These soldiers were true sons of Guangdong, the core of the old Yue Army during the Northern Expedition. A large number of other Yue Army soldiers were transferred to participate in the Battle of Wuhan because of their tough fighting. In addition, Chiang Kai-shek's strategic judgment failed. He believed that the Japanese army would not launch a war in South China. He only replenished Guangdong with a large number of new recruits with no combat experience, leaving only a few brigades of veteran Yue Army soldiers.
When the Japanese army advanced south, other Nationalist Army troops collapsed upon engaging in battle, but these native Cantonese soldiers, from officers to commoners, fought to the death. The Zhen Family’s Five Brothers were all from Guangzhou and all joined the army, attended the military academy, and served under Brigade Commander Zhong Xiufeng of the 458th Brigade. Zhong Xiufeng once proudly introduced his the Zhen Family’s Five Brothers to outsiders, calling them the Zhen Family’s Five Brothers Five Tiger Generals. Later, this nickname spread throughout the army, and the name of the Zhen Family’s Five Brothers became widely known.
Zhen Yaohua, commander of the 915th Regiment the 458th Brigade, was ordered to march rapidly from Dongguan to catch up with the Japanese army after learning that they were advancing on Guangzhou. His mission was to intercept the Japanese infantry before they reached Guangzhou and give the Guangzhou enough time to prepare for defense. Zhen Yaohua led his troops on a day and night march and successfully overtook the Japanese infantry near Zengcheng. The two sides engaged in a battle, and the Japanese sent a large number of bombers and artillery to bombard the city. Facing the overwhelming artillery fire, the 915th Regiment held the passage all night. Ninety percent of the regiment was killed in action, and no one retreated. Regiment Commander Zhen Yaohua died for his country, but he managed to hold out until the 916th Regiment arrived and took over the 915th Regiment to continue blocking the Japanese army.
Erhu Zhen Yaoguo, deputy commander of the 916th Regiment of the 458th Brigade, arrived at Zengcheng Tongdao with his 915th Regiment less than half an hour after Dahu's Zhen Yaoguo. They continued to fight the Japanese army. They didn't even have time to collect the remains of Dahu and his comrades. After a day and night, the 916th Regiment suffered 70% casualties. The regimental commander was seriously wounded and withdrew from the battlefield. Erhu Zhen Yaoguo took over command of the battle and was hit by machine gun fire from an aircraft and died on the battlefield.
The three tigers, Zhen Yaoxing, Zhen Yaogui, and Zhen Yaofu, were respectively the deputy battalion commander of the Zhong Xiufeng's artillery battalion, Zhong Xiufeng's guard pistol captain, and Zhong Xiufeng's pistol squad member. They followed Zhong Xiufeng to the Zengcheng battlefield. The artillery battalion of the three tigers was a key target of the Japanese army and was bombed shortly after the start of the battle. When Zhong Xiufeng's entire Yue Army was decimated and Yu Hanmou in Guangzhou, he learned that there were no reinforcements. The high-ranking officials of the Guangzhou military were already in a state of panic and were preparing to abandon Guangzhou! Although Zhong Xiufeng was alone and without support, he insisted on fighting to the last man, believing that even if the Japanese army reached Guangzhou a minute later, more civilians could escape first!
The people of Guangdong are deeply attached to their hometown, know right from wrong, and have a clear sense of gratitude and resentment. Zhong Xiufeng's Yue Army fought the Japanese army to the very end, and although it was no longer a cohesive unit, there were almost no deserters. When Zhong Xiufeng had less than three hundred men left by his side, not enough to withstand another Japanese attack, he shot himself. Before his death, he said that he had lived up to the Party-State's expectations, but the Party-State had failed the people of Guangdong, and he himself had failed the people of Guangdong. He had no face to return home! He told the other surviving brothers to retreat.
After Zhong Xiufeng committed suicide by shooting himself, Zhen Yaogui, one of the Four Tigers, tried to follow his superior in death by shooting himself, but was knocked unconscious and taken away by his comrades. His companions said that Yu Hanmou and his men disregarded the hometown of the Yue Army soldiers, and they had no reason to fight for them anymore. The group withdrew to pick up their families and eventually reached Hong Kong. Later, Zhen Yaogui participated in the fighting when Hong Kong fell and died at the hands of the Japanese army. Zhen Yaofu, the Fifth Tiger, survived because he was the only son left and needed to take care of his mother and continue the Zhen family line for his four older brothers. Otherwise, he would have died in battle with his Fourth Brother.
Zhen Yaofu no longer felt any sense of belonging to the Kuomintang. His mother nagged him all day long, and the ashes of his deceased father and Fourth Brother were still kept in a temple in Hong Kong. He thought that one day he could return to his hometown in Guangzhou to be buried in the ancestral grave. Now that the People's Republic of China had been established, if Zhen Yaofu hadn't been worried that his previous Kuomintang identity would be a disadvantage, he would have long ago led these Yue Army soldiers who came to Hong Kong with him back to their hometown to farm and fish.
When Hong Lai-sau approached him this time, asking him to secure a shipment of supplies that, if discovered, would be enough to kill him hundreds of times over, and then load them onto a ship to be transported back to the mainland, he and his brothers felt that this was not a risk, but a hard-won opportunity to earn merit and return home. After the supplies were secured tonight, tomorrow, his mother and his adopted younger sister A-Di, in Hong Kong could take their father's and Fourth Brother's ashes back to the mainland via Macau. He and his brothers would board the ship with the supplies and return to the mainland, no longer having to live under the noses of foreigners as second-class citizens.
"Mr. Kang, are you really not going to leave Hong Kong with us tomorrow?" After wiping the water stains off with a towel, Zhen Yaofu picked up the warm soup and drank it in big gulps, completely unaware of the unfriendly look his younger sister gave him. She was obviously upset that he had drunk the warm soup that he had helped Hong Lai-sau cool down.
However, A-Di only pouted for a moment before running inside to bring Hong Lai-sau another bowl back. Upstairs, the faint sounds of the two rough and irritable old fisherwomen chanting Buddhist prayers, beseeching their husbands and sons to be reincarnated soon could be heard.
Hong Lai-sau shook his head slightly. "No."
"But doesn't the mainland really want young intellectuals like you to return to the country?" Zhen Yaofu was a soldier, and traditional values made him respect this younger intellectual.
Hong Lai-sau knew what he had done this time, and how much risk he had put Song Tianyao, who valued him highly, on. During this transfer of supplies, other colleagues from newspapers that were close to the mainland had already been put on the Kuomintang's surveillance list. Only he, the editor-in-chief of a small newspaper, had followed Song Tianyao's instructions and only provided the money, never deliberately showing any closeness, so he had been well hidden. But this time there were seventy-one planes, and the Kuomintang had been watching other people for a long time. There was no one more suitable to steal the planes and transport away those valuable parts and engines.
There is no shortage of passionate intellectuals. After learning about the two airlines, Hong Lai-sau did not initially intend to rely on Song Tianyao for help. However, he underestimated the Kuomintang's hidden power in Hong Kong. Now he was stuck at a critical juncture, unable to advance or retreat. Taking a step forward would mean death, and taking a step back would also mean death. He wouldn't care about death; if he could exchange his life for the engines of seventy-one planes, it would obviously be worth the price. He would laugh in his grave. But he was stuck at a point where there was no possibility of transportation. With the shipping strike, whichever ship went to sea would naturally become the Kuomintang's target.