A shooting range near Frankfurt, Germany. A major weapons test is taking place here. In the center of the shooting range, there are some bunkers and other things, and inside those bunkers are dozens of large and small iron cages, which hold all kinds of animals, including horses, monkeys, goats, rabbits, chickens, and pigeons. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince personally came to check on this time. He and a few others led the horses to a small hill that was a full four kilometers away from the target. A high-powered telescope was also set up there for observation.

The crown prince looked up from the objective lens of the telescope and asked, "Are you ready to start?" ”

The crown prince's aide-de-camp, Major Fritz, glanced at the weather vane hanging next to him, the wind vaneer was silent and motionless, it was a good weather for a real secret weapon. So he replied to the crown prince, "It's about to begin, Your Highness the Prince!" ”

What was tested here was a real weapon of mass destruction - chemical weapons.

In the development of insecticides in cooperation with Scrooge, in addition to the "DDT" that is now used on a large scale, the project team also developed many other types of insecticides, because pests sometimes become resistant to certain insecticides, which leads to a decrease in the efficiency of insecticides. To deal with this possible problem, Scrooge felt that they needed more pesticides.

A team led by German experts is responsible for the development of carbamate pesticides. In the process of making these things, they get a by-product - carbonyl chloride, which is phosgene. This is one of the raw materials for the production of urethane, which is widely used in many pesticides. Even in later generations, it was a common pesticide.

There was a phosgene leakage accident in the real yàn room, which caused many people to be poisoned. Although there were no deaths, it caused several German researchers to suffer from pulmonary edema and spent a long time in the hospital. Carbamate insecticides are also very effective, so the Germans, who are partners in the results of the research on the subject, also received a copy.

When the German experts returned home, they packed all these technologies and brought them back, and with the war reparations from the Franco-Prussian War, the Germans quickly built more factories, including synthetic ammonia factories and pesticide factories. When building a pesticide factory, an expert mentioned that it is best to build a pesticide factory downwind of the city, and it is best to be far enough away from the city to avoid accidents and endanger the safety of the city.

Naturally, this construction attracted the attention of the above, and when asked why, the German expert also said that if it is necessary to produce carbamate insecticides, a lot of phosgene is needed in the intermediate process, and one or more large phosgene tanks must be built to store it. However, phosgene toxicity is very high, and once leaked, it may be illuminated as a very strict consequence, so pesticide factories with a large amount of phosgene naturally need to be built in the downwind direction of the city, and the farther away from the city, the better.

After careful calculations, the experts told the above that if the factory was large enough, and it was in the city like a normal factory, and the weather conditions cooperated, the worst accident could cause hundreds of thousands of deaths. Well, in order to emphasize the need to keep such factories away from the cities, experts may have exaggerated a little. Because building a factory far from the city will inevitably bring a series of rising costs, so experts feel that most of them will not take it to heart if they don't let the guys above who only see money understand the severity of this problem. After all, compared with reducing costs, or to put it more clearly, compared with money, dead people are a hammer?

In fact, the experts are not exaggerating, they just don't know that similar catastrophic accidents have actually happened in later generations.

In the early hours of December 3, 1984, a cyanide leak occurred at a pesticide factory near a slum area of Union Carbide (India) Ltd., a subsidiary of Union Carbide in Madhya Pradesh, India. It caused 25,000 direct deaths, 550,000 indirect deaths, and more than 200,000 permanent disabilities. One of the main reasons why the danger is so alarming is that the pesticide factory, which contains highly toxic gases, is built in a densely populated area. And one of the reasons for this is to reduce costs. Even, for the same reason, well, the company has simplified its security management procedures and simplified some of the critical, but "too expensive" automated inspection equipment.

None of the main people responsible for the accident were poisoned. But they are not immune to the sacred laws of the world's largest democracy, and several of them were sentenced to up to two years in prison for dereliction of duty after a careful 25-year trial (the maximum sentence for dereliction of duty in India is two years). As for the responsible persons on the American side, of course, they can't run away, and they are all fined. It is believed that such an efficient and severe punishment will definitely prevent the recurrence of similar disasters.

However, after all, the Germans are different from those low-caste bipeds in India, and even in the nineteenth century, when they didn't care about human life, if the Germans were poisoned to death by hundreds of thousands of people because of an accident, the Germans would definitely not be able to afford such a loss. So Germany simply enacted a law for this purpose, stipulating that pesticide factories must be kept at a distance of more than 10 kilometers from the city.

