Chapter Thirty-Seven: Flowing Fire

  "Zi'an, what are you thinking?" Perhaps seeing that I didn't look pleased, Old Jiang asked.

  No choice, it's about the overall situation in North China. Although Hebei is a secondary battlefield and an area that can be gradually abandoned, it cannot be defeated like Liu Zhiyuan did in history, even if it means offending this pig! "Chairman, what about the command ability of Jing Yuexiu?"

  "After supporting him, although his command is slightly inferior, he is loyal and has a broad perspective. He can still be relied upon to defend the position!"

  Right? Liu Zhen was still very obedient at that time, but how did Liu Zhen collapse slightly in the war in history? It shouldn't be like that, should it? I really can't remember the details.

  Seeing me not responding, Old Chiang continued: "I order the formation of the Suiyuan Battle Army, with Yi Sheng in charge and unified command over the Jin-Sui army in the Suiyuan area; tell Bai Chuan to transfer his cavalry corps to Yi Sheng; and add Liu Ruming's troops." Old Chiang thought for a moment and then said: "Zi An, you and Bai Li's plan to launch a surprise attack on the enemy from behind, is it ready to be implemented?"

  "Yes, we can first concentrate on Baotou and Guihua (Hohhot), under the command of General Gui."

  "Hmm! The 100th Division wants to take the number of the 1st Cavalry Army, I think it's nothing much, so I gave it to them; the Northeastern Cavalry Army is the 2nd Cavalry Army, the Northwestern Army with Zheng Daqing's division as the main force wants to form the 3rd Cavalry Army, the Suiyuan Cavalry wants to form the 4th Cavalry Army, and the Central Cavalry Army can only use the number of the 5th Cavalry Army; after all, cavalry is for offense..."

  The 5th Cavalry Division? Isn't this the actual designation of Ma Baoqi's unit in history? Has it come full circle again? I was just about to laugh, when suddenly I thought: Attack! Could it be that Liu Zhen was ordered to go north to support Pingjin and messed up his own defense line, and the 29th Army collapsed together with Liu Zhen's unit which was on the move?

  "Chairman said well! However, although our army cannot reinforce Pingjin now and does not plan to set the main battlefield in Pingjin, after a few weeks, it is reasonable to reinforce; under the command of Jing Yu, can we divide the troops into two parts, with the main force defending the Baoding line under Jing's command, and one part led by Sun Lianzhong or Guan Linzhen, going north to reinforce at the right time? This way, we won't miss the opportunity due to unclear division of attack and defense."

  "En, Zi An's idea is good, let's do it this way! Mu Yin, go and give the order!"

  That night when I returned home, the bad news continued to come in. The Japanese army successively occupied the important intersections near Lugou Bridge, Longwang Temple, Railway Bridge and Fengtai, and once again began shelling Wanping County Town. Meanwhile, as expected, a speech by the Japanese ambassador to China, Kawagoe Shigeru (what a super cool name!), was held on schedule, with the main point being: "Local incidents should be solved locally".

  In the dead of night, I hugged Yunyan, and we happily caressed Yunyan's slightly bulging belly.

  "Is the child safe? Has the war begun?"

  "Yes, the big war will start in about three weeks."

  "What bad luck, I'm not feeling well."

  "Warlike lady, never mind, war is a long-term thing; by the time our children can make soy sauce, it may not be over yet!"

  "Uh-huh, wait for me, I'll be a good advisor for you..." We both fell asleep like that.

  I overslept again, anyway it's late and no one is looking for me, so I spent the morning with Yunyan; in the afternoon, I went to the Ordnance Bureau as deputy director, and discussed with Yu Dawei the large-scale production of bullets and shells through re-manufacturing (collecting used bullet and shell casings, washing and repairing them for re-production); our army has been using this method since the late period of the Anti-Japanese War until the Liberation War; thinking about China's pitiful annual production of 130-140 million bullets and 1.2 million shells, increasing production by 1/4 to 1/3 through re-manufacturing will be extremely crucial.

