422 WAR AND REVOLUTION home in Kuling,announced that the previous agreements with the Japanese must stand as the status quo:"If we allow one more inch of our territory to be lost,"said Chiang,"we shall be guilty of an unpardonable crime against our race."3 On July 27,just as the local military commanders seemed to be working out withdrawal arrangements,more fighting,fierce this time,erupted around the Marco Polo Bridge.Japanese troops seized the bridge and dug in on the left bank of the Yongding River.By the end of the month they had consolidated their hold over the entire Tianjin-Peking region.Hearing of the Chinese defiance,Prince Konoe called for"a fundamental solution of Sino-Japanese relations."Chiang responded:"The only course open to us now is to lead the masses of the nation,under a single national plan,to struggle to the last." In a major military and strategic gamble,Chiang Kai-shek decided to deflect the Japanese from their campaign in north China by launching an attack on their forces in the Shanghai area.It was here that Chiang had the bulk of his best German-trained divisions,primed for action since the Com munists had been forced out of the Jiangxi Soviet onto the Long March. His forces outnumbered the Japanese in Shanghai by more than 10 to I. and he had taken the precaution of constructing-again with German advice-a protective line of concrete blockhouses in the area of Wuxi on the railroad to Nanjing,should retreat become necessary. On August 14,Chiang Kai-shek ordered his air force to bomb the Jap anese warships at anchor off the docks of Shanghai.If he had hoped that this would be a triumphal revenge for the humiliating destruction by the Japanese navy of the Qing forces at Weihaiwei in 1895,he was sadly dis appointed.Not only had the Nationalist air force lost the element of surprise when the Japanese intercepted and decoded a secret telegram,but the Chi- nese planes bombed inaccurately and ineffectively,missing the Japanese fleet and instead hitting the city of Shanghai,killing hundreds of civilians Despite this tragic fiasco,the commanding Japanese admiral announced that "the imperial navy,having borne the unbearable,is now compelled to take every possible and effective measure."Prince Konoe declared that Japan was now "forced to resort to resolute action to bring sense to the Nanjing government."5 With the "war"still undeclared,the Japanese government sent fifteen new divisions to north and central China.Chiang ordered his troops to overcome the Japanese in Shanghai at all costs,but they failed in their early attempts to break the Japanese defensive perimeter.In late August and all through September and October,the Chinese,now on the defensive,fought with extraordinary heroism,even though they were shelled continuously by