On December 9, after the war was temporarily suspended, General Matsue held another meeting to continue arranging the battle plan.

In any large-scale war, meetings are frequent, at least two meetings a day.

First, the commander-in-chief can have a comprehensive understanding of the situation of various units, sum up the gains and losses, and grasp the dynamics of the battlefield.

Second, it is possible to redeploy defenses and coordinate the direction and rhythm of the troops' attacks.

Therefore, it is necessary to have a meeting.

At the meeting, Senior General Matsue had an in-depth discussion on the issue of the deployment of Nanjing and the morale of the Japanese army, and at the end of the two-hour meeting, many Japanese officers had a clear direction and goal in their hearts.

The offensive rhythm arranged by General Matsui was simple and rude, and the whole army was divided into four offensive directions, and launched an all-out attack on the third peak positions in Nanjing, such as Yuhuatai, Tongjimen, Guanghuamen, and Purple Mountain.

Taken together, the battle line was stretched ten kilometers long, and the Japanese army's mobility was fully brought into play.

On December 10, at seven o'clock in the morning, all the Japanese troops took their positions and launched an attack on the position of the third peak in Nanjing at the same time.

In the siege of the city, there were indeed no good tactical methods, and the tactics adopted by the Japanese army were still the integration of land and air to fight a tough battle.

Aerial bombers attracted firepower and destroyed fortifications, tanks on the ground opened the way, infantry followed, and pushed positions, and mortars in the rear kept roaring, aiming at places where crowds gathered, and the two sides launched fierce battles for various strongholds.

Tang Zhi obviously expected this way of attack, so the fortifications in this area had already been deployed in advance, and our army officially relied on the fortifications to have the strength to fight with the Japanese army.

This is the last line, if this position is broken by the Japanese army, then Nanjing will be completely lost, so all our soldiers risk their lives to defend the defense line.

This battle is even more tragic than yesterday's battle!

In particular, in the southeast of the city, the situation was particularly grim because the re-established positions had been basically lost, and the Japanese army directly attacked the city walls.

And Tang Zhi and other leaders are obviously not straw bales, in response to this situation, Tang Zhi immediately arranged the corresponding arming.

Tang Zhi urgently ordered the 156th Division of the 83rd Army to reinforce the garrisons of Guanghuamen and Tongjimen, and to build preparatory fortifications for street battles at various points in the city.

In addition, the 103rd Division and the 112th Division, which had just been withdrawn from Zhenjiang into Nanjing, were commanded by the commander of the Teaching Corps and were responsible for the garrison of the city wall and the Purple Mountain position near Zhongshan Gate.

This series of deployments shows Tang Zhi's determination that Nanjing will never give up and will fight to the death.

After a day of fierce fighting between the two sides, although the Japanese firepower was fierce, our army stubbornly relied on the fortifications and the unparalleled resilience of our army to keep the Japanese army out of the door, and it was difficult to survive.

At nine o'clock in the evening, the 156th Division selected a battalion of troops and fell down the city, annihilating all the more than 100 Japanese troops who had entered the city yesterday and lurked in the city gate hole.

On the Yuhuatai side, under the coordinated attack of the main forces of the two divisions of the Japanese army and the infantry, artillery, tank and aviation units, the fierce battle lasted for 11 hours, and at about half past nine in the evening, the first line of positions on the right flank of the 88th Division was completely destroyed.

At the same time, Wuhu was declared broken and occupied by the Japanese 18th Division.

At this point, Nanjing's form was even more severe.

On December 11, after an eight-hour truce, the Japanese attacked again.

Matsui arranged for the Japanese 16th Division to storm the positions of the Chinese troops north and south of Purple Mountain.

In the Purple Mountain and the area south of it, the teaching corps resolutely resisted, implemented iron-blooded tactics, and desperately blocked with all their lives, and from the morning to the evening, the Japanese army made no progress.

Only the right flank troops captured the positions of Yangfang Mountain and Yinkong Mountain, which were defended by the 2nd Army Corps, and advanced to the vicinity of Yaohua Gate.

On the other hand, in order to make it easier for the 16th Division to attack and cut off the defenders' eastward retreat in a timely manner, the "Shanghai Dispatch Army" transferred the Yamada Detachment from the 13th Division, which was waiting for ships to cross the river in Zhenjiang, and joined the battle from the right flank of the 16th Division to attack the Wulongshan and Shogunate Mountain batteries.

The main forces of the 114th Division and the 6th Division of the Japanese 10th Army continued to attack Yuhuatai.

Under the multi-faceted attacks of the Japanese army, the second line position of the 88th Division was destroyed again, and the defenders were forced to hold the core position.

At the same time, the right flank of the Japanese 114th Division began to attack the Zhonghua Gate, and the 114th Division mobilized a large number of tanks and artillery to bombard the Zhonghua Gate indiscriminately.

A small number of Japanese troops once broke into the city, but were annihilated one by one by the troops of the 88th Division defending the city walls.

A part of the left flank of the Japanese 6th Division advanced north along the east bank of the Yangtze River, repelled a battalion of the 2nd Military Police Teaching Regiment at Shangxinhe, and occupied the cotton embankment position outside the Shuixi Gate.

The Japanese Kunizaki detachment crossed the Yangtze River near Cihu Lake in Dangtu Bei, marched north along the west bank, and moved towards Pukou.

The 18th Division of the Japanese Army, which occupied Wuhu, was diverted to Hangzhou, cutting off the rear route of the defenders of Nanjing, and no longer participated in the attack on Nanjing.

After several days of fighting, our soldiers were sleepy and their morale was already very low, and the form of Nanjing City was even worse.

Although the Japanese army also suffered heavy losses, compared with our army, the morale was still very high, because the defense of Nanjing City was about to be broken, and our army was defeated in successive battles, so that the Japanese army saw the hope of breaking the defense.

From the official start of the war to now, in just a few days, our army's defense line has basically been completely destroyed, dozens of battles have been fought, more defeats and fewer victories, and morale is low.

When it was discovered that the combat effectiveness and morale of the troops withdrawn to Nanjing were far inferior to those of the Songhu battle, the main position on the outskirts of Nanjing was only defended for two or three days before it was lost, and the reconstructed position was not firmly established, that is, it was broken through and forced by the enemy in the main direction.

When he learned that there were Japanese troops crossing the river near Dangtu, he felt that the situation was even more critical. In order to prevent the defenders of Nanjing from being encircled and annihilated by the enemy, the chairman of the committee ordered the army commander who was in Jiangbei at the time to convey to Tang Zhi by telephone at noon, asking Tang Zhi to cross the river and go north that night, and order the defenders to wait for an opportunity to break through the encirclement.

Tang Zhi was afraid that he would be unable to bear the responsibility in the future if he suddenly withdrew, so he demanded that he must first convey the supreme commander's intentions to the defending generals before he could evacuate.

That night, the chairman of the committee sent a telegram to Tang Zhi: "If the situation cannot be maintained for a long time, you can retreat in order to sort out and hope for a counterattack." ”

After Tang Zhi received the order, he immediately organized a general meeting to discuss the retreat plan.

At this moment, Zheng Long and the others were less than a hundred kilometers away from Nanjing City.