The passage of time is always inadvertent, and when New Year's Day arrived in 1936, two major events occurred in the land of North China. Among them, for the common people and the officers and men of the cadet division in the Rencha Special Administrative Region, this day has a special significance for them. As for Ouyang Yun, it means that he has truly become a warlord from now on, and he has enough strength to step onto the stage of history.

On this day, the Cadet Division was officially expanded into the Cadet Army, on this day, the Japanese army with the 108th Division of the Kwantung Army as the main body launched a surprise attack on the boundary of the 38th Division in Tianjin - I don't know if Lu Dao is the will of heaven, when all the representatives of the active troops of the Cadet Division gathered in the Renqiu Barracks to participate in the promotion and title ceremony, at that moment, Ouyang Yun had just stepped onto the podium at the invitation of the host Chen Shichang and Mei Lanshu, and the staff officer on duty at the division headquarters ran over in a hurry, far away, he shouted loudly: "Division!" Tianjin Emergency! It was sent by Master Zhang himself! ”

Ren Qiu was not very far from Tianjin, and suddenly, as if to annotate the words of the staff officer on duty: there was a continuous dull explosion in the direction of Tianjin, and an expert could tell that it was the sound of an artillery shell of more than 150 millimeters or an aerial bomb of more than 50 pounds. This scene did not cause Ouyang Yun to be stunned, and looking at the senior officials of the Cadet Division sitting on the rostrum, their faces were as calm as water, and they were obviously mentally prepared for this scene to happen. Among them, Zhang Zhen said: "Won't it? Does this little devil really know how to choose a day? ”

"It's not bad to expand the ceremony into a pledge meeting," Mr. Ji said.

Not long after Jin Bihui left Renqiu, Hutong's team in Shenyang sent back detailed information, synthesizing information from all sides and coming to the conclusion that the Kwantung Army would soon use troops against North China, and the most likely target would be Tianjin. Later, the Shanghai team of Fox Pupil, which had already made contact with Xia Wenyun under the pseudonym He Yizhi, sent back more definite information - the Japanese were really preparing to invade Tianjin!

In the afternoon of the same day, when Ouyang Yun and the others had a meeting and were about to call Zhang Zizhong to inform him of the incident, Zhang had already arrived at Renqiu first. The Cadet Division has a fox pupil, and the 38th Division also has its own intelligence system, and they have already obtained this information.

The situation in North China is no longer as simple as it was half a year ago, and although the 29th Army, which used to be dominated by the Wing Cha, still maintains the "stability and unity" on the surface, people with a discerning eye know that it has already been divided into three factions inside. Among them, the military headquarters of the 29th Army led by Song Zheyuan is a faction, and the territory of this faction is Beiping; Then there was the 38th Division headed by Zhang Zizhong and the 143rd Division headed by Zhao Dengyu. Because of his close relationship with Ouyang Yun, Zhang Zizhong was naturally classified as a faction belonging to the Cadet Division; And Zhao Dengyu is a little biased towards his old boss Song Zheyuan, although the 143rd Division and the Cadet Division have reached many cooperation agreements, but he personally seems to have no good impression of Ouyang Yun.

When Zhang Zizhong came to Renqiu, it happened that Ji Xingwen was also there, so several veterans of the military division, including Jiang Shuren, who mainly focused on political affairs, had a comprehensive exchange of views with him on the upcoming "Sino-Japanese" war.

Under Zhang Zizhong's management, the 38th Division currently has more than 50,000 regular troops, in addition to a number of security forces and local units modeled on the Renqiu Self-Defense Force. On such a scale, it is already the establishment of an army. It stands to reason that with such a number of people and the 108th Division of Tufeiyuan, the 38th Division is not at a disadvantage. However, considering the entire Kwantung Army behind the 108th Division, as well as the overwhelming superiority of the opponent's air forces and tanks, the numerical superiority of the 38th Division was gone.

Although the Cadet Division and the 38th Division did not sign an alliance agreement, because of the help that the 38th Division helped at a critical time in the later Wen'an War, whether it was Ouyang Yun, Li Tieshu, or Zhang Zhen, they had already regarded the 38th Division as their own. From a strategic point of view, Tianjin is the only barrier between the Cadet Division and the Kwantung Army, and in this regard, the Cadet Division will not turn a deaf ear to the survival of the 38th Division.

Zhang Zizhong often runs to Renqiu, and he used to come to rob his favorite equipment or something, and he has long been familiar with the apprentices. Therefore, after sitting down, he was not polite, first explained the situation and problems of the 28th Division itself, and then began to ask for people and things.

