With the rise of the Westernization Movement, Tangshan, like Tianjin and Tanggu, became the industrial base of North China. Especially since the end of the Qing Dynasty, many dignitaries and nobles have purchased property in Tangshan, making the ancient city of Kaiping prosperous and lively. The buildings in Tangshan are the same as those in Tianjin, with old-fashioned courtyard houses, 50 to 70 courtyard houses in a hutong, and Western-style houses.

After the troops entered the city, the first battalion went straight to the main camp of the security corps under the guidance of the sentry squad leader of the security team.

Due to the important military status of Tangshan, there were heavy garrisons in all dynasties, and the scale of the barracks was still very large. Although Yin Rugeng mainly took a fancy to Tangshan's industry and transportation, and set up the puppet Hebei Eastern Defense Communist Autonomous Government here, it cannot be ruled out that he took a fancy to the advantages of solid urban defense projects, perfect yamen and barracks facilities, and no need to spend money on construction.

The sentry squad leader of the security team who led the way was a veteran oilman, and before joining the army, he was an idle villain, and there was no national righteousness in his mind, and some were just how to go where to scrape two dollars, drill the widow's door or something. Seeing that the imperial army was coming, I felt that the opportunity had come, and if I was good, maybe there would be some good. Therefore, the small squad leader kept talking all the way, shaking the situation of the security corps to the interpreter, and kept boasting about how familiar he was in Tangshan, and even said who was rich, whose eldest girl and little daughter-in-law were handsome, and repeatedly promised that after the imperial army and the interpreter were rested, he was willing to take the imperial army and the interpreter to look for flowers and ask Liu. Listening to the interpreter, he kept nodding his head and kept translating the words of the sentry squad leader to the imperial army officer who led the team, and the imperial army officer raised his head high, rode on the ocean horse, and kept saying "Yo system, yo system!" ”

When they arrived at the gate of the barracks, the small squad leader went up aggressively and told the sentry that the imperial army was coming and wanted to rest here, so open the door quickly and call the commander to come out.

At this time, the imperial army was not polite, and directly aimed their bayonets at the sentry at the gate of the barracks, and arrested all the sentries in the fortifications at the gate, and even the small squad leader who led the way was tied up strongly. Then the Imperial Army broke down the door and poured into the barracks to take prisoners from the bed.

It wasn't until the second battalion, led by the underground party, rushed to the east gate to pack up the security team stationed in the urn city, that the gunshots rang out.

The security team stationed in Wengcheng is a squadron, the backbone of this squadron is basically all members of the Gui troops during the original Northern Expedition War, the Gui department lost the battle with Chiang, the troops left in North China were reorganized, so many years have passed, many people have died, retired from the army, and most of the remaining troops have become miscellaneous troops. This squadron belongs to this situation, and in order to survive, it was incorporated into Yin Rugeng's security team. At the beginning, Yin Rugeng was still a commissioner appointed by the national political axe, and the soldiers naturally had nothing to say. But after Yin Rugeng became a Han anniversary, the officers and soldiers of this squadron quit. I had no choice but to wait for the opportunity. After learning about the situation, the Jidong Branch of the North China People's Armed Self-Defense Committee, which was organized and established by the Northern Bureau, sent Li Zhongli to do the work of the squadron leader, hoping that they would join the anti-Japanese contingent anyway. The two sides hit it off, ready to pull the team away when the right time comes.

When the second battalion disguised itself as an army and arrived at the Wengcheng barracks at the east gate, the security sentries standing guard were very vigilant, and not only did not open the door, but immediately reported to the squadron leader.

The squadron leader thought that the Yue army had come to disarm his weapons, because he knew that the Yue army did not trust the security team, and he heard that the direct cause of the Tongzhou incident was that the security team was fighting with the 29 th Army at that time and deliberately released water, which aroused the suspicion of the Yue army, and then a contradiction arose, and the Yue army dispatched more than a dozen planes to bomb the security team barracks, killing more than a dozen people, and only then did the first and second corps of the security team go anyway.

After thinking about it for a while, the squadron leader felt that this devil was a night owl entering the door, and he didn't have a good heart. If he is disarmed, he will probably either be shot en masse or sent to Manchuria to work as a coolie, simply, against his mother. Anyway, I have already decided to join the anti-Japanese team, and it is better to fight devils one day earlier than one day later. It's a big deal, block it, and withdraw overnight to fight guerrillas.

As soon as they made up their minds, the security squadron immediately assembled urgently, quickly distributed ammunition, and went up to the walls of the urn city.

