December 7, 5:40 a.m., Nanjing Airport.

Dozens of brigade commanders, including Tang Zhi, bid farewell to the chairman at Nanjing Airport.

In the current situation, the Japanese army has surrounded Nanjing, and once the Japanese army breaks through the first line of defense on the periphery of Nanjing, Nanjing will completely become an isolated city.

Therefore, on the evening of the 6th, the chairman of the CPPCC National Committee convened a meeting of all the major generals in Nanjing, and after redeploying the defense of Nanjing, he decided to leave Nanjing and take a plane to the Wuhan Headquarters.

"I will always pay attention to the situation in Nanjing and provide all the assistance that Nanjing needs." The chairman of the committee looked at Tang Zhi and the others, "Not an inch of our country's land can be easily lost, and we must defend Nanjing as a last resort." ”

"Yes!" Tang Zhi and dozens of other officers responded.

"Nanjing, it's up to you!" The chairman looked at the crowd and replied, then turned to leave.

"Salute!" Tang Zhi shouted.

"Brush!"

All the officers present saluted and watched the chairman take the plane.

The chairman waved his hand, said goodbye to everyone, and turned to leave.

On December 7, at 5:45 a.m., the plane flew into the air and quickly left.

On the same day, at 10 o'clock in the morning, the Japanese bombers suddenly flew into Nanjing, and when the air defense forces reacted and were about to give the order to attack, the Japanese bombers quickly left, and when they left, they threw letters from the air.

The soldiers picked up the letter and looked down, only to see that it was written, "Letter of Persuasion", three big characters, and the general content of the letter is as follows.

Persuade you to surrender as soon as possible, don't resist stubbornly, surrender without killing, if you continue to resist stubbornly, after the city is breached, you will be killed!

The commander-in-chief of Nanjing, Tang Zhi, was very angry after seeing the new content, and immediately said to the whole army that he would defend Nanjing to the death, fight to the death and not retreat, people outside the city were there, and people were killed in the city, and he was bound to fight the little devil to the end, even if he died, he would gnaw off a piece of meat from the little devil.

Tang Zhi's words quickly spread among the army, and for a while, the morale of the whole army was unprecedentedly strong.

The commander-in-chief of Central China, the Japanese general Matsui, was very angry when he saw that the letter of surrender not only did not damage the morale of our army, but made our army vigorous, and immediately made combat arrangements and prepared to storm the first line of defense on the periphery of Nanjing.

First, Matsui ordered the Shanghai Dispatch Army, that is, the troops who fought fiercely with Xie Jin and others at the Sixing Warehouse at that time, to attack the Zhongshan Gate, Taiping Gate, and Peace Gate in the northeast.

Second, the 10th Army was ordered to attack the Gonghe Gate, Zhonghua Gate, and Shuixi Gate in the southwest.

The dividing line between the two armies in the city is Gonghemen - Park Road - Zhongzheng Street - Hanzhong Road.

As soon as the order was given, the Japanese troops immediately launched an attack on the designated place, and the army and air force were dispatched at the same time to prepare for a strong attack.

At one o'clock in the afternoon, the war officially broke out, and the guards of the Zhongshan Gate in the northeast saw the arrival of the Japanese army. Jump into the fray right away.

Zhongshan Gate, formerly known as Chaoyang Gate, is one of the thirteen inner city gates of the Ming Dynasty of Nanjing Ming City Wall, this gate is the passage of the urn city to connect the palace city in the city and the Ming filial piety tomb outside the city, and the geographical location is very important.

Zhongshan Gate, just this one city gate, about one kilometer long, about seventy meters high, if it is the era of cold weapons, such a city gate is definitely easy to defend and difficult to attack, but now is the era of thermal weapons, in the face of the strong vitality of the Japanese army, the Chinese guards showed a strong elasticity.

The Japanese army's tactics were very simple, that is, heavy firepower and violent destruction, and the Japanese army deployed dozens of artillery pieces about one kilometer from Zhongshan Gate, and at the same time sent the air force to cooperate with the strike.

"Buzz! Buzz ......"

The Japanese bombers took the lead in attacking, and when the guards at Zhongshan Gate saw the Japanese bombers, they immediately shouted, "Anti-aircraft machine guns are ready!" All the anti-aircraft machine guns are ready, everyone is in place, ready to fire! ”

"Stomp, stomp!"

With an order, the defenders of Zhongshan Gate immediately went to the pre-arranged location.

"Boom! Rumble! Boom ......"

As soon as the defenders were ready, bombs from Japanese bombers were dropped on the city walls.

"Da Da Da ......"

At the same time, the guards began to fight back, and countless bullets rushed into the sky, looking at it from a distance, like locusts, obscuring the sky and the sun.

"Dingding......

Some bombers couldn't dodge, were hit by bullets, and the fuselage kept shaking, because of the existence of bulletproof plates, so the problem was big, and the Japanese Air Force adjusted the fuselage and attacked again, and the two sides started a game.

Immediately after, the Japanese artillery began to fire, dozens of cannons lined up, one by one the muzzles roared wildly, and the shells flew out one after another, either landing on the city wall, or falling into the middle of the soldiers at the head of the city.

"Momfuck!" The regimental commander of the defenders of Zhongshanmen cursed, and then began to order: "The machine gun company will lock the position of the opponent's artillery battalion for me and hold fire!" ”

"Artillery company, give me a counterattack! Fast! ”

Three seconds later, a counterattack from the top of the city arrived, machine guns roared, mortars began to roar, and the two sides began to attack each other.

Because of the existence of the Japanese air force, the guards at the head of the city suffered from double-sided blows, and people were killed at every moment, and the battle was extremely fierce.

Thirty minutes after the battle began, the defenders at the head of the city had lost one-fifth of their lives, about three hundred, and most of them were dead with incomplete bodies.

At this time, we can see what it means to be a river of blood, and at this moment, the blood is really contaminated with the city, and some places even gather into a blood pit, which is five or six centimeters deep, and the smell of blood rises to the sky, but most people can't smell this smell of blood, because their sense of smell is covered by the smell of gunpowder.

Zhongshan Gate, formerly known as Chaoyang Gate, is one of the thirteen inner city gates of the Ming Dynasty of Nanjing Ming City Wall, this gate is the passage of the urn city to connect the palace city in the city and the Ming filial piety tomb outside the city, and the geographical location is very important.

Zhongshan Gate, just this one city gate, about one kilometer long, about seventy meters high, if it is the era of cold weapons, such a city gate is definitely easy to defend and difficult to attack, but now is the era of thermal weapons, in the face of the strong vitality of the Japanese army, the Chinese guards showed a strong elasticity.

The Japanese army's tactics were very simple, that is, heavy firepower and violent destruction, and the Japanese army deployed dozens of artillery pieces about one kilometer from Zhongshan Gate, and at the same time sent the air force to cooperate with the strike.

"Buzz! Buzz ......"

The Japanese bombers took the lead in attacking, and when the guards at Zhongshan Gate saw the Japanese bombers, they immediately shouted, "Anti-aircraft machine guns are ready!" All the anti-aircraft machine guns are ready, everyone is in place, ready to fire! ”

"Stomp, stomp!"

With an order, the defenders of Zhongshan Gate immediately went to the pre-arranged location.

"Boom! Rumble! Boom ......"

As soon as the defenders were ready, bombs from Japanese bombers were dropped on the city walls.

Extremely tragic!!