readx;

Chapter 1230: War breaks out

The vast night covers the earth. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Wanping County, located in the broad plain of North China, the four gates are closed, a piece of floating clouds in the sky seems to be boundless, slowly drifting from east to west, the stars in the sky seem to fall into a deep sleep, gradually disappearing the traces, the scattered and dim lights on the ancient city wall, like fireflies shaking with the wind, like the weak little fishing fire on the boundless sea.

In the regimental headquarters of the 219th Regiment of the 37th Division of the 29th Army in the county seat, the atmosphere was extremely tense and depressing.

After listening to the staff report, the regiment commander Ji Xingwen was slightly relieved, but during the day, the Eighth Squadron of the Third Brigade of the First Wing of the North China Garrison Army, led by the captain Yimu Qinghal, drove to the area of Huilongmiao to Dawayao, which is close to the headquarters of Lugou Bridge, to carry out actual combat exercises, which still made Ji Xingwen very puzzled.

Although it is said that the army has held various military exercises in the region uninterrupted in the past week, there has never been such a strange situation as today, how can it be possible that the small-scale conventional exercises, which should only belong to a squadron of more than 100 people of the Japanese army, can be led by the captain himself and command the whole process? Is there some ulterior motive hidden in this?

Fortunately, in the evening, the Japanese army exercised ended, and there seemed to be signs of withdrawing troops, but at half past seven in the evening, the gunfire rang out again, and the unique firing sound of the Japanese standard rifle 38 big cover and the loud point fire sound of the crooked handle machine gun were very easy to distinguish in the silence of the night.

From this seemingly ordinary gunshot, which is not much different from the past week, it seems to reveal a rich mysterious atmosphere, and this subconscious bad feeling can only be vaguely felt by soldiers who have experienced a hundred battles and are incomparably experienced.

Ji Xingwen stood up, put his hands on his chest, and paced back and forth. I don't know why, he was always restless in his heart, and he couldn't calm down at all, as if something bad was about to happen. After repeated consideration, Ji Xingwen finally made up his mind, walked to the telephone in a few steps, and shook the phone at the headquarters, wanting to report his bad feelings to the division commander Feng Zhi'an over the phone.

Feng Zhi'an, who was at the headquarters of the 29th Army in Beiping, listened to Ji Xingwen's report and was slightly surprised, but after thinking about it, Commander Song Zheyuan and Deputy Army Commander Tong Linge had just held a friendly meeting with the consular officer and the head of the Beiping secret service in the afternoon, and the content of the discussion was how to effectively promote the progress of the new railway in North China and the development of mineral resources along the way.

After thinking about it again, Feng Zhi'an, who still wanted to continue to attend the summary meeting of the military department, still gave Ji Xingwen a calm answer: pay attention to vigilance, and report anything abnormal at any time.

Listening to the busy sound on the phone, Ji Xingwen shook his head, after putting down the phone, he thought about it and made up his mind, the officers and soldiers of the whole regiment who had already canceled the alert entered a state of preparedness at any time under Ji Xingwen's order, and the number of guards on the periphery doubled.

In the blink of an eye, more than two hours passed, and although the Japanese army's exercises were still going on intermittently, no special circumstances had occurred, but all the officers and men of the regiment listened anxiously to the intermittent loud gunfire outside the city, and everyone felt a kind of depression and panic that they had never felt before, but no one could say why they had to dig into the cause.

"What time is it?"

Ji Xingwen, who finished asking, did not raise his head, the pencil in his hand was still sliding on the map, and a thick line soon appeared between the line of Lugou Bridge and the Japanese camp in Fengtai, where the Japanese army conducted a large-scale live-fire exercise yesterday.

"Just after ten o'clock."

The regiment deputy who got together with Ji Xingwen to check the map raised his wrist and glanced at his watch, and then looked at the sky outside, and then replied in a low voice, and when he turned his head, he found that the teacup on the table was out of water, and hurriedly ordered the orderly soldiers standing aside to add it to the regiment commander.

Suddenly, there were bursts of gunfire from the west of the city, followed by the screaming of bullets piercing the night sky, and the hearts of all the officers and soldiers in the regiment headquarters were beating wildly, and the tip of the pencil in Ji Xingwen's hand snapped in response.

Ji Xingwen raised his head suddenly, his face was full of shock and anger, and before he could say a word, he heard two loud bangs, and a bungalow fifty meters northwest shook violently and collapsed under the bombardment of bombs fired from grenadiers.

"It's not good, *** people did it! All sorted, ready to fight back—"

The entire Wanping County was already jumping at this time, and the screams and screams came and went, and there was chaos. Ji Xingwen and other officers, escorted by a squad of guards, quickly rushed to the city gate where the gunfire was most intense, and on the way they met Jin Zhenzhong, the commander of the third battalion, who seemed to be running to report the military situation, and learned that the Japanese army had suddenly attacked, but now they had stopped shooting, but they sent a representative and strongly threatened to enter the city to search for a Japanese soldier who had disappeared during the daytime exercise, and if they were not satisfied, they would attack the city by force.

