1928: The rise of giant merchants

January 28, 1932.

Yesterday, Murai issued an ultimatum to the Shanghai Municipal Government, requiring Wu Tiecheng and others to give a satisfactory response to the four demands raised by Shichitaro Yada before 18:00 on the 28th, otherwise necessary actions would be taken.

As a last resort, Wu Tiecheng, at the request of the Jinling National Government and all walks of life in Shanghai, wrote back to Murai at 13:45, expressing his willingness to accept all the unreasonable demands made by the Japanese side.

At the same time, yesterday afternoon, Chief of Staff Zhu Peide and Minister of Military Affairs He Yingqin dispatched the 6th Military Police Regiment to officially take over the defense work of the 19th Route Army in the Zhabei area of ​​Shanghai.

The regiment boarded the train from Jinling Railway Station at 8 pm yesterday and arrived in Zhenru at noon today. Its first battalion arrived at the North Station in the afternoon, preparing to take over the defense work of the 6th Regiment of the 156th Brigade of the 78th Division of the 19th Route Army in Zhabei at dawn the next day (29th).

At Ye Luo's suggestion, Cai Tingkai went to Suzhou City to discuss defense matters with the senior generals stationed there. Everyone quickly reached a consensus that the Japanese invaders should be strictly guarded and vigilance should not be relaxed.

Unexpectedly, Cai Tingkai received an order to hand over defense work just after he got on the train back to Shanghai.

In desperation, Chen Mingshu, Jiang Guangnai and Dai Ji had to adjust the troops while discussing countermeasures.

Of course, the two reinforced companies they promised Ye Luo did not evacuate, but were stationed in the open space near Ye Mansion in an open and aboveboard manner, striving to protect the Ye family from the war.

In response, the foreigners in the Municipal Council protested, believing that these Chinese soldiers violated the concession regulations and how could they enter their territory without authorization.

The protests did not last long and then disappeared.

Because Ye Luo went directly to the two major consulates general of Britain and the United States, and the British Consul General Patton was an old friend of Ye Luo, he let it go after getting the guarantee that the army would not attack the concession.

As for the United States, Huixin is a local senator, who dares not give her face?

Even the current ambassador to China, Ma Murray, has to give Huixin some face.

Wu Tiecheng's compromise and the inaction of the current Jinling National Government have caused complaints from all walks of life.

Zhang Hanqing in the north was scolded for "non-resistance". Although he held on to Jinzhou for two months later, he still couldn't escape the infamy.

The reputation built up by various things before was destroyed in an instant, which shows the lethality of public opinion to these warlords.

Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang took the opportunity to return to China to make trouble and promote their new political system in the north, but when it came to the dispute with the Japanese invaders, the two people shrank their heads like turtles and had no intention of intervening.

In Sichuan and Chongqing, Liu Wenhui and Liu Xiang, uncle and nephew, fought fiercely, and Qing City was attacked several times. It can be seen that Liu Wenhui was really angry.

In Shandong Province, Han Fuju was still dreaming of defeating Zhang Hanqing and unifying the north. He didn't care about the lives of the people affected by the floods. He even went to put pressure on the various companies invested by Ye many times, causing various public outrages.

It can be said that the warlords in China are now stagnant, and none of them are reliable.

The principal finally experienced the feeling of sitting on the Diaoyutai. He was leisurely and wished that the Japanese invaders would make a bigger fuss in Shanghai so that he could come back early and take power again.

This time the principal got what he wanted.

At 11:05 on the evening of January 28, the Songhu Police Department suddenly received a reply from the Japanese Murai to Wu Tiecheng and the Police Department. He expressed "satisfaction" with Shanghai's acceptance of the four Japanese demands, but on the grounds of protecting overseas Chinese, he demanded that the Chinese army must withdraw from Zhabei immediately.

It was already 11:25 when Ma Yongzhen received this telegram. He notified Ye Luo first, and then sent a letter to Wu Tiecheng.

Ye Luo received the telegram and immediately forwarded it to Chen Mingshu and others, reminding them not to completely evacuate Zhabei tonight. Even if they need to change their defense, they can do so tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.

Unfortunately, the communication equipment of this era was too slow, and the telegram could not be transmitted there, and the war had already broken out.

At 11:30, without waiting for a reply from the City Hall, the Japanese army launched an attack on the Zhabei garrison troops that were handing over defense.

The 156th Brigade of the 78th Division of the 19th Route Army, Weng Zhaoyuan's troops immediately rose up to resist (part of the 6th Regiment of the Military Police who came to take over the defense also fought together), and the Battle of Songhu broke out!

The Japanese Marine Corps led by Major General Yan Ze launched the raid this time, and the 6th Regiment of the 156th Brigade of the 19th Route Army (Leader Zhang Junsong) stationed there immediately fought back fiercely.

Then the Japanese army led more than 20 armored vehicles and divided into five routes to launch an attack from various intersections in Zhabei.

After receiving the report about the Japanese attack and Ye Luo's message, Jiang Guangnai, Cai Tingkai and Dai Ji rushed to Zhenru Station on foot at night to set up a temporary command post. According to the original deployment, they ordered the rear troops to advance quickly to Shanghai Beach.