  The 9th day

  "The Chairman ordered General Sun Lianzhong's troops to set out overnight and occupy Baoding and Shimen (Shijiazhuang) at 2 o'clock this morning."

  "At 4 am, the head of the Japanese Special Service Organ in Beiping, Matsui, informed our side that the missing soldiers had been found and the incident could be peacefully resolved."

  "At 5 o'clock, the two sides of the North Ping negotiations reached a preliminary agreement and withdrew from the vicinity of Lugou Bridge, with the Wanping area being defended by Shi Yousan's troops."

  "At 6 o'clock, General Qin Dechun (Commander of the Chinese Garrison Brigade) arrived at Lugou Bridge, and then the Japanese army fired artillery shells at our Wanping County town,"

  At 9:00, Sino-Japanese negotiation representatives arrived at Lugou Bridge to inspect the withdrawal of troops from both sides.

  "Our security team preparing to take over defense was intercepted by Japanese troops at Otai."

  At 3:00 pm, the bilateral supervisory committee for withdrawal of troops arrived at Wanping.

  At 6:00 pm, a battalion of the Jibei Security Regiment took over the defense of Wanping County.

  "29th Army reported at 2200 hours: Japanese troops did not withdraw according to agreement and were still hiding in railway culverts etc."

  On the 10th afternoon, I was ordered to rush to the government office to attend a meeting again.

  "This morning, the Japanese government held an emergency meeting, and no minutes of the meeting were released after it ended."

  At 2 am, a group of Japanese troops attempted to attack Wanping but were repelled by Shi Yousan's security team.

  "In the morning, Qin Dechun and Matsui negotiated the following results: 1. Both sides immediately cease fire; 2. Both sides return to their original positions; 3. The Lugou Bridge is guarded by Hebei Province's security forces against Shi Yousan's troops; 4. Both sides organize an inspection team to monitor the withdrawal of both armies."

  "Two hours ago, the Japanese side protested that some of our troops had not withdrawn to their original positions. Qin Dechun replied: 'The so-called original position refers to the pre-war garrison location. The Japanese army originally stationed in Tianjin should return to Tianjin, and those originally stationed in Fengtai should return to Fengtai; Our army was originally stationed inside Wanping City, but due to the war, they were relocated to the city wall, and the city wall will be replaced by a security team agreed upon by both parties. (Qin Dechun's original words at that time, very humorous, right?) The Japanese side had nothing to say in response, and instead claimed that some Japanese soldiers' bodies had not been found, and they needed to leave troops to search for them as an excuse, and negotiated with the Chinese side 'Both sides will send personnel to search for Japanese remains by hand, limited to 24 hours.' Qian Dajun stopped reading at this point."

  "What's wrong?" Old Jiang asked.

  "The Japanese negotiating representative left without a word, citing a phone call. In addition, the 29th Army reported that multiple routes of Japanese troops are successively arriving from Tianjin, Gubeikou, and Yuguan, with heavy artillery and tanks in tow. A large number of Japanese troops have occupied Wulitun, Xiaoji, and Daji, cutting off power lines, searching everywhere, and have cut off the Pinglu Road."

  "Report!" A staff officer came in, "The Japanese army is attacking Wanping, Lugou Bridge and..."

  "Where is it?"

  "Along with Guang'an Gate, launch a fierce attack, and deploy heavy artillery and tanks."

  "What?!" Many people exclaimed in unison!

  He Yingqin and his group remained silent with their heads bowed, while Chen Cheng jumped up: "Chairman, the situation has expanded, I hope Chairman will immediately dispatch troops from Baoding and Shimen to reinforce the north."

  "Hmm, this... is a hundred miles!"

  Chiang Baili seemed to wake up from a dream, smiled and said: "Chairman, although the war has expanded somewhat, the Japanese army actually still only has those few thousand garrison troops and a small number of naval landing forces. The overall situation in Beiping and Tianjin will not immediately erupt into a large-scale war. Tonight or at most tomorrow morning, Japan will put forward new negotiation proposals, fighting while negotiating, waiting until the end of the month when the main Japanese forces arrive before launching a general offensive."

