of a mouthful of chlorine will cause severe coughing up of blood and difficulty breathing in a short time, inhalation of more than three mouthfuls will definitely die. ”

Duan Qirui and Liang Huadian glanced at each other, looking at Li Guodong's expression, the lethality of chlorine gas was very terrifying.

Liang Huadian asked, "I don't know how much Master Li brought?" Is it enough? ”

Li Guodong smiled and said: "Commander Liang, although rest assured, thousands of companies and enterprises in the empire need to use chlorine gas in the production process, and the empire's production and reserves of chlorine gas are huge, if all of them are released, there will be no people and animals within a radius of five hundred kilometers." The amount of chlorine I brought is enough to poison the enemies in the fortress more than five times, so the two commanders don't have to worry about whether it is enough, it's just a matter of whether you dare to use it. ”

Liang Huadian snorted and said, "What don't you dare?" War is everything! ”

Li Guodong snorted coldly: "Don't blame me for not reminding you that the use of poison gas in combat must not let international public opinion know, otherwise the empire will fall into a serious diplomatic whirlpool." If the Imperial Axe can't withstand the pressure, it may find a scapegoat and send it to a court-martial. I'm sure I'll not admit it, so the two commanders have to be mentally prepared. ”

Liang Huadian and Duan Qirui immediately glared at Li Guodong, and the latter smiled: "It's useless to stare at me, my ship ran aground at sea, the crew abandoned the ship, and 10,000 bottles of chlorine gas on board sank into the sea, what do the two commanders think of this explanation?" ”

Liang Huadian's face sank suddenly, and Duan Qirui suddenly smiled: "This 10,000 bottles of chlorine gas were picked up by us, and they were accidentally blown up by the enemy as an ammunition depot, that's all." ”

Li Guodong was stunned for a moment, and then laughed and said, "Is Commander Duan also a fellow believer?" ”

Duan Qirui smiled: "Each other, each other!" ”

Li Guodong suddenly got up and asked, "Then it's decided?" ”

Duan Qirui and Liang Huadian also got up, and Duan Qirui said with a smile: "It's so decided, the credit must be indispensable to Master Li." ”

Li Guodong smiled slightly and said: "Only you and I know about this matter, and it has nothing to do with me whether the credit or responsibility is the responsibility of the two commanders." I'm just reminding you two that the secrecy has to be done. ”

Duan Qirui and Liang Huadian glanced at each other, gritted their teeth and agreed. In the following three days, Li Guodong sent people to secretly transport 10,000 bottles of chlorine to the front line in the name of transporting artillery shells, and sent a professional anti-biological and chemical force to keep and guard them.

Vladivostok Fortress is located on the Pacific coast at the southern tip of the Muravyov-Amur Peninsula, near the sea. The city is built on the mountain. Vladivostok is a highland to the north, bordering the Gulf of Ussuri to the east, the Great Peter Bay and the Amur Bay to the east, south and west, respectively. The city and port area are located on the shores of the Golden Horn at the tip of the Amur Peninsula. The Golden Horn Bay stretches from southwest to northeast into the interior and is about 7 km long. The southern side of the Golden Horn is separated by the East Bosphorus Strait, and there is Russian Island as a natural barrier. Surrounded by low mountains and hills, Vladivostok has been one of the five strongest coastal fortresses in the world since 1895.

In 1877, the commander of the engineering forces of the Eastern Siberian Military District, Colonel P. F. Winterberg, began to plan the construction of fortifications in this important port in the Far East, and his design was entrusted to Colonel V. P. Shirokov for implementation. A year later, the initial coastal defense works were completed. After that, the first commander of the engineering forces of the fortress, K. S. Chernoknynikov, strengthened the coastal artillery positions and built the first permanent fortifications of the littoral zone in the early 80s of the 19th century. Before and after the war, Colonel K. I. Velicko devised a systematic plan for land fortifications, on the basis of which Colonels V. I Galkovsky and S. F. Chi began to construct several main fortresses of the fortress: Forts No. 1, 2, and 3, multi-sided forts No. 4 and 5, and three spectacle forts, which were connected by moats protected by breastwork. In addition, the "Russian Fortress" and Fortress No. 4 were built in the Sikhote Mountains and on the Agathrid Peninsula, respectively, and these fortifications are similar to those built at the same time as the Arthur Pass Fortress.

