At the same time, the enemy attacked the west of Xifengkou several times, but they were unsuccessful. According to the gentry Guangping, when the army came, they searched from house to house, and the grain and furniture were all plundered, and even worse, the old and young women were all annihilated, and none of them were spared, and more than 80 residents were shot. This situation continues to play out everywhere, and thousands of compatriots have lost their lives under the butcher's knife.

However, the atrocities of the Yue army not only did not frighten the heroic Chinese soldiers and civilians, but on the contrary, aroused the blood of our Chinese soldiers and civilians. The defenders resisted the attack more heroically, and the people spontaneously organized themselves to support the frontline of the war of resistance.

However, the defeat of Shang Zhen's department instructed Lengkou to fall, and the army attacked from Lengkou, and the defenders of Xifengkou suffered from the enemy. On April 11, 1933, at 9 o'clock in the morning, the enemy covered its infantry with mountain artillery and heavy machine guns, and attacked our Ferris Ridge fiercely, charging several times, and fighting bloodily until 4 o'clock in the afternoon, when suddenly an enemy part copied our left flank." On the 13th, the enemy continued to bombard our position with artillery fire and planes, and our position was completely destroyed. The 29th Army was lonely and had to "abandon Xifengkou and retreat with tears in accordance with the requirements of the military branch." The Battle of Xifengkou ended in failure.

However, the 29th Army and its broadsword team fought a bloody battle, successively annihilated 5,000 enemies, and became famous in the first battle. The "Asahi Shimbun" also had to admit: "Since the Meiji Emperor established the army, the reputation of the imperial army has been completely lost outside the Xifeng Pass, and it has suffered an insult that has not been seen in 60 years. "The Battle of Xifengkou dealt a heavy blow to the arrogant and arrogant Yue Kou, and inspired and strengthened the determination of the people of the whole country to resist the war. Since then, the 29th Army Broadsword Team has become famous all over the world and has become a heroic idol of the Chinese nation in resisting foreign aggression in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War.

When the news of Xifengkou's victory reached Shanghai, the composer Mai Xin (1914-1947), who was one of the leaders of the "Shanghai Singing Circles Wartime Service Group", composed a high-pitched and passionate "March of the Great Knife" overnight with a volcanic eruption-like creative passion:

"The big knife cut off the heads of the devils, brothers of the 29th Army, the day of the War of Resistance has come, the day of the War of Resistance has come! There are volunteers in the northeast in front and the people of the whole country in the back, and our 29th Army is not alone. Look at that enemy and destroy it! Wipe it out! Come on! The big knife slashes at the heads of the devils, kill! Its subtitle: "Dedicated to the 29th Army Broadsword".

"March of the Great Sword" was originally intended to encourage the "brothers of the 29th Army" to persist in the war of resistance, and later, as its majestic melody resounded among the whole team and the people, "the brothers of the 29th Army" was changed to "the brothers of the national armed forces". "March of the Big Knife" creates a heroic image of a Chinese ** person who wields a big knife and bravely rushes to kill the devil. It is like the call to resist the war, forming the most typical tone of the times at the beginning of the war of resistance. And it also laid the unique style of condensing suffering and strength of anti-Japanese songs, whether it is "Yellow River Cantata" or "March of the Volunteers", they are quite similar to "March of the Great Knife". And this kind of "god" has penetrated deeply into the marrow of the Chinese nation.

Gubeikou is the nearest pass ancient road from Chengde to Beiping (Yanjing), which is the gateway to Beiping and Tianjin. After the army occupied Chengde, it then sent troops to attack Gubeikou.

The 25th Division of the 17th Army of the Central Army, Guan Linzheng, arrived at Gubeikou to take over the defense, that is, Du Yuming's brigade occupied the highlands on the east and west sides of the southern city of Gubeikou, and Zhang Yaoming's brigade assembled near Huangdaodian. In addition, a regiment of the 112th Division of the Northeast Army, which was originally defending at Gubeikou, was defended in the first line position.

The Kawahara Brigade of the 8th Division of the Japanese Army launched a general attack on the defenders' positions. The 112th Division retreated without a fight. The army quickly occupied the Gubeikou Pass and surrounded and attacked the Long'eryu position on the right flank of the 25th Division. Guan Linzheng, commander of the 25th Division, commanded the main force of Zhang Yaoming's brigade to support the besieged troops. After Guan Linzheng was wounded, he continued to command the battle and repelled the enemy.

Subsequently, the army increased its troops to attack Gubeikou and extended the encirclement of the right flank of the defenders' position with the main force. The battle was extremely fierce. The defenders repelled 3 enemy attacks in a row. After that, the army changed its strategy and made a detour back to the vicinity of Dongguan at Gubeikou. The communications of the 25th Division of the defending army were cut off, and they were fighting separately. The troops suffered heavy casualties, and the whole line retreated to Nantianmen in the northwest of Jixian County and its left and right positions to garrison. The 145th Regiment was far away from the main force, and before it could retreat, it continued to resist, killing and wounding more than 100 soldiers. The 25th Division was withdrawn to Miyun for rectification, and the defense was taken over by Huang Jiebu of the 2nd Division.

In mid-April, the army did not dare to advance lightly. The defenders made full use of the gap between battles and strengthened their positions. The main force of the 16th Brigade of the Army attacked the three watchtowers of Nantianmen, and one attacked the heights on both sides of Nantianmen. Although the defenders counterattacked twice to no avail, they still held on to Nantianmen and other places. The 2nd Division fought continuously for five days and nights, suffering heavy casualties and extreme fatigue. The enemy continued to bombard with artillery fire, and the battle continued. That night, Liu Huan's division of the 83rd Division took over the defense of Nantianmen. The 83rd Division fought fiercely with the enemy until the heights were completely scorched, and then abandoned the central stronghold and retreated south. The army occupies the South Heavenly Gate.

The Great Wall War of Resistance dealt a heavy blow to the arrogant invading army. Due to Nanjing's adherence to the policy of "fighting outside the country must first secure the interior", the defenders of the Great Wall could not get strong support, fought for more than two months, and were forced to evacuate all mouths of the Great Wall. After the army occupied the mouths of the Great Wall, it marched south to Miyun, Huairou and other places, and the Fu Zuoyi Department of the 35th Army of the defending army resisted bravely. The army crossed the Luanhe River and marched westward, breaking through the positions of the defenders of the 57th Army He Zhuguo and the 67th Army Wang Yizhe, and successively occupied Fengrun, Zunhua, Yutian, Pinggu, Jixian, Sanhe and other counties in Hebei, and approached Beiping and Tianjin.

At this time, Jin Zhao and the advance column of aid and heat had just arrived in Hunan, and after getting the news of the fall of the passes of the Great Wall, Jin Zhao slapped the table angrily.

The reason for such a long delay is that it was not until the end of March that the troops were assembled and went south to Guangdong, but they were unexpectedly obstructed by the Guangdong authorities. There was no way Cai Tingkai could only rush to Guangzhou in person to discuss with Chen Jitang, and finally Chen Jitang agreed to the request of the 19th Route Army, and the advance column of the aid was sent north by train through Laolong, Guangdong, but it was delayed because of this, and he had just arrived in Hunan at this time.

In the condemnation of the people of the whole country, Zhang Xueliang once again became the scapegoat and victim of Lao Jiang's policy of shutting down foreign affairs and resigning again, and He Yingqin replaced Zhang Xueliang as the acting chairman of the Beiping Military Branch.

As soon as He Yingqin took office, he began to actively negotiate an armistice with the little devils, so the advance column of aid and heat was stranded in Hunan. (To be continued.) )