Honda's awakening is still a little late, the war mobilization in the concession has begun, and the development of the situation is no longer under his control.

After the assassination, the 4th Battalion of the Royal Norfolk Infantry Regiment and the 1st Battalion of the Cambridgeshire Infantry Regiment took part in the blockade around the Bund.

These two units had previously served in Malaya, and had never entered such a bustling cosmopolitan city, and the soldiers were really looking forward to their next two years of garrison life.

The barracks were ready-made, originally the British camps in Shanghai, and when the troops withdrew, these barracks were transferred to the International Merchant Regiment.

At this time, the Russian team of the International Merchant Corps stationed in the barracks on Maho Road had all moved out, and the British Consulate directly allocated funds and invited the construction company to carry out careful repairs to the camp.

The barracks, the dining room, the tearoom, the officers' club, the commissary, the bathhouse, and even the indoor stadium, all the facilities they could not have imagined, everything was so satisfying that the soldiers of the two infantry battalions were now a little happy.

Just as they had unloaded all their baggage, loaded their weapons and ammunition into the storeroom, cleaned their beds, and began to look forward to the sumptuous dinner that night, an urgent call from the British Consulate came. The loud assembly call and the shrill brass whistles of the officers and platoons of the company resounded throughout the barracks in an instant, and the infantry hurried to the playground in the middle of the camp with rifles and their respective equipment, and it took almost a quarter of an hour for all the officers and men to assemble.

According to the consulate, at least one battalion of Japanese infantry had entered the concession from the Bund and was now attacking the Chinachem Hotel, where the German envoys and a large number of high-ranking officials and wealthy businessmen were staying. Now only one squad of the German SS is putting up resistance, and the support of the follow-up troops is urgently needed.

The newly appointed commander of the British Army in Shanghai, Major General Coulson, had rushed from his headquarters to the Jiaozhou Road Barracks, where he would lead the 2nd Battalion of the North Lancashire Infantry Regiment and the 1st Battalion of the Malayan Infantry Regiment to personally meet the invading Japanese troops. Although these infantry battalions were stationed in the colonies and had little actual combat experience, Major General Coulson declared that he was confident of victory in defeating the Japanese invasion.

Unlike the self-confident British, the French Foreign Legion looked like they were facing a great enemy in the barracks.

The S-35 tanks of the 2nd Company of the 7th Armored Battalion of the French Indochina Colony had removed all the precision sights from all weapons before departure, as well as most of the fuel and all ammunition, for the safety of maritime transportation. No one would have thought that these tanks on the Bund Road would not have much combat capability in fact, and they were completely empty shells.

By this time, all the tanks had been put into storage, and the mechanics were in full swing to prepare them, but the problem was that the battle alarm came too late, and these tanks would not be able to participate in the battle anyway.

Speaking of which, the Chinese dispatch army in the French Concession retains an armored unit and has six Renault FT-17 tanks from the First World War.

However, these legion veterans are all experienced in battles, they don't care whether there is support from armored troops, they have experienced battles that are a hundred times worse than now, and only death can stop the Foreign Legion.

The veterans silently prepared their equipment, and there was not the slightest nervousness in their faces, and the officers wore snow-white ornaments on their chests, and their uniforms were straight and shiny, and they didn't look like they were going to fight at all, but more like going to a feast.

The French received the news later than the British, but by the time the trucks of the first Foreign Legion infantry battalion rushed out of the camp gates, the British were not yet ready for battle.

"Ceasefire! Stop firing! Corporal Ryan shouted with his arms waving.

"It's a white flag!" The squad turned back to Webb and reported.

"Hell, everyone ceasefire!" Webb picked up the binoculars, and then he saw a Japanese officer holding a stick with a white cloth tied to the tip.

"Do you think it's another trap?" Weber asked the squad deputy that in the battle between the Tomahawk Brigade and the Morimoto Brigade, the SS members had suffered enough from the Japanese to surrender.

