Chapter 26: Looking Death in the Face

  After receiving the order, all infantry guns of the 8th Field Artillery Regiment of the 8th Division opened fire on the Shenyang City Wall. In an instant, the entire city wall was covered in intense artillery fire. Such artillery fire continued throughout the night.

  After gathering the troops at night, Yang Chunshuang counted the number and found that the 500-strong reinforced regiment was now reduced to only 323 people, including 50 seriously wounded soldiers! After counting the number of people, Yang Chunshuang ordered: "We will leave Fengtian overnight and move towards Jilin!"

  After hearing Yang Chonggui's words, the representatives of the 50 seriously wounded men and several soldiers with leg injuries said to Yang Chonggui: "Battalion Commander, we 73 people are ready to stay behind to block the little devils and blow up all the weapons and supplies that cannot be taken away from Fengtian!"

  "No! General Shao said, no matter how severe the injury is! One cannot give up, one cannot abandon!" Yang Chunshuang said seriously. The heavily wounded and leg-wounded soldiers heard Yang Chunshuang's words and all knelt down saying: "Battalion Commander, take those brothers who can walk and leave!"

  Yang Chunshuang saw this scene and knew that it was not good to pretend anymore! So Yang Chunshuang walked up to the soldiers who were kneeling on the ground, helped them up and said: "Don't worry, brothers! As long as I, Yang Chunshuang, am here, your families will never go hungry or cold! I will take care of them just like you!" After finishing speaking, Yang Chunshuang gently wiped away the tears at the corner of his eyes and said: "Take all the weapons and ammunition that can be carried! We'll leave the city through the small west gate!"

  After Yang Chun's team left, the slightly injured soldiers began to get busy. An hour and a half later, all the fuses of the explosives buried in the strongholds and important facilities inside Fengtian City were pulled to the side of the seriously wounded soldiers. At the same time, these seriously wounded soldiers all took out their last grenade and placed it beside them, ready to perish with the devils at any time and place.

  While the remaining warriors in Fengtian City were busy, in the command tent of the Japanese Eighth Division outside Fengtian City, Lieutenant General Yokoyama Shizuo looked at the map and asked his staff: "Kakuno, do you think we can take down Fengtian City tomorrow?"

  "General Koketsu thought for a moment and said, "The city walls of Fengtian are high and grand, and with the firepower on the city towers being so fierce! As long as the Chinese soldiers are sufficient, they can completely defend Fengtian!" Upon hearing General Koketsu's words, Yokoyama Shizuo immediately furrowed his brow. After a while, Yokoyama Shizuo, who had thought through some things, relaxed the stiff muscles on his face and smiled, saying: "I think the Chinese army defending Fengtian must be short of troops!"

  Hearing Yokoyama Shizuo's words, Kakuno thought for a moment and nodded in agreement: "Commander of the Division, I think we can try to probe tomorrow. If the Chinese army is really short-handed, one trial will reveal it!"

  "Come on! Kakuun, what's your plan? You tell me first!" Yokoyama Shizuo said seriously.

  "We can launch a simultaneous attack from all eight gates!" said Jiao Jianzhi after some thought. "If they have enough troops, they would have easily repelled our scattered attacks! If their defensive strength is insufficient, we will immediately break through at this point and capture the city!"

  Yokoyama Shizuo nodded after listening to Sumi's plan and said, "Your method is not bad!" He immediately ordered, "All departments hurry up and rest! Launch an attack on Fengtian at 5:00 tomorrow morning."

  At the same time Yang Chun was leading his men to retreat from Fengtian, Zhang Shao in Beiping stared blankly at the snowflakes falling outside the window, lost in thought. Just then, he heard Zhao Yidie whispering beside him: "Han Ying, what are you thinking about?"

  Zhang Shao-shuai heard Miss Zhao's cry and sighed deeply, saying: "In the past few days, more and more people from Northeast China have poured into the interior of the pass, and with the advance of the Japanese army, the major cities in the three eastern provinces have begun to fall! Now it is betrayal after betrayal; escape after escape! In this vast northeastern province, only a little child is still commanding a small number of troops to resist the Little Devils!"

