The silent telephone truly added an extra layer of eerie tension to the atmosphere.
Zhu Shiqing could actually see a trace of shock on the face of Sun Yi, a seasoned veteran. Sun Yi held the receiver, unable to put it down for a long time. After a moment's hesitation, he cranked the line to Fengtai Station, and Tan Hai answered.
"What's wrong, Commander?! Any orders?!" Tan Hai bellowed from the other end.
The telephone line from Zhaojiazhuang to Fengtai was a direct line that required no switchboard transfer, which meant the line from regimental headquarters toward Fengtai was clear. Sun Yi replied, "Nothing's wrong. Get some rest."
After hanging up, Sun Yi stood up, his body taut. He walked to the doorway of regimental headquarters and peered outside, where a fine drizzle was falling.
Zhu Shiqing followed him over and asked tentatively, "Should I take a few men to check the telephone line?"
Sun Yi gave a quiet sigh, his jaw clenching until the muscles bulged. "It couldn't be the little devils' doing, could it?"
This question left Zhu Shiqing without an answer. Zhu Shiqing replied, "I'll take a few men and make a trip to division headquarters to see what's happening."
"You stay put. We still don't know what's going on out there. If the devils really are lying in wait in ambush, a staff officer like you heading out with just one or two men would get wiped out in no time."
Speaking as he walked outside, Sun Yi clapped the outer sentry on the shoulder and instructed, "You two don't need to stand guard at the gate today. Change into civilian clothes, sneak your way along the village roads to Wanping, and see what's happening over there."
"Yes, sir!"
The two young sentries saluted in response.
"And another thing—don't damn well take the main road just to be fast. Stick to the dirt tracks to the south. No matter what happens, you must be back before dark to report to me!" Sun Yi added.
The two sentries gladly took their orders and left. Having received an assignment that let them get out and catch some fresh air, both seemed quite pleased.
Sun Yi returned inside regimental headquarters, pulled up a chair next to the table by the doorway, and moved the telephone over. He muttered under his breath, "Damn it all, today Sun Yi is sitting right here waiting for news. I'd like to see what the hell can happen."
Inside, Zhu Shiqing smiled wryly to himself. At times, he genuinely felt that Sun Yi was a rash yet endearing regimental commander.
It was vastly different from his life as a clerk in Nanjing. Being far removed from the bureaucracy truly seemed to keep him away from much of the scheming and intrigue. Once again, Zhu Shiqing felt that his grand ambitions and expectations back in Jiangning County had been pure foolishness.
Now, however, his mission was to match wits with the devils.
On this day, July 7, the 219th Regiment in Fengtai was not the only unit to sense that something was wrong; garrison troops in Changxindian, Longwangmiao, and Shunyi had all noticed unusual movements among the Japanese and puppet troops.
Reports of anomalies from all directions quickly made their way back to Beiping. The directive given by Qin Dechun and Tong Linge was: remain on high alert.
Yet among the numerous units in the order of battle, only Feng Zhian's 37th Division was out of contact.
It was not merely that Sun Yi's regiment had lost contact with division headquarters; Wanping's external communications had been severed entirely, and had been so since that morning.
Feng Zhian had wanted to send men to inspect and repair the lines, but outside Wanping's east gate stood a group of "uninvited guests"—a Japanese company was stationed right at the entrance. Had Sun Yi been there, he would have recognized that this bunch was the very same pack of clowns who strutted and postured across from Fengtai every day.
From the morning onward, they had been blocking the gate, their pretext naturally being that they needed to pass through Wanping to conduct military exercises near Lugou Bridge. Neither side would yield an inch.
Helpless, Feng Zhian could only dispatch men out the west gate to repair the telephone line toward Lugou Bridge. As for the lines toward Beiping and Fengtai, they had no way of knowing where the trouble lay.
In recent days, the drizzle had been continuous, and indeed quite a few buried lines had been exposed and damaged as the soil loosened. Feng Zhian could not assert with certainty that it was a deliberate act by the devils, so both sides remained in a standoff.
