On the eve of the fall of Liaodong, he led his troops in a remonstrance against the young marshal.

19th Route Army Headquarters.

Sitting opposite Cai Tingkai was Jiang Guangnai, the deputy commander-in-chief and chief of staff of the 19th Route Army.

The two men turned ashen with rage after seeing the Japanese ultimatum.

"This is outrageous!"

Jiang Guangnai issued an ultimatum, his voice hoarse, "Making our troops retreat ten kilometers and handing over Zhabei, Jiangwan, and Wusong entirely to their marines for temporary control is tantamount to handing over the entire northern gate of Hucheng to them!"

"Throughout history, there have only been soldiers who died in battle, not land that was relinquished."

"If we agree to this ultimatum, how will our 19th Route Army ever face the people of Hucheng again?"

"promise?"

Cai Tingkai sneered and slammed the ultimatum on the table. "I've fought for decades, and I've never even known how to spell 'retreat'!"

"The Japanese devils were utterly defeated by Zhang Xueming in the Northeast, so they think they can come south and bully the weak? They've miscalculated! The 19th Route Army is not to be trifled with!"

"If you push them too far, things won't be easy to handle!"

He stood up, walked to the Hucheng defense zone map by the wall, and pointed to several locations along the Zhabei railway line with his finger.

"Pass on my orders: the 156th Brigade of the 78th Division shall hold the line from Baoshan Road in Zhabei to Tiantong'an Station, the 155th Brigade shall hold the line from Jiangwan to Miaohang, and the Supplementary Regiment shall be deployed in Zhenru as a reserve force."

"All troops shall immediately enter a state of high alert. Ammunition shall be distributed to squads. All light and heavy machine guns shall be moved into position. No one shall retreat a single step without my order."

Just as the adjutant was about to turn around to relay the order, another confidential secretary pushed open the door and entered, clutching a telegram in his hand, his face grim.

"Commander-in-Chief, urgent telegram from Nanjing, from Minister He Yingqin of the Ministry of Military Affairs."

Cai Tingkai took the telegram, glanced at it, and his face darkened.

The telegram was politely worded, but every word was dripping with blood.

"At this critical moment for the nation, we should prioritize the overall situation. We hope that the 19th Route Army will endure humiliation and avoid conflict with the Japanese army."

"The Ministry of Military Affairs has ordered the 6th Military Police to go to Zhabei to take over the defense. Your unit should withdraw to Nanxiang to await further orders."

"That bastard He Yingqin! I'll chase the antelope!"

"Bearing humiliation and hardship?"

Cai Tingkai slammed the telegram on the table, the sound so loud the entire headquarters could hear. "The Japanese devils have knives to our throats, and you expect us to endure this humiliation?"

"The 6th Military Police Unit is coming to take over? The military police are for maintaining order, not for fighting!"

"They sent the 6th Military Police Unit to Zhabei; it's clearly to make way for the Japanese!"

Jiang Guangnai picked up the telegram, read it twice, and trembled with anger.

"The Ministry of Military Affairs is trying to sell off Hucheng. The troop rotation is just an excuse; their real purpose is to withdraw our troops."

"Once the 6th Military Police arrived, Zhabei was essentially an empty city. The Japanese didn't need to fight; they could just walk right in."

They had led troops and fought battles their entire lives, and had never received such an order before.

The enemy's ultimatum was delivered to their door, but instead of preparing for battle, it ordered them to endure humiliation and surrender their territory.

This is even more painful than losing a battle.

If you lose a battle, it's because you're not as skilled as the other side. If you can't win, you can't win. You can always fight back next time.

But this time it's not that we can't win, it's that we're not allowed to fight.

It was one of their own men who snatched the guns from their hands, then smiled and said to the enemy, "Please come in."

Cai Tingkai slammed his fist against the wall, causing plaster to crumble and fall. "Ever since I joined the army, I've never known what it means to endure humiliation and hardship!"

"Our brothers in the Northeast can fight the Japanese, but we Guangdong Army can't? On what basis does He Yingqin order us to retreat!"

No one answered him.

Because everyone knows that He Yingqin is backed by the Chairman. Although the Chairman has stepped down, his influence in the military and political system remains deeply entrenched. The Ministry of Military Affairs listens to him, and so does the military police.

This order was actually the Chairman's intention.

After Cai Tingkai finished shouting, he stood there alone, his chest heaving violently.

He turned around, picked up the binoculars on the table, and looked out the window.

Through the telescope, a scene unfolded on the streets of Zhabei that he would never forget.

The citizens of Hucheng spontaneously flocked to the streets.

The students, holding banners that read "We will defend Hucheng to the death," walked at the front of the procession. The words on the banners were written with a brush, and the ink was not yet completely dry, glistening wetly under the streetlights.

The workers followed behind, carrying pickaxes and shovels. Their hands were still covered with cotton lint from the yarn factory and coal dust from the dock. Many of their work clothes were patched up.

Shop owners removed their shop doors and used them as roadblocks at street corners, with signs still pasted on those doors.

The rickshaw pullers pushed their rickshaws to the middle of the road, forming a defensive line.

There was even a group of dancers, dressed in cheongsams and high heels, who exchanged their money for cosmetics for bandages and iodine and delivered them to the 19th Route Army's positions.

