Chapter 79 "July 7 Incident"

After descending Mount Wutai, they stayed in Dai County.They were extremely sleepy and needed a little rest, and a lot of investigation materials brought out from Foguang Temple also needed to be sorted out. In the county seat, Sicheng found a roll of newspapers.The newspaper was brought over by a merchant from Taiyuan a week ago. Although it is old news, it is better than nothing.When he was flipping through these old newspapers, he was shocked to jump out of bed by two big headlines: "A military conflict between our 29th Army and the Japanese army occurred at Marco Polo Bridge!" It has been a week since the war broke out, but they didn't realize it when they got into Mount Wutai.

How is Peiping? How are relatives and friends? What should they do next? They immediately decided to return to Peiping in the shortest possible time.The Pinghan and Jinpu railways were no longer open to traffic. They walked to Yangmingbao on foot, then left Yanmen Pass, passed Datong, and went to Zhangjiakou. They traveled day and night and rushed back to Peiping. In the midsummer of July, Beijing is extremely hot and unbearable amidst the sound of rumbling guns on the Lugou Bridge.The old capital, which has always been quiet and elegant, is shrouded in the sky full of beacon smoke. Every day in the newspaper are eye-catching headlines in big letters:

"Defend the Marco Polo Bridge!" "Mobilize the people of North China to assist the 29th Army in resisting Japan!" "Expel the Japanese imperialist bandits out of China!" "Complete the 50,000 sack campaign!" The patriotic enthusiasm of the people is unprecedentedly high. College students and citizens have spontaneously organized "labor regiments" to go to Lugou Bridge to comfort the 29 soldiers who bravely guarded the soil. Middle school students and primary school students are running in the sunshine of July, sweating, street by street. Collect sacks.

The sacks were filled with sand, and barricades were built at Dongsi, Xisi, Dongdan, Xidan, Wangfujing, Nanchizi... many streets in Beijing. The sound of artillery was getting closer and closer to Beijing. However, the barricades of sacks were dismantled.There is going to be peace talks, and there is going to be war... All kinds of news spread like wildfire.Depression and anxiety are like infectious diseases, making people unable to have a moment of peace. Vegetables could not enter the city, and prices skyrocketed.Flour used to cost one yuan a bag, but now it has risen to six yuan a bag and it is still unavailable.

All night long on July 28, cannon and gunfire rang out.Huiyin and Sicheng stayed at their home at No. 3 Beizongbu Hutong and did not close their eyes overnight. They listened to the rattling of the window glass by the sound of the guns, and nervously speculated and analyzed the battle. Its daybreak.There was a huge roar in the sky, and the Japanese army planes of the brigade were a little hot early in the morning from the east.On the tail fins of the fleets of planes, the round sun flags like red plasters burn people's eyes.The planes passing overhead were huge and clear, hallucinatory, and sickeningly real.

On July 29, 1937, Beijing fell and the Japanese army entered the city.The whole city was under martial law for four hours.The streets of Beijing have become desolate, the alleys have become silent, and every family has closed their doors and closed their doors, and there is no sound.Within a few days, traffic inside and outside the city was cut off. On August 5, the railway between Pingjin and Tianjin began to open to traffic.Huiyin, Sicheng and their friends discussed leaving the city occupied by the Japanese army. Government departments began to evacuate and evacuate.Although the Academy of Construction is not a government department, it is obviously unable to continue to work under such circumstances.The society decided to temporarily disband.The president, Mr. Zhu Qiqian, was unwilling to leave Beiping. He entrusted Liang Sicheng with the remaining work and the future of the society.