After the loss of the Dijing River, the Japanese army had two options, either to attack Guangfu to the west, or to go south and capture Dachang and capture Shanghai. No matter which direction it is, it must pass through Liu Xing, so Liu Xing and Gu Jiazhai have become the focus of attack and defense of the Chinese and Japanese armies.

On September 25, the 1st Division and the 9th Division of the Japanese Army successively attacked Liuhang and Gujiazhen, but were stubbornly resisted by the 15th, 16th, 77th and 57th Divisions of our army. At dawn on the 27th, the Japanese army used 9 tanks to cover the infantry to concentrate on the position of the 42nd Brigade of the 16th Division of the defenders of Gujiazhen, and the battle was fierce.

At about 10 o'clock in the morning, the Japanese army once again bombarded the defenders' positions with 8 planes and then launched a charge, and the defenders held their positions stubbornly, still not wavering, blocking the continuous attacks of the Japanese army, and the battle was still in the midst of confrontation until 16 o'clock in the afternoon.

On the 28th and 29th, the Japanese bombarded the positions of the 16th Division with more than 10 planes and hundreds of artillery pieces every day, and the fighting was unprecedentedly fierce. However, the position was still in the hands of the national army, not only that, but the commander of the 42nd Brigade, Major General He Ping, organized counterattacks many times, and the Japanese army suffered heavy losses, and there were thousands of Japanese corpses in the position alone.

At dawn on the 30th, the Japanese army concentrated planes and artillery to carry out a three-hour retaliatory bombardment of Liu Xing and Gujiazhen. At that time, foreign people commented that compared with the war in Europe, it was even better.

After the shelling, the Japanese shifted the direction of attack and charged at the junction between the 15th Division and the 57th and 77th Divisions of the Nationalist Army in two directions.

The 57th Division of the National Army is an ace unit, and Songhu was later incorporated into the 74th Army. After the junction of the 15th Division and the 57th Division was broken through, the two divisions immediately fought back, and after a bloody battle, the broken positions were recaptured, and the Japanese army failed to succeed. However, the Taiping Bridge Front between the 15th Division and the 77th Division was captured by the Japanese army, and the 77th Division was unable to counterattack due to excessive losses, and the whole division was defeated.

The Japanese army then concentrated its forces to expand the offensive at the breakthrough point, thus threatening the defense of the Nationalist army on all fronts, and the 15th and 57th Divisions could not stop the Japanese offensive with all their might.

Chen Cheng, Luo Zhuoying, Xue Yue and others all understood that the stubborn defense could only be divided and surrounded by the Japanese army, and ordered the 57th Division to leave 2 battalions to guard Gujiazhen and the 15th Division to leave 1 regiment to guard Liu Xing, delaying the Japanese offensive and covering the westward transfer of the main forces.

The fall of Liu Xing and Gujiazhen has turned into a ruined wall and scorched earth. At this time, the main force of the left wing army retreated to the north of Tangqiao, along the Yunzaobang through Chenjiaxing to Guangfu, and along the banks of the Yangjing River in the north to the line of Shixianggong Temple and Liuhe.

Liu Xing, the land of the central axis, was lost, and the Japanese army suspended the attack, and they themselves were debating whether to go west or south.

Whether the Japanese army is going south or west has a direct impact on the key defensive deployment of the national army. As commander-in-chief of the Third Theater of Operations, the chairman personally went to Songhu to hold an emergency operational meeting to discuss the defense arrangements for the next section.

In addition to Gu Zhutong, chairman of the Commander-in-Chief and deputy commander-in-chief, Chen Cheng, Zhu Shaoliang, and Zhang Fakui, commanders of the Third Route Army, were all present.

Zou Zuohua, the commander-in-chief of the artillery, said at the meeting: "Liu Xing and Gu's house are lost, and the Japanese army will inevitably follow Gujia Town through Tangqiao Town to capture Dachang, and Liu Xing will never attack Guangfu!" ”

Zou Zuohua's viewpoint represents the viewpoint of some generals, because the Japanese army has always used the highway for warfare, and if it is separated from the road, it will be difficult for their artillery and mechanized units to carry out activities, and they will not be able to give full play to their superior equipment and specialty.

Zhu Shaoliang agreed with Zou Zuohua's point of view and said: "There is a good highway (southern route) from Gujiazhen to Dachang, which can be used by the Japanese army. However, there is no road from Liu Xing to Guangfu (West Route), which is a topographical judgment of its one. ”

The chairman asked, "What about the second?" ”

Zhu Shaoliang said: "The second is psychological judgment. The enemy, anxious to settle the battle in Shanghai, preferred to attack Dachang, so that Jiangwan, Dachang, and Zhabei could be combined with Hongkou and Yangshupu to form a solid front, and could threaten the flank of the 9th Army and force the 9th Army to break away from Shanghai. On the basis of these two reasons, I judged that the enemy would move south to capture the main field. ”

After hearing this, the chairman of the committee expressed silence, and Zou Zuohua and Zhu Shaoliang's judgment was the same as Ye Lei's, and the Japanese army would go south to attack Dachang. But it was not easy to attack Oba, and there was still Onzaohama in the north, so if the Japanese army wanted to attack Oba, they must first force their way across Onzaohama and defeat the defenders on the southern front.