As evening fell, intelligence reports poured in from all sides.
"Commander, a report from Staff Officer Fang!"
Fang Wenjian's liaison runner rushed in breathlessly. "The East Hebei 2nd Puppet Regiment crossed Chenjiaji. Over the course of the afternoon, they've now reached Liuji. Staff Officer Fang said for me to report back first, while he keeps watch until nightfall before bringing his men back."
Zhu Shiqing quickly located Liuji on the map and explained to Sun Yi, "They've barely covered a few li. It looks like they intend to spend the night in Liuji."
Sun Yi nodded. Considering that Liuji's location was neither here nor there, nothing major could happen in the short term, which brought him a slight sense of relief. He answered, "Brother, go get some food first. Thank you for running back and forth."
The liaison saluted and departed.
Over the course of the day, nothing out of the ordinary occurred at Fengtai Station. Due to the rain, the devils had returned early to their barracks to rest, leaving only Gu Chuanning staring across the line in vain.
Sun Yi wasn't too worried about either of those places, but the two men sent to Wanping had still not returned, fueling his mounting anxiety.
Another half hour passed, and dusk was well underway. The officers and men of the 219th Regiment had returned to their respective barracks to rest. Several battalion and company commanders had also gathered at regimental headquarters, and not a single person could miss the worry etched across Sun Yi's face.
"Commander, your face is drawn like a bitter melon. Nothing's going to go wrong,"
Xiang Chengyu casually tried to comfort Sun Yi, though inside his own heart was pounding like a drum. Xia Qidong sat quietly without uttering a word.
"Damn you, Xiang Chengyu! You're still making fun of me at a time like this? If anything happens to division headquarters, I'll skin you alive first!" Sun Yi cursed as he rose from his chair, walking over to the entrance of regimental headquarters once more to gaze out into the distance.
Feeling thoroughly aggrieved, Xiang Chengyu put on a conciliatory smile. "Alright, alright, Commander, I'll shut my mouth."
Before his words had even settled, hurried footsteps sounded outside. Guided by the noise, the two sentries soon appeared in Sun Yi's field of vision, and Sun Yi hurried out to meet them.
"How is it? Nothing happened to division headquarters, did it?" Sun Yi scanned the two of them with his eyes.
The two sentries were drenched in sweat—or perhaps rainwater—gasping heavily as they shook their heads. "Commander, nothing happened, but there's a ring of devils stationed outside. Looks like four or five hundred of them, blocking the east gate of Wanping."
"As long as they're safe, that's fine. That's fine." Sun Yi let out a long breath, his taut frame finally relaxing. He turned his head back slowly. Seeing his subordinates all watching him from the doorway of headquarters, he chuckled self-deprecatingly, "I thought..."
*Boom—!*
A cannon roar erupted out of nowhere, cutting off Sun Yi's muttering. In the pitch-black night, flashes of fire tore across the distant sky to the northwest, and the rumbling thunder of explosions echoed endlessly across the open plain!
Zhu Shiqing dashed out of regimental headquarters as well. The rumbling artillery fire to the northwest continued unabated. Though the shock waves diminished with distance, they still struck dread into the hearts of everyone present.
To carry so far, these were by no means the mere mortars or mountain guns the Japanese usually fired. Given such firepower, Zhu Shiqing could only think of the Japanese Type 91 howitzer, commonly known as the 105 mm cannon, a weapon with a theoretical maximum range exceeding ten kilometers.
It was no exaggeration to say that even if the Japanese turned their barrels toward Zhaojiazhuang and wanted to blast the 219th Regiment somewhere, it would be child's play!
"The Japanese are using heavy artillery!"
Zhu Shiqing had no way of knowing what the officers present were thinking at this very moment, but there was one fact that none could deny: peace negotiations with the Japanese were no longer possible. All-out war had erupted with that single cannon blast, and the 29th Army had no way to retreat.
The Chinese people had no way to retreat either. The final hour for the Chinese nation had arrived.
Chapter 47