The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression Begins in Songhu

Chapter 137: Watching (Additional update for the photographer 6/10)

When a burst of rapid gunfire reached the ears with unusual clarity, indicating that a fierce battle was taking place in a very close area on the other side of the river.

Li Yong, who was originally drinking tea, slammed the precious purple clay teapot in his hand onto the small table.

After getting up, he walked towards the balcony angrily, cursing as he walked:

"Fight, fight, fight. We can't beat the Japanese devils. So many people have died. The boss has almost destroyed the entire city. Why should we fight?

Just surrender early and let everyone live in peace."

Li Yong, a native of Shanghai, was born in the 1898th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu () and is years old this year.

He studied abroad when he was young, and now he is a middle-to-senior level manager in a foreign company with legal entity in Shanghai. His income is quite good in Shanghai.

Don't be fooled by the fact that Li Yong's words at this moment are full of pessimism, and even have a traitorous and compromising tone.

In fact, more than two months ago, when the Battle of Shanghai just broke out, he definitely did not have such a bad attitude towards the National Army.

Just as everyone was saying at the time, the Japanese devils with only four islands wanted to annex our great China?
If 450,000 people spit at each other, these little dwarfs would be drowned.

At that time, he not only donated one thousand French francs, but also donated a large amount of supplies; even considering his income, it was a large sum of money, and it can be said that he provided good support with practical actions.

As someone who has studied abroad, he knows much better than ordinary people the importance of having a strong country behind him.

The reason why he has become like this now is because he has now despaired of this war; his originally passionate heart has completely cooled down.

For more than two months since the war broke out, all we heard was bad news.

It's not about where the defense was lost, how many people died in battle, which unit was crippled, or which general was killed in battle. Up to now, even more than a dozen generals have died in battle.

Even a few days ago, he had always admired Major Hu Biao, who he believed was good at fighting and fighting smartly, but he also died heroically in order to destroy one of the Japanese heavy artillery.

Major Hu's death in battle did not have much impact on the overall war situation.

Although they lacked a few super-large-caliber heavy artillery, the Japanese still had planes, tanks, warships, and even more heavy artillery; they continuously replenished their troops, with ships being pulled over one after another.

The National Army has now retreated to the Nanxiang line, and the entire nearby Zhabei has been lost; seeing that this battle is about to be lost, Li Yong is completely desperate about such a war.

However, life must go on and the wife and children at home must be supported.

It just so happened that during this period of time, prices in Shanghai were skyrocketing. His wife complained to him every day about how much the price of rice had increased and how the price of vegetables had doubled. Anyway, his salary had not increased at all, but the household expenses had increased a lot.

When Li Yong heard this, he felt even more annoyed.

Not to mention what upset him the most, it was the reluctance to accept the disastrous defeat in the war, which he just refused to admit.

To put it bluntly, Li Yong's situation was nothing more than a wave of determination in his heart, which was completely shattered by a series of bad news...

Li Yong's bad mood became even worse after he walked onto the balcony.

On the one hand, he was surprised to find that the gunshots actually came from the "Four Bank Trust Department Magic City Branch Warehouse" opposite, which they usually call the Four Bank Warehouse.

It was only across a river from the small building where he lived.

What if the Japanese miss the target when firing and the shell falls here?
On the other hand, the eaves downstairs and the alley on one side were densely packed with refugees, and their number was at least half more than yesterday.

They were either squatting or sitting, their pale faces filled with confusion.

After seeing this, Li Yong felt sympathy for these compatriots, but also disgusted with the soaring prices and poor public security caused by their large influx into the concession.

At this moment, Li Yong felt like there was a fire in his heart, but he had no way to vent it.

This continued until a brief but intense battle ended, when soldiers dressed as Nationalist soldiers tossed the naked bodies of the Japanese soldiers from the rooftop. One, two, three…fifteen, sixteen. Li Yong began counting unconsciously.

In the end, when they counted the dead pigs that died like plague and were thrown down from the downstairs, hitting the ground on the left side of the Sihang Warehouse and the bloody corpses of the Japanese soldiers, there were actually forty-two of them.

Li Yong's anger suddenly disappeared, and he only felt a strong sense of pleasure.

He suddenly didn't want to drink tea anymore. He wanted to have a good glass of wine, a strong liquor at that.

It was also from this moment that he began to worry about the mysterious National Army unit in the Sihang Warehouse, their origins, numbers, and fate.

The psychological change that occurred in Li Yong is just a microcosm of the many people in Shanghai who live across from the Sihang Warehouse.

The continuous defeats in the war and the increasingly difficult life gradually dissipated the originally fiery passion for the war of resistance in their hearts, and they had to face the cruel reality.

After the gunshots at Sihang Warehouse, their identities might have been different.

But no matter whether it was an employee like Li Yong, a small businessman, a housewife, a worker, a student, or even a dancer, a thug, a refugee or a beggar, they still couldn't help but pay attention to it at the first moment.

I instinctively hoped that the Japanese would be taught a lesson.

So when the bodies of the Japanese were thrown down from the building like dead pigs, they cheered loudly.

When greeting each other, they no longer complained about the unfavorable war situation and the difficult life, but asked which unit the national army belonged to and who the commander was.

In short, after experiencing a century of humiliation, this nation will cheer as long as a small victory happens before their eyes.

******
Around three o'clock in the afternoon, gunshots rang out again in the Sihang Warehouse across the river.

Li Yong immediately took out an old monocular telescope that he had deliberately dug out from the cabinet and looked towards the warehouse.

On the many balconies and rooftops of this street, there were many people making the same movements as Li Yong.

On the street downstairs, more people rushed out, ran to the edge of Suzhou River and lay on the fence.

Even when the police officers from the police station waved sticks and shouted at them not to get close to avoid being hit by stray bullets, no one paid attention to such orders.

What everyone did above was actually to see more clearly how the National Army troops on the other side of the river were fighting the Japanese devils.

Under such circumstances, when you see the light yellow mist beginning to spread.

Li Yong, who had studied abroad and had considerable experience in Chinese culture in this era, finally reacted after a moment of hesitation.

He shouted at the top of his lungs, "Oh no! The Japs are releasing poison gas."

After hearing the word "poison gas", the people lying on the fence of Suzhou River immediately remembered the horror of this legendary thing and swarmed back.

After retreating a little to this side of the road, someone suddenly thought of something and shouted at the warehouse across the river:

"Poison gas has been released! The Japanese have released poison gas! Be careful, fellow Nationalist soldiers in the warehouse!"

After shouting twice, more people reacted and joined in.

So the following scene appeared: in the Sihang Warehouse on the north bank of the river, everything was eerily quiet, but on the south bank of the river, hundreds of people were shouting "Release poison gas, be careful, brothers of the National Army."

All of the above fell into the eyes of Anne who had just arrived here.

Suddenly, she felt that this scene was filled with an indescribable weirdness; it made her feel sad, lamentable, and heartbroken, but also indescribably moved...

(End of this chapter)