An old woman, carrying a pot of freshly cooked porridge, walked shakily to the front line and handed the bowl to a young soldier.

The soldier's lips were frozen purple, and as he took the bowl of porridge, tears streamed down his face and fell into the porridge.

"Child, eat up, then we can fight the Japanese devils."

The old woman stroked the soldier's head as if she were stroking her own son.

The soldier held the bowl of porridge and drank it down, sip by sip. Then he put down the bowl and saluted the old woman.

"Grandma, don't worry, as long as I live, the Japanese devils won't be able to get past this line of defense."

Cai Tingkai put down his binoculars, his eyes reddening.

"Gather the brothers."

His voice was soft, but Jiang Guangnai could hear the weight behind it.

A moment later, the officers and soldiers of the 156th Brigade lined up in the open space in front of the headquarters.

They stood in neat rows, their rifles fixed with bayonets.

The cold winter wind of Hucheng blew in from the direction of the Huangpu River, seeping into their collars, and everyone's face turned pale from the cold.

Cai Tingkai stood at the front of the line without saying a word.

He walked to the front of the line, took a rifle with a bayonet fixed from a soldier, and slammed the butt of the rifle heavily on the ground.

"Brothers, we have received orders from Nanjing to retreat."

A commotion arose in the ranks, but it quickly subsided.

"The Ministry of Military Affairs said that we should prioritize the overall situation. They said that the 6th Military Police Corps would come to take over the defense. They also said that we should endure the humiliation and bear the burden."

Cai Tingkai paused, then suddenly raised his voice, "I don't know anything about the big picture!"

"All I know is that Zhabei is Chinese territory, and it's only right that Chinese soldiers guard Chinese land!"

"The Japanese tell us to retreat, so we retreat? They tell us to hand over our defensive zone, so we hand it over? On what grounds?"

He raised his bayonet above his head.

"This is Tochigi! The Japanese devils haven't paid back the blood debt they owe us yet!"

"Now they've come all the way south to swagger around, demanding we cede our defense zone. I have only one answer: no way!"

"No way! No way!"

Hundreds of voices roared at the same time, the sound crashing against the brick walls of the yarn factory, making the air buzz.

A young soldier shouted:

"Commander-in-Chief! Just give the order! We'll take down one Japanese soldier if one comes, and two if two come! We're not afraid to die!"

Cai Tingkai looked at the soldier.

He was wearing a thin cotton coat, clutching an old, worn-out Hanyang rifle in his hand, but his eyes burned with a fierce fire.

"Guangnai, give the order!"

Jiang Guangnai took a pen out of his pocket and picked up a blank document book from the table, spreading it out on the table.

He wrote a line, then stopped writing, looked up at Cai Tingkai.

"Brother Cai, have you thought this through? If we fight, we'll be disobeying military orders!"

"If we win, we get no credit; if we lose, we become scapegoats."

Cai Tingkai turned his head, looked at him, remained silent for a moment, and then grinned, "Scapegoat it is."

"My life, Cai Tingkai's life, was given to me by the brothers of the Guangdong Army, and the lives of the brothers of the Guangdong Army were sustained by the Chinese people."

"The people need us to defend Hucheng, so we will defend Hucheng. No matter who tells us to withdraw, it won't work."

Jiang Guangnai smiled.

"In that case, let's send a joint telegram to the whole country, telling the people of the whole country that the 19th Route Army is determined to live and die with Hucheng."

He bent down and wrote a line on the official document.

"All officers and soldiers of the 19th Route Army swear to live and die with Tokichi, preferring to die by the sword rather than be slaves of a conquered nation."

He signed his name and then handed the pen back to Cai Tingkai, who also signed his name.

After the telegram was sent, slogans rang out in the night in Zhabei. The sound rose from the 19th Route Army's position, crossed the Suzhou River, and spread throughout the entire city.

On the docks, in the yarn factories, in the schools, and in the shops, people all looked up at the direction of Zhabei.

At the main position of Tiantong'an Station in Zhabei, the soldiers have reinforced the fortifications overnight.

Sandbags formed three lines of defense at the station entrance, with a Maxim heavy machine gun mounted behind each line. The machine gunners' winter coats were covered in a layer of frost.

They lay motionless behind the bunker, only the white breath from their mouths proving they were still alive.

The railway tracks were pried up and used as obstacles, lying across the middle of the road in a grotesque arc.

The canopy on the platform was removed, and bricks and timber were transported to the front line to reinforce the bunker.

Cai Tingkai stood at the window of the headquarters, gazing in the direction of Zhabei, without saying a word.

His fingers tapped lightly on the windowsill, at a moderate pace, his mind filled with a myriad of thoughts.

Just then, hurried footsteps sounded behind me.

The confidential secretary practically stumbled into the operations room, clutching a telegram in his hand, his face a complex mix of shock, elation, and disbelief.

"Commander-in-Chief! Urgent telegram from Jinzhou! It was sent directly to us by Premier Zhang Xueliang!"

Cai Tingkai grabbed the telegram and huddled together with Jiang Guangnai to read it by the dim light of the kerosene lamp.

The telegram was short, only three lines long, but every single word made Cai Tingkai's eyes widen in fury.