Anti-Japanese War, weapons designer at Fengtian Arsenal

The Nanman Railway was bombed, and the Japanese army randomly threw a few bodies wearing Northeast Army uniforms on the side of the railway, and then clamored that it was the Northeast Army that bombed the railway.

Just a few minutes later, the Japanese army bombarded Beidaying with dozens of cannons that had been parked at Fengtian Station!

Zhao Zhenfan, the chief of staff of the 7th Independent Brigade who was in Beidaying at the time, was shocked when he heard the explosion. An officer ran into the headquarters in a panic and shouted to Zhao Zhenfan in fear: "Chief of Staff! Artillery! The devils are shelling us!"

Zhao Zhenfan's heart instantly turned cold. The thing that those of them who knew current affairs feared the most had finally happened.

"Chief of Staff! Pull out the artillery and fight back! We can't just take the beating any longer!"

On the way to the headquarters, the officer saw a shell fall into a barracks, killing all the brothers in a platoon inside. He was heartbroken! He wanted revenge!

Zhao Zhenfan was shocked when he saw the hatred on the officer's face, and he quickly shouted, "No! No attack without orders! We can't give the devils a reason to deliberately escalate the situation!"

The officer was completely stunned. The foreign troops had already fired at their own troops. This was a naked declaration of war, but they were still forbidding them to retaliate for fear of escalating the situation! ?

Suddenly, a shell landed five meters outside the command center with a loud bang. The shock wave, carrying a large amount of sand and rocks, smashed through the window and rushed in. The two men fell to the ground at the same time.

After the shock wave ended, the two men stood up with horror on their faces. If the shell had hit the command post a few meters forward, they would both have died!

"Chief of Staff! Do something for our brothers!"

The officer was so angry that he almost cried. The Japanese attacked recklessly, and Northeast Army soldiers died every moment. Their Beidaying obviously had a large number of cannons, but they were unable to fight back due to various outrageous reasons. He felt like he was about to explode.

Zhao Zhenfan's face changed from gloomy to bright. He didn't dare to take the blame for escalating the situation. He was afraid of being the sinner who started the war. He needed an order from his superiors before he dared to order a counterattack!

"Call! Call Brigade Commander Wang Yizhe first!"

Zhao Zhenfan shouted and immediately rushed to the phone to dial the number, but it turned out that Wang Yizhe was not in the army!

Listening to the sound of artillery fire outside the house, Zhao Zhenfan was so anxious that he was about to explode. He called several times before he finally contacted Wang Yize. It turned out that Wang Yize was sleeping at home today!

Zhao Zhenfan almost roared that Beidaying was being bombarded by the Japanese and asked Wang Yizhe to give orders as soon as possible!

Wang Yizhe was stunned. The Japanese had been conducting military exercises with guns and artillery fire these days. He had heard that today's artillery fire was too intense, but he never expected that they would actually do it today!

He felt a chill running down his spine to the top of his head, and his whole body became numb. Then he did the same thing as Zhao Zhenfan and asked his superior for instructions.

"Calm down first. I'm going to discuss countermeasures with Rong Zhen, the Chief of Staff of the Northeast Border Defense!"

Then he hung up the phone and went to Rong Zhen's residence. During the time he was on the move, Beidaying was constantly bombarded by Japanese artillery, and countless soldiers died due to the indecision of these senior leaders.

When Wang Yizhe saw Rong Zhen, he immediately sought countermeasures. Rong Zhen did not issue an order to retaliate, but chose to ask his superiors for instructions.

"Call Peking and ask the young marshal for instructions!"

The two men quickly called the Young Marshal's residence in Peiping, but the person who answered the phone was not the Young Marshal, but his bodyguard adjutant Tan Hai.

After Tan Haide knew the intentions of the two, he thought again and again and said: "The young marshal has gone to watch the show with the American military attaché in China. We must act prudently in the situation in Northeast China, follow the orders of the central government, and resolutely do not resist!