Ji Xingwen, who is well versed in military affairs, pondered for a while, and immediately understood, I don't know how many times I have used similar tricks, and the 918 and 128 incidents were provoked by such reasons, and I couldn't help scolding: "Dog, do you want to do this trick here from Lao Tzu?" No way! He immediately shouted that the whole regiment should immediately enter the battle state, ordered the deputy of the regiment to arrive in front of the command, and he ran to the regiment headquarters again to report this urgent military situation to the authorities.

But it is a pity that the military telephone line leading to the outside of Wanping County has been cut off at some point, and the regiment headquarters is not equipped with a radio station.

Ji Xingwen didn't know at all that when a Japanese brigade suddenly opened fire on Wanping County, which he was defending, the commander of the Hebian Zhengsan Brigade of the North China Garrison Army stationed in Beiping called Song Zheyuan, who was presiding over the military and political meeting, and angrily attacked his exercise troops. Subsequently, in the afternoon, Matsui Taikuro, the head of the Japanese army's Beiping secret service who was also negotiating with the officials of the Jicha Political Affairs Committee, called one after another, and Matsui Taikuro loudly informed Song Zheyuan: When the three major teams of the Japanese First Wing closed the roll call during the exercise on the outskirts of Lugou Bridge, they found that one soldier was missing, and at the same time, they also encountered the cold guns of the squadron. The exercise force believed that the missing soldier was very likely to have been looted into the city by the squadron and demanded that he immediately enter the city for a search. If the Wanping garrison refused, it caused a firefight, and even led to a Sino-Japanese war, and the responsibility was all on Song Zheyuan and the officers and men of the 29th Army.

For a time, Song Zheyuan's face turned pale, but after carefully weighing the pros and cons, he still politely refused, on the grounds that it was late at night, and the Japanese army had entered the city in a big way, which was afraid of causing serious uneasiness among the local soldiers and people, and that in the dead of night, all the Chinese officers and men had rested, and the matter could be properly resolved through consultation between the two sides tomorrow, and the Japanese side would certainly be given a satisfactory answer at that time.

After listening to Song Zheyuan's briefing, Deputy Army Commander Tong Linge did not say a word, and immediately ordered the communications staff officer to contact Wanping County to see what the situation was. In less than three minutes, the communications staff officer came in a panic to report: it was impossible to get in touch, and it was estimated that the line had been cut off......

Only then did all the generals realize that something was wrong with the situation, but Matsui Taikuro's phone call came again at this time, but the content was an ultimatum that frightened Song Zheyuan - the Japanese army would forcibly enter the city by force to search! Once again, if a full-scale war between China and Japan is triggered by China's armed resistance, the responsibility lies entirely with Song Zheyuan and the 29th Army.

Looking at Song Zheyuan, who was stunned for a moment, and Qi Xieyuan and others, who rushed to the scene and kept saying reassuring words, Feng Zhi'an, who was extremely aggrieved and disappointed in his heart, didn't say a word, and strode out of the conference room, striving to return to the division headquarters as soon as possible to figure out the situation. At this time, Tong Linge couldn't stand Song Zheyuan's cowardice and selfishness, slapped the table with a "snap", and walked through the middle hall into the backyard with a black face.

Song Zheyuan, who had been unable to return and was obsessed with Sino-Japanese cooperation, was still surrounded by a group of traitorous bureaucrats, discussing how to calm the incident through negotiations.

But at this time, the gunfire inside and outside Wanping County had actually stopped, and the Japanese army had no ability to attack the city in the face of the towering and thick city walls and the officers and soldiers of the Ji Xingwen Institute who were waiting for the battle.

Soon after, the military telephone line was reconnected by the communication troops sent by the 37th Division to check the line, and Ji Xingwen quickly reported the situation to Feng Zhi'an, who returned to the Nanyuan Division Headquarters to take command.

Feng Zhi'an was slightly relieved when he heard that the Japanese army had retreated, but he still strictly ordered the 219th Regiment to be ready at all times, and there must be no slackness, and he finished reporting the situation to Song Zheyuan at the Beiping headquarters in detail.

Feng Zhi'an didn't know that after receiving the call, Song Zheyuan was so relieved that he simply ignored Feng Zhi'an's advice that "a big war is likely to come", and resolutely made a decision: go to Tianjin early tomorrow morning to negotiate amicably with the commander of the Japanese garrison to eliminate the hidden danger of war.

Song Zheyuan's misjudgment of the current situation allowed the Japanese First Wing to seize the time and quickly complete the deployment of troops to attack Wanping and Lugou Bridge.

Five o'clock in the morning, Lushan.

An Yi, who received an urgent report from North China, called Bai Chongxi and other generals and hurriedly drove to Meilu.

The guards in charge of the protection and vigilance task of Meilu were shocked when they saw An Yi, Bai Chongxi and other generals who drilled out two cars with black faces, and knew that the two chiefs of general staff and the directors of the staff departments who led the strategic command of the whole army came together at this time, and it was definitely an unimaginable big event, so they didn't dare to breathe, and directly led An Yi and his party into the living room.

Chiang Kai-shek, who had just slept for less than half an hour, apologized to Song Meiling after being informed by the guards, quickly got up and changed into a neat uniform, walked downstairs quickly, and walked into the study first without saying a word.