Chapter Twenty-Four: Rebellion

  But at this time, the 2nd Battalion and Guard Company of the 620th Regiment of the 7th Brigade, which had not yet received the order to retreat, were still stubbornly resisting the Japanese army's attack. Here, leading the soldiers to resist the Japanese invaders, only five platoon leaders were left, and all the other officers had been killed in battle.

  Because they were soldiers, so they chose to resist.

  After a barrage of fire from the Japanese, only two platoon leaders were left in command, and the remaining soldiers were visibly exhausted.

  The terrain here is not advantageous, but the fortifications are still quite solid, so the enemy's three attacks were all repelled.

  The 2nd Battalion of the Railway Guard Regiment, led by Shōichi Shimamoto, was an old-fashioned army. He saw his soldiers falling one by one in a pool of blood, and his heart was bleeding too. He didn't want their blood to flow in vain, so he requested artillery support on the one hand, and ordered the troops to use 50mm caliber grenade launchers and 60mm caliber mortars to fire at the Second Battalion's position.

  Before long, the Japanese launched a frenzied barrage, interspersed with the thunder of howitzers. In the face of this torrential downpour of artillery, Shimizu Masato proved himself to be an excellent "invader", not giving his opponent any chance to counterattack. Before the explosions had even ended, he was already charging forward with the vanguard troops.

  "Fire!" Zhao Xiaofeng's dispatched Northeast Anti-Japanese Army soldier, Huang Xiaoxian, now a squad leader, shouted as he saw the approaching Japanese.

  "Rat-a-tat... Boom! ...Boom!" The sound of gunfire immediately rang out on the battlefield, and all the soldiers who had not been sacrificed picked up their weapons.

  "Boom!......" Huang Xiaoxian turned his head to look, the only heavy machine gun on his own position was silenced again, and several soldiers around him were all blown to death. He immediately roared: "Cover me!"

  Having said that, he immediately stood up and ran towards the heavy machine gun with his body bent.

  "Bang! Bang!......" The Japanese soldiers who saw the target immediately fired bullets at him.

  "Ah!" Huang Xiaoxian's thigh had already been shot through by a Japanese soldier's Type 38 rifle, and fresh blood was flowing down continuously. Huang Xiaoxian had fallen to the ground, but he looked at the heavy machine gun still ten or more steps away, gritted his teeth, and began to drag his injured leg towards the cover of the heavy machine gun...

  "Cover Huang Paichang!" a soldier shouted.

  "Rat-a-tat-a-tat..." The firepower of the two light machine guns immediately pinned down the Japanese, making it impossible for them to lift their heads.

  "Just five more steps!... Just three more steps!" Huang Xiaojian counted in his heart.

  At last, he crawled inside the bunker. Due to his leg injury, he was unable to stand up and fire, so Huang Xiaoxian gritted his teeth and dragged several soldiers' corpses under him as padding. Finally, the heavy machine gun's roar sounded again.

  "Take it away! Get that heavy machine gun away from me!" Shimomoto Masakazu ordered, bowing his head.

  "Hey!" Several mortar men immediately began adjusting the firing distance, "Boom! Boom!......" After a few loud noises, Huang Xiaoxian suddenly found that his body had become numb, and the fresh blood flowing from his head had blocked his shooting line of sight.

  He felt extremely exhausted and really wanted to sleep well, but he knew that once he fell asleep, he would never wake up again.

  "Rat-a-tat-a-tat! …… " The heavy machine gun fired again, although it was not accurate, many bullets flew into the sky, but still scared the attacking Japanese people who didn't dare to lift their heads.

  "Bahga!" Island Motoichi waved his baton again and ordered: "Fire!"

  At last, Huang Xiaoxian's machine gun was completely silenced. The remaining dozens of soldiers resisted for a while before abandoning the position and retreating towards Shenyang City.

  Shimamoto Masakazu finally recaptured the position north of Beidaying after losing dozens of soldiers.

