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

When Cai Tingkai received Zhang Xueliang's telegram, his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

"Hucheng is Chinese territory. Every inch of our land was bought with blood. We must never give it up."

Cai Tingkai read the telegram aloud, then slammed it on the table and laughed loudly three times.

"Good! Good! Good!"

He turned around and roared at his adjutant, "Send orders to the entire army! The Premier of the Executive Yuan has telegraphed, ordering us to defend Hucheng to the death! Not an inch of land shall be yielded!"

..........

Headquarters of the Marine Corps in the Japanese Concession of Hongkou.

On the parade ground, 2,600 Japanese marines had already assembled.

They wore steel helmets, carried Type 38 rifles, their bullet belts crossed in an X shape in front of their chests, and their leg wraps were meticulously wrapped.

Sixteen Type 89 medium tanks and Vickers armored vehicles were parked in front of the column, their engines already running, spewing thick black smoke from their exhaust pipes, which rolled in the beams of the searchlights like a pack of restless beasts.

Colonel Kobayashi, the regimental commander, stood at the front of the column and drew his command sword.

The blade gleamed coldly under the searchlight, its tip pointing westward—the direction of Zhabei, the stronghold of the Chinese, the target he was to raze to the ground tonight.

"Warriors of the Imperial Marines!"

Colonel Kobayashi's voice echoed across the parade ground: "The Chinese have rejected the Empire's ultimatum; this is a provocation against the Empire's dignity!"

"Tonight, we will use bayonets to show those Chinese what the price is for refusing the Empire's ultimatum!"

"Heavy Black Card Server!!"

"Onboard!"

Two thousand six hundred voices roared at the same time.

The armored vehicles roared out of the playground gate and advanced along North Sichuan Road toward Zhabei.

The Marines followed behind the armored vehicles, their boots making a rhythmic thud as they stepped on the cement pavement.

Japanese expatriates by the roadside waved Rising Sun flags, women wore kimonos, men wore national dresses, and children were lifted above adults' heads, chanting slogans that the Japanese couldn't understand.

The attacking force was divided into three routes: the left route went west along Qiujiang Road, the middle route went north along Baoshan Road, and the right route went northwest along Baoxing Road.

All three forces were targeting the same place: the Zhabei Railway Hub.

That place is the transportation choke point in the north of Hucheng. Controlling Tiantong'an Station is equivalent to controlling the entire Zhabei area, and controlling Zhabei is equivalent to strangling Hucheng.

At 11:30, the Marine Corps armored vehicles that had advanced to the intersection of Baoshan Road and Yokohama Road encountered fire from the forward positions of the 156th Brigade of the 19th Route Army.

"The Japanese devils are coming! Brothers, fire them!!"

"boom!"

A mortar shell exploded in front of the armored vehicle, the flames instantly tearing through the darkness of the winter night and turning the snow on the street blood red.

Immediately following was the intense barrage of fire from the Maxim machine guns, bullets striking the steel plates of the armored vehicle and sending up a shower of sparks.

"Da da da da!"

"Give me a duck!"

The Japanese soldiers quickly dispersed and took cover behind armored vehicles to return fire.

Bullets from both sides clashed in the air above the street, forming an impenetrable net of fire. The trajectories traced orange-red lines in the darkness, like countless red-hot wires.

The Battle of Hucheng thus began.

Tiantong'an Station is the core of the Zhabei Railway Hub. The station building is a two-story red brick building, with freight yards and locomotive repair depots on both sides of the platform.

The 156th Brigade deployed an entire reinforced battalion here, converting the station building into a bunker, blocking the windows with sandbags, leaving only firing ports.

The platform was piled with sandbags and sleepers to form a shelter. The freight cars in the yard were overturned and used as obstacles. The rails were pried open, and the broken rails gleamed menacingly in the moonlight.

The Japanese marines launched an attack on the station simultaneously from two directions: Baoshan Road and Qiujiang Road.

Armored vehicles were at the forefront, with infantry following behind, providing alternating cover as they advanced step by step.

The soldiers of the 19th Route Army hid behind bunkers and waited until the Japanese armored vehicles were within fifty meters before suddenly opening fire.

Rifles, light machine guns, and heavy machine guns—all firepower poured out from behind the bunkers simultaneously, bullets striking the front armor of the armored vehicle with a clanging sound.

While the armored vehicle's armor could stop bullets, the Japanese infantry following behind it were not so lucky.

In the first volley, more than a dozen Japanese soldiers were hit and fell to the ground, their blood flowing into streams on the asphalt road.

"Baka yarou! Enemy fire is too intense, retreat!"

The Japanese troops' first charge was repelled.

But just fifteen minutes later, they launched a second attack.

This time they divided the armored vehicles into two groups. One group continued to put pressure on the station from the front, while the other group went around to the freight yard on the west side of the station, trying to break through from the flank.

The freight yard was piled with small mountains of coal and sleepers, and the terrain was complex with numerous bunkers.

The Japanese armored vehicles moved among the coal piles, their rooftop machine guns firing incessantly, sending wood chips flying everywhere from the sleepers in the freight yard.

