On the night of September 18, 1931, the second brigade of the Japanese independent garrison launched an attack on the North Camp of the Northeast Chinese Army, when only a few hundred Japanese troops attacked the northeast, while the northeast was guarded by the elite unit of the Feng Army, Wang Yizhe's Seventh Brigade.
Major General Wang Yizhe, commander of the Seventh Brigade of the Feng army, was a young general whom Zhang Xueliang trusted very much, and Zhang Xueliang favored the Seventh Brigade, and received preferential treatment in both welfare benefits and weapons and equipment. The seventh brigade was officially established with more than 7,000 people, plus 3 special companies, and the total strength of the North Camp at that time exceeded 10,000 people. The brigade not only has light and heavy machine guns, grenadiers, mortars, field guns and other equipment, but also equipped with tanks, armored vehicles and peace-firing guns.
The quality of the officers and men of this unit is also very high, and basically all officers have graduated from regular military academies such as the Northeast Army Lecture Hall or the Baoding Military Academy, and have certain military qualities. Therefore, when these hundreds of Japanese troops attacked the North Camp, they were also worried, because as long as the Seventh Brigade counterattacked, it was possible that the Japanese army's strength would be completely annihilated, not to mention these Japanese troops, and the Japanese army in the northeast and Korea at that time was only 20,000 people, while the Northeast Army had more than 100,000 troops stationed outside the Pass, and Zhang Xueliang had 200,000 elite troops stationed in the Pingjin area, and then they could go out to support.
It was under such circumstances that when Rong Zhen, chief of staff of the Office of the Chief of the Northeast Border Defense Army, asked Zhang Xueliang for instructions, Zhang Xueliang issued an order not to resist. Zhang Xueliang talked about this matter in an interview in his later years, but it was his order at that time, which had nothing to do with Chiang Kai-shek, and with Zhang Xueliang's strength at that time, Chiang Kai-shek could not control him.
Of course, not all the troops of the Seventh Brigade were slaughtered by the Japanese army, and Wang Tiehan, the commander of the 620th Regiment, heard the sound of gunfire and ordered the troops to return fire and break through, and most of the troops of the 620th Regiment broke through. In stark contrast to the Northeast Army is the police force in Shenyang, Shenyang Police Chief Huang Xiansheng has long sensed that something is wrong, so he issued weapons to the troops in the city in advance, and finally when the Japanese army attacked Shenyang, only the police were resisting, but unfortunately they were outnumbered, and finally Huang Xiansheng had to withdraw to the outside of the city to rest, and later he formed the Northeast Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army on the basis of these enthusiastic and patriotic policemen, and fiercely resisted the atrocities of the Japanese invaders.
Although the northeast is outside the Guanxi, it is rich in resources, developed railways, and has a strong industrial foundation. During the Republic of China period, the total economic volume of the northeast accounted for half of the total economic output of the country at that time, and the most important heavy industry in the country was also in the northeast region, and the best arsenals and the most powerful air force were all located in the northeast region.
The day after the September 18 Incident, the Japanese army rushed into the Marshal's Mansion and ransacked the Marshal's Mansion in a frenzied manner. The treasures in the house are completely too late to transfer, and all the family foundations accumulated by the Zhang father and son for more than 20 years have fallen into the hands of the Japanese, with more than 20 boxes of gold bars and more than 40 boxes of silver dollars, and countless antique calligraphy and paintings. The 80,000 gold bars recovered by the Japanese army from the Marshal's Mansion were directly transported to Japan, and Zhang Xueliang's banks, money houses, ticket numbers, real estate, and land in various parts of the northeast were confiscated as reverse production.
