From to 1935 2020

"The Department of Jixing Culture in Wanping area is slaughtering pigs and sheep. It seems that there is something unusual..."

"Near the embassy area in Peiping, the Communist Party worker pickets are clearing out the surrounding residents...."

"Mountain guerrilla activities of a large group of communist troops appeared in the Yanshan mountainous area..."

"There are signs of the communist army setting up heavy artillery positions around Pingjin in advance."

"There are many Communist Army airports in Hebei, and the engines are frequently started to warm up..."

April [-]th, the sixth day after Chang Kaishen resigned, and the third day after the United States agreed to Japan's issuance of war tickets in the United States...

At three o'clock in the morning that day, the residents of Pingjin were awakened from their dreams by a sudden explosion...  

Then there was the ear-piercing sound of air defense sirens—the sound came from the Japanese Concession.

Countless people opened their windows in panic, and what they saw was the nearby or distant sky, flashing explosions and huge fireballs rising into the sky.

PS: Two updates today, exactly [-] words!

In the new volume of Dahuang Kepian, Xiao Huangke's continues in the sixth volume.At least nine thousand words will be updated tomorrow.

Ask for a monthly pass.

-------------------- Chapter 216 The Battle of Pingjin -------------------

By April 1937, the Japanese army had completely occupied the entire area of ​​Rehe Province outside the Shanhaiguan Pass of the Great Wall. (Attachment map of Japanese troops stationed in Pingjin area before the 4 Incident in history)

Inside the Great Wall, the Japanese army, through the Ho-Mei agreement, forcibly set the area from the south of Shanhaiguan to the east of Tangshan as an "unarmed area" and prohibited the entry of Kuomintang troops.The Japanese themselves initially deployed about two brigades of troops (about two thousand people) in this area.

Since Yongren came to power last year and secretly formulated a comprehensive plan to invade China, the Japanese in this area have also built an airport there, and their military strength has been growing continuously since then.

During this period, the north and east sides of Beiping had been controlled by the Japanese army: the north side was a part of the Kwantung Army deployed in Rehe and eastern Hebei—that is, the first division; the northwest side was the eight divisions of the Puppet Mongolian Army controlled by the Eastern Army About 8 people; to the east is the pseudo-"Eastern Hebei Anti-Communist Autonomous Government" and its pseudo-security team of about 4 people under its jurisdiction;

In addition to the sporadic garrisons in the Japanese-occupied areas such as Beiping and the concessions, embassies, and ports around Tianjin, in fact, before the war started in April, the total strength of the regular Japanese troops around the area exceeded [-], all of which belonged to the First Division in name Commanded by Lieutenant General Tashiro Kanichiro

Historically, in 1936, the Japanese North China Garrison occupied Fengtai with despicable means. The garrison reached a squadron and later increased to a brigade.At this time, the entire Pingjin area was also surrounded by Japanese troops in the south. If the Marco Polo Bridge in the west was also captured, the whole of Beiping would be completely turned into an isolated island—this is why the July [-] Incident occurred.

However, in this plane, the strategic situation of the defenders in the Pingjin area before the war was much better than in history. Fengtai in the south was not occupied by the Japanese army, but the pressure faced by the Japanese army in the north was much better than that of the same period in history.

In February last year, during Huang Ke's trip to Japan, Emperor Hirohito was poisoned to death, and then the old and new emperors alternated, causing chaos in the transfer of power and internal cleansing, which slowed down the pace of Japanese invasion of China.In the ensuing Battle of Shanxi, Chang Kaishen suffered a disastrous defeat. The 20 Red Army plus 20 Northeast Army rushed out of Shanxi and entered Hebei forcefully.

Hebei Province (including Pingjin), which was originally regarded by the Japanese as "an opportunity to take advantage of the emptiness of troops", was filled with three powerful forces overnight, and the total available troops far exceeded 40.