Liu Shizhu, the commander of the second battalion, was a squad leader of the former Red Eighteenth Regiment Sharp Knife Company, who followed Liu Yimin all the way from the Xiangjiang River to eastern Hebei, and how experienced he was, as soon as he saw that the security team was delaying the opening of the door, he knew that the situation had changed, and as soon as he discussed with the instructor, he immediately sent someone to inform the regiment commander of the fire support, and ordered the troops to immediately disperse and hide, and prepare to use bazookas and explosives bags to forcibly blast, open the city wall, and occupy the Wengcheng barracks.

If the siege troops break through the city gate and enter the urn city, the defending troops can rely on the urn city wall to destroy it. The meaning of the urn city is taken from the word "catching turtles in the urn". With the Urn City, the fortifications of the gates were one level stronger.

As soon as the second battalion here was ready for a strong attack, the security squadron over there went up to the city wall. Liu Shizhu still had a trace of luck, and asked the Chinese instructor who was disguised as an interpreter to crawl on the ground and shout with a loudspeaker, saying that he was a member of the second wing of the imperial army stationed in Tianjin, and was ordered to pursue the bandits to Tangshan, and asked the security team to open the door immediately, and the imperial army to enter the barracks to rest.

Before he could finish speaking, a volley of guns rang out on the city wall, causing the blue bricks in front of the soldiers to spark.

Liu Shizhu was furious, and with a wave of his hand, he was about to order a fire attack. At this time, I heard a security officer on the city wall shouting loudly: "Little devil, you have heard it clearly to Lao Tzu, Lao Tzu has reversed, and he will no longer be a security team." It's you bastards today! After shouting, with a wave of his hand, there was another volley of guns.

When Liu Shizhu heard this, he dared to love that this group of security guards was going to fight devils, so he immediately ordered that he should not attack, and then took the iron horn and shouted: "Brothers on the city wall, listen, we are the Eighth Route Army, and we came to attack Tangshan in disguise, and Tangshan City is now under our control. Brethren are welcome to join the protest procession. ”

When the security squadron leader heard this, he was a little confused, how could this be possible, Yue Jun suddenly said that he was the Eighth Route Army, who would believe it! shouted: "Little devil, don't lie to grandpa, if you have a kind, you will attack it." ”

Liu Shizhu thought about it, empty words, and it was right that people didn't believe it. He shouted: "Brothers, listen, we are the real Old Eighth Road, and the city of Taiyuan in Shanxi was captured by us." In order to convince you, I will blast open the gate of the urn city with a single shot, and then send someone in to negotiate with you, please do not shoot. ”

After speaking, Liu Shizhu ordered the bazooka team to blast open the city gate with a single shot.

The instructor's troops are now comfortable using bazookas, and after receiving the order, the bazooka shooters immediately take a half-kneeling position and aim at the gate of the city wall of the urn city and fire.

After hearing Liu Shizhu's shouting, the security squadron leader was still suspicious in his heart, and ordered to stop shooting and see what tricks this group of people who claimed to be Lao Balu could play.

After a short time, I heard a bang, and the city gate was smashed. The security squadron leader believed it this time, because if it was really a devil who came to disarm, with this kind of cannon, it would be no problem to take the urn city at all, and it would be impossible to talk to himself.

Without waiting for Liu Shizhu to send people into the urn city, the leader of the security squadron led the brothers down the city wall and came out to greet them.

Seeing that this security squadron really wanted to participate in the resistance, Liu Shizhu was not polite, and directly said that Yin Rugeng had not been caught yet, and asked him to resettle the troops, open the east gate, and welcome the troops who were ambushed outside the east gate to enter the city, and then lead the Eighth Route Army to arrest Yin Rugeng and other Han annihilations of the puppet political axe.

The leader of the security squadron immediately ordered the east gate to be opened, and let the squadron deputy lead a small group of brothers to welcome the Eighth Route Army into the city, and he led two squads with the second battalion to arrest Yin Rugeng and his minions.

After falling asleep on a chair in the living room, Yin Rugeng had a very strange dream. In the dream, when he arrived in Yanjing, he sat on the throne of the Taihe Palace, and below him was a group of officials. He was a little strange, and the officials didn't know why they looked at him and smiled. When he turned his head, he found that his wife was writhing in the arms of General Shouichi of the temple. He was a little embarrassed, this gang said that he was too bad to give face to Lao Tzu, just wanted to scold, he felt that someone patted him on the shoulder, and when he looked up, he found that Lieutenant General Okabe Naosaburo was looking at him with a smile, and asked him if he was comfortable sitting in this seat, and if he was uncomfortable, the imperial army could find another person to sit. His heart was excited, and he knew that he was too excited, so he hurriedly got down from his seat and ran to the head of the temple Shouichi to bow down. General Terauchi took his hand out of his wife's arms, touched his head and said Do a good job, the imperial army trusts you.

