On 11 September, the commander of the Third Theater was replaced, and General Feng Yuxiang was transferred to the newly established Sixth Theater as commander, while Chairman Chiang himself assumed the post of commander of the Third Theater.

However, Chairman Chiang also knew that the Songhu front at this time was a tight and critical time, and he was afraid that whoever was replaced as the commander at this time would be thankless, and no one had the ability to command so many combat troops transferred from all over the country.

Of course, as an important member of the state, it was impossible for Chairman Chiang to personally visit the front line in Shanghai, and he could only stay in Nanjing and command remotely by telegraph and telephone, and the only person who really represented him in coming to the front line to command and coordinate was Chen Cheng, who has now been appointed as the commander-in-chief of the former enemy. Even Gu Zhutong, the deputy commander of the Third Theater, could only serve as Chen Cheng's assistant in the rear to ensure the logistics supply of the front-line troops.

At the same time, in view of the changes on the battlefield at this time, Chairman Chiang made a slight adjustment to his previous operational plan, changing from the original situation of only dividing the left and right wings into a pattern of left, center, and right advancing at the same time.

General Zhang Fakui was appointed commander-in-chief of the Right Wing Army, under the command of the Eighth Army and the Tenth Army, guarding Hangzhou Bay south of Shanghai to prevent devils from landing from the south.

General Zhang Zhizhong was appointed commander-in-chief of the Central Route Army, under the command of the Ninth Army and the 21st Group Army, responsible for operations in the urban area of Shanghai, and resisting the devils who landed in the urban area at various levels to prevent them from breaking through in the direction of Jiading and Kunshan.

However, on the 22nd, because of General Zhang Zhizhong's improper command, Zhu Shaoliang was changed to the commander-in-chief of the Central Route Army, and Zhang Zhizhong was recalled to Nanjing.

The commander-in-chief of the Left Wing Army was Chen Cheng, and he was under the jurisdiction of the 19th Group Army under the command of Xue Yue and the 15th Group Army under the command of Luo Zhuoying.

By the beginning of September, the main battlefield of Songhu had shifted from the Zhabei area in downtown Shanghai to the vast area from Baoshan County to Jiading County on the left flank, that is, on the position of the left flank army headed by Chen Cheng.

Although Chen Cheng and the generals of the Left Wing Army had made great efforts to attack the enemy on 22 August, due to various reasons, of course, the main reason was the lack of troops, and in the face of the enemy's steady stream of troops coming ashore, it was impossible to realize the original demand of pressing the enemy into the river in order to annihilate them.

Therefore, after several hesitations, Chen Cheng accepted the suggestions of Xiao Huang and several other major staff officers, and proposed to the above the strategy of shifting positions and resisting one by one.

Beginning on 17 September, the ** troops retreated to the first line of Beizhan, Jiangwan, Miaohang, Luodian and Liuhekou, and were forced to go on the defensive.

Although Xiao Linghu had become the commander of the guard battalion directly under the former enemy headquarters at this time, he did not pay attention to the entire battle for a while, especially the battle situation on the Luodian side.

It's just that at this time, Luodian is still in the midst of competition between China and Japan.

On September 2, Baoshan City was lost, and the main forces were concentrated near Luodian to block the 11th Division of the Devils from advancing westward to Jiading and encircling Shanghai.

Many troops gathered around Luodian, and the artillery fire and gunfire never stopped from morning to night.

At this time, Xiao Linghu is not only responsible for the security of the entire headquarters, but also responsible for the safety of those logistics supplies, and at least to ensure that these materials arrive in Jiading safely.

And the most surprising thing for Xiao Linghu is that a steady stream of recruits from Lianghu, Jiangxi and Anhui and other places have also been transported to Jiading City, these recruits were quickly taken away by the regiment commanders, battalion commanders and even company commanders on the front line, Hu Congjun also ran to take away more than 1,000 people, under questioning, Hu Congjun told Xiao Linghu that the 65th Regiment had been exhausted, and if he went to the 65th Regiment again, half of the people might not know him.

Xiao Linghu was dumbfounded, it had only been less than half a month, and the battle had become so tragic, I was afraid that when the battle of Luodian was over, the entire 11th Division would be replaced with a batch of people.

At this time, the Songhu battlefield has become a melting pot, that is, from a hundred miles away, half of the sky is red, the first team every day a division and a division, two divisions and two divisions to join the front line, many divisions only three or four hours to go up, half of them died, some of them lasted for five hours, they would die two-thirds, as long as they were filled in, they would be melted away.

