The Shogo-style braided boots with suede leather uppers stepped on the hard stone pavement of the Bund, holding carefully maintained Type 38 rifles in their hands, and at this moment the hearts of the soldiers of the 116th Engineer Wing of the Japanese Army were filled with the excitement of being about to make meritorious contributions to the establishment of the empire, as well as the pride of being a member of the Imperial Army of the Great Japanese Empire.

The engineer wing belongs to the category of special forces in the Japanese army, and has a unique position in the Japanese army, and the Japanese engineers are indispensable in many difficult battles in Japan's modern history, so that the Japanese army has created a professional military school for engineers during the Taisho period to train professional engineering officers for the army.

In the eyes of ordinary Japanese soldiers, logistical auxiliary units such as engineers and baggage soldiers are completely different, and they belong to the same front-line combat arms as infantry artillery.

Because they are specialized units, the establishment of the engineer wing is far less than that of the regular infantry wing, but each of them is a technical soldier who has undergone a long period of rigorous training, and the Japanese engineers must learn how to break down the obstacles set up by the enemy, clear minefields and unexploded ordnance, and use various modern blasting methods.

They also had to learn how to operate all kinds of construction machinery, build bridges and pave roads for the advance of their troops, and even learn to build and operate boats to transport infantry across rivers or land on enemy beachheads.

These men did not just dig trenches with shovels, but often took the lead in battle, using flesh and blood and explosives to make gaps in the enemy's defenses, opening up a way for the infantry to attack.

The status of engineers in the army can even be similar to that of artillery, because they have some resources in the military system, and many engineers are treated more favorably than ordinary infantry, especially the engineer units on standby in the rear of the battle line, which is simply a model of more money and less work and less responsibility.

The 116 Engineer Wing has undertaken several front-line combat missions in Jiangbei, which has more weight than other units in the division, so much so that when the people of the Engineer Wing go out and meet other colleagues in the division, they can't help but roll their eyes upward.

When the Jiangnan front stabilized, this engineer wing returned to Shanghai for rest, and at this time, the garrison troops in various places recruited Chinese militia regiments, and the work of professional engineers was much less. In the past six months, the 116 Engineer Wing has been stationed in Shanghai and participated in the repair projects of several surrounding military airports, because the local labor force is sufficient, although the task is tedious, the workload is not very large, and the soldiers can also go to the flower street and willow lane in Hongkou and Little Tokyo to be corrupt when they are free.

It may seem like an enviable and comfortable time, but it is not seen in the eyes of the officers and non-commissioned officers of the Engineer Wing. They will read the battle reports in front of them every day, watch their colleagues continue to make contributions on the front line, and the military ranks of their classmates in the same period have left them far behind.

Although the 116th Division claims to be a field division, it has always undertaken garrison tasks, and the superiors do not trust the combat effectiveness of this division at all, and unless there is any large-scale battle, the 116th Engineer Wing will not be able to be sent to the line of fire.

If you don't fight, you won't have military merit, and if you don't have military merit, you can't get promoted quickly, even when you go back to China for vacation, the medal on your chest is a few dollars less than the stupid son of the neighbor next door. The ambitious Captain Kamiya Mori had long been dissatisfied with his current situation, and more than once asked his superiors to be transferred to the combat unit, and he was eager to obtain merit and honor on the battlefield, of course, all requests were like mud cows entering the sea.

So when Kamiya heard Houdong's plan, he immediately patted his chest and said that he must participate in it, Houdong Mao took a fancy to not only Kamiya's ambitions, although his engineer squadron was not very numerous, but all of them were first-class elite soldiers.

The 116th Engineer Wing was also given an additional twenty trucks as carriers for the repair of the airport, which was a key element in Houdong's plan, allowing him to quickly deploy and transport combat troops to capture key units in the public concession before both sides had time to react.

When it was confirmed that the assassination had been successful and the German marshal was seriously wounded and hospitalized, Houdong immediately followed the predetermined plan and began his adventure. This staff officer first joined the two staff officers who had hurried to the Hongkou barracks from the military headquarters, and they brought with them the official documents of the military headquarters that had been forged in advance and the orders signed by the commander.

With that order, Houdong deceived the trust of Honda Shaozuo, the captain of the 2nd Brigade of the 109th Wing, who was also a hardcore young man, and he did not verify this warrant according to the procedure at all, but immediately led about 600 soldiers from the three squadrons of the 2nd Brigade, carrying basic light weapons, and left the Hongkou Barracks and marched in the direction of the public concession.