After waking up from the dream, Yin Rugeng felt that this was a good sign, indicating that he would not completely abandon himself, no matter what, he still had use value, at least who didn't know Chairman Yin on the ground in eastern Hebei? I have to go to Peking quickly, and hurry up to see General Shouichi in the temple, but I can't let him forget about himself.

Thinking about it, when I went to Beiping, I still brought my wife with me, maybe it would really work. Besides, his wife is also very good, otherwise how could he marry her in the first place? Although he is a little old now, and there are a lot of wrinkles on his face, he likes to mess around, and the general in the temple is good at it, and he likes to play with other people's daughters-in-law, otherwise why would he often go to Wang Kemin's house? Whatever, everything about himself is given by himself, and he is not even as good as a leper dog without himself. For the sake of power, where can you take care of a lot!

When Yin Rugeng was thinking about something, he heard gunshots coming from the direction of the east gate. Yin Rugeng, who had been frightened by the Tongzhou incident, had a mutiny at his first thought, and immediately turned around and ran to the bedroom, where there was a secret passage where he could hide for a while.

When he entered the bedroom, he saw that his wife had already drilled into the secret passage with the money ticket box, Yin Rugeng was amused, he was not afraid of death, and he also knew to drill the secret passage when the gun rang out.

After entering the secret passage for a while, I heard the guards standing at the door of the bedroom shouting a report. Confirming that it was the report of his personal guard, Yin Rugeng was relieved, knowing that the matter was not big, otherwise his guards would not have shouted the report so calmly. pulled his wife out of the secret passage, straightened his clothes, and asked what was going on in a dignified tone.

The guard reported: "Report to the chairman, a team of imperial troops has come from Tianjin, saying that they are looking for the chairman of the committee, and ask the chairman to get up and receive them." ”

Yin Rugeng thought about it and felt that if he wanted to harm himself, he would not release himself from the detention center, and it was estimated that there was indeed something wrong. Just as he was about to open the door and go out, his mind turned and he asked again: "What happened when the gun rang out at the east gate just now?" ”

The guard replied: "It was a misunderstanding between the Imperial Army and the Security Corps, which caused a shootout, but it soon ended, and all the brothers of a squadron of the Security Corps stationed in the East Gate Urn City were disarmed by the Imperial Army, and they are now going to talk to the chairman about the security team's disrespect for the Imperial Army." ”

Yin Rugeng immediately scolded: "These hooligans, bandits, and splashers, if they don't have other skills, they will cause trouble for Lao Tzu." annoyed Lao Tzu and asked the imperial army to send them all to Manchuria to work as coolies. ”

While scolding, he opened the bedroom door and stepped out.

When I arrived in the living room, I saw that the squadron leader stationed at the east gate was standing proudly in the hall with several imperial army officers, and there were also many imperial soldiers standing in the courtyard.

Yin Rugeng hurriedly stepped forward and said, "Welcome to the Emperor's warriors to the Humble House, please sit down and drink a cup of hot tea to warm up your body." On this cold day, the warriors of the Labor Emperor came to Tangshan, and they were really embarrassed. Thank you for your first meeting! ”

Although Liu Shizhu, who was disguised as an officer of the Chinese army, learned the Chinese language with the troops, his level was limited, and he could not understand the words "please take care of me when we met for the first time" and the emperor's warriors and Tangshan. However, he was already very tired and didn't want to be verbose with Yin Rugeng, so he hurriedly grabbed Yin Rugeng, sat down to rest, and drank hot tea. With a wave of his hand, the soldiers outside the door rushed in, directly pressed Yin Rugeng to the ground, and tied him up.

As soon as Yin Rugeng's two personal bodyguards saw that the imperial army had caught the chairman of the committee, they knew that something was wrong, so they reached out and took out their pistols, and before they could raise the muzzle of their guns, they heard two bangs, and the two bodyguards had blood holes in their chests and fell to the ground softly.

The soldiers quickly rushed into various rooms in the courtyard and arrested Yin Rugeng's wife and other guards, staff officers, confidential officers, and service personnel.

Liu Shizhu sat down at this time, took a sip of the tea that Yin Rugeng's servant had just delivered, sent someone to report to the regiment commander on horseback, and caught Yin Rugeng.