  When Zhang Lieyang finished speaking, Zhao Si Miss looked at Zhang Shao's worried face and said: "Han Ying, you should cheer up! Now the war outside the pass is raging, your troops still need to rely on you to stabilize their footing!" Just as Zhao Si Miss finished speaking, Li Yuan walked into Zhang Shao's study and said: "Shao Shuai, just received reliable news! The Japanese army has begun to increase its troops in the three eastern provinces again!"

  Zhang Shao-shuai heard what Lí Yuán-cái said and thought for a moment before asking: "What's the situation with that little punk Huā Liè-yáng now?!"

  "Now Beida Camp is still in his hands! However, I think he seems to have started deploying a withdrawal plan!" Li Yuancan said seriously. Upon hearing Li Yuancan's words, Zhang Shaojun thought for a moment before asking: "Is it possible for this kid to lead his troops back to Guannei?!"

  "I think it's impossible! I heard that the situation reported by our men stationed in the munitions factory is that he has taken advantage of his favorable position in the munitions factory to bury large quantities of weapons, ammunition and food in various mountains in the three eastern provinces!" Lei Yuancan said with a frown, looking serious: "I estimate that he is preparing to engage in a protracted war with the Japanese in the Northeast!"

  At this time, Miss Zhao Si on the side listened to Zhang Shao's conversation with Li Yuanchang and thought for a moment before saying: "Han Ying, why are you so concerned about Hua Lieyang?!" Zhang Shao heard Zhao Yizhen's words and said seriously: "Yizhen, do you still remember what Hua Lieyang said when Yang Yuting committed suicide?"

  Upon hearing Zhang Shao's reminder, Zhao Yidie suddenly remembered what Hua Lieyang had said earlier. Zhang Shao looked at Zhao Yidie who seemed to have gained some understanding and walked over to his desk, picked up a stack of manuscripts and handed them to Zhao Yidie saying: "This is the full text of the 'Letter to All Northeastern People' that he sent out a few days ago, take a look!"

  Zhao Yidie heard Zhang Shao's words, took over the manuscript and quietly started flipping through it. After finishing reading, Zhao Yidie let out a deep breath and said: "This kid has such a big mouth! In this script, he not only scolded you, but also scolded Old Jiang from head to toe!"

  Lai Yuanchao, who was standing beside him, heard Miss Zhao's words and thought for a moment before looking at Zhang Shao seriously: "Shao, Hua Lieyang had already moved all the equipment from the arsenal in Fengtian to an unknown location before going to war with the Japanese! I reckon he wants to use the entire city of Fengtian as the final battlefield to perish together with those little devils!"

  Zhang Shaozhai shook his head and said, "You're underestimating this kid! Before we completely wipe out the Japanese, he won't give up his own life! I reckon that the battle in Fengtian will be over in just three more days!"

  At the same time, in the Presidential Palace of Nanjing! The Commander-in-Chief's wife looked at the Commander-in-Chief with a worried face and said seriously: "Darling, now all kinds of public opinions are unfavorable to you! Are you thinking about what remedial measures can be taken?!"

  "Madam, it's not that I don't want to take action! Now the Red Bandits are getting more and more out of control in Jiangxi, and the Central Army is being tied down in Jiangxi! If I were to withdraw troops from Jiangxi now, my encirclement plan would be at risk of collapse!" The Commander-in-Chief said calmly to his wife: "Therefore, my proposal is to first stabilize the internal situation before dealing with external threats!"

  The Commander's wife listened to the Commander's words and shook her head, saying: "Darling, then how did you see the article published by Yang Yuting's grandson?!"

  "Childishness! If he really prioritized the bigger picture, he wouldn't be causing such a ruckus!" The commander-in-chief chuckled and continued, "However, this young fellow isn't bad either! He was able to lead a small contingent of troops in Northeast China's Beidaying and hold off at least two Japanese divisions! If I can utilize this kid, it'll be like adding wings to a tiger!"

