The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China

September 18, evening.

"Commander, there is an urgent telegram from Shenyang, there is a change in the Kwantung Army!" Adjutant Hu Ruoyu came in with a telegram.

Zhang Xueliang froze for a moment, and said, "Read!"

Hu Ruoyu said: "A unit of the Kwantung Army left the station and marched south along the South Manchurian Railway. The specific intention and target are unknown."

Zhang Xueliang ordered: "Order the Peking University Camp and local garrison troops not to fight in case of provocation by the Kwantung Army, and not to give the Japanese army an excuse to send troops on a large scale."

"Yes!" Hu Ruoyu took the order and left.

Since the beginning of this year, the Kwantung Army has been making all kinds of troubles in the Northeast, and Zhang Xueliang is almost numb to this.

In the spring, a Chinese named He Yongde defrauded 12 farmers near Wanbao Mountain to sublease the land to 188 North Koreans to grow rice. The North Koreans dug canals, dammed them, and seriously damaged the interests of local farmers. More than 200 farmers appealed to the government, and the Jilin provincial government ordered the North Korean nationals to leave the country. The Japanese sent police to stop them. By July, the local farmers couldn't bear it anymore and united to tear down the Korean dam.

Later, North Korean journalists distorted the facts, saying that North Koreans were killed in Wanbaoshan, and a large-scale anti-Chinese movement was launched on the Korean Peninsula. Hundreds of local overseas Chinese were killed or injured.

This is the "Wanbaoshan Incident". It was accidental at the beginning, but the subsequent development was planned and arranged by the Kwantung Army in order to create public opinion for sending troops to the Northeast.

Then came the "Nakamura Incident". Kwantung Army Captain Nakamura Shintaro conducted a secret military investigation in Xing'an Mountains, but was captured by the deputy head of the local reclamation army and ordered Nakamura Shintaro to be secretly executed. Japan took the opportunity to claim that the Northeast Army had murdered and killed soldiers of the Kwantung Army, coerced China to hand over the deputy commander Guan Yuheng, and wantonly created public opinion among the Japanese people to fan the flames.

Not only Zhang Xueliang was very vigilant about these incidents, even Chang Kaishen did not dare to relax, and specially transferred Jiang Zuobin back to Japan as the Minister to Japan, hoping to resolve the Northeast crisis through diplomatic means.

Jiang Zuobin was still very powerful. He quickly reached a consensus with the Japanese foreign affairs department and put pressure on the Ministry of War through the Japanese cabinet. All contradictions seemed to disappear invisible. Because of this, Zhang Xueliang and Chang Kaishen agreed that although the situation in Northeast China was deteriorating, as long as there was help from the Japanese cabinet, major incidents would definitely not break out.

A while ago, the Kwantung Army even conducted a military exercise near Shenyang, bombarded by bombardment, but nothing radical happened.

At night, around ten thirty.

Zhang Xueliang was about to go to bed when his adjutant Hu Ruoyu came in again to report: "Commander, the Kwantung Army has blown up the small section of the Liutiaohu Railway! Beidaying asks for instructions."

The Liutiaohu section of the South Manchuria Railway is very close to Fengjun's Beidaying, and the Kwantung Army is equivalent to messing around under Fengjun's nose.

Zhang Xueliang was shocked, remembering Zhou Hexuan's warnings in the past few days, he took a deep breath and said: "Order the officers and soldiers of the Peking University Camp to strictly guard the barracks, and ignore the provocations of the Kwantung Army."

Hu Ruoyu hurried back to the telegraph room, before the telegraph operator could send the order. The telegraph operator was stunned suddenly, and said in shock: "Adjutant Hu, there is an urgent telegram from Peking University. The Kwantung Army is attacking Peking University. The Seventh Brigade was caught off guard and was caught off guard. I ask the commander for instructions!"

Hu Ruoyu didn't even bother to take the telegrams and newspapers, he ran back frantically and said, "Commander, the Peking Camp is under attack!"

Zhang Xueliang seemed to hear a thunderbolt from the blue sky, and things really happened as Zhou Hexuan expected. After the conspiracy was exposed, the Kwantung Army launched the invasion plan in advance. His face was changing, and after a few seconds of contemplation, he said: "I order all the departments of the Peking University Camp not to resist, and all retreat!"

The elite of the 8,000 Fengjun elite, responsible for guarding the Beida Camp, was captured by 500 Kwantung Army troops.

Zhang Xueliang couldn't sit still any longer, so he ran to the telegraph room in person and ordered: "Send the Nanjing government, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Japanese embassy in Japan a telegram, and inform them that the Kwantung Army invaded Shenyang Beidaying without reason and without reason!"

Chang Kaishen was woken up from the bed. He had the same idea as Zhang Xueliang, so he quickly sent a message to Zhang Xueliang not to resist, and try to avoid the situation from getting worse. At the same time, Jiang Zuobin, the Minister in Japan, was ordered to immediately question the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and contact the Japanese Cabinet to properly resolve the matter.

The Japanese cabinet responded very quickly, reprimanded the Ministry of War angrily, and ordered the Kwantung Army to withdraw its troops immediately. Japanese politicians and soldiers quarreled.

At the time of domestic quarrels in Japan, in the early hours of September 19, the Kwantung Army launched attacks on Shenyang, Yingkou, Fenghuangcheng, Andong, Changchun, Erdaogou, Nanling and other places. By ten o'clock in the morning, the Japanese army had captured 18 cities and towns, including Shenyang.

That speed was too fast, Zhang Xueliang and Chang Kaishen couldn't react at all. They want to use non-resistance in exchange for the support of the Japanese cabinet and countries such as Britain, France and the United States. But in just half a day, Fengjun's hometown of Shenyang was lost, while Japanese politicians and soldiers continued to quarrel.

