Like many past agreements, the Japanese military never had any intention of negotiating in good faith with the Chinese. No matter the pact, when push came to shove, it was worth less than the toilet paper hanging by a latrine.
There was a rumor that after the previous commander of the Japanese China Garrison Army died suddenly of a heart attack, the new commander, Katsuki Kiyoshi, arrived in Tianjin, promptly threw the documents signed with Chinese dignitaries over recent years—the Tanggu Truce, the Qin-Doihara Agreement, the Great Wall Armistice Agreement, and others—onto the ground, stomped on them several times, and proclaimed with arrogant swagger:
"Gentlemen, the days of dealing with China on paper are over. From now on, our Great Japanese Empire will use its iron heel to thoroughly conquer this land!"
Yet whether it was the Northeast Army, the Northwest Army, or even Old Yan's Jin-Sui Army, when dealing with the Japanese, they always seemed to make what looked to outsiders like remarkably foolish blunders. But facts proved that not every warlord could handle the Japanese the way Old Marshal Zhang had initially done—and not even the Young Marshal who followed could manage it.
This was not because these warlord chieftains harbored any intention of surrendering and becoming traitors. On the contrary, as a matter of historical fact, many commanders who had humbly sued for peace in the early stages became the core backbone of the war of resistance once full-scale conflict erupted, even sacrificing their lives in the struggle.
The core reason was that amidst such an intricate situation, many regional leaders failed to fully grasp that the war between China and Japan was an existential struggle—a war with no retreat, a national war that concerned every single Chinese.
Yet as events would prove, if the arrogant Japanese pigs wanted to conquer the people of this land, they would have to pay in blood!
***
Tong Linge's fury represented the sentiment of every young, vigorous man in the 29th Army. Under the micromanagement of their own leaders, internal affairs within the army had grown somewhat chaotic.
Commanding the battle in Wanping, Feng Zhian paced the ramparts of Wanping all day. Just as he was wondering why the Japanese artillery fire had gone quiet today, a signalman brought him the forwarded telegram. Upon learning the news, Feng Zhian, just like Tong Linge, exploded on the spot.
Right atop the western rampart, with his naturally booming voice, Feng Zhian cursed in a thick Hebei dialect for a solid ten minutes while the frontline defenders listened on in stunned silence.
Only after his chief of staff pleaded earnestly by his side did Feng Zhian finally let it rest. The copied draft of the telegram caught the wind and fluttered off to parts unknown.
Of course, as the man in charge of the Beiping-Tianjin region, Song Zheyuan had played a few clever tricks of his own. If the Japanese demanded that no regular troops be garrisoned inside Beiping, he would redeploy the city's garrison forces to Nanyuan and Beiyuan. That way, if the Japanese tore up the agreement, Beiping would still have a military buffer zone.
Furthermore, Song Zheyuan issued an order to the Beiping Garrison Security Regiment, directing all two thousand officers and men of the regiment to change into police uniforms while continuing to guard the vital thoroughfares. At the same time, he transferred three military training corps into Beiping, including the nine-hundred-man training corps that Sun Yi had just taken over.
As for the military training corps... they were all university students. No one could claim they were regular garrison troops—just student soldiers who knew how to fire rifles, wore training uniforms, and chanted slogans during regular drills.
Standing outside the military ranks, Zhu Shiqing felt like a wanderer stranded between nowhere and nowhere. Clearly, on someone else's turf, everything was an uphill battle; an onlooker might have thought he was working in espionage.
That being said, if Zhu Shiqing were actually handed a radio transmitter right now, he really could take over part of the Fuxing Society's work—at the very least, he felt confident he could regularly report intelligence on the enemy from the front lines.
In the afternoon, Zhu Shiqing paid another visit to 29th Army headquarters. The guards at the gate had already rotated, and as a matter of routine, they questioned the two about their origins. Zhu Shiqing had no choice but to go through the motions from the previous night all over again before finally entering headquarters. Qin Dechun was seated in an inner room, engrossed in something.
Hearing that Zhu Shiqing had arrived, Qin Dechun pushed aside the documents he had been reviewing and bade them enter.
"Deputy Army Commander Qin!"