  "Geng Guang, Zi An, how's your prediction?"

  Yang Jie looked at me nodding, "We have no different opinions."

  "Tell the Foreign Ministry that we are lodging a protest and demanding that Japan immediately and unconditionally return to the status quo of July 7th." Seeing that everyone was puzzled, he added another sentence: "Tell the Japanese that this is the last time for a diplomatic solution; otherwise it will be war."

  History has finally changed! I'm so excited that I almost jumped up! Because I know that Old Chiang would have said similar words only after more than half a month in history!

  The meeting was announced to be over, and Old Chiang silently left alone. I followed him under the hint of the crowd, on the pretext of visiting Third Sister. Sure enough, Old Chiang was at Soong Mei-ling's place.

  "Sister! Brother-in-law!"

  "Zi An! Have we reached the time for a big fight?" Old Jiang asked with some melancholy, and San Jie also looked at me with some sadness.

  "Brother-in-law, strategically speaking, I also hope that the war can break out again after 3 to 5 years; but now, unless we cede Pingjin, otherwise as Mr. Bai said, by the end of the month when the Japanese army's main forces arrive, it will be a big fight and we will lose Pingjin or even more."

  "There's still half a month left, can we ask European and American countries to talk it over?" asked San Jie.

  "Now the situation in Europe is becoming increasingly tense, and the United States is dominated by isolationism. Even if we want to mediate, we have no power to intervene. We have already suffered failures many times in the 918 Incident and the Rehe Incident... (Who will you find as a scapegoat this time?) Seeing Old Chiang's slight movement, 'Brother-in-law, it is of course right for Europe and America to mediate, but it is unrealistic to expect Japan to make concessions. We must prepare for war! ...We have already lost many battles against the Japanese army, and morale has been greatly affected. The fear of Japan is spreading everywhere! If our army fights again, we will suffer a great defeat, and it will be difficult to boost morale afterwards!! Now that we have the opportunity to take the initiative before the main force of the Japanese army arrives, we cannot afford to miss this chance. Once we win two major victories on both the northern and southern fronts, it will be beneficial for brother-in-law, for the country, and for the military..."

  "Before the Japanese main force is deployed? That is, before the end of the month? The southern route is easy to say, but what about the northern route? Our main forces are far away, and we can only rely on Song Zheyuan?" Old Chiang suddenly thought of something and asked viciously: "Is he still in Shandong and hasn't returned to Beiping?"

  "Mr. Bai Li's estimate is still a bit low, I think if our army fights, it must be taken down by the 25th of this month at the latest. On the Songhu front, we have already made stable preparations; although the 29th Army in the north lacks preparation, relying on its numerical superiority, plus the reinforcements of Sun Lianzhong, Guan Linzheng, Shang Zhen and others, it is not necessarily impossible to win a big victory. Moreover, after ten days, most of the cavalry gathered from Suiyuan will be commanded by General Fu, and can still fight against the enemy's reinforcements! With these three battles, I predict two major victories and one minor victory!"

  Although Old Chiang was somewhat agitated by my words, he remained silent. San Jie intervened: "Zi An, your brother-in-law is thinking of the bigger picture. When the main force of the Japanese army arrives, what will we do?"

  Alas! I have to say it again! With a wry smile, I said: "Sister, brother-in-law, if Japan doesn't make mistakes and goes all out, we will definitely lose the country within three years; but just like how our internal strife prevents us from going all out against Japan, Japan can only exert about 30% of its strength to fight us. (Don't be surprised, Japan has always allocated strategic resources evenly between the army and navy, plus the Kwantung Army and other aspects, so it's already a limit for them to use 30% of their strength to fight us.) It's not too difficult for us to fight this 30% of Japan, at least we can maintain a stalemate, drag it out until the world war. As long as we stand with America, or rather Britain, our ultimate victory is certain!"

  "Good!" Old Chiang finally became excited, "Give diplomacy three days, and we prepare for war for three days. If diplomacy can't solve it, on the 13th, we'll launch a comprehensive attack!"

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