Prior to this, the Japanese first asked Tu Feiyuan to come forward to negotiate with Zhang Zizhong, and in the name of hindering Sino-Japanese relations, he asked him to immediately abandon the large-scale construction of defensive fortifications in Tianjin, especially the plan to block the Dagu Pass. Later, seeing that the threat was useless, he gave advice to Zhang Zizhong through some senior traitors in Tianjin, asking him to either declare the independence and autonomy of Tianjin, or give up Tianjin directly, if not, then in order to change the current difficult situation of the Japanese overseas Chinese in Tianjin, the Japanese army will send troops to take over Tianjin, and once anyone dares to defy the military might of the Japanese Empire, they will be eradicated at all costs. From that time on, Zhang Zizhong began to dispatch troops, and now, the main force of the 38th Division has formed a confrontation with the main force of the 108th Division around the Japanese concession, and the war can be described as imminent.

On the Kwantung Army, in addition to the 108th Division, the 4th Mixed Brigade of the 8th Division and a brigade of the 9th Division were also mobilized to be deployed near Shanhaiguan. In addition to providing sufficient support to Doshihara on the army side, Minamijiro also transferred two air squadrons for his command and gave the 108th Division 53 "Quirrell" equipment that had recently been transported from the Japanese mainland.

The predecessor of the 108th Division was only a reserve unit of the 8th Division, and according to convention, such units had limited combat effectiveness, so most of them would not be responsible for attacking fortified positions. However, now, under the careful cultivation of Minamijiro, the 108th Division has been transformed into a first-class division that can be compared to the combat strength of the Japanese standing division. This is exactly what Zhang Zizhong is worried about. The Japanese army's divisional establishment, called divisions, was actually equivalent to two Chinese divisions. In addition, the quality of the Japanese army's soldiers is higher than that of the Chinese army, and the weapons and equipment have the upper hand, although Zhang Zizhong now has nearly 50,000 regular troops, but let him carry it alone with Tufeiyuan, it is indeed enough! This is also the main reason why he has always had a high opinion of himself, and he had to surrender his identity to ask for help from the military teacher.

Xu is situation is really critical, Zhang Zizhong really let out his old face this time. Zhang Kou first asked for the air defense regiment that had just been formed by the Cadet Division (a regiment-sized "disease-free" twin anti-aircraft machine gun and a battalion-sized 27-caliber anti-aircraft gun), and then proposed that in view of the fact that the 38th Division's own anti-tank unit still lacked anti-tank guns, he asked Ouyang Yun to borrow the anti-tank reinforced battalion of the Cadet Division.

The anti-tank reinforcement battalion of the Cadet Division was personally formed by Ouyang Yun after the Second Wen'an War, and the purpose of its formation was precisely to effectively suppress the little devil's "Quirrell". The main firepower of this anti-tank reinforced battalion is 57 mm caliber anti-tank guns, and the auxiliary fire is anti-tank mines and anti-tank guns.

Speaking of which, it has only been about two months since the formation of this reinforced battalion, and it has not even completed the required basic training hours. Therefore, when Zhang Zizhong just made this request, everyone in the military division from Ouyang Yun to Guo Biao turned a little ugly.

Zhang Zhen said: "Division Commander Zhang, our anti-tank reinforced battalion has only been formed for a short time, and the soldiers do not have much practical experience. It's a trivial matter that we won't be able to play a role then, but once it's exposed and destroyed, we won't have to fight it in the future. ”

Ji Xingwen echoed: "To be on the safe side, I think the air defense regiment will be transferred up first, and the anti-tank battalion will wait-"

Zhang Zizhong frowned, he looked at Ouyang Yun, which meant waiting for him to make a decision.

Ouyang Yun also frowned, but it was not because of the anti-tank battalion, but because he was calculating another matter. In fact, he has been thinking about this issue since Jin Bihui came to Renqiu, because the relationship is too important, and he has been difficult to decide. What he was worried about was: Will the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression be in full swing?

When I was still in the military academy in the later world, I studied the history of the Anti-Japanese War, and there was such a sentence in the reference book: For China, the Anti-Japanese War was seven years earlier; For Japan, the war of aggression against China was seven years late. This was said by a German with a very strategic vision, whether Ouyang Yun was willing to accept such a point of view or not, in fact, this German was right at all. In terms of 37 years of history, China was far from ready for war with Japan. As for Japan, from a strategic point of view, he gave China, especially the Nationalist Government, too much time to prepare for the War of Resistance. Seven years ago, that is, 30 years, at that time, China was still in a state of scattered sand, and if Japan sent troops in this situation, God knows what the situation would be.

There is no doubt that the Japanese military operation against Tianjin this time, like the previous Wen'an War, had limited objectives, and the Japanese were not ready for a full-scale invasion of China. What Ouyang Yun is worried about is whether the war will be used by militarists in Japan to launch a full-scale war of aggression against China under the pretext of being too intense.

If it really develops to that point, with just one cadet division plus 38 divisions, that is, plus 143 divisions, will they be able to withstand the southern invasion of hundreds of thousands of wolf-like Kwantung Army?