The Red Army's tough and uncompromising attitude towards Japan also suppressed the hoarding troops in the Pingjin area from making trouble easily. Coupled with the lessons of the subsequent Bailing Temple battle, by the beginning of 1937, the Fengtai area was under the control of the 29th Army.And as Song Zheyuan surrendered and bowed his head, Fengtai became the resident of the Red Army's First Armored Division.

The situation in the Pingjin area became a complex situation in which the Japanese army and the Red Army (including the 29th Army) faced each other north and south, and at the same time the troops in Pingjin and Tianjin were intertwined.

In terms of strategy, in the south of Shanhaiguan, Tashiro Wanichiro held more than 3 Japanese troops and a puppet security team of more than 7000 people. The extremely poor combat power can be ignored) In addition, there are about 4 people in the Fifth Division stationed outside Shanhaiguan.

In response to the "violation" of the Ho-Mei Agreement by the Red Army and the Northeast Army, the Japanese army continued to increase troops to the nominal "Eastern Hebei Non-armed Zone" during this period. By April 1937, the main force of the First Division had been fully stationed. Here, Tangshan at the southernmost tip has become the forward position for invading North China, and Tashiro Kanichiro's headquarters is located there.

What Kanichiro Tashiro had to face was the 29 30th army in the south, the main force of the Red Army with more than [-], the tens of thousands of the Northeast Army, and an armored division with nearly [-] tanks and armored vehicles. At the same time, the opponent had a division of Soviet aid The Chinese Air Force, plus the First Air Division of the Red Army, which has hundreds of aircraft, has a total of more than [-] aircraft.

And during this period, the number of Japanese aircraft in the Northeast just exceeded [-]!Although the Japanese army has the upper hand in terms of numbers, most of their energy has to deal with the huge pressure from the Soviet Red Army in the north.There are not many planes that can be drawn to the North China battlefield on the southern front.

The so-called 60 Soviet Red Army in the north has already lined up along Heilongjiang, making a gesture that it will go south at any time.

In the south, the Red Army plus the 29th Army plus Fu Zuoyi's Ministry, the total number of troops available to these three companies alone exceeds 100 million!It has also been sharpening its sword. The strategic situation of the Japanese army in North China is actually so bad that it makes people's scalp numb.

Anyone with a little sense knows that fighting here is not allowed, and only the Showa staff of the Imperial Dao faction with the brains of "I close my eyes and it's dark" would want to cause trouble here.This is why Kanichiro Tashiro and even the top Japanese officials have been hesitant to launch an offensive to invade China in North China, and they always want to speculate from Jiangnan.

After Chang Kaishen was forced to step down by the North-South forces on April [-]th, the Japanese military's entry point for the invasion of China was still in Songhu instead of North China.

The North China Communist Army is not easy to chew on. After the Battle of Bailing Temple, it was already a consensus that all parties did not talk about it, but knew it in their hearts.

Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka and Narumi Inoue, the representative of the pro-American faction, traveled to the United States completely in the direction of "the best solution to invading China": the imperial army won the "friendly support" of the United States, and then went to war in Songhu, defeating the incumbents in one fell swoop. The "Guangdong-Guangxi Allied Army" that is stable and has different intentions.

On the premise that the Japanese guaranteed their interests in China, the Americans "supported or neutralized" the Japanese army's move. Britain and France, which were getting worse and worse, could only appease and connive.

Then in the process, the Red Army and the Soviet Union in the north were all talkative, sitting on the wall and watching nothing.Let the imperial army advance along and sweep across the provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Fujian. If the situation is good, they can even continue to penetrate into China to "force peace" with Chen Jitang and Li Zongren, thus completing the second stage of "cannibalization" of China.

If this is the case, the Imperial Army does not mind maintaining a temporary "peace" with the Communist Army in North China.

The above are the "best fantasies" of the invasion plan of the Showa staff in the Japanese military headquarters.