The chairman of the committee recalled the recent battles and showed that the Japanese army had no intention of moving southward at all. At this time, the main force of the left wing army retreated to the north of Tangqiao, along the Yunzaobang through Chenjiaxing to Guangfu, and along the banks of the Yangjing River in the north to the line of Shixianggong Temple and Liuhe.

The Central Army, headed by Zhu Shaoliang, believed that the Japanese army would move south to attack Dachang and Zhabei, because this was related to the key defensive deployment in the future. In the eyes of the chairman, they have selfish motives and hope to put the focus of defense on their own defense areas.

However, it was not only the Central Army that had "selfish intentions", the generals of the Left Wing Army led by Chen Cheng, Luo Zhuoying, and Xue Yue expressed opposition, believing that the main force of the Japanese army would continue to advance westward and attack the Left Wing Army.

Chen Cheng had an expression of disapproval at the combat meeting, and said, "I don't dare to agree with Commander Zhu's high opinion. ”

The chairman said: "Is there any difference in rhetoric? ”

Chen Cheng said: "The main force of the Japanese army will continue to advance westward from Liu Xing, focusing on attacking the north and south areas of Guangfu and breaking through the Yangjing River, mainly because the main force of the Japanese army is ready to attack in this direction in a big way. ”

Zhu Shaoliang said: "Preparation does not represent the facts! The fact that the Japanese are now slowing down their offensive shows that they are also hesitating whether to move west or south. ”

Chen Cheng said: "Since the landing of two divisions of the Japanese army on August 23, its main force has been fighting against our left flank army, and all our divisions have suffered heavy casualties, especially in the first battle of Luodian, and our division was reimbursed for one division in just a few hours. Its severity can be called 'blood and fire purgatory.' ”

Zhu Shaoliang said: "What can this prove? Prove that your left flank army is fighting bloody battles at the front, and our center is idle in the rear, right? The 36th, 87th, and 88th divisions, the main forces of the Central Army, did not experience a bloody battle? Now the 36th Division is still fighting fiercely with the Japanese army in Jiangwan, the 87th Division is still defending with more than half of the casualties in Wenzaobang, and the 88th Division is fighting hard in Zhabei alone, and the soldiers have been replenished three times. ”

The argument between the two high-ranking generals made the combat meeting smell of gunpowder stronger. In fact, Zhu Shaoliang knew what Chen Cheng would say later, so he immediately interrupted. He was very sure that the Japanese army would move south, and Chen Cheng's views were too subjective and ideological. The battlefield is unpredictable, and the objective conditions must be stronger than the subjective consciousness, and the objective conditions are that the Japanese army's westward advance is not conducive to their mechanized operations.

The chairman of the committee bowed, wanting to ease the atmosphere, and said: "Yimin, don't be impatient, listen to the rhetoric and finish speaking." ”

Chen Cheng was interrupted by Zhu Shaoliang like this, he didn't know what to say, his thinking was a little confused, Luo Zhuoying beside him said: "The units of our Left Wing Army have fought hard for more than 40 days, and the casualties are extremely heavy, and there are many new recruits. At this time, the Japanese army increased the strength of 3 divisions, and if the western front was broken and the main force of the Japanese army outflanked the main force of our army along the Songning Railway, the consequences were unimaginable. ”

After Luo Zhuoying finished speaking, Xue Yue continued: "The two powers benefit each other, and the two powers harm each other. General Zhu, take a step back, if the Japanese army moves south, the worst result will be the withdrawal of our main force from Shanghai; If the Japanese army advanced westward and broke through the left flank line, what would be the worst outcome? Our main forces would be surrounded, and almost all of our troops would be under fire from Japanese aircraft and gunboats, and the consequences would be catastrophic. ”

Xue Yue's sentence that "the lesser of two powers is harmful" persuaded the chairman of the committee. Chen Cheng was his right and left hand, Xue Yue was his favorite general, and the chairman finally judged that the Japanese army would advance westward. Subsequently, the plan of the Nationalist Army focused its main force on the line between the north and south of Guangfu and the Liuhe River.

In view of the possible attempts of the Japanese army to break the Left Wing Army with the main force, the 3rd Theater of Operations made the following dispositions:

The troops of the Left Wing Combat Army were ordered to move to the south bank of Yunzaobang along the line of Chenjiaxing, the west bank of the Yangjing River, and Liuhe Town, and enter the second line of positions, continue to defend, and attack the enemy. The units of the Left Wing Combat Corps, covering each other in the fierce attack of the enemy, moved backward one after another, and it was imperative that the divisions complete the transfer of positions before dawn on 3 October.

A new line of defense has been built on the front line of Yunzaobang, Yangjinghe, Tangqiao, and Chenjiaxing, which also means that this line of defense will be the last line of defense for the Chinese army to defend Shanghai. The focus of the Nationalist army's defense was westward, which doubled the pressure on the frontal defense of the Ninth Army.