October 3, 1937.
Late autumn.
Light winter.
It's raining lightly.
Nanjing.
Shimonoseki Railway Station.
The platform was large and crude. Several ticket collectors wearing raincoats were sitting huddled against the wall, each holding a newly lit lantern in their hands.
A dozen inspectors wearing steel helmets, holding submachine guns, and wearing the word "supervision" on their arms, led by a major principal officer, wandered around the train station. Except for the occasional cough, Nuo Da's No one among the thousands of soldiers on the platform spoke.
As soon as the sun set, the sky suddenly became dark.
The rainwater on the railway track suddenly trembled, and with several strange roars, an extra-long truck slowly entered the station from west to east. White mist sprayed out from the front and bottom of the car, and stopped amidst the sound of "Puff, Puff, Puff". .
A lieutenant colonel and battalion commander held a loudspeaker: "The 947th Regiment and 953rd Regiment of the 159th Division got on the train first. Each regiment, each battalion, each company, in platoons, got on the train in order starting from one row to the next. , everyone is not allowed to make any noise, and each person gets two steamed buns and a salted radish from the car door. Once inside the carriage, everyone sits down, and there is no need to make any noise!"
There were more and more footsteps on the platform. Soldiers from each regiment's battalion, company and platoon got on the car in order. Each person passed the car door and consciously took two steamed buns and a dried radish from the big basket.
The soldiers were wearing brand-new military uniforms, with smiles and hope on their faces.
When setting off from Xinxiang, the military headquarters said at the mobilization meeting that the Japanese troops in Shanghai had been completely suppressed by the Chinese troops. The 159th Division and 160th Division of the 66th Army were ordered to enter Shanghai to eliminate the remaining enemies in Baoshan, Luodian and other places.
As soon as the soldiers got into the carriage, they started to eat steamed buns with Zhongzheng rifles or Hanyang-made rifles in their hands, looking forward to entering bustling Shanghai and going to both sides of the Huangpu River to see those dazzling cheongsams...
Most of them did not know that Shanghai's defense line was already crumbling at this moment. Their task after entering Shanghai was to garrison Baoshan and Luodian, and they would face the Japanese ace force, the Third Division, which had just landed in Hangzhou Bay not long ago.
As the soldiers boarded the vehicle, a machine gun + machine gun anti-aircraft position was built on the roof of every two truck carriages in squad units.
Just when all the soldiers from the two regiments got on the train, and when the train started "bang bang" and white steam came out, a young major officer wearing an air force uniform hurried into the station in the light rain and took out his The officer's ID card dangled in front of the eyes of a second lieutenant on duty at the station, then he trotted onto the train with his luggage. Ten seconds later, the locomotive roared, dragging its heavy body, and drove slowly towards the east.
Darkness sets in completely and the nights grow colder.
Looking at the young soldiers holding the old Hanyang Zao, sitting cross-legged on the straw in the carriage and munching on cold and hard steamed buns, the air force major felt desolate and sad in his heart.
That young air force major was Zhou Zhihan.
The young and immature faces of these soldiers were full of laughter. They had no idea that endless darkness would greet them in Shanghai.
The twilight surged westward along both sides of the Shanghai-Nanjing Railway like a mudflow, continuing to the dark end.
In the east, invisible to the people in the car, cold flashes of light erupted from time to time, illuminating the gloomy cloud base intermittently, mixed with faint rumbles. There was Shanghai, which was being ravaged by Japanese naval guns and fighter planes. The National Revolution The most elite troops of the army are making their final struggle.
By the end of September, the total number of remaining fighter planes in the Chinese Air Force was no more than 70. Due to the lack of spare parts, many fighters could only demolish the east wall to make up for the west wall. The air superiority of the entire Shanghai was completely firmly controlled by the Japanese army.
Without the protection of the air force in the sky, the Chinese army suffered heavy casualties under the attack of the Japanese air force. Coupled with the firepower of the Japanese fleet, the Chinese army was almost defeated and could only hold on hard and wait for a miracle to occur.
That night, Zhou Zhihan left the hotel and returned home at night. He squatted in the dark for half an hour to make sure there was no danger before climbing over the wall and entering the home because he suddenly remembered that he had washed a copy of himself in [Izumo] The photos on the account were given to Mao Bangchu, and a few days later he developed a copy for himself to study. Later, when he was busy with military affairs and had no time to live at home, he put the photos and negatives in a box and hid them together in the beam of his bedroom. superior.
After reasoning and thinking, Zhou Zhihan concluded that Mao Bangchu could not betray him, and doing so would be like shooting Mao Bangchu in the foot.
If Zhou Zhihan was convicted of collaborating with the enemy and treason, he, Mao Bangchu, would be the first to be implicated.
The Zhou family moved south in early August, leaving only an empty house.
When Zhou Zhihan came outside his room at night, he suddenly had a bad feeling.
The lock on the door had been picked open, and it was obvious that someone had come in. It was probably a thief who had sneaked in after the Zhou family left, wanting to see if any precious items had been left behind by the Zhou family.
The small wooden box hidden on the beam disappeared.
The thief must have gotten the small wooden box, saw the photos and negatives, and reported them in exchange for a reward.
Things are clear.
Zhou Zhihan knew that only Mao Bangchu could help him clear his suspicions at this time.
After secretly inquiring, Zhou Zhihan learned that Mao Bangchu flew to Nanjing on the morning of August 23, and went to Western countries with a delegation that afternoon, hoping to buy a batch of fighter planes to solve the urgent domestic shortage of fighter planes. At least It will take half a month before I can return home.
Zhou Zhihan had nowhere to go, so he headed to Chengdu. He wanted to know whether this incident had any impact on his family.
At this time, information was very limited, and the police force was in short supply during the war. Zhou Zhihan still used his identity as an air force major to take a boat and car to Chengdu. The journey was smooth sailing, and the stations and docks he arrived at were unobstructed, and he was not subject to any suspicion or interrogation.
There is another important reason. Vice Captain Zhao and six others, who were all slightly injured in the air strike, returned to the arrest section of MI2 to report their work the next day. They said that Zhou Zhihan was killed in a Japanese air strike while being escorted back. He could not Find the body.
Therefore, the matter of Zhou Zhihan collaborating with the enemy and treason was temporarily put on hold.
During the war, MI2 was busy with important matters and had no time to go to the Sichuan Army unit to investigate whether Zhou Zhihan was among the soldiers killed by Japanese air strikes.
In fact, the Sichuan army arrived in Shanghai two days later and immediately entered the battlefield. They fought very bravely and tenaciously, but they also suffered heavy losses. The number of troops was greatly reduced, and the specific casualty list could not be investigated in a short time.
When Zhou Zhihan arrived in Chengdu, he saw that his family was safe in the dark, so he felt reassured and returned to Nanjing, hoping to see Mao Bangchu. After inquiring, he learned that Mao Bangchu had not asked for military support in the West, so he went directly to the Soviet Union to seek help. There was no definite information. Return time.
During this period, I witnessed several times my comrades flying into the skies of Nanjing and engaging in desperate air battles with incoming Japanese fighter planes.
Many people flew into the sky and never came back. Zhou Zhihan could only look at the sky, feeling sad.
We can no longer stay in Nanjing and wait for Mao Bangchu.
Zhou Zhihan decided to return to Shanghai and fly a plane to fight alone, using actual actions to continuously shoot down enemy planes to prove his innocence.