"I don't think so, this is Shanghai, they won't mess around like that." Ryan replied with a shake of his head.

"You command here, I'll go over and take a look." Webb slung the telescope around his neck and then strapped his MP40 submachine gun on his back.

"Or I'd better go."

"Forget it, you're injured, stay here and keep an eye on those Japanese for me." Webb smiled at the squad lieutenant, then picked out two full submachine gun magazines from the stacked magazines on the table by the windowsill and inserted them into the triple leather magazine bag around his waist.

"Everyone, pay attention, Sergeant Webb is going down to negotiate with the other party, and no one is allowed to shoot without my order." Ryan took Webber's command position, and he shouted orders to his men by the window.

"Yes, corporal!".

"No problem.".

"Where is Sergeant Webb going?".

"Racine, are you blind? Don't you see the white flag over there? ”。

German soldiers and Indian patrolmen responded loudly.

Webb took a snow-white napkin in his hand, and then went downstairs to the lobby of the hotel, where the once elegant and luxurious decoration was now full of holes, the decorative wall behind the front desk looked like a beehive, and the luxurious teak floor was sprinkled with fragments of crystal chandeliers.

Walking out of the door of the hotel, Webb took a deep breath, then held the napkin high and walked towards the Japanese officer.

An indescribable smell filled the air, mixed with the smell of gunpowder, burnt rubber and wood, and the smell of burnt human bodies, and the Japanese officer covered his mouth and nose with a handkerchief and walked slowly in the direction of the hotel. In the faint smoke of gunpowder, a black figure holding a white cloth appeared at the door of the hotel, and Second Lieutenant Suzuki, who served as a military envoy, hurriedly waved the white flag in his hand.

When he saw the other party's clothes clearly, he couldn't help but be surprised. The black M35 steel helmet, the black SS salute uniform, the white cowhide gear, and the high riding boots that resemble the logo of Suzuki have seen this outfit in magazines more than once, and it feels even more imposing than in the photos.

However, isn't this the personal guard of the head of the independent state, could it be that it was the army of the independent country that fought with the second brigade for half a day just now?

Suzuki and Webb stood face to face, neither of them speaking, but carefully looking each other up and down, and the air on the scene froze all at once.

"Ahem..."Suzuki coughed, at this time he could only take the initiative, after all, it was their side that made the negotiation.

"I'm Second Lieutenant Suzuki in the Japanese Army." Borrowing the light of the Army Non-commissioned Officer School, Second Lieutenant Suzuki is good at English, and his German grades are also quite good, although his pronunciation may be a little non-standard, but he has basic communication with the Germans, and the second lieutenant is still very confident.

"Wait a minute? Do you speak German? Could you please say it again? Try to slow it down as much as possible. Webber smiled at Suzuki with some embarrassment.

Suzuki was stunned, the previous confidence had been reduced to pieces at this moment, the second lieutenant had imagined several ways to communicate with the other party before, but he never thought that he would encounter such a start.

"Isn't my German standard? That's really sorry. There was a slight temper in the lieutenant's tone.

"Ah, just slow down, that's fine." Weber finally understood this, and the SS sergeant said that he was very happy.

"I'm Army Second Lieutenant Mao Suzuki, may I ask your rank and name." Suzuki coughed lightly, deciding to ignore the other man's words, and he asked again.

"Hearst. Weber, SS sergeant. Webb saluted Suzuki.

Now Suzuki was embarrassed again, he didn't know how to respond, whether to salute the army or raise his hand in the same way.

But he didn't have time to think about it, the German's hand was still there, and it would be rude to stiffen it again, and finally Second Lieutenant Suzuki gritted his teeth and returned a salute to Weber.

"Hey! Reinhart! Webb declared loudly.

"Hi... Reinhart! Suzuki hurriedly learned from the other party to respond.

PS: Today is Chinese New Year's Eve, I wish all book friends a happy family.