Chapter 489: Poison Gas Warfare

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

In February, Gao Da watched the flight tests of reconnaissance planes and fighter aircraft, and subsequently, the aircraft factory was 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 caused Spain to exhibit a prosperous posture domestically, attracting many European refugees to come.

Gao Da was quite 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; these were the very people that the current Spain needed.

While Spain was developing steadily, a piece of bad news suddenly came from the front-line battlefield.

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

War had broken out between Germany and France for over half a year; both sides had been trading blows, and some important highlands and areas favorable for defense frequently changed hands.

On a certain highland on the battlefield, an elite French army was stationed.

This French army had repelled the German army's attacks multiple times over the past few days; although their own casualties were not small, the results they achieved were quite good.

Just when the French soldiers on the highland thought the German army had no other means, the situation on the battlefield soon changed.

An elite German army launched an attack on the northeastern slope of the highland, and the German army on the west also launched a feint to coordinate, making the momentum of the attack very grand for a time.

The French army stationed on the highland to defend did not realize at all that the German army on the Western Front was only feinting; they were exhausted from dealing with enemies on both sides and, in the end, had no choice but to abandon the positions on the mountainside and retreat to the summit.

The German army soon occupied the defensive positions on the mountainside and, after regrouping, launched an attack toward the summit.

The French army on the summit had nowhere left to retreat; they used all their machine guns and artillery, attempting to block the German army's attack.

The tenacious resistance of the French army caused the German army to suffer heavy casualties; although a forced assault could capture the summit position, the massive casualties were not worth it 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.

It was precisely because of this that 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 soldiers, burying the dead 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 to have a certain amount of rest time on the battlefield.

The French army defending on the highland also relied on these rest periods to arduously deal with the attacking German army.

Everything was fine, but on the morning of a certain day, things suddenly went wrong.

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

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

Germany and France both touted themselves as civilized nations, so naturally, it was impossible to attack the other side's soldiers while they were collecting remains.

It was precisely because of this that the French soldiers were relatively lax during this time. They could seize the hard-won rest time to tidy up a bit, at least making themselves look less exhausted.

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

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

When this smoke drifted above 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, making the soldiers unable to figure out what this smoke was at all.

The soldiers who smelled this smoke suddenly felt their eyes, noses, and throats stinging as if they were being burned; 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 struggling desperately on the position.

But this kind of struggling was useless. Howling and rolling only made them inhale more smoke; the more smoke they inhaled, the more their pain would worsen, and they would even face the outcome of suffocation and death.

This yellowish-green smoke before their eyes was precisely the poison gas shells dropped by Germany onto the French positions.

The German army was not a soft touch; they could use poison gas shells in the world war in history, so naturally, they could also use poison gas shells in the world war of this world.

To ensure the poison gas shells exerted their maximum effect, before using them, the German army carefully measured the risks to avoid the poison gas shells affecting their own troops.

Propelled 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 severely affected lay on the ground, already at their last gasp.

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; they could no longer care about the position at all.

With the boost of the poison gas shells, the German army very easily occupied this highland. Poison gas shells had one advantage: once the poisonous smoke was blown away by the wind, there was no impact on this defensive position at all.

The German army not only easily occupied this highland 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 deepening research in chemistry, things like poison gas shells 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 and immediately contacted domestic and foreign newspaper media to announce the evil act of Germany using poison gas shells.

To incite public opinion support from countries around the world and the European public, the French government even specially organized several soldiers poisoned by the gas shells to demonstrate the harm of poison gas shells to newspapers and media.

Because of the influence of the poison gas shells, these soldiers who managed to escape also basically had very serious sequelae.

Blindness and intellectual impairment were the two most serious effects; 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.

To retaliate, the French government even declared 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 drop poison gas shells on the German army on a large scale, letting the Germans also taste the feeling of being harmed by poison gas shells.

At this time, France had already gained the support of public opinion, 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 subsequent multiple 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 dropped the poison gas shells they had developed themselves onto the German army, having a poison gas war with Germany.