After hearing this, Jun Moriyama fully understood what Fujita meant, so he stood up and said: "I understand, the imperial army is invincible. I will immediately send a report to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ask them to also report to the Nanjing government. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs exerts pressure, so it will be safer.”
Fujita Keiyoshi said with great joy: "With Moriyama-kun's support, the matter has been decided. I will report to the Kwantung Army headquarters immediately."
…
At 5 o'clock in the morning, dozens of officers were sitting at attention in the headquarters of the 29th Army in Xifengkou, waiting for Commander Song Mingyuan's final order.
"Are the deployments of each division and brigade clear?"
The officers all stood up with a roar and responded loudly: "Everything is clear."
"Okay! Return to the team immediately. The troops must be in place before dawn and wait for my order."
"yes!"
Song Mingyuan waved his hand to signal that his men could leave, but heard rapid footsteps coming from outside the door.
"Report!" Song Shan's voice came.
Song Mingyuan frowned and wondered why Song Shan was so ignorant and behaved so rough before the war. Could it be that his usual calmness was just an act?
Just when he was about to reprimand, he saw Song Shan walking in with sweat on his head and handed over a telegram.
He felt a thump in his heart. He only had to look at Song Shan's panicked expression to know that it was not a trivial matter.
After receiving the message and just glancing at it briefly, my heart sank to the bottom.
Then, an inexplicable feeling of powerlessness emerged from my heart, and the message in my hand actually slipped from my hand.
The chief of staff had quick eyes and quick hands, and he picked up the slowly falling telegram. When he picked it up and looked at it, his expression showed a bit of bitterness.
He looked up at Song Mingyuan and said, "Military seat... this..."
Song Mingyuan raised his hand to stop his questioning, turned to the stunned officers and said, "The battle order has been cancelled. After you return to the team, please restrain your officers and soldiers and not take any action against the Japanese army."
"Ah..." All the officers were dumbfounded.
How can anyone play like this?
The battle order was issued, and the fighting spirit was raised. Just when everyone was gearing up to fight the little devil, another battle was cancelled?
These two completely opposite orders are separated by only a few minutes, which is even more extreme than changing orders in the morning and at night.
The problem is that this kind of situation has never happened to the military commander they have always respected. It can only be a problem with the telegram.
Seeing that all the officers' eyes turned to him, the chief of staff sighed inwardly and said: "This is an urgent message from the Peking Military Commission. It said that after urgent discussions between China and Japan, starting tonight, there will be a complete ceasefire on the front line of the Great Wall, and all enemy and our troops will be stationed there. In the original position, we are not allowed to start the war without authorization, otherwise military law will be imposed."
There was another part of the message that he did not say out loud, which was that once the 29th Army went its own way and caused the Sino-Japanese war to expand and get out of control, General Song Mingyuan would be responsible for it alone.
General Song Mingyuan felt that he could not bear this responsibility, because he still had tens of thousands of soldiers who had to rely on the Nanjing government to survive in this troubled world. How could he dare to openly disobey orders this time?
"This is simply indulging the enemy. It was like this during the last great victory at Xifengkou, and it was also like this when the enemy chief was crowned this time, which turned the tide of the war in one fell swoop. Every time the little devils call a halt when they are in danger, don't they know that this is Is this a kid’s trick? The man named He from the Peking Military Commission is simply a son secretly raised by Japan, and he is even more obedient than his own son."
"Chengyu, be careful what you say!"
General Song Mingyuan raised his hand to stop General Zhao Chengyu's angry words.
Then he looked solemn and said loudly: "All ministries have carried out their orders and dispersed."
Seeing the officers walk out of the headquarters angrily, Song Mingyuan seemed calm and calm on the outside, but he was also very bitter on the inside.
At this time, he began to become confused about the conflict between China and Japan, and could no longer see the hope of victory.
Because he knew that after such a farce-like repeated setbacks, the morale of tens of thousands of officers and soldiers of the 29th Army would plummet, and they would no longer have the same momentum of fighting for the first place and fighting the enemy with their lives during the Xifengkou victory. This is true for our own 29th Army, and the same is true for the 32nd Army next door.
After more than a month of fierce fighting on the western front of the Great Wall, the chance of victory that the frontline soldiers had gained with countless lives and blood was quietly lost under an order from the Military Commission.
What was lost was not only the fighter plane, but also the courage to fight the enemy decisively, and...the hope of victory.
In fact, he knew in his heart that General He of the Peking Military Commission was just a mouthpiece. Such an important decision was not something that he, the military and political minister, dared to make without authorization. The initiator was the principal in Nanjing.
He suddenly sneered in his heart, "Humph... Since you, the head of a country, don't have the determination to fight against foreign enemies, and I am just a small army commander, why do you have so much leisure? Let's think about how we can gain victory after this battle. It’s in the best interest.”
Since then, General Song Mingyuan no longer had any trust in the National Government and the principal. He only wanted to develop his own power and completely get rid of the situation of being dependent on others.
As a result, when the July 7th Marco Polo Bridge Incident broke out a few years later, General Song Mingyuan, who already had nearly 100,000 troops, no longer had the determination and courage he had during the Xifengkou War of Resistance. He was even less prepared for the Japanese army's ambition to invade China on a large scale. He always placed his hope in negotiations and tried to maintain his semi-independent status that he had worked hard for several years in Hebei. He made repeated mistakes in decision-making.
Even the principal of Nanjing had noticed the Japanese ambitions and decided not to compromise with Japan. He ordered him to take the initiative to attack before the main force of the Japanese army arrived, creating a favorable battle situation for him.
However, General Song Mingyuan believed that the principal did not really want to resist Japan based on his past performance.
Therefore, Song Mingyuan repeatedly compromised in the face of the Japanese army's aggressive demands.
As Japanese reinforcements arrived one after another, the fearless Japanese army showed its ferocious face. Not only did it terminate the negotiations, but it also took advantage of the 29th Army's lack of preparation to launch a full-scale attack.
At this time, Song Mingyuan finally woke up, but it was too late, and the strategic initiative had been completely grasped by the Japanese army.
The passively defensive 29th Army was caught off guard. Not only did it lose troops and generals, but also suffered heavy casualties. Peking and Tianjin, the two most important cities in the north, also fell to the enemy one after another.
Due to misjudgment of the situation, mutual suspicion with the National Government, and obsession with negotiations, he missed the opportunity to fight, which led to the rapid fall of Pingjin and Tianjin. General Song Mingyuan knew that he had a heavy responsibility and could not escape his blame. After requesting punishment, he resigned as commander of the 29th Army. position.
General Song Mingyuan resigned from the military and lived at home, but he was very depressed and unhappy, and died of illness soon after.
A generation of famous generals has come to an end, which makes people sigh.
The so-called root of today is the disaster of tomorrow.
It can be said that everything that happened tonight not only changed General Song Mingyuan, but also changed the 29th Army who used big swords at Xifengkou to scare the Japanese invaders.
But it is undeniable that General Song Mingyuan and the heroic officers and soldiers of the 29th Army are still anti-Japanese heroes and national models who have left a deep imprint on the history of China’s Anti-Japanese War.
