Chapter 163: Yuanping In Critical Danger
The next morning, Zhou Weiguo got into the car sent by personnel dispatched by Zhou Wenhua to pick him up, and after arriving at the Hamburg port, he boarded a luxury cruise ship there and headed to Shanghai.
This time, Zhou Wenhua did not provide a transport aircraft to carry Zhou Weiguo, because he knew that the Battle of Shanghai would still take some time before it broke out, so Zhou Weiguo still had time to travel by sea.
Moreover, the speed of the luxury cruise ship he provided was not comparable to the cruise ships of this period; it was much faster, and it could completely reach Shanghai in a week, or even within a week.
At this time, the Japanese Army had already occupied Lugou Bridge, and as for the remaining 8 soldiers of the 29th Route Army at Lugou Bridge, they were all killed, Zhou Wenhua did not dispatch troops to participate in the battle.
Because there were still quite a few 29th Route Army troops stationed in Yuanping City, he could not dispatch troops to go over there to provide support without being discovered by others, and as for the air force, because they had already carried out air strike bombing on the Japanese positions twice in a row, they needed to return for fuel supply, so they did not continue to participate in the battle either, so everything was proceeding according to the original development of the warfare.
Whether they could resist the Japanese Army’s invasion or not would still depend on the 29th Route Army’s defensive operation.
Moreover, Zhou Wenhua had always planned to engage in battle with the Japanese Troops only after there were no garrison troops in Beiping City.
So he was not anxious at all.
It was impossible for all battles to require his troops to participate in the operation.
Moreover, with just that small amount of troops he had, it was hard to cover all battle lines.
But with the loss of Lugou Bridge,
the entire Beiping immediately boiled over like a disturbed hive.
“Sell newspapers! Sell newspapers! Lugou Bridge has been occupied by the Japanese Army, Yuanping City has also been surrounded by the Japanese Army, Beiping’s warfare is in critical danger!”
“Sell newspapers! Breaking big news! The Japanese Army has not only occupied Lugou Bridge, but is also launching a series of offensive operations outside Yuanping City, their ambition has been exposed, want to know more details, come buy the newspaper!”
“Yuanping City is in critical danger, Lugou Bridge has fallen! Beiping is in danger, the 29th Army has not made any big moves yet, still conducting peace negotiation with the Japanese Army!”
“Resist Japanese Invaders’ invasion, defend our homeland, absolutely do not allow the Japanese Army to occupy Lugou Bridge and then march to occupy Yuanping!”
“Beiping is in critical danger! Beiping is in critical danger! Lugou Bridge has fallen under the Japanese Army’s hooves, Yuanping City has become the last barrier of Beiping City, once Yuanping is lost, Beiping will be in critical danger!”
At the same time, soon the major newspaper offices were also continuously reporting the latest battle situation news.
Instantly attracting a large number of Beiping citizens to rush to purchase newspapers to read.
But after all Beiping citizens learned that Lugou Bridge had been occupied by the Japanese Troops,
especially after learning that after occupying Lugou Bridge, the Japanese Troops not only did not stop the war, but also launched encirclement offensive operations toward Yuanping City,
the whole city was shocked and became abuzz.
Many people showed worried expressions, fearing that Beiping would be occupied by the Japanese Army.
For a while, all kinds of discussion voices kept emerging.
Many people also became mentally collapsed because of this, and the people became panic-stricken.
As for the 29th Route Army troops stationed in the city, they showed no special reaction.
For this reason, many citizens with some standing jointly went to find the commander of the city defense guarding Beiping City to inquire about the subsequent battle situation and how it would be arranged.
And there were also quite a few patriots who continued to make donations of various supplies and money to the 29th Army to support resisting the Japanese Invaders’ invasion operations.
A scene of all sorts of human conditions soon fully unfolded in Beiping City.
And the high-level of the 29th Army also began an emergency meeting to discuss what to do next.
As for Zhou Wenhua, he calmly observed the occurrence of all these events.
At the same time, the Eighth Route Army side also issued a famous speech.
“Fellow compatriots across the nation! Pingjin is in critical danger! North China is in critical danger! The Chinese nation is in critical danger! Only by the whole nation carrying out the Anti-Japanese War is our way out!”
And with the telegram sent out, it further aroused the support of a large number of patriots for the Anti-Japanese War.
Especially after the news of Lugou Bridge’s fall swept through all major cities across the country,
whether Shanghai, the capital, or Xuzhou, Wuhan, Changsha and Chongqing, Yangcheng, Nanning and other major cities, they all instantly boiled over, with everyone paying attention to the upcoming warfare of resisting the Japanese Invaders’ invasion.
And those with money donated money, those with supplies donated supplies, preparing to transport them to Beiping here to support the Anti-Japanese War.
Moreover, anti-Japanese demonstrations in various cities were also continuously abuzz and being held.
As for the foreign citizens in Shanghai and the soldiers of the foreign troops, they watched the warfare with a spectator mentality, treating it as after-meal conversation.
But with the fall of Lugou Bridge, the pressure on Yuanping City’s defensive operation also increased unprecedentedly.
Making all the 29th Route Army troops stationed here extremely nervous.
