The first to discover that the Japanese Army had crossed the border were three British soldiers on duty at the southern end of the Waibaidu Bridge and a Japanese Marine who was also stunned.

The three Englishmen did not belong to the regular army, but were members of the British Legion, an armed organization recruited by the Public Concession itself. Speaking of the International Chamber of Commerce, this story is somewhat long-term, simply put, the militia organized by foreign colonists for the purpose of "maintaining the security of the concession", except for the retired military and police of some countries, most of them are ordinary citizens living in the concession.

This colonial armed force first originated in the late Qing Dynasty, because of the fear of a possible attack by the Taiping Army on the Shanghai Concession, led by the British and American consuls in Shanghai, formed an armed force intended to defend the concession.

Because most of its original members were Western employees of chambers of commerce and foreign companies in various countries, this armed force was nicknamed the "International Chamber of Commerce", and as this armed force became regular, this name was also retained.

From the suppression of the Xiaodaohui uprising to the 128th Anti-Japanese War, this force was very active in the history of the Shanghai Concession, and every time the concession encountered a so-called "crisis", there would inevitably be an international merchant group with loaded guns on the streets.

Except for the standing Russian troops, the rest of the expatriate forces are conscripts of the nature of the ticket, and from September to December each year, the concession will gather its members for training on weekends, usually live fire targets and queue drills, and they can spend the rest of the year at their disposal.

Once there is "something" in the concession, the headquarters of the merchant group will issue a mobilization order to all personnel, and the personnel of each team will gather at the designated place, and then disperse to various places to carry out tasks according to the deployment of the superiors.

When he found the Japanese troops boarding the bridge, a British sergeant was the first to react, and he hurriedly ran to the barricade in the center of the bridge deck and stretched out his right arm to the Japanese soldiers marching in line.

"Stop moving! This is the Public Concession! You can't enter! The sergeant held the handle of the pistol at his waist with one hand and made a gesture to stop with the other.

At this moment, two of his men also ran over with Lee Enfield rifles, their rifles with bayonets on their slants, and their eyes fixed on the Japanese army opposite. This is not because they are brave, but because the pride of being subjects of the Empire on which the sun never sets and the Anglo-Saxons has long been in their bones, and all Asians are inferior in the eyes of these British, even the heavily armed Japanese army.

Houdong, who was the first to take the lead, didn't pay attention to the British sergeant's questioning at all, he glanced at Kamiya, and the engineer squadron leader immediately gave an order to his subordinates: "Leave them alone!" Drive them aside and immediately remove the barricades to allow the trucks to pass. ”

Immediately, a squad of Japanese sappers pounced with rifles, and the British sergeant saw that the situation was not good, and tried to pull out a pistol from the holster to resist, and then a hard steel-bottomed butt smashed him in the face.

The sergeant was knocked to the ground at a glance, and when the remaining two British soldiers recovered from their shock, they found themselves surrounded by a circle of bayonets.

"Don't do it! We surrender! The two Englishmen threw their rifles to the ground and raised their hands in the air.

"Humph! I have long said that these Europeans are cowards who are strong from the outside and capable from the middle, and they are not at all worthy of a blow from the imperial army! Kamiya looked at the British soldier who was pressed to the ground by the Japanese soldier, and said to Shiomi beside him with a smug expression.

"Captain Kamiya, this is just some civilian troops, the real British army is still very combative, as a commander, you can't underestimate the enemy at any time." Houto admonished Kamiya, then turned his face to look at the Japanese Marines who were standing by the outpost and had witnessed the whole process.

"Send two soldiers to take over the post of the navy, keep him in the watch, and forbid this man to leave until I send someone to change the guard." Houdong said to a soldier commander beside him.

"Huh! Fukuda, Nakamura, you two come with me! The commander saluted Houdong, and then beckoned two of his subordinates to run towards the outpost.

Clearing roadblocks was the job of the sappers, and both herringbone barbed wire and snake-bellied barbed wire were quickly removed from the road, and the convoy of trucks full of soldiers sped across the Waibaidu Bridge to the cheerful sound of car horns, and officially entered the concession territory.

