Iron-Blooded Cops: I’m Not Backing Down

The telegram from Nanjing said, “Do not resist.” Hundreds of thousands of Northeastern Army soldiers withdrew south of the Pass in tears, leaving behind twenty million fathers, mothers, and fellow countrymen condemned to life under foreign rule. But some refused to leave. Huang Xiansheng, a Northeastern man who had once been in charge of the police, made the most stubborn decision of his life on the night Shenyang fell: Stay and fight. With no troops, he gathered the scattered remnants. With no guns, he seized them from the Japanese. With no supplies for a base, he hauled the machine tools out of the ruins and brought the arsenal back to life, one machine at a time. Chen Siyuan had his spine crushed, yet even as he lay on his hospital bed, he was still drawing blueprints for antiaircraft guns. Zhuang Quan was “detained” in Shenyang, but smiled and said, “This is where I belong.” Wan Yi came from south of the Pass. After watching an artillery strike, he said, “South of the Pass, they fight on orders. Here, they fight for their homeland.” Yang Jingyu stood in the sea breeze at Yingkou Harbor, the Anti-Japanese United Army’s battle flag newly raised behind him.