Located at the mouth of the Yangtze River in China, Shanghai is a peninsula-shaped plain surrounded by the sea on three sides, and there is no danger to defend in the face of the powerful firepower of the Japanese army.

In a place like this, where the superior firepower of the Japanese army can be fully utilized, it can be said that it is a fool's dream to defend against an attack from the sea without the protection of a strong navy.

However, the Nationalist Government, which was bent on fighting a turnaround battle, unanimously believed that it was more advantageous to fight in Shanghai than in Pingjin, because the cities around Shanghai had developed transportation, which was very convenient for the Chinese army to supply, and more importantly, there were hundreds of thousands of troops around Shanghai, and it was easy to mobilize.

Therefore, in the early stage of the Second Shanghai Anti-Japanese War, the Chinese army was strong and well prepared, and it can be said that it had obvious advantages, but it was a pity that due to the poor coordination of various units and the low tactics of the soldiers, it did not take advantage of the early offensive.

The Battle of Songhu officially broke out on 13 August, and the Chinese forces soon occupied most of Shanghai, while the Japanese gradually retreated to the Marine Corps headquarters in the Jiangwan area.

On 15 August, Japan formally established the Shanghai Dispatch Army, with General Matsui Ishine as commander-in-chief and leading two divisions to Shanghai first.

On 16 August, sensing the increasing number of Chinese troops, all 3,000 marines retreated to the headquarters of the Japanese marines, and with the help of strong fortifications and the help of several thousand Japanese armed expatriates, they began to resist the attack of the Chinese troops.

Because the various branches of the Chinese army not only lacked effective coordination, but also lacked heavy weapons that could destroy the strong fortifications of the Japanese army, more than 100,000 Chinese troops attacked the Jiangwan area for 10 days, but did not drive the 3,000 marines in front of them into the sea.

A week later, when the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army had just been reorganized into the Eighth Route Army of the Chinese National Revolutionary Army, the first wave of Japanese reinforcements had quietly arrived in Shanghai's outer seas.

The Chinese army hastily organized defenses to prevent the Japanese landing, but the coastline of Shanghai was too long, and the improvised coastal defense fortifications were completely vulnerable to Japanese aircraft and naval guns.

Soon the Japanese 3rd Division, 8th Division, and 21st Division successfully landed one after another. As Japan's nearly 100,000-strong troops arrived in Shanghai, the Japanese began to counterattack. The Chinese army also successively reinforced eight group armies, and nearly 300,000 people arrived in Shanghai.

However, so many Chinese troops still did not stop the pace of the Japanese counterattack. In just a few days, the Japanese army once again occupied various important places outside the concession, and at the same time began to attack the areas in Shanghai controlled by the Nationalist Army.

Beginning on 11 September, less than a month after the outbreak of the War of Resistance in Shanghai, the Japanese army had driven all the Nationalist troops around the concession in Shanghai to the north of Suzhou Creek and the periphery of the public concession in Shanghai. Since then, the two sides have entered the stage of fierce street fighting.

The advantage of the Japanese army was that they were well-equipped and their soldiers were well trained, whether they fought individually or in teams, and with the assistance of aircraft, artillery and tanks, the Chinese troops on the opposite side often suffered exponential casualties.

The Japanese attack was also very orderly, first machine guns, mortars, and grenadiers fired accurately to eliminate all the firing points of the Chinese army.

Then, when you encounter bunkers and fortifications that cannot be captured, you immediately call for heavy artillery support. If you encounter a large fortification group, there are a large number of Chinese troops guarding the fortification group.

The Japanese called for aircraft bombing, and at the same time there was heavy fire support from naval guns.

It can be said that the only advantage of the Chinese army since the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression is that there are many soldiers. However, even this advantage in strength was slowly lost as the Japanese army gradually increased its troops.

On 20 September, when reinforcements from three more divisions arrived in Shanghai, the total strength of the Japanese army in Shanghai had reached 200,000. There are hundreds of planes, hundreds of tanks, and thousands of light and heavy artillery pieces.

The Chinese army successively sent reinforcements of dozens of divisions, and even several German divisions of Commander Chiang were sent to Shanghai, but they still could not effectively defeat the Japanese army.

Fortunately, although the Japanese army killed and injured a large number of Chinese soldiers, because the Chinese soldiers were not afraid of death, and at the same time, with the great help of the citizens of Shanghai, they also caused heavy casualties to the Japanese army.

By early October, after nearly a month of street fighting, the Chinese army had suffered 200,000 casualties, and the Japanese army had suffered more than 40,000 casualties. However, the two sides are still attacking in downtown Shanghai.

After more than a month of fierce fighting, the armies of both China and Japan have been exhausted, and the Japanese side wants to change the passive situation of the current fierce battle in Shanghai by surprise.

Commander Chiang, on the one hand, urged the money and rations to be in place, and on the other hand, demanded that the Chinese troops in Shanghai continue to hold out, so as to wait for the convening of the League of Nations Congress, which would attract international attention, and hope to get the international community to intervene.

It is a pity that all countries have expressed their support for China's position even on the surface, but in order to maintain their rule in the Shanghai concessions, and at the same time, in exchange for the condition that Japan will not attack the concessions. These countries have not really intervened to mediate.