The platoon guarding the freight yard is from the 6th Company. The platoon leader is Shen Quan, who is only 23 years old but has already served in the army for five years.

He led his soldiers to hide behind the coal piles, and when the Japanese armored vehicles drove into the narrow passage between the coal piles, he roared:

"Throw!"

A volley of grenades flew out from behind the coal pile, tracing black arcs in the air before landing precisely in the ranks of the Japanese infantry.

"Boom!"

Amid the explosion, seven or eight Japanese soldiers were blown away, their severed limbs and helmet fragments tumbling through the air.

One grenade even hit the hood of an armored vehicle. Although the explosion did not destroy the armored vehicle, the shockwave knocked the machine gunner off the roof.

"Well played!"

Shen Quan roared, picked up his Hanyang rifle, and shot down a Japanese soldier who was getting up.

He pulled back the bolt, aimed again, and muttered to himself.

"You bunch of sons of bitches, bullying us Chinese people..."

But before he could finish speaking, a machine gun bullet struck the coal pile next to him.

"Da da da da!"

The flying coal dust blinded him.

He reached out to rub it, but before he could even get it loose, more machine gun bullets swept over, hitting the coal pile with muffled thuds.

"Platoon leader! The Japanese are coming again!" a soldier shouted shrilly.

Shen Quan rubbed his eyes hard, barely managing to open them a crack.

He saw that in the passageway in front of the coal pile, Japanese infantry were pressing up wave after wave under the cover of armored vehicles.

They split into groups of three or four, covering each other and advancing in alternating leaps, their tactical movements clean and efficient.

These aren't newbies, they're veterans.

Shen Quan gritted his teeth and roared at the machine gunner beside him:

"The Suicide Squad!"

"Blow that armored vehicle up!"

"Wow!"

A soldier, carrying a satchel charge, bent over and used the cover to rush toward the armored vehicle.

Just as he was about to reach the armored vehicle, suddenly—

"Bang bang bang!"

The Japanese infantry spotted him and opened fire.

"Pfft!"

The soldier was hit and lay on the ground, his fate unknown.

"Rokuko!"

Shen Quan roared, grabbed his machine gun, and began firing at the Japanese soldiers.

"You son of a bitch, I'll curse your ancestors!!"

"Come on, you son of a bitch! Come on!"

"Da da da da!"

"Da da da da!"

The Japanese soldiers were beaten so badly they couldn't even lift their heads.

"boom!"

The Japanese armored vehicles finally opened fire, and the machine gunners came to an abrupt halt.

Shen Quan was hit by a shell and lay on the ground, barely alive.

"Platoon leader!!"

The deputy platoon leader rushed forward.

"Beat your mother... you Japanese bastard..."

Shen Quan left behind his last words: "I died with my eyes wide open in disbelief."

"what!"

The deputy platoon leader picked up the machine gun and opened fire on the Japanese soldiers.

"Kill! Kill all the Japanese devils! Kill!"

.........

Meanwhile, fierce fighting was taking place on the front lines.

At the platform entrance, soldiers, behind sandbag fortifications, tenaciously repelled the Japanese advance. Every so often, the Maxim heavy machine gun would unleash a full belt of ammunition.

When the gun barrels turned red-hot, the soldiers would take off their cotton-padded coats and wrap them around the gun barrels to cool them down. The coats would quickly burn and emit a burnt smell.

The fierce battle at Tiantong'an Railway Station lasted all night. The Japanese attacks were more and more intense, but each time they were repelled by the soldiers of the 19th Route Army.

As the first rays of dawn pierced through the smoke of battle, Colonel Kobayashi stood on the battlefield, his face ashen as he looked at the Japanese corpses lying scattered before him.

He drew his command sword and roared at the messenger beside him:

"Calling air support! Calling air support immediately!"

At 10 a.m., the rumble of engines echoed on the Huangpu River.

On the deck of the Notoro seaplane carrier, which was moored in the middle of the river, sixteen seaplane reconnaissance bombers were launched onto the catapult.

The airplane's propellers began to spin, and the roar of the engines caused ripples to spread across the river.

The catapults emitted a piercing sound, and planes were launched one after another.

They circled once over the Huangpu River, then formed a V-shaped formation and flew towards Zhabei.

The Notoro was only a seaplane carrier with a displacement of 7,000 tons.

It carried only a dozen or so aircraft, but in an era when the Nationalist army didn't even have many anti-aircraft guns, it was an invincible air fortress.

A formation of sixteen aircraft cast a huge shadow over Hucheng.

The plane crossed the Suzhou River, passed the streets of Zhabei, and arrived over Tiantong'an Railway Station.

The piercing air raid siren blared across the position, and the soldiers of the 19th Route Army looked up and saw sixteen black dots in the sky that were gradually growing larger.

Everyone's expression changed drastically.

The soldiers were not afraid of the army tanks; the Japanese tanks had thin skin, and they could blow them up. But they were powerless against airplanes.

Cai Tingkai stared at the planes in the sky, his fists clenched and his teeth clenched. He could imagine the devastating bombing that the 19th Army would suffer next.

Just as he was feeling heartbroken, the roar of fighter jets came from behind him.