December 12, 1937, 5 p.m., Tang Shengzhi Mansion

The exploding bomb shattered the doors and windows of the mansion, and Tang Shengzhi's mansion can now be said to be the temporary garrison headquarters. Soldiers with armbands of "garrison" armbands are burning documents. Commander Tang Shengzhi sat in the main hall, analyzing the battle situation on the map, in fact, his heart had already been boiled. The battle situation from the front is becoming more and more unfavorable, Yuhuatai, Zhongshan Gate and other key points have been lost one after another, and Shuiximen and other places cannot be supported.

"Commander, I've asked the 36th Division, and I've sent troops into the city to prepare for street fighting, and the blocking line has been prepared."

It was Deputy Commander Liu Xing who spoke. The adjutant put down the phone and ran to Tang Shengzhi's side.

"Commander, the commanders of the army and division who can be notified have completed the contact and are on their way here."

"Hmm" Tang Shengzhi rubbed his head and sat on the soft sofa, from time to time he would think of his majestic mountains and rivers and strong Lingyun at the meeting before the war, now it seems that he is really a little ridiculous, life, but just acting on the spot.

Tang Shengzhi had already made up his mind in his heart, and the current situation seemed that all key points had been lost one after another, and the Japanese navy had also appeared on the Yangtze River.

"Commander, Commander Yu of the 74th Army and Commander Wang of the 71st Army are here."

Yu Jishi and Wang Jingjiu walked into the Tang Mansion covered in ashes, and Yu Jishi still had blood on his shoulders. "Hello commander" The two said in unison, Tang Shengzhi also stood up, and said to the two: "You don't have to be so polite in wartime, sit down first, wait for the others, the officers above the division have been summoned."

Yu Jishi and the two were not polite, and immediately sat on the sofa. Tang Shengzhi looked at the wounds on Yu Jishi's body, and immediately called the adjutant and asked him to find some medicine to stop the bleeding for Yu Jishi.

Yu Jishi had time to excuse himself, so he accepted Tang Shengzhi's kindness. The three of them sat on the sofa and had nothing to say for a while, but Tang Shengzhi first asked about the battle situation of the two troops.

"How's the troops fighting?"

"The 58th and 51st Divisions of our 74th Army have suffered a lot of casualties in the Chunhua battle, and now they are fighting with the Japanese army in the area of Shuiximen and Zhonghua Gate, and they have suffered heavy casualties, Wang Yaowu and Feng Shengfa have called, in the past two days, the regiment battalion commander has killed five or six people, and the casualties of the soldiers are even heavier, I am afraid it is difficult to continue" Yu Jishi held back the pain and said with an ugly face.

Wang Jingjiu, who was beside him, grabbed his military hat. He is nominally the commander of the army, but in fact there is only one division of the 87th Division, and the adjustment divisions of the 87th Division, the 88th Division, and the 36th Division, each of which are from the Guard Army, occupy the number of one army.

"The 87th Division held on to the area of Guanghua Gate, was bombarded by heavy artillery, there were many new recruits in the troops, and now it can basically be said that it has been lost, and the friendly army teaching corps sent a sergeant battalion to assist in the battle, and it also withdrew after desperately recapturing it, our army is very bitter."

Tang Shengzhi nodded, and didn't continue, now it's all nonsense.

Under the guidance of the adjutant, the senior officers of the defending army came to the Tang Mansion one after another, and the army commander and some division commanders surrounded Tang Shengzhi, waiting for the final order.

Tang Shengzhi cleared his throat, "Ladies and gentlemen, to make a long story short, our army has been fighting hard for several days, inflicting heavy losses on the Japanese invaders, but I have also suffered heavy losses, and now I have to retreat, everyone, the order and deployment of the retreat have been printed, and I will read it out and distribute it below." After speaking, he gave the staff officer a look.

Freshly printed evacuation orders and deployments were distributed to the officers present, the mimeographed ink had not yet dried, and a pungent smell was in the air.

The officers looked at this order with wonderful expressions, some dazed, some indignant, and some confused. The Chief of Staff's voice rang out.

"As your officer knows, our army should strive to break through the enemy in front of it and move on to the border areas. There are troops of the 76th and 6th Divisions of our army in Wuhu and Nanshi Town, which can support the garrison if necessary, and the units of the 7th Theater are holding key points and preparing to receive our troops. ”

"In addition, when our army breaks through the siege, the equipment of the communications unit is destroyed as much as possible unless necessary, and the same is true for the fortress artillery. When breaking through the encirclement, all units should avoid the road and retreat carefully, and all units should prepare to fry rice and oil and salt for four days to destroy the enemy's bridges.

"The direction and password signals of the breakout of each unit have been printed on the mimeographed schedule, and the commanders of each unit shall notify them on their own, and they shall be completed.

The chief of staff nodded at Tang Shengzhi, and then went down to clean up. The officers below were babbling about orders. Tang Shengzhi looked at all this, but coughed twice, and the officers looked at Tang Shengzhi.

Someone was obviously dissatisfied with the distribution of the retreat direction, Ye Zhao asked in a Cantonese accent: "Why do I want to break through from the front, some people can cross the river by boat, we don't want to be a decrepit boy, but we are not easy to bully."

Tang Shengzhi stood up and pointed to the clock with a serious face: Commander Ye means that I am biased in favor of the Central Army? Why should I be partial to them by the Hunan mules, and besides, they won't break through? It's almost five o'clock now, so you should return as soon as you can, it's late, but there's nothing.

After Tang Shengzhi finished speaking, he took the lead in leaving his mansion, leaving only the soldiers of the garrison headquarters and a few staff officers who burned the documents.

Seeing Tang Shengzhi walking out of the mansion, the officers no longer rubbed down, but not all of them walked out of the gate, and some people directly hung up the phone to their own troops through the special line of Tang Shengzhi's mansion, and gave the order to retreat to the officers who stayed behind.

The fate of the defenders of Nanjing was already doomed at this time, Yu Jishi, Gui Yongqing and others still chose to return to the army first, at least to personally issue an order, Wang Jingjiu and others after issuing the retreat order on the phone of the mansion, no matter where the troops went, where they went. They went straight to the defense ground of the 36th Division at Rujiangmen, and crossing the river was the only thought in their hearts.

There were already many soldiers who had retreated in the chaotic streets, and some of the gendarmes in the city were still dutifully driving them away, and the streets were in chaos. The gunfire was getting closer, and the winter sun was shining just as brightly on the deserted streets.

Yu Jishi sat in the car, holding the hastily made retreat order in his hand. The rules are very detailed, the contact signals, spoken language, and the direction of the breakthrough are all formulated. It's a pity that few people can carry it out, and when Yu Jishi left, except for Gui Yongqing and a few others, he didn't see other senior officers at all.

"Hmph, are you going to start running, people can't be so conscienceless" Yu Jishi knew that those people were going to leave the troops behind and flee without asking, but he couldn't do this, at least he had to arrange a retreat. The 58th Division was brought out by him, from the Zhejiang Security Regiment to the regular army, I don't know how much effort it took him. Although the 51st Division is not his descendant unit, it should be treated equally when he becomes a commander.

Nanjing fought badly, and it was necessary to leave some seeds for the troops. Fortunately, he asked his uncle in advance and left a fire wheel for his troops.

Take as much as you can.

Yu Jishi closed his eyes, and behind him, troops continued to drive into the city, which were the troops of the 36th Division preparing for street fighting and interception.

The cold winter wind howling, as if foreshadowing something.