At the end of September, three more divisions of the Japanese army came to reinforce them, and Chen Cheng believed that the Luodian position was no longer meaningful, and only increased a large number of casualties, so he ordered all units to withdraw and move to the second position on the right bank of Yunzaobang to continue the defense.

Originally, according to the idea of the Japanese army's base camp, the battle plan in China was to move from north to south, with North China as the main battlefield, but during the Battle of Songhu, the troops were constantly increased, and they became trapped in a state of being unable to extricate themselves, and they had to increase their troops to Shanghai again and again.

This big battle, from mid-August to November, in late October, the Japanese army secretly formed the Tenth Army in the mainland to prepare for the encirclement of the squadron, November 5, the Tenth Army of 80,000 people landed on the right flank of Jinshanwei, quickly broke through the right flank defensive position.

Due to the shortage of troops during the campaign, Chairman Chiang finally mobilized the troops on the right flank to replenish the battlefield, and in fact, when the Japanese army landed at Jinshanwei, there were only a few local troops guarding the coast.

The Japanese army's operational thinking is also very simple, that is, to dampen the will to fight, end the war, and at the same time to maximize the elimination of the main force of the first army.

As soon as they landed, they rushed to Songjiang City and the Shanghai-Hangzhou Railway.

At this time, there was no army that could be dispatched in Chen Cheng's hands, and at this time, just from the North China battlefield, the 67th Army of the Northeast Army had just arrived at the Songhu battlefield, and he immediately ordered the 67th Army to rush to Songjiang County.

On November 8, the 67th Army was annihilated, and the Japanese army broke into Songjiang City from the east, south and west, and then divided the troops into two routes, all the way along the east bank of Taihu Lake, straight behind the ** on the Songhu battlefield; The main force pointed to Fengjing, Jiaxing and Pingwang, cutting off the Shanghai-Hangzhou railway and highway. Almost at the same time, the 16th Division of the Japanese Army also successfully landed at Baimaokou in Taicang, Jiangsu, and the forward pointed directly at the Beijing-Shanghai railway and highway, forming a situation of encirclement.

At this time, the Songhu area gathered a Chinese army of 700,000 and soon fell into danger.

On the night of 8 November, Chairman Chiang, who was still expecting the Western countries to intervene, had no choice but to order all armies to retreat to the area west of Nanjing, Suzhou, and Jiaxing. Due to the haste of the order, the command was out of control, and the result of the great retreat turned into a large rout.

Of course, no one would have thought that this was a foreshadowing for the defeat of the Battle of Nanjing.

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The vigorous battle of Songhu, but it ended like this, for Xiao Linghu, in addition to the disappointment, there was more sadness and indignation.

He turned his head to look at the city gate that looked so desolate in the cold wind, this ancient county town, from now on will fall into the hands of the invaders, when the Qing soldiers entered the customs, the tragedy of the Jiading Ten Massacres occurred here, these Orientals with beast hearts are more ruthless invaders than the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and what kind of massacre will they carry out to the people here?

Xiao Linghu didn't dare to think about it, and he didn't want to think about it, he knew that in today's land of China, as a man, he would either live up to the sky, take up arms, and fight the enemy to the end; Or bend the knee and flatter and live in servility like the overthrown Manchu era.

"Gone!" Far away, Yizhimei shouted behind him.

The former enemy headquarters has been disbanded, and those commanders have run back to Nanjing early, but there must be such a shelf here, otherwise it will be a shame to let others know that there are still so many troops who have not evacuated safely, and the people of the former enemy headquarters have run away. Therefore, Xiao Linghu, the commander of the guard battalion, took the initiative to stand up and stay.

His five companies also returned to their respective units, and now there is only one company of people under his command, and they are all recruits recruited from Jiangxi and Anhui, and only Meng Fanwei, Lin Jinghan, Sha Wenhua, Yizhimei, Yan Fei, Zhang Shun and Yang Gensheng are old people who have been following him, they walked out of Jiading City, not even a military vehicle, they can only rely on their own feet, hoping to rush to Kunshan before dark.

It's just that today's roads are crowded with defeated soldiers who have fled, and if their company is mixed in, they are afraid that they will not be able to walk much in a day, plus there is still the bombing of devil planes in the sky, and their rapid pursuit of troops, maybe a battle will happen at any time.

Xiao Linghu turned around and looked at the recruit company in front of him, which was led by Meng Fanwei and Lin Jinghan, and had already gone a little far, so he could only sigh softly and chase after him quickly!

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(End of Volume 2)