Deadlock

The boy soldiers reacted to seeing armored cars for the first time just like the veterans had: completely stunned. It was as if nomads accustomed to mounted sword charges had suddenly run into machine-gun fire; bullets struck the outer iron plating with nothing more than dull pings. At times, sparks flew that were barely visible to the naked eye. When Zhu Shiqing yelled for them to pull out hand grenades, none of them thought to bundle them together; dazed and frantic, they simply pulled the cords one by one and hurled them down. The dense barrage of grenades rained down, and it was the Japanese vanguard infantry that took the brunt of it. "It's no good, Staff Officer Zhu! This won't work!" Liang Xiyun shouted at the top of his lungs beside him. The deafening roar of gunfire filled his ears, stripping away his sense of sound entirely. He could only scream with all his might, beads of sweat pouring down his forehead, his chest heaving violently. "Stop throwing them blindly, damn it! Bundle them! Tie them together! Take off your puttees!" Zhu Shiqing cursed that he hadn't been the one training them earlier. Moving along the battlements, he slapped the youngsters on their backs one after another, and fearing they couldn't hear him over the din, he even tied a bundle himself as an example. It pained him to think of the grenades wasted just now—the Military Training Corps was even worse equipped than the 219th Regiment had been at the start! That flurry of blasts had made plenty of noise, but it had nearly wiped out half of the regiment's entire stockpile! The men unfastened their puttees and followed Zhu Shiqing's example, combining the grenades of three to five soldiers into a bundle, wrapping them tightly, pulling the cords, and pitching them over the edge! Having clashed with Japanese armored cars once before at Shagang Village, Zhu Shiqing had gained some valuable insight. Judging from the battlefield, the Japanese had a fair variety of armored vehicles—at least two types that he had seen so far. One was the kind they had encountered at Shagang Village, resembling a sheet-metal wagon bristling with machine-gun ports. The other was what stood before them now: a larger vehicle with a turret shaped like half a hamburger bun and a short gun barrel protruding straight out, packing considerable punch with every shot! Yet regardless of the type, the undercarriage was their core vulnerability. Defending from atop the city wall, so long as grenades landed beside the vehicles to wreck their chassis or engines—or even disable a single wheel—they could effectively halt the armored advance. And that was enough. Under the barrage of bundled grenades, the Japanese armored cars indeed ground to a halt, turning into stationary pillboxes below the gate. Constrained by their elevation angles, only their machine guns could reach the wall above; their cannons were rendered completely useless. Lacking heavy-caliber weapons capable of smashing through the city gates directly, and with their armored vehicles immobilized, the Japanese forces' first wave of attacks before nightfall drew to a hasty close. *** At Shizi Hutong, Wang Bing and 29th Army Chief of Staff Zhang Boting were presiding over the situation. At this moment, it was not just the city's civilians who had lost their heads, but also the commanders of the various units. Ever since General Tong Linge had fallen in battle, the thousands of 29th Army troops under his command had also fallen silent. Looking at the map, their retreat had likely been cut off by Japanese armored units outflanking them from Fengtai; by now, Japanese forces converging from north and south were probably bottling them up in scattered villages and annihilating them. Only now did the true strategic importance of Fengtai Station become painfully clear. The only outside contact that could still be reached was Song Zheyuan in Tianjin. Upon learning of Tong Linge's death, Song Zheyuan had been grief-stricken. He reported the loss to Nanjing, and the Nanjing government posthumously promoted Tong Linge to full general of the army, telegraphing Song Zheyuan to hold Beiping at all costs, claiming that the Central Army was marching day and night and would arrive in two days! The Central Army's promises carried little credibility to begin with, and how many two-day intervals could the 29th Army hold out for anyway? As night fell, a despairing Song Zheyuan cabled Wang Bing of the Beiping Security Regiment, instructing that if the defenders at Nanyuan failed to break out tonight, the Security Regiment should seize an opportunity to abandon Beiping, break