They also considered possible accidents and variables during the invasion of China, and thought of the worst scenario: the Red Army and the Soviet Union resolutely sent troops to attack Northeast China and Pingjin in the north.

But according to their assumptions, after the "imperial army" is mobilized, it will send some troops to defend the Northeast to the death, focusing on defense, and divide troops from the north and the south to resist it.With the strength of the "Imperial Army", it shouldn't be difficult to protect yourself intentionally!

According to the performance of the forces in the north and south of China in the past year, the Japanese estimated that the combat power of the Guangdong Army and the Guangxi Army was not very strong, and at most six divisions could be dispatched to wipe them out in one fell swoop.The Red Army in North China is a bit more troublesome, but if the imperial army wants to defend, it can withstand it with five divisions.On the contrary, Lucia in the north is the most dangerous. About [-] divisions are needed to ensure the stability of the northeast.In addition, it is necessary to leave ten additional divisions on hand as a mobile force reserve to deal with emergencies. …

This is the "temple calculation" of the Showa staff, and they are also mobilized and arranged according to this standard. .

When Roosevelt "friendly" agreed to Japan's issuance of war bonds in the United States, the Japanese military had already set the general direction of its invasion of China in Jiangnan.In the six months before this, they have been deploying troops according to this plan. Just on the island of Taiwan, which is closer to Fujian and Zhejiang, they have thrown four divisions and are ready to land at sea and invade the two provinces at any time.

After Roosevelt nodded, the overjoyed Japanese military headquarters transferred another ten divisions to the Northeast as planned. After increasing the strength of the troops here to twenty divisions, they will be dispatched after the Northeast is ready to continue in the middle of May. The rest of the main force launched a full-scale invasion from the sea to South China.

In order to achieve this goal, the Japanese military has imposed many restrictions on the hoarding of troops stationed in North China just now, in order to prevent them from messing up their plans indiscriminately.

But... all plans were disrupted.

"Masaika, Li Runshi, you didn't act according to the script. Before the imperial army provoked you, you took the initiative to fight! And you still fought without declaring it!"

------

Before April [-], the Japanese made many plans for the scenario of a war between China and Japan.

In the first type, the imperial army fought in Pingjin, and in the second type, the imperial army fought in Songhu.Both are mainstream.As for the third type: The Communist Red Army took the initiative to attack the Imperial Army in North China?

The Showa staff think that this answer is "Masaka" (this is impossible), even if it is Red China, it is impossible to have the courage to actively attack the imperial army.

However, when the Red Army took the initiative to attack in the early morning of April [-], from Chengde to Fengtian, and then to Tokyo, Japan, there were screams of terrified "masakas" everywhere.

As soon as the war started, the Red Army and the 29th Division of the 38th Army focused on attacking Nanwan in the east of Beiping and Tanggu in the northeast of Tianjin. This is the "bulge" where the Japanese army in eastern Hebei penetrated into Pingjin, and the two places were blocked. There are about 5000 people in the main regular army with four brigades, plus about 6000 miscellaneous troops of Ronin, Marine Corps, and armed civilians that were secretly mobilized during this period.

The day before the start of the war, that is, the day of April [-], both the Japanese troops in the Northeast and East Jidong had already realized in advance that something big would happen here.

When Stalin delivered a speech in support of the Chinese revolution at the Communist International Conference last November, the Northeast Anti-Japanese Alliance voluntarily withdrew from the Northeast, and then was incorporated by the Soviet Red Army. They used the winter break for training and re-armed, and returned to the Northeast in early March. , Continuously attacked the Japanese army's reclamation strongholds everywhere.

The difference from history is that the Anti-Japanese War has the firm support of the Soviet Red Army, and it has added mortars and grenade launchers suitable for tackling tough situations.For a time, the entire Montenegro was full of smoke and flames. Although these anti-union guerrillas posed a limited threat to the Japanese army at this time, it would be a headache if they cooperated with the Soviet Red Army in the north to destroy railway traffic behind enemy lines. big trouble.

