Internal Discord and External Peril

"An inside job?" Zhu Shiqing held his breath and instinctively looked around him. He felt the exact same thing Fang Wenjian did. Chaos! It was utter chaos. Forget telling friend from foe—one couldn't even distinguish a regular policeman from a member of the security corps, let alone expect dispersed units in such turmoil to locate their commanders and organize an effective counterattack! Fortunately, Xiang Chengyu had swiftly arrived on the scene with an entire battalion, setting up machine guns along both sides of the street. Only then did they barely manage to stem the advancing tide of the Japanese. Behind him, Tan Hai led two companies hastily throwing up street barricades by the light of burning torches. *** When the Beiping Garrison Security Regiment received word that Guang'anmen had fallen, Regimental Commander Wang Bing immediately realized this had to be a deliberate, coordinated offensive by the Japanese military. He at once relayed the intelligence to Tong Linge in Nanyuan, as well as to Song Zheyuan in Tianjin. At some unknown hour before dawn, reports of the Japanese assault reached all quarters. At Song Zheyuan's official residence in Tianjin, Adjutant Li stumbled through the night and banged frantically on Song's front door. A visit in the dead of night stirred a faint dread in Song Zheyuan. Throwing his military tunic over his shoulders, he hurried out to answer. Seeing the anxiety etched into Adjutant Li's face, he blurted out, "What is it? Did the Japanese renege on the agreement?" Adjutant Li said nothing. Clutching three telegrams in his hand, he thrust them all into Song Zheyuan's grasp. Song took the cables, glanced at Li's face—which looked as though he had swallowed poison—and then cast his eyes down onto the text. The first telegram came from Beiping: *"At 0100 hours, several Japanese companies launched a surprise attack on Guang'anmen. Guang'anmen has now fallen to the enemy. The Beiping Garrison Regiment is resisting with everything we have. Requesting immediate friendly reinforcement. Extremely urgent!"* The second telegram came from Nanjing: *"According to reliable intelligence, the Japanese China Garrison Army has mobilized the 20th Division stationed in Korea and the Kwantung Army's 1st and 11th Mixed Brigades, all scheduled to arrive in Beiping-Tianjin in the near future. Army Commander Song is earnestly urged to closely monitor the front-line situation. Report to the central government immediately if anything unexpected occurs!"* The third telegram came from Nanyuan: *"In the early morning hours, Japanese forces launched a sudden assault on our positions at Nanyuan and Beiyuan. Both fronts are engaged in bitter combat. Enemy strength is substantial, unlike days past, supported by armored vehicles and artillery. Dire emergency!"* There were no words adequate to describe Song Zheyuan's expression at that moment. In Adjutant Li's eyes, he appeared largely composed on the surface, yet strangely unsettling. After a brief silence, he merely said softly, "Convene a meeting here for all officers in Tianjin at the rank of brigade commander and above." Only after Adjutant Li took his orders and departed did Song Zheyuan turn back into the house. Crushed beneath unimaginable pressure, he violently smashed two vases standing beside the parlor doorway. They shattered into pieces—just like the ruined situation across Beiping and Tianjin. Practically overnight, fires of war had erupted all across Beiping-Tianjin, plunging every front into bitter fighting. The arrival of two Japanese brigades plus a full division on schedule meant the total collapse of the balance of forces. Inside Beiping, the Japanese advance was checked beneath the gate tower by the fierce resistance of Regiment Commander Sun's troops. Wang Bing, commander of the garrison regiment, telegraphed Sun Yi, urging the Military Training Corps to hold the front line, while simultaneously mustering nearby security corps units to reinforce them. Zhu Shiqing remained hidden with his squad in an alleyway, straining his eyes in the dark to spot any clue. But after several minutes, he found nothing. From this vantage, aside from watching his own comrades fall one after another, there was no sign of anything out of the ordinary. "Only the gatekeeper police have keys to the city gates." Seeing both "elder brothers" pacing like ants on a hot skillet, a young kid behind Zhu Shiqing spoke up out of nowhere. "I'm a local. The keys to the gate tower are usually held by the police officer on duty that night." Zhu Shiqing turned his head sharply. He saw a fair-faced youth whose canine tooth seemed to gleam when he spoke. Smiling, Zhu asked, "What's your name? What school are you from?" "Liang Xiyun, sir. I'm a student at the College of Law and Business." "Hey, kid, is what you just said true?" Fang Wenjian cradled his rifle and leaned in close. "That's how it used to be. Under conditions like tonight, I can't say for sure." Pursing his lips, Zhu Shiqing hesitated for a heartbeat before turning to Fang Wenjian. "Treat a dead horse like a living one. Let's head to the police bureau and find out who the duty gatekeeper was tonight!" "All right. What about them?" Fang Wenjian glanced at the group of young men. "They come with us. It's not safe here either." Zhu Shiqing stood, made a withdrawal gesture behind him, and patted Liang Xiyun on the shoulder. "Why enlist if you're studying at the College of Law and Business? Our country is short on talent in that field. You ought to be working in the Judicial Yuan." Liang Xiyun grinned, countering