The defenders in Changchun counterattacked spontaneously, but the combat effectiveness of the defenders was low. After a day and a night of hard fighting, Changchun City was still broken by the Kwantung Army. As for Xiqia, the deputy commander of the border guards in Jilin, whose surname was Aixinjueluo, he directly defected to the enemy and became a traitor. The Kwantung Army easily took over the entire province of Jilin.

When Zhang Xueliang heard the news that Xiqia had defected to the enemy, he was stunned. It was not only Jilin Province that was lost, but also the tens of thousands of garrison troops in Jilin and the reclamation army—the Kwantung Army’s strength increased several times.

In just two or three days, the Kwantung Army was in full swing in the three eastern provinces, aggressively attacking cities and land. In addition to Zhang Xueliang's non-resistance policy, the local garrison could not hold back because the elite of the Feng army were all in North China. Coupled with the traitors defecting to the enemy and leading the way, the situation in the Northeast is deteriorating at an unimaginable speed.

Seeing this situation, Chang Kaishen had already realized that the fucking Japanese cabinet was unreliable at all, so he quickly sent a secret message to Zhang Xueliang to send troops to fight back. Zhou Hexuan also chased Zhang Xueliang to Jinzhou, admonishing Zhang Xueliang to stick to the city every day and not to let the Kwantung Army continue to expand.

But the situation was completely out of control. Countless traitors emerged among the Fengjun generals to lead the way, and the elite Northeast Army transferred from North China was temporarily unable to go to support Heilongjiang and Jilin.

This is equivalent to saying that the two provinces of Heilongjiang and Jilin are basically out of Zhang Xueliang's control, and only some patriotic soldiers are still fighting spontaneously.

In early October, young Japanese military officers launched a coup. Although the coup failed, it marked the complete loss of control of the Japanese cabinet by the military. The Japanese Prime Minister, who has always opposed the invasion of China by force, began to make compromises to the military in order to extend the life of the current cabinet.

Zhang Xueliang, who waited for the Japanese cabinet to solve the problem, finally got the result that he regretted-the Japanese cabinet ignored it and acquiesced to the Kwantung Army's actions.

By mid-October, the Kwantung Army basically occupied the provinces of Heilongjiang and Jilin, and began to concentrate its forces on a large-scale attack on western Liaoning. Not only that, Japan also sent local troops and North Korean divisions for reinforcements, and Jinzhou, which Zhang Xueliang personally guarded, was surrounded by groups.

Zhang Xueliang wanted to resist at this time, but he was powerless to resist. He originally thought that even if the strategy of compromise and forbearance failed, he could organize a force to counterattack. But he never expected that in just half a month, the situation in the Northeast was no longer under his control.

20 days, only 20 days! Heilongjiang (Harbin has not been lost) and Jilin have all fallen, and Liaoning has also been swallowed by the Kwantung Army for nearly half of its territory.

If Zhang Xueliang could be transferred back to the Fengjun elite to garrison various places as soon as possible, then the Kwantung Army's offensive would not be so smooth. More than 100,000 local garrison troops and more than 100,000 reclamation troops seem to be a large number, but the distribution of the four northeastern provinces (including Rehe Province) is like a sieve full of loopholes, and the Kwantung Army can easily break through each one.

If there were not so many traitors in Fengjun, then the Kwantung Army's offensive would not be very smooth. The troops led by these traitors often surrendered to the Japanese army in an organized way, allowing the Kwantung Army, which had a meager force, to grow stronger like a snowball.

However, there are not so many ifs in reality!

It is nonsense to say that Zhang Xueliang gave up the Northeast without firing a single shot. Zhang Xueliang is still sticking to Jinzhou. He has lost his unrealistic ideas since the day the Japanese cabinet broke its promise. He still wanted to bring the Northeast back, but he was unable to do so.

Historically, Zhang Xueliang stayed in Jinzhou for nearly three months. But in the face of the onslaught of the Japanese army day and night, Chang Kaishen's order to stick to it, the dissuasion of Gu Weijun and many other old friends, and the challenge of countless subordinates, Zhang Xueliang finally gave up on Jinzhou - he deeply felt that the general situation was over, and he wanted to fight again. I can't win, so I can only give up the Northeast.

Generally speaking, on the "September 18th Incident", Zhang Xueliang and Chang Kaishen had similar views at the beginning, and both hoped to use diplomatic means to resolve it. After the situation deteriorated rapidly, they also wanted to resist and stick to it, but unfortunately it was too late.

The difference is that Chang Kaishen hopes that Zhang Xueliang can stick to Jinzhou, which is the last barrier in the Northeast. As long as they hold here, the Japanese army will not be able to completely occupy the Northeast.

As for Zhang Xueliang, he wanted to stick to it at first, but gradually lost his confidence in winning. Because the Kwantung Army fought more and more, even Japan sent troops to reinforce it. Unable to win at all, Zhang Xueliang wanted to preserve his strength instead, and simply threw all of Northeast China to the Japanese—at this time, most of Northeast China had essentially fallen.

When the Kwantung Army attacked Jinzhou, Zhou Hexuan stopped admonishing him. Because persuasion is useless, the general situation is gone, and Japan's occupation of the Northeast is a foregone conclusion.

Even if Zhang Xueliang served the country with blood and took all the elites of the Feng army, it would only delay a few months and increase the casualties of the Kwantung Army. Japan could increase its troops without limit, because after the Kwantung Army besieged Jinzhou for a month, The entire Japanese cabinet was forced to resign, and the Japanese military could do whatever it wanted.

Japan's militaristic machine has been violently activated.

Not to mention the Northeast, those crazy Japanese soldiers are still making troubles in Tianjin to occupy Tianjin, and even sent troops to attack Shanghai-the "January 28th Incident".