  Just then, Dai Li hastily walked into the commander-in-chief's study. Looking at Dai Li who had just walked in, the commander-in-chief frowned and said: "Yunong, it's so late, what brings you here?"

  "General, you'll understand once you've read this!" said Dai Li, handing over an envelope to the Commander-in-Chief. The Commander-in-Chief furrowed his brow as he took the envelope from Dai Li. Upon opening it, he pulled out the letter inside and saw the title "Declaration of the ZGGCD on the Imperialist Japan's Violent Occupation of the Three Eastern Provinces". As soon as he read the title, the Commander-in-Chief immediately grasped the severity of the situation and continued reading with patience: "To the laboring masses of workers and peasants in China:"

  The blood of Wanbaoshan and Korea had not yet dried, when Japanese imperialism openly sent troops to China, violently occupying Shenyang, Andong, and Yingkou, and slaughtering Chinese civilians on an even larger scale!

  Imperialism of all countries, especially Japanese imperialism, is a monstrous robber that oppresses and massacres the Chinese people. In the past six months, it has killed from Manpo Mountain in Korea to Qingdao, and now it has reached Shenyang, Andong, and Yingkou. The number of Chinese laboring masses who have been sacrificed has already accumulated to tens of thousands. In the past, there were the May 30th Movement and the Jinan Massacre, which were even more brutal. Now, it openly and violently occupies Chinese territory, with the obvious purpose of plundering China, suppressing the Chinese workers' and peasants' revolution, and making China its colony. At the same time, it is actively and directly launching an attack on the Soviet Union, attempting to eliminate the world's first proletarian country, the base of the world revolution, and launch a second world war, especially a Pacific imperialist war, implementing a policy of large-scale massacre to divide up China.

  Imperialist robbers see it very clearly: the Soviet proletarian dictatorship is becoming increasingly consolidated, socialist construction has achieved unprecedented victories, and the five-year plan will be completed immediately, which is extremely unfavorable to imperialism and contains great danger. All imperialist countries are desperately planning to eliminate the Soviet Union in order to save their dying fate, what Pan-European Alliance, what Hoover Plan, all of them do not go beyond this. Now Japan's imperialism is occupying China's three northeastern provinces, but it is just a further implementation of the plan for imperialism to attack the Soviet Union. The working people and laboring masses of the whole country must be mobilized under the fundamental task of supporting the Soviet Union, and give a serious answer to Japanese robbers and all imperialisms.

  At the same time, imperialist robbers also understand that the world revolution is developing vigorously, and the Chinese workers' and peasants' revolution is rising day by day. The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army and the Soviet region have bravely broken through the third "encirclement" of the imperialist GMD warlord, and the tide of land revolution and anti-imperialism has surged greatly, especially after the Wanbaohan case. This revolutionary tide will inevitably overthrow the reactionary rule of foreign imperialism and the Chinese big landlord capitalist GMD, and establish a workers', peasants' and soldiers' Soviet government. Foreign imperialism sees that the Chinese GMD warlord can no longer eliminate the revolution, and its running dogs, the GMD warlords, can no longer freely protect and expand its interests in China, so it directly occupies Manchurian Chinese territory. The Manchurian Incident is the most obvious manifestation of this. All factions of the GMD and all factions of warlords are essentially the running dogs of imperialism. Zhang Shaozhang and the entire GMD sang high praises for non-resistance when the Japanese robbers slaughtered the Chinese people, and their peaceful and calm diplomatic efforts fully revealed their shameless surrender and betrayal of national interests. The broad masses of workers, peasants, soldiers, and laboring people throughout China must resolutely unite to fight against imperialism and the GMD in order to achieve victory for the workers' and peasants' revolution and seek liberation. Only the revolutionary iron fist of the broad masses can stop the atrocities of imperialism and drive it out of China!