  The city of Fengtian is now shaking with the sound of cannons, and many citizens who were still asleep immediately rushed out of the city in a panic after hearing that the 2nd Division of the Kwantung Army's 3rd Brigade's 29th Regiment was attacking Fengtian City.

  At 10:50 on September 18th, the commander of the Seventh Brigade, Wang Yi Zhe, rushed to the Fenyang City Public Security Bureau amidst artillery fire to discuss countermeasures with Huang Xian Sheng.

  "What's to be done? Brother Jingzhong?" Wang Yizhe asked anxiously.

  "Hit!" Huang Xian shouted immediately: "The Japanese are too deceitful, and our government is too incompetent!"

  "But we are not allowed to resist! I just came back from General Rong Quan's place." Wang Yi Zhe said helplessly.

  "To hell with it! How can I just sit back and watch the Japanese occupy our land, slaughter our people?" Huang Xian shouted.

  "Good! Good! You are a hero!" Wang Yizhe said helplessly: "I am a soldier, obeying orders is my duty, but I support you!"

  Huang Xiansheng immediately said to Wang Yizhe: "The Public Security Bureau's various branch teams will do their best to support the resistance war. We will not give up our positions until we cannot resist anymore. If we can't fight in the city, I'll take them out to fight and fight to the end!"

  "I'll go back and ask General Shao at once!" Wang Yizhe came in a hurry and left in a hurry.

  On September 19th, before dawn broke, Huang Xiansheng received an urgent telegram from Zhang Xueliang: "Do not resist!"

  "Damn it!" Huang Xiansheng cursed, but there was nothing he could do. In fact, as early as July this year, Huang Xiansheng had already analyzed and predicted from various intelligence that the Japanese side would take larger military action. He reported to Zang Shiyi, then chairman of Liaoning Province, and Rong Jun, then chief of staff of the Northeast Border Defense Command. However, Zang Shiyi and Rong Jun could not make a decision, and they instructed Huang Xiansheng to report directly to Zhang Xueliang.

  Huang Xiansheng immediately went to Beiping to meet Zhang Xueliang and report for instructions. However, Zhang Xueliang replied: "With the Nine-Power Treaty and the League of Nations, Japan cannot forcibly occupy our territory, so there is no need to panic. If Japan attacks, we must not resist, lest the situation escalate and become difficult to handle."

  Huang Xian declared the intention of Zhang Xueliang, and after returning to Shenyang, he immediately expanded the police force in each county within his own scope of responsibility. At the same time, he established a regional public security defense zone, and organized the public security troops and county police into 12 total teams, making it convenient to mobilize defenses in sudden events. He also notified all 58 counties in the province under the name of the Police Department that the public security police teams should immediately go to Shenyang to receive guns and ammunition. After the public security police teams from each county received their guns from Shenyang, they immediately entered a state of armed alert. Especially in the western, eastern, and southern parts of Liaoning Province, which were the first to receive guns, this also provided favorable conditions for organizing anti-Japanese armed forces later on.

  On September 17, General Zeng Jun and the representative of the Japanese Kwantung Army negotiated on the "Zhang Zuolin incident". At this time, the Japanese showed a desire to launch an aggressive attack, but Zeng Jun and Zuo Quan did not want to expand the situation, so they made no emergency preparations.

  On the afternoon of September 18, Huang Xiansheng received a report from Public Security Inspector General Xiong Fei that the head of the Japanese Special Service Organization, Doihara Kenji, had returned to Shenyang from Japan and was secretly meeting with Kwantung Army Commander Honjo Shigeru, possibly planning a major military action.

  Huang Xiansheng immediately instructed the public security bureau police force to sit and wait, entering a state of defense.

  Now it has come to the crucial moment, Huang Xiansheng immediately called Wang Yizhe again: "Commander Wang, what should we do next?" Usually he was more compatible with Wang Yizhe, so at the critical moment, he still chose to discuss countermeasures with Wang Yizhe.

  "Cough!" Wang Yizhe said helplessly: "Military orders are like mountains! Brother Jingzhong, let's withdraw first!"