through toward Wanping to join forces with Feng Zhian's troops, while dispatching Zhang Zizhong to rush to Beiping through the night to pick up the pieces and negotiate with the Japanese. "The army commander probably doesn't even know that the Japanese reached Yongdingmen tonight," Wang Bing said with a bitter smile, slapping the transcribed telegram face down onto the conference table. Among the officers present, some argued for withdrawal, others insisted on fighting to the end, some grumbled about Song Zheyuan's blunders, and others spouted grand, heroic vows to die for the country and leave a mark in the history books. Sun Yi said nothing at all, his gaze fixed on Ruan Xuanwu seated near the front. Before his eyes, Ruan Xuanwu chatted openly with the colleagues around him, even detailing his proposed street-fighting tactics against the Japanese. The officers bickered back and forth, finally concluding: fight first, and if that fails, pull out. When the meeting adjourned, Sun Yi stayed behind to report what he knew about Ruan Xuanwu to Zhang Boting and Wang Bing. Although he lacked solid evidence and doing so overstepped his bounds—risking expulsion from the military if mishandled—at this juncture, Sun Yi could not afford to care. He remained seated where he was as the others filed out. "Regimental Commander Sun? Do you have something to report?" Wang Bing and Zhang Boting were gathering their paperwork when they noticed Sun Yi sitting quietly at the far end of the room and called out to him. "Report! Urgent intelligence!" Before Sun Yi had even fully risen from his chair, a signals soldier barged in and cut him off. "The Japanese have breached Zuo'anmen!" "What did you say?!" Zhang Boting jerked, the documents slipping from his fingers onto the table and scattering across the surface. Wang Bing remained slightly calmer, beckoning the soldier closer. "What are the details?" "We don't know the full details yet. The news came by phone from the post at Sanyimiao. They observed that the Japanese force isn't large—at most a squad!" Sun Yi took in every word. Ruan Xuanwu had only just left; how could he have reached the city gates so quickly? Impossible. He realized that whether Ruan Xuanwu attended this council of war or not, the defection of his Independent Brigade had been preordained. Most likely, he had already struck some backroom deal with the Japanese. "Sir, if Zuo'anmen falls, we have to pull the defenders at Yongdingmen out immediately!" Sun Yi had no time to dwell on questions of treason; all he wanted was to keep his boy soldiers from being encircled and slaughtered. Wang Bing pondered for a moment, then turned to Zhang Boting. "If Zuo'anmen has fallen, Ruan Xuanwu cannot be innocent. Brother Boting, dispatch a squad at once to run down Ruan Xuanwu. If that bastard has truly betrayed us, execute him on the spot! I will answer to the army commander!" Zhang Boting nodded in agreement and hurried out. Wang Bing turned his eyes back to the anxious Sun Yi, quickly unrolled the city defense map at his side, pulled Sun Yi over, and pointed. "Regimental Commander Sun, once the Japanese secure Zuo'anmen, they will inevitably consolidate that breach. The garrison at Yongdingmen cannot pull back—in fact, they must move swiftly to drive that Japanese squad out!" "They're just kids, raised and trained by Deputy Army Commander Tong Linge himself," Sun Yi protested, his voice trembling. "They have no experience clashing head-on with the Japanese..." "I know, I know all of that!" Wang Bing locked eyes with Sun Yi. "Regimental Commander Sun, there are still one million citizens in this city! If the Japanese drive straight through, what do you think will happen? Your regiment is the only one close enough!" With that, Wang Bing pushed the telephone in front of Sun Yi. The muscles in Sun Yi's face twitched. He wanted to reach for the telephone, but his hand wouldn't lift. A wave of emotion welled up inside him, blurring his vision. He knew that from a military standpoint, Wang Bing's order was beyond reproach. If they could sweep the Japanese out of the city in one stroke, redeploy their troops, and reorganize the defenses, there might still be room to maneuver. But... Right now, only one Japanese squad had penetrated the city, but by the time the Military Training Corps arrived, who knew how many reinforcements the Japanese would have brought up? If he made this call, what fate awaited those boys? Wang Bing was still staring at him. Sun Yi let out a long, ragged breath, gritted his teeth, grabbed the receiver, and gave the crank two sharp turns. "Get me Yongdingmen!"