You must stabilize the morale of the troops. I will go to the young commander now to ask for the specific plan!"

They went around in circles and wasted dozens of minutes, but the order to fight back still didn't come down. Everyone kept asking their superiors, and their superiors kept asking their superiors. No one wanted to take the responsibility of opening fire and fighting back, and no one wanted to be the eternal sinner who provoked the situation. Little did they know that the Japanese army took advantage of their weak mentality, launched a surprise attack, and achieved a "great victory" that could be included in Japan's elementary school history textbooks?

While the Chinese top brass were still seeking instructions from their superiors, Beidaying met its final fate.

A horrifying explosion sounded on the west wall of Beidaying. The blast even caused the ground to shake. A large number of bricks were launched into the air hundreds of meters high. When the smoke and dust cleared, a huge gap was blown open in the west wall of Beidaying!

The horrific attack was caused by the Meiji Type 240 130mm howitzer, which can fire kg high-explosive bombs and has extremely terrifying destructive power.

The explosion ignited the Japanese army's charge. A large number of Japanese soldiers waved their weapons, shouted "load on board", and rushed into Beidaying through the gap created by the explosion.

At this time, Beidaying has reached a life-and-death crisis. Zhao Zhenfan, the highest officer in Beidaying, can no longer wait for orders. He ordered the soldiers to enter the designated positions that have been prepared long ago. He called Rongzhen and informed him that the Japanese army had rushed into Beidaying and massacred our soldiers. How should we respond?

What followed was Rong Zhen’s incredible reply that could have been entered into the Book of Shit.

"No resistance! Don't move! Put the guns in the warehouse, stand firm until death, everyone will die for the country!"

Zhao Zhenfan felt dizzy after receiving this reply. He slammed the table and roared into the microphone: "The soldiers are on the front line! You want them to put down their guns? I'm afraid that's impossible!"

Rong Zhen hesitated for a few seconds and replied: "This is an order! If you don't follow it, you will be responsible if something goes wrong!"

The call was hung up and Zhao Zhenfan's microphone fell to the ground. He opened his eyes wide, his face full of disbelief. At this moment, his heart was greatly shocked. You were staying at home comfortably and didn't face the Japanese's guns, but you ordered those of us who were at the front to die!

At this moment, despair, anger, and shame filled Zhao Zhenfan's heart. He clenched his fists and pounded hard on the desk. With bloodshot eyes, he roared at the officer in front of him: "Counterattack! Execute the original plan and prepare to counterattack!!"

However, the order came too late. The Japanese artillery bombardment had already caused chaos among the soldiers in Beidaying, and the top leaders were unable to reach a unified mind. Zhao Zhenfan's order to counterattack alone caused doubts among the officers below.

Should they resist or not? What if the devils are really provoking them? What if the situation really escalates? They don't dare to take the responsibility!

So something incredible happened. Facing the Japanese attack, a large number of officers resolutely carried out the order of non-resistance. They confiscated the soldiers' weapons and locked them in warehouses, and ordered the soldiers to return to their rooms, lie on their beds, close their eyes and go to sleep.

It was 9 a.m. on September 19th. Dozens of flares rose in the sky. With the help of the flares, the Japanese engineers used the light to quickly approach Beidaying and set bombs under the barbed wire. After a loud explosion, the barbed wire on the north, south and west sides of Beidaying were all blown up, and a large number of Japanese soldiers poured into the camp!

"Onboard! Onboard!"

These Japanese soldiers shouted wildly and quickly searched for the enemy to shoot.

The Northeast Army was a truly powerful army, with a high rate of automatic firearms equipment, military discipline, and training level. The attacking Japanese were somewhat frightened, not to mention that there were a large number of artillery tanks and other equipment in the Beidaying. If the soldiers of the Beidaying fought back, their attacking forces would suffer serious losses.

But to their surprise, after rushing into the camp, they did not encounter too fierce resistance, or even no resistance at all!

They galloped through this huge military camp as if they were in an empty space! A group of Japanese soldiers kicked open a barracks and found a large number of Northeast Army soldiers lying on the beds and taking a nap!