According to Houdong's plan, these troops will be divided into three combat teams, one team will go straight to Hankou Road and occupy the building of the Ministry of Industry and Bureau, the administrative core of the public concession, and the other team will occupy the central arrest house of the public concession on Fuzhou Road and destroy the supreme command organ of the police system in the public concession, and the remaining team will go west along Nanjing Road to occupy the concession barracks on the racecourse and Maho Road (Huangpi North Road).

In fact, there are still many targets that need to be occupied on Houdong's schedule, but the problem is that he currently has insufficient troops, so he can only temporarily choose to attack the most critical units.

The truck of the Engineer Wing did not fly any flags, but the Japanese Army star emblem and yellow-green livery embedded in the radiator cover at the front of the car had revealed its identity, especially the Japanese soldiers standing in the body with rifles, how could they hide the eyes of the surrounding high-rise buildings.

Because of the incident at noon, the Bund was under full martial law at this time, and there was not a single pedestrian on the road, which saved the Japanese some trouble, otherwise the citizens who fled in all directions at the sight of this would have been enough to create a great chaos.

Also because of martial law, as soon as the Japanese convoy entered Huangpu Beach, it was immediately blocked by the patrol of the concession.

A team of Annan patrols who came from the French Concession were standing under the four-meter-high traffic control tower at the intersection of Nanjing Road and chatting, discussing when they would be able to change shifts for dinner.

At this time, the colleague who was squatting in the control tower to observe suddenly raised the alarm, and from he could clearly see the Waibaidu Bridge, and he saw from a distance that a group of people had moved the barricade at the southern end of the bridge, and then a team of trucks drove through the bridge deck into the Bund.

These Annan patrols have served in Shanghai for many years, and they are almost half of the Shanghainese, they know who are stationed on the other side of the Waibaidu Bridge, and the Japanese force their way into the concession without saying hello, are they preparing to go to war with the whole of Europe?

Huang Zongjun, the governor of Annan, who led the team, had just turned 40 this year, but he had been working in the French Concession for 12 years, and after seeing the bustling Shanghai Tang, he never wanted to return to the dilapidated village in his hometown, so he used his savings to buy an apartment in the French Concession in Shanghai, and at the same time married the daughter of a small Shanghai businessman as his wife.

He did not know why the Japanese troops had suddenly entered the Public Concession at such a sensitive time, but whether it was out of personal duty or the task given to him by his superiors, it was necessary for him to come forward and ask and stop it.

"Laiwang and Fushan, you two drag the barricade over, Ah Sheng, you immediately call your superiors to report the situation here, ask them to provide support quickly, and the rest of the people will come with me." Inspector Huang quickly gave orders to several subordinates.

Immediately, he mustered up his courage, led the remaining eight Yue Hunters, and stood in the middle of the street at the intersection of Nanjing Road with his superiors distributing them Lebel Type 1892 carbines.

"Parking! No traffic here! Huang Zongjun pulled his M1892 revolver from the holster.

The Japanese trucks had no intention of slowing down, and a few seconds later they replied to the Vietnamese inspector with a dense hail of bullets. The muzzle of the 11-year-old machine gun mounted on the top of the first car erupted tongues of fire, and the order to open fire was obtained from the superiors, and the machine gunners fired a round of strafing at the Annan patrol in the middle of the road.

Although the 116th Division was a garrison division, the training of the soldiers was the same, even on moving vehicles, the machine gunners fired very accurately, and the nine Annan patrolmen, including Inspector Huang, were instantly enveloped in a rain of bullets.

The twenty-five rounds in the hopper were quickly swept away, the four patrolmen were killed instantly, and the survivors were all wounded, struggling in pools of their own blood, and at 3:15 p.m. on November 13, 1940, the first drop of blood in the conflict was shed on the concession side.

PS: The first chapter is presented, and after eating, I will work hard to code the second chapter out, although it is still uncomfortable, but the debt can not be left for the New Year.

Thank you all for your support.