Chapter 489

For Spain, the first few months of 1913 were relatively smooth.

Gao Da watched the flight tests of reconnaissance planes and fighter planes in February, and subsequently, the aircraft factory was fully established within two months and quickly put into production.

The war on the Eastern and Western fronts was also raging quite fiercely; during this period, Spain sold a large amount of weaponry, equipment, food, and medical supplies, earning a fortune and significantly increasing its fiscal revenue.

This also allowed Spain to exhibit a flourishing posture domestically, attracting many European refugees to come.

Gao Da was relatively welcoming toward these European refugees. Spain needed a large population, and compared to people from other regions, Gao Da was more willing to accept these Europeans.

After all, Europeans were better educated, and among these European refugees were many scientists and technical experts—the very people that Spain currently needed.

While Spain was developing steadily, a piece of bad news suddenly arrived from the front lines.

May 15, 1913, at the engagement zone between Germany and France.

War had been raging between Germany and France for over half a year, with both sides trading blows and frequently changing ownership of important high ground and defensible areas.

On a certain piece of high ground on the battlefield, an elite French army unit was stationed.

This French army unit had repelled German attacks multiple times over the previous few days; although they had suffered significant casualties themselves, the results they achieved were quite good.

Just as the French soldiers on the high ground thought the German army had no other tricks up their sleeves, the situation on the battlefield soon changed.

An elite German army unit launched an attack on the northeastern slope of the high ground, while the German army to the west launched a feint to coordinate, creating a massive display of offensive force for a time.

The French army stationed on the high ground had no idea that the German army on the western front was merely feinting; they were exhausted from dealing with enemies on both sides and ultimately had no choice but to abandon their positions halfway up the mountain and retreat toward the summit.

The German army quickly occupied the defensive positions halfway up the mountain and, after regrouping, launched an attack toward the summit.

The French army on the summit had nowhere left to retreat; they utilized all their machine guns and artillery in an attempt to block the German army's advance.

The stubborn resistance of the French army caused heavy casualties for the German army; although a brute-force assault could capture the summit position, the massive casualties were not cost-effective for the German army.

Every day, a large number of German and French soldiers died, and because the temperature on the German-French front had risen in May, both sides needed to dispose of the large number of corpses in a timely manner to avoid the outbreak of plague.

Precisely because of this, the German and French armies formed a tacit agreement. After each round of offensive and defensive fighting was completed, both sides would send soldiers to handle their respective fallen, burying the dead soldiers hastily and doing their best to treat the wounded.

For the soldiers on both sides, such a tacit agreement was excellent. It could avoid the outbreak of plague and also allow the soldiers a certain amount of rest time on the battlefield.

The French army defending the high ground also relied on these rest periods to struggle against the attacking German army.

Everything was fine, but on one particular morning, things suddenly went wrong.

As dawn approached, the German and French soldiers, who had been fighting fiercely all night, were quite exhausted.

According to their mutual agreement, after a round of offensive and defensive fighting ended, there should be at least several hours to collect the remains.

Both Germany and France touted themselves as civilized nations, so naturally, they could not attack the other side's soldiers while they were collecting remains.

Precisely because of this, the French soldiers were relatively lax during this time. They could seize the hard-won rest period to recuperate slightly, at least making themselves look less exhausted.

While the French army was resting, a very strange, yellowish-green smoke drifted slowly along the ground toward the high ground.

At this time, most of the French soldiers had already entered dreamland, and the few soldiers who were collecting their comrades' remains did not notice this smoke.

When this smoke drifted over the French positions, the few soldiers who were awake finally realized something was wrong.

The odor of this smoke was very pungent, and it did not smell like the pungency of gunpowder, leaving the soldiers unable to figure out what this smoke actually was.

The soldiers who smelled the smoke suddenly felt their eyes, noses, and throats burning as if they were being scorched; their eyes immediately began to secrete tears, and they dared not open them at all.

The French soldiers who had been sleeping were all startled awake; some had already inhaled too much smoke in their sleep, and they could only howl in pain, tearing at their own clothes with their hands, clutching their throats in agony, and rolling desperately on the position.

But this struggling was useless. Howling and rolling only caused them to inhale more smoke; as they inhaled more and more, their pain would not only intensify, but they would even face the outcome of suffocation and death.

This yellowish-green smoke before their eyes was precisely the poison gas shells that Germany had launched at the French positions.

The German army was no pushover; they could use poison gas shells in the world war of history, so naturally, they could use them in the world war of this world as well.

In order to make the poison gas shells exert their maximum effect, before using them, the German army carefully measured the risks to avoid the poison gas affecting their own troops.

Aided by the wind, all this smoke drifted to the French positions, and the German army was not harmed by mistake at all.

Only half an hour passed, and the French soldiers holding the position had completely lost their ability to resist. Many soldiers who were more heavily affected lay on the ground, already at death's door.

Only a few soldiers who still retained the ability to move could only run toward the rear in terror when faced with such a bizarre situation; the position was completely abandoned.

Aided by the poison gas shells, the German army easily occupied this high ground. Poison gas shells had one advantage: once the toxic smoke was dispersed by the wind, it had no effect on this defensive position.

The German army not only easily occupied this high ground but could also effectively utilize the positions left behind by the French to defend against French attacks.

The French government did not know what had happened at first, but when those soldiers poisoned by the gas shells fled back to the rear, the French army immediately realized that Germany had already used poison gas shells.

Poison gas shells were not unfamiliar to European countries; with the in-depth research into chemistry, such things would eventually be developed; it was merely a matter of time.

It was true that Germany was developing poison gas shells, but other European countries were also using them; everyone was actually the same.

It was just that Germany was the first to use poison gas shells, and what was recorded in history books would certainly be Germany, not other countries.

When the French government learned that the German government had used poison gas shells, the French government did not waste this good opportunity; they immediately contacted domestic and foreign newspaper media and publicized this evil act of Germany using poison gas shells.

In order to garner public opinion support from countries around the world and the European public, the French government even specially organized several soldiers who had been poisoned by the gas shells to demonstrate the harm of poison gas shells to newspapers and media.

Because of the effects of the poison gas shells, these soldiers who had luckily escaped also basically had very serious sequelae.

Blindness and intellectual impairment were the two most serious effects, and the miserable state of these French soldiers also aroused the sympathy of many newspaper and media reporters, who condemned Germany for being the first to use poison gas shells.

In order to retaliate, the French government went even further, declaring that it did not rule out the use of poison gas shells in future wars.

If Germany continued to use poison gas shells, France would no longer have any scruples and would launch poison gas shells at the German army on a large scale, letting the Germans also taste the feeling of being harmed by poison gas shells.

By this time, France had already gained public opinion support, and the retaliatory actions declared by France did not seem wrong in the eyes of European newspaper media.

The German government had no response to this, but from the subsequent actions of the German army, it could be seen that the German government did not care about the French government's threats at all.

After the German army used poison gas shells for the first time, in many subsequent battles, the German army used poison gas shells against the French army several more times.

Now the French government could not tolerate it at all; they also launched the poison gas shells they had developed themselves at the German army, having a poison gas war with Germany.