Chapter 223: Lost Contact
In the Foreign Public Concession, all the major newspaper offices of the foreigners had already published front-page headlines promoting how the Japanese Army’s 20th Division successfully charged and killed their way into Beiping City, which immediately caused all citizens in Shanghai to boil over, including citizens from all walks of life in the Foreign Public Concession, all of whom were completely shocked and stunned.
Even the capital Nanjing and all major cities domestically were quickly shocked, saddened, and highly attentive to this front-page headline news that made everyone feel like bad news.
At the same time, it also inspired even more patriotic students and people to hold marches, demonstrations, resist Japanese invaders, and donation drives, suddenly making all cities abuzz, wanting to provide frontline support to resist Japanese invaders and recover Beiping City.
At the same time, it also made everyone very attentive to where exactly the German-equipped troops stationed inside, who had been continuously resisting the offensive operations of the Japanese Army, had gone, and what the subsequent battle situation was like?
However, the citizens on the Foreign Public Concession side were becoming increasingly emotionally agitated and abuzz, discussing heatedly.
“How could this happen? It’s only been how long since Beiping City, and it was already attacked into by the Japanese Army so quickly? What about that German-equipped troops that continuously defeated the Japanese Army’s advance? Where did they go? They weren’t defeated and severely damaged by the Japanese Army, were they? Or annihilated?”
“We’re so far away in Shanghai, how would we know? The foreigners’ newspapers and domestic newspapers haven’t reported on what happened next to those German-equipped troops yet! They only said that part of the German-equipped troops evacuated, leaving only part of the German-equipped troops in the city to carry out resistance operations. We hope they can hold out against so many Japanese Army offensive operations!”
“I’m afraid it’s unlikely! Didn’t the newspaper say in big bold headlines? The Japanese Army’s reinforcements have already arrived at Yuanping City and are heading toward Beiping. Once these armies arrive, I’m afraid the entire Beiping City will be fully occupied by the Japanese Army!”
“If even Beiping is occupied by the Japanese Army, I’m afraid the situation throughout Northern China will be in turmoil! Perhaps the next operation of these aggressive Japanese Army troops will be to attack the Jinxi Northwest region around Taiyuan!”
“That’s probably it! Once all of Northern China is occupied by the Japanese Army, then our entire country will be in danger! They might board trains with the fastest marching speed and sweep from Northern China all the way to the Southern Region! If our National Revolutionary Army troops are defeated by then, the entire nation will be in peril! And fall into the Japanese Army’s invasion!”
“Can you not be such a crow’s mouth? Don’t you hope that our National Revolutionary Army troops will drive all these damn Japanese invaders out of our territory, or even annihilate them all?”
“Hope? I don’t even know if I should hope for them anymore. You know they couldn’t even hold the Northeast side! Now Beiping City is already breached, yet they still can’t hold it, and there are no follow-up reinforcements to support that German-equipped troops fighting alone, so how can we hope?”
“Exactly! Moreover, our Central Army’s elite troops are all concentrated in the Southern Region right now, especially in Shanghai and the capital side. Even if we dispatch troops now to go to Beiping for operations, it’s probably already too late! By the time the Central Army’s elite troops get there, the opportunity will have long passed!”
“So are we just going to be helpless like this, watching the Japanese Army occupy Beiping without being able to provide any support?”
All sorts of remarks from the citizens on the Foreign Public Concession side kept coming up in heated discussions, abuzz.
And influenced by that side, all citizens in Shanghai and the capital Nanjing also boiled over similarly.
They also gathered in twos and threes, discussing what direction the subsequent battle situation in Beiping would take.
Suddenly, citizens nationwide had all their attention drawn by the battle in Beiping, closely following it.
Even Zhou Weiguo, upon learning that Beiping City had already been breached,
immediately made a telephone call, wanting to contact what the situation was like on Zhou Wenhua’s side.
Unfortunately, at this time, Zhou Wenhua had already led most of the German-equipped clone troops to evacuate out of Beiping City, so they couldn’t be contacted for the time being.
Faced with the lost contact from Zhou Wenhua, Zhou Weiguo’s mood also suddenly turned bad.
So, he could only closely follow the subsequent latest news reports in the major newspapers.