After the First Sino-Russian War, the Russian High Command formulated a plan to expand the fortress of Vladivostok and build an eastern fortress that could never be captured, with the aim of making the Russian army invincible forever. In 1896, the plan for upgrading the fortress proposed by the engineering general A. P. Fernande was approved by the commander of the engineering forces of the Vladivostok fortress, Major General A. P. Shosin. In the following years, fortresses No. 1-7 and fortresses A, E, ZH and Z were built on the southern bank of the Suifen River basin from Ussuriysk (Twin Cities) to Amursky Bay, collectively known as the Second River Fortress. On the southern and eastern shores of Russky Island, fortresses No. 9-12 were built, as well as coastal batteries, collectively known as fortresses on the Amur Peninsula. Anti-landing barriers were erected around the perimeter of the fortress on the Amur Peninsula, drawing on all the achievements of military engineering and technology of the time, including many well-set bunkers and underground passages.

In 1900, as the contradictions and frictions between the Chinese Empire and the Russian Empire intensified, the Commander-in-Chief of the Far East, General Alekseev, approved a three-phase expansion project, establishing a new coastal defense system and fortified upgrades in and around Vladivostok, including a fortified Coastal Battery No. 223 on Russky Island, armed with five 280-mm and 10 240-mm coastal guns, collectively known as the Russky Island Fortress. On the opposite shore of the Russky Island fortress Ussuri Bay, the fortress of the Tyuli-Kim Peninsula was also built, including 240-mm and 152-mm railway guns, as a coastal defense system to cover the enemy's possible capture of Vladivostok from the sea.

In order to defend the city center, General Alekseev allocated special funds to build the Lujiawa Fortress on the northeastern hill of the Golden Horn, and repaired the first river fortress in depth behind the second river, near the city center, so that the entire Vladivostok fortress was united from the outside to the inside.

After more than 10 days of offensive operations, under the fierce offensive of the huge sea, land and air forces, the Chinese Emperor's [***] team was still blocked outside the second river fortress on the periphery of the Vladivostok fortress, the Lujiawa sub-fortress, the Qiulijin Peninsula fortress and the Russky Island fortress, and the inner Amur Peninsula fortress and the first river fortress were generally unhindered as a whole, and continued to provide troops, ammunition and food supplies for the outer fortress.

In the face of this situation, if you want to take the entire Vladivostok fortress, unless you fight all the Russian troops inside, this will inevitably cause a large number of casualties and material consumption of the Second Front Army and the Third Front Army of the Chinese Empire.

In the headquarters, Duan Qirui and Liang Huadian stared at the Vladivostok fortress on the sand table in a daze. The sand table is a complete simulation of the situation of the Vladivostok fortress according to the scale. Although it is only a sand table simulation, the powerful aura of Vladivostok Fortress is still unmistakable.

"Did you really decide to do it?"

"The most effective way to end the battle is the way to go. Yesterday I experimented with a bottle of chlorine on a couple of wild deer, and the results were very obvious. ”

"The Vladivostok fortress is too strong, and judging from the current siege casualties of our army, this is our way to reduce casualties and take the Vladivostok fortress as quickly as possible, it is worth trying."

"The weather was cold, and the soldiers fought very hard in the ice and snow. Russian reinforcements are coming, the brothers of the 1st Front are buying time for us, and in this case, the sooner we take Vladivostok, the better it will be for us, and vice versa, for the Russian army. ”

"We can't let the brothers sacrifice any longer, so let's do it!"

Duan Qirui and Liang Huadian analyzed each other, and finally decided to use an extreme plan, and summoned several confidant staff officers and army officers to discuss the matter of planning a poison gas attack on Vladivostok Fortress.