They closed their eyes and covered their heads with quilts, as if they could not hear any sounds or feel anything from the outside world.

The Japanese squad leader was stunned. Couldn't they hear the loud gunfire and shouting outside? Then he immediately ordered the soldiers to kill the ostriches.

The Japanese soldiers stabbed with their Type 38 rifles with bayonets inserted. Most of the Northeast Army soldiers were stabbed to death after they let out a scream of terror.

After hearing the screams, the remaining Northeast Army soldiers who were pretending to be asleep could no longer pretend and stood up to escape. However, the Japanese had blocked the exit of the barracks and they could not get out. They wanted to fight back but had no weapons. They could only let out miserable wails and were stabbed to death by the Japanese in the corner!

Such tragedies happened in many barracks. "Not resisting" are just three small words. When put on paper, they seem so light that even a single line cannot be written. But when put into reality, there were so many screams of panic, sudden deaths, and lasting shame!

By this time, the situation had deteriorated to an irreversible point. The Beidaying was filled with murderous Japanese soldiers and Northeast Army soldiers running around.

Shooting was happening everywhere, fires were being set everywhere, and people were dying everywhere.

Only then did Zhao Zhenfan suddenly react. Damn it for not resisting orders!

He immediately ordered the 620th Regiment, which suffered less losses, to attack to cover the 619th and 621st Regiments, which suffered heavier losses, to retreat northward. The three regiments successfully retreated to Dongshanzuizi for rest and recuperation.

The fates of the three regiments also differed during this raid.

The 619th Regiment was the first unit to be attacked by the Japanese and they firmly implemented a policy of non-resistance. A large number of soldiers had their weapons confiscated and were lying in the barracks to take a nap. They suffered the greatest losses, almost to the point where their numbers could be eliminated.

The barracks of the 621st Regiment were located on the easternmost side of Beidaying, which was not the main attack direction of the Japanese. They escaped quickly, so the losses were relatively small.

The 620th Regiment resisted resolutely and used a variety of light and heavy weapons to launch fierce attacks on the Japanese troops, at one point driving them away and dispersing them. However, they were the unit with the least losses, and it can even be said that there were almost no casualties.

Three regiments, three choices, and three fates, which simply put the different outcomes of implementing different decisions on the table. I wonder whether the top leaders of the Nationalist government will review this battle afterwards and whether they can learn lessons from it?

When the war broke out in the city, officials from various units in Fengtian City had already received the news. They took their families with them, disguised themselves and fled out of the city overnight, leaving the people of Fengtian City to the brutal Japanese army.

But this did not include the management personnel of Fengtian Prison, because they were shot and killed by the Japanese soldiers who climbed over the wall before they could even run away.

The Japanese wanted to create panic in Fengtian City, and massacre was a good strategy. People in other areas were too scattered to be killed, but the prison held thousands of prisoners, who were good targets for slaughter.

These Japanese soldiers climbed up the prison wall, set up rifles and Type 99 light machine guns on it, and indiscriminately massacred all visible personnel.

Screams, pleas for mercy, gunshots and explosions resounded in the prison. The Japanese soldiers killed all visible people in the prison, entered the interior and opened the gate. A large number of Japanese soldiers poured into the prison and began killing people room by room.

The Type 99 light machine gun was placed against the prison fence, and a single pull of the trigger could kill more than a dozen people inside. If they encountered a single cell with a large iron door, they would open the window for delivering meals and throw a grenade inside.

Li Qinwu, who was imprisoned in a solitary cell, opened his eyes and slowly stood up. The next moment, a portal appeared, and Li Hanchao and Li Xiao walked out of the portal and stood beside him.

Li Xiao put a black coat on Li Qinwu, and Li Hanchao handed him a cigarette and lit it.

Listening to the sound of gunfire outside the door, Li Qinwu took a deep puff of his cigarette, turned and walked into the portal, leaving only one sentence.

"Do it!"