with a question instead of an answer: "Staff Officer Zhu, aren't you a talented young man too? Yet here you are, standing on the front line defending Beiping. Everyone in our Military Training Corps has heard that you and Big Brother Fang are pillars of strength from the special training classes in Nanjing. Isn't sending you out to North China a waste of your talents?" Zhu Shiqing glanced at the kid. Young men were certainly quick with words. Thinking back on what he had just said, if one really entered the Judicial Yuan in the current political climate, who knew how many promising minds would end up buried in obscurity? "All right, all right. Once you're on the battlefield, you'd better dodge bullets. Without my order, no one goes throwing their life away against the Japanese!" Zhu Shiqing's tone was uncharacteristically gentle, giving Fang Wenjian goosebumps. Fang quickly trotted a few paces ahead to take the lead. The Beiping Police Bureau was located at No. 3 Xijiaominxiang, separated from Dongjiaominxiang by a single street. Following the gunfire at Guang'anmen, every light in the bureau had been turned on, bathing the surrounding neighborhood in bright white radiance. In front of the gates, duty officers hustled to and fro, running between their posts. Leading the student soldiers through the alley beside Hepingmen, Zhu Shiqing went straight to the police bureau's entrance. Under the glare of incandescent lights, he could see a surging crowd within the inner courtyard, everything thrown into turmoil. Parked outside the bureau were four black Buick sedans. Looking closely, not all of them belonged to the government—two came from the foreign concessions. An ominous premonition flashed through Zhu Shiqing's mind: was the police bureau colluding with foreigners to open the gates and surrender the city? This only hardened his resolve. Even if he had to offend the police bureau tonight, he would push inside and get to the bottom of it. The advantageous factor was his current post as regimental staff officer of the Beiping Military Training Corps. As an official military officer, investigating the police bureau in an official capacity was beyond reproach, and no one could use it against him later. What was more, he hailed from Nanjing and would eventually return there, so he had no need to worry about being hindered by the tangled relationships within the 29th Army. Though the courtyard inside was in chaos, guards remained stationed at the iron gate. Seeing Zhu Shiqing and his men approach armed, they immediately leveled their weapons and stepped forward aggressively. "Halt! Who goes there?" Zhu Shiqing pointed at his light-blue uniform and said coldly, "We just came back from risking our lives against the Japanese at Guang'anmen. We're here under orders to see your bureau chief!" "No can do. Our chief is meeting with guests right now!" Having been tailed the previous night and remembering the cowardly words of those four goons, Fang Wenjian already had zero goodwill toward this so-called Beiping Police Bureau. Were it not for the great enemy at the gates, he would have loved to draw his pistol and execute every last one of these good-for-nothing troublemakers. In truth, the Beiping Police Bureau was hardly a clean outfit to begin with. Two common sayings circulated among the people of Beiping: *"The detective squad protects the pickpockets, and the pickpockets feed the detective squad,"* and *"Not a single grey coat is free from ties to thieves and bandits; if the grey coats have a secret trick, colluding with the underworld is their true specialty."* This made it abundantly clear that cops and crooks working hand in glove was the bureau's standard practice. "Meeting with guests?" Fang Wenjian couldn't be bothered to waste words with these two wretched policemen. Pulling out his pistol, he jammed the muzzle against one of their foreheads and flicked off the safety with a sharp click of his thumb. "Out of the damn way! Lives are on the line, and you're worrying about guests?!" Several officers who had been busy in the courtyard saw the commotion at the entrance and rushed over, weapons drawn. The student soldiers behind Fang Wenjian, reckless as newborn calves, did not care about military discipline or insubordination. Following Fang Wenjian's lead, they leveled their rifles in unison and roared, "Let us through!"—looking even fiercer than hardened thugs. Only then did the policemen meekly give way, allowing Zhu Shiqing inside. Fang Wenjian moved to follow, but Zhu Shiqing stopped him with an outstretched arm. "What are you going inside for? You stay here and keep an eye on them. Don't make trouble!" "Brother, I..." Fang Wenjian hesitated, eager to argue his case. But catching the cold glare in Zhu Shiqing's eyes, he swallowed his words. "Don't worry, I'll keep them in line. I was just worried you're too soft-hearted to play rough with these bastards!" Zhu Shiqing ignored him. The most pressing matter was finding out who the duty gatekeeper with the Guang'anmen keys was and where he was now. Furthermore, Zhu Shiqing was profoundly curious about who the "guests" mentioned by the gate guards were. If they were Japanese... Sorting through the sequence of events in his mind, Zhu Shiqing strode directly inside. Snatching an officer by the collar, he asked in a chilling tone, "Where is the chief's office?" "Inside... second room on the left..." Only then did Zhu Shiqing release him. Resting a hand on the Mauser pistol at his hip, he stepped into the building, turned toward the left corridor, found the second office, and wrenched the door open.