  "Retreat?" Huang Xian shouted: "Where can we retreat to?"

  "We are going to petition in the Central! We will be back!" Wang Yi Zhe said firmly.

  "Alright!" Huang Xiansheng responded casually, he had already lost confidence in this government. The next morning, after Wang Yizhe failed to receive the order to resist, he disguised himself as a civilian and left the city with the refugees.

  At this time, the Japanese army occupied Beidaying and then attacked the urban area. Since there was no resistance from the Northeast Army, they quickly began to attack Fengtian City from Xiaoximen.

  But the Japanese were met with fierce resistance at Xiaoxi Gate! Zhao Xiao Feng led his own battalion of over 200 soldiers in a sniper attack on the enemy, and also gathered many soldiers who had retreated from the defeat at Beidaying to join his resistance force, totaling over 200 people.

  After hearing the intense gunfire at Xiaoxi Gate, Huang Xiansheng asked strangely: "Now that the soldiers of the Seventh Brigade have all withdrawn, who is resisting at Xiaoxi Gate?"

  Ah Lang has now been promoted to squad leader, he immediately reported: "I heard that it was the regimental commander of the 1st Division of Shanxi Province under Qi Shan who led the troops in resisting the Japanese army!"

  "What?" Huang Xian shouted in surprise: "How did the troops of Shan Cheng Town come to Fengtian?"

  "It seems that they were suppressing bandits on the mountain outside Dongmen last night, and only entered Fentian after hearing the gunfire!" Ah Lang replied immediately.

  "But what bandits are there outside the East Gate of Fengtian?" Huang Xiansheng wondered to himself, but upon hearing that there were troops defending Fengtian, he immediately felt at ease. "You!" Huang Xiansheng pointed at Ah Lang's official seal and said: "Take the police battalion from the Sanjing Road Police Station, the Shangbu Third Branch Office, and the Nanying Market to assist those soldiers in resisting the Kwantung Army's attack at the Xiaoxi Gate."

  "Yes!" Ah Lang immediately led more than 200 people to rush towards the small western gate.

  Huang Xiansheng ordered the remaining police battalions to immediately build fortifications in the Erjing Street area, to prevent Xiaoxi Gate from falling without a fight.

  Huang Xiansheng led a team of about 200 police officers to repair the fortifications while sending people to check the situation at the city gate.

  Unexpectedly, the Little Western Gate was as stable as a rock, and the report from below said: "The Zhao surname regiment leader is leading more than 400 soldiers to fiercely attack the enemy!"

  "Over 400 people? Even if we add the nearly 200 people I sent to support, it's only over 600 people. How can they resist the over 2,000 devils outside the city?" Huang Xiansheng was puzzled and immediately put on his armor and led a hundred soldiers to rush towards the small western gate.

  At this time, the sound of gunfire, shouting and screaming near Xiaoxi Gate filled Huang Xian's ears, he couldn't imagine that the battle here was so fierce.

  "Good!" Huang Xiansheng shouted: "Well done!" It turned out that a small team leader who was directing the troops to attack under the city was actually hit in the head by a soldier! And this person was Gu Wentian, Zhao Xiaofeng's bodyguard.

  "Kill the enemy!" Islandamoto Seiichi, who had just achieved a great victory at the Battle of Beidaying, was now being blocked here, and he was almost about to explode with rage. His howitzer shells hit the walls of Fengtian City, but only managed to dislodge one stone, causing no damage to the Chinese defenders. Moreover, among the defending troops were several "sharpshooters" with incredible marksmanship! Two of his platoon leaders and four sergeants had already been taken out by the enemy.

  Now, several squad leaders and sergeants are shrinking behind the soldiers and dare not rush forward.

  "Cowards! Advance!" Witnessing this scene, Shimajiro immediately tore open his military uniform, drew out his command knife and angrily shouted, personally charging out of the trenches to command the attack.

  "Charge!" Under the leadership of Shimamoto Seiichi, several hundred Japanese again began to attack Fengtian City.