On the second day, the scorching sun shone on the land of the Far East, and just after noon, a large number of Chinese fighters escorted bombers and transport planes, loaded with countless specially made leaflets, flew towards the encircled army.

More than 1.3 million Japanese troops have gathered in an area of more than 100 square kilometers, and in addition to the 200,000 or so Japanese troops who were wiped out by poison gas and soft-killed, the remaining Japanese troops are still surviving in this area.

Five kilometers away from the defense line of the [***] team in the northwest direction of Vagnino was a division of the army.

The mission of this division from the beginning was to block the pursuit attack that the [***] team might launch from the north of Vanino, and they did not catch the first wave of retreat, but they also had good luck and avoided being directly enveloped by death gas.

However, the speed of the spread of poison gas was very fast, and the news of the large-scale use of poison gas by the [***] squadron in the coastal areas behind them to retaliate against the Yue army soon spread throughout all the units, except for the Yue army that was directly enveloped by the poison gas or blocked by the poison gas in some other corner areas, the other Japanese army chose to temporarily retreat when they could not contact the Supreme Command of the Far Eastern Theater.

A no-man's land of several tens of square kilometers was quickly formed, and almost all the people or animals on the ground could not escape death, and they were almost wiped out on the first day, and the lethality of poison gas was too great, and the army used it without any scruples, and if the squadron was not really unable to sit idly by and watch the army withdraw, it would not have used poison gas to create a poison gas isolation zone in this small seaside area in the Far East, and this area of more than 100 square kilometers would not be suitable for human survival in the future.

What's even worse is that the Yue army, the elite of the so-called elite who enjoyed the first batch of priority retreat in this no-man's land, was directly covered with poison gas, except for a very small number of people who fled into underground bunkers, pits, and even caves like a very small number of senior officers such as Yamashita Fengwen, none of them survived on the ground or hid in the grass.

This is the cruelty of war, and when you cannot completely destroy the enemy, the enemy's retaliation is likely to be beyond your reach.

The army retreated away from this no-man's land, and discovered a new and more serious problem.

There is a poison gas isolation zone on both sides, both of which are death forbidden areas, only the north and south are safe, but there are heavy troops stationed in the north and south, just wait for the harm of the poison gas to be minimized and then attack and take these troops in one fell swoop.

The danger of poison gas is not only that no-man's land, it can be said that this more than 100 square kilometers of the Yue army has been more or less attacked by poison gas, although they continue to retreat to safe areas, but in fact the real safe areas are only the two offensive defense lines of the [***] team in the north and south.

The 9th Division had retreated to the north of the Vanino Line, only five kilometers away from the Central [***] team, and the mark on the map here turned out to be just a small village called Rosby.

After Lieutenant General Mitsuo Murata, commander of the Ninth Division, was shocked to hear that the Chinese were using poison gas on a large scale in the rear in retaliatory operations, he found that the Far Eastern Theater Command could not be contacted.

So, when the poison gas was still very far away, this division, which was still relatively determined to fight, came to the northernmost area of Vanino under the order of the division commander.

"Your Excellency, Division Commander, no suspicious poison gas has been detected here, and it is safe so far."

The military doctor of the Ninth Division has a better understanding of poison gas, after all, poison gas has been widely used on the battlefield, and as a military doctor, he also knows more about poison gas, at least he can detect harmful gases in the air by some means.

"Yo Xi, order the troops to be stationed in place and maintain a high degree of vigilance against the [***] squadron in the north."

Mitsuo Murata did not know what the situation was in the rear, and the information he received from the military headquarters only said that the Chinese had indeed used poison gas bombs, but the damage area was limited at present, and the military headquarters required all departments to stabilize the morale of the troops and prevent the Chinese from taking the opportunity to attack. This is exactly in the hands of Mitsuo Murata, and he fled far away from the poison gas area under the pretext.

After Mitsuo Murata symbolically inspected the excavation of the position, he returned to the command bunker that had just been dug up, and the communications and operations staff officers were reporting to him.

"Your Excellency Division Commander, at present, we have contacted many divisions and regiments have confirmed that China's retaliation is unprecedented in scale, and from the information provided by the contacted divisions, we have marked the scope of the Chinese's poison gas counterattack, please see."

The staff officer pointed to a map of the Vanino region with red dots, which he sketched with his pen to form a circle.

"General, none of the divisions within this circle have received any further communication, that is, we suspect that the area within this circle has been covered with poison gas by the Chinese, and it is likely that the entire army has been wiped out. Of course, even if the troops in this circle were attacked by poison gas, it was possible to send a communication, but they would most likely choose to report to the military headquarters or headquarters rather than to us. ”

The staff officer analyzed.

Of course, Mitsuo Murata understood in his heart that although the military headquarters did not talk about the scale of the Chinese' poison gas warfare, as a division commander, he still heard the news of the military department's large-scale use of poison gas on the battlefield, and in his opinion, with the surname that the Chinese must report everything, the counterattack would definitely be on a larger scale.

