The attackers catapulted plague ridden corpses into the city. The plague that followed forced the defenders to surrender the city. Plague is spread by flea infested rats. In the 1930's and 40's the Japanese army filled ceramic bombs with infected fleas and dropped them on China. This created a plague epidemic in China and Manchuria.
Plague spreads easily, kills quickly, and leaves behind terror and death.
Death from plague would occur two to five days after the onset of symptoms. Plague is very contagious. The infected person may experience high fever, chills, cough with bloody sputum and breathing difficulties. If untreated, symptoms progress to gangrene and death occurs within 24 hours. Treatment is antibiotics.