However, the efforts of these experts have also produced a negative effect, that is, some middle-level officers who "can't kill people like they can't lift them" began to open their brains, and they raised yì to the above, since phosgene or something has such a great lethality, then why not just use them as weapons? Think about it, dear, when your enemies have gathered a large number of troops and built strong fortifications, and you insist on gnawing them, most of them will suffer a great loss, even if your teeth are as good as Suarez's, more than half of your teeth will be broken. What a painful thing it is! But if your cannonball is not TNT explosives, but phosgene, then you can find a windless weather, hit a phosgene cannonball, and then the guy on the other side will die, just like using DDT to kill insects. It's really, it's beautiful to think about. Moreover, phosgene shells are not expensive, as long as 998, take the phosgene shells home, dear, what are you waiting for?

The mentions of these middle-level officers have been highly valued by the above, and there is no way, things that are used to harm people are always easier to be valued than things that are used to help human beings. As a result, a poison gas weapons research group was established and the development of phosgene shells began.

To be honest, the phosgene shells were really not very difficult, so soon, well, they came up with a prototype and it was ready for testing. The guys in the research and development team first made a few real yàn by themselves, and the effect was pretty good most of the time, of course, they also found two weaknesses in this thing, the first is afraid of wind, if the wind is too strong, it will be blown away before it poisons people. Second, for fear of rain, phosgene is very easy to hydrolyze, and even in cold water, the hydrolysis rate of phosgene is very fast. So if it rains, well, it's basically useless. But when there is no wind or rain, its power is really not covered. For example, those reinforced concrete bunkers on the shooting range in front of them, if you want to bombard them with ordinary cannons, they can't hit them at all, but if they are replaced with phosgene bombs, you can make the animals in those bunkers die with just a few shells.

"If they're ready, let them go!" The crown prince ordered.

"Okay." Adjutant Fritz immediately picked up the wired phone placed next to him, shook it, and shouted into the microphone: "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince said, you can start!" ”

After a while, through the high-powered telescope, the crown prince saw that several objects had landed on the shooting range, but they only smashed a little dust and did not explode. He adjusted his binoculars and saw a small flattened tin canister that had fallen next to him, and it was a phosgene cannonball. Because phosgene has no color, he can't see anything else at all.

After a while, it was reported that the gas bomb should have taken effect, and they were going to disinfect the scene right now, and then ask His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to come and see the results.

"Your Highness, do you want me to follow them first." Adjutant Fritz asked.

"Okay, be careful yourself."

Fritz nodded, then stood upright, gave a military salute to the crown prince, and then mounted his horse and walked towards the artillerymen.

After a while, the crown prince saw in the binoculars a group of people wearing gas masks, well, this thing is also an invention of Scrooge, mainly used in those chemical factories with more toxic and harmful gases. The effect of the gas mask is very good, but the shape is really ......" with that thing, it looks like a pig's head. The crown prince couldn't help but think so.

The men were towing several carts filled with some kind of liquid. Well, the crown prince knows, that thing is concentrated ammonia. Because phosgene will react with ammonia very quickly to produce non-toxic substances such as urea and ammonium chloride. Therefore, spraying concentrated ammonia is the best and fastest means of disinfection, but the smell of concentrated ammonia, as long as you think about it, even if it is still several kilometers away, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince wants to take out a handkerchief to cover his nose.

After a while, these people were finally busy. Then after a while, Major Fritz returned.

"Fritz, what's going on over there?" The crown prince asked.

"All but the horse was dead, and the horse was foamy, and was lying on the ground, unable to move, but not dead. Your Highness, if you want to see for yourself, I have a gas mask for you here. Major Fritz replied.

The people all put on gas masks, mounted their horses and ran towards the shooting range, and the crown prince's guards naturally put on gas masks and rode horses to follow. Near the range, the crown prince jumped off his horse, handed the reins to one of the guards and made a gesture for them to leave the horse in its place - there was no gas mask for the horse. Although phosgene is probably gone, although ammonia is poisonous and immortal, it is by no means easy to mess with.

Fritz took the crown prince into the bunker, and all the animals in the iron cages in the bunker had died in the cages, only the old horse, slumped on the ground, panting hard, his nose and mouth were full of foam, and foam was constantly spewing out of his nose. Its eyes widened and it lay there motionless. Only tears kept pouring out of its wide, wide eyes.

The crown prince walked silently and stood in front of the horse for a moment, then he took out his pistol and shot the old horse twice in the head, ending its suffering.