The army in this circle, those staff officers may not know, but Mitsuo Murata knows very well that it is the first batch of divisions that were arranged to retreat, the so-called elite divisions. Originally, the Ninth Division was also an elite division, but after many wars, it had already been reduced to a second-rate division and was placed on the list of the third batch of evacuees.

The size of the first batch of evacuated troops reached more than 200,000, including nearly 10 divisions and the Far Eastern Theater Command.

Although they received a telegram from the so-called headquarters late yesterday, which asked the troops not to panic and build positions to strictly prevent the attack of the Chinese, which was similar to the order of the military headquarters, the order of the headquarters was vague, and the division commanders speculated that the headquarters was probably trapped in an underground bunker in the gas area.

The people's panic began to spread slowly downward from the senior officers of the division commander level.

Not only was the poison gas causing a huge panic, but the food was almost exhausted.

More than one million Japanese troops, originally carried out the retreat before the supply was only enough for them to survive for three days, which is why the retreat had to be carried out, was surrounded for more than two months, the supply from Sakhalin Island and the mainland of the island was basically cut off, and the original stock of grain was almost exhausted.

Now that two days have passed since the outbreak of the poison gas war, and some food has been discarded in the panicked retreat, and Mitsuo Murata does not know what the situation of other divisions is, and the 9th Division, as a blocking division, does not know how long the food will be able to eat.

"Damn the Chinese!"

Mitsuo Murata only felt a burst of despair, as the commander of the decisive division, he didn't know what to do at this time.

Escaping from the gas range was a must, and then he had to consider the excuse for the march: the Chinese offensive and the food crisis.

The threat from the Chinese was close at hand, five kilometers away, and although they did not move, Mitsuo Murata could not relax at all. The immobility of the troops just shows how harmful the poisonous gas in the rear is, and even the Chinese do not dare to take the opportunity to attack, but only assume an offensive and defensive posture.

Food was even more urgent, and the Ninth Division had also carried out a replenishment of troops before carrying out the blocking mission, and the number reached a peak of 20,000 people, but now, these 20,000 people have eaten up the food of more than 10,000 people for three days in more than a day, and the rest is almost lost.

"How much food do we have left?"

Mitsuo Murata asked eagerly when he saw a staff officer in charge of counting logistics materials walking in.

"General, we have discarded a lot of food, and when we were marching, all the food had been distributed to each soldier, and just now we spot-checked the food of a squadron and found that the food on everyone's body was basically exhausted." The staff officer replied cautiously.

"Yaga, why did you eat it all?" Mitsuo Murata said angrily, he originally thought that there would be at least one day and a half days of food, according to the special situation in wartime, if there is one day of food, then the troops can resist for two to three days, and if there is half a day of food, the troops can support one or two days.

"The physical strength consumed during the march was very large, and the hasty march made the soldiers think that there would be war soon, and ate the food in their hands to replenish their physical strength......"

The staff officer said helplessly. Although the lower-level officers and soldiers of the Yue army have also heard the news of the large-scale use of poison gas by the Chinese and are even more panicked, before, they really thought that they were going to fight and eating food in order to survive the battle.

In short, there is no food!

What made Mitsuo Murata even more angry was that there was no food in his hands, and there were no nearby Soviet villages to rob, those Soviets were either killed or forced to do the logistics of the army, how could there be any normal production villages, the fields were even more barren, burned and looted and blown up by artillery fire, and the army had been in Vanino for so long, there was already nothing.

The poisonous gas broke out in the rear, and there was no food in his hands, and countless thoughts suddenly flashed in Mitsuo Murata's mind, but although he was the commander of the division, he still did not dare to make a decision easily, otherwise, not to mention the military headquarters in the far east and the Far East army headquarters that were nowhere to be found, even the officers under his command might be unfavorable to him.

"You can't surrender, you have to hold on! Watch and see. ”

It was the best decision he could have made.

However, what made him feel a little relieved was that because the Ninth Division was a blocking division, the weapons and ammunition in its hands were relatively sufficient, and the firepower was much stronger than that of other divisions and regiments that were preparing to evacuate, and even had a squadron of tanks. The personnel are also overloaded, and the real combat effectiveness can be compared with two other ordinary divisions and regiments.

Soon, as the position was excavated step by step, Mitsuo Murata discovered another situation.

"General, just now another squadron of the 15th Division came here and joined us."

It turned out that after the outbreak of poison gas, not only the Ninth Division knew about running, but other divisions and regiments also did the same, and the panic of death and the spread of rumors made the division and regiment from the division commander to the small soldiers have a kind of panic.

These soldiers may be willing to fight the Chinese in the most difficult moments, but they are not willing to die under poison gas in vain.

No one would think that staying where and dying in poison gas was a pledge of allegiance to the emperor.

A rumor began to circulate among the Yue army that Chinese planes would also drop poison gas bombs on more areas where the Yue army was assembled.

After receiving this news, the division commanders gave orders to march one after another, either facing south or north.