Upon seeing Qin Dechun, the two immediately saluted and stood at attention before his desk.
Qin Dechun looked closely at the two before him. Dressed in plain cloth with grime on their faces, apart from their standard military posture they looked nothing like soldiers. Recalling the telegram Tong Linge had forwarded to Feng Zhian a few days earlier, he asked in confusion, "Zhu Shiqing, shouldn't you two have returned to Nanjing? Why are you still here in Beiping?"
Zhu Shiqing replied, "Reporting to the deputy army commander: by order of Division Commander Feng, we came to Beiping to board a train and leave, but the railway station has suspended all passenger trains, leaving us stranded here."
Qin Dechun nodded slightly, his brow furrowing deeper as he sighed. "I see. But I'm afraid you won't be able to leave right away either."
Hearing this, Zhu Shiqing realized that in Beiping—or rather, across Hebei and Chahar—military and civil administration had long drifted apart. Under the original system, the military and administrative leader was one and the same person, but once war broke out, how could the leadership find the time to oversee civil affairs? Corrupt officials like Lin Hongwen ran wild down below, while the top brass simply had too much on their plates to notice.
"Did the Japanese sever the rail line?" Zhu Shiqing ventured somewhat presumptuously.
Qin Dechun shook his head and explained, "The Japanese army will take over Lugou Bridge Railway Station tonight, so trains will cease running for the near future."
Stunned—beyond utter astonishment, Zhu Shiqing felt only bewilderment. He could not comprehend how the great victory celebrated by the common people had led to the Japanese taking over Lugou Bridge Railway Station, yet coming from Qin Dechun's mouth, the news could hardly be false.
"This is my fault as well. You two came to the 29th Army on orders from the General Staff in Nanjing and weathered over a month of trials and tribulations alongside us, yet the army commander and I haven't even had the chance to properly receive you." Seeing Zhu Shiqing remain silent, Qin Dechun added, "As for Nanjing, I will draft a telegram shortly to report truthfully that the fighting in Beiping and Tianjin is locked in a fierce stalemate and the transport lines are blocked. You two stay with the army for now. When the time is right, I will personally see you off back to the capital."
Zhu Shiqing and Fang Wenjian exchanged a glance. Asking no further questions, they saluted and accepted the order.
Then Qin Dechun suddenly realized that these two men from Nanjing could not be kept at army headquarters. He added, "I know you have close ties with the 37th Division. Army Commander Song has transferred the Wanping military training corps to garrison Beiping, and the regimental commander leading them is your old superior, Sun Yi. You two may stay with the training corps for now."
"Yes, sir!"
The two saluted, turned, and left headquarters.
The moment he stepped out of headquarters, mixed emotions churned inside Zhu Shiqing. He could vaguely sense that something had transpired at that military conference. He had arrived at headquarters almost on the heels of the motorcade, yet Tong Linge, who oversaw military operations, was already gone, Song Zheyuan had not arrived in Beiping, and now the training corps was being brought in to garrison the city. What was the intention behind this?
Had the dignitaries sitting in headquarters forgotten that it was just the other day they sent that very training corps from Beiping to Wanping? Wasn't this just dropping a stone on their own feet?
They had walked only a few steps outside when columns of police officers came into view. The black police uniforms vastly outnumbered the blue military uniforms on the streets as regular troops of the 29th Army marched away in withdrawal formation.
Beneath Chongwenmen, the student groups who had just been leading the citizens in slogans were now suppressed by the combined force of the army and police and driven off Chongwenmen Street. Across the wall at the entrance to Dongjiaominxiang, correspondents from several Japanese newspapers in the legation quarter looked on, snapping photos of each moment with their cameras.
That very night, it was Japanese domestic news outlets that broke the story first, publishing reports claiming that the 29th Army had sued for peace. The arrogance of their wording and the biting venom of their phrasing instantly plunged the 29th Army into a disastrously unfavorable position in the court of public opinion.
Yet the true catastrophe for the 29th Army was still far from over.
Wandering the streets of Beiping and taking in the chaos around him, Zhu Shiqing no longer had the heart to care or intervene. For now, all he could do was wait for Sun Yi to arrive with his troops and see what came next.
Chapter 68