On 18 September 1931, Hu Die arrived in Tianjin en route to Beijing, where Mingxing was planning to shoot the film "Marriage of Tears and Laughter", an adaptation of the novel by Zhang Henshui. On the same day, the Japanese engineered the Mukden Incident, and used it as pretext to launch an invasion of Manchuria. Zhang Xueliang, the "young marshal" who was the head of the northeastern army, ordered his soldiers to retreat rather than fight the Japanese. There was rumour that on the evening that the Japanese took Mukden, Marshal Zhang was dancing with Hu Die in Beijing, a serious charge which threatened to damage her reputation. Hu Die had to purchase space on "Shen Bao", Shanghai's biggest newspaper, to dispel the rumour, which she believed was started by the Japanese media in order to discredit Zhang Xueliang. Her account was corroborated by other Mingxing actors and employees. Years later, memoirs of people close to Zhang Xueliang indicated that he had never met Hu Die in his life, and Zhang was ordered by Chiang Kai-shek not to resist the much stronger enemy.