Chapter 108: The Recapture of Tianjin (13)

The large screen displayed a favorable situation: massive hordes of zombies were being steadily eliminated. Once the large clusters were thinned out, Li Qiang directed his soldiers, clad in chainmail, to conduct a sweeping operation within the containment zone. Zombies fell continuously under the barrage of gunfire, were skewered by steel pipes, or hacked in two by heavy broadswords.

The Tianjin peripheral campaign, spanning from August 10th to August 15th, lasted six days. Over 12 million zombies were annihilated, at the cost of 22,000 soldiers killed and more than 10,000 severely wounded. Li Qiang’s command post had to retreat repeatedly, eventually ending up on a railway line 20 kilometers from its original position.

Nearly all stockpiles of weapons and supplies were exhausted. At the height of the tension, defensive equipment had even been pulled from the Haihe River line, leaving it riddled with gaps. South of the Haihe River, every ten to twenty kilometers lay a county town with hundreds of thousands of residents. The Special Committee had no choice but to order explosives planted on every bridge, preparing to destroy them at the first sign of a breakthrough to use the river as a barrier against the zombie swarms.

"If we have a few more 'victories' like this," Li Fengyi said to Sun Xiaoshan with a bitter smile, "we'll be left fighting the zombies with our own teeth. The consumption of resources is simply too great."

With the massive zombie clusters wiped out, each artillery piece had less than one base unit of ammunition remaining. The familiar clearing operations proceeded smoothly through most of the Tianjin urban area, only to be forced to a halt upon reaching the Port of Tianjin.

The Port of Tianjin is the largest man-made seaport in China, covering a land area of 100 square kilometers and capable of accommodating 300,000-ton vessels at its deepest points. Now, however, it had become a paradise for mutated marine life. Standing in the New Shengjia Building, Li Qiang could see, even without binoculars, a dense concentration of giant sea creatures. There were no fewer than 1,200 of them the size of ships, displaying bizarre forms: some resembled deep-sea octopuses magnified by dozens of times, others were pods of shark-whales, and many were unidentifiable creatures, with countless smaller ones filling the gaps.

They frequently clashed, knocking the anchored freighters about until they were lopsided, with only the masts of the smaller vessels remaining above water.

Li Qiang decided to test the defensive—or offensive—capabilities of these sea monsters. He ordered a 120mm self-propelled wheeled heavy artillery piece, positioned two kilometers from the port, to fire a shot. Not knowing which target to aim for, the crew simply targeted the nearest one.

The shell whistled through the air and struck a monster that resembled an octopus with dozens of meters of tentacles and a body covered in blue rings. The shell burrowed into a writhing tentacle and exploded inside. Before anyone could cheer, the creature went berserk.

A stream of liquid was violently sprayed from a hole in the monster’s body onto the shore—some noticed it seemed to have been ejected from its rear. The 120mm self-propelled heavy artillery was engulfed in a wave of the liquid. Once the liquid drained into the sea, the road was left empty; the armored artillery piece had vanished without a trace. A "hissing" sound rose from the ground, audible even from a distance, as the strong acid ate away at everything.

The sea monsters in the harbor grew restless, immediately forming waves 20 to 30 meters high that slammed against the breakwater. Li Qiang gasped, thinking, *Damn it, we can forget about reclaiming the ocean anytime soon.* It appeared that conventional thermal weapons designed to fight humans were ineffective against these colossal creatures.

Li Qiang ordered another experiment, this time using poison on the mutated marine animals. The oceanographers were in a bind; before the apocalypse, no one had ever thought about poisoning the ocean—this wasn't like fishing in a freshwater pond where you could pollute a small area and then cast your nets.

The most toxic compound available, 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), was brought out once more. After calculating a lethal dose, and following a devious suggestion from the staff department, the industrial ministry rushed to construct a massive ballista, which was transported to a building 500 meters away. Following Li Fengyi's standard practice, Li Qiang doubled the calculated lethal dose. Fearing the monsters wouldn't eat dead meat, they strapped the poison to a live rabbit.

With a shrill whistle, the rabbit soared through the clouds. It stared with bewildered eyes, feeling that the last few months had been utterly disastrous. First, the once-vicious humans had gone mad, eating their own kind and snatching up rabbits regardless of the situation. Just as it had grown larger and stronger, and before it could recover from the excitement, it had been captured again by these strange people and sent flying into the sky. *Alas, strange humans,* the rabbit thought, *it seems we rabbits have no chance of outplaying them on Earth; it appears only humans can outplay humans.*

The octopus monster caught the rabbit in mid-air with a tentacle and shoved it into its mouth. The octopus, typically the most intelligent of marine creatures, was confused: were they offering it a snack because they couldn't win?

People on the shore watched through binoculars, tense. Clearly, the octopus had no intention of sparing those who dared to harm it. It lunged toward the shore, waving tentacles over a hundred meters long in the air, determined to defend its territory. However, the movements of its tentacles grew increasingly sluggish, until they eventually slumped into the water.

The surrounding sea monsters paused, sensing something, before suddenly swarming toward the octopus. Jets of blood sprayed onto the shore; the carnivorous monsters had a commendable lack of waste, tearing the octopus to pieces.

The lead oceanographer was a diligent scholar who had graduated from the Ocean University of China. He had majored in marine environment, but fearing poor job prospects, he went on to earn a master’s in marine geology, then a PhD in marine biology, and finally a post-doc... until there were no more books left to read. He eventually joined a logistics company in Beijing run by a classmate who hadn't even finished middle school, working in finance.

He was a man who loved to learn, and beyond his professional field, he had deep knowledge of poisons. He was familiar with the poisoning methods of the "Star-Host Old Freak" and Ouyang Feng, and he had a particular interest in Wei Xiaobao’s method of using knockout powders—all from books. When the apocalypse arrived, he thought he would be stuck with a steel pipe for the rest of his life, but then the Special Committee recruited for the head of the Ocean Bureau and held a civil service exam. He jumped at the chance, stood out among the pipe-wielding crowds, and passed.

He didn't bother wondering why an Australian blue-ringed octopus was in the waters off Tianjin; in the apocalypse, he wouldn't even be surprised if an octopus started speaking human language. He stood with his mouth agape, watching the sea monsters feed, muttering, "The octopus is full of deadly poison now. Any creature that eats its flesh will become toxic, and then they will be eaten by other marine creatures, and then the ocean will be filled with floating carcasses..."

Li Qiang, hearing his frantic mumbling and finding the scenario oddly familiar, snapped, "Do you think you're Ouyang Feng poisoning someone?"