Today is the 86th anniversary of the September 18th Incident. 86 years ago today, Japan shamelessly provoked China and the Northeast began to fall. So why did Zhang Xueliang choose not to resist the September 18th Incident? On the night of September 18, 1931, under the pretext that the Chinese army bombed the South Manchu railway, the Japanese aggressor army bombed the Northeast Army in Shenyang and its vicinity and made the September 18 Incident. This is a false accusation made by the Japanese aggressor army that the Northeast Army attacked the South Manchurian Railway with pieces of sleepers, military caps and guns.
When the September 18th Incident broke out, Zhang Xueliang, commander of the northeast frontier army, was in Peking Union Medical College. Chiang Kai Shek is on the yongsui warship. He left Nanjing for Nanchang on the 18th to supervise and suppress the Red Army in Jiangxi.
That night, when the Japanese army launched an attack on the North Camp, Zhao Zhenfan, chief of staff of the seventh brigade, called Rong Zhen, chief of staff of the northeast frontier army for instructions. The order he received was "no resistance, no movement, put the gun in the warehouse, and die. Everyone became benevolent and died for the country.".
Rongzhen is just a microphone. What he conveys is Zhang Xueliang's order. However, there is a lot of debate about whether the order of non resistance was issued by Zhang Xueliang or Chiang Kai Shek. Shortly after the incident, Zhang Xueliang was interviewed by the Ta Kung Pao. Zhang said: I have already ordered our soldiers to provoke Japanese soldiers and not resist them. Therefore, our army in the North Camp has ordered them to take over their weapons and store them in the warehouse.
In a public interview with a reporter from NHK TV station in 1990, Zhang Xueliang admitted: 'I didn't expect the Japanese army to do that. I think Japan used military action to provoke us, so I gave an order of non resistance & hellip; & hellip; I misjudged the incident. '
When the Japanese reporter asked Zhang Xueliang if he had accepted Jiang's order, Zhang replied: 'I can't blame the national government for the non resistance in the September 18th Incident. I didn't want to expand the incident and adopted a policy of non resistance. '
Another situation is that before the September 18th Incident, Chiang Kai-shek published a report to his countrymen on July 23, 1931, saying, "our countrymen, when the red bandits, warlords, traitors and imperialists jointly attack and live or die, should strive for peace in the spirit of lying down and tasting courage."
When Japan launched the September 18th Incident, Chiang Kai Shek knew it only after the yongsui warship arrived at Hukou on September 19th. He wrote in his diary that day: 'the Japanese invaders came to invade our three eastern provinces when Guangdong was rebellious and divided internally! Whoosh! What a pain! I have to devote myself to the whole life and report to my prime minister! Report to my martyrs! Report to my nation!'
At the time of the September 18th Incident, the 7th brigade of the Northeast strong brigade was stationed in Beidaying, with about 12000 officers. Most of the officers graduated from the army officer school or the lecture hall, and some of them graduated from the Japanese army sergeant school. Soldiers generally have primary culture, but also secondary school graduates. The number of Japanese troops shelling Beidaying is about 500. However, due to the lack of resistance to orders, everything was in vain.
At 6:30 a.m. on September 19, 1931, Fengtian city was completely occupied by Japanese troops. In the morning, a notice of the commander of the Japanese army was posted all over the city. At 12 noon, the commander of the Japanese Kwantung Army, Ben Chuang fan, arrived in Fengtian, and the headquarters of the Kwantung Army moved from Lvshun to Shenyang The picture shows the Japanese occupying the commander's office of the northeast frontier army in Fengtian city.