While Commander Chiang was still dreaming of an armistice, Japan secretly formed the Tenth Army on 20 October and prepared to secretly log in the rear of the Chinese army in Shanghai.

And just when the Battle of Songhu had just begun, Li Tie of Huaxing Company had secretly transferred the Shanghai Huaxing Laboratory to Chongqing Huaxing Industrial City.

In fact, Li Tie now has all his industries in the British and French concessions in Shanghai, and he is not afraid that the Japanese occupation of Shanghai will cause any adverse actions against his Huaxing Group.

In the years after the Battle of Songhu, although the Japanese army occupied the whole of Shanghai, the concessions of various countries were still under the control of the armies of various countries, and the Japanese did not attack the concessions.

However, Huaxing Laboratory is not like other industries, and the various laboratories and researchers in it are Li Tie's biggest treasures, so as early as a few years ago, Li Tie had secretly built Huaxing Industrial City underground in Chongqing Huaxing Industrial City.

Moreover, for the future War of Resistance Against Japan, Li Tie had important strategic arrangements in many important cities across the country, but all this was carried out in secret.

And this time the Japanese army attacked Shanghai, Li Tie not only contributed money, but also contributed strength, and even donated a lot of good weapons to the Chinese army, but the Chinese army in Shanghai was too much, and the machine guns and mortars he donated were not much in the hundreds of thousands of troops.

However, Li Tie still had a lot of private goods, because it was about to be used by him, and at the same time, the Huaxing militia and gangster disciples in the Shanghai Concession also actively responded to the call of Li Tie and the three tycoons and actively participated in the street battles against Japan.

It's a pity that these gang disciples who have not received formal military training can fight a good fight, and whenever they encounter a strong resistance from the Japanese army, they often disperse in a hurry. Fortunately, Li Tie didn't expect them to make much difference.

On the contrary, Li Tie changed all the nearly 5,000 guards of Shanghai Huaxing into the military uniforms of the Hainan Guards. Then, taking advantage of the truce between the two sides, relying on the advantage of being familiar with the terrain of Shanghai, they attacked suddenly with small detachments, which caused a lot of trouble to the Japanese army.

It's a pity that the 5,000-strong army sounds like a lot, but in the battle of millions of people, it is really a drop in the ocean. It will not affect the entire Shanghai battle situation in the slightest.

It was at this time that Li Tie finally sadly discovered that any conspiracy and trickery in the face of absolute power were vulnerable.

With the experience of the last anti-Japanese war in Shanghai, the Japanese fleet has become much smarter this time, and their fleet attaches great importance to minesweeping and anti-submarine work everywhere it goes.

Even when the fleet was resting, there were at least a few destroyers cruising repeatedly around the periphery of the fleet, which made Li Tie unable to start with the eight German submarines that he had finally drawn from the Hainan base.

Looking at the Japanese fleet in front of them, which was so well defended, these eight submarines did not dare to be careless at all, and they quietly lurked near Hangzhou Bay in Shanghai and waited for Li Tie's latest order.

On 26 October, after more than a month of street fighting, more than 200,000 Japanese troops captured the Dachang, Jiangwan, Zhabei, and Miaohang areas north of the Suzhou Creek in Shanghai.

In order to avoid being attacked on his back, Commander Chiang ordered all his troops to retreat to the area south of the Suzhou Creek and continue to build fortifications, in order to continue to wear down the Japanese army.

In order to delay the pace of the Japanese army's pursuit, the Songhu Battle Command decided to leave part of the 88th Division of the Central Army to defend Zhabei and contain the Japanese army.

Sun Yuanliang, commander of the 88th Division, asked at a meeting of officers above the regimental level who was willing to take up this heavy burden, and Xie Jinyuan, lieutenant colonel of the 524th Regiment, immediately expressed his willingness to stay.

Therefore, it was decided to form a reinforced battalion with the 1st Battalion of the regiment as the backbone, guarding a strategic place on the Suzhou Creek behind the public concession on both sides, and also the location of the division headquarters of the 88th Division a few years ago.

The entire reinforced battalion had three infantry companies, a machine-gun company and a mortar platoon. A total of 450 people, it is still claimed to be 800 people.

However, when Xie Jinyuan's troops had just arrived at the Sixing warehouse, they found that there was already a well-equipped army waiting for them here.

Because there are too many Chinese troops in Shanghai now, it is impossible for Commander Xie to remember the numbers of all the troops. So when he saw the regiment commander in front of him with the logo of the Hainan Guards printed on his arm, he was still wondering.

A while ago, I heard that several thousand Hainan guards had achieved good results in street battles with the Japanese army, but I heard that they had already gone south of Suzhou Creek with the army. Now they should be the only troops on the entire north bank of the Suzhou Creek.

Commander Xie Jinyuan carefully looked at the more than a dozen soldiers of the Hainan Guard Army outside the gate of the Sixing Warehouse, and these dozen soldiers stood outside the gate one by one, without the appearance of soldiers at all.

A regiment commander wearing a regimental commander's uniform and several battalion commanders behind him were smoking cigarettes, all of them looking like they were hanging and sloppy.

Seeing that Regiment Commander Xie was coming with the troops, these people immediately threw away the cigarettes in their hands and came to Commander Xie in three steps and two steps.