There is a simple truth in it, no matter how the Chinese drop poison gas bombs, they will never drop them on their own people, the closer to the Chinese defense line, the more dangerous it seems, but at least there is no need to worry about being attacked by large-scale poison gas.

By twelve o'clock, in a period of more than two hours, Mitsuo Murata had received five reports that a total of more than one wing of the Japanese army had retreated here, and they didn't even have an excuse, and when asked by the people of the 9th Division why they had run here, their answers were all poisonous gas behind them.

No one knows exactly where the poison gas is, but it is really behind it. These small units don't even have to make excuses like the Ninth Division.

At noon, the Ninth Division, which had run out of food, was in crisis, and the scorching sun shone in the sky, and under the great panic, the army felt more hungry and thirsty than usual.

Mitsuo Murata had to give an order to collect the excess food in the hands of the soldiers and distribute it uniformly!

This order caused a great deal of stirring, but under the slogan of so-called allegiance to the emperor and everything for the sake of the empire, and the effect of the muzzle, the officers and soldiers could only hand over food. Subsequently, Yue Jun ate what can be called his last lunch, a little so-called porridge that is no different from Qingshui soup, and there may even be only one or two grains of rice in the porridge that can be distributed in everyone's lunch box. This is a real gruel made by putting all the leftover grain and even the dried rice balls together.

Its real effect is not to quench hunger, but to quench thirst.

There was really no food, and even Mitsuo Murata ate only a very thin bowl of porridge, and in less than an hour, he felt hungry again.

"General, the 17th Division has arrived."

The staff officer's report interrupted Mitsuo Murata's nameless anger, and as soon as he heard that the 17th Division was also coming, he didn't say anything superfluous, just said that he knew.

By three o'clock in the afternoon, Rosby's army had reached more than two divisions, that is, three divisions had gathered here at once.

No one knows exactly how big the gas is, so the best thing to do is to run frantically in a north-south direction.

Since the 19th Division had the largest number of troops and the strongest armament, after a routine report to the military headquarters, Mitsuo Murata received a very unexpected order.

“…… Lieutenant General Mitsuo Murata was appointed as the Interim Supreme Commander of the Northern Front in charge of ......"

Appointed by the military department, Mitsuo Murata was promoted to the supreme commander of the army on the northern front, although the military rank is still lieutenant general, but with the military rank system of the army, there is only a general who goes up, and without the transition of general, Mitsuo Murata does not feel as relaxed as usual, but feels an unprecedented pressure.

This order was also sent to the 17th Division and the 33rd Division, which had just arrived here.

"Order the 17th Division and the 33rd Division to collect the food in the hands of the soldiers and distribute it uniformly."

Mitsuo Murata could only give this order, an order that seemed to cause the army to mutiny, but in fact there was no other way. Compared with rebelling against orders, it would be easier for the army to choose to snatch food from others. I don't know how long the poison gas will last, and I don't know if it will invade northward, and without food, it will only become more and more chaotic.

For a time, three divisions of the Rossby Army were assembled in the area, and there was a steady stream of troops coming from other places, since the appointment order of the Military Department of the Army was issued, the divisions near the northern front were frantically rushing here, and in the next hour, two more divisions arrived, but they were obviously much more embarrassed than the previous 17th Division and the 33rd Division, and Mitsuo Murata only understood after asking that this was already a division closer to the poison gas area.

"The poison gas is spreading, and a division only three kilometers away from us has already been attacked by poison gas, so we quickly moved closer to the northern front after receiving an order from the military headquarters."

This is the statement of the commander of the 58th Division of the Chinese Army, who arrived at the latest time.

By the time of Rossby's new changes, the numbers of six divisions had been gathered here, and nearly 100,000 troops had gathered here.

Just after three o'clock, a situation appeared in the air.

"Air Raid!! Air raid!! ”

When countless small black dots appeared in the air and the rumbling sound of airplanes was heard, the army, which had no radar, finally discovered a large number of Chinese planes flying from the sky.

"Fight, prepare for battle!!"

When the army was in a panic, they were only able to shoot into the air with anti-aircraft guns and machine guns, and there was no more time to prepare, and then they saw many bomb-like things falling from the sky.

"Ahh

The soldiers on a position saw with their own eyes an object suspected of being a bomb falling, but when it was still more than 100 meters above the ground, it exploded with a slight sound, and many pieces of paper floated out of the sphere of the bomb.

Soon, after escaping death, the unknown soldiers picked up these pieces of paper one after another.

"The gas is spreading to the north, and it's time to surrender."

"The Axe has abandoned you, and the Emperor has ordered the abandonment of the rescue."

"The Chinese army first used poison gas on a large scale, and China will continue to use poison gas to eliminate the living forces of the Chinese army."

"The squadron will welcome any surrender of the Chinese army, and the surrender method is ......"

"Surrender is the only way out for you, or you will be gassed to death......"

"For the surrendered army, the benevolent squadron will not kill indiscriminately, you only need to become prisoners of war and participate in labor to atone for your sins...... We will take ...... to the Japanese army that ultimately refuses to surrender."

(To be continued)