"As the so-called war is done to achieve victory, the commander should give the order!"

Although the officers were amazed by the poison gas operation, they thought that the emperor was about to come to the Vladivostok front, and for the honor of the soldiers, they supported the extreme tactics against the enemy.

Duan Qirui and Liang Huadian saw that everyone agreed, so they no longer hesitated, and immediately took action after emphasizing various confidentiality work.

On February 5, 1902, the first chemical gas war broke out in modern history.

After 9 o'clock in the evening of the 5th, the Second Front continued its heavy shelling as usual at the fortress of the second river fortress located in the north-west direction of the Vladivostok fortress defense system, but the ground attacking forces retreated, and as soon as they withdrew, it was more than ten miles, and soon the shelling also stopped.

The Russian army was overjoyed when they saw that the Chinese Emperor [***] had retreated, and the long-term assault had caused countless casualties to the Russian army.

Originally, in the case of minus fifty or sixty degrees at night, they would definitely freeze to death if they dozed off like this, but their fortress fortifications were bombarded by shells for a long time, barbecued by gasoline bombs, and the cold cement and masonry had long turned into a warm kang head, so the Russian army was not worried about being frozen to death.

The exhausted Russian soldiers dozed off one after another, and soon fell into a deep sleep, only the vigilant sentries were still rubbing their hands together in the cold wind.

In the middle of the night, two kilometers away from the second river fortress, two thousand chlorine cylinders were neatly lined up in several rows, stretching a five-kilometer-long battle line, opposite the more than a dozen fortresses of the second river fortress of the Russian army. A group of personnel wearing gas masks and white clothes wrapped like rice dumplings are opening the valves of each chlorine cylinder.

In the snort, a large amount of toxic chlorine gas is released into the air. The north wind was not in a hurry, and it just blew the poisonous gas from north to south into the Vladivostok fortress.

Soon, the yellow-green poison gas spread over the breastwork and trenches inside the fortifications. The sentry coughed incessantly when he smelled the poison gas, his eyes burned, and he didn't care about it, thinking it was caused by the smoke of gunpowder, but soon the poison gas caused a sharp edema in the respiratory tract that suffocated the sentry to the end.

The same is true of the sleeping Russian soldiers, who only woke up suddenly when they felt suffocation, but it was too late, and one by one they tightly choked their necks and died in fear.

The poison gas first rushed to the No. 4 fortress of the second river fortress to protrude the position, and then the entire No. 4 fortress was shrouded in poison gas, because it was a night release of poison gas, the Russian army did not have any countermeasures, most of the more than 1,000 Russian soldiers in the No. 4 fortress were poisoned and died without having time to react, although some soldiers realized that it was poisonous smoke, but the poison of chlorine was too fast, and they did not have the equipment and methods to prevent chlorine, so that they suffocated to death without waiting for them to run out.

At around two o'clock in the morning, the fortifications of fortresses No. 1-7 and polyhedral fortresses A, E, ZH and Z, the second river fortress of the Russian army, were shrouded in chlorine gas for two hours before dissipating.

Since Duan Qirui and Liang Huadian did not know whether the poison gas was effective against the Russian army, the first release was only a test of the surname.

The second river fortress defense system of the Russian army on the opposite side is a powerful fortress fortification with more than 100 fortress guns, a large number of machine gun bunker fortifications, and at least 20,000 people guarding it. At this time, after hearing a miserable whistle in the fortress from a distance, it fell into a deep silence, a deathly silence.

Li Guodong said: "It looks like it's working! ”

Duan Qirui and Liang Huadian glanced at each other, although they felt that there was some effect, they were not sure, so they sent a reconnaissance team.

Li Guodong immediately stopped him and said, "You let them go up to find death?" ”

"If you don't send someone up, how do you know if it's useful?"

