Tang Shengzhi tore up the surrender persuasion letter, and was so angry that Matsui Shigen jumped like thunder. It seems that the plan to surrender without a fight has been shattered. It was possible to capture Nanjing only with a bloody attack. The capture of Nanjing was an order of the Emperor. The capture of Nanjing was a milestone in the occupation of the whole of China. The Battle of Songhu, although the Japanese army suffered a setback, ended in the victory of the Japanese army. The myth that the Imperial Army is invincible continues to be maintained. This tragic war greatly damaged the Kuomintang army. The Japanese army continued to maintain a high fighting spirit and rushed towards Nanjing with murderous spirit.

The Japanese soldiers were divided into three routes, and rushed to Nanjing to kill. Along the way, the sun flag under the sun is like an open mouth of blood, and one Chinese city after another has become the fat in this greedy mouth. The Japanese army on the East Road attacked Zhenjiang along the Shanghai Railway; The Japanese army on the middle route approached Nanjing along Yixing, Liyang, and Jurong, captured Jurong on December 4, invaded Chunhua Town and Tangshui Town on the 6th, and forced Qixia Mountain on the 7th; On the 9th, they invaded Changxing, Wende, and Si'an. Take Wuhu directly, in an attempt to cut off Nanjing's retreat.

"Occupy the capital of the enemy country and force China to submit" Matsui Ishine understood the strategy of the base camp. His current mission has long since changed from the so-called "protection of overseas Chinese" during the Battle of Shanghai to "thwarting the enemy's will to fight and gaining a chance to end the war." "It turned into a bloody invasion and a dehumanized massacre.

As soon as the war began, the Imperial Japanese Army was invincible, and there was no need for the division to be famous and find excuses for the next move. Matsui made no secret of the purpose of this war. This enemy chieftain, who is well versed in Chinese history, wrote in his diary: "I would like to obey the great order, examine all the holy decrees, but be benevolent and mighty, and raise the so-called sword to destroy evil and show righteousness to kill ......the horse." This leader of the fascist invasion actually claimed to be a tearful and slashing horse. Self-proclaimed Zhuge Liang. Shameless. He shouted murderously, "The sword of demon slaying is now unsheathed, and it is about to exert its might. "Robbers break into other people's houses to kill people and set them on fire, and thieves shout to catch thieves. Good a robber logic, war maniac.

At present, Matsui Shigen knew that all the places captured by the troops of the Southern Route were outside Chiang Kai-shek's pre-fortified defense line, and that Guangde belonged to Anhui, Si'an belonged to Zhejiang, and Changxing belonged to Jiangsu, all of which were west of Taihu Lake and south of Nanjing. If the unit quickly advanced and occupied Wuhu, which was located in the rear of Nanjing, it would be able to cut off the retreat of the defenders of Nanjing, and Nanjing would be within reach. Therefore, he ordered the 18th Division Niudao troops to cross the Taihu Lake, attack quickly, and take Wuhu directly.

Defending on this line of defense was the 23rd Group Army to which Liu Xiang belonged of the Sichuan Army. Liu Xiangcheng, who was set as commander-in-chief, was ill and did not go to the front, and the first commander was Tang Shizun, deputy commander of the group and commander of the 21st Army.

After the defeat of the Songhu Meeting, Chiang Kai-shek had no troops to adjust and was overstretched, so he ordered Liu Xiang's two armies, a total of five divisions and two brigades, to defend the line of Guangde, Si'an, and Changxing. Guo Xunqi's 144th Division served as the left flank and advanced towards Changxing; Rao Guohua led the 145th Division, and Liu Zhaoli led the 146th Division to serve as the right flank, sticking to Guangde; Yang Guozhen's 147th Division and Chen Mingqian's 148th Division jointly held Si'an; The 13th Independent Brigade and the 14th Independent Brigade were assigned to Guangde.

Suzhou and Changzhou have been lost one after another, and the retreating troops are in chaos and demoralized. The Ushijima Division of the Japanese Army made rapid progress on the southern road, and the military situation was urgent. However, Commander-in-Chief Tang Shizun had not yet arrived, and Deputy Commander Pan Wenhua had no choice but to urgently convene a meeting of the division commanders first.

