On the Pingjin side, the army continued to increase troops in the Pingjin area, and on the other hand, it sent representatives to negotiate with the Jicha authorities. 9. The two sides reached an armistice agreement. However, the intermittent gunfire on the Lugou Bridge proved to be a dead letter.

On the 10th, the attack of the Japanese army was again repulsed by our valiant defenders. The Yue army, which was difficult to ride a tiger, once again proposed negotiations to buy time for the increase of troops in Pingjin. The Jicha authorities immediately dispatched He Jifeng as a negotiator to be responsible for negotiating with the Chinese side.

He Jifeng was ordered to be in danger, not afraid of tigers and wolves, and planned to go to negotiate, and persuaded each other left and right: "Luzao, I have never been honest and scheming, and I am going to negotiate with you too much, you can't go." ”

He Jifeng said confidently: "He said that he set up a banquet for Hongmen, and I have my own way to deal with it." He led several officers and soldiers and resolutely went to negotiate with the army.

At the negotiation table, Hashimoto Qun, chief of staff of the North China Garrison Army, arrogantly took out a piece of paper from his pocket and read aloud on behalf of the commander of the garrison: "On the night of July 7, 1937, there was an unfortunate incident in which your army took the lead in firing at the Lugou Bridge. ”

When He Jifeng heard this, he immediately took the case and scolded loudly, "This is reversing black and white." It was you who fired the first shot of the unjust battle at 11:15 p.m. on July 7 on the bank of the Lugou Bridge. ”

Hashimoto Qun knew that he was in the wrong, but he still used strong words and said with a gloomy face: "Please accept my advice, it is better for your army to retreat, otherwise unpleasant things will happen." ”

He Jifeng looked up to the sky and laughed, pointed to the Lugou Bridge not far away, and said-for-tat: "Mr. Hashimoto, please go and ask them, if the hundreds of lions on the bridge tell you to pass in unison, I will order you to retreat." Then He Jifeng said sharply to Hashimoto: "I, a Chinese person, am not easy to bully. Our 29th Army is not easy to mess with, and not an inch of our territory will be trampled on by anyone. ”

Seeing that the soft side was not working, Hashimoto and other representatives became angry, and they pulled out their katanas one after another, staring at He Jifeng: "Will you retreat?" ”

He Jifeng was mentally prepared, and he was not afraid of danger, so he quickly took out a pistol, aimed it at Hashimoto, and shouted angrily: "Why do you want to use force?" As soon as you move the knife, Lao Tzu will shoot you first. I want to see if your knife is fast, or my gun is fast? ”

Hashimoto's face was so frightened that his face was like earth, cold sweat broke out on his head, and he hurriedly waved his hand and said, "Don't shoot, don't shoot." If you have something to say, it's good to say. Seeing that he was about to die, the thief had no choice but to back down and waved his hand: "Send off." The negotiations ended hastily, and He Jifeng led his assistants to return safely.

After walking out of the army headquarters, the adjutant said to He Jifeng in admiration, "Brigade seat! You are so powerful, just like Guan Erye in ancient times! Quietly, the old devil just now was so scared that he almost didn't pee his pants! ”

He Jifeng snorted coldly, and said indifferently, "The little devil is this virtue, bullying the weak and fearing the hard!" You must not be polite to deal with such people! ”

After deliberately provoking the Lugou Bridge Incident, two major factions were formed in the central part of the military headquarters, namely, the hardliners and the cautious factions, the former represented by War Minister Sugiyama Moto, military division chief Tanaka Shinichi, and chief of the third section of the General Staff Headquarters, Muto Akira, while the latter were represented by Ishihara Wanji, director of the first division of the General Staff Headquarters, and Kenshiro Shibayama, director of the Military Affairs Division of the Ministry of the Army. The two parties have very different analyses of the current situation.

The hardliners believe that Huaxia is already vulnerable, and as long as Ben sends troops, he can conquer it without much effort, and it is the best time.