Zhang Xueliang recalled in his later years: "I used to have no other hobbies, that is, to collect calligraphy and paintings. I have a painting of Wang Xianzhi, which I bought for thirty thousand silver dollars that year, twenty-nine characters. Now this painting is at the Yokohama Museum in Japan. ”
This is still Zhang Xueliang's personal property losses, the economic losses in the northeast region are even greater, the losses recorded in the "National News Weekly" are: military and political organs lost 469 million oceans, railway losses of 600 million oceans, government-run industries lost 20 million yuan, government-run radio lost 2.6 million, government-run banks lost 580 million, government-run mining losses of 150 million, in addition to Northeastern University, national taxation, etc., these add up to a total loss of 17.8 billion yuan.
At that time, the biggest loss was the Fengtian Arsenal, also known as the Shenyang Arsenal, the Arsenal of the Three Eastern Provinces, which began to be built as early as 1921, and from its opening until the September 18 Incident in 1931, the construction funds were spent more than 200 million yuan (silver dollars), and the perennial monthly expenditure was about 2 million yuan. Before the 918 Incident, the factory had 21,000 workers and more than 8,000 machines of various types, making it the largest arsenal in the country at that time. The main products of the arsenals in the three eastern provinces are divided into six categories: guns, cannons, guns, shells, explosives and machinery manufacturing.
The Fengtian Arsenal can not only produce rifles, light machine guns, heavy machine guns, but also can produce
Japanese 37 mm flat-fire guns, Japanese 75 mm field guns, mountain guns, mortars, anti-aircraft guns, Japanese 105 mm cannons, Japanese 150 mm howitzers, grams of 75 mm mountain guns, Austrian 77 mm field guns, Austrian 100 mm howitzers.
When the Japanese entered the Fengtian Arsenal, they also saw two 240 mm howitzers, which were the only two huge guns in the country at that time, and the Japanese Kwantung Army did not have them.
The Fengtian Arsenal lost a total of 150,000 rifles, 60,000 pistols, thousands of heavy artillery, field artillery, and mountain artillery, more than 3 million rounds of various bullets, 100,000 rounds of artillery shells, and 50,000 pounds of ammunition. At that time, many engineers of the Fengtian Arsenal fled to Nanjing with the blueprints, and the military industry department of the Nationalist government could not build many fengtian arsenal equipment according to the drawings.
In addition to the Fengtian Arsenal, the output of the Liaoning Mortar Factory was not small, and the Japanese captured more than 3,000 mortars and more than 400,000 mortar shells from here. At that time, the military industry in the northeast was already very modern, and Zhang Xueliang also built a supporting quilt factory, a cannery factory, and a biscuit factory, but unfortunately all fell into the hands of the Japanese Kou. You know, later when the all-out War of Resistance broke out and the 129th Division went out to resist Japan, the total number of formal rifles, old sleeves, and Hanyang-made was only more than 5,000, and the others were holding cold weapons such as large knives and spears, even Chiang Kai-shek's Central Army did not have such good equipment.
The Northeast Army also had the largest air force in the country at that time, with nearly 300 fighters of various types. Zhang Zuolin and Zhang Xueliang attach great importance to cultivating air force talents, and will spend a lot of money to select talents to be sent abroad to learn aviation technology, and then reuse them. In the end, many of these advanced fighters were captured by the Japanese before they could be unsealed.
The resources of the northeast are very rich, and Japan is a country with scarce resources, so after Japan invaded the northeast, it carried out a crazy plunder of the resources of the northeast. After 1931, the amount of pig iron that Japan plundered from the Northeast increased significantly. According to pseudo-Manchurian statistics, in 1931 it was 542,000 tons, accounting for 71% of Japan's total imports; in 1932, it was 822,000 tons, accounting for 83% of imports, and since then it has shown a gradual increasing trend.
After the "918", Japan's coal plunder from the northeast increased year by year: more than 17.03 million tons in 1932, more than 18.85 million tons in 1933, more than 20.55 million tons in 1934, more than 31.27 million tons in 1935, more than 42.14 million tons in 1936, and more than 52.66 million tons in 1937. Among the coal imported from Japan, Tohoku coal accounts for 70 to 85%. After these coals were transported to Japan, They increased Japan's production capacity and accumulated national strength for the comprehensive invasion of China.