"Damn it, I'm completely spent."
As the battle cries all around gradually subsided, Fang Wenjian slumped to the ground against the foot of the wall, panting heavily.
The night wind from beyond the walls gusted through the narrow gateway, carrying with it a thick stench of blood.
"We won! We won!" Liang Xiyun came dashing toward Fang Wenjian in high spirits, but suddenly stumbled and plunged right into his arms. "Damn it! That son of a bitch tripped me!"
"You clumsy bastard! You're crushing me!"
Fang Wenjian caught Liang Xiyun and shoved him aside with a curse. Liang Xiyun tumbled onto the ground, but he couldn't suppress his grin. Scrambling back over, he declared excitedly, "We took back Zuo'anmen!"
"All right, quit howling. When the devils up ahead turn back, we've got another brutal fight on our hands! Hurry up and search around. If any of those little bastards have cigarettes on them, fetch me a pack. My hands are numb!"
"You got it, brother."
Liang Xiyun did as told, turning immediately to rummage through the Japanese corpses on the ground. He dug out cigarettes and Type 14 Nambu pistols alike, then hurried back and handed them over to Fang Wenjian.
After lighting one, Fang Wenjian finally felt his spirits revive. Once he had taken a satisfying drag, he took the cigarette from his mouth and offered it to Liang Xiyun. "Take a puff. It hits the spot!"
Liang Xiyun frowned and instinctively drew back.
"What? A grown man like you doesn't know how to smoke?"
"No, you've got more than half a pack there. Brother, couldn't you give me a fresh one?" Liang Xiyun curled his lip, his eyes glued to the cigarette pack Fang Wenjian had not yet put in his pocket.
"Damn it, you're turning your nose up at me!" Fang Wenjian cursed viciously, though his hand quickly pulled out a fresh cigarette and held it out. "I was only trying to make them last!"
"The devils are coming!" a soldier shouted from up front.
Fang Wenjian was instantly on alert. Snapping to his feet, he hauled Liang Xiyun up with his right hand. "Brothers! Empty your bullets, then fix bayonets!"
Stepping to the front line, he could make out a large column of khaki-uniformed soldiers advancing in formation through the dark shadows. Their rapid, thudding footsteps made it obvious that the Japanese troops were maintaining a full charging sprint! They paid no heed to whether the Chinese troops directly ahead had already set up machine-gun positions.
Imura cared about nothing except retaking that damned Zuo'anmen!
If his unit was truly trapped and wiped out inside Beiping by the Chinese forces, whatever honor they had earned in the early hours of the night would become the laughingstock of the entire Japanese Army. The imperial army had never suffered such a defeat!
As early-war Japanese troops who had undergone systematic military training, they were well aware of the disadvantages of fighting at night. On his advance toward Zuo'anmen, Imura ordered his center column to set fire to the wooden buildings on both sides using explosives and incendiaries.
At the same time, Imura gathered every pocket lamp and military flashlight his men carried and used whistle blasts to direct them, clearing obstacles for the charge as best they could.
Two li away, before Zuo'anmen, the Military Training Corps stood ready for battle.
"Listen up, all of you! No one saves ammunition! Aim down this street and let them have it with everything you've got! When you run dry, pick up the devils' rifles and keep firing! Nobody goes in for hand-to-hand fighting until the bitter end!"
Fang Wenjian was no fool. This was clearly the main Japanese force, and when drastically outnumbered, inflicting maximum casualties from a distance was by far the best choice.
Zhu Shiqing stood on the high ground, listening for gunfire to the north. But for reasons unknown, the northern night sky remained utterly silent.
***
When Sun Yi led his relief force in a frantic dash down Zhengyangmen Dajie, he saw crowds of people fleeing northward. In the street corners, clusters of flames flickered as officials from various government agencies frantically burned state documents.
To his left, Dongjiaominxiang was brightly lit; to his right, government compounds blazed with fire.
Sun Yi felt a sinking dread. He was on his way to relieve the battlefield at Zuo'anmen, so why was the entire city gripped by an urge to flee? Could the bold words spoken at headquarters just a moment ago have been pure nonsense?
Sun Yi halted his troops at once. Striding into the middle of the intersection, he grabbed a bare-chested young man rushing past. "What are you all running for?"
The young man's mind was consumed by flight. Ignoring Sun Yi's question, he shouted, "Deshengmen is open!" and tore himself free before running off.
"Dammit." Sun Yi stood with his hands on his hips, fighting the current of the surging crowd. Looking over his shoulder, he caught sight of the Beiping Police Bureau nearby.
Inside the bureau's courtyard, Chief Mi Yonghua had returned to his post. He was leading his entire force through bundled records, searching for the household registrations of Beiping's residents. Amid the frantic work, a man in military uniform strode into the courtyard carrying a rifle.
"Where is the chief?!" Sun Yi bellowed, but no one around him paid him any mind.
Only Mi Yonghua raised his head with a tremble, lifted a hand slightly, and stood. Rising too quickly, his vision went black, and he nearly collapsed.
In the corner of the courtyard, incinerated documents had already piled into a small mound of ashes.