The cautious faction, on the other hand, insisted that the time was not yet ripe, and since it was still necessary to guard against Soviet Russia in the north, if they rashly launched a large-scale attack on China, they might fall into the mud, and this would not only fail to achieve good combat results, but also possibly put the war against the Soviet Union in a passive position.

In the end, it was the hardliners who gained the upper hand, and Ben transferred more than 20,000 troops and more than 100 planes from Northeast China and North Korea to North China. On 17 July, the General Staff Headquarters of the Army formulated the "Guiding Outline for War against China in the Exercise of Military Strength in North China," and the government decided to mobilize 400,000 troops, hoping to annihilate China by force.

Of course, our side was not inactive, and although Lao Chiang did not want the situation to further expand, he had to send troops to reinforce North China to prevent the situation from further expanding. However, in order to avoid further irritating the Yuanben side, Lao Chiang had only sent four divisions of the Sun Lianzhong Division of the 26th Route Army to the north to support the 29th Route Army, and handed them over to Song Zheyuan's full command. Subsequently, Pang Bingxun, Shang Zhen and other troops were successively transferred to reinforce North China.

Also on July 17, Lao Jiang delivered the famous Lushan speech in Lushan, in which Lao Jiang put forward four demands:

(1) Any settlement shall not infringe upon China's sovereignty and territorial integrity;

(2) To inspect the administrative organization and not tolerate any illegal changes;

(3) Local officials sent by the central political axe, such as Song Zheyuan, chairman of the Political Affairs Committee of the Jicha Procuratorate, cannot be removed by anyone;

(4) The area where the 29th Army is currently stationed is not subject to any restrictions.

In the end, Lao Jiang said this well-known declaration of the Anti-Japanese War at home and abroad, "...... If the war starts, it will be that there is no distinction between the north and the south, the old and the young, no matter who they are, they all have the responsibility of defending the land and resisting the war, and they should all have the determination to sacrifice everything. ……”

The military side increased its troops and negotiated with the Jicha authorities on the one hand, which delayed the preparations for the 29th Army's deployment of troops for battle, which brought great harm to the Pingjin War of Resistance. By July 25, 1937, more than 60,000 puppet troops had been assembled in Pingjin. After the operational deployment of the North China garrison was basically completed, its hideous features were immediately revealed.

On July 25, the Yue army suddenly attacked Langfang on a large scale, and the third brigade of Liu Zhen of our defenders resisted, but in the face of the powerful ground and air firepower of the Yue army, it was finally outnumbered and forced to withdraw from Langfang due to heavy losses, and Langfang was lost.

At about 6 o'clock in the morning on the 26th, more than 500 people of the Yue army suddenly rushed to the Guang'an Gate in Beiping, and the 29th Army's advisers Nakajima, Sakurai, and the secretary Sato Shigeru contacted Li Yanzan, the battalion commander of Liu Ruzhen's department, and asked to enter the city, so the defenders opened the city gate first, lured the army in, and when they were halfway through, the head of Liu Ruzhen ordered the soldiers to shoot, and the army was divided into two parts, inside the city and outside the city, fell into chaos, suffered considerable losses, and the secretary Sato Shigeru was killed by the defenders. The remnants of the Yue army in the city finally fled into the Yue Ben military camp in Dongjiaomin Lane, while the Yu army outside the city withdrew to Fengtai to make peace with the local Yu army. It is known as the Guanganmen Incident in history.

On the afternoon of the 26th, the North China Garrison issued an ultimatum to the 29th Army, demanding that the 29th Army withdraw from the Pingjin area by the 28th, otherwise it would take action. Song Zheyuan immediately resolutely refused, returned the ultimatum, terminated the negotiations, and explicitly told the 29th Army to resist the war.

On the 27th, the army attacked Tongxian, and then attacked Gaoliying, Changping, Tangshan, Shahe and other places, and Song Zheyuan issued a telegram to defend the territory and resist the enemy, saying that "I have the responsibility to defend the territory, and I have to defend it properly." At this point, the fighting further expanded. (To be continued.) )