After April, the anti-union activities in Heilongjiang became more frequent, and on April [-]th, the Japanese technicians in charge of radio monitoring suddenly discovered that the radio signals in Heilongjiang were several times stronger than before.In the Nomenkan area to the west, a large number of Soviet Red Army troops in Mongolia are gathering on the border. According to the reconnaissance report sent by the Japanese army, they found that the Soviet Red Army on the other side was setting up heavy artillery positions.

The entire Kwantung Army base camp was instantly tensed by this series of discoveries.Stalin threatened to attack the Japanese army in the Far East. After threatening for several months, the Japanese army was a little "wolf-like" and almost numb, but they still entered a state of combat readiness immediately.

And a few days ago, the frequent mobilization and defense changes of the Red Army and the 29th Army in the Pingjin area, as well as the violent strengthening of radio signals in the eastern Hebei area, also told Lieutenant General Tashiro Kanichiro that this place would no longer be peaceful.The Japanese had been prepared for a long time, but the bad thing was that they did not expect the Chinese and Soviet armies to act so quickly: as soon as the North-South peace talks were completed, they immediately acted at the same time, rushing to launch an offensive before the Japanese army completed their military deployment in the Northeast.

Before the attack, Lieutenant General Tashiro Wanichiro had just been woken up from his sleep. He was sitting in the headquarters in Tangshan, contacting various ministries to strengthen his guard. At this time, the spy network deployed by the Japanese army in Pingjin was sending an urgent report, saying that the Pingjin area The Red Army and the 29th Army acted abnormally.

When he just picked up the phone and commanded the troops to assemble and prepare for battle, the buzzing of planes was coming from the sky above Tangshan City.

Then fires suddenly broke out in many areas on the ground at the same time, with more than a hundred fire points. With the location of the Japanese barracks as the center, a red circle of fire that was obvious when viewed from the air was formed, and the center of the circle was the location of the Japanese barracks. .

This is the underground party that has been infiltrating into the Eastern Hebei region for a long time. Using the "big yellow crossbow" invented by Huang Ke, it fired Molotov cocktails around the Japanese barracks from a distance. This is a mixture of white scales, gasoline, rubber, and brown sugar. Later generations called it the "Molotov cocktail".

There is no need to ignite before launching, the bottle smashed and scattered when it hit the ground, and the white scales spontaneously ignited in the air and caused a big fire.

In just 3 minutes, hundreds of fires ignited one after another, which were extremely conspicuous in the dark night. At this time, the sound of the propeller of the plane had already sounded over Tangshan.

Guided by the fire point on the ground, the incoming aircraft easily locked onto the local barracks. First, a few flares fell from the sky, illuminating the Japanese barracks below, and then carried out targeted bombing.

Within half an hour, a total of forty planes bombed the Japanese barracks in Tangshan. The explosive bombs and incendiary bombs they dropped directly enveloped a large group of Japanese barracks.

The ferocious gasoline flames illuminated the night sky red. After dropping the incendiary bombs, these planes were still not satisfied. Guided by the flames on the ground, they lowered their fuselages and frantically strafed the ground before leaving one after another.

At about the same time, Tashiro Kanichiro was overwhelmed by the news that the defenders were attacked by the enemy at the same time.From Chengde to Tangshan, from Tangshan to Nanyuan and Tanggu, the Japanese army allocated more than 200 strongholds of various sizes along the 30-kilometer-long confrontation line.Nearly every outpost is reporting nighttime attacks by an unknown number of enemy forces, ranging from shelling to bludgeoning.Some even reported that the attackers suspected to have used poison gas weapons, and the explosives fired were extremely smelly after detonation.

"Has it finally come? Is the Communist army attacking us in a big way?"

In shock, Kanichiro Tashiro rushed to report to the Kwantung Army headquarters, but at this time, the Kwantung Army headquarters was also overwhelmed by a large number of wireless telegrams from various places.