"Why are you burning files already?!" Sun Yi already had a fair idea of the answer, but he demanded it in fury nonetheless.
"Sir, orders have come down from above to retreat," Mi Yonghua answered earnestly. "Commander Wang ordered our police bureau to completely burn the household registrations of all officers' families in the 29th Army, so the devils won't torment them when they enter the city."
Sun Yi shoved Mi Yonghua aside, stepped forward to rummage through the towering piles of documents himself, and fell silent.
"Sir, you may not have received the order yet. Headquarters said government personnel and military officers are to head for Xizhimen. Xizhimen opens at the third watch." Mi Yonghua took a step closer to remind him, then raised his right wrist to check his watch. "By the clock, it should be open by now. You had better lead your men out of the city quickly."
"Dammit, a bunch of beasts."
Sun Yi shook his head in bitter disgust and turned to leave. At the entrance to the courtyard, he paused, turned back, and said, "With this much paperwork, how long will it take you to search through it all? Just set the whole lot on fire. Since the order has been given to retreat, you men get out of the city as well."
Mi Yonghua did not answer. He merely offered an accommodating smile, nodding his head, and went back to work only after watching Sun Yi depart.
Sun Yi left the police bureau in the depths of despair. He could not fathom how the 29th Army had fallen to this state. Where had the vanguard of anti-Japanese resistance, once hailed across the nation, vanished to? Crushed by this vast disillusionment, he ordered his troops to push onward toward Zuo'anmen.
Mi Yonghua's police bureau was among the most peculiar units facing evacuation. In charge of the household records for all of Beiping, their wrap-up work was exceptionally delicate.
If they burned all the household files to ashes, it would create immense hardship for the hundreds of thousands of civilians who chose to stay in Beiping. Yet if they left them untouched, the Japanese could use the registers as a guide to hunt down the stranded families of Chinese officers.
In the dark night, Mi Yonghua remembered his many years in Beiping. He had maneuvered smoothly among the various official organs, led the detective squad to cause trouble for plenty of citizens, scrounged meals in obscure eateries, and accepted cigarettes and gifts from people eager to curry favor with him.
Under the bright glow of the fire, Mi Yonghua felt a profound sorrow—a heavy, bleak sorrow unique to this ancient city.
Once the burning was complete, he instructed his men to return the undamaged registers to their proper places. When the young policemen stepped inside to organize the records, a sharp gunshot suddenly rang out from the courtyard.
They rushed out to look. Mi Yonghua lay slumped against the wall, his right hand limply brushing the ground, with a Mauser pistol resting quietly beside it.
***
"Attack! Attack! Attack!"
Imura was like a rabid dog, howling at the very head of the formation to urge his men forward.
Lit by the flames, the two armies collided once more. Hoarse, desperate battle cries echoed relentlessly along the narrow street. This Japanese force was like a solid block of iron; swinging a blade against them sent jarring shocks through one's own hands.
At the critical moment, Xiang Chengyu and Tan Hai finally came charging in from both flanks through the firelight.
Across the broad expanse running through Panjiayao, Yuqing Guan, Wanliutang, and Fangsheng Pond, combat flared on every inch of ground, and men fell with every clash.
Along railway tracks, inside houses, beside marshes, and beneath the gate towers.
Everywhere, flames soared into the sky, and mournful wails filled the air.
Both sides had long since fought themselves blind with fury. The soldiers no longer knew where they were or how many enemies surrounded them. They only knew to swing their blades again and again—taking down three devils was a profit!
Due to the thinness of their numbers, the gateway Fang Wenjian was defending was breached by the Japanese after all. The entire Imura Battalion had descended into utter chaos. They had abandoned all dreams of being the first to march into Zhongnanhai; at this moment, they only wanted to seize the lifeline that was the gate tower.
Their frenzy was nothing short of a stampede for the gate.
Assaulted relentlessly from behind by the Chinese forces, the Japanese no longer cared about coordinated tactics or orderly counterattacks. Escaping this perilous, death-trap of a city was their sole priority!
Fang Wenjian pulled his men back toward Sanyimiao, forced to yield the frontal approach. His once-complete company was now reduced to a mere handful of survivors.
"Brother Fang, slow down... I can barely walk," Liang Xiyun coughed, gritting his teeth as he struggled to keep pace with Fang Wenjian, unable to match his stride.
Fang Wenjian, drenched in sweat, grinned back at him. "You kids just lack conditioning. Stick with me, do some shadowboxing, practice some martial arts, and you'll run just fine!"
In the very next instant, a heavy thud sounded behind him. He spun around and saw Liang Xiyun collapsed on the ground, the cloth at his abdomen soaked crimson with blood!
"Little Liang!" Fang Wenjian roared, lunging forward. He scooped Liang Xiyun up in his right arm, cradling him against his chest, while his left hand swiftly tore a strip of cloth from his own uniform and pressed it hard against the wound. "Damn it, you got stabbed and didn't even realize it?! Did you read yourself stupid?!"
