On July 7, 1937, the July 7 Incident broke out. This was The next step Japan took to occupy China after the establishment of Manchukuo in the northeast.
At the beginning of the 20th century, after the Russo-Japanese War, Japan replaced Tsarist Russia to expand its colonial power in northeast China. During World War I, Japan once again expanded its attack on China, sending troops to Shandong to coerce Yuan Shikai into accepting the "Twenty-Four Articles" of Japanese occupation of China. "After the end of World War I, in order to get rid of the political and economic crisis, Japan once again vigorously plundered China, Korea and other Asian countries.
On September 18, 1931, Japan launched the "918 Incident" and occupied the entire northeast for three months. However, the northeast was only the starting point for their occupation of all of China, and from there they advanced southward and began to prepare for the occupation of northern China. In June 1937, the Japanese army conducted continuous military exercises, and on July 7 of the same year, the Japanese garrison at Lugou Bridge conducted military exercises near the garrison positions of our army without informing China.
That night, the Japanese army said that a Japanese soldier was missing during the exercise, so it asked to enter the county seat of Wanping to search. But in fact, the "missing" Japanese soldier only went to the toilet and then returned to the team. After our garrison refused their request, the Japanese army suddenly opened fire on the area around the Lugou Bridge and attacked our garrison, at which point the 219th Regiment of the 37th Division of the 29th Army of our army returned fire on the Japanese.
After the outbreak of the July 7 Incident, the defenders of our army and the Japanese army launched a fierce battle at the Lugou Bridge, and the Japanese army sent a large number of reinforcements to fight against the Chinese defenders while attacking Tianjin and Beijing. Due to the fierce attack of the Japanese army, the equipment and military strength were stronger than our army, and many defenders died one after another. In July, Tianjin fell, and the defenders left a whole company north of the Lugou Bridge, and finally only 4 people survived, and the rest all died heroically.
The July 7 Incident happened too suddenly, and the situation was suddenly tense. The whole country demanded all-out resistance to Japan, and Chiang Kai-shek received a telegram from the chairman, the premier, and President Zhu: "Lushan Jiang Chairman Junjian: The Japanese Kou attacked the Lugou Bridge and carried out their agreed steps of armed seizure of North China... The officers and men of the Red Army are willing to serve the country under the leadership of the chairman of the committee and to negotiate with the enemy in order to achieve the goal of defending the land and defending the country. Later, he received a telegram from Peng Dehuai, Lin Biao, Liu Bocheng, He Long, and others on behalf of the entire Red Army: "All my Red Army is willing to change its name to the National Revolutionary Army at once, and please appoint him as an anti-Japanese forward and fight to the death against the Japanese Kou!" ”
On the morning of July 17, Chiang Kai-shek officially issued the Declaration of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, solemnly declaring: "... We are on the verge of reaching the extremely miserable situation of man-made knife tricks and me as fish meat, and we cannot afford to fight! As for the war after the war has begun, we can only sacrifice to the end, resist the war to the end, if we are uncertain and delusional, we will fall into a place where there will be no return to the nation; if we give up the size of the land and sovereignty, we will be the sinners of the Chinese nation for eternity! ...... If the war ends, it will be that there is no distinction between the north and the south, the age and the young, no matter who it is, all have the responsibility of the guards to resist the war, and they are determined to sacrifice everything!
And the chairman also said this sentence at the time: "Let them all see." Well, the world is in chaos, and a new China will be chaotic in the future! ”
At this point, the prelude to China's all-out War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was opened, and the Sino-Japanese War broke out in an all-round way. The outcome of the July 7 Incident was not ideal, the Japanese army won, and Peiping fell.