420 WAR AND REVOLUTION KOREA 。hnn Yellow Xi'an HENAN angha Hef HUREI SICHUAN ”Chonge4g East HUNAN GUIZHOUF- 通(Guiyang Guln。 GUANGXI TAIWAN shantou THE WAR WITH JAPAN: 北R JAPANESE EXPANSION July 1937-July 1938 July1938-1uy1939 02gn20 July 1939-December 1941 This bridge-about ten miles west of Peking-had once been famed fori beauty;Emperor Qianlong wrote a poem on the loveliness of the setting moon when viewed there in the first light of dawn.Now a strategical important railway bridge had been built next to it,linking the southern line with the junction town of Wanping.An army holding Wanping could com trol rail access to Tianjin,Kalgan,and Taiyuan,and for this reason the Japanese troops in north China often conducted maneuvers in the area, they were entitled to do by the Boxer Protocol of 1901. On July 7,1937,the Japanese chose to make the bridge the base of a nig maneuver by a company from one of the Peking garrison battalions.The troops were also authorized to fire blank cartridges into the air to simula combat conditions.At 10:30 P.M.the Chinese fired some shells into th