Liang Xiyun, on the verge of losing consciousness, was shaken awake by Fang Wenjian's large hands. An excruciating pain tore through his abdomen and coursed across his entire body, causing him to curl up as if struck by lightning. He must have taken a bayonet thrust without realizing it, only noticing when his strength gave out and his legs collapsed under him...
Zhu Shiqing rushed over at the commotion. Taking in the scene, he urgently called for medics to stem the bleeding. Tan Hai, having led his troops from Yuqing Guan, also arrived at Sanyimiao.
"Staff Officer Zhu, the regimental commander has brought us reinforcements," Tan Hai said, jogging over. "Dammit, the little bastards set up a firing position at Dashiqiao that pinned us down completely. If the commander hadn't hit them in the flank just in time, you would have been in serious trouble."
"How are our casualties?" Zhu Shiqing asked, looking up as he crouched beside Liang Xiyun.
"Not bad. No crippling losses, and the unit structure is intact," Tan Hai replied. "By the way, the commander wants us to pull back. Orders have come down from above to abandon Beiping."
"Abandon it?" Zhu Shiqing rose slowly, his brow furrowed. Stepping to the edge of the slope, he pointed at the fleeing Japanese soldiers. "We finally managed to drive these devils out, and now we're giving up on our own?"
Zhu Shiqing knew full well that Beiping could not be held in the end, and an order to retreat was inevitable sooner or later. But for that order to arrive tonight was something he could hardly accept.
"Let's move. There's no point in holding Beiping anymore anyway. I hear fighting has broken out at Guang'anmen too. If they can't hold that side, we'll be trapped inside," Tan Hai urged.
The battle at Guang'anmen had begun only after headquarters issued the order to abandon the city.
The Japanese in Dongjiaominxiang had quickly discerned the defenders' intention to retreat. Using the radio stations inside the legation quarter, they urgently contacted their troops stationed outside the city, urging them to seize the opportunity presented by the thinned defenses and take Beiping in one stroke.
Under these circumstances, a battalion was hastily dispatched from Fengtai Station to assault Guang'anmen.
As a consequence, the defenders' rushed northward retreat left the ancient city virtually surrounded on all sides in the dead of night.
Inside Zhongnanhai at this hour, abandoned uniforms, discarded military jeeps, scattered firearms, and rows of freshly sharpened broadswords lay strewn everywhere. Along the wide country roads stretching from Deshengmen to Taipingzhuang, the common folk of Beiping pushed handcarts, held torches aloft, carried babes in arms, and hauled wicker baskets on their backs.
Most soldiers fleeing Beiping had shed their uniforms and blended into the civilian crowds. Dressed lightly, their packs held only ready-to-eat dry rations and a change of clothes; on their persons remained nothing more than the two silver dollars granted by the government as traveling expenses before the flight.
Their destination was Baoding, though few would ever make it that far.
The high-ranking officers had already departed by jeep. Trailing behind them was an endless, stretching column of refugees. No one knew what lay ahead; they only knew that after tonight, they might never see their beloved Beiping again.
As they marched, many could not help but look back again and again, catching glimpses of faint sparks flickering through the gathering mist within the city walls.
The last to withdraw was Sun Yi's Military Training Corps. He harbored no other thoughts now except to lead these children to Baoding, to Wuhan, to preserve the lifeblood Deputy Army Commander Tong Linge had nurtured, and to preserve the future of China.
With Liang Xiyun on Fang Wenjian's back, the group passed out through Xizhimen and set out on the journey toward Baoding.
"Little Liang, I'd say the two of us get along just fine. Once your wound heals, come back with us to Nanjing," Fang Wenjian said, turning his head slightly to glance sideways at Liang Xiyun resting against his back.
Liang Xiyun chuckled weakly and declined gently. "I'd rather stay with the regimental commander."
Sun Yi appeared beside them, patted Liang Xiyun on the back, and commended him, "Good, good. You haven't forgotten I'm your commander after all."
"Commander, what are your plans for the future?" Zhu Shiqing asked quietly.
"Fight the devils, what else?" Sun Yi spread his hands, but his expression grew solemn. "Only I intend to find another place. I don't want to stay in the 29th Army anymore. I want to take these kids and join up somewhere else."
"How about going to Nanjing?" Zhu Shiqing proposed from the bottom of his heart.
Sun Yi shook his head with a faint smile. "I'm a rough fellow. If I went to your parts, I'd probably end up offending someone. If I caused trouble for you, wouldn't I be failing you as an elder brother?"
In Sun Yi's eyes, so long as these people remained, so long as these children lived, the Chinese nation would have a future.
For a nation to endure through the ages, it had first to keep its successors alive, and second, to keep its culture from dying. Even though they were withdrawing from Beiping today, the Chinese nation would endure forever.
Zhu Shiqing offered an agreeing smile and pressed the matter no further.
Inside Beiping, in the office of the Communications Section at Beiping West Station, Lin Hongwen had changed into a brand-new Zhongshan suit and sat quietly at his desk. True to what he had told Zhu Shiqing, he had chosen not to leave his homeland. He would stay with this ancient city to face whatever tomorrow would bring.
The next morning, heavy rain poured from the skies, and Beiping fell.
Chapter 82