In that forged order, the commander of the Israeli army, Lieutenant General Sawada Shigeru, claimed that the foreign minister had been assassinated in the concession, indicating that the Ministry of Industry and Bureau of the concession was no longer capable of controlling the law and order problems in the concession, so the Japanese Empire had to take this responsibility, so the 13th Army decided to launch a minimum armed operation, and the task of the second brigade was to enter the public concession with arms, quickly occupy its key organs, and serve as the vanguard for the Japanese army's comprehensive takeover of the concession.

After Houdong conveyed the order, he also specially reminded Honda that after the second brigade completed the mission, the follow-up Japanese troops would rapidly expand their achievements and eventually occupy the entire concession in one fell swoop.

Honda didn't doubt the authenticity of this order at all, because every article in it seemed to be written in his heart, and as an officer of the garrison wing, he also struggled to get a chance to be promoted, and such a big pie suddenly fell on his head, where did he have the heart to verify the authenticity.

Moreover, it was the two staff officers of the army headquarters who brought the order, and the person who conveyed the order was the division staff officer Takatom Maoo, these people had all met at the division and regiment meeting, and they had some contacts in normal times, and Honda never dreamed that the other party would be so bold as to forge military orders.

The 2nd Brigade of the 109th Wing dispatched two infantry squadrons and a machine gun squadron this time, plus some officers and men of the brigade headquarters, the number reached 617 people. Because the other two squadrons under the brigade and the infantry artillery squadron were stationed separately in the Zhabei barracks, it can be said that the troops of the second brigade in the Hongkou barracks almost poured out of the nest this time.

At this time, there were still two squadrons of the 120th Wing stationed in the Hongkou barracks, and these people had received orders not to go out to strictly guard the barracks, so when they saw the second brigade fully armed and began to assemble, the two squadron leaders couldn't help but run over to ask for clues, and they were immediately sent away by the other party on the grounds of the order of the army commander.

Because they were all familiar colleagues, the two lieutenants did not have much suspicion at this time, but after the incident broke out, the two squadron leaders all regretted it, and if they remembered to make a phone call to report it to the above at that time, a credit would have been properly received, rather than being reprimanded by the Judge Advocate Advocate General for the reason of slacking off military affairs and not reporting it in the end.

In this way, the troops passed through half of the Hongkou District in a grand manner, and usually a march of this size must have received orders from their superiors, and the gendarmes would not be idle and come forward to investigate.

At the entrance to the ornate Japan Post and Telecommunications Office building, near the Broadway Building (Shanghai Building), the 2nd Brigade joined up with the Engineer Squadron, which had arrived there long ago, and the 1st Squadron had brought with it a newly replenished supply of 20 Isuzu-made Type 94 six-wheeled trucks and two Nissan 180 four-wheeled trucks that had been owned by the Wing.

The Japanese engineer wing is different from the infantry (the brigade in the previous article is the author's clerical error), and under the wing headquarters are two engineer squadrons, each of which is classified according to A, B and C, with a number ranging from 300 to 180 people. The first squadron of the 116th Wing was a first-class engineer squadron, with a total of one hundred and eighty-nine men, because this time it was preparing for a combat mission, and the soldiers carried standard infantry equipment.

According to Japanese regulations, each truck could carry a maximum of twelve soldiers, but by this time there was not so much elaboration, and as a result, each Isuzu had more than twenty soldiers on it, and two Nissan were used to house the heavy machine guns of the machine gun squadron because of the larger and longer bodies.

After the personnel had boarded the vehicle, the engineer squadron and the remaining two squads of infantry, led by the officers, began to advance on foot in the direction of the Waibaidu Bridge.

The Japanese police guard next to the bridge had no idea what was happening, and when they saw several officers waving military orders in their hands, they had no choice but to remove the barricades and let them go.

The police and the soldiers had different perceptions, they were well aware that the armed entry into the concession was a serious matter, and out of duty they immediately called their superiors to report it.

But by this time, no matter what was done, the Japanese Army had entered the concession, and a fierce conflict was about to break out that everyone did not expect.

PS: It's better today, but it seems that I can only write one chapter, and I owe you a chapter to see if I can make it up tomorrow.

Thank you for your support and understanding, I will continue to persevere.