The Soviet Red Army stationed in the Far East not only fired fiercely at the Japanese positions on the Manzhouli border in the west, but also launched attacks in the Zhanggufeng area in the east.Not only that, Harbin, the provincial capital of Heilongjiang, suffered heavy bombing at night.

At this time, the entire Japanese army understood that this was a violent attack sent to China by the Red Army of China and the Soviet Union.

Here in North China, the places where the fighting was most intense were Nanyuan and Tanggu.

Not only the Japanese barracks, but even the local Japanese Concession suffered heavy shelling and bombing from their opponents indiscriminately.Wired telephones were cut off long before the start of the war, and the most intense firefights were at Haiguang Temple in the suburbs of Tianjin, the railway station, Dongjuzi Airport, and the Japanese Concession in the urban area.

The Japanese airport in Dongjuzi was covered by artillery fire as soon as the war started, and several planes parked on the airport were directly reimbursed. A few days before the war, the defenders took the initiative to transfer more than 20 planes to Tangshan Airport. , but these transition planes did not escape unharmed.Just this night, its apron in Tangshan was burnt down with incendiary bombs by the planes attacked last night.

The Japanese Concession in Tianjin has been surrounded by opponents on three sides, and the local Japanese expatriates have also been pushed onto the battlefield.

Under the pressure of their opponents, the Japanese troops in the Japanese barracks at Haiguang Temple were forced to hide in the fortifications and wait for rescue; when they finally contacted, they said that the opponents sent out a large number of tanks to cover the infantry and directly attacked Haiguang Temple, and now they have entered the temple... Then the message was interrupted.

As far as the Tianjin main station, the exchange of fire was even more intense.

__________

Emperor Yongren was awakened by his subordinates in his sleep. As soon as he woke up, he was informed of the news of the fierce attack by the Chinese and Soviet troops.

"Hey mud?"

"Masaka!"

This was his initial reaction.After he hurried to the military headquarters, it was already in chaos.

"What's going on in the Northeast?"

He doesn't have any military talent, what he can do in the military department at this time is just to make trouble.

In order to cover up their true combat intentions, similar to the Red Army, when the Soviets launched an offensive, they were pushing flat on the surface and blooming more.As a cooperation, the anti-union guerrillas who had sneaked back to the Northeast in advance also dispatched this night to sabotage everywhere-the main thing was to blow up railways everywhere and cut off the Japanese army's traffic arteries.

Even though the plan had been prepared in advance, in a short period of time, the massive messages from everywhere still flooded the entire military headquarters.....

Of the four hours before dawn, these were the most chaotic four hours.

------------

Because of the time difference, it was daytime in the United States on the other side of the earth when the battle was fought here in Northeast China and North China.

There was a sound of gunfire in the Tianjin Japanese Concession Area, and the foreigners at the scene, especially the British and Americans, immediately spread the news back to China.

At [-]:[-] p.m. US time, the New York stock market received the news, and stocks related to steel, oil, and military industries immediately skyrocketed.

Pierre Dupont, his wealth increased by three percent in one afternoon.He had expected this day for a long time, and he was happy to see that the stock price of Gold Pharmaceuticals rose again, and the current stock price is twelve dollars.The reason is that the stockholders believed that the Red Army and the Japanese army would fight, and it was impossible for them to go south to capture Nanjing and "communize" the pharmaceutical factory.

The old DuPont sighed greedily: "It's time to tell the shareholders that Gold Pharmaceutical Company has developed a synthetic Chinese medicine that is better than sulfonamide."

Now he has regained 35% of the stock of Gold Pharmaceutical.

He asked his son, who had just returned from China, "How are things going in Shanghai?"

"It's already arranged, just give an order..."

Little Pete clenched his right fist, then opened it, making an explosion.

Old Du Pont said: "It's not urgent, as long as you are ready! The Japanese only think of fighting from the south of the Yangtze River after they have encountered a lot of trouble in North China."