At the meeting, Chen Cheng, vice minister of military affairs and politics, who was a confidant of Chairman Chiang, still adhered to his previous viewpoint, believing that Japan was suspected of copying the story of the Yuan and Qing dynasties, and wanted to follow the example of the Yuan and Qing dynasties from north to south and annihilate the main force of the Chinese army on the Great Plains, so as to achieve its goal of a quick victory and the rapid destruction of China.

Therefore, he still suggested that Chairman Chiang fight with the Japanese in Shanghai, attract the main force of the Japanese army from North China to Shanghai, and force them to change the direction of their attack, from the original north to south to east to west.

Those who are familiar with China's geography know that China's topography is high in the west and low in the east, and the country's two most famous rivers, the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, both flow from west to east and finally emp into the vast Pacific Ocean.

Therefore, if the Japanese attack China from east to west, then they can be said to attack from the back all the way, and China will always occupy the favorable terrain of the commanding heights, which can more or less make up for the shortcomings of the Chinese army in weaponry and training. Allowing the Chinese army to gain a little advantage of the terrain is conducive to delaying the pace of the Japanese offensive and striving for favorable conditions for the long-term war of resistance.

As early as after the outbreak of the July 7 Incident, Chairman Chiang had the idea of destroying the Japanese marines stationed in Shanghai, not only because of Chen Cheng's suggestion, but also because he felt that since the war had already broken out in North China, there were still a handful of Japanese troops in Shanghai who always gave him a feeling of thorns in his back.

You must know that Shanghai is the gateway to Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, and now China and Japan have been fighting in North China. Therefore, for whatever reason, Chairman Chiang must first clear out the more than 2,000 Japanese marines entrenched in Shanghai.

At that time, he asked Yang Jie, then deputy chief of the General Staff, to formulate a plan to eliminate the Marine Corps, but the deputy chief of the General Staff Yang did not seem to realize the seriousness of the problem, did not take Chairman Chiang's words to heart, and just hastily wrote an operational report and handed it in.

It is said that when Chairman Chiang saw this perfunctory report, he immediately tilted his nose and immediately ordered Yang Jie to be dismissed from his post as deputy chief of the general staff, and he was never reused again.

Evacuate the people, and things still have to be done. As a last resort, Chairman Chiang finally kicked the ball to He Yingqin, the minister of military orders, and asked him to come up with a battle plan. After discussing with Cheng Qian, who was then chief of the General Staff, He Yingqin found Luo Zemin, a powerful staff officer within the Nationalist Government at that time, and ordered him to draft a new battle plan.

Luo Zemin was a graduate of the sixth phase of Whampoa, and when he was in the military academy, he was known for being meticulous and good at planning; after receiving the order this time, he really lived up to expectations and quickly came up with a very detailed battle plan, and after reporting it to Chairman Chiang, Chairman Chiang was very satisfied and immediately approved it.

And, through this incident, he also remembered Luo Zehong's name, and then deliberately trained him vigorously, and finally let him serve as a member of the army in the presidential palace.

After the plan was formulated, it was secretly sent to Yang Hu, commander of the Shanghai Garrison Command, and asked him to implement it immediately according to the plan. Zhu Xia, chief of staff of the Beijing-Shanghai Garrison Command, remained in the Shanghai Garrison Command to assist Yang Hu in his work and supervise the implementation of the plan.

According to the battle plan drawn up by Luo Zemin, in order to completely wipe out the 2,000 Japanese marines entrenched in Shanghai, the Chinese army needs to make the following preparations.

First, immediately plan and deploy relevant troops to blockade the Huangpu River; second, to send scouts to secretly compile detailed maps of Japanese strongholds in Shanghai; Third, heavy machine guns and small artillery bunkers were secretly built at forks in the streets, railway stations, ferries, and other major transportation arteries in the suburbs of Shanghai. These bunkers were hidden inside the houses, and they were thought to be ordinary residential houses without any flaws on the outside, but once the war broke out, the guns could be torn apart, and very heavy fire could be immediately organized against the Japanese.

On 11 August 1937, just two days after the outbreak of the incident at Shanghai's Hongqiao Airport, Chiang Kai-shek issued an order to Zhang Zhizhong, commander of the Beijing-Shanghai garrison, to sweep up the 2,000 Japanese marines entrenched in Shanghai.

According to records, Chairman Chiang's original words at that time were: "Push the Japanese troops in Shanghai down the Huangpu River for me." ”

After receiving Chairman Chiang's order, General Zhang Zhizhong, commander of the Beijing-Shanghai garrison, immediately ordered Wang Jingjiu's 87th Division, Sun Yuanliang's 88th Division, and the remainder of Zhong Songzhi's 20th Independent Brigade, which had been deployed near Shanghai for a long time, to march into Shanghai and enter the designated position to make preparations for the total annihilation of the Japanese army. Chairman Chiang also personally telephoned Song Xilian, commander of the 36th Division, and ordered him to also go to Shanghai to assist in the battle and accept the command of General Zhang Zhizhong, commander of the Beijing-Shanghai garrison.

Friends who are familiar with the history of China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression know that the above troops are all quasi-German mechanics, and the degree of German mechanization is the highest, which can almost reach the level of all German armaments, and the combat effectiveness is much higher than those miscellaneous armies and semi-German mechanized troops.

Chairman Chiang can be said to have taken out all the essence of his pressure on the bottom of the box, which shows his determination to sweep away the enemy in Shanghai and remove the threat from Nanjing's flank.

However, what Chairman Chiang never expected was that he was so full of ambition to drive the Japanese down the Huangpu River that someone poured cold water on him.

These people who poured cold water on them were none other than the German advisers who had always been relied on by Chairman Chiang. As everyone knows, the thirties of the nineteenth century were the honeymoon period of relations between China and Germany, and China trained several relatively effective units with the help of Germany. According to Chairman Chiang's plan, he planned to train 60 German armor divisions, which would not only give him more confidence to resist Japanese aggression, but also use this as a hole card to wait for an opportunity to recover the three eastern provinces. However, due to the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, his plan was not completed, and now only a few units of the national army can barely meet the standards of German mechanization. The others are semi-finished.

Later generations of history buffs also talked about this honeymoon period between China and Germany, and there is a saying that Hitler was once cared for by a Chinese couple when he was young, which made him always have a good impression of China and was willing to do his best to help China.

This is a fairy tale, and the interaction between countries has always been based on interests, not on the personal feelings of the leader.

In fact, cooperation between China and Germany began long before Hitler came to power. The reason for the cooperation between the two countries was none other than the Treaty of Versailles, which was signed after World War I. The Treaty of Versailles imposed a number of restrictions on Germany, one of the most important of which was that the German standing army could not exceed 100,000 men.

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