As soon as Yin Rugeng, who was tied up, heard that the imperial army officer was so fluent in Chinese that he could no longer be fluent, he knew that he had been fooled, where was the imperial army, and it was clearly the middle [***] team that disguised the imperial army and entered Tangshan. He is so smart that he naturally knows what will happen if he falls into the hands of the [***] team. However, he was not reconciled and struggled to ask loudly, "Who are you?" I am also Chinese, I have contributed to China, you can't treat me like this. I ask to see your supreme commander, and I ask to meet Chairman Chiang! ”

After Liu Shizhu drank hot tea, his energy recovered a little, stood up, walked to Yin Rugeng, and said coldly: "Dog Hanji, you also have the face to say that you are Chinese?" Phew! As for Chairman Chiang, he doesn't know me, and I don't know him. I only know our division commander, his name is Liu Yimin, and he is the division commander Liu Yimin who commanded us to take Taiyuan and eliminate the elite of the 40,000 Yue army. He ordered us to arrest you and your men, and you just wait to be shot! ”

As soon as Yin Rugeng heard this, the spirit of his whole body completely leaked, and he wanted to lie down on the ground softly. The guard soldier went up with a rifle butt: "Be honest, what a bear!" ”

Yin Rugeng's wife saw Yin Rugeng being beaten, and knew that her dream of glory in this life might be over here, and the dream was gone, what did she have to do with her face? Directly began to splash and roll on the ground, crying and scolding in Chinese, Liu Shizhu was upset when he listened, went up and slammed his feet twice, and kicked on the ass of the girl. Now, the girls didn't spill anymore, and they actually hugged Liu Shizhu's feet and kissed them indiscriminately, which made Liu Shizhu embarrassed, and directly kicked the girls and fainted.

By the time Liu Jianli led the main force into the city, the overall situation in Tangshan had been decided.

Liu Jianli immediately ordered the troops to seize the time to control all factories and mines, control the Bac Ninh Railway, complete their tasks, and rest on the spot. He also ordered the brigade political office and reconnaissance company to raid and interrogate Yin Rugeng and other Han annihilations.

What Liu Jianli didn't expect was that at this time, the people of Tangshan already knew the news of the Eighth Route Army's occupation of Tangshan, and every household took action, pouring into the streets from their homes to guide the troops, help arrange accommodation for the troops, and boil water for cooking.

It turned out that the Tianjin underground party comrades who had led the way for the troops, seeing that the troops had taken control of Tangshan, immediately followed the plan and quickly got in touch with the party organizations in Tangshan, asking them to organize the backbone of the masses to help the troops arrest the spy Han Annihilation and solve the problem of food and lodging, so that the soldiers could recover their physical strength as soon as possible.

Tangshan is an industrial city with many workers, and there are thousands of workers in the Kaiping Coal Mine alone. The underground party did a lot of work in Tangshan. In particular, after Comrade Shaoqi assumed the post of secretary of the Northern Bureau, the party organizations in North China were restored and developed, and they actively organized the struggle to save the people and carry out the construction of armed forces behind enemy lines.

As soon as they heard that their troops had occupied Tangshan, the underground party members immediately took action, mobilized the workers and the masses overnight, and began a vigorous work to support the front. At this moment, Li Congmin, director of the Political Department of the Second Brigade, was completely relieved, and the soldiers could finally drink hot tea and soup.

A few years later, Li Congmin also described the scene of the people of Tangshan condolences to the soldiers on this winter night in his memoirs. He wrote: "When we entered Tangshan, the Sixth Regiment had already taken control of the situation, and the main officials and security teams of the puppet Eastern Hebei Defense Communist Autonomous Axe had all been captured. The brigade commander ordered all units to grasp the key points of control and arrange camping for rest. We haven't had a sip of hot soup since we set off in Duliu. In the cold winter, the soldiers could only eat indifference and drink chili water to fill their stomachs. As the head of the Political Division, how I wish I could let the soldiers have a hot meal, a good night's sleep, and a little bit of physical strength. But I know that the cooks work as hard as we do, and it is obviously a bit difficult to ask them to make a fire and cook. Besides, the soldiers were too tired, and as soon as the order to camp and rest was issued, more than 10,000 people camped on the streets of Tangshan. The cold wind whipped the tired bodies of the warriors and whipped my heart. At this time, the people of Tangshan, who received the news of our army's occupation of Tangshan, took action. They got up overnight, lit a fire to cook, led the soldiers home, let our soldiers drink ginger soup and boiling water, ate the first hot meal since the invasion of Tianjin, and slept well. ”

(To be continued)