On November 9, 1937, the day was calm, there were no Japanese infiltration troops and no fighting, and the 16th Regiment used this day to build multiple positions on the defensive front, and improved the foundation of fortifications, bunkers, fire points and other positions.......

At this time, the worst situation for the Chinese army was not the speed of the Japanese army's advance, but the chaos caused by the entire Songhu battle situation after the Japanese army landed in Hangzhou Bay and the command issued the order to retreat. In the Pudong direction, due to the late timing of the retreat and the extremely backward means of giving the order, it was already November 9 when the order reached the commander-in-chief of the Right Wing Army, Zhang Fakui. By the time Zhang Fakui received the order, the troops of the Right Wing Army were already in a state of extreme disorder, and it was difficult for the headquarters at all levels to control their troops.

Some units did not receive an order to retreat, but only saw the retreat of friendly forces and retreated with them. The successive coverings and occupation of positions stipulated in the order were not complied with at all, and a situation of separate retreat was formed. In fact, even if they acted according to the order, it was difficult to avoid confusion, because the order did not distinguish the path of the various armies and divisions, let alone the order and time of the transfer of each unit, and they all retreated in the direction of Anting. Hundreds of thousands of troops were crowded on the limited one or two roads, and with the bombing of planes and the pursuit of Japanese troops below, it is conceivable that they were scrambling to be the first.

The situation on the left flank was even worse, and the left flank army, which was still fighting desperately against the Japanese army, really did not expect the war situation to become like this. Although almost everyone knew that a crisis might be on the horizon before this, no one expected it to be so soon. Because just yesterday, November 7, Yu Jishi's 74th Army had just been ordered to retreat to the south of Qingpu County with the 51st Division, and build fortifications on the line of Maqiao, Qingpu City, Tiediantang and Triangle Dian to cover the retreat of the front-line troops in Luodian, so as to consolidate the security of the flank of the troops on the south bank of Suzhou Creek. The 11th Division, which was on the flank of the 74th Army, launched a surprise attack on the 13th Division of the Japanese Army from Shiqiao and Jiangqiao Town under the command of division commander Peng Shan, and its 31st and 33rd brigades occupied the Jinjia Lane and Fengzhuang lines respectively. But in a blink of an eye, the war actually developed into a "general retreat of the whole army".

"The Theater Commander's Headquarters has issued an order to transfer, and the Central Corps has moved to the front line of Qingpu and Baihegang. Wang Yaowu's 51st Division used the first division as the general cover team to cover the safe evacuation of the troops. "According to the order, the Left Wing Army should occupy the Qingpu line with the 51st Regiment of Qiu Weida of the 306th Division to cover the retreat of the left wing troops. But no one took into account that the change in the situation of the battle would end in a rout.

The Nationalist troops on the entire front, whether on the left flank, the center, or the right flank, received orders to retreat on the night of November 8 and 9, and almost at the same time the retreat order was out of control, and what was worse was that the retreating troops on the left flank and the central corps who had lost control did not retreat according to the prescribed route, but all retreated westward along the line of Anting, which made the situation even worse.

When the high command ordered Songhu to retreat, hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops scrambled for the road, and the order was so chaotic that the combat capability was completely lost in the rout. In the past three months, hundreds of thousands of soldiers of the Nationalist Army have fought hard against the Japanese army, and although they have suffered heavy casualties, their morale is still high and their combat discipline is good. Even if a unit loses most of it, as long as it withdraws down and replenishes it for a while, it can fight again, after all, as long as the morale is still there, the military spirit of this army is still there. However, from the time when the order to retreat was received on the 8th to the time when the great rout was triggered, hundreds of thousands of elite divisions that had fought bloody battles with the Japanese army for nearly 100 days were completely lost, and military discipline was lost. Qian Dajun also quite agrees with the sentence "When the Japanese army captures Dachang, it retreats in a planned way, and it will not cause hundreds of thousands of troops to collapse for thousands of miles", but what he did not know about this rout had just begun.

Nanjing National Government, the chairman's chamber, Qian Dajun was exhausted at this time, rubbed the corners of his eyes, he looked out the window, and muttered alone: "The defeat is like a mountain!" The defeat is like a mountain! ”

"Director, there's an urgent call from ahead." The staff officer who knocked on the door and came in handed the telegram in his hand to Qian Dajun, who was working on the case. "Give me the command of the commander of the third theater." After reading the telegram, Qian Dajun grabbed the phone and asked the switchboard to call Gu Zhutong, deputy commander of the Third Theater. Since November 5, the 10th Army of the Japanese Army led by Yanagawa Heisuke successfully landed at Jinshanwei and began a roundabout outflanking operation in the direction of Shanghai, causing the Chinese troops on the Songhu battlefield to fall into the predicament of being attacked on the back of the enemy, and the Nanjing defensive operation became urgent again.

This time, however, the time left for the Supreme Military Council was too short, and only three days after the successful landing of the 10th Army, that is, on November 8, the command of the commander of the 3rd Theater issued the order to retreat from the Shanghai battlefield. The subsequent retreat of hundreds of thousands of Nationalist troops on the entire Songhu battlefield was hasty and chaotic, and could even be described as a "rout". In this case, the defense of the capital is already imminent. What Qian Dajun needs to verify is: how long can the third war zone be able to resist at present.

"Third Brother Mo, how is the situation now?" After a few words of greeting, Qian Dajun directly turned the topic to the battle situation. "What else, Brother Mu Yin, the retreat of the troops is already difficult to control. Now we can only hope to use the Wufu fortification line to stabilize the situation. Gu Zhutong on the other end of the phone pointed out the situation straightforwardly.

Gu Zhutong's voice looked very tired, it is no wonder that no one wants to see the current situation on the Songhu battlefield, and Qian Dajun also knows that there are not too many problems with the retreat plan formulated by the Third Theater, but the general retreat order was issued too late, which made the implementation of this plan very unfeasible, and the rapid progress of the Japanese army is also an aspect.

From November 8, the Japanese army began to storm the left flank line defended by Feng Shengfa's 58th Division, which belonged to Yu Jishi's 74th Army, and every day the Japanese bombarded the positions of the 58th Division with scorching artillery fire and aircraft bombardment. After several days of hard fighting, the left flank was abandoned on November 11 due to the casualties of many officers and men, including the commander of the 174th Brigade, Wu Jiguang. After the left flank front was abandoned, the original retreat route had to be changed, so under the fierce attack of the Japanese army, the left flank corps had to retreat to the defense positions of the Wufu line at the same time as the central corps, which also made the retreat even more chaotic.

On November 12, 1937, Chinese troops withdrew from Shanghai Nanshi, and then soldiers of Fujita's 3rd Division invaded downtown Shanghai. The mayor of Shanghai issued a letter to the citizens, declaring the fall of Shanghai with deep sorrow, which means that from this day, Shanghai has completely fallen.

The Third Division of the National Revolutionary Army, which suffered heavy losses on the surface and had not received a large amount of reorganization, was ordered by the Military Commission to retreat from Wuhu and go directly to Hankou for reconstruction......

After receiving the order, the 3rd Division retreated from Chefang to Tongli on the night of November 13 to Suzhou......