The Sichuan army was a miscellaneous army, with extremely poor equipment, a company could not be equipped with a machine gun, a division had several small cannons, and most of the rifles were "old Mauser" left over from the Manchu Qing Dynasty. However, the worst is "made in Sichuan", and after dozens of bullets, you can't pull the bolt. The soldiers of the Sichuan Army wore hats, straw sandals, and old-fashioned rifles in their hands, watching the Central Army, which was equipped with German-made rifles, machine guns, and cannons, lose in embarrassment, and could they not mutter?

"The Central Army's good weapons can't withstand the Japanese devils, how can we do it?"

Pan Wenhua became angry when he heard this:

"The chairman of the committee ordered us to fight the enemy, not to make us complain. There is a whining and waiting to defeat the enemy before it is too late. The Japanese are not made of iron, and although our guns are not good, our bullets can still penetrate the brains of Japanese devils! ”

The big man Guo Xunqi jumped up and wrote six big characters with a brush: "If you win, you will live, and if you lose, you will die", held it high in front of everyone, and then, he moved to the center of the venue, stared at him and shouted loudly:

"If there is a kind, you have to make such a determination to fight with the enemy. Do you dare? ”

"Dare!" For a time, the crowd at the venue was excited.

The Japanese army began to attack, with aircraft cover in the air and artillery support on land, but Guo Xunqi's troops of the 144th Division repelled the enemy's frantic attacks again and again with rifles and grenades. Just as the fighting was rising, an urgent order came from the military headquarters: "Immediately retreat to Guangde." ”

It turned out that one part of the Japanese Niudao troops attacked Changxing, Yixing, and Si'an, and the other attacked Guangde. Army Commander Pan Wenhua, Division Commander Rao Guohua and Commander Tian Xing 5th Brigade led their troops to resist stubbornly, and the enemy could not move an inch.

Rao Guohua's 145th Division served as a frontal blocker, and whether it could withstand it had a bearing on the overall situation of the whole front. Pan Wenhua gave Rao Guohua a death order: "If you fight a soldier and a pawn, you must stick to it to the end." Rao Guohua's answer was only five words: "The people are in the position." ”

Dozens of Japanese planes and heavy artillery bombarded the 145th Division indiscriminately, and the position was almost razed to the ground.

When the two sides were fighting fiercely, the regiment commander Liu Ruze was cowardly in front of the enemy and fled, and the Japanese army tore open the gap, and the Japanese army was like a tide, and suddenly broke the front, Pan Wenhua had to order the whole line to retreat, and Guangde fell into the hands of the Japanese army.

Rao Guohua was full of grief and indignation, anxious as greed, knowing that Guangde was a place where soldiers must fight, and he could not lose defending Nanjing, he couldn't wait to slaughter the regiment commander Niu Ruze with his own hands, if he didn't listen to the command and retreated without authorization, Guangde would not be lost. According to military law, Niu Ruze should be punished on the spot.

Rao Guohua personally came to the front line and encouraged the soldiers to fight on the battlefield and repay the country with death, he raised his arms and shouted: "The time has come for our soldiers to serve the country, we must shed the last drop of blood!" "If you don't succeed, you become a benevolent. That night, the ammunition ran out of food, and the men and horses were wounded. Rao Guohua was extremely tired, bathed in greedy incense and prayed,

He wrote a desperate letter to his relatives and Commander-in-Chief Tang Shizun and Commander Liu Xiang, "Liu Ruze did not listen to the command, fled cowardly in battle, and did not save him when he saw death, resulting in the defeat of the army. I have only one death, to alert the people, to fight to the end, and to sprout my mind. Then he instructed the guards to lay out the blanket facing Wende City, Rao Guohua sat cross-legged in the middle of the blanket, and shouted in the direction of Guangde: "William II is so strong that he will perish, not to mention that your little Japan will also perish in the future!" With that, he glared angrily in the direction of the Japanese army, pulled out his pistol and aimed it at his temple and pulled the trigger. Rao Guohua committed suicide, he completed the last mission of a soldier and warned people: Little Japan is not terrible! What is terrible is the loss of the will to resist!