Li Guodong said with a smile: "In case the poisonous gas on it has not dissipated, your people will be sent to death without any protection." ”

Liang Huadian asked, "Then what should I do?" You can't just wait, can you? ”

Li Guodong said: "Don't worry, my people have already gone to investigate, and there will be news soon." ”

Duan Qirui nodded, and suddenly asked, "I don't know how to prevent this thing yet?" What if one day the enemy has this thing and turns it against us? ”

Li Guodong replied: "Our current chlorine gas is only the most primitive poisonous gas, and it is easy to protect it, as long as you use a moist towel to protect your mouth and nose." ”

Liang Huadian asked, "Didn't you say that this chlorine gas corrosive surname is very strong?" If you blow it on a person, your skin will be burned! ”

Li Guodong smiled: "That's theoretical! Now our method of releasing chlorine, the air has diluted the chlorine gas, causing the percentage content of chlorine gas to drop every second, and now the purity of chlorine gas on the enemy's fortress can be five percent, in this case, only inhalation of chlorine gas will cause a fatal effect, and the corrosion of the skin is very light. ”

"I see!"

Duan Qirui and Liang Huadian were slightly disappointed.

After about ten minutes, I saw a signal flare over the No. 4 fortress of the second river fortress, and then signal flares were also sent out over other forts.

Li Guodong laughed a few times and said excitedly: "Two commanders, congratulations on taking the second river fortress." ”

Duan Qirui and Liang Huadian were overjoyed when they heard this, and immediately ordered about 2,000 soldiers in the first echelon to quickly attack.

Sure enough, in less than twenty minutes, the first attack echelon rushed unimpeded to the second river fortress of the Russian army. During this period, the Russian army put up some resistance, but it was quickly eliminated.

At dawn, Duan Qirui, Liang Huadian and Li Guodong boarded the second river fortress. At this time, more than 20,000 Russian officers and soldiers in the fortress were left with only corpses, because the chlorine release conditions were too primitive, so the corpses of the Russian troops were not terrifying, and the burns were not as terrifying as the incendiary bombs, and most of the Russian soldiers were suffocated to death with their necks tightened.

When entering the central headquarters of the Second River Fortress of the Russian Army, an officer who was cleaning the battlefield handed over the saber of Lieutenant General Menlegisky, the commander of the Second River Fortress of the Russian Army, to Duan Qirui.

Duan Qirui touched this exquisite lieutenant general's knife, and couldn't help but sigh: "This Menlegisky stubbornly blocked our onslaught for more than ten days, and he is also an admirable soldier, but he didn't want to die in this way, it's really an injustice!" ”

Liang Huadian also agreed with Duan Qirui's point of view, and said: "Being able to block such a powerful onslaught of the Emperor [***] team, he is indeed worthy of respect. Come and bury him, he is worthy of the emperor's courtesy. ”

"Yes!" The adjutant received the order and called in several guards to carry the body of Lieutenant General Menlegisky out and bury it.

Duan Qirui came to the center of the command room, and a huge map was presented in front of him, which was the complete military deployment map of the Vladivostok fortress. The coordinates, secret passages, underground bunkers, barracks, ammunition depots, food and water supply channels, etc., marked on it far exceeded the intelligence information that Duan Qirui had mastered.

"Look, with this thing, the Russian devils are going to suffer."

Because of the sudden poison gas attack, the Russian commander simply did not have time to destroy important documents such as maps, orders, passwords, etc.

"Now, even without gas attacks, our artillery fire can accurately hit the enemy's vital points."

At this moment, the phone rang suddenly.

The staff officer was about to pick it up, but Duan Qirui stopped him and picked up the phone himself. There was a sound of chirping on the other side, although Duan Qirui couldn't understand it, he also knew that he must be scolding, and the officers who dared to scold Lieutenant General Menlegisky were probably no one else except General Alekseev.

"Please inform General Alekseev that the commander of the Second Front of the Chinese Empire, Army General Duan Qirui, sincerely invites General Alekseev to be a guest at the Second River Fortress Command, and this invitation is valid for 24 hours. If he doesn't show his face, General Ben will be a guest in his office this time tomorrow. ”

After Duan Qirui finished speaking, he hung up the phone, and then everyone laughed.

(To be continued)