After learning of the news of the "Northeast Incident" and the Japanese invasion, the Beijing government strictly ordered Zhang Xueliang to organize a counterattack, and immediately mobilized eight divisions to march into the northeast from Outer Mongolia, Inner Mongolia and Rehe in three ways.

The "Northeast Incident" was carried out by the Kwantung Army and a group of young Zhuang soldiers from the Japanese military headquarters, and there was no strict battle plan in advance, and it was not until the Kwantung Army successively occupied major cities such as Mukden and Changchun that the military headquarters was led by the nose to drive troops into China one after another.

The Japanese troops occupying the northeast had less than 70,000 troops in four divisions, but they deployed their forces centered on the Manchurian railway line and moved quickly, and Harbin itself had been under Japanese control since the time of the intervention in the Russian War, so they used Mukden, Changchun, and Harbin as bases to hold on.

With a steady stream of Japanese reinforcements moving into the Northeast, there is a tendency for a full-scale war to break out between the two countries. The Beiyang government ordered a halt in the march and confronted the Japanese army on the line of Qiqihar, Baicheng, Tongliao, and Jinzhou, and the Japanese army occupied more than half of the territory of the three northeastern provinces of China through the Guò Northeast Incident.

Foreign Minister Wang Chonghui was ordered to negotiate with the Japanese government and complained to the League of Nations, demanding that the Japanese troops withdraw from the occupied Chinese territories.

The Japanese ignored the resolution of the National Union of China calling for the withdrawal of its troops, and supported the former Northeast Army general Manchu Xiqia to establish a "puppet Manchukuo" in Changchun, and Sino-Japanese relations deteriorated sharply, but did not cause a full-scale war.

The Japanese were ill-prepared for the war, and the Beiyang government wanted to win a few more years of development, and although the saliva was flying, and the notes were one after another, the armies of both sides tacitly opened a buffer zone on the northeast front.

Instead, there is an eerie tranquility in the Northeast.

Although the fighting between the two sides in the "Northeast Incident" was not fierce, with more than 10,000 casualties among the Japanese army and the Beiyang Army, the governments and military leaders of the two countries realized that a war between the two countries would inevitably end up, and both sides began to sharpen their knives and stepped up military preparations.

The Beiyang government feared that the outbreak of a full-scale war at this time would affect its industrial development plans. As a result, a relatively restrained attitude was adopted, which also contributed to the development of militarist forces in Japan, after all, the Kwantung Army's adventures in the northeast achieved great results. Occupied most of "Manchuria". And at home, including President Lee Gen. Premier Lu Zhengxiang and Foreign Minister Wang Chonghui became the three "traitors".

A large-scale student movement broke out in China, and Foreign Minister Wang Chonghui was besieged and severely beaten by students while giving a speech at Peking University, and later resigned in anger. Later, Li Gengen and Lu Hanxiang also submitted their resignations. The Beiyang government changed again, Duan Qirui repaid the original and ascended to the presidential throne, and Gu Chongxiu, a member of the Kuomintang family, became the prime minister of the government, and now the Beiyang pattern has reversed. The Duan faction became the "presidential faction", while the Li faction became the "responsible cabinet faction".

The problem was that at this time the Russians also got involved, and Soviet Russia, which had gradually recovered its national strength after the civil war, also began to claim sovereignty over the Far East from China. On the line of the Great Yenisei River, Chinese border guards and the Red Army also began to clash constantly. The situation facing the Beijing government is very dangerous.

After two "five-year plans", especially after a large number of "lease agreements" with the United States, Great Britain, France, and even Germany, the surplus and collapsed factories and equipment of these capitalist countries poured into Soviet Russia, and after 1929, the production of heavy industry in Soviet Russia developed rapidly, and by 1934. Its steel production has reached 6.5 million tons, surpassing France and Japan to become the world's fifth-largest steel producer. Although there are problems of low production efficiency and waste. But the planned economy has also shown its unique charm. It is worth noting that Soviet Russia has always maintained a large army of more than 3 million people, which is a rather formidable force.

Now that the Russian bear has recovered from its heavy losses, the first target is China, the weakest in the Far East.

The reason why Li Haidon personally went to the Far East to carry out this "demonstrative visit" was because the Beiyang government was not ready for war.

After the "918 Incident", Beijing realized that most of its industries were concentrated in the coastal area, and compared with Japan, the Republic of China Navy was far from it, so it can be said that if the Sino-Japanese war broke out. China's coastal industry is bound to suffer a heavy blow. Therefore, from 1931, the Beiyang government began to consciously move the defense industry to the west. Re-layout and realignment of the industry.

The Dexian Arsenal was relocated to Xi'an, while the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau and the Jinling Arsenal were relocated to Chongqing.

For this. The Beiyang government plans to build three major iron and steel and machinery manufacturing bases in Jiuquan, Chongqing, and Hekou in the western region within five years, and at the same time build three major aircraft factories in Kunming, Chengdu, and Xi'an, so as to establish a complete military industrial system in the western region.

It all takes time.

Although after ten years of development, China's industry has developed greatly, but due to the weak foundation, if China wants to catch up with the industrial level of Western powers, it will take 30 years of stable development time, but the Japanese will not give them much chance. In the process of China's near-modernization, it was the Japanese who interrupted this process every time in the way of the guò war, the last time it was the Sino-Japanese War, and this time, it seems, they want to do it again.

At present, China's major iron and steel enterprises are the largest in Wuchang Iron and Steel Plant, with an annual output of 500,000 tons, followed by Xuanhua Iron and Steel Plant, with an output of 300,000 tons, and other iron and steel enterprises are built and put into operation in about 28 to 30 years, the scale is not very large, and the output is about 150,000 tons. Even so, since most of Japan's military resources are used for naval construction, there is still a big gap between the equipment level of the army and the world's first-class military powers.

Judging from the equipment level of the Beiyang Army, it is not weaker than the Japanese Army, but there is a large gap in the number of aircraft equipment. The Beiyang Army is only equipped with more than 1,400 fighters, about half of which are old biplanes, and in fact there are only more than 800 combat planes that can cope with modern warfare.

On the Japanese side, with the emergence of the military cabinet and the rearmament, the number of aircraft equipped by the army and navy has exceeded 5,000, which is more than double that of China, and the performance is also relatively superior.

Another major problem on the Chinese side is that the chain of command is chaotic, and the central and local governments are not under each other's control. The central authorities have opened the Nanyuan Aviation School and the Zhangyuan Aviation School, while the Nanjing Aviation School and the Nanning Aviation School have been run by the Gui Department, but the training level of the graduates of the aviation schools in various localities is different, and there are also differences in command and combat methods.

In fact, with its current military strength, the Beiyang Army is fully capable of fighting the Japanese army, but the problem lies with Soviet Russia, and the Beiyang Army still has to spare half of its energy to deal with a possible invasion by Soviet Russia.

This made Duan Qirui feel a little anxious. (To be continued) R640