After dawn on the 29th, the Japanese army launched a series of fierce attacks under the cover of armored vehicles. Japanese planes also took off from the aircraft carrier "Notoro" and bombed the Zhabei area. The war spread rapidly.

The 156th Brigade of the defending army stubbornly resisted the Japanese attack, used cluster grenades to deal with the Japanese armored vehicles, organized death squads to destroy the enemy armored vehicles by lurking means, held each position, and launched a timely counterattack against the enemy under the cover of artillery fire, repelling the continuous attacks of the Japanese army.

The desperate "Newspaper" and "Shenbao" immediately sent war correspondents to the front line for real-time broadcasting.

Soon the battle report from the front line reached Ye Mansion. Ye Luo stayed up all night, reading the telegram in the study accompanied by Xiao Aqiao and Bai Xiuzhu.

"Fortunately, Brother Luo, you were well prepared and evacuated all the industries to the concession first." Xiao Aqiao was scared.

The entertainment industry is the most common industry in Zhabei, the suburbs of the county, and the county town. If they had not evacuated in advance, the Ye's Dance Industry under her would have suffered the most damage, followed by Lin Ruxian's Ye's Film Company.

"Thanks to my husband for reminding several superiors, they are prepared and should not be defeated in a fight." Bai Xiuzhu hugged Ye Luo and whispered.

These days, Bai Xiongqi was depressed because of being suppressed. He didn't even go to the city hall all day, and just stayed in Baigongguan to drink tea and read newspapers.

Bai Xiuzhu went to see her brother several times, but didn't get a good look.

Bai Xiongqi believed that after the principal stepped down, Ye Luo had many ways to keep his position as deputy mayor, but he just didn't do it, which made Bai Xiongqi very puzzled.

After the relationship between the two families became a little stiff, Bai Xiuzhu, the hostess, suddenly felt a lot of pressure.

Fortunately, Ye Luo's harem was very harmonious. After the Bai family was like this, Xiao Aqiao, Meng Xiaodong and other women all stood on Bai Xiuzhu's side to help her share the pressure.

As for the January 28 Incident, the telegram said: "The battle was extremely fierce", "The streets were on fire everywhere, the flames were everywhere, and the battlefield was extremely miserable."

Although the number of words was not large, they could all feel the cruelty and fierceness of the war.

Now they can only pray that the 19th Route Army can withstand the offensive and not be defeated by the Japanese invaders.

At about 10 o'clock in the morning on the 29th, Japanese planes dropped bombs, and the Commercial Press Headquarters and Oriental Library in Zhabei were burned down by fire. Fortunately, with the assistance of Ye Luo, more than 300,000 books in the collection, including ancient rare books, had been moved in advance.

More than a thousand Japanese soldiers, under the cover of powerful artillery fire and armored vehicles, fiercely attacked the intersections of Baoshan Road and Qiujiang Road, attempting to occupy the North Railway Station.

North Station is one of the land transportation hubs in Shanghai. Its gains and losses are related to the safety of the entire Zhabei. Dai Ji immediately sent troops to reinforce and began to consciously ignore the retreat order from the Jinling National Government.

At 2 pm on the 29th, the Japanese army attacked North Station fiercely. A company of the defending military police had to withdraw from North Station after fighting with the Japanese army for an hour.

At 17:00 on the 29th, the main force of the 156th Brigade joined the battle, counterattacked, recaptured North Station and Tiantong'an Station, and pursued the victory. It once captured the Japanese Army Shanghai Marine Corps Headquarters, forcing the Japanese army to retreat to the east of North Sichuan Road and south of Target Road.

The first attack of the Japanese army ended in failure!

The main credit for the defense of this raid was that Chen Mingshu and other four people insisted on the defense order. After Ye Luo's reminder and suggestion, they did not completely evacuate the troops from Zhabei, so they returned to defense quickly.

In the process, they also received a lot of arms support from Jiacheng.

These arms were produced by the arsenal to which Ye Luo belonged, and this time they were unconditionally supported to the 19th Route Army.

After the Japanese offensive was frustrated, on the afternoon of the 29th, the British and American consuls came forward to mediate, and the Chinese and Japanese armies reached an agreement to stop fighting at 20:00 on the night of the 29th.

The 19th Route Army knew that it was a delaying tactic, but because the army also needed to adjust its deployment, it had to agree to a ceasefire.

At the same time, the 19th Route Army also strengthened its deployment, urgently ordered the 60th Division stationed east of Zhenjiang to enter Nanxiang and Zhenru, and transferred the 61st Division to Shanghai, and the 78th Division stationed in Shanghai was fully deployed to the front line to strengthen defense and be ready.

It was also on January 29th that, under the strong pressure of internal and external troubles, Sun Ke was forced to resign as the Executive Yuan, and the pro-Chiang faction took the opportunity to propose a motion to "welcome back the principal", which was immediately passed.

The Jinling National Government quickly sent an invitation to the principal, hoping that he could come back to lead the battle as soon as possible.

The principal hesitated and refused to express his position. You want me to leave, I will leave, and you want me to go back, I will go back?

Wait, I haven't rested enough!

He wanted to gain more power and completely destroy Wang's prestige in the Kuomintang in this battle.

As for the situation of the Battle of